Ad Astra :: Star Trek Fanfiction Archive ^{Beam me up, Scotty.}

Chapter Text

The Star Beagle Adventures                                                
Episode 13: Close to the Edge Part II - Total Mass Retain
Scene 13: Into the Void

Passing paths that climb halfway into the void…

13.13
Into the Void

“Captain Skip Howard, a very good choice,” opined Master Chief Bill Waller. And I have no idea how you’re managing the turquoise eye-shadow and fingernail polish when you don’t have eyes or fingers…

The giant space stag/tiger shrimp across the table from Waller seemed entirely unfazed by the fact that it was a lobster dinner in front of Waller… And a shrimp cocktail on her side of the table. Or that the captain’s mess on the U.S.S. Beagle was far smaller than she was. 

“You were very impressed with Skip Howard. Both you and Captain Carter think our encounter would have evolved very differently if he were here. I believe you, Bill Waller, that you can kill me. And I also think you believe Skip Howard would’t want you to do so. Perhaps we can both figure out why.”

“Perhaps,” Waller replied. “But it would have to be a damn good reason. Skip Howard isn’t my captain. Rhonda Carter is. And she has ordered me to kill you.”

“Then why haven’t you?” 

“Because it’s not time yet. And while we have these few moments together, it’s only sensible that I give you the chance to convince me not to. I am very uncomfortable with that order. To use deadly force when you haven’t used it against us.”

“You don’t trust your own captain’s instincts?” Stephanie asked.

“I know Rhonda. She’s the best fighter there is,” Waller said. “She knows just the moment to deliver the killing blow. But sometimes she doesn’t know when to not fight. We’ve had to talk her out of it before. We don’t have that luxury this time. Either I obey her order, or I choose for the first time to disobey her.  And if she is right about you, that would be a terrible decision on my part. I will give you two more chances to convince me to do that.” 

Master Chief Waller sat in the witness chair. His crustaceon captain sat at the defense table, alone. There was a panel of judges (Star Fleet captains and admirals) and a prosecutor (also a captain.) Instead of four pips, Stephanie had only one full pip and one hollow pip, the rank insignia for a 2nd Lieutenant, even though she did not have a collar to support them.

“You gave testimony against your own captain at her court marshal. In fact, she trusts you more than anyone else on her crew because of how damning your testimony was.”

“We had to hold her back. She was vicious, especially when her blood was up. She started as an enlistee and got promoted through the ranks and eventually a battlefield promotion to ensign. Near the end of the first Cardassian War, our team had rescued a group of cardassian defectors and three of them died in our care the first night, murdered by someone in that group. Rhonda ordered a young vulcan in our group to forcefully mind-meld with her suspect and both men died in the process. I had argued against it. It was against every regulation and against vulcan morality in general.”

“But she was acquitted?” the giant space shrimp asked.

“Only because it turned out the cardassian in question was a member of their Obsidian Order and the vulcan was no humble ensign,” Waller replied. “He was actually an agent for the vulcan secret agency, the V’Shar. The entire affair was hushed up and Carter spent the next 12 years as an un-promotable 2nd lieutenant. Until another war got started and Star Fleet needed fighters again.”

“And you have served with her that entire time. Trying to restrain her temper. Trying to keep her from being more violent than necessary. A dozen years and more after testifying against her. Why?”

“Because she asked me to,” said Waller. “She pretty much begged me to. And she is nowhere near as vicious as she once was. You have one more chance to convince me.” 

General Krank used his dk’tahg to point to the readout displaying Eva Mendez’s jaw. Bill Waller could understand the readout well enough to see that there was, apparently, no damage of any sort.

“I have intimate control over the tiny creatures that your captain refers to as “mushroom bugs.” While I was in Eva’s mind, I was distracting her from the intense pain of her jaw being rebuilt from the inside. You will find that her jaw is completely healed."

Shrimp Krank pointed to another readout, this one displaying a cross section of Rhonda Carter’s skull. “As I used them to conduct the far more complicated rebuild of your captain’s eardrums. When you next encounter her, she will be able to hear you. What she saw as torture was in part me learning how to not kill her with my telepathy and in part me driving her metabolism to be able to accept the new tissue: fungal tissue transformed to take the place of her ruptured eardrum…”

Master Chief Bill Waller sighed heavily. “If it were up to me, I would not attack you. But I have to trust my captain’s instincts. I am sorry. If what you have told me is true, then I am making a terrible mistake…”

“Wait!” said Stephanie. “I have a hostage…”

13.13