Chapter Text
Part Five
The Sud Yot drifted next to the derelict, which remained a picture of serenity that belied the frenzy of activity going on all around it.
As soon as the cruiser had arrived, two operations had begun, both pre-prepared and coordinated by Captain Sonaya.
One oversaw the remaining work that still had to be done on the derelict, rescuing the survivors and finishing off the salvage work that had begun two days ago. The other worked from onboard the Sud Yot to recover whatever debris was left of the Ret Kol, the few recoverable pieces still drifting in the surrounding space.
Sonaya sat behind her desk in her ready room, now entirely in charge of operations. Commander Turanya remained under lock and key in the brig, continuing to argue his innocence and threaten career-ending consequences to anyone who passed by.
In front of her stood the reunited crew of the Bounty, the altogether relieved Natasha and Denella alongside Jirel, Sunek and Klath, who had changed back into their usual civilian garb. Jirel’s injuries were now on the mend, thanks to the efforts of Natasha and the medical team on the Sud Yot.
But Captain Sonaya didn’t seem especially interested in that. Instead, she looked more perturbed as they finished their report. “I see,” she nodded with a note of sadness, “And Lieutenant Kataya volunteered to carry out that plan?”
“That’s right,” Jirel nodded gingerly, still feeling the effects of the Flaxian dermal regenerator on his back, “He lured the chameloid into the aft airlock. After which, he was able to blow the outer hatch. Both of them were sucked out—”
“Blown out.”
“Shut up, Sunek. Both of them were killed, Captain. I’m sorry.”
Sonaya sighed deeply and leaned back in her chair, studying the faces of the Trill, the Klingon and the Vulcan in turn. The only survivors of one of the worst disasters in the history of the Flaxian Science Agency. And three people that her instincts told her were not giving her the full story.
But unfortunately for her, and for her official report into what happened on the derelict, they were also her only three reliable witnesses.
“I see,” she nodded simply.
She picked up a padd from the desk, which contained the initial report from her own salvage team. The derelict’s aft airlock was indeed open, and the controls seemed to have been activated from the inside. And while the search team had located plenty of grisly remains, there had been no sign of Kataya, nor of the chameloid.
Still, as Sonaya looked back up at the Trill’s entirely believable face, she still felt as though she wasn’t being told everything.
“Well,” she continued eventually, with a curt nod, “Thank you for your candour in this matter. And on behalf of the Flaxian Science Agency, I offer my sincere apologies for what you’ve been through. Trust me when I say this isn’t how we usually conduct ourselves.”
“I’m sure it isn’t,” Sunek grunted with his usual sarcasm.
“Our work here will continue for another 24 hours, after which we’ll return to Reja Gar. I hope you’ll use this time to rest and recuperate in the cabin we’ve provided.”
“You can count on that,” Jirel nodded with a wince.
Sonaya scanned their faces again, but they still betrayed nothing. The Trill took the opportunity to continue.
“Um, there was one other thing. Could we…get our ship back?”
“Ah, yes,” Sonaya replied, “Well, given what has happened with Commander Turanya, I believe it would be fair for me to release your vessel back to you once we return to the station.”
She paused, and her eyes narrowed slightly.
“Although, I really wouldn’t count on any more delivery jobs from the Flaxian Science Agency any time soon.”
“We get that a lot,” Sunek quipped from next to Jirel.
Sonaya raised a curious eyebrow, then dismissed them and watched the motley group walk out of her ready room.
After a moment of contemplation, she tapped the console terminal in front of her. “Computer,” she intoned, “Make a correction to the official list of casualties.”
“Please state the required correction,” the calm and dulcet male voice of the Sud Yot’s computer came back.
“Correction is as follows: List both Lieutenant Kataya and the package as ‘missing’,”
The computer politely chirped back an affirmation.
* * * * *
“Ok, gotta ask: Is anyone a snorer?”
Sunek looked accusingly at the others from the top bunk of one of the beds in the barracks that the Bounty’s crew had been assigned on the Sud Yot.
“Cos,” he continued, “I’m a light sleeper, and if I don’t get my eight hours, I’ll be crabby all day tomorrow. And it’ll be someone here’s fault. I’m looking at you, big guy.”
Klath rolled his eyes and dutifully continued to strip his own chosen bunk of any manner of comfort, right down to the hard metal frame.
“I’m gonna be glad to be back in my own cabin,” Jirel winced as he lay propped up on a lower bunk as Natasha checked over his back, “Also, to be on a ship with less mugatos on it.”
“Wasn’t a mugato,” Sunek called out, “No matter how many times you say it.”
“So,” Denella chimed in from where she sat on one of the other beds, “Now we’re all alone, are we gonna get the whole story?”
“What do you mean?” Klath asked, as he settled down on the bare frame of his bunk.
“About the chameloid,” the Orion continued, “What really happened. Cos there’s no way that airlock story is true.”
“That’s what happened,” Jirel insisted, “I swear, that was—Ow!”
“Sorry,” Natasha sighed as she worked, “And…I’m sorry for getting you involved in all of this in the first place. If I’d have known—”
“But you didn’t,” Jirel cut in gently, his feelings for her taking the decision not to allow himself to twist the knife into the doctor’s guilt, “Besides, I might keep those scars. Girls dig scars, right? And once I say I got them fighting a mugato—”
“Wasn’t a mugato!”
“I’m serious,” Denella persisted through the bickering, “What happened?”
Jirel craned his aching neck to glance at the other survivors from the salvage team. Sunek yawned, while Klath shrugged.
“We’ll tell you later,” the Trill replied eventually, “When we’ve gotten the hell out of Flaxian space.”
In truth, there wasn’t a great deal to tell. Turanya’s plan had been fairly straightforward.
With time on their side before the Sud Yot had arrived, they had been able to work together to recharge a set of power cells for one of the shuttles, and cannibalise enough spare parts from the other wrecked support vessels to get one working.
Then, using his spacesuit for protection, Kataya had gone through the process of manually activating the aft airlock, just as their story to Sonaya had claimed.
With that completed, all that was left to do was for Mireia to start her journey home. With her guardian at her side.
Kataya had come to the conclusion that, given what he had seen of how the Agency had treated the chameloid, the least he could do was help her get home. And so he had piloted the repaired shuttle himself.
It was likely that Sonaya and her team would eventually piece together what had happened. They simply hadn’t had the resources or the expertise to cover all of their tracks. But by then, the shuttle would be long gone. And hopefully, Kataya’s passenger would get home.
As Natasha continued to check over his injuries, Jirel couldn’t help but allow himself a satisfied smile.
Even as Sunek started to gently snore on the top bunk.
* * * * *
Two weeks later…
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Turanya grimaced in annoyance as the air circulator on the ceiling continued to rattle. Just as it had done all night long. He had complained about it repeatedly, but so far nobody had been sent along to repair it.
The former commander’s fall from grace was such that he couldn’t pull rank on anyone right now either. He was at the mercy of the maintenance team at the holding facility where he was currently being kept, awaiting trial.
He lay on the small bed in the mostly bare cell that he had been assigned, and closed his eyes, trying to block out the noise and get some sleep. But it was impossible.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
He opened his eyes and glared up at the offending unit, before getting up and stalking back over to the door of the cell.
“Hey!” he called out through the door, “Is anyone coming to repair this thing? Even prisoners have rights, you know!”
There was no immediate response from the guards outside, and as he walked back to the bed he began to wonder whether this was all part of his punishment.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Not that he was overly concerned by any real punishment coming his way. He was confident that the higher-ups at the Agency would be lenient with him. After all, everything he had done had been in the pursuit of scientific advancement. They would understand that.
And if they didn’t, then they would definitely understand the generous donations he had already arranged to be made to each of the members of the hearing in turn. Turanya knew how to grease the right wheels when necessary.
So, despite his current incarceration, he was confident that this would all be smoothed over. And once his rank had been reinstated, he’d get back to Reja Gar, and he’d do his damndest to pick up where he left off.
While he’d been detained, he had even started to consider the retribution that he’d hand out to Captain Sonaya for her decision to have him placed under arrest.
At the very least, he’d see that she lost her command. He just wasn’t sure if he’d rather have her turfed out of the Agency altogether, or whether he’d rather see her demoted back down to junior lieutenant, forced to endure the endless humiliation of serving out the rest of her career in the lower ranks.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
He grimaced again, just as he heard the cell door opening. He sat up in bed expectantly, to see a burly Flaxian in a detention centre uniform walk in.
“Ah,” Turanya sighed, “About time. You from maintenance?”
The other Flaxian stared at him for a few seconds, before he nodded back.
“Well,” Turanya continued, gesturing at the circulator, “That thing’s been driving me mad all night, so get it fixed!”
The other Flaxian looked up at the circulator, then back down at Turanya. He tapped the door controls and closed the cell once again.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Turanya felt a little unnerved all of a sudden, feeling a stray trickle of sweat start to make its way down the back of his neck. “Hey, where are your tools?” he asked, “Aren’t you going to need them to do the job?”
His new cellmate still didn’t speak. He slowly began to walk over to where Turanya sat. He stood up and took a nervous step back.
“Wh—What are you doing? Listen, whatever the problem is, I’m sure we can—”
It was then that he saw the other Flaxian’s brilliant, piercing yellow eyes.
“No…”
The other man continued to advance.
“Guards!” Turanya called out, “You need to get in here! Get in here, right now!”
His eyes opened wide in horror as he saw the other Flaxian’s face start to fold in on itself.
His screams were drowned out by the noise from the air circulator.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
* * * * *
The shuttle lifted off from the surface of the Petrik IX detention facility and ascended back into the heavens.
From the pilot’s seat, Kataya glanced at the little girl alongside him. She hadn’t said anything since she had returned, but she looked satisfied and happier with herself than she had been before, as she swung her legs off the side of the co-pilot’s chair.
And while this hadn't been part of his original plan, Kataya couldn’t help but feel some satisfaction as well. After all, whatever had happened to his friends and his colleagues, and whatever had become of the morals of the Flaxian Science Agency that he had left behind, the ultimate blame for everything he had lost lay with Commander Turanya.
So he had used his security clearance to get them to the facility. Clearances that were still working thanks to the slow-moving bureaucracy of the Agency. After all, there was no hurry to delete the clearance codes of a dead man.
“All done?” he eventually asked as the shuttle reached orbit.
Mireia turned to him and nodded happily. Just as a child might if asked whether they had finished all of their homework.
Kataya nodded back, then turned his attention to the starscape in front of them. He still wasn’t entirely sure where they were heading, but he had left their journey at the mercy of the little girl’s instincts. She seemed to know where her home was.
She wasn’t sure how far away it was, or how long it would take. But then Kataya didn’t mind that too much. There was nothing left for him in his old life now. He had plenty of time to figure out what was next.
So, he tapped the controls to resume their journey.
The tiny shuttle stretched forwards for a split second, then vanished in a blaze of light.
* * * * *
They were going the right way. She was sure of it.
She couldn’t articulate how she knew to her companion. But just like before, there was something instinctive inside her that was driving her in the right direction. And that was making her feel happy. For the first time in a long time.
She was also happy about her actions back at the detention centre. After all, that man had definitely not been very nice.
So, she settled back in her seat and watched the stars flash by. She thought about her parents, and how happy she would be to be back with them.
And she made a solemn promise to herself.
No more killing.
Starting from now.
The End