In Darkness There Is Light (Part Two)

Posted on Sun Nov 12th, 2017 @ 6:59pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Lieutenant Selina Fenruse (*)

Mission: Mission 5 - Liberation
Location: Ferenginar
Timeline: One Year Ago
2283 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Selina lowered her phaser and looked at the big man seriously wanting to just shoot him on principle but he looked like hell being far too skinny and pale for the man that used to be her Executive Officer so shooting him most likely wouldn’t help the situation he was in. She slowly put the small handheld phaser back inside her pocket waiting for him to say something other than ‘I need your help’.

“Selina… come on please just don’t look at me like that.” Rueben spoke in Betazed to the woman. He knew she could have spoken sewali and she would have understood him with her communicator on but he couldn’t and he wanted her to remember that he was still the man who begged her to teach him the language to propose to Jeassaho. Selina looked up annoyed at him still, the man was still huge despite losing a lot of the muscle that used to make the young crew members of the Victory get all giddy over security drill and then Executive Officer inspections.

“Why do you need my help?” Selina demanded quietly looking like a drowned rat as he hair stuck to her now that they were stopped and not moving.

“I need an Engineer and you are the best I know,” Rueben said softly. He knew she was better than Jeassaho and she was less likely to kill him in his sleep.

"Why would I go with you?" Selina said resisting to add sir to the end of her sentence, it was automatic.

"Because I could kidnap you if you don't" Rueben wouldn't ever consider doing that to the small blonde but she didn't know that and he was desperate. She was the only Engineer on the planet that would do a good job that he trusted. He would get Intelligence to remove her from the Viking if it was possible. He was working for them afterall.

Despite the phaser tucked away in Selina's pocket, the emitter casing of another Starfleet hand-phaser was jabbed into Rueben's lower back. "Try to kidnap her," growled a female voice, shaped by a Cardassian accent. Like Selina, the Cardassian was also clad in a Starfleet uniform to match her phaser. Earlier, when she'd overheard Selina talking about investigating a mystery transmission, she wasn't about to allow Selina to wander into mystery and danger alone. She didn't want to miss out on that. "I'd love to watch you try."

Reuben looked over his shoulder and burst out laughing at who he saw had obviously followed the Engineer. "I got to give you some credit Selina I expected the farmboy, not the Cardassian." He had been watching on and off for a few days and he hadn't ever seen her hanging around with this women before.

"Me and you Gregnol are both surprised." Selina looked Draia over for an explanation.

For good measure, Crewman Draia Theroh jabbed her phaser in Reuben's back one last time, before she took a couple of steps back. Her dark eyes widening, she was taken aback by the blatant question in Selina's expression. "I can't watch you get hurt," Draia answered from somewhere raw and childlike in the pit of her stomach. "Not again," Draia said, referring to the time she had surreptitiously assaulted Selina when their crew had been stranded --practically left for dead-- on a hostile world. Looking to Reuben, Draia explained, "The farmboy told me about Selina's curiosi--"

Draia's words were interrupted by the activation chirp of the combadge on her away-team slicker. "Goddamn, Draia, that wasn't the plan at all," said the voice of the so-called farmboy through Draia's communicator. The disembodied voice belonged to Tae Holmgren, transmitting from his perch on a rooftop across the way. He could watch over everything that was happening through the scope of his phaser rifle.

Reuben turned to look at the crewman properly as a male voice spoke out from her combadge. His plan was going downhill fast and the rain was soaking everyone through. "That is the farmboy?" The Russain asked softly looking at Selina as she stared at the Cardassian like she was seeing her for the first time. "Fenruse," he said sharply grabbing her arm to get her attention.

"Yes..." Selina said wrenching her arm out of his grip and shoved the man or at least attempted to but the man was so big she barely made him move more than an inch. His hands moved to grab her and pulled her against him using her own phaser to hold her hostage.

"So you both understander you and where ever the kid is... just walk away... I will get her back to you unarmed." Reuben's original plan might have got to hell in a hand basket but he really didn't want to hurt the blonde. She would be no help dead and it would reveal him as alive to alot more people than he wanted.

Raising her phaser in one hand and securing her grip with the other, Draia lined up the emitter crystal of her phaser with the middle of Ruben's face. As much as the man attempted to use Selina as a Betazoid-shield, he was much taller than the slender blonde, leaving much of his mass exposed. "What are you do-ing??" Draia demanded to know as if the space-time continuum had torn open before her eyes, rather than an impromptu hostage situation.

The briefest of phaser blasts lanced over Reuben's shoulder from the roof of the structure across the street. Further adding to the conversation, Petty Officer Holmgrem's voice spoke from Draia's combadge. "We don't care who you are," Holmgren said, "We don't care what you do. You're the one walking away. Alone."

"I am doing what I have too. I need her more than you guys need her. I told you I will get her back in one piece." Reuben said simply. He needed someone to look at his ship.

"Enough!" Selina said softly as she lent out with her senses to look in Rueben's mind. She could feel his desperation spilling out from his tightly controlled barriers against mental intrusions. "Let me go, Rueben." She said gently turning around to look him in the eyes. "You aren't this man." She wanted to shove him and hit him in a violent gesture that wasn't her but she reined it in.

Shrugging dismissively at Ruben without losing her aim, Draia remarked, "You probably are this man. And you probably need her more. But you don't get to choose. She does."

"Draia... go get Tae down from wherever he is perched and wait for me just a little down the road," Selina said softly as she stepped back out of Rueben's grip sweeping her hair out of her face with a sigh. "Please." She added politely as she just stared at the former Executive Officer.

Staring back at Selina, Draia's phaser aim only wavered slightly. "What do you owe him?" Draia asked, "Financially? Sexually?" Even without getting an immediate answer from Selina, Draia lowered her phaser and backed away from the pair.

"She owes me nothing... I owe her." Rueben said simply disgusted with her even suggesting that Selina owed him financially or sexually. The Cardassian didn't know her very well at all. She wasn't that type of person at all Selina was one of the few people he had missed being dead. Selina sighed as she backed up a little from Reuben and watched Draia walk away.

Draia pivoted her head in Selina's direction. "Remember to collect interest. It is the law of the land after all," Draia said, referring to their current environs. And she disappeared down the alleyway beside the building where Tae was perched.

Selina soon followed the duo and watched them for a moment before joining them alone. The man that had been causing issues and threatening to remove her from them was nowhere to be seen. "You should not have followed," Selina said softly not in reprimand more worry about them.

Climbing down the fire escape (with his phaser rifle slung tightly against his back), Tae Holmgren heard every word Selina said. "How could you imagine," Tae asked incredulously, "we would do anything of the sort?" Even once his boots reached the ground, Tae's tall frame still towered over both women. He yanked up the hood of his uniform slicker, when he added, "I'm not going to just leave you here."

Selina just looked at the pair and shook her head feeling like a drowned rat. "Because neither of you needs to protect me," Selina said softly in the most patient voice she could muster stood there with her hair sticking to her face and shaking from the sudden chill in the air.

Tae Holmgren shook his head at her. He stepped closer, close enough to clutch her shoulder. Sounding a little bit hurt, and a little bit surprised, and a little bit pleading, Tae said, "But we're Starfleet. We all protect each other. We all help one another. Isn't that what families do?"

Selina looked at the man confused. This was nothing to do with Starfleet in the slightest despite the fact she had been lured down to Ferenginar by a Starfleet transmission, it had been all very personal. "This wasn't Starfleet." She breathed softly.

Continuing to shake his head, Tae looked back at Selina with just as much confusion. "Starfleet is inside you. It's shaped who you are since you were a child," Tae insisted. By this point, he'd known her long enough to say so. The hood of his slicker was keeping the pouring rain out of his hair, but he wiped a big palm across his forehead, swiping the cold raindrops away. "Did you take off your combadge and leave it on your nightstand dramatically?" he asked, plainly frustrated by the rain and Selina's secretiveness.

Slowly Selina lent up taking her boyfriends shoulder and squeezed. "Just... leave it. You guys don't need to be dragged into that mess." Selina responded her hand going to her chest where indeed her combadge wasn't. She had worn civilian clothes to blend in the best she could.

Recoiling from Selina's touch, Tae raised his palms defensively. With the naked hurt on his open expression, Tae looked younger than this twenty-five years. "Who even are you? What's happening?" he said. Tae asked the questions in quick succession, in a frustrated staccato, giving Selina little-to-no opportunity to answer. "My over-protectiveness was cute the other day? Outside that terrible restaurant, with your mother? What's changed?"

"Because this involves Starfleet Intelligence and that man would have snapped your neck without a thought," Selina said gently. She didn't want either of the crewmen involved in the political sphere that was Starfleet Intelligence and what she suspected at Section 31 but more importantly, she didn't want Tae involved in it. "You might not think I love you sometimes but I do." She murmured softly looking at him before glancing at Draia.

Noticing that glance about as much as she noticed the topic of conversation nose-diving into something personal, Draia asked,"Uhm, uhh, should I give you a moment?" She looked to Selina at first, saying, "I guess?" since she thought that's what Selina's look was supposed to communicate. But then she looked at Tae too; Tae had warned her that Selina might be stubborn about doing things her way, but he hadn't warned her that Selina might get mushy about it.

She didn't want to order so she took in a calming breath before speaking. "Please Draia. We won't be long I promise," Selina said politely as she looked back to Tae as Draia wandered off to give them a little bit of space.

By this point, having seen the steely determination in Selina's eyes for long enough, Tae's shoulders slumped in defeat. He didn't want to opposer her anymore, he never wanted to oppose with her. His expression slack, Tae asked her, "What should I tell the Captain?"

"I am not going anywhere Tae. How would I explain to my mother how I just went off from a Starfleet Vessel. I would lose my commision and everything I hold dear." She whispered slowly approaching him putting both her hands on his chest in a be easy gesture. She didn't want to fight with him either, fighting with someone you loved just killed you inside a little.

Tae folded his arms around Selina. By now, it was a familiar way to position it arms. It felt more natural than breathing to Tae. Whispering back, Tae asked, "Then what are you going to do about that asshole?"

"No idea. I am hoping just to forget about it." The man was meant to be dead which meant he was involved in some deep and heavy stuff which Selina wanted no part of at all. It just worried her the fact the communication came from intelligence. "Let's not worry about it," Selina said through gritted teeth.

"You're all wet," Tae said softly, and clearly he was too. Looking left and looking right, he tugged Selina towards the public roadway. At that, Tae insisted, "Let's get the hell outta here."

"I hate this planet." Was all Selina muttered letting the man tug her through the rain to where the other crewman was waiting.

OFF::

Flashback Friday Draia Theroh
Engineering Chief
SS Mary Rose

Lieutenant Selina Fenruse
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Viking, NCC-76640

Rueben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose