Return of the Cardassian

Posted on Wed Jan 1st, 2020 @ 6:48pm by Draia Theroh & Captain Rueben Gregnol

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: SS Mary Rose - Deck 17, Hangar Bay
Timeline: MD10 0350 hours
1930 words - 3.9 OF Standard Post Measure

ON::

Tethered to life by a tractor beam, the escape pod was visibly leaking atmosphere when it was welcomed within the SS Mary Rose's hangar bay. Only minutes earlier, the Bridge had received the clarion cry of the escape pod’s emergency beacon. The call for help had come from a singular escape pod of Cardassian origin. The Constitution-class starship's long-range sensors could detect no ASRV cousins or motherships that may have lost the escape pod. As for the pod itself, its impulse engine was driving the pod far faster than its design allowed. Although it had built up extra speed, the jury rigging had done it some damage. Following a slight explosion, the escape pod had been careering out of control, spinning on a collision course with the USS Temperence until the Mary Rose had rescued the pod with its tractor beam.

Mere moments after the hexagonal pod touched down on the hanger deck, one of its hatches swung violently open. The first thing to be expelled from the pod was noise. A cacophony of Rigellian punk music resounded through the hangar bay complex from the escape pod's internal comms. The second thing to be expelled from the pod was smoke: thick and black and almost as noxious as the music. The third thing to be expelled from the pod was a Cardassian in a wedding dress.

The smoke parted for Draia Theroh. Her dark hair was an in updo, topped with a scorpion-looking fascinator. The dress was in the lavender colour that was most traditional for weddings on Trill. It suited her grey skin terribly well. The dress itself was a ridiculous mass of skirts upon skirts upon skirts, ruffled into vaguely-vaginal shapes on all sides of her. Stumbling out of the escape pod, she dropped to one knee, mostly due to exhaustion.

"Rueben," Draia said, her voice hoarse but clear. Sardonically, she looked up at the man and she asked, "Will you do me the honour of being my bride?"

Reuben was not often speechless but getting dragged out of bed to deal with a pod that was not only about to smashed into his possible new ship was one of those reasons especially as the person fell out wearing a wedding dress of all things. What in the universe was going on and why was she suddenly back?

He had not needed to even ask who was in the pod the moment he heard the Rigellian punk music through his bedroom comms unit, there was no one other than his former Chief Engineer who listened to that crap. It had not taken him long to tug on a pair of trousers, tee and boots and rush down to the hanger bay with a poor member of security who had been insistent in going along.

"I am pretty sure my wife would hesitate about that arrangement." He muttered lifting her to her feet easily with one arm. "What are you doing here Draia?"

Draia's immediate answer was one of bravado and selflessness. "I came back for you," she said, but even as she said the words, something shifted behind her eyes. The light caught a different facet of her emerald irises. Draia knew that Gregol knew her, could see through her when necessary, but they weren't exactly close. They hadn't been through the wars, at least not yet. Metaphorically course correcting, Draia said, "I came back for your crew." Swaying slightly on her feet, Draia coughed twice and gasped for fresh air. She brushed a dusting of soot off of her dress, as she said, "I never wanted to leave this ship. When those Cardassians came for me, I figured it would be less trouble to go with them."

The human rolled his eyes as he saw all the fakeness around her, he did not want to hurt her ego but he did not believe her for a second. Why could women on this ship never just tell him how it was? "And that is why you are silly. We would have helped you." Gregnol commented on as he waved off his escort leading the young woman over to some cargo containers leading her against one. "So how did you end here in that?" He glanced back at the pod as the smoke finally started to lessen.

Waggling a finger at him, Draia said, "When those Cardassians came for me, it was not because I was wanted for some crime..." Draia made the statement in a chiding tone, as if that's what Gregnol had assumed about her when a Cardassian starship had taken her from the Mary Rose, months ago. Following Gregnol's glance, Draia looked back, over her shoulder, at the smoldering escape pod for a moment. "I was summoned. Summoned by my mother. She had me betrothed." --Draia had to spit that word out, as if it were a bone in her fish-- "Evidently. She tried to marry me off for the sake of her own political gain. She almost go away with it too." At that, Draia sounded mildly impressed at her mother's machinations. Almost.

Draia offered a curtsy to Gregnol with a saccharine smile. She glanced back at the escape pod again. "I had other plans for myself," Draia said simply.

The older man just shrugged at her wagging finger. What else was he to assume when she had refused to say anything and just left with them. The man barely held back the laughter that wanted to escape his lips at the fact someone had tried to marry this woman off without her permission. They had what they had coming to them if they had really tried that. "I can see. So why come back to us though? You could run off anywhere in the universe? Surely your mother will come looking for you here?"

The smirk lingered on Draia's lips while Gregnol pointed out the possibilities at Draia's disposal. It was only when he mentioned her mother that her face blanched and her lips thinned. "No," Draia said and she finally sounded sober. Her gaze lost focus, staring into the middle distance. "No, I can't go home again. She won't be looking for me this time..."

And then the mask returned: a jester's grin slid onto Draia's expression as quickly as it had gone. "I could have gone anywhere," Draia said. There was a steely insistence in her tone while she nodded at Gregnol's assumption this time. "You can't think I only have one fiance I left in the dust. He wasn't even the only one this year. No, but I came back for you." --She waved a hand through the air, gesturing towards the burn-marks on the deck where her escape pod had landed-- "This ship still needs me, doesn't she?" Draia jut her chin out and her eyes were big as she looked up at Gregnol; looked right at him.

The man had seen a lot of emotions from Draia over the years and times they had met but he had never seen vulnerability until today. It was disconcerting and the man was not sure he liked to see it about her so was relieved when the mask reappeared. It would be another problem for another time, not four hundred hours in the morning. "Well, I have a Chief Engineer. I am sure we can find you something Chief pot washer?" He offered in a teasing tone.

"All I really need is a pot to piss in," Draia said back to Gregnol with a dramatic shrug. It was just one of those things she said, because she thought it sounded funny, regardless of what it actually meant She looked down at her dress and brushed off another smattering of soot. "C'mon, boss, don't make me beg," Draia said, and there was a suggestive lilt to the way she said beg. "There's gotta be something for me to fix or someone for me to break. I specialized in electroplasma systems in school," --she chose her words carefully, so as not to mention that she never graduated-- "Starfleet trained me in security, and I can mine dilithium like a urall pig hunting for truffles..."

Gregnol found himself wrapping an arm around the woman's shoulder and squeezed her reassuring. "I will not make you beg." He assured with a small roll of eyes at the lit her voice took. "I am sure the Chief Engineer will be able to find you something. I will not make you wash pot. Would be a waste of talent if I did that and I really do not think you would wash pots properly." He teased. "But first I think you need some rest."

Leaning into Gregnol, Draia admitted, "I could sure use a bath and a bed." This time, there was no hint of suggestion behind her words. Mostly, there was only bone-deep fatigue, like a runner at the end of a marathon. She waved a hand back over her shoulder in the direction of her escape pod, vaguely, when she asked, "Your new Chief Engineer will deal with... the fires...?"

"I'll send Jeassaho do deal with the fires." He was not going to let Micheal see the ship or any of the trouble before he had a chance to meet the woman. It would only colour anyone opinion before they met someone. "But do not worry about it right now. Let's get you to quarters to at least rest." The Captain indicated to the security crewmember stood awkwardly. "Call Jea down here please Carl."

At the promise of rest, Gregnol could probably feel the tension in Draia's shoulders release, from stone to jell-o in just a few heartbeats. There'd be a warm bed and a meal waiting for her now, and nobody to tell her who to share it with. Striding towards the doorway out of the hanger bay, Draia eagerly asked, "So catch me up, boss? What did I miss? That bridge crew I spoke with sounded fresh and clean and new."

"Not fresh and new persay. They have been around longer than either of us put together but so much had happened that I do not think you need to hear this right now. Rest first." Gregnol said with a small glint in his eyes. There was so much to catch her up on. It had been two years for her but for him, it was half that time thanks to the trip to the other universe. It would take a lot of time to catch her up.

As they entered the corridor, Draia planted her feet and then moved in on Gregnol for a hug-attack. She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around him in a quickly tight hug. Speaking into his shirt so he mostly couldn't hear her, Draia said, "Thank you."

Gregnol said nothing, there was nothing to be thankful for, a friendship did not need to be thanked but he did squeeze her just a little bit harder. He was relieved to find her alive and well enough to come back to the ship. It was nice to get a happy ending out there in the middle of nowhere.

OFF::

Rueben Gregnol
Captain
SS Mary Rose

Draia Theroh
Assistant Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose