Revival
Posted on 22 Aug 2021 @ 11:51am by Captain Corvus DeHavilland
Mission:
M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Environmental Ring
Timeline: MD04 - 0505HRS
1507 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure
Corvus really couldn’t remember the last time she’d showered and dressed so quickly. Probably not since her cadet days; waking up late after a long night in the library and scrambling to get to class on time. Since she’d been notified of the ‘Ambassadors’ arrival, she had made a b-line for the lift and had gone straight to her room for a near instant sonic shower and a change of clothes. She always preferred the vest version of their uniform, but for the Ambassadors she opted for the standard variant, though she debated her Dress White’s. Corvus hurriedly tied her hair back in as neat of a bun as she could manage so she didn’t look as if she’d been rushed and made her way out towards the Diplomatic suites.
The spaces on Obsidian Command reserved for diplomats, VIP’s and other office type administrators that were not part of the command structure were in the Environmental Ring. The center ‘star’ of the ring was where this was all housed, giving the guests there a beautiful view of the lush ring all around them. Corvus hadn’t actually set foot in that section of the ship, at least not beyond the turbolift shaft, so she couldn’t attest to just how nicely that section had been appointed. She’d taken her crews word for it.
DeHavilland got off the lift and walked resolutely towards the Diplomatic suites in the Executive Office Complex of the environmental ring. Almost immediately she could see that this section of the station was far more ‘civilian’ in its appointments. There was artwork on the corridor walls, wood flooring instead of the utilitarian carpet on every other Starfleet vessel, and just a general feel of the Federation. Not Starfleet. It felt awkward to her, but she tried to brush it off as she rounded the corridor.
Up ahead at the end of the corridor there were four men dressed in strange blue uniforms that looked like renaissance fair costumes and wearing black berets. Each had a phaser on their hip and they all had that look of clinical detachment that seemed to be apparent in any security type. As she approached, one of them stepped immediately forward and held out his hand.
“No admittance,” he declared sharply in accented English.
The simple statement struck her so strangely that she just stared back at him in disbelief.
“Return to your duty station,” he ordered now, pointing back the way she’d come.
Now she was irritated. First she was pulled from her only escape from work in some time, and now she was being given orders on her own station by some man who seemed to have skipped about five hundred years of fashion.
“The Ambassador’s are through here, correct?” Corvus asked, trying to keep her voice calm. “I wou-.”
“As I said. Return to your duty station,” he said, gesturing more emphatically. “Or you will be removed.”
Corvus drew a slow breath. He was testing her patience to the very end. The last thing she wanted to do was make a scene but this man was not exactly giving her an option.
“What exactly do you think my duty station is?” She asked, gesturing to her collar.
“I don’t care. I serve a higher power than Starfleet. Now. Leave,” he said, taking a suggestive step forward, like he was going to remove her by force. The three behind him all turned to face her as well, hands to their phasers.
“Are there more of you here?” she asked, “Aboard the Jupiter?”
“You will not get past them either. Now, return. Before I remove you by force from this deck,” he growled.
“By force, from this deck?” Corvus replied slowly. “As you wish, Mr. Beret,” she replied with a nod. Corvus tapped her commbadge. “DeHavilland to Chief Roslin.”
”Go ahead, ma’am,” Roslin’s voice answered quickly.
“There are four individuals barring my access to the Executive suites in the Enviro Ring,” she declared, glaring at the man in front of her. “Please return them to the Jupiter. They are not authorized to return to this station. Energize when ready.”
“… aye, Captain,” Roslin answered.
“You’re not auth-,” the man started to stay but he was cut off by the blue bead of light in his chest and he disappeared along with his fellows.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that,” Corvus muttered to herself with a self-satisfied smirk.
With her blockade gone, she walked on towards the door at the end of the hall and pressed the chime, stepping through after someone on the other side called for her to enter. Corvus stepped through the door to find two more of the strangely dressed men on either side of the door. They looked curiously to her, likely uncertain how she’d gotten past the other four. But before they could say anything, a bright, cheerful voice called out.
“Ah, you must be this stations’ skipper!” A short, thin man with a perfectly styled coif of blonde hair declared with a strong southern drawl. He came away from the window where he’d been looking out at the environmental ring. “Dennis Farveaux, Captain.” he declared, offering his hand.
“Corvus DeHavilland,” she nodded, shaking his hand.
“My esteemed colleagues, Kai Toren Balrais, and Pope Agatho,” he smiled, gesturing to each of them in turn.
Kai Toren, a very tall and willowy woman with a shock of white hair along the temple that clashed regally with her natural dark brown smiled graciously and nodded. “Captain. Thank you for your hospitality.”
“My pleasure,” she answered.
Agatho stepped forward and smiled as well, “My apologies for arriving without any prior notice, however our need was great and we had very little time to prepare.”
“I’m very interested to know exactly what it was that brought you all here with no little warning. Was the Joint Fleet Command aware?” She asked Agatho as much as the other two.
“No,” Kai Toren answered, “No one was aware. I was first to receive information and immediately contacted my counterparts,” she said, gesturing to the other two, “And we agreed to act quickly.”
“I have a few friends in Starfleet. Captain Dothan of the Jupiter is one of ‘em. We asked for a quick ride, and he took care of us,” Farveaux chimed in. “Agatho here provided the security, and the supplies we needed.”
“For what, exactly?” Corvus asked.
Agatho gestured to the large terminal on the wall and all four of them walked that way. As she turned, she glanced over at the guard at the door and realized that the strange blue uniforms must have meant Swiss Guards - the Pope’s own security. One of them had his finger to his ear, listening to something and frowning. He looked up at Corvus as she passed on her way to the terminal and she gave him a sly wink. He frowned, then turned and left the room, leaving just the one behind.
“We received a communication from someone on Obsidian. A very degraded but no less potent communication suggesting that a group of the resident population was being persecuted by the mainline sects, to the point of near genocide,” Agatho explained, bringing up the transmission that they all watched together.
A youngish Obsidian man was explaining on the transmission who he was, where they were from and how they were different from the others. He showed the corpses of his dead brethren and a feed of firefights between his people and the mainline sects. In answer to the Kai’s response to the message, he showed further footage of the desecration of his people’s dead and what he explained was denying them access to their afterlife.
“As you can imagine. This persecution is of the utmost importance to us,” Kai Toren explained.
“No one deserves this kind of treatment,” Farveaux added. “Which is why we’re here. To put an end to it, and help these people find safety.”
Corvus frowned, folding her arms across her chest, “We’re aware of internal struggles on the surface, but we’ve been in contact with all the sect leaders. At least we were under the impression we were,” she replied pensively. “What does Starfleet know of this?”
“Our information suggests that the Diplomatic Corps is still parsing through the information. They’ve yet to act,” Agatho answered, “Which is why we moved so quickly. These people cannot wait for the bureaucratic machinations of the Diplomatic Corps.”
DeHavilland frowned even more, “We have supplies being prepared for the planet,” she said, shaking her head, “Do we need to reconsider that? The last thing we need to do is empower their persecutors. The problem with that is… everyone on Obsidian is suffering. Regardless.”
All three of them nodded solemnly. Agatho bowed his head sagely and said, “That, Captain. Is why we are here.”
