USS PATRIOT: Various ("Home Coming")

From: Nai Lara (nai_lara_at_internode.on.net)
Date: Fri Mar 07 2008 - 17:15:26 PST


“Home Coming"
Con’t from Rahul's “A Letter Home”

Location: Patriot
Stardate: 2422 [2.7] 0703.1230
Scene: EARTH: Starfleet Command Compound Garden


“I think this is a foolish thing, Tene.” Archer’s golden eyes were 
hooded with anxiety as he gazed out over the small lake in the compound. 
The birds chirping in the trees overhead and the feeling of relaxation 
did little to allay his fears.

Teneill was committed to her course, and stubbornly refused to concede. 
She knew he was concerned for her own good, but she needed to finally 
remove the thorn in her side. “It’s all I have left. James is gone, 
Temmy has his own life to lead. It’s time for me to do this.”

“Ming will kill you, if he finds out.”

The Irish woman felt ancient. Old and tired. Not for the first time in 
their conversation, she fiddled with the vial around her neck. “He won’t 
Archer. I need you to trust me.” This wasn’t just a case of going 
undercover, this would be radically life altering.

Archer shook his head and sighed helplessly. “I’m not going to be there 
to help.” While he was her assistant, he also tended to act the role of 
bodyguard when he was around Teneill. With good cause too, he had saved 
her life a few times in the last decade.

“I need you to watch over things here.” Teneill replied firmly and 
watched him out of the corner of her eye for the inevitable rebuttal. 
“Commander.” She warned softly as Archer opened his mouth.

He shut it and glowered. “I don’t like it.” Sterling griped.

“I know.” She smiled gently in apology and clapped her hands together, 
instinctively straightening up, letting her professional façade slip 
over her face. “Everything is in place. Stage two will start in a few 
days time.”

“Commodore?” They both acted as if they hadn’t been aware of the 
Lieutenant who approached with the two visitors in tow.

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” The Commodore smiled and dismissed the young 
man before she greeted her two visitors. “Catherine, Daniel, a pleasure 
to meet you again.”

“You too, sir.” Daniel replied as Archer enveloped his younger sister in 
a hug that would have crushed a human’s ribs. She laughed and planted a 
kiss on his cheek.

Teneill smiled and waited until Archer let Catherine’s feet touch the 
ground before speaking. “As much as I hate to break up a family reunion, 
we have some pressing needs. Daniel, could you please go with Archer for 
your debrief. Catherine, you’re with me.” Daniel nodded and followed 
Archer as they took off for a walk around the lake.

Teneill and Catherine watched them go for a few moments before Teneill 
resumed her seat on the bench.

=/\=
Location: Patriot
Scene: Kentas office
=/\=

Jeff Gorman walked into Kenta’s office, his eyes glued onto the pad he 
was holding. “Engineering reports that the hull breaches have been shorn 
up, and the fields deactivated with full patency. I’ve had response 
teams reroute a lot of the circuitry around those areas to the 
interior.” He looked up and glanced at Ben. “That nebula also fouled up 
the sensors. It left some sort of smut in the external apertures.”

“Physical remnants?” The commanding officer asked in surprise. He hadn’t 
heard of a residue being left on a ship after passing through a nebula.

The ExO nodded. “Yes. It’s been cleaned off and sensor output increased 
by seven percent.” He added.

“Good catch.” Ben said. The sensor’s decrease could easily have been put 
down to the firefight and the damage the ship had sustained. Not 
necessarily from a particle film over the sensors themselves. It was an 
interesting phenomenon.

Jeff continued with the status report. He had been giving Kenta one 
every hour, on the hour. “Lieutenant Dungan also reports that Sickbay 
has been cleared of all injured personnel.”

Kenta nodded and clasped his hands together. “I heard you got you 
involved up there.” He replied seriously.

Gorman smiled. “They needed a hand.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Don’t make a habit of it, you’re my ExO first, and a doctor second.” 
Ben reproached the young officer gently. It wasn’t so important this 
time, but they had to expect the unexpected, and that meant having two 
commanding officers available – not loose one to other duties.

Jeff paused and then nodded sharply, taking the piece of friendly advice 
on board. “Understood, Captain.”

He cleaned his throat and continued with the report. “Counsellor Niala 
also suggests that we should do something to lift morale. We took a 
pretty heavy hit, and with the Calbot’s loss…” He didn’t have to finish 
the sentence.

“We can organise something for those left on the ship, most likely in 
the holodek.” Maybe a cocktail dinner, or some sort of games night. But 
Jeff and Tam were right, they had to shake the crew out of the doldrums.

“The Counsellor and I will get something set up for tomorrow night.” 
Jeff promised.

“Excellent.” Kenta replied as the door chimes rang out. “Yes Colonel?” 
He was mildly surprised to see the big marine looking agitated and cross.

“Have you seen this?” Maverick shoved a data padd right at Kenta, so Ben 
grabbed it warily before activating the screen and looking at it.

“What is it?” He asked. All he could see was a newspaper of a sort. He 
didn’t know what it was specifically he was supposed to be looking at.

“One of the local San Francisco rags.” Maverick growled. He hated 
reporters. “Commodore Danara is allegedly under investigation for 
tipping off her criminal associate. No comment as of yet from Starfleet 
Intelligence or Command.” He rattled off the byline for one of the 
stories by rote.

“Something big is going on. I know her, and she definitely wouldn’t do 
that.” Maverick said angrily.

Kenta read the report, but all he could see was rumours and speculation. 
There was nothing concrete. Besides, he hadn’t heard anything on the 
grape vine. And during wars, the media always tended to get a little 
ahead of themselves. “It’s only a rumour. If there was proof, then they 
would have acted already.” He assured Maverick.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NRPG: Don’t worry about the Danara story line – it won’t affect us much 
at all. She’s just going undercover for a while ;) Archer will still be 
around however.


Naomi Lara

Lt. J.G. Catherine Sterling-Jade
Intelligence Operative
USS PATRIOT

And

Commodore Teneill Danara-Bennow
Deputy Chief of Starfleet Intelligence

From HyperNews_at_youth.net 


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