Rage Against The Dying Of The Light

Posted on Oct 13, 2014 @ 8:38pm by Phia
Edited on on Oct 13, 2014 @ 8:39pm

Mission: Absolute Power

“Rage Against The Dying of The Light”



=/\=

Location: LUNA

SD: [2.14]1003.0018

Scene: Dancing Star Café


Two lovely women were sitting, one with an old fashioned holographic PADD in her hands creating an image to last generations.


“I’m not sure why you’re doing this,” the Irish woman laughed.


The artist smiled. “I’m not sure either. But you’re intriguing.” Her long fingers were dancing on the portable PADD trying to create artistic re-creation of the woman. Yes, there were easier ways to do this but she insisted on doing it the old ways.


“You’re a long way from BOLARUS IX,” the Irish woman said.


“Aye,” the artist nodded. “Going to visit family.”


Alanna Edgerton brightened up at that. “Who? Your parents?”


The artist known as Tashi shook her head; her azure skin shook her head. “No my parents died years ago.”


“I’m so sorry to hear that,” Alanna murmured. As the artist waved her off, the Human woman asked, “A sibling?”


Tashi paused. “I do have a sister, but it’s not her.” Pausing for a moment she confessed, “I have no idea where she is now.”


“You don’t know where your sister is now?” Alanna asked.


“No. My sister is…she’s not the most communicative sort,” Tashi smiled wanly as turned the holographic PADD around. Shaking her head at a random thought in her mind the artist looked at the clearly pregnant woman, “So much longer before you give birth?”


Alanna smiled. “Two more months.” Looking over at Tashi she asked, “What about you, do you have a family of your own?”


The Bolian/Vulcan smiled. “No. I can’t have children.” When Alanna looked horrified Tashi laughed, “I’m not offended, don’t worry you didn’t know. It has something to do with my physiology. Actually neither my sister nor I could have children. It was amazing we were born at all.” Smiling wanly she said, “My parents drilled that into us.”


=/\=

Location: EARTH – Northern Maine

Scene: B&B

TI: Middle of the night


“You know what this is?”


Phia rubbed her face as she rolled over. It wasn’t the question that woke her up so much as the constant nudging; Cade Foster was worse than any puppy or child. “A petulant overgrown asshat?” she muttered. Looking over she saw Cade reading *her* PADD; growling she leapt across the bed mindless of the fact that she was naked and that the other occupant was naked too. “That’s mine!” she yelled. “How did you get past the encryption?”


“You’re amazingly boring when it comes to picking passcodes. And you could sleep through a torpedo launch if you’re tired enough and I made you tired enough. Grabbing your hand for the thumbprint was easy,” Cade drawled with a cocky smirk. “Sam Johnson? That’s who you’re picking for a threesome? Sounds amazingly bland; I told you I wanted a rainbow in bed.” Looking over he said, “With *me* in the middle, not you. You’ve got enough of an ego.”


Snatching the PADD out of Cade’s hands Phia glared at him. “I’ve always imagined the male ego as a giant glass penis. Overblown and fragile.” Exhaling now that she had her PADD back she addressed Cade’s continual request, “No threesomes.”


“Why?”


“You fell asleep last night. I’m tired because I made myself tired,” Phia smartly replied.


Cade’s blue eyes were clear. “Who’s Sam?”


“I don’t owe you an explanation,” Phia answered. “Why the hell were you reading *my* PADD?”


What had started as a fairly innocent (for Cade Foster) act of seeing if the woman he was sleeping with/aggravating on a regular basis was assigned to the same ship or not had turned into something else. “No you don’t owe me an explanation…T’amar.”


Phia and Cade glared at each other for a long moment. “Do I even know you?” Cade asked after a moment.


“No one ever knows anybody. It’s all an allusion we comfort ourselves with,” Phia replied coldly. Emotions (a foreign concept that) were warring in her – the need to protect innocent lives over to protect Cade (asshat that he was) and what he was unknowingly walking into. Not that he’d realize it. Another moment passed before she said, “The sex was ok—“


“Yeah I got it,” Foster replied. Pointing to the door he said, “Don’t let it hit you on the way out.”


Phia walked out the door, taking the doctor’s words to heart.


=/\=

TI: Next Morning


{{Phia! I’ve been looking for you!}} Arjan Jos announced over the comm as if he had to stretch out the distance by gesturing wilding and talking loudly. Or perhaps it only seemed that way to her sleep-deprived mind.


“Arjan. I. Will. Hurt. You.” Phia coldly growled. She might be pissed for reasons that were highly impractical but this at least was normal.


{{I need your help. Please,}} the Andorian doctor begged.


Sadly that was normal too. “Why?” Phia asked.


{{I think well…I kinda stole someone…and well…I’m on the run and—}}


“And you thought I could help,” Phia finished off not batting an eyelash at any of that. “By calling me on a public comm.” When Arjan flushed a deep purple she muttered, “Clearly we need to work on our clandestine skills. And by we I mean *you*.”


=/\=

Scene: Tomb of Queen Khentkawes, Egypt

“Why are we in the desert?”


“I don’t know, just blend in.”


“Ok, you’re blue with white hair and antennae. I maybe Human but I haven’t taken a shower in days so I reek. And we’re in the middle of the FUCKING DESERT. THERE IS NO BLENDING IN!”


Lt. Phia rolled her eyes as she approached the two individuals. “Well a starter tip is not to yell,” she dryly pointed out. “And you’re in the middle fucking desert – as you oh so eloquently put it – because the tourists are going to the bigger pyramid. So they won’t notice a runaway scared shitless Starfleet officer and the runaway adult. Unless they suffer from TSTL.”


Arjan, ever the doctor, frowned at that. “TSTL?”


“Too Stupid To Live,” Phia explained. “Now please explain how you – a Starfleet officer stole an adult.” Narrowing her eyes at the bedraggled woman she asked, “You are an adult right?”


The Human woman sighed. “Yes, I’m an adult. Technically I am – was – a Starfleet officer.”


Phia snorted at that. “So I care about any of this – or you – why?”


The Human woman gave a look at Arjan Jos who nodded. Arjan handed over a lollipop to the woman who gratefully took it. After carefully unwrapping it, she popped it in her mouth. “It’s like this, I can take you to Rawyvin Seth.”


“You know how many people promise that. Every day? Every hour? And all the Federation get are look-alikes and bad Ferengi impersonators,” Phia shrugged. “No deal.”


As azure woman walked away the lollipop woman yelled out. “Look on any security feed from the last few months. You’ll find me with him. I know where he is.”


Phia turned around at that. “He doesn’t have an accomplice.”


“I’m *not* an accomplice. I don’t want to be,” the woman scowled.


The Bolian/Vulcan stood still as the wind began to pick up, the sand dancing around them. “What do you want? To go home?”


“Please, no,” the Human woman replied. “I just want…I don’t know but I don’t want to go back.”


“Phia, please,” Arjan begged. “You can do this.”


The Intel/CNS sighed. Holding up a hand she said to the woman, “You go back and don’t do a damn thing until I contact you. That means if Rawyvin Seth thinks you’re his buddy, you keep that up.”


Arjan gasped. “You can’t mean that.”


“I’m sorry, did I stutter?” Phia replied. “I have to check out her story, run down things. Hell, Arjan,

I don’t know her – I don’t even know her name –“


“It’s Montoya,” the woman replied. “Evangeline Montoya.”


“Fine,” Phia nodded. “Just for kicks, if someone were to ask – where is Seth now?”


“Paris. He finds it amusing to be so close to all that power and not be caught,” Montoya replied quietly.


=/\=

Scene: Bonviva Villa

TI: A few hours later


“How did you find out about that?”


Phia was sitting in the living room, which had toys strewn about. “Really? You doubt me?”


“Your ego rivals the Delta Quadrant,” Xana sighed. Rubbing the bridge of her nose she said,


“Why are you asking about Operations that may or may not exist and if they did exist would be well above your rank?”


“I have contacts,” Phia sniffed.


“Ever think if they let you have it that there’s a problem then?” the former Secretary of Starfleet countered.


The CNS/Intel officer looked around at the picture of domesticity around her. “Really home life doesn’t agree with you.”


“According to you nothing agrees with me,” Xana sighed.


“Well that’s true, your complexion is too shallow, you’re too tall, and you’re exceedingly too perky.” Shifting on the overstuffed eggplant couch she demanded, “Tell me about Operation Khitomer Blues.”


“If such an Operation did exist, which I’m not saying it did,” Xana stressed, “then it was multi-pronged approach at extracting a former officer from behind lines and –“


“And using an illegal source to do it,” Phia finished off. “A source that is still at large.”


Xana said nothing, listening to the sounds of her family off in the garden in the waning days of autumn. “That Operation never existed.”


“The source is at large and he’s in Paris. The former officer is fearful for her life and on the run,” the pointy eared woman stated as she stood up. Dusting herself off from dog and targ hair she said, “and now I’m trying to clean up from an Operation that never existed. “


“What will you do?” the white haired woman asked.


Phia looked around. “Night, Xana. I’ll see myself out.”


Rubbing her face the former of Secretary of Starfleet stood up and called out, “Secure comm.” After the beeps indicated she had that she said, “Bonviva to Martine – urgent line.”


=/\=

Scene: Paris, France – Montmartre Cemetery

TI: Dusk


“Why am I walking around a Cemetery with you?” Aerdan Jos lisped as dark sky pulled down around them.


There were many reasons Phia could have listed – having a doctor was handy, Aerdan was a decent shot now, he was fairly level headed, Phia (though it almost pained her to admit it) trusted him, she still wasn’t speaking to Cade. In the end she settled on: “Well he is *your* brother.”


The Andorian doctor sighed. “I know. And why did he call you?”


“I’ve been asking that myself all day,” Phia admitted with a whisper.


In and out of rows they walked, past the dark gray stones; composers, actors, reformers, painters, writers, courtesans, politicians and scientists all lay to rest amongst the quiet trees and flowers. After sometime, Phia nodded to a shadowy figure three rows to the North. Aerdan scanned the rows until he made out the figure. “Why there?” he whispered.


Phia shrugged; neither of them was equipped to answer the significance of whom Rawyvin was paying homage to. Pulling out her phaser, she nodded to Aerdan to do the same; she had prepped him on the way over. The orders were simple: bring in Rawyvin Seth. Dead or alive.


The azure woman didn’t trust the bastard, so she was aiming for dead.


They moved in closer, quietly crouched down in between the headstones, the Human man they were stalking seemingly oblivious to their threats.


A row and half over Phia nodded as she went behind a large mausoleum; Aerdan ducked behind a headstone across from her. Nodding at Aerdan she pointed to Seth who they could see was playing song on guitar softly at a headstone.


As Phia made her shot, Aerdan covered her. However, Phia’s shot went right through him without hurting him. “What the fuck?” she muttered. Crouching down she darted off into a sprint, without waiting to see if Aerdan would follow. When she got to the place that Rawyvin was she found a hologram box that was displaying an ongoing image of Rawyvin Seth. Realizing the setup she shut it off and threw it off to the side.


“I told you to pick a side,” came a voice from a tree.


“Get down!” Phia yelled to Aerdan as she recognized the voice.


“Too late,” Sam Johnson replied from the elm they had paid too little attention to until it was too late. “There’s a war coming and no amount of ducking will do.”


Without really seeing where in the tree Sam Johnson was, Phia narrowed her gray eyes and aimed up for the elm hoping to get a shot in which nicked him on the side. Unfortunately for the Bolian/Vulcan she was now entirely exposed and Sam Johnson didn’t have to aim very well. SFI, however, taught its students to aim exceptionally and he did so. With one shot, Phia went down onto the soft green grass of the Parisian cemetery, her blue blood seeping out on her black jersey top out of her chest.


Aerdan Jos aimed up to shoot but heard officers yell as they stormed the cemetery, “STOP! BY ORDER OF THE SECRETARY OF STARFLEET!”


The Andorian doctor went running towards his friend but as he did so he heard the all two all too familiar sounds. The first, as he looked back, was the sound of a transporter – Sam Johnson was gone.


The second was a dying gasp…it took seconds, which dragged out, but as Aerdan held his friend he watched her die in his arms, her belligerent body shaking fighting as it always did until her gray eyes lost their sharp spark and Phia took her last breath.

=/\=


Lt. Phia

CNS/Intel

Do not go gentle into that good night but rage, rage against the dying of the light.

-Dylan Thomas