Posted by Commander Ryder Raauhl (Executive Officer) in Defend by any Means Necessary

Posted by Civilian Genesis (Gen) McCallister (Anomalous Individual) in Defend by any Means Necessary

(snip)

Raauhl was in the middle of one of his more fortunate nightmares which didn’t involve the death of everyone he loved including himself. At first, he thought the voice was coming to form his dream but as he slowly comes out of his slumber his surrounding began to blur into vision. It was dark but Casela was dressed, Gen hadn’t woken them up because they’d moth be up already. There was something about her tone and body language which seemed to jolt him with adrenaline. “What? What is it?” He asked looking frantically around the room, no explosions, no fires just silence. He turned to Casela, “What’s the matter, why are you dressed?”

• Raauhl

She squeezed his hand slightly, but spoke softly, “The ship is alright, Gen’s alright.” She hated waking him up, well she was glad he was out of the nightmare that had flashed across his mind before he totally woke up, but she didn’t want to wake him up for this, but…”I have new orders. I have to leave, immediately.” She glanced down at the bag waiting for her, and then back at him. What she wouldn’t give at that moment, for him to be right, that her work with 31 was in her past.
Lt. Synthi-er

“Wait where?” He asked sitting up in bed, “I thought we spoke about this Casela and you are in no state to be doing this.” His voice sounded hurt. “Tell them no… tell them… I’ll go instead” He said in a somewhat half sleep half frantic manner. His voice was low but was slowly turning up in the frequency dial. “You’re injured Casela whatever they need it can wait.” He was angry at her, that shady arse organisation and himself for not seeing this was going to happen. “Ill go in your place” He said again his face frozen.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

“Near the Romulan boarder. One of the new settlements. Five, maybe six days by shuttle.” She could feel the anger rolling off him, she was angry too, but it hurt that he was angry at her. “Ryder…” she didn’t want to fight with him. “They know I’m hurt, they know about the surgery. They don’t care. I can’t tell them no. I don’t want to go, but I can’t ignore a direct order.” She stopped, her throat hurt, she was going to cry. What was wrong with her? She took a deep breath. “You can’t go in my place. If I don’t go, it will only take days before Leviathan is over run with agents. We do not want them here. I’m sorry, I really am. I wish I had a way out.”
Lt. Synthi-er

“They can try it, they wouldn’t even get close and they can share the same cell as dave if they tried boarding this ship.” He said angrily. “Can you at least tell me what it is you’re doing?” Raauhl knew there was no convincing her to stay, he would have to fry her in the brig to stop her from going. Everything about this seemed so messed up and his estimations of section 31 was going down the drain, who in thier right mind sends in an agent half cocked.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

She smiled slightly, “I know. You’d make sure of it.” She sighed. He had no idea did he? Her, McHarrie, Akirel, Knox…they were all section 31. “I told you…I asked you, Ryder, if you were okay with who I am, when you asked me to move in with you. I told you I would get calls and reports, and who knows what else. You kept saying this was in my past and I told you it wasn’t” She knew she wasn’t in any position to go alone. And she’d be alone. “Rho Pupis near the Ion Nebula. It used to be a layover site for the Federation and Klingons. Near the old neutral zone. It now has a Romulan colony on it, settled during the evacuation when the Romulan sun went supernova.” She paused here, his anger palpable, a physical presence in the room. “There is a group that we’ve gotten rumors of over the years. A specialized group of the Tal Shiar or maybe their puppet masters. Members have been caught trying to infiltrate the Vulcan high command, the Federation, Cardassia, the Klingon Empire, all over the quadrant. After the sun went super nova we lost track of them.” She looked away, wondering how much of the anger he felt was because her constant coming and going had angered Noa, she could do what she wanted, or how he felt, not understanding the orders she had been under. “That was my work on Triton, to not only help with the relocation but try and find evidence of this group. That’s why they called me, reports of suspicious activity near the colony. My job, simply, is to listen and determine if they need to send a team and then return home, here to Leviathan.” Normally it would take a few days to set up, but in her current condition it would take longer. He could see plainly on her face her hurt and her fear. “Yes I could tell them no, I could fight it. If it was just me and you. But do you know what they would do if they found out about Gen? They wouldn’t take her, but they would study her, she’d be on their radar and one day they would offer her exactly what she wanted to hear, and they would make her a weapon. Just like they did to the rest of us, like they did to me.”
Casela

Hearing her rational and explanation Raauhl did find he was coming to terms with having to let her go, it wasn’t just them anymore it was Gen to and he sighed leaning back against the bed’s frame. “Will we be able to talk? Monitor you or once you leave is that it? Does Cobb know?” He also couldn’t help but wonder if there was more to the story, it was the way she said ‘Just like they did to the rest of us’ was their more operatives on the leviathan that he didn’t know about?

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

Casela paused, surprised. She’d never considered such a thing. No one had ever wanted to contact her. “Yes, to an extent, I suppose. My shuttle would be able to receive and securely store the messages. I can send and encrypt them myself. We could set you up an encryption key before I leave. Of course normal messages are safer, no one would think twice if they came across it, but you would have to be very careful of what you said.” She considered it further, “I’d leave all the transmission to the shuttle, it might be awhile before I could respond. As for monitoring me, Rho Pupis is outside the long range sensors of Leviathan. You’d have to go with me to do that.” She reached down for the bag she’d packed, lifting it, covering a wince the motion caused, and pulled out the PaDD. She turned it on, letting it scan her iris. She pulled up the appropriate document and handed it to him. “Signed by Admiral Roebuck himself. A copy is on Cobb’s desk, and before you ask, it’s genuine. First thing Cobb will do, or you, is contact Roebuck to find out what’s going on. I doubt he knows what the assignment is, only that I needed to be put on detached assignment. Normally I would be too far away by the time the captain reads the order for him to stop it, but I didn’t leave soon enough.” Because she’d had to tell Ryder, say good bye, try to make him understand. She looked at him, in the eyes so he would pay attention and ‘listen.’ Yes, there are others. They fed us lies, promised us exactly what we wanted, and then used us. Cobb knows who they are, and when I get back I will tell you anything that I know. There is a great deal of regret and betrayal laced in the words.
Lt Synthi-er

His facial expression dropped, he’d not wanted to believe or even begin to imagine that more people would be entrapped by the section but he as beginning to realise they were an ever growing virus, he hated them. “White everything is fine, Red you’re in danger and I’m coming to get, Rose you’re fine but not sure and I’m contacting who on this ship and they’re getting me a contact with the section.” He pushed the covers of, it was one of those nights he had decided to wear some shorts and a baggy top. “Are you going to say goodbye to Gen?” He asked a little venomously and hated himself for it.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

She nodded as he recited the code she’d told him about just barely two weeks ago. “No. You will not contact the section; you will not seek out anyone else here. They are hiding from the Section, leave them that way. If you contact the section, they may come get me, but I’ll never come back to Levi.” Her voice was firm on this point. She stood up, walked over to the dresser and opened a drawer taking out a small PaDD. “If for whatever reason you feel like you have to come after me, or I need help, you use the information on that PaDD.” She handed it to him, despite her weariness she was very serious. It had been a mistake answering the pager, she knew that. That’s why she hated sedatives, it made her muddled and she was already bad enough after what Knox found out. She wasn’t well but she’d go, to save him, to save Gen from their notice. “You contact that person. No one else. Don’t drag Leviathan into this, please.” It was a long shot she knew; he would do what he felt he should. He believed totally in the power of ARU and Leviathan. “He is NOT section, but he will help you, no questions asked. There is only one person I trust more than him, and that’s you.”

She turned away from him, his tone stabbing deeply. She brushed at her face, dashing a tear away, angry at herself for being so swayed. She turned and glared at him. “I made a mistake, years ago, Ryder. I thought I was doing good, and despite what the Section is, I’ve done the best I could do. It was a mistake and I was too young to know it, and I will spend my life paying for it.” She crossed her arms across her chest, her hand brushing the runes of her necklace. It was the only thing she had that really mattered to her, and she never took it off, not even for this.

“Yes, I’m telling her bye.” Her voice was low, but she snapped, not as clear headed as she should be. “I could have left, I didn’t have to tell you. But that doesn’t count for anything does it?” She turned out of the room. He’d hurt her, deeply, and anger more at herself, was the only response she knew. She walked across their quarters and opened Gen’s door. This was against her better judgement, there was no telling what Gen was going to do. She wasn’t doing well either after Hampton. She knelt down next to the bed and brushed Gen’s hair back, “Gen, baby, wake up. I’m leaving for a few days. I’ll bring you back something, okay?”
Casela

The girls eyes opened. Their glow Slightly disconcerting in the darkness of the room. She took the sort of sleepy deep breath one normally associates with the just woken and frowned. “Where are you going?” She asked and sensing the tension began to sit up. “Im coming.” She said firmly.

Gen

“Your mother is the only one who can go Gen,” Raauhl said his face softening at the introduction of Gens sleepy features. “Besides I need you to help me look after the ship and well me.” He held his stomach to show he was still in some discomfort from having been killed. “She won’t be gone forever and we can talk to her every day if we can, between that and the presents she’ll bring back I think we can cope for a few days, weeks” He smiled having moved and crouched down next to her.

• Cmdr Raauhl, XO

Casela shook her head softly. “No you gotta stay here. You know how he gets. He’ll work late, rush back, rush cooking and catch the ship on fire and try to put it out with his bare hands.” It was said playfully, to ease the tension and help Gen relax, and build on Ryder’s words. “And even if that doesn’t happen, who will find the oven mitts for him? You know he’s always loosing them.” It was a nightly thing, ‘where are the oven gloves?’ Casela was pretty sure he could find them, but it had become almost routine at this point. “Annnnd, your supposed to teach Cerenity how to use those shoes you got her. And there will be no trips until you finish helping Mr. Durheim fix the CIC panels you blew up.” She would be near the Klingon boarder. Oh what was that toy…Toby the Targ. “I’ll bring you back a stuffed Toby the Targ. You can look up who he is while I’m gone.” She squeezed her hand. “I’ll even bring Dad back a surprise. But you have to call me every day so I know he’s behaving.” She smiled softly in his direction. She’d never had a problem just leaving. She guessed that this was more painful than the actual assignment would be.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS