Joint Duty Log - CO & CINTEL - aCapt Rhodes & LtCmdr Rinehart - "Out Into The Black"

Posted on 241407.12 @ 5:47pm by Commander Tierney Rinehart & Acting Captain Mark Rhodes

=*=Captains Ready Room=*=

It was done.

Tierney had put her name down and signed the contract with Nug officially naming her the owner of a ship meant for eventual ruin in a war that threatened to kill them all. She had felt the cold pangs of bitterness beginning to creep further over her heart, slowly claiming territory in a battle that seemed to be forever lost.

Still. She clung to hope. Hope that all wasn't to be found wanting, that things such as love, happiness and loyalty still existed even at the cusp of the horrors that awaited the Fleet.

Eyes followed her, many filled with worry and others with hate, as she marched through the corridors and, eventually, across the bridge to the Captain's ready room to hit the chime. It was take two, and this time she held firmly onto her resolve when he called for her and she stepped in to take up residence in front of Mark's desk.

"The ship is ready for pick up." She reported, drowning down the memory of just a couple nights prior. "It'll take no more than two days for me to retrieve her."

"You go pick it up? ...Alone...?" asked Mark. He didn't want to think she would leave the ship, after their 'date night' or what ever someone would call it. But regardless of their date and feelings, Mark still had to maintain his position as Commanding Officer of the ship.

"Yes. Alone." She answered, "The Ferengi won't allow for an audience, too many witnesses." Tierney explained, leaning her palms on his desk. His surprise ribbed her with the incredulous nature of it stabbing into the sound of his voice, the doubt clearly there.

"I... Uh," stuttered Mark. He cleared his throat, "Approved. What was the cost?" he asked changing the subject.

"It's taken care of, no harm to the Enterprise." The tiny redhead sniffed in response. She'd drained her savings, traded pieces of tech she'd collected over the years from different stops across the stars. It didn't stop there, the agreement bound her to continue feeding the Ferengi with more. More.

She stiffened at the thought, having practically sold her soul to save them, to redeem herself to people who shouldn't have mattered. Tierney's used one hand to pluck a hypospray from a one of her pockets and she rounded the desk to stand at his side, offering it to him. "Tracking device." She explained, dropping to her knees and pulling het hair to one side, revealing her delicate neck and throat. "Once it's in, only you can remove it or I'm dead. Call it an insurance policy."

He took the hypospray from her and threw it onto his desk. "This wont be necessary," said Mark. "I trust you," he said. At this point, after all she had done, he really did trust her. He would trust her until he was given a reason not to, and he hoped that reason would never come. "Sit," he said point back at the chair she had gotten up out of.
Her head lifted at the sound off the spray hitting the desk, it wasn't what she'd expected. Following it, she saw it laying there discarded and sterile and then she saw him. His face. His eyes. The very nature of him as he quite simply ordered her to sit.

Picking herself up from her knees, she once again rounded the desk to sit across from him, settling into the chair and crossing her willowy legs. "If you change your mind, it's yours. There's members of this crew that will accuse you of horrible things if you don't take advantage of it." She put quite simply, trying her damnedest not to lose her nerve.

"An those people had better learn to trust my judgement before they land us into a spot of bother," said Mark honestly and openly.

"Fair enough." Tierney shrugged. Her indifference was a brutal little mask. "They'll trust you... but never me."

"I do," said Mark. "And for now, that has got to be enough. Give them enough time, they will come around. But they have to trust their CO first before they can trust you. I can assure you, the command staff trusts you. Karim and I, after all that you have done," he said with a warm smile.

If one had made claim that Mark's words had warmed the very cockles of her heart, she'd have denied it... while blushing crimson. Tierney studied him, deciding then to push buttons ever so gently while leaning forward to slide the spray towards him. It hissed as it slid across his desk, "and what if I'm just here to feed you to the Romulans or Feds?"

"I don't think either one of us want to think of the outcome of that," said Mark looking to Tierney.

She sighed softly and shook her head. "No." No, she didn't want to think of that outcome, the thinly veiled threat was still sitting high and mighty even though she truly knew how easy it would be to reverse the roles and disappear. But she couldn't. No matter how easy it would have been to run and start a new life, she couldn't just leave.

Maybe Scarlet had been wrong about him.

"We'd both be dead." Tierney mused out loud. She wouldn't think of that, not when they were both so very warm and alive. That was when her resolve began to crumble, remembering the way her body had contoured to his when he cradled her in his arms, swaying to Frank Sinatra's timeless crooning. She remembered the feel and taste of his kiss and relished in the surprise of it. He wasn't allowed to die.

"Everybody dies," said Mark. "'Someone's carryin' a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it. The trick is, die of old age before it finds you.' That's what my granddad would always say. And I find comfort in those words now more then ever."

She blinked at the word choice, nodding in surprise and agreement. "Fair enough of a philosophy. I like to think that old age will be what does me in eventually, but we both know in our line of work that each breath may be our last." Carpe diem, her inner voice hummed and she chased it away.

"Indeed," said Mark. "Granddad knew what he was talking about. And until that last breath comes, might as well live life."

"Do you believe there's a difference between living and existing?" Tierney's head tilted slightly as she watched him.

"People can exist in this 'verse without living," said Mark. "But one must exist to live."

"Good to know." Tierney slowly found her feet, weighing his words as she did. "But death is far more universal than life," She said, moving away from his desk, "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives." The fact she could die on this little side mission hadn't been lost on the star-child. She knew that the moment she spent now could be the very last with him.

"I'll leave at once and return with the vessel as soon as I can. Shouldn't take more than twelve hours." The woman explained, taking her eyes from him finally and heading for the door.

"I haven't dismissed you Commander," said Mark standing with a serious tone.

The woman stopped dead in her tracks, balancing the majority of her weight on one foot. Waiting. Listening. Her heart thumping.

The man took a few steps and stopped in front of her. The look on his face spoke of trouble. This was Mark the Captain. They stood like that for scarce seconds, before he leant in and rested his lips on her cheek in a simple, cordial peck.

"Don't dawdle," he said with a boyish grin. "Dismissed," turning back to his desk and taking his seat again.

Tierney's eyes closed as his lips rested against the satin of her cheek, but fought the temptation to turn her head and taste his lips with hers. Not yet, she chided herself, not when it's so fresh and new and undecided. "I won't." She breathed and took her leave, tugging on the hem of her shirt as she left.

Mark liked her, this much is true. He hoped she was the women he thought she was and wouldn't give him a reason not to trust him. She hadn't yet, but now he was giving her a ship and sending her out into the black, where anything was possible.

--

Acting Captain Mark Rhodes
Commanding Officer
USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-F

Lieutenant Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS ENTERPRISE