Joint Duty Log - CIntel, Civ Pilot - LtCmdr Rinehart, Fabla & Vokar - "You Can't Take the Sky From Me"

Posted on 241409.17 @ 11:03pm by Civilian Fabla & Commander Tierney Rinehart

It was the middle of the night when they'd boarded the Figaro, each one falling under Tierney's personal site to site device and quickly disappearing without a trace. The cloaked vessel remained unnoticed as it quietly and quickly slipped away from the ship and out on its own into open space, moving like an arrow towards the coordinates of it's chosen target.

All of them were dressed in black, not a mark on them indicating they belonged to Starfleet, or anyone else, as they sat in virtual silence as if afraid that a single word would give away their intent as they ate up space in hot pursuit of an idly going supply vessel. Their first test, their first raid, the beginning of their following through on the orders Malone had passed down to Tierney who sat in the command chair silent as the grave until someone dropped something behind her, nearly sending her out of her skin. "Nadik..." She scowled, casting a look over her shoulder at the Tellarite who'd stooped to pick up a wrench and wagged a finger at him, willing her heart rate to return to normal as she set her gaze to Fabla.

Fabla's attention was zeroed in on the helm controls of their little ship. In the black, there was little to avoid and a course was laid in for the navigational computers to handle, but if their prey altered course, she'd want to react quickly. There was no reason for them to know they were coming though, so she was fretting over almost nothing. The clattering of Nadik's wrench, and resulting chastising from Tierney, sent Fabla's heart into her throat. She looked back to see what had happened, a hand pressed just below her throat to calm herself as she met Tierney's gaze.

After the situation had begun on Vulcan, the Pendragon streaked away from the core planets at maximum warp, they had managed to outrun the pursuing Federation starships and were now running in low power mode, the ship was virtually invisible to most sensors, despite its large size, the only running light displayed the singular marking on it's hull, Pendragon, a name which had come to mean freedom to some and trouble to others.

When Tierney's eyes met Fabla's, she knew they had been in the same boat. Nadik's grumbles showed that perhaps even he had caught onto the blood chilling anxiety that had come to a head on the Firefly class ship as it raced along, closing in on it's prey.

On the bridge of the Pendragon, activity flared slightly as a supply ship flashed onto the sensors, it was registered as a Federation ship and was likely ferrying the usual supplies back into the core, a second sign, faint but recognisable by the finely tuned sensors of the colossal Excalibur-Refit class ship showed that it was being stalked by another ship, a cloaked ship.

The news caused a flash of hunger in the single good eye of the Vulcan in the command chair, he rapped his fingers on the console before commenting, "Helm, intercept course, keep us off their sensors."

"Prepare to engage." Tierney called, holding up a hand. Somewhere behind her, Tygelgor made a noise she couldn't quite put a finger on. It sounded almost too pleased to be of any comfort. Pleasure in conflict... How Nausicaan. "Is there any way we can just randomly beam everything off their ship and onto ours? Get in and out clean?" the strawberry maned Starling asked as she shifted to perch on the very edge of her seat.

"If Green can get us close enough without them raising shields," Nadik grumbled. Fabla snorted in response, knowing he wouldn't be on the ship with her flying if he didn't trust her at the helm.

"If someone has fixed the port thruster like asked, I can thread a needle with this bird," Fabla insisted, returning the barb with a smirk hidden by turning her back on the tellarite.

Stalking the supply ship and it's hidden aggressor provided Vokar with a sense of satisfaction at the modifications made by the Vanguard to the Pendragon, the huge ship was unnoticed and provided a powerful platform with which to strike, "Prepare the tachyon pulse and prepare to target phasers." the Vulcan called out as the view screen snapped to show the slight disturbances in space that indicated a cloaked ship.

Tierney held up her hand higher, shaking it to silence them as if it truly mattered. "Come on, really?" She asked them both, chiding them as if they were children. "Let's get in and get out. No prisoners no blood no witnesses, just a ghost story." She all but snapped, her heart racing at the prospect of crossing over that thin virgin line. Once they did this, there was no repair, no going back. They were pirates flying under the banner and protection of Starfleet — Privateers, but still... Pirates. Outlaws. The benefits, however, outweighed the risk. Nadik bit his tongue and kicked something in reply, leaving Tierney sorely tempted to throw something at him.

Fabla bit her lip — Tierney was clearly nervous — but the way to keep the tellarite focused was to spar with him. "We are in position for cargo beam out, Tierney," Fabla announced.

"Engage." The little redhead responded, toying with a loose lock of her fading dye job. Once it was all said and done, she'd take care of that small problem — for now, she'd remain on pins and needles waiting for the call of success and a quick disappearance back into the dark voids of space towards Enterprise.

Just as the ship began to decloak to transport, the Pendragon launched the tachyon pulse which forced the emerging ship to finish it's decloaking process suddenly.

There was a clattering and cursing in Nadik's mother tongue as the cloaking device suddenly shut off. He was pounding on the console he worked at, trying to regain control of the illegal device that gave them the properties of a specter

"Strike mode," Vokar called out as he sat forward and growled slightly, "Disable the supply ship, engines only, tractor the other." he called out, watching on the view screen as lances of bright orange struck out from the Pendragon and crippled the supply ship in one volley, it's sudden power gain making it flare onto the sensors of both ships.

"They have us in a tractor beam, I will attempt to shake it but I do not know that our engines are strong enough," Fabla called out, her delicate green fingers gliding across the controls at a frantic pace. Nadik continued to curse as he attempted to reroute power to overload the energy based lasso the wild mustang of a privateer vessel had been ensnared with.

Tierney was nearly thrown from her perch when the tractor beam snared them and stopped their forward motion. Her long legs locked as her feet hit the ground with a slam of boot against deck plate and the momentum bent her nearly in half with a groan as she back pedaled. "Can we escape?!" She all but shrieked, wild eyed as she looked between Nadik and Fabla. "Fire on them! Create a diversion!"

The tactical station on the Pendragon screamed as the weapons on the smaller ship began to power up, it drew a slight chuckle from the Vulcan as he stood slowly and gave the nod which opened the comm channel, forcing his image onto their view screen.

Tygelgor moved to engage the weapons as soon as Tierney had called for them, but they were slow to respond. He looked to Nadik, but the pig of a man was still fighting to do something about the tractor beam, the cloak, anything.

"That would not be advisable, consider yourselves... well, not prisoners of war... just prisoners... temporarily," Vokar stated as he ran his hand over his head and smoothed down his hair, his visage as ever was one designed to bring fear to the people he had contact with, the left side of his face heavily pitted with scars and the patch over the same eye gave him a menacing look, one which seemed to stick in the mind.

"Vokar..." The name fell from Tierney's lips like a curse and she came to stand, walking past Fabla's seat and closer to the view screen to study the image flashing before her. She knew of him, by file only, but she knew of him. "Stand down. Do not fire!" She ordered.

There was a grumble back at the weapons station, and when Fabla looked back, Tygelgor had stepped away from the station. He was staring at the Vulcan on the view screen, and Fabla found herself unable to look away from the horrific scars on one side of his face.

"You are hereby invited to board the VCD Pendragon as my... guests," the Vulcan responded with an unsettling smile, "To decline would be... regrettable."

"What other logical choice do we have?" Tierney shrugged her shoulders, her hands hitting her thighs. Scarlet had sent the Vulcan a note, she'd found it, someone else had found it and now? Now she and her crew were forced to dine with the devil. She looked between her crew and back to the screen, their only hope was remain calm, to think and to hope he'd be a kind cat while playing with new toys. "As Captain of this vessel I request that you take me and spare them." Tierney stated, locking eyes with the Vulcan's damaged face, "They were acting under my orders."

"Logic would dictate that you comply," the Vulcan replied with a sly grin as he gave a slight nod towards his counterpart on the much smaller ship, "As I said, you are to be my guests, prisoners, whatever you would like to consider yourselves, but I mean all of you," he added before turning to his tactical station, "Tractor them and their ship into the main bay and roll out the... the welcome wagon," he added as he flashed them another sickening smile.

Tierney hissed under her breath and took a step back and closer to Tygelgor, suddenly feeling so very small when cast in the shadow of the Pendragon and snared in the grasp of a mad man. "Fine." She spat and her hand slapped a nearby console, closing the connection. "We'll get out of this, nobody does anything stupid, ok?" She stated more than asked.

-=/\=- Main Bay, VCD Pendragon -=/\=-

The hold of the Pendragon easily swallowed the little Firefly class ship, tucking it neatly away as if it were being saved for a midnight snack. They hadn't waited long before descending upon her, demanding the crew disembark from the vessel and Tierney could feel the familiar course of cold electricity coursing through her veins as her anxiety turned into a not so subtle knowledge that she could die. Being one of Vokar's guests was far from an honor, but the fact he'd left them alive meant that they had some form of value — maybe a value she could exploit and use to convince the cunning Vulcan to grant them their freedom. She knew he was there, watching, lurking — but she refused to lift her eyes to find him. Instead the petite little Intel officer feigned indifference, standing close to the shadow of the Nausicaan and Fabla. Nadik, as usual, was muttering slurs.

"If you do not shut up, the green blooded one will cut your tongue out," Fabla snapped at Nadik. With how uneasy Tierney was, Fabla couldn't help but look around and cling to Tygelgor. Zerra and Tallen skulked at the back of the group, and Nadik strode at the front as if not afraid.

"You're not wrong there, Orion," Vokar called out from his vantage point on the observation deck of the shuttlebay, his hands gripped the bar and with strength that seemed to come from nowhere, he flipped himself over and landed on the deck heavily, from his crouched landing position he unfolded himself and the light struck his features, his own people kept their weapons trained on the newcomers as he moved toward them.

Fabla's eyes were the size of saucers, and she shrunk back behind Tygelgor as far as she dared. The scaring in his face was nothing to a woman who counted a Nausicaan as one of her dearest friends, but the way this Vulcan carried himself, and appeared out of the shadows like the boogie man... It left an impression. Nadik finally shut his mouth, but stood up tall in the face of their host.

Tierney reached a hand out to settle Fabla, her fingers brushing the Orion's elbow. Hiding, pretending not to care, was going to get them all killed. He appeared in a flurry of motion, a show of his testicular fortitude and Tierney couldn't help but stiffen visibly. The little Starling stood tall, even if tall was simply a relative term in her case, and lifted her chin to finally guide her eyes towards the disfigured face of the Vulcan. She'd never seen him face to face, only heard the ghost stories and knew how to identify him. Terrorist. Monster. The words had been thrown as descriptors for so long — and there they were, trapped.

Slipping away from Tygelgor, she approached him, the Nausicaan grunted but failed to stir when she held her hand back to motion for him to stay. For the seconds it took for her to kill the distance between her and the green-blooded man of mystery she could only hear the beating of her heart from it's new residence somewhere in her throat, and the sound of her boots against the deck plate. "Vokar." She greeted, somehow resisting anxiety's request to quiver in her voice. She was dangerously close, his guards watching her but widely unconcerned, close enough she could nearly feel the energy pouring from his body.

"Well, you seem to know my name, so it is only fair that I should know yours," the Vulcan replied as his one good eye looked over the young woman before him, something with a little bit off with her, the way she held herself wasn't quite the same as the rest of her little band, "Give me a second," he stated as he gestured towards one of his men who rushed forward and handed him a padd, the Vulcan spent a few minutes scrolling through it, a glint appearing in his eye as he found the information he needed.

She watched him, her arms coming to fold over her chest as she did so. It wouldn't be hard for someone like him to figure out just who and what stood before him. With Vokar, secrets were hard to keep and even harder to deny. In his grasp she felt that power oozing and creeping from his green little pores, unbridled and unabashed. She knew that she was but a pawn there, unable to escape. It drove her mad.

Vokar leant down to Tierney's ear, a sly grin on his face as his lips parted, "Starfleet Intelligence," he whispered before standing back up to his full height, "It would seem that this is your lucky day, Miss Rinehart has proven to be your charm."

The heat of his breath against the dainty shell of her ear sent shivers down her spine for all the wrong reasons. He was close, so close and the words he uttered left her heart bucking in her chest in demand that she do something to get away. If she reached out quickly, she could drop him and leave him stunned on the deck plates long enough for them to escape — if they were alone. A muffled cough from one of the guards reminded her of that. "Define charm." She said, her voice far more defiant than she thought it could ever be in such an instance.

"Because your true nature has saved them from... well, lets just say that we're fighting for the same aims, the enemy of my enemy and all that." the Vulcan replied as he waved a hand at his assembled guards, all of whom dropped their aim and began stowing their weapons.

"My true nature?" She questioned, her head canting to one side. She swallowed as the men dropped their arms, the threat of imminent death no longer on the table. Tierney dared to take another step forward, closer to the ghost of a man, the legend some people truly believed simply didn't exist outside of legend and fable. "You're right. I'm not interested in aiding the Federation. So if we aren't foe, there's no risk to you. Release us and our bird and we'll be out of your hair. Sound fair?" She asked, her eyes searching the Vulcan's haggard face.

"You're Starfleet Intelligence," the Vulcan stated, loud enough for her little group to hear, his voice hoarse as he took a slight step back and flicked his cape, "Just because you're not a foe doesn't mean you're not a risk, which is why you will be my guests until such a time that I believe you at your word."

Tierney almost smirked when the big Vulcan took a step back and away from her, yielding ground. It was all about psychology, and the vicious one had just shown there were still things that made him uncomfortable. There was still something... Humane left. She paused her advance and shook her head, casting a glance over her shoulder at her friends. "We were out there chasing down a supply ship headed to the Federation. The cargo now in our hold is being taken back to the Enterprise. Need to know more or are you just going to kill more time with fresh play things? I don't know about you, but we have a schedule." She sighed, frustrated.

"Interesting..." Vokar replied as he slid a padd out from a pocket on the inside of his jacket, "I have some... friends, paying a visit to the Enterprise, they are collecting something for me, something I value quite highly,"

"I can take a guess at what that is." Tierney replied, her tongue snaking out to nervously run along the permanent pout of her lower lip.

"As for you... I might be inclined to let you go about your business, but I would have to insist on half of the cargo from the ship you have just hit, consider it... a gift to help us begin freeing our worlds." the Vulcan responded with a slight smile.

She could hear Nadik snort and what sounded like a hand coming down over his mouth but didn't bother to look. "You can take thirty percent in good will."

The dropping of the weapons made Fabla feel more comfortable, and she moved out of Tygelgor's shadow slowly as Tierney discussed terms with the Vulcan. She looked around slowly, trying to get an idea of who and what was around. It was Tygelgor, moving with surprising speed for his large frame, that had clasped the hand over Nadik's mouth, and the piggish man stupidly struggled to get free from the Nausicaan.

"Your Nausicaan friend is smarter than the Tellarite, by quite a margin I'd wager," the Vulcan commented as he looked up and saw the commotion at the back of the group, "Forty and that is my final offer, I'm only offering this because we're friends, normally I would just take what I wanted and dump you into space."

The Starling snorted sharply, shaking her head. "Thirty, because we're such good friends because I allowed Scarlet her liberties at risk of my own life. By proxy, you owe me." She added, closing the gap between them again. Standing toe to toe with a notorious terrorist had never been her idea of a good time, but she did so with a show of fortitude she'd honestly doubted she could muster. The Vulcan loomed all over her, and still she gave it her all to stand up to him, staring up at his jagged face with her impossibly large eyes locked on his good one. In any other situation, it could have been seen as laughable.

"Fourty because I'm already being very generous with you, in light of our similarities," the Vulcan replied with a slight smile as he placed his hand on her shoulder softly, his voice suddenly found it's way deep inside her mind, his stronger telepathy of touch giving a reach into the depths of her mind with very little effort, {We're everywhere, the eyes in the dark, the glinting dagger from the shadows, the anvil of ice on which the hammer of the sun breaks.}

"I'm not yielding, thi-" Her voice froze, her body stiffened — the Vulcan's touch and grasp of her mind startled her beyond reason in an already intense situation. He'd violated her cardinal rule; don't touch unless asked to, unless permission was given. He wasn't Mark, her gentle lover who's touch was solicited with careful joy. He was Kerenal who'd handled her with that same beautiful precision when she'd allowed him to once or twice. This was Vokar. A murderer. He terrified her. The sound electricity crackled as she instinctively grabbed his wrist without thinking of the possible consequences. She'd only wanted to remove his touch and that was the only warning he'd receive. Even then it wasn't much of one. She felt the charge exit her palms and fingers with enough force to send her reeling backwards and away from him until her knees, weak from the exertion, buckled and sent her to the deck in a panting, shivering mess of her long, coltish legs and waist length hair. Someday she'd gain control over her defense. She had no choice, it would kill her if she didn't.

The shock sent Vokar stumbling back a few steps, power coursing through his body as he dropped down to one knee and hammered a fist on the deck plating, his guard's weapons were instantly shouldered and aimed at the small group of pirates, the Vulcan hammered on the deck a few more times before looking up, a shocked expression on his face as his one good eye focused on the young woman, "Well... Miss Rinehart... you truly are surprising."

Tierney sucked in a heavy breath, her lungs and body screaming from exertion as her eyes rolled to focus on Vokar. Her secret was out. "More than you know." She coughed.

The Vulcan forced himself to his feet, his movements laboured and heavy as he rose, he waved forward a couple of guards and pointed towards the ship, "Take Thirty percent of the cargo they have taken, you have the list of what we want, then let them go about their business." he commanded as he limped towards the shuttlebay door.

The little Starling blinked at him, her body trying to roll for her feet as she watched him go. "Than—" The sentence would never finish itself, her little body went limp back against the deck plates with a thud as her skull hit the floor.

Vokar hammered a device connected to his wrist and raised it to his lips, "Medical emergency in the shuttlebay, get a team down here now!" he shouted as he moved back toward the stricken young woman again, his legs finding their power, he knelt beside her and lifted her head off the deck, "Quiet young one."

Through half-lidded eyes, Tierney looked up at the Vulcan cradling her head and ordering her to rest. Though her mind spun, she could hear the strangest notes of something that sounded like concern and tenderness -- traits a monster such as Vokar should never have possessed. Though she yearned to touch him, to show some form of gratitude, she was simply powerless to do so. Her body wouldn't respond to her demands for power, her nerves having been set alight by the powerful charge she'd conjured and released. The shuttle bay itself began to swim in front of her eyes as she locked their glassy depths onto Vokar's good one, watching him for as long as she could before everything turned to utter darkness and her consciousness faded away into oblivion.

-=/\=- END LOG -=/\=-

Vokar
Vanguard Commander
VCD Pendragon

Lieutenant Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Enterprise 1701-F

Fabla
Civilian Pilot
The Freighter Figaro