JDL| LtCmdr Rinehart, Lt Kerenal - "And I'll Rise Like The Break of Dawn" pt II/II

Posted on 241503.01 @ 9:22pm by Commander Tierney Rinehart & Lieutenant Kerenal

Mission: Holy Cow

"I had guessed intelligence when you left with no word, just upped and gone overnight," the El-Aurian replied with a slight chuckle as he noted the colour of her collar and smiled softly at her, "I trust you had some rather interesting adventures during that time?"

Tierney smiled and nodded sheepishly, "You'd guessed right." She replied, "Run into my fair share of interesting scrapes along the way, nothing nearly as dramatic as what you've been through it seems." The Starling teased lightly, gesturing to the biobed that contained him and the instruments that hawked over his every move and breath.

"I don't know, I would think that we have a mutual friend amongst those we've met in our travels," the ancient man replied with a wink as he glanced towards the door, "He mentioned meeting a shocking young woman who intrigued him intensely,"

Vokar. The Starling could feel the heat of a blush playing along the tips of her ears and along the bridge of her nose and apples of her cheeks. The meeting she'd had with the one-eyed Vulcan hadn't been conventional by any means. He'd taken her ship hostage, frightened her crew, challenged her... And she'd refused to back down. The result was the unwarranted playing in her mind and her reaching out with a high voltage dismissal that had floored him and left him gasping for air as a result of the shock. He'd been lucky, as had she. The force had rendered her useless nearly immediately, but instead of ending her misery right then and there, Vokar had patched her up and sent her on her way back to Enterprise safe and sound and full of understanding. When it came right down to it, Tierney knew who buttered her bread -- it wasn't Starfleet Intelligence. "Did he just?" She asked, biting her lip.

"He's interesting, I have to admit that," the El-Aurian replied with a slight chuckle as he pushed himself into a fully seated position and pulled his legs up to cross beneath him, "It would seem that we shared some time on Vulcan, his family bought some of my furniture for it's aesthetic qualities and functional nature, as his parents put it," Kerenal added as he sculpted the scene with his hands for a few moments, "When he found the Exodus, he could have destroyed it and me along with it, but you know that he isn't like that, he's interested in people, in what makes them tick and in what makes them unique."

"Just like when he caught the Figaro..." She mused aloud and nodded in perfect understanding. "I have a lot of respect for Vokar, more than most seem to be able to muster." In many ways the spooky Vulcan and the little Starling were cut from the same cloth. Oddities, things that bucked the norm and ran wild with the strangeness they'd been blessed, and cursed, with. He'd let her go, but with a common ground knowledge that her life belonged to him, even if he hadn't fastened her with a collar and leash. Looking at Kerenal, she knew he'd been thrown in the same collection. With arms wide open, Vokar had given them re-birth and they owed him their loyalty. The thought did little to upset her. If anything, knowing Vokar was out there and watching, was a comfort.

"I'm always finding new ways to be surprised by what happens in this galaxy, just like what Vokar told me about the first meeting between you and him," Kerenal replied softly as he reached out and took both her hands, brushing her knuckles with his thumb and cupping them softly, "I'm surprised by your new found ability, you never mentioned anything about it during our time on the Horse."

A wry little half smile graced the Starling's pretty face and she shook her head gently, "I didn't want to scare you." She admitted, "I felt I'd been pushing it with glowing and being a completely uncoordinated mess." The half-smile gave way to a nervous, sardonic laugh and a shrug. "Only the ship's commanding officer knows, and I don't think he really understands or wants to believe the full blown element of weird that lurks around me." Her eyes half closed as she focused on his touch, allowing it to give her the resolve enough to explain. "Fun fact. I'm still uncomfortable with people knowing what I am."

"You know that I had never been scared of knowing what you are or what you are capable of," Kerenal replied with a smile as he lifted one of her hands and kissed her knuckles softly, "I'm too old to worry about that kind of thing."

Gazing at him from beneath the veil of her lashes, Tierney hummed and nodded in acknowledgment and understanding, "You were the first one to ever make me feel admired or appreciated for it." She reached to cup his cheek with the hand he hadn't brought to his lips, "but the truth is I've never tried to explore all the details. I've worked to forget them, not culture them."

"Well, once I'm... finished here, I'm sure the Captain and First Officer will have more than a few questions for me, and perhaps for you too considering you must have pulled some strings to get my ship recovered too. Quite a gamble for an unknown force at the time." the El-Aurian replied.

"I'm the ranking officer right now." Tierney explained, "We had an obligation to recover survivors of an attack, especially since the Exodus used to be a Federation vessel. It was a chance worth taking, they'll understand."

"I meant more to do with why I've been off the grid for so long, as an intelligence officer you know that Starfleet Officers who go missing for any length of time always seem to have some level of interrogation to face when they return to the fold." he replied with a light chuckle, "Infact, I was told that was how Vokar ended up working for Starfleet Intelligence for some time."

"People retire. They come back. You were gathering wood specimens from some far off world a Ferengi told you about, were attacked, and here you are," She shrugged in response and stroked his jaw, "a perfectly good and more than capable Ops officer, and we just so happen have need for one. I'll tell them not to look a gift horse in the mouth and vouch for you." But then the realization that he may not have wanted to stay rose and crested over her in a wave of dread, "If you want it, that is."

"Not just an ops officer, I was a helm officer the last time you saw me, I'm trained in most specializations on the ship, so I'll take whatever they need," the El-Aurian replied with a light chuckle, "If this were any other ship and any other person then I'd ask to be repaired and ask to be sent on my way, but this is the Enterprise and as far as I'm concerned, she carries the most important reason for me wanting to stay."

"Shhh. Operations." Tierney nodded and tapped his chin gently, "No need to show off." She teased gently and stepped closer to study him with a deeper bit of scrutiny, weighing the meaning of his words and doing her damnedest to condemn the flourish of giddiness that they encouraged. "Does she?"

"Finding you again after all this time, especially with what we have in common regarding our... friends, cannot just be coincidence," Kerenal replied softly as he hooked an arm around the small of her back gently and pulled her close to him, feeling the sparks of electricity that had shot between them in the moments they had shared on the Crazy Horse. The holodeck recreations of El-Auria, the shared love of reading in the library, everything came flooding back as he leaned in to her and kissed her gently on the forehead.

The delicate Starling held the most recent breath she'd drawn as the El-Aurian ensnared her in his grasp, sending her feet shuffling until her hips pressed against the bio bed and her torso against his warmth. "Doubt truth to be a liar..." She spoke in riddles as she remembered her need for breath, Shakespeare breaking through the muddle of heat and tingling to bring some sense of normalcy between them. It had been what tethered them once before, their knowledge and love of prose, and now old William smiled upon them as if he were watching and penning once again. Five words... Five words so significant as they lead to the capitulation of five more drawn from three. Hamlet couldn't save her now from the raw power of excitement that trickled along her nervous system as she murmured the words into his neck after his lips hung against her forehead.

A nurse entering the room had the effect of breaking the hold that Kerenal had on the waist of the young woman and smile over her shoulder disarmed the nurse as she threw a confusing look at the pair, "I was just letting the Commander know about my whereabouts for the last few months, on a need to know basis, you know?"

Tierney barely had time to catch herself and lock her knees to keep from falling, but tugged down on the hem of her shirt and cleared her throat in an attempt to kill the flush that dotted along the paleness of her skin. The nurse looked between the two of them with a wry smile and nodded. "Understood, Lieutenant." She replied, watching the Commander do everything to keep from meeting her eyes. "I just wanted to tell you that you've been cleared by the doctor and we've arranged temporary guest quarters for you until you know what your orders are."

The Starling finally managed to pull herself back together, "Thank you, nurse. Lieutenant Kerenal will likely be joining the Enterprise. Please keep his records as such." She ordered.

"I have to admit, a full size bed away from a warp core will be a nice change," Kerenal replied with a slight smile as he turned and swung his legs off the bed, finding his feet beside Tierney and giving them a quick test, "Would you care to escort me there, Commander?"

"I would." She replied and held her hand out for the PADD the nurse carried. It was given to her with the slightest smirk, one that the lavender haired star child chose to ignore as she looked up at Kerenal. "Right this way, Lieutenant." She ushered him, ducking away to avoid any further time under the nurse's eyes. She knew they giggled in groups like old hens.

His stride took a few moments to return to normal but soon Kerenal found himself striding out of sickbay and down the corridor towards the guest quarters, "Which way, Commander?"

"Second star to the left, straight on 'til morning." Tierney chuckled under her breath and took the El-Aurian's hand in hers, guiding him down the corridor and into the future.

(End Log...)

Lt Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS ENTERPRISE NCC-1701-F

Lieutenant Kerenal
Retired