Lurking in the Dark
Posted on Sat Mar 7th, 2026 @ 2:52pm by Major (Aendeh) Toval & Lieutenant JG Jezra Siv MD & Rear Admiral Daro Rixx & Sub-Commander (erei'Riov) Minatha ir'Ra'tleihfi i'Liorae-sihaer & Civilian Aetan
2,994 words; about a 15 minute read
Mission:
Peril at the Unification Accords
Location: PWB Vindex
Timeline: MD09, 0925 Hours
Minatha sat on the very edge of her seat, her breath slow, steady, and tightly controlled. She watched the empty viewscreen in front of her and felt the Vindex herself seem to be holding a bated breath. She and the ship both waited to see if the Astrea had been able to do more than gauge their size before they were able to back off under thrusters. Internally Minatha raged at the apparent near discovery. After a few tense moments she stood, looking around the bridge.
"Get me status reports, complete with full details on everything we know. I want them by the end of hour." Her voice was clear and crisp, tinged with just a hint of her seething anger.
Suddenly, the communications officer spoke up. "Captain, you have an incoming communique." He turned to face his commanding officer, his features a bit pale. "It's...the Admiral, Ma'am." He didn't need to specify which Admiral he was referring to, as there was only one who could possibly be contacting them. It was the Starfleet Admiral who had both financed and brokered this entire deal. He was also a man who could both reward those who pleased him....and brutally punish those who didn't. Just a month before, the Vindex had lost her first officer, when the man foolishly insulted the Admiral. It had taken several hours to clean the gore off the deck from his bloody remains.
"Route it to my Ready Room." Minatha narrowed her eyes slightly and stood. "Toval, you have the bridge. Do not break our new position without notifying me. Get those reports and have them ready for my return." With that she turned, vanishing into her Ready Room where she pulled up the communique with a carefully controlled face.
Ready Room
"Admiral. You have news for me?"
The image on the monitor switched from a technical readout of the Vindex, to the face of an angry Bolian officer. "Explain to me why you have allowed the Astrea to discover your location!" The question was delivered in a dangerous growl. Minatha would have to tread very carefully in her responses.
"If the Astrea actually got a solid identification on us, Admiral; why is it that they have made no attempts to break our cloak?" her words were curt, pointed, and carried very little of the respect that an Admiral might expect, however Minatha was far from a subordinate to the man and in fact it was her and her crew taking the risk in the situation. Countless steps had been taken to ensure that the Vindex could not tie back to any of its benefactors and it would be labelled as a rogue vessel if it were to be fully discovered. Of course, there were precautions and preparations for that eventuality as well but she wasn't about to detail them to a tenuous ally.
Rixx's eyes narrowed dangerously and his voice took on a deadly edge. "Mind your words very carefully, Captain," he responded darkly. "Don't forget who gave you this opportunity. "Fail me, and I'll ensure you never see the inside of a brig." His words carried the very real promise of her death, possibly painfully, should the mission become a failure. "Do the job you were hired for, and you will be rewarded."
Minatha's tone changed not an inch as she replied, meeting his gaze carefully. "I know as well as you do that risking any form of overt actions against the Vindex poses too great a threat to your position for you to act upon that threat, Admiral. It would be a shame if someone were to question how exactly you had knowledge of my ship and her crew but failed to pass it along to Starfleet Intelligence." She lifted a singular brow at his image and then turned away for a moment, listening to the sounds of her ship. She was far from new to this game and it was where she thrived. "I assure you Admiral, we are monitoring the situation closely. The target is no longer within the reach of anyone alive and with her is her knowledge of anything that could further the Unification; should there be more that becomes necessary to act upon we will do so promptly."
Rixx did not let his annoyance show on his face or in his tone. Instead, he simply grinned like most of his species are known for. Minatha did not need to know his contacts. He knew that she thought she had the upper hand. He wanted her to believe that. It was how he had outlived every opponent he had ever faced. "Well, I'm glad we understand each other then," he replied. Be sure you keep that knowledge of hers out of anyone else's hands. I don't need to tell you that if the Unification process were to be successful, the universe, as we know it, would change for the worse. The Romulans must be kept out of the greater galactic civilization."
"That is the purpose of our presence here." Her words were matter of fact, lacking any and all inflection. "I thank you for reaching out, Admiral. If you are concerned about the Astrea's activity perhaps you can find some way to act upon those concerns without tipping your hand." She gave him a pointed and rather dry smile. She found the plainness of the Admiral refreshing but refused to show that fact. She knew full well that the plain-spoken still hid much behind their words; perhaps even more than those that did elsewise.
Daro could pick up on the woman's level of respect, or lack thereof, for him. He would like nothing better than to secure her in one of the black sites he has used in the past, and spend days making her die slowly and in excruciating agony. However, right now, she and her crew were serving a purpose. "Don't forget yourself, or your place, Captain. Do the job you were hired for. Rixx out." The screen went black after the Admiral closed the comm channel.
Minatha leaned back in her seat for a moment, breathing a shallow sigh of relief after the screen was black. After a few moments she turned the computer screen back on and opened an official subspace line that was text only and typed out a single phrase.
Our mutual friend not to be trusted, too impatient. Risk to mission.
After she had hit enter to send the message she turned the computer back off and stood, stepping out of her ready room to return to the bridge. She did not bother to check the time as she walked past the clock on her desk.
Bridge
Toval inclined his head once--respectfully--as Minatha departed. Once her ready room door was sealed, the entire bridge complement seemed to exhale collectively. Tension dissipated. He remained where he was for a few moments longer, holding his hands behind his back.
The Vindex held station in its orbit like a disciplined animal.
"Status reports," Toval said, his voice even and wooden. "Begin with sensor telemetry."
As Sublieutenant Uvael began the process of preparing a sensor report, Toval found himself crossing the bridge to stand at the idle command station. He barely glanced at the captain's chair. He avoided it at all cost and hadn't once dared sit there.
The doors at the back of the bridge slipped open, and Sublieutenant Joreel tr'Rehni stepped out, hands clasped behind his back, next to Aetan. A perpetual scowl was on his face; he did not expect his first real assignment with the Tal Shiar to be babysitting some scientist. He held his tongue when he was demoted from his RCD rank and had to ask to do the most basic things, but this? This was humiliating. The assignment was narrow by design, constrained enough to make each step delicate. He had been given slightly expanded clearance to handle the weapon, but he still had to ask for permission to do virtually anything with it.
Supervising Aetan was probably the worst part of this assignment. Monitoring a civilian to make sure he didn't gain access to sensitive systems would have been tolerable if the guy weren't so... ambitious. Joreel got a long lecture and a hefty punishment after Aetan had slipped out of his sight and made it onto the bridge. Minatha probably only allowed a second chance because RCD recruits were valuable, but it was made very clear that he'd be replaced if it happened again.
Joreel preferred his head attached to his neck.
"Major," Joreel said, stopping near Toval. He offered a datapad, "the latest status of the weapon."
Toval accepted the datapad without comment. He did not look at Joreel.
Scrolling through the lines of data, his eyes fell on certain words and phrases: containment integrity, power draw, harmonic variance. But the gist of the report came down to the weapon sleeping uneasily. Toval preferred detailed reports and Joreel always seemed to provide exactly what was required.
Looking up from the datapad, he fixed Joreel with a sharp look. "And the scientist?" he asked, his voice a conspiratorial whisper.
If Joreel weren't at risk of being "dismissed" by the Tal Shiar, he'd respond with some sarcastic comment about how the scientist had somehow miraculously avoided a rather retaliatory strangling. "Impatient, but as ready as the weapon is," he responded quietly. "He believes there is opportunity to exploit the weapon while we are here. In fact, he won't shut up about it."
Toval gave a single, almost imperceptible nod. His weapons were observation and patience, and he wielded them with precision.
"The scientist," he whispered slowly, "must be contained within the rules we have imposed. However, I would like to hear more about this opportunity."
It took everything in Joreel's power to not roll his eyes as he answered. "He has mentioned wanting to... play with the weapon, to test its limits, and there are a number of potentially viable candidates in orbit."
Aetan, meanwhile, took a casual stroll around the perimeter of the bridge, hands crossed behind his back. He peered over the shoulders of the crew as they did their work, monitoring their screens and pushing the buttons that made this ship work. He had no interest in what they were doing, however. In truth he was mildly annoyed to have been summoned to the bridge by Minatha, only to find that Minatha was not here. He didn't let it show.
Out of the corner of his eye, Joreel spotted Aetan wandering off and shot the man a glare. While Toval finished reading the report, Joreel walked over to Aetan, purposefully intercepting his walking path and crossed his arms. The quiet look asked the scientist where he found the audacity.
Aetan stopped and looked up at him with an exasperated sigh. "Really, my young friend, what damage am I going to do here?" He gestured around him. "I don't know the first thing about running a Warbird!"
"It doesn't matter what you know or don't know," Joreel told him, not moving from his spot. "You're not here to satisfy your curiosity."
Toval overheard the exchange between the doctor and Joreel. Without looking up from the operation console, he said loudly, "Curiosity unchecked, doctor, is chaos disguised as progress."
Minatha returned to the bridge, gliding silently to her seat and standing behind it for a moment to observe her officers. Inevitably her gaze found Aetan and she had to stop the curl of annoyance from crossing her face as she watched Joreel and his interaction.
Aetan met Minatha's gaze as he volleyed back at Toval's comment. "An interesting viewpoint, Major. Personally I find rigid, uncurious conformity to be the mark of the spiritless, and the vacant minded." Then to Minatha he added, "Let me guess, the overlords called to berate you for the small failures, lest you get too high-minded about our staggering success?"
Minatha made a mental note to keep a closer eye on Aetan since he apparently saw more than most would think. She did not dignify the question with a direct response, rather directing her own question to him. "How long do you need before you can utilize the weapon again, Preceptor? We need to ensure that the investigation into the Ambassador's death does not progress too far.""
"Twenty minutes," Aetan replied promptly. He was pleased that Minatha was proposing such a mission. He had contemplated proposing it himself. "That's the minimal prep time. Do you have a specific target in mind? Or will it be a general reconnoiter?"
Minatha exchanged a glance with Toval for a moment, gauging how he would react to her next words. "Reconnoiter... but take advantage of any opportunity that you find to hinder the Astrea's investigation. And... I can NOT stress this enough... Do. NOT. Get. Caught. Do. NOT. Reveal. Our. Capabilities."
Toval said nothing but remained his usual self outwardly. His mind moved carefully through what he had just heard, setting each person in place like they were pieces on a dejarik board.
Preceptor Aetan disturbed him, and it wasn't because he brilliantly insolent. Those things could be easily managed. What troubled Toval most about Aetan was the hunger in him. He appeared restless in subtle ways--the way he looked at the warbird's systems and the way he talked about the weapon. It wasn't like he was a simple engineer who used tools. It felt more like Aetan was in love with his tools. And if Toval knew one thing about men like that, it was how men in love with their work tended to make mistakes.
Aetan offered a thin smile for Minatha. Of course stealth was the name of the game here. Of course there was a measure of risk involved. There always had been. For example, during the development phase he had theorized that a strong telepath would sense him. In that event he would simply strike just as he did at the last interloper. The results of that had been shocking and beautiful to behold. "Understood," he said. Then, turning on his heel, he headed for the door and nodded to Joreel. "Come, shadow, let's get to work."
The Preceptor had taken no more than three steps toward the lift doors when Toval moved. It wasn't hurried nor was it conspicuous enough for anyone else on the bridge to take any special note of the movement. He simply appeared in the scientist's path, as though he had always intended to occupy that precise space.
Two of Toval's fingers rose and were placed against the center of Aetan's sternum. It wasn't a blow or a jab but it was enough pressure to halt forward motion.
Toval's eyes met Aetan's but there wasn't any venom or fire behind them.
"Preceptor," he said softly. "You will conduct your reconnoiter as instructed. You will hinder the investigation within tolerances. You will not indulge yourself."
He pressed his fingers slightly more forcefully.
"This vessel survives by remaining unremarkable," Toval continued, his voice lowered enough that only Aetan--and maybe Joreel--could hear. "If your... enthusiasm... draws scrutiny beyond what Subcommander Minatha has sanctioned, the correction will be immediate." He paused before adding, "And permanent."
Joreel lightly pressed his lips together to prevent the faint smirk of gratitude from making itself known. Toval's words also served as instructions, which he had no problem following. The sooner this annoying assignment could be over with, the sooner Joreel could work on real methods of proving his loyalty.
Aetan lowered his chin and leaned forward into Toval's fingers. In an equally low voice he said, "I'm sure that Federation ship hasn't given up trying to pick up our scent. Best focus on your own duties, Major. If the mission goes wrong then I won't be the only person answering for its failure." He stepped around Toval and continued on his way.
Minatha watched first Aetan then Joreel leave the bridge and waited a few moments until she was sure they were gone before she address Toval. "Major, that one cannot be allowed to survive this mission.... he is the sort to brag of his 'accomplishments,' see to it that an accident is arranged once we are finished here."
There was a long moment where Toval found himself considering how a liability like Aetan might be most effectively dealt with. On one hand, an accident was always preferable. Even when questions are raised or an inquiry established, those in the know would eventually come to the conclusion--especially in Tal Shiar ranks--that the decedent was more than likely murdered for the good of the Empire. In this case, Toval would not be averse to arranging a public execution.
"Indeed, Subcommander."
Sub-Commander Minatha ir'Ra'tleihfi i'Liorae-sihaer
Commander Officer
PWB Vindex
Tal Shiar
(NPC of Alexandra Blackstone)
Major Toval
Executive Officer
PWB Vindex
Tal Shiar
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)
Sub-Lieutenant Joreel tr'Rehni
Tal Shiar Officer
PWB Vindex
Tal Shiar
(NPC of Jezra Siv)
Doctor Aetan
Tal Shiar Officer
PWB Vindex
Tal Shiar
(NPC of Sakkar)
Rear Admiral Daro Rixx
Long Range Mobility & Defense Command
Starfleet Command
(NPC of Maxun Spello)
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