Posted by Lieutenant Toveka Brine (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim - The Good, the bad and the Dinner (Tenkiller)

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Charles Tenkiller (Chief of Security) in Side Sim - The Good, the bad and the Dinner (Tenkiller)

Posted by Lieutenant Toveka Brine (Chief Science Officer) in Side Sim - The Good, the bad and the Dinner (Tenkiller)

SNIP

He shrugged again and said “Actually, I’m kind of open. What do you like?” he asked. “And I’d like to stay, if ya dont mind too much. Food or not, the company’s pretty good.” and he smiled at her again.

Tenkiller, CoS

She smiled. “Sadly, there are a couple Romulan dishes I eat on occasion. But mostly it’s salad with Hlai. You’d fair better picking the menu, I assure you.” She laughed but realized that she was as simple as many spoke of her as.

Toveka
CSO

He smiled and said “Sounds great. You get that started, and I’ll refill the drinks.” and he took her glass and began to refill as if the discussion was finished.

Tenkiller, CoS

She looked down to realize she had finished her wine. Handing her glass to him, she rose to head for the replicator. “Then you pick dessert,” she called over her shoulder wish a slight laugh.

She ordered up the salad for each of them as well as a medium sized tray of meatrolls. A few moments later, she came back to the couch and set the tray on the table. Going back for silverware and smaller plates for them to put their rolls on, she returned to the couch. “You’ll have to forgive me,” she said as she sat down. Unzipping her boots, they were set on the far end of the couch. “I am not used to wearing them in my quarters. I am sorry.” She was embarrassed but the feel of them was more formality than she could handle.

Toveka
CSO

He watched take them off and smiled. “Your house. Your rules. If you dont like shoes, I can take mine off. I put on clean socks and everything.” and he laughed a bit and handed her glass to her.

Tenkiller, CoS

She smiled and took the glass. “Your choice. Not a rule, but any means. But that’s cause rules are for guests. And I don’t have them. You’re the first who’s been in here almost 2 years that wasn’t just dropping off or picking up something for the lab.” She shook her head. “And no, I don’t mind. I’m enjoying the company as well.” She smiled and curled a leg under her to face him on the couch. She was hemming and hawing about telling him and thought she’d just do it and get it out.

“I have something I need to share with you. I’ve told the Captain, so he already knows. But I think you deserve it as well.” She looked down at her wine glass then back up at him. “When Duncan and I were out in the Fenrir, when it was destroyed, we had found something. A crystalline energy orb. It was on a derelict, half block up Romulan craft floating in the field. Unfortunately, it was destroyed when the enemy was and we were rescued. I went out a couple weeks later. And yes, I waited till I was cleared by Medical. But there was nothing let. No energy readings, no nothing. It was destroyed.” The disappointment was horrible on her face. Whatever she had hoped it was, was dashed with its destruction. “I just wanted you to know.” There was more. But it was biting at her whether to confess it or not.

She smiled like that was it and shifted back to the coffee table to settle the plates and bowls like proper settings. The trays went to the floor behind her, out of sight. She was sipping her wine and setting the table up so they could eat. “I’m sorry if I ruined the atmosphere. But you deserve to know. You did a lot for me today.”

Toveka
CSO

Tenkiller looked and listened, his brow furrowing. When she finished he looked at her and waited a moment. He then said “Ok… and? Look, you are obviously smart as all get out, but you got an absolute crap poker face. So what else is there? And ‘None of your damn business’ is a perfectly acceptable response, by the way.” and he chuckled.

Tenkiller, CoS

She sat there in almost pristine silence. Then she shook her head. “No, I don’t use that line.” She grit her teeth a moment them looked at him. “I don’t think the dwarf star is the reason Romulus blew up. At least, not the only factor.” There it was out, the hardest part was over. “There was too much that doesn’t add up. Like that there was just enough of the government off planet on a diplomatic mission when it happened? Or perhaps that when we reconstructed the debris, when we found the explosion came from inside, not from a wave of destruction power, when I discovered that orb, I was more certain of it. I’m the only one who thinks that down in the Science Lab. So I don’t broadcast my belief. And I’ve learned over the years, that there are ways to hide the tests I do from the staff. I have never put the station at risk, nor have I ever put my needs over the station.” She wasn’t sure how he’d take it and her breath was shallow. If she could have held it, she would have.

Toveka
CSO
He looked at her in silence for a long time, the furrow in his brown still there. Finally, after a minute or two in silence, he just said “Tell me about the orb.”

Tenkiller, CoS

She looked at him then poured herself more wine. “I didn’t get a chance to test it or anything. It was about this big,” she made a circle with her arms, then made it about 8 inches smaller as she overlapped her hands and part of her forearms. “It had a power signature that was off the charts. Nothing Duncan or I had ever seen before. It was hard to classify as orb or crystal. It lit from within and was slightly tingly to the touch. We had barely gotten back to the runabout when we were set upon. His first evasive maneuver sent me sprawling and I was knocked out. That was it. That was the last time I saw it.” She took a long draw of the wine as if trying to wipe out part of the memories.

Toveka
CSO

He looked at her for a long time again. When he spoke, he had a tone like he was a different person almost; more detective than dinner guest. “Orb. Power readings higher than you’ve ever seen. Contained in a small sphere on a derelict ship in the middle of the debris field of two planets shattered by a single… let’s call it ‘event’. You find it, you are immediately blown out of space. You are rescued in the nick of time by a Klingon who just happened to arrive in the nic of time to save you… but not the orb… even though a power signature of the level you describe would screw with transporter locks to no end… unless you compensate for it. But with the time you said you guys had, the Klingons wouldn’t have been able…” and his voice trailed off and he was silent for a bit.

“The Klingons took it.”

Tenkiller, CoS

She shook her head. “No. I don’t think so. There’s no way to hide that kind of power. We would have found it in the sweeps afterwards.” She said it, but she wasn’t stupid. Something in her voice gave away that she was doubting her own thoughts and words.

She stood up and moved away from the couch. “No… no … no we couldn’t have missed it. I mean, we did a sweep first thing after we were released from medical. It would have shown up.” She looked at him and something in her eyes made her breath hitch as she realized it herself… self doubt. She didn’t like the reasoning. It was sound. She couldn’t just dismiss it out of hand. But that would mean…

Her fists were clenched at her side.

Toveka
CSO

“Look, I ain’t no scientist by a long shot.” Tenkiller began. “But I’ve been around long enough to know that power levels like the kind you describe dont just… vanish. There’s always residual. Hell, that’s how we investigate space-based explosions. Residual power signatures. Same goes for tracking ships at warp. Now, I may be way off base, but something that powerful… that strong… it don’t just get blown all to hell and not leave a reading. That to my un-scientist brain just dont make sense. And the Klingons beamed you two aboard. Wouldnt be too hard to snag the thing same time, right?”

Tenkiller, CoS

“Residual power… residual…” She whispered the words as if her brain was sifting itself trying to find the link. She came back to the couch and sat down, her leg absently curled under her. She had gone from timid, unsure woman, to confident and sure scientist in the blink of an eye. “I hadn’t considered that. Just because the orb was gone, the signature wouldn’t be. If it had blown up, the debris near the center of detonation would be saturated with it! Ten, you aren’t going to like this, but I need to go to the inner rim of the field tomorrow. I need to check some of the debris there. Collect samples and readings. We had read the signatures of the runabout and the Romulan warbirds. But we read nothing of the orb. I chalked it up to the kind of energy it may have been. But even without a spacial signature, even if it had dissipated, the rocks would still hold it.”

She was lit up as her passion washed over her in the chattering.

Toveka
CSO

He shrugged and said “You done got yourself a ship and a detail. No reason you can’t. File an updated flight plan and be on your merry way. Hell… you wanna go now? I can have the team ready in twenty minutes if you want.” and he grinned at her.

Tenkiller, CoS