LtJG Gila Sadar - Windows of Opportunity
Gila Sadar
((Chez Adea, Dekoa, Betazed))
Sadar: There’s something on this bookshelf. A carved design of some kind…
Ever meek and meticulous, Gila searched for a means of removing the shelves, but the Betazoid Commander had no patience for such meticulous actions and instead just swept the contents of the shelf off with a dramatic flourish. Gila blinked. That was one way to do it, she supposed.
Jovenan: Did you find something?
Adea: There’s something carved on the back of this bookcase… I don’t remember that… Did you find anything?
Jovenan: The news aren’t exactly detailed military reports, but it seems that for whatever reason, the Romulans didn’t join the Alliance in time for the First Battle of Chin’toka, turning it from victory to defeat.
Gila wasn’t an expert on the Dominion War in any shape or form - she tended to avoid topics involving violent conflicts as much as possible - but as it had been a mandatory subject at the Academy, it was something that she had a cursory understanding of.
Adea: So did something stop them from joining, or were they just late?
Sadar: My memory of the causal effects leading to the various powers joining the war is hazy at best, but… Oh, what was his name? ::unhatches a shelf and starts pulling it out of the bookshelf:: Got it.
Jovenan: I guess the ships that later liberated Betazed got called to enforce the core worlds and the holdings near Bajor. ::tilts head looking at what the others had found:: What’s that?
Commander Adea crouched down and pulled out the last shelf, just as Tevet rejoined them. Gila was quite pleased with that, as she’d been concerned about the length of the child’s absence. On the back of the bookcase was a message, written in Federation Standard. “RIGHT ON TIME”.
Adea: Oh balls.
Sadar: ‘Right on time?’ Time for what?
Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. TICK. TOCK. TICK. TOCK.
Gila pushed the palms of her hands closer around her hood, about where her tympana were - the thin membranes that constituted her ‘ears’ - trying to block out the abhorrent ticking. What manner of sound was this!?
And then, blissful silence.
Gila was still trying to stop her head from ringing after the deafening drumbeat, when Commander Adea turned about, his posture altogether too tensely wired compared to before.
The reason became apparent soon after.
Adea: CloQ.
Gila turned about, her hands slowly lowering from her hood as she witnessed another Starfleet officer. Or no, not Starfleet. A mockery of everything their uniform stood for. They looked deceptively average - there was no big neon signs signalling ‘I’m the Big Bad’ or anything like that - and yet there was something unmistakably wrong about them.
CloQ: Well, hello there.
Jovenan: You’re the one who sent us here?
Gila saw, horrified, that Tevet walked closer to the Q.
Sadar: M-Miss Tevet, don’t-
Elain: Why did you take Genkos, Jovial and Sadder here?
Jovenan: Is this supposed to be some sort of a game?
CloQ: Games are meant to be fun, and I am having fun. So yes, I guess one could consider this a game. Certainly, the last time I met this crew, I enjoyed having that horny Betazoid confront his past. ::he looked over at Genkos:: The other horny Betazoid. The one with the mummy issues that cause him to latch onto your Captain.
‘Horny’?
Adea: This is about Talos?
Gila was confused. Talos? As in Lt. Commander Dakora? There was an entire cargobay's worth of insider knowledge and sensitive personal information involved in the conversation that was occurring between CloQ and the Commander, and Gila vowed to forget all of it as soon as possible.
Sadar: So, you’ve displaced the rest of our crew as well?
Elain: I don’t think you’re tough. I think you’re a stupid bully and you smell.
Gila’s jaw fell open as she, not for the first time, cursed alien children far away.
oO FEAR, Tevet! It’s not an alien concept!! Oo
CloQ turned their gaze onto Tevet, just the Lieutenant joined in on her attempt to shield the impudent child from the omnipotent maniac in front of her.
Jovenan: That’s, um, not exactly how we would put that.
CloQ laughed, a high giggle, a sound almost as obnoxious as the bizarre drumbeat that had signaled their arrival. Gila had to resist the temptation to cover her tympana again.
CloQ: That’s because, my dear… Jovenan is it? ::they raised a pale hand and pointed a slender finger at her.:: That’s because you are a coward. ::the moving finger pointed at Gila:: Although not as much as Anxiety McNervous over there.
Not exactly how Gila would’ve phrased it, but the description was apt enough, at least when it came to her, but the addition of a slight against the Lieutenant made her bristle. If there was one thing Lieutenant Jovenan wasn’t, it was a coward.
Adea: Leave my crew alone, CloQ.
As if to prove herself - but likely not planned in any way, as that was not the Lieutenant’s way - Lieutenant Jovenan tried to gently shove Tevet behind her, forming a shield between the girl and the Q, and the Commander followed suit. Gila watched her two superiors, not with surprise, but awe and respect.
oO The absence of fear does not constitute courage, but rather the presence of fear and the willpower to overcome it to do what is right. Oo
Jovenan: You did bring us to her, you must have known she was like that. She even threatened us with a knife! You must have had some purpose in doing so.
CloQ: Purpose? ::their anger was barely concealed:: My purpose is to make your Betazoid friends confront their pasts. You’ve got mummy issues Dakora, and then the doctor here has been running from every trauma he’s ever had. He’s terrified that if he ever stops to confront any of them, well… ::they raised a brow at Genkos:: What do you think will happen, doctor?
Surely there were less timeline-corrupting ways of being a pushy counselor? This Q should take lessons from Lt. Jones…
Commander Adea took another step forward and put himself between everyone else and the Q. When he spoke, his voice was as calm and collected as ever, but there was a distinct edge to it. A rage Gila had never heard before, making her teeth itch and her every nerve move into flight-response.
oO No. Don’t move. Oo
Adea: Put Betazed to how it was, CloQ, leave my crew alone and play your games elsewhere.
Elain/Jovenan: Response
But he wasn’t there. There’d been no warning, no flourish, no final warning - he was just, gone. Gila blinked, processing the visual whiplash, when a loud thud made her jump. Commander Adea let out a breath as he removed his hand from the desk again.
Adea: Right, we know that the Romulans joined late, and that’s why Betazed is still under Dominion rule. Last time we faced CloQ, they created an inter-weaving lattice of times and places - perhaps there’s a way we can find our ways back in time and correct the timeline.
Right! The Romulans!
Sadar: L-Lieutenant, the incident that prompted the Romulans to join the Dominion War was the assassination of a Senator of theirs. His name was, uhh, Vee… No, Vree. Vreenek. Did the reports you read mention anything about his passing, or is he still alive in this timeline?
Elain/Jovenan: Response
Adea: Open every door you can, even cupboards, and just check to see if there’s anywhere you don’t expect. Tevet, does that sound familiar - is there a door that doesn’t budge in this house?
Elain/Jovenan: Response
Prompted by the child’s account of the house, the trio of Starfleet officers set about locating a means of crossing time. The idea of a house where every door led to a different place in time was ludicrous, but it did sound logical - or at least a facsimile of logic - for a time-obsessed member of the Q Continuum. They weren’t lauded for their adherence to the laws of physics that bound most other living organisms.
Unfortunately, none of the doors in the Commander’s childhood home that she’d checked thus far had paid off, and Gila sighed as she considered their options.
Sadar: But Qs don’t use doors… ‘Even cupboards’...
Tevet/Jovenan/Adea: Response (if any?)
Something was nagging at the back of her brain, something that she’d noticed earlier, but what was it. Not a door, but a… With a startle of realization, Gila turned about and ran hurriedly up the stairs again, back to the study and that single sliver of light peeking out from a gap in a boarded-up window. Falling to her knees before it, she looked out the window - her previous concerns about staring into the face of a waiting Jem’Hadar long forgotten - and something resembling panicked elation sprouted in her chest when she saw something very much not a Betazed cityscape on the other side of the glass.
The architecture - architecture? - certainly didn’t look like the Federation standard, but Gila was by no means an expert on alien architecture. If she had to wager a guess, she’d say it could be Romulan - both from contextual clues about their current situation and the architectural style - but she was admittedly biased to hope for a certain conclusion to their conundrum. Motivational bias was never good for an investigation.
Scrambling to her feet again, she ran out the study and closed the door behind her, on the off chance that sound somehow traveled to the other side of the temporal window.
Sadar: Sirs! Miss Tevet! I found something!
Tevet/Jovenan/Adea: Response
Guiding the group back into the study, Gila gestured to the window on the far wall.
Sadar: It might be Romulan? Romulan architecture is by no means an area of expertise of mine though, so, well… ::twists anxiety band::
Tevet/Jovenan/Adea: Response
Sadar: Yes Sir. But, uhh… What about Miss Tevet?
Tevet/Jovenan/Adea: Response
Tags/TBC
LtJG Gila Sadar
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1