LCDR Pavlova: Tyr Waltas (Tag Herrera)

[a...@lawyerfish.com]

((Briefing Room))

::Herrera was being reassigned, and one quick glance down at her padd told Irina that she was as well.  Duronis II embassy and USS Thunder, that meant little to the 247-year-old Russian, at least right away, but what followed was a bit unsettling.  “Chief of Strategic Operations”.  oO Are they nuts? Oo.  It got worse when she read the personnel manifest.  T’Mihn would be there with her, which was good, and other than the marine CO there was nobody else that she knew.  The marine CO, however, could be a real problem.  Tyr Waltas, former captain of the USS Discovery-C, and other than Aribel Tagren, perhaps the only person alive who knew her secrets.  Not only did he know her secrets, it was he and his crew that had rescued her from that uninhabitable rock Kjenta II, and he had seen with his own eyes the extent to which Irina and her shipmates had descended during their 219-year-exile.::

::As the meeting ended and everyone went their separate ways, Irina slowly stood up and made her way out with the rest of them, stopping by Herrera briefly  exiting the room.::

Pavlova: Thank you for…

::She just didn’t have the words.  Was he even aware of the extent that she had planned her return to the 22nd century?  Did he know just how completely isolated she had felt this last year, able to relate to nobody on anything more than a superficial level?  More importantly, did he know just how much it had meant to her to be trusted, even when she didn’t trust herself?  There were no words.  A single tear slid down her cheek and she knew it would be best to just make a quick getaway.::

Pavlova: Just thank you.  ::Irina was already almost out the door as he replied.

Herrera: Response?

TBC if you want to continue

::The poor ensign passing in the hallway never had a chance as a very agitated, not to mention extremely heavy and muscular Irina practically ran the man over on her way out of the briefing room.  She barely noticed, and just kept walk/running until she hit the turbo lift and ducked inside.  The doors closed and wiping the tear away, Irina did her best to pull herself together.::

::How the hell was she supposed to be in charge of not just one department, but two, when her primary mission was to find a ship and adjust the slingshot equations to get her back to the 22nd century?  In security there was a lot of quiet time on midnight shifts, but strategic operations at an embassy?  But more that the logistics of finding a ship, which would likely be easier at an embassy, and the calculations of the slingshot, for which T’Mihn would hopefully help again, what worried her most was Tyr Waltas.::

::Strategic operations means that she was to coordinate the actions of the security department and the marine contingent, putting her in a rather awkward place vis-a-vis Colonel Waltas.  Irina hadn’t even noticed that she was posted to Duronis as a marine Major, news that might have comforted her a bit, but Lieutenant Commander or Major, she still was a full two grades lower than Waltas, even though she wasn’t directly under his command.  Could she serve under him if it came to it?  Could she trust him with her secrets?  She tried to remember back to the last time they’d met.::

::It was in a briefing not unlike the one she had just left, almost exactly a year ago.  The ramifications of 219 lost years hadn’t fully set in yet back then, but Irina already had a good idea of what she had to look forward to.  Then Captain Waltas had called a briefing with the few remaining survivors of the USS Columbia, most of whom spent the last 219 years in stasis tubes, while Irina and a security officer named Rebecca Moore had spent those years awake on Kjenta II.::

((Flashback One Year, USS Discovery-C))

::They were all there, everyone who mattered anyway.  Captain Waltas the savior to tell them how happy and full of unicorns and roses the 24th century would be.  With him was the tall, handsome and hopeless Ensign Ravenscroft who was their “transition officer”, and a strange lizard-like creature called Rogg, the ship’s counselor, whose job it was to provide a gray (everything was gray to colorblind Irina) scaly shoulder for people to cry on.  Together those three were telling all of them that everything would be alright, that the Federation was here to make things better.  Most of her shipmates were even buying it.  Commander Solis, the Columbia’s doctor who had spent the last 219 years impersonating a popsicle was all helpful and sweet, while Popsicle Klein was just quiet, but then, none of them were on Kjenta II when approximately one century earlier USS Miranda, also there to rescue them, fired on their antenna instead, killing six of Irina’s shipmates.::

WALTAS: I¹ve brought you here because your situation is, unique, to a

point. But I know that the same thoughts are running through each of your

minds, and based on your past dealings with Starfleet I know that most if

not all of you expect nothing but the worst possible scenario.

PAVLOVA:  You have no idea.

WALTAS: I am here to tell you it won’t happen. You will be free to live

your lives the way you wish, and to provide as much or as little

information as you wish to Starfleet. You will be under my personal

protection as well as the precedents laid down after another incident that

happened some 30 years ago.

PAVLOVA::To Klein:: : This should be good.

::Klein just kept her mouth shut.  Perhaps her tongue was still in cryo.::

WALTAS: I am from a planet called Ba’ku. I am 243 years old.

PAVLVOA: Got you by three, and I was the youngest member of Columbia¹s

crew.

SOLIS::Raising her voice:: : Captain Pavlova, you WILL let the man speak.

My apologies Captain Waltas, but if I may ask, how is it that you are so

old?

WALTAS: There is a radiation in the rings of my planet that continuously

regenerates my peoples¹ cell structure. It gives us essentially

immortality.

MOORE: No offense Captain, but you look closer to middle age than to youth.

WALTAS: Correct. In leaving my homeworld I am aging normally now, as will

all of you. The effects of Kjenta II and Ba’ku are similar if not

identical. I sacrificed a long life for the chance to explore the galaxy,

and I wanted you all to know I can identify, at least somewhat, with your

plight.

PAVLOVA: Your friends and family are all waiting for you back home, and

you are the only one of them who will wither and die.  You know nothing of

our plight.  Everyone we ever knew, everything we cared about.  Its gone,

all of it.  

SOLIS: ENOUGH Irina.

WALTAS: About 30 years ago, my people were exposed to the Federation

unintentionally. Through the actions of a few brave officers, a plot to

remove us from our homeworld and use its regenerative properties was

uncovered and foiled. I have no doubt that my people would also have been

subjected to study had this Admiral’s plan seen its way through to

fruition. My world would have been destroyed and I would have become a

laboratory rat. Due to the actions of a star fleet crew that didn’t happen, and

once the intent of the Ba’ku project became clear those who had

participated in it were punished severely.

PAVLOVA: Was Captain Hastings of the USS Miranda punished severely for

firing on our antenna?

SOLIS: Iri..

PAVLOVA: GRACE, we have a right to know.  Does he ::pointing to Waltas::

speak for the entire federation?

WALTAS: I realize that I am only one man on one ship, but I speak for my

people and can give voice to your concerns based on my own experiences. I

lost family and friends during the forced relocation of the Bakku and I

won¹t allow it to happen again. I give you my word. ::Making eye contact::

You are safe, and I will ensure you stay that way.

PAVLOVA: Captain Hastings gave us HIS word that he would get us off that

rock.  At the end, he told us, looking us in the eye over the visual link,

that they had found a way to link their transporter through our antenna.

It was their phasers that they linked, so you will understand we don¹t

have much in the way of trust when it comes to Starfleet.

MOORE: Captain Waltas, what will become of us?

SOLIS:  My apologies captain.  You must understand, while we left Earth as

one crew, circumstances have created two different problems.  Perhaps it

will be easier for us ::Looking around the room at the rest who were in

stasis:: than Lieutenant Moore and Marine Captain Pavlova.  Yes, they have

every right to fear what by your own admission Starfleet has tried to do

to your people, but all of us are over two centuries out-of-date, what

will our place be?

WATLAS: If you wish, I can find a suitable planet and give your people

shelter. But I suspect some of you long to see the sights of Earth once

again. That will not be withdrawn from you either.

PAVLOVA: Words.  Hastings gave us lots of encouraging words as well.

WALTAS: You¹re correct. All these are are words. But they are the words of

someone who has endured something of what you have. I don¹t believe

Starfleet wants another black eye after the incident with my people and

now my sons.

::Irina wasn’t buying it.::

WALTAS: My sons are mixed race, and somehow the radiation that normally regenerates the cell structures accelerated theirs. They went from infants to teenagers in several weeks’ time. My daughter removed them from the planet when she learned that a Federation Doctor was intent on studying them as they aged. I fully intend on bringing this to Starfleet’s attention as well. My point is, with as much outcry as the Ba’ku, my sons, and now you will create, the Federation will have little choice but to leave you alone. And if they don’t, then I will make sure no one can find you. You have my word.

 

MOORE: And how exactly would you do that Captain?  At least on Kjenta II, we weren’t known and even if we were, we were rather hard to reach.

 

SOLIS: You should be a little more appreciative.  Captain Waltas and his crew have been nothing but helpful to each and every one of us.

 

PAVLOVA::Her gaze locked on Solis:: : Grace, you will be fine.  You too Maggie, and all of you who slept through it.  Like Captain Waltas said earlier, I¹m 246-years-old, but unlike him and his people, I am not from Ba’ku.  I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia in the year 2144.  I¹m human, and I’m sure there will be an army of doctors and scientists who will do anything in their power to figure out how to bottle that.

 

WALTAS: Most Doctors in the Federation are ethical and moral people, ma’am. We’ve made advances in our tact and diplomacy along with our technology in the last 200 years. I don’t believe you’ll be dragged into the dark as you believe.

 

PAVLOVA: Your right, they probably won’t push things.  For a little while anyway, but that day will come.  Maybe a stroll in the park that we don¹t return from.  A shuttle ride that never arrives.  I don’t know where and I don’t know when, but none of us who were down there on Kjenta II can ever truly be safe.

 

WALTAS::Gently:: Give us a chance to prove you wrong. Give ME a chance.

 

MOORE: Captain Waltas, you gave your word I would be safe?

 

WALTAS::Turning:: Yes.

 

MOORE: Prove it.  I want asylum on Discovery.  No doctors, no tests, no evals.  I want your protection when we put in at Starbase 285, and beyond.

How about it Irina?

 

PAVLOVA: One ship?  No thanks, at least out there if they come for me, I can fight back.

((End Flashback, Turbolift))

::The lift doors opened and Irina stepped out and headed straight for her quarters.  They would be back at DS6 shortly, and from there she would be on her way to a reunion with perhaps the one man who knew enough to ruin it all.::

Lieutenant Commander Irina Pavlova

Security/Tactical, USS Vigilant-A

and soon to be

Major Irina Pavlova

Chief of Strategic Operations, Duronis II Embassy and USS Thunder-A