One Journey Down

[FG]

Trying to avoid the commanding officer of the station was his top
priority.

Commodore Jason Long. When Jeral Krezek had heard that he was in
command of Deep Space 6, it brought a tightness to his chest. This was
the man that had tried to kill Jeral, what seemed like ages ago, over
the woman that had driven Jeral crazy in the first place to lose. A
reunion he was looking forward to avoiding for the foreseeable future,
for sure.

So why did the captain of this passenger ship decide to dock in a way
that would bring station security in?

Jeral took a deep breath, trying to bring his anxiety under control
via the mental disciplines he had been taught by the elders of Vulcan
and therapy sessions. "The mind is like sand on a desert plateau,"
Serik had said to him. "Any form of wind can disturb it from its place
and cause a storm of emotion. Control the wind and you control
yourself." Applying logic in his own brain to that form had proven to
be problematic, but with time he had discovered meditation had given
him the power to control his own thoughts, feelings and emotions
enough to function. Logic had taken some of the edge off his empathic
sense and allowed him to control it to a certain extent.

This station would be a test on how well that control extended and
whether the mild neural inhibitor mix would allow him to function.

Finally, the all-clear was sounded and Jeral collected up himself and
his carry bag to head for the airlock. The decision to take civilian
transport liner was his alone to make. He had caught a ride to Vulcan
on a passing Starfleet ship after handing over evidence and the
medication formula to Starfleet Security, whom was pressing an inquiry
into Starfleet's intelligence arm to find out why they wanted him and
the significance of the neural inhibitor his brother had given him. He
had suspicions about what he had found, but no really hard evidence.
"Substance Beta-18-Delta-4" was all the information the runabout
computer had had; Starfleet Security had classified it as a
vaccination, but to what he could not figure out for certain. A
counter to a nerve toxin was his first guess, but no hard evidence to
back it up.

He approached the security desk, documents in hand. Passing over the
PADD to the customs personnel, he shifted in his feet. Fake identities
was something new for him; even though it had been cleared with
Starfleet Security, he was still nervous and paranoid about the
security guy seeing something the other guys had not.

"Mister Tomnas?" the customs clerk said, looking up at Jeral.

"Yes?" Jeral said, hand fidgeting at the place where the Type I phaser
was in his pocket.

"Welcome to Deep Space 6."

Jeral relaxed. "Thank you," he said.

"Any outside vegetable products?" the customs guy asked as he applied
a seal of approval to the PADD's information.

"No."

"Well, welcome to the Qualor sector, Mister Tomnas. Hope you enjoy
your stay. Next."


Lieutenant Jeral Krezek
Getting through with a fowl alias