[Jaxom/others] "At The Academy, part 4"

[Clifford]

“At The Academy”

or

“Road Trip, part 4”

or

“The Long Awaited Finale to Road Trip”

Jaal Jaxom, Captain in Starfleet, currently on leave & recovering POW

Ensign Joann Meyers, counselor aka personal brain care specialist

Ensign Ben Travis, distressed ex-POW, rescued with Jaal and the others

Admiral Jeanette Brigid, SFA Dean

Captain Stovok, SFA Security

Lieutenant Buchwald, SFA Security

=====

Jaal slowed his breathing to calm himself. He didn’t want to spook Travis and get him to accidentally set off the explosive. Even though Jaal didn’t see one right away, he had to assume the worst. All he had to do was decide what the best way to greet Travis would be, tear the bandage off, or something more subtle…

…and now, part 4

The room appeared to be an unused office. It had a desk, chairs, and was devoid of any kind of personal effects that would indicate regular use. There was still one corner Jaal could not see into and that’s where he suspected the explosive device sat.

“All right,” he said more to himself than anyone listening in to the open channel, “Here goes some shit.”

He waited until Benjamin was walking towards the door before clearing his throat and striding in like nothing at all in the universe was wrong. “Hey there Ben, what’s up?” In an attempt at a non-threatening posture, he took a seat in the nearest chair.

Travis stopped dead in his tracks and remained still. Judging from the look on his face, he could not fathom how someone could have gotten so close without him knowing about it. His mouth hung open as if he were about to say something but no sound came out.

Jaal noticed at this time that the previously unviewable corner of the room was empty. That only left two options. No explosive device or the device was somewhere else. He took a cursory look around the room to make sure he didn’t miss anything from the vantage point in the corridor. He then looked straight at Benjamin Travis and, as pleasantly as possible, asked, “So… how have you been?”

His former commanding officer was not appearing to be a threat. The ensign had not anticipated this. He thought there’d be a squad or two of security officers storming in with phasers blazing. This was weird… strange even. Benjamin stammered a moment then asked, “H… how did you get here?”

Just as casually as talking to anyone else Jaal answered while giving his shoulders a shrug, “Oh, you know, flew in on a runabout and walked the rest of the way.” Jaal swallowed a little hoping the easiness of the conversation would lessen the stress Benjamin looked to be experiencing. 

Jaal wanted to get information to Stovok and Joann over the open comm channel. He needed to get Ensign Travis talking. He leaned forward a little resting his right elbow on his knee and returned with his own question, “How ‘bout you?”

Travis backed up a step with his eyes never leaving his surprise visitor.

Then he backed up another step and raised the hand holding what may be the detonator to chest level. “I… uh… I beamed down from Starbase One.”

Jaal’s eyebrow knit deeply, “Really? Good trick considering all the local transporters are being inhibited right now.”

Ensign Travis laughed in a quiet but nearly maniacal manner. His free hand smoothed back the hair on his head. Then he pointed at his former captain, “You… you remember that trick you taught me… when those… those sentient insects infested the ship?”

Jaal’s eyes squinted as he replayed the scene in his head. “The ones that worked together to screw around with the control panels?”

They were actually tiny arachnoids but intelligent enough to sit and watch how things were entered into control surfaces around the ship. Once the crew figured out they used an octal numbering system that was based on octal prime numbers and not decimal based prime numbers, communicating with them was rather straightforward. A large number of curious ‘bed bugs’ were unwittingly beamed aboard the ship with a returning away team and just wanted to go back home.

“Yeah!” Travis replied enthusiastically, “Remember how we locked them out of our systems? .. and how that led to a Starfleet wide protocol for touch panel sensitivity?”

Jaal nodded slowly, “I do… I also remember how they were only trying to communicate with us. Do you remember why they made it through the transporter bio filters?”

Travis frowned and then his face brightened, “We let the cadets do the maintenance the day before and one of’em accidentally tweaked the wrong setting!”

Jaal nodded slowly. “That’s right.”

Out in the hallway, out of sight, Joann looked at Stovok and silently mouthed ‘HOW GODDAMMIT!’

“Once we figured out what happened, we switched the entire computer interface system to voice only commands!” Travis exclaimed triumphantly. “They couldn’t make any noises!”

“I remember that well,” Jaal smiled. “Then we eventually figured out how to talk to them. They were a fascinating little species.”

In the hall, Stovok looked to Joann, and silently mouthed, ‘Be right back.’

The Vulcan captain walked down the corridor and around a corner where he knew he couldn’t be heard. He tapped his combadge, “Stovok to Buchwald.”

“Buchwald here,” came the terse reply.

“Lieutenant, try re-initializing the transporter network using only voice commands. No combination of voice and typed commands, it has to be done with no touching the control console whatsoever, not even a dust mote.” Stovok instructed.

“It’ll take us a minute or two to set that up.” Buchwald replied.

“Do it in the shortest time you are able,” Stovok answered in that calm, cool, Vulcan manner every other culture in the Federation hated.

“Aye sir, one moment.”

=====

Back on level twenty-five of the Fredrich’s building, Jaal was trying to keep Travis talking while devising a plan to get the device he was holding out of his hands. 

The Trill had gotten Travis to talk about his captivity. He’d been treated the same way Jaal had been, in complete isolation with absolutely no creature comforts whatsoever and a rigorous question and answer session every other day or so.

“... and of course, there was no way to get any sleep worth having…” Jaal had gotten the ensign to recount how he’d been treated.

“Right… I remember,” Travis admitted speaking slowly, “The holding cells assaulted every one of our senses.” He looked to his former commanding officer, his eyes now a bit watery, “I can’t even get the ringing in my ears to stop.”

Jaal nodded, “I know… it’s the same for me… for all of us that were rescued, in fact.” The Trill tilted his head as if just noticing the device in Travis’ hand for the first time.

Travis noticed Jaal noticing his hand and held the device up to his chest. “What are you looking at?”

Jaal tilted his head the other way now. “Whatcha got in your hand?” he asked in the most off-handed, naturally curious way.

Travis went on the defensive and took a step backwards. Jaal stayed in the chair he’d made himself comfortable in… more or less.

“It’s a detonator,” Travis stated with determination.

Jaal eyed his right hand curiously and asked, “Deadman switch or push button activation?”

This caught Travis off guard for only a moment, “It’s a touchpad actually, in case I had a need to set it dow… Hey, stop asking questions!’

Jaal’s only outward reaction was his eyebrows raising. “So… “ of course he was going to ask more questions. He knew Stovok and Joann were listening in, “Whatcha gonna do with it?”

“I’m blowing up the Fredrichs Building,” Travis replied with some heat rising in his tone.

Jaal folded his arms across his chest and with one hand rubbed the stubble on his face, “Whatcha waitin for?” he asked at last.

=====

Out in the hallway, out of sight of the two in the office, Stovok’s eyes actually widened a measure. Joann’s mouth was in the shape of a big letter ‘O’.

Neither believing the tactic Jaal was attempting to use.

“We have made a hasty decision,” Stovok whispered. “I’m afraid this tactic of Captain Jaxom’s may be counter-productive.”

Joann let her breath out in a controlled fashion, “I had no idea… I calculated only an eight percent chance he would take that path.”

Stovok looked right at Joann, “Have you even looked at Captain Jaxom’s record?”

“Of course I have, he’s my patient! Have you?” Joann asked in a haughty, hoarse whisper.

“As the head of Starfleet Academy Security I look at the records of anyone setting foot on Academy property and keep close eyes on suspected troublemakers,” Stovok explained in typical stoic fashion.

“But you didn’t see this thing with Travis coming did ya?” Joann countered with narrowed, suspicious eyes.

Stovok let his eyes blink slowly, “I admit… I did not. Our arguing will not help matters now.”

=====

“What do you mean what am I waitin’ for?” Travis asked with agitation clear in his voice.

“You said you’re gonna blow up the building,” Jaal repeated. He held his hands up, “Well, why the waiting?”

“I’ll do it!” Travis held the device up higher.

Jaal felt his rear end sphincter tighten. He cleared his throat, “I have no doubt you will, Ben, but why have you not done it yet?”

He was taking an enormous gamble and Jaal knew it.He was betting that Travis didn’t actually want to die and be the cause of more than just his own death. He was betting that deep down, no matter what torture the Breen had put them through, Ben would still do the right thing.

“I… I…” Travis faltered.

=====

Meanwhile, down the corridor and around a corner…

Joann was starting to get nervous. Well, more nervous than she was already. “We need to intervene, Stovok. I don’t think Jaal’s bluff is going to work..”

“We cannot act rashly,” Stovok replied evenly, “ While the situation is not ideal at the moment, I can see the logic in the Captain’s line of reasoning, why he’s saying what he’s saying. He’s already given us valuable information and people are working on correcting the transporter malfunction.”

Joann hated, and at the same time applauded, the way Vulcans could seem to remain so calm in these types of situations.

=====

Jaal’s eyes narrowed a bit as Travis seemed to have trouble answering. “You want some attention, don’t you?” he accused.

Travis’ eyes widened, “No! I mean it! I’ll…”

“What?” Jaal asked cutting him off.

“I will blow this entire building to smithereens,” Ben held up the detonator and shook it in front of Jaal’s face. “I mean it!”

Instead of that happening, Ben Travis disappeared in the blue haze of a transporter beam.

”DAMNIT!” Jaal shouted as he swung his fist out at nothing.

Stovok and Joann entered the room. Joann had a relieved expression and Stovok was, as typical for a Vulcan, stoic.

”I don’t see why you’re upset Captain.” The Vulcan stated. “We regained the use of the transporter system and beamed Ensign Travis somewhere safe, where he could do no harm.”

”Where, exactly, is that?” Jaal asked, with some anger still in his tone. Even he wasn’t sure if it was left over adrenaline or something new because of the sudden change in the situation.

”He was beamed to the Academy holding facility. During the transport the device he was holding was sent to a lab to be disassembled and rendered useless. Right now the bomb squad is searching this building for the explosive device… if there was actually one. In fact, all Starfleet and Federation facilities here on Earth and Starbase One are being searched as we speak.”

Jaal took a step closer to Stovok, “He needs help. I need to be sure he gets it.”

”I assure you, Captain, he’ll get the best help, the same as the others recovered with you.” Stovok kept up his stoic veneer but a well practiced person could tell the Vulcan was a bit surprised by the heat in Jaal’s voice.

”Jaal,” Joann took a step closer to him, more precisely, in between Jaal and Stovok, “It’s all over now, we can calm down. C’mon, let’s go.”

Jaal gritted his teeth. There was no use in staying mad in this moment. He visibly relaxed. “All right. Let’s get the hell outta here.”

Stovok spoke up before they could exit, “Captain, Admiral Brigid would like to see you in her office.”

Jaal exhaled, “Fine,” directly to Stovok he replied, “Thanks for letting me know.” Then to Joann he said once more, “Let’s go.”

They walked down the corridor without waiting for the Vulcan, and into the elevator without a word. Once the elevator doors closed and their privacy was assured Joann asked, “Not exactly a committed answer. Are we going to see the Admiral?”

”You think I should?” Jaal asked with a crinkled brow. He was coming down from the adrenaline rush and his breathing had slowed.

”She probably just wants to thank you… perhaps ask if you can reschedule the presentation you were going to give today,” Joann replied while hitting the button to get them to the ground floor.

”Fine,” the Trill reluctantly agreed.

”Besides,” Joann went on while the elevator began to move, “You have to give her back her commbadge.”

==The Admiral’s Office==

Jaal plunked her commbadge down on her desk. “That could have de-escalated a little better,” he told her without even trying to hide the annoyance in his tone.

The Admiral said nothing for a moment. “We had to remove the danger as quickly as possible. I’m sure you can appreciate that. And, for the record, you did a brilliant job at getting him to reveal how the Starfleet transporter net was taken down.”

Jaal rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest.

”I have only one more question,” Admiral Brigid looked keenly at the Trill captain before her attempting to judge his mood. “Are you willing to come back to the rescheduled presentation for the cadets?”

Jaal swallowed as he thought about it. “Sure. Yeah. I guess so.” His lips crinkled a bit as he momentarily had a second thought, “I did say I would do it. Yes. I’ll do it,” He finally agreed. In his head he was thinking of this very same scenario playing out again. He wished he knew if there actually was an explosive device found anywhere.

“On one condition,” Jaal added after a beat.

”What condition?” Admiral Brigid asked with a crinkled brow.

”From now on I want regular updates on the recovery of those who were rescued with me. And I want to know if any of them want to talk to someone else who was rescued with them,” It was clear by his tone he was not making a request. This was a demand.

In a less demanding demeanor he added, “I would also like to know if an explosive device is found. That’s important to determining just how serious this is.”

The Admiral’s head bobbed from side to side as she listened while considering how difficult each of his requests would be. “I think all those can be arranged without too much trouble.” Then she folded her hands in front of her and asked, “Mister Jaxom, how serious what is?”

The Trill’s mouth formed a thin, flat line before Jaal spoke in a quieter, more sober tone, “I think the Breen may have gotten to some of the other POW’s I was with… I’m afraid more of these kinds of incidents could occur.”

“That’s troublesome indeed,” the Admiral admitted.

“And I can’t believe no one has thought of this before, or if they have, why hasn’t someone acted on it.” Jaal placed his hands on the front of her desk and leaned in a few degrees. ”I sincerely hate to advocate spying on our own people… but I think maybe a closer eye should be kept on some of the others… at least for a little while longer.”

Brigid leaned back in her chair. Mostly to add some space between her and Jaal but to also access her computer terminal. “Mister Jaxom, do you think there’s a possibility some of them could be compromised? Could they be sleeper agents?”

”Listen to me.” He leaned in another degree over her desk, “Despite our illustrious Intel department clearing me for duty, I’m still quite afraid that I, myself, maybe compromised someway. This is not something I’m lightly talking about, this is serious.”

He straightened his posture and ceased looming over the admiral and her desk. “Now, what are we going to do about it? I can offer suggestions, the things I would do if I were in charge. But I’m not in charge, am I? What are you, or Starfleet Intel, or the C n C going to do? We need answers.”

Admiral Brigid drummed the fingers of her right hand on her desk as she considered what Jaal told her. “Well,” she spoke at last, “at the very least we should bring your concerns up to the C n C of Starfleet and like you said, offer suggestions and so forth. I can’t believe they would not act on this new information somehow. And yes, we’ll keep you up to date on their progress. That shouldn’t be an issue at all.”

“Good,” Jaal answered firmly. “Now, will I be able to speak to Travis before I head home?”

The Admiral’s facial expression gave her answer away before she could verbalize it.

“Ya know,” Jaal leaned in again over her desk in a menacing, yet not menacing way, “The absolute worst thing to do is leave these POW’s isolated. We were isolated the entire time we were held by the Breen. None of us even knew there were others being held. I’ve come to realize that the isolation, the loneliness, and all the other shitty feelings that go with it are what the Breen are counting on. I’ve been lucky, I’ve had friends come and see me, I’m at home with my family, and not been alone at all since being rescued. I have to guess that the others were not as lucky as I’ve been. Starfleet, and the entire Federation for that matter, owes it to these people to take care of them in their recovery. The only reason I’m doing so well is my built in support system. Not all of the others have that. The ones that don’t have it need it. Give it to them.” Without realizing it he was shaking his fist in front of him. “That’s really what they need instead of someone watching them from afar to see if they’ll do anything like… like what we had here today.”

Captain Stovok had entered the office quietly catching Jaal’s comments to the Admiral. In an attempt to diffuse, what he suspected, a situation that could turn ugly, he cleared his throat.

Jaal immediately straightened and turned around. Before the Trill could say anything Stovok spoke, “I overheard and you are correct Mister Jaxom. Our initial interview with Travis confirms everything you just mentioned. I’ll be forwarding that in a report to everyone up the chain of command that needs to read it.”

“I’ll do the same,” Admiral Brigid agreed quietly, still seated at her desk.

Jaal visibly relaxed. He realized his right hand was in a tight fist. His hand now opened and rested at his side. His breathing slowed as he nodded slowly, “Okay.”

“Also, there was, in fact, an explosive device on the level below where Travis was,” Stovok added solemnly. “It has been defused, rendered inert, and is currently being removed.”

“How?” Jaal, Joann, and the Admiral all asked at once.

“We’re still ascertaining the exact method he used but the current theory is that it was slowly assembled over the course of days or even weeks. We have a lot of security footage to look over. Had it detonated, it would have at least leveled the entire building. Upon initial examination of the device we estimate its yield to be around point six or point seven photon torpedoes.”

“Holy shit,” Joann blurted out.

“Indeed,” Stovok agreed in that cool Vulcan manner. 

Jaal addressed the two ranking officers in the room, “See? These people need help. Some need more than they’re currently being given. Sure, we’ve all been put on leave to sort things out, but not all of them have families that know what they need. Staying at home doing nothing doesn’t help. My parents, my family,” he shrugged, “they somehow knew to keep me busy and they let me talk about… this ugly assed experience on my own terms. They didn’t try to force it out like a counselor would, no offense there Joann.”

“None taken.”

“They. Need. Help. I can’t stress this enough to you people,” Jaal finished with a deep sigh.

Admiral Brigid stood up from her desk and walked around to stand next to Jaal. She put her hand on his shoulder, “Jaal,” she addressed him in a soothing tone, “We’re going to send this up the chain of command. I give you my word that something will be done even if I have to do it myself.”

“Some of these people were on my ship,” Jaal replied, “They’re my crew. I have to find a way to take care of them.”

“I understand,” the admiral answered.

“I understand as well,” Stovok added. “And Admiral, if I can be of any assistance, please do let me know.”

“Thank you both. I appreciate your efforts,” Jaal added, “And if I can do anything to help either of you two, you call me.”

“Does this mean you’ll not be giving up your commission?” the Admiral asked hopefully.

Jaal’s eyes narrowed as he considered. He had to admit, he missed the prospect of doing good things for people despite the danger, of learning previously unknown things, and contacting previously unknown cultures.

Sadly, the Breen’s influence still held sway in his mind.

“All I can say at this point is maybe,” he replied quietly in a hopeful manner.

Admiral Brigid nodded, smiling, she answered, “Good enough Captain, good enough.”

—--

The end … for now…