Cerulean Stars - Chapter 146

Chapter 146 - Prophet Motive - Part 1

Stardate 48557.1 - July 23, 2371 - 08:11:45

“Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship–”

“Mom please,” Saya begged, interrupting Raine's recital as a mortified blush colored the younger Asari's cheeks. “Stop…”

“Oh come on!” Raine pouted, pulling a leg up under her on the lounger to get a bit more comfortable. “D'Vana wanted to know about famous Starfleet captains, and that's the introduction speech Kirk gave when he took over command of the Enterprise. It's so classic, every captain of an Enterprise since has given a version of it.”

“That doesn't mean you have to recite the whole thing.” Saya countered. “And there's no way she hasn't already heard about Kirk given the number of Orions he ran into over the years.”

“The first Enterprise was kind of infamous.” D'Vana nodded from her seat next to Saya on the couch. “My great grandmother even ran into them a couple times.”

“That was actually the second Enterprise.” Raine corrected, not exactly surprised that D'Vana hadn't heard about the original. “The first was the NX Enterprise, its captain was a man named Jonathan Archer who went on to become the first President of the Federation.”

Saya leaned over towards D'Vana and put a hand up to her mouth to try and hide her whisper. “Mom hopes she can meet him someday to get his autograph.”

A confused look flashed across D'Vana face. “But wasn't the Federation founded over two hundred years ago?”

Raine's lip twitched slightly in amusement at the thought of that mattering. “One of the unstated laws of being a Starfleet officer, time travel happens.”

She pouted at the memory that brought up. “Still can't believe alternate universe future me struck out with T'p–”

The door chime interrupted Raine before she could finish, and she let out a sigh as she pulled herself up. 

“I really hope it’s not Odo wanting to go over security arrangements again.” She muttered under her breath.

Trudging over to the door, she palmed the panel to open the door only to be left blinking dumbly at the aged Ferengi form standing on the side.

“Miss Brooks,” Zek greeted with an almost deprecatory grin that seemed out of place on his face. “It's such a relief to see you're in.”

“Grand Nagus.” Raine cautiously returned, more than a little confused about just what the leader of the Ferengi Alliance was doing at her door. “We weren't expecting you for a couple days yet.”

Zek shook his cane teasingly. “If you always do what people expect, you can never catch them by surprise.”

“I… Suppose.” Raine hesitantly agreed, something about that logic not sitting exactly right with her.

“Do you mind if I come in?” Zek suddenly asked. “I don't really want to intrude, but my old knees aren't exactly what they used to be.”

Raine cringed, glancing over her shoulder towards the couch where Saya and D'Vana were watching her interaction with thinly disguised interest.

As much as she respected Zek's cunning, and didn't really mind his physical interest so long as he kept his hands to himself. The Grand Nagus was very much not someone she wanted anywhere near her daughter. And it was probably better for everyone if he and D'Vana were kept as far away from each other as possible.

“Sorry,” She shook her head apologetically. “My niece is visiting, and she and Saya have kind of taken over the living room.”

“Oh,” Zek exclaimed, his eyes softening as he glanced past Raine and took in the mismatched pair. “Well that's all right, family's important after all. And it's not like what I wanted to tell you couldn't be said here.”

“What you wanted to tell me?” Raine repeated, starting to feel like something was distinctly off about this particular encounter.

“Yes.” Zek nodded. “It's mostly an apology. See, I recently realized that every time we've met I've been a complete targ with you. And what kind of man would I be if I let that stand.”

The completely gobstruck look on Raine's face couldn't have been faked if she had wanted to.

“So you have my distinct apologies for my previous behavior." Zek continued, motioning to his silent Hupyrian servant who stepped forward and offered Raine a small, surprisingly ornate, carved wooden box. “And please, accept this gift as a token of my sincerity.”

Blinking several times as she worked through the confusion, Raine finally accepted the small wooden box from the large servant's hands and cautiously opened it to see a series of thin connected Latinum chains with a central teardrop setting that held something that looked suspiciously like a Rigelian flamegem.

“Why does that look like it was specifically designed to rest on an Asari crest?” Raine asked the first thing that popped into her head.

“Because it was!” Zek confirmed, sounding oddly happy that she had noticed. “I had some of my people put together a number of designs using those holograms of yours as a base.”

Glancing back down at the headpiece, a momentary urge to refuse the gift briefly surfaced in Raine's mind before it was ruthlessly crushed under the thought of just how many of her dresses the piece would compliment.

“Well… I guess I can't really refuse such a thoughtful gift.”

Zek clapped his hands together. “Oh goody!” He smiled again. “Well, that was really all I wanted to say. So I hope you have a good night.”

With that he turned to leave, and the seed of suspicion that had been forming in Raine's gut solidified into a full blown worry.

Before Maih'da could step back to join the Nagus, Raine's free hand darted out to grab the large servant by the arm. “Hold on a second…” She glanced over at Zek who had turned back to her with a somewhat guileless smile on his face. “Do you mind if I speak to Maih'da in private for a moment about a security issue?”

“Go right ahead.” Zek agreed with a permissive wave. “Just remember, he can't actually answer you.”

“That will be fine.” Raine said.

Taking a step back into her quarters, she dragged the Hupyrian with her and slammed a hand down on the door panel to close it behind them.

“All right,” She began as Maih'da stared inquisitively at her. “I'm going to be direct about this because we're looking at a potential multi-quadrant spanning disaster. Has Zek recently come into contact with an alien artifact of some kind with personality altering effects?”

Maih'da's eyes widened slightly in surprise, and a conflicted expression momentarily flashed across his features before he gave a slow purposeful nod.

Raine dragged her free hand down her face as a feeling of dread settled over her. “Fuuuck.”

That all but confirmed her earlier fear, and while the show may have played the whole situation of the Nagus getting his personality flipped for laughs. Having lived in the universe now for twenty five years, she was well aware of just what knock on effects that level of economic disruption was likely to cause.

“Do you still have the artifact? Or did it vanish in some manner after changing him?”

Maih'da held up a single finger, and Raine let out an overexaggerated sigh of relief. “That's good, it means there's a good chance we'll be able to reverse it. Next question then, does the alien artifact have anything to do with why Zek's visiting the station?”

Seeming almost to fight with himself about it for several seconds, Maih'da finally gave a reluctant nod. 

“Is it connected to the Bajoran's?” Raine asked, hating that she has to play this game but not willing to risk otherwise given Zek was involved.

Another nod.

Raine hung her head and let out a groan. “Oh Q… He found an Orb…”

Taking a purposeful breath, she focused back on Maih'da. “Okay, here's what we're going to do. In thirty minutes Sisko and I will meet you and Zek at the Nagus's ship. Where upon we'll fly the ship into the wormhole, open up the Orb, and have Sisko try and convince the Prophets to reverse whatever it was they did to Zek.”

Glancing down at Raine's combadge, Maih'da frowned slightly before focusing back on the Asari's face with an almost pleading look in his eye.

Raine gave an apologetic shake of her head. “Sorry, I have to bring in Commander Sisko for this. But it's not for Starfleet reasons, it's because he's the one with the best chance of convincing the Prophets.”

Letting out a sigh, Maih'da gave a reluctant nod.

“Great,” Raine exhaled in relief, because she really hadn't wanted to have to try and talk to the Prophets herself. “Lets hope we can get this fixed before the body count hits the quintuple digits.”

Slapping the door panel to open it, Maih'da gave her fake nod before stepping out to rejoin the still guilelessly smiling Zek. 

“I'll see you in a bit.” Raine offered to the pair with her best friendly smile. “And thanks again for the gift, Zek.”

Shutting the door before he could respond, she slumped down slightly and let out a sigh before glancing over at the two teens who were still staring at her with wide eyes.

“You didn't hear any of that.” She instructed the pair.

“Any of what?” D'Vana asked with the understanding tone of someone well used to overhearing things she probably shouldn't have.

“If you get lost in the mirror universe again, try and bring me back something cool.” Saya ordered with a pout as she turned back to her padd.

“If I get stuck in the Mirror Universe again I'm taking the Intendant up on her offer of a naked hot tub party.” Raine groused under her breath.

Turning back around, she tapped the door control and exited their quarters and hung a left towards Sisko's.

“What's the Mirror–” D'Vana's voice was cut off as the door slid shut, and Raine began the walk to Sisko's.

It was a relatively short trek to the Commander’s quarters from her own, which wasn't exactly chance given Starfleet quarters had been as grouped together as they could be for security reasons.

Pressing the alert on the door panel, she waited several seconds for the door to slide open.

“Hey Jake.” She greeted the teen with a smile. “I need to talk to the Commander about something.”

Nodding, Jake turned back to the room. “Hey Dad? Raine's needs to–”

“I heard.” Sisko offered as he walked up. “Watch the Boudin for me, will you Jake?”

Jake nodded and headed over to the kitchenette. “Sure dad.”

“So,” Sisko began, turning back to Raine with a quirk lipped grin. “I hope you're not here to borrow more of my spices.”

“No I…” Raine paused as the sudden thought hit. “Did you get more of that Cayenne powder mix in from Earth?”

That stuff had been spicy in just the right way, and it was a damn shame the replicator hadn't quite been able to do it justice.

Shaking her head to get herself back on track, she shot Sisko an apologetic look. “No, I’m sorry to say it’s more of an actual emergency.”

“It seems the Wormhole Aliens massively altered Grand Nagus Zek's mind, and you need to convince them to reverse it before the Ferengi economy collapses and hundreds of thousands die.” Raine said without any preamble.

Sisko narrowed his eyes at her. “This better not be a joke.”

“It's not.” Raine said with complete seriousness. “Zek just showed up at my quarters with an apology gift for all the times he ‘accidentally’ felt me up. When I questioned Maih'da, that's his manservant,” She added in upon noticing Sisko's look of confusion. “He confirmed that Zek had come into possession of a Bajoran Orb, and that his extreme personality change was a direct consequence of using it to contact the Wormhole Aliens.”

Sisko took a breath and then let it out with an annoyed hiss. “I suppose there isn’t any other option then.”

That was a fair enough summation, because they both knew what Starfleet's orders would be if the matter ended up coming to their attention. As while they might be reluctant about Sisko doing anything that could further the idea of him being the Emissary in the Bajoran's eyes. The Ferengi Alliance was large enough, and had its fingers in enough pies, that even a partial economic collapse would cause chaos on par with a major war.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Raine offered with an apologetic shrug. “I’m pretty sure the Nagus is going to want to pretend this whole situation never happened. So the only ones who will know are you, me, him, his servant, and the kids.”

“Which is why you’re directly instead of over the coms.” Sisko nodded, offering her slight smile of relieved thanks. 

“That and I didn’t want to risk the information getting out to anyone who might be tapping into our coms.” Raine nodded in acknowledgement, moderately sure there were at least a couple parties doing that.

Sisko gave an acknowledging bob of his head. “Fair enough I suppose.” He firmed his shoulders before glancing over at Jake who was not so subtly listening in to their conversation while distractedly watching a couple sausages brown. “When are we going to do this?”

“I told Maih'da we would be at the Nagus’s ship in thirty minutes about five minutes ago.” Raine told him.

“All right,” Sisko nodded. “I’ll finish dinner then meet you there.”

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Author’s Note: Yes, Raine’s still a bit sore that her alternate universe future self struck out with T’Pol. But that’s completely fair given she’s kind of the quintessential “hot vulcan”.

I really wanted to get this done in one extra long chapter, but then things came up so unfortunately I had to split it into two. But hey, that just means next chapter we get Raine’s first meeting with the Prophets. So fun times.