Joint Personal Log - LtCmdr Waterhouse & Lt Atarah - "Through the Looking Glass" pt. I of II

Posted on Thu Dec 18th, 2014 @ 11:45am by Commander Amelia Waterhouse & Danielle Atarah

2,258 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: All Hallows’

Amelia returned from the holodeck, where she'd been running up the wall of the Grand Canyon to work off some of the tension that paperwork had mounted over the course of the repairs and retrofits. She'd started making a weekly habit of it. She headed straight into the bedroom, shedding clothing along the way. She deposited the bundle of fabric on the bed as she headed in for a sonic shower.

An extremely amused chuckle sounded, followed by the bed creaking. The sports bra that was just tossed onto it lifted, then dangled. "My my," the owner of the chuckle mused, twirling the cloth around like a pendulum. "You keep wearing less and less every time we meet. At this rate," a soft chuckle, "I should call you Waterskin."

Amelia jumped at the sound of the voice, and spun in the doorway of the bathroom, words of surprise in Orion slipped her lips before a name finally followed, "Dani." Amelia took a step out of the doorway, one hand landing on her hip as she shook her head. "What are you doing here?" There was no point asking how she got in, it was Dani; she was slippery as quicksilver, and when she wanted to be somewhere there truly was no stopping her.

Dani grinned, then leaned back and bounced herself on the bed. "Isn't it obvious? I'm here to see you. I didn't expect the naked part," she gestured, smirking, "but I should've known."

The smirk turned to a grin. Dani crossed her legs on the bed and lifted her arms up, folding them behind her head. It was a winning posture, a gloating, "I'm-so-smart-you'll-never-believe-what-I-did-now" sort of gesture, and coming from Dani, it was enhanced, augmented and bloated, almost reaching the size of her oversized ego.

"It's nothing you haven't seen before," Amelia returned with a snort. "How are things going with rainbow girl? What was her name again?"

"Zett? She's great," Dani's grin expanded, a fair amount of satisfaction filling her face. "She'd appreciate you asked. She's also part of the reason I'm here." She lifted herself up from the mattress and slid her feet to the floor.

"Tell you what. How about you go and finish that shower I so rudely interrupted, and I will make us some tea." She got up towards the living room, sliding past Amelia, smirking. "We have much to talk about, young Pondawan."

"Zett," Amelia repeated the name to herself. Maybe she'd remember it this time. She shook her head as Dani slipped out to the livingroom. "Kettle's in the cabinet to the right of the fridge, bottom shelf," she called before padding into the bathroom for the much needed sonic shower.

She was in and out in a flash, getting dressed in fuzzy green pajama pants and a black tank top. She pulled her hair back into a loose braid as she walked out into the living room again. "You've come to collect your comics too, right?" she asked, scooping the stack of bagged comics up from the table next to the couch.

The kettle whistled. Dani picked it up. "Ah, great, I was going to ask for those after our..." she poured water into to cups and glanced at Amelia, "... our chat. We should talk first. Here," she carried the cups to the small table and lowered herself into the couch with a satisfied smile. "Masala Chai with Peppercorn," she lifted a cup and sniffed it with a smile. "I figured I'd spoil you with the good stuff, it's the least I can do. I hear you've had a busy couple of couple of weeks," she smirked knowingly and sipped, looking at Amelia from above the rim.

Amelia set the comics back on the side table, and a cheshire grin spread across her face as she collected a tea cup before tucking into the corner of the couch with her legs tucked under herself. She held the cup under her nose for a long minute, just enjoying the steam and aroma that slowly rose from the dark liquid. Eventually she took a sip of the tea and made a small noise of satisfaction.

"Bringing me good tea is on par with bringing you fresh baked cookies," Amelia finally confessed. "Is this a thank you for services rendered, or a bribe for the future?"

"A little bit of both," Dani conceded, smiling. She reached into her leather jacket and plucked a small bag full of loose tea and tossed it to the couch next to Amelia's feet. "How does this go? First taste is free, then you get hooked and I get rich?" She smirked and sipped, huffing into the liquid.

"If I wasn't already a tea junkie, I'd have to toss you in the brig for bringing contraband onto my ship," Amelia returned with a chuckle. "So, what's the story? You build me up for an ominous talk, you ply me with good, very good tea. You're up to something, so spill."

"As if you could keep me there," Dani laughed, took another sip and then nodded, "I'm always up to something. This time, however, I outdid myself, which says a lot," she smirked, obviously enjoying the self repeating pats to her oversized bloated ego.

"Alright, alright, to business, as we say," she shifted on the couch to face Amelia and gestured with her cup, "how much do you know of the 'organization' I came back to on Earth?"

"You mean the Cardello syndicate? I'm a little behind on their current happenings, but some of the seedy bars Intel sent me into made their file required reading," Amelia returned with a shrug. "Small enough fish to mostly not worry about, but big enough to keep an eye on."

Dani examined her carefully, a twinkle of approval in her eyes. "You just know everyone, don't you? You know, Cardello would've been disappointed. He fancied himself much bigger in the totem pole. Then again, that's partly why we're all here now," she nodded to herself, her smile growing as if she just shared a secret joke only she will enjoy.

"So yes, right, the... 'Cardello' syndicate. You know I used to work for him when I was younger. Good times. Before I joined the fleet and ruined my criminal cred." she smirked. "That takes a while to gain back, you know." She sipped, then put the cup down and leaned back in the couch, looking at Amelia with a cryptic smile.

"Anyways, in the past few months it started becoming quite clear that Cardello is trying to shove his overgrown head into darker and darker... uh... holes," she made a face at her own botched analogy and huffed. "He started getting ideas the rest of us weren't very happy with. Ideas that would not only have taken everyone in a completely darker and much more serious direction, but it would also elevate us in the totem pole to a place where your people—" she smiled at Amelia, "the shady intel big brother people — are not going to ignore."

"So, we've had to come up with a big of a structural change. Cardello had a bit to say about that, but his vote was overridden by majority. And some guns. And my genius plan. And Smith's face. Man, that was a huge sacrifice. Someone should get that guy a medal," she smiled, realizing she rambled again and huffed a chuckle.

"The Cardello syndicate is officially gone. Replaced, really, by a much more suitable leader with a much better priority set. You can go tell your... handlers? bosses? secret agents of doom? what do you call them? Well, however they are, you can tell them: there's a new head to the syndicate, it's smarter, much prettier, and is interested in being left alone to do as it pleases. So, we're open to deal, if you are," she gestured at the 'you' as if it was aimed at a noncorporial ghost around the room. "And you might want to, because we have cool stuff to offer, and we really do look much better than our predecessor."

Amelia sat there sipping her tea, as she considered Dani and mentally chewing on the information that had been dropped into her lap. It was probable that Intel already knew about the change in power, but last she'd heard they didn't actually have an inside man within the Cordello syndicate. Based on what she knew of what she was now learning to be the former power structure, getting someone in probably wouldn't have been hard, but even before the civil war, the manpower to spare hadn't been there. They weren't a valueable target. But intel was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and Amelia knew that eventually Dani's absence from Vindicator during the war would have to be explained.

"Are you volunteering to be an inside source?" Amelia finally asked.

Dani laughed. "Me? An agent of shadowy doom? Not in your wildest dreams, Waterbucket. No, no, I'm not here to offer my services as a mole. I'm here to tell you that you won't need a mole." She leaned forward and looked up at Amelia. "I'm here to offer a deal straight up. We give you stuff, you let us be. Really simple. Of course, we'd need it be kept quiet and all that. Can't have our business partners know we're dealing with the devil." Dani smirked.

"Are you proposing a one time exchange, or something a little more long term?" Amelia shrugged softly, and shifted to rest her heels on the coffee table, crossing her legs at her ankles. However Dani wanted to justify it to herself, information is valuable, knowing what the people in the black are doing that isn't above the board is worth it, and those who aren't harming anyone are easy to look the other way from if it can keep an eye on others of more concern.

Dani shrugged. "Here's the situation, my dear Waterbucket. Tom Cardello built himself a little shadow empire. Most of it was trailing the line of morality, though I guess most governments would disagree with that, but anyways, he was pretty good at it, as your information may or may not have indicated," she examined the taller woman for a moment, as if to see if there was a shred of data to collect, and then smiled, shrugging. "When we figured out his more... grand-scale plans, let's call them, he was already neck-deep in shit that neither of us wanted to deal with. We weren't talking about a nice smuggling ring with some contracts and occasional heist, we were dealing with the big guns. Literally. He was trying to sell Starfleet weapon prototypes, and he almost did it." She paused a moment, this time it was more for reflection. Her vision blurred a bit, flashes of memory filling her eyesight in rapid succession, like a silent stop-motion movie. She shook her head.

"So we want out of that crap, really, this is ... not our cup of tea." she gestured at the cups and smiled again, a smile that started forced but slowly eased, relaxing her face, pushing away the snapshot memories.

"We'll give you access to anyone who wanted those weapons. You can go and chase the big fish that want to kill people. We'll also give you back those prototypes, and if you're nice, I'll tell you how I stole them so you can plug that little hole in your security... not that I can promise it will ever stop me again," she smiled smugly.

"That sounds like a good start," Amelia allowed, "Certainly enough to give you a pass for going AWOL without me or Rochelle having to cash in any favors. Something you know I have a vested interest in seeing happen, and not just because you're my friend. For a longer term pass, you might need to offer them something else a little more lasting."

Dani couldn't help laughing again. "I love it when you're so serious, Pond. It's as if you grew up in this shadow business," she shook her head and leaned back again, folding her arms across her chest. "We don't need a pass from you, thank you very much, we've all been doing this for quite a long time, you know. And while you and I are open in the confines of your quarters," she gestured around, still smirking, "you don't really think we're going to do anything anyone can actually... you know... catch us for," the smirk turned to a grin. "We're turning everything to quite a reputable shipping business, my friend. We even have some contracts to fill, at quite profitable margins."

And then she shrugged, leaned over to pick her cup again and sniffed it. "Look, Pond, we're not going to marry ourselves to Starfleet. Our priorities — and morality — are not really compatible. We just found ourselves needing to climb out of a pile of shit Cardello put us in, and in this case, a deal makes sense. We get rid of the crap we inherited and really don't want to deal with, and you give us a pass. Don't go after me for being AWOL, don't go after any of us for whatever happened until now. As far as your people are concerned — the Cardello syndicate was dissolved. Win win to everyone. That's the deal we offer."

=/\= To Be Continued... =/\=

Lt Commander Amelia Waterhouse
Executive Officer
USS Vindicator, NCC-78213-E

Danielle Atarah
Cardello Syndicate
Sol System

 

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