Plot Log || Adm. Red & Adm. Hark || "What Dreams May Come" pt II-II

Posted on Sun Mar 1st, 2015 @ 1:11am by Fleet Admiral Blyx Red & Admiral Alexander Hark

1,894 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: A Spot To Kill

It was bullshit. A fiber of venomous bullshit that wove its way so very far from the truth. Sure, she'd gone out in celebration with Marcus for acing yet another trial. She'd made a point out of getting him completely sloshed while pretending to down several concoctions of her own, had even paid her Andorian friend to casually slip the drinks away from her a sip at a time to make it look legit. Free booze and some coin? They'd never even asked why, and didn't seem to care. The final piece of the puzzle had come when they both stumbled to Marcus's quarters and she handed him that last drink. Hers had been water, brightly colored with harmless fluorescent colored food dye, but his had been the real deal and laced with a powerful sleep aide. Convincing Marcus that they'd slept together hadn't taken much. Letting him wake up naked in a bed nearly torn apart, planting smeared lipstick on the collar of his discarded tunic, strategically leaving a pair of panties hidden half under the bed, and purposely avoiding him for a couple of days were all it took. The rouse was set, and she had her scapegoat. Marcus wasn't a bad man... He just wasn't Alexander Hark.

Susan sighed and closed her eyes as she knew it was now or never. She'd laid the trap, covered her tracks... All that was left was to let it snap shut. "And.. I'm pregnant." But as soon as she said those words, words that should have heralded joy and happiness, she felt nothing but the sting of tears and contempt as she knew she was cutting the man of a chance to know the love of a child and his first born. It had to be done, and it was. "I'm so sorry, Xander..." She whimpered, shaking her head. It was the first real thing she'd said to him about the whole fucked up situation.

The shattering that shuddered through Xander's heart felt, to him, as if he had been killed on the spot. The numbness spread throughout him and pulled the breath from his chest and a single tear found the corner of his eye and escaped, drawing a path down his cheek and splashing onto the badge of his uniform. "How..." he began before his mouth dried up and his eyes searching hers for any glimpse of this being a joke, of it being her way of messing with him in preparation for something better waiting for them later, but there was nothing but the pain in her eyes. Every fiber of his being wanted to scream out, to verbally rend her apart with every feeling that was bubbling under the surface, but he could never do that to her. His head shook violently as he tried to clear his mind but nothing was helping.

He fled...

Pushing past her gently, Xander ran, tears streaming down his face as his legs carried him away from her. He felt betrayed and he couldn't muster up enough emotion to be angry at her, he couldn't even bring himself to talk to her about it. He needed to escape and he knew exactly how he could.

---

Blyx watched the rims of the Admiral's eyes redden and swell. She could see the glassy glistening of tears as they threatened to spill over and through the man's lower lashes. It wasn't hard to decipher the expressions of pain and anguish wrought so openly across his haggard face or the dim light of hope cutting through the sorrow in his eyes. Susan played across his memories. A ghost, that was still so very alive in so many hearts, haunted his day dreams and thoughts now as they chugged across the galaxy, and then some, to unite her only shot at immortality with the man she'd loved. "Xander..." She called softly, setting her mug down and rapping a nail against the now sweaty outside of his glass. She couldn't tell him that it was alright, that things would be fine, and sorry just didn't seem sincere enough. Alexander Hark was no longer just her 'boss' or the man her cousin had loved, he was now her friend and they were hopelessly ensnared in the same story line featuring the same key players and the same crux of issues. They were in this together, but explaining that could easily come off as cheap and cheesy. "Have a drink of water," She said, pushing the glass gently closer. It left a wet trail on his desk blotter as it slid along. "It'll help you relax a bit."

The glass was picked up and tilted towards the greying Admiral's lips and the cooling water passed them It brought a slight smile with it as he cast his glance over to Blyx, the woman he'd dragged from retirement had given him groundbreaking news and sent him flying half way across the galaxy to fight in an area he had no idea about, "She must have wanted to protect my career." He replied softly.

"That's about the only reason I can think of. We all knew her politics weren't exactly popular at the time and she was always seen as a rogue." Blyx nodded and patted the Admiral's shoulder gently, knowing exactly what it was he spoke of and glad to see that he'd returned from the depths of his day dream. "You'd never be where you are now if you were linked to her. People like Susan and I," The charcoal haired woman scowled and shook her head, "We don't jive well with the seat you're sitting in."

"Says the woman who made Admiral and retired long before I even hit the basic Flag ranks?" Xander replied with a slight smile and a raised eyebrow as a bigger draught of the water disappeared from his glass. He closed his eyes for a few moments and opened them to regard her reaction, "Someone thought you were good, even left a note in your file about how good and recommended you for the emergency reactivations should such a need arise."

"And yet here we are and you're the one playing God Father to Starfleet and I in the role of your unwilling accomplice who was more than happy to stay in Africa. I accomplished what I did because I wasn't afraid of pulling triggers, even on the inside." She shot back with a good hearted chuckle. "That someone hated me enough to want to ruin my life again." Blyx grinned, "and you fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Now you're stuck with me out in Cheydinhall and we're gallivanting across the stars to go rescue a little Commodore we both know and love. It's funny how things work, isn't it?"

"What can I say? Fighting alongside the Klingons for so long has made me rather straight forward," Xander replied before finishing off his water and placing the glass back on the desk, the beading condensation on the outside forming a puddle at the base, "I saw a recommendation and I took it, although I will admit that I was kind of running out of options, you know, since Starfleet Command was invaded." he added, looking her over quickly "And you're right Blyx, I've pulled you from one wilderness, thrown you into another and then you've given me no option but to run half-way across the galaxy to stop my daughter from making the worst decision of her life."

The woman's eyes rolled and she reached to draw idle circles on his desk blotter with the pooling droplets of water, "You had options, Xander." She smiled coyly, "You've always had options, and you've always chosen the most difficult paths as if it were your cross to bear." She replied and flicked a running bit of water off her finger and towards the Admiral's face, "Just be glad I like the wilderness and love your daughter. You still owe me, regardless."

"We still have the majority of that bottle of scotch in your office for when we get back, hopefully we can convince Rochelle to share a glass before I have to head back to Earth," Xander replied with a sigh as he thought on the predicament that they raced to free her from, "Has there been any more news on why she's staying? Why she's even considering it?"

"I'll do what needs to be done to make sure we all share a round and bury this place behind us." Blyx hummed and re-crossed her legs, and watched the man slip back into the throes of parental worry. "Commander Archer says that it's because of the engineer that built the ship." She said warmly, all too familiar with the Cardassian's record and the rumors that spiraled around the two. They weren't dissimilar to the ones surrounding Rochelle and her Trill. "They'd sentenced him to death for simply existing and she just up and traded herself for his life. Sounds like a familiar story, doesn't it?"

"So they used a Federation citizen and Stafleet officer in a plot to blackmail another Federation citizen and Stafleet Officer into staying put on their insignificant speck of a planet?" Hark replied as he rapped in his codes into the console on the desk and pulled up the files on the Engineer that had been the object of their death penalty, "I think I remember seeing him on Earth, during the celebrations," he stated as he looked back to Blyx, "Tell me everything you know about Commander Dahe'el, why is he so important to Rochelle."

There it was. The anger she knew would boil as the father figured out that his little girl had been duped. The man was changing like the seasons, roaring into a winter that came when fatherhood was fully ripened and needing a colder hand of protection. It was most impressive. "I know the rumors that circulate. Cutting through the bullshit stories of Malone and others of no value, it's always between Dahe'el and Neyes being the object of her affections. I know that he's the reason she's still alive after the cluster fuck on Notura." She sighed her response, watching Xander carefully, "The crazy son of a bitch brought the Vindicator down into the planet's atmosphere to get a fix on her and brought her back from the brink. It could be that she's repaying a life debt or that she's in love with him or both. Maybe neither, maybe she's just protecting her crew." Blyx continued with a shrug and then tipped the man's jaw her way with a cold wet finger, guiding his eyes to hers, "He's a good officer, Xander, not the enemy." She cautioned with a knowing nod.

"It has to be that she loves him," Xander replied as his blood boiled further, "It's exactly the kind of thing that Susan would have done... that Susan did..." he added, trailing off slightly as he reviewed the incident report regarding Notura, "He has to feel something too... To put the ship at risk like that to bring her back, we have to stop her Blyx, she can't throw it all away."

-- End Log. --

Admiral Alexander 'Xander' Hark
Commander in Chief of Starfleet
United Federation of Planets

&

Admiral Blyx Red
Commanding Officer / Quadrant Commander
Cold Station Theta
Cheydinhall Sector

 

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