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Cerulean Stars - Chapter 88
🕑 Added 2024-10-04 15:51:21 +0000 UTCCerulean Stars - Chapter 88
Stardate 48327.4 - April 30, 2371 - 12:01:26
Sisko had wanted a brain scan to be absolutely sure they weren’t looking at implanted failsafe of some kind in one of the pair, a sound precaution all things considered given ‘if discovered have thing happen’ was often a standard trigger in the case of deep cover replacements.
But knowing what she did, Raine would bet her favorite Tholian silk dress that the duplicate Kira was actually Iliana Ghemor. Something that opened up a whole host of problems given she now needed to figure out a way to point everyone in that direction before she found out something they didn't want getting back to the Cardassians.
And of course, there was the unaddressed question of whether Iliana would even still be loyal to the Obsidian Order after they had left her suffering the abuses of Dukat and the military's internment camps for the past ten years.
“So what do you think?” Sisko asked her quietly as the door to the operating theater closed behind them.
“I'd love to be able to say the Major's recent telepathic check rules out her being a deep cover infiltrator.” Raine admitted with a grimace. “But from what I know, ten years is more than long enough to smooth out the types of incongruities that normally differentiate the feel of artificially implanted memories from organically formed ones.”
Sisko sighed. “I was afraid it might be something like that.”
“We could compare the life stories they give us.” Raine floated, not really sure how well that might work given the limited amount of third party corroboration available.
“That's what I was thinking.” Sisko agreed as he leaned against the wall with a contemplative look on his face. “She would have been what, eighteen at the time the other one claims she was captured?”
Raine rested a hand on her hip and began drumming her fingers as she tried to recall the woman's file. “I believe so.”
She grimaced as a thought occurred to her. “Assuming of course that her age and date of birth in her file is at all accurate given the Major was likely the one who entered it.”
Sisko frowned. “Good point. So the only way to corroborate anything would be to find someone who knew her growing up.”
“Her old resistance cell might be able to help with that.” Raine offered, vaguely remembering something about them basically raising Kira after her father had died.
“What about Garak?” Sisko floated, the suggestion enough to leave Raine blinking in surprise at the man. “If this has any connection with the Obsidian Order he might be able to help clear things up.”
That was actually moderately possible, Raine didn't know if the man would have been briefed on that specific mission, but at the very least he or his contacts would probably be able to point them in the right direction.
Assuming of course that Garak didn't try and sell them out for a one way ticket back to Cardassia.
“Probably one of our best bets.” She finally agreed. “Odo will likely want to double up on security officers covering the pair if we do though.”
Sisko inclined his head in agreement. “On that note, I want you to handle Ensign Sito's debriefing personally.”
“Me sir?” Raine asked in surprise, having been sure the man would want to do that himself.
Sisko grimaced, looking profoundly uncomfortable for a moment before his shoulders sagged slightly. “Given everything she's been through, I got the sense it would likely be for the best if her debriefing was performed by another woman.”
Raine had been trying really hard not to think about that particular angle of abuse, despite its near certainty given just what group had been holding the young ensign captive. But like the special victims units of her original world, working with victims who had suffered sexual trauma was a part of her training.
“Of course sir.” She agreed, wishing more than ever that they had a proper counselor on residence. “I assume you'll be contacting Captain Picard yourself?”
“Of course.” Sisko confirmed with a small smile. “It's rare to have good news in cases like this, and as minor as it may be I could use the win.”
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“They're not the most spacious quarters.” Raine offered to Sito Jaxa as she helped the ensign through the door to one of the Defiant's small cabins. “But given your circumstances I figured it would be preferable to what we have on the station.”
And more secure in case the Obsidian Order attempted to come calling, but Jaxa certainly didn't need to be worrying about that possibility on top of everything else currently sitting on her plate.
“Is that a uniform?” Jaxa asked in a shaky tone as she stared at the neatly folded Enterprise D style uniform laying on the lower bunk.
“Of course.” Raine confirmed as she helped the ensign hobble over to it. “I figured you'd want a change of clothes after cleaning up, but since the Defiant's computer core only has the station pattern on file I had an ensign replicate a proper one from the station and run it over.”
Which had been a lot faster then transferring the file itself would have been given the need to keep the Defiant physically disconnected from the station's Cardassian computers.
“Though on that note.” She continued with a look towards the bathroom. “Will you be able to handle a sonic shower on your own?”
Jaxa tested her previously broken ankle, winching slightly as she did. “The numbness from the nerve blocker is going away, but now it feels like my entire foot's asleep.”
“It's a side effect of bone regeneration.” Raine explained, having experienced it on more than one occasion herself. “It should start fading soon and be completely gone in about a half hour.”
Jaxa let out a strained laugh. “Something to look forward to I guess.”
Raine gave her a smile. “If you'd rather wait on the sonic shower, the replicator is in working order.” Though of course with a self harm lockout on since you could never be completely sure in cases like this.
“And if you're not in the mood for anything on file we can get something delivered from the promenade, though I'd recommend against the Klingon food.” She finished with a wink.
“I'd kill for a California burrito.” Jaxa muttered as she stared longingly at the replicator.
“Ah, the old Academy favorite.” Raine offered with an amused smile, moderately surprised that of all things was the Bajoran women's 'I missed this’ food of choice. “Patterns in the replicator, so if you want a couple don't let me being here hold you back.”
Jaxa hobbled over to the device, looking a little steadier on her foot with each step she took.
“Two california burritos and a bottle of root beer.” She ordered the computer.
“It will never cease to amuse me how many different species end up liking rootbeer.” Raine confessed as the ensigns order materialized in the slot.
“My roommate introduced me to it at the Academy.” Jaxa explained as she carried the tray over to sit down at the small table across from the bed.
“My first year roommate kept trying to get me to try exotic earth food instead of the alien dishes I was always ordering.” Raine put forward as Jaxa took a single cautious bite and then spent a moment just savoring the taste. “At the end of the first semester I finally caved and admitted to her that I grew up in New Chicago.”
Jaxa choked slightly as she fought back a laugh. “That was mean!”
Raine shrugged, still not particularly ashamed about it given the girl in question had later admitted it'd been a good lesson about the danger of making assumptions based on looks alone. “It wouldn't be the Academy without the occasional practical joke.”
“I suppose not.” Jaxa agreed as she began to eat her meal in earnest.
Leaning against the wall and watching the ensign, it was obvious for Raine to see that Jaxa had been hanging on by the mental equivalent of a thread. Likely by telling herself she just needed to hold on until Starfleet figured out some way to get her out.
Something Raine found moderately depressing to consider since, as far as she knew, everyone in Starfleet's command structure outside of Captain Picard had, for all intents and purposes, written the Bajoran ensign off as already dead.
Of course, there was every possibility that ensign Sito's escape had been orchestrated by Starfleet intelligence given the dissident movement connection. Though if it had been, they certainly hadn't thought to brief Raine about it.
Finishing her first burrito, Jaxa turned to Raine with a look not unlike a lost puppy. “If you don't mind me asking ma'am, what's the plan for me?”
“I don't.” Raine returned with a smile. “And short term? An extensive debriefing over the next week or so by me. Longer term? That's going to be up to you.”
She pushed herself off the wall with a leg. “You could take a circumstance retirement and spend the rest of your days on your choice of Federation worlds doing whatever appeals to you.”
Left unsaid was that the type of people to join Starfleet in the first place were usually not the kind who that sort of life appealed to, or at least not at the ensign's age.
“Assuming you want to continue in Starfleet, you'll have a series of follow up psych evaluations and a month or two mandatory vacation. After which you should be free to return to your previous posting if you so desire, or request a new one.”
“That's… It?” Jaxa inquired in a small voice.
“You're security, right?” Raine double checked, continuing on once she got a nod from the woman. “Then Starfleet Intelligence might try to headhunt you. But other than that the only stumbling block would be the fact the Enterprise is currently putting out fires in the Beta Quadrant. So you'd probably spend around a month on a runabout if you didn't want to wait for them to finish up their current deployment first.”
“Would… Captain Picard even want me back?” Jaxa asked in a tone that seemed to hover half way between hope and disbelief.
“He's the reason the command officers of every Starfleet ship and station around the demilitarized zone were on the lookout for you.” Raine explained as she walked over and set a comforting hand on the Bajoran woman's shoulder. “So I'd say yes. But once Commander Sisko clears things it shouldn't be too hard to get you a priority comm channel to the Enterprise to ask him yourself.”
Honestly, Raine wouldn't be surprised if that insistence had been mostly guilt on Picard's part, because even with the lack of other options available that very much wasn't the sort of mission you should push an ensign with less than a year's service towards.
“I was supposed to take an escape pod back, you know.” Jaxa said, pulling away from Raine's hand and hunching in on herself. “But when the time came there were just too many ships. And… And… I got scared… There was no way I'd be able to make it in an escape pod… So I didn't even try…”
Raine bent down and gave the young woman a hug, absolutely sure she needed it given how close she looked to tears. “And because of that you made it back here alive.”
Jaxa leaned into the hug, her composure lasting all of five seconds before she broke down into the deep heaving sobs of someone who had spent the past year going through absolute hell.
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It had been a tense hour of waiting for Kira, so she was more than a little relieved when Doctor Bashir finally got up from his medical station and walked over to them.
“Major.” Bashir began with a slight incline of this head towards her before looking over to the long haired version of her. “Nerys. I have good news and bad. So which would you two like to hear first?”
“The bad.” Kira said, the other her literally echoing the comment at the same time.
Bashir sighed tiredly, almost seeming to look a good decade older than his actual years. “Outside of some minor telomere differences, the pair of you are genetically identical. To the point where, if I didn't actually know better, I would think you were identical twins.”
That was really not what Kira had been hoping to hear given the circumstances.
“Does that narrow things down any?” She asked, trying to find at least some way to spin it into a positive.
“Surprisingly, yes.” Bashir confirmed with a small smile. “It rules out one of you being a mimetic shapeshifter, and makes cloning highly unlikely.”
“Which just leaves one of us being a genetically altered infiltrator.” Nerys muttered with a glance over at Kira.
Bashir nodded as he checked something on a padd. “Given you both claim a lack of transporter use around the time period in question, yes.”
He hummed slightly to himself. “Though I suppose it's also possible you're both clones and there's a third original Kira Nerys out there somewhere.”
For a moment Kira had to wonder what it said about her life that that was even an option, only to quickly drop the thought before she once more started wondering if insanity just followed Starfleet around as a standard.
“And the good news?” Kira prodded, not sure what it might be given everything the man had already functionally eliminated.
Bashir turned to the other her and gave the woman one of his standard charming grins.“Outside of a few easily treated issues, Nerys here appears to be in good health for a Bajoran woman in her late twenties.”
“On top of which.” He continued, focusing his gaze on the still unconscious Cardassian. “It looks like Mister Tarnek should make a full recovery.”
A tension seemed to drain out of Nerys's shoulders at the news, and the woman slumped slightly back into the chair Bashir had provided.
“Are you sure there's no way to tell which one of us was genetically altered, doctor?” Kira prodded, experience with Bashir having taught her he wasn't always the most open when it came to offering unlikely solutions.
“Maybe if I had access to a full Starfleet medical lab I might be able to find something.” Bashir admitted as he took a moment to glance over the eclectic collection of medical equipment in Deep Space Nine’s infirmary. “But outside of that, I’d need to know the exact method used for the genetic transformation.”
“I was afraid it would be something like that.” Kira muttered unhappily, knowing there was no way she was going to be allowed to continue her duties until this matter was sorted out given all the security concerns involved in her being a potential spy.
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Author’s Notes: The amount of hat’s a Starfleet security officer needs to have to deal with everything Starfleet vessels run into is honestly kind of impressive when you actually write it out like this.
And yes, Sito Jaxa’s return has in fact been planned since way back in Chapter 24 when I made that off hand mention of the increased Cardassian presence around the DMZ. It was enough to tip the scales for her from being willing to chance the escape pod, to a near certainty that if she did she would die.
Comments
Massgamer
I just thought of something, but if fake Kira has been imprisoned all this time, what did Dukat think whenever he saw the real Kira when he was around on station? That she had escaped earlier or something and never looked it up afterwards? Never thinking it was needed to be brought up? Or was he let in on the operation at the time to use fake Kira at all? Oh, and it doesn't help that if Dukat wasn't in know it would make him think that he and Kira had a 'thing' when she was captive, even though it wasn't her. So gross on so many levels. On another note, what happened with those Cardassian ships that was chasing the escapees? Did they back off right away once Defiant picked them up since they were technically in space they weren't allowed to be in? Not even attempting a comms saying they were hunting down escaped prisoners? I'm sure whole Enterprise, especially Picard, will show up to see their missing ensign as soon as possible and it will be a wholesome reunion. She has been through a lot and deserves the attention.
Rinaldo
Sito loves California burritos? A woman of culture I see
