She finally figured out the straps and did some quick mental calculation for where he could put down far enough from the shuttle craft to not see it, but still be out of the way of the town and other people. She then gave him the coordinates.
Sure! Have her call him when she finds out, or he can follow her…?
Liftoff and flight were hopefully smoother than she'd expected. The ship, lower tech or not, didn't shudder or jerk and the transitions were fluid.
He set down where she'd instructed, which was a helpfully broad, flat stretch clear of people or structures. He released his restraints to accompany her back to the exit, where he palmed the wall control to set down the ramp.
"Hey." He caught her attention before she started away. "I don't know what your organization does. But if you ever want to join the fight… gain allies and assets… ask for Fulcrum in the Albarrio Sector. It'll get back to me. Or comm me—" He rattled off his personal channel, not knowing if she'd be able to memorize it from that or not, but hence the backup.
She almost asked him what fight, but there were voices now coming from the open exit. Nasal voices that generally only meant one race. Especially once she heard the word "lobes". she set down the box she had just picked up, and the bag. "Stay here, stay inside, close the door as soon as I leave. Don't let anyone but me in unless you know them." And with that she was racing down the ramp, hand dipping into the pocket where the phaser was but not yet drawing it.
And sure enough there seemed to be a half dozen Ferengi trying to dismantle the shuttlecraft. She drew her phaser but kept it within her coat in case he disobeyed and was watching.
"Did you fail to see where it says Enterprise on the side?" she asked, stalking to the scavengers who froze when they took in her uniform, then started laughing when they saw her size. "That's a Federation ship you are attempting to dismantle, and you don't have the best track record with the Enterprise do you?" she asked.
"They allow children on their vessels. They are weak. And that is why they will lose."
So. Didn't just LOOK like the same Ferengi they'd just defeated then. She drew her phaser and aimed it at the one in the lead. "Odd. That's not how I remember it going when you idiots tried to take the Enterprise last time. Do you really care to underestimate us again?"
A clear of a throat somewhere behind her: he'd disobeyed. Cassian was standing before the ramp of his ship with his own blaster drawn, aimed at one of the Ferengi that had been poised to… who knows what it meant to do, and maybe she could have stopped it herself, but he didn't need to wait to find out.
The Ferengi narrowed their eyes and backed off closer to the shuttlecraft. She caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of her eye, having also heard him, but things were a mess now anyway. But maybe she could salvage something off the Ferengi to help her get back home.
She advanced on them, they backed off until the shuttle was fully in veiw. And then with a bright flash of light and an odd sound they were gone. A single human looking man in a uniform that mostly matched hers stood in their place.
Laren bit back the urge to swear at him in Bajoran. "Q," she said, voice cold and hard.
"In the flesh. Well... sort of." He looked down at himself. Then he smirked at her. "What? Did you think I was just going to let you fly off and ruin all my fun?" He then sized up Cassian dismissively. "You and your stray. It's almost cute enough to be sickening."
The Ferengi just vanishing like that had Cassian extremely rattled, but his sabacc face was very good: outwardly, he was unreadably calm. Especially when he glanced Q up and down, and directed at Ro, "Friend of yours?"
"Hardly. You brought me here, Q. Send me home. To my proper time while you're at it." She put the phaser on her hip and crossed her arms.
"Now now now. Is that gratitude? Here I am giving you the chance to prove the so-called morality of you mortals. So. To start with..." He waved a hand and the shuttlecraft vanished. "I will send you home. In three years." He smirked as fury grew behind her eyes. "In those three years, I'll be watching you. You will be judged. Consider yourself a test case. When your rules and your morals don't match, which wins out?"
"What are you talking about?" she snapped at Q.
"Why I would have thought that was obvious." He smiled seeming amused by all of this, of course. "Your beloved Prime Directive. The two words your precious federation hides behind to keep from going to help people who need you. So here is someone who needs you. You have three years. You can keep to your Prime Directive and stay to yourself, ignore what they're going through. Don't help. Or you can violate the prime directive and help his people, save countless lives. But never work in Starfleet again."
Suddenly instead of a blaster he was holding a fish. "Your feeble little mortal mind cannot comprehend what I am. Now hush, your betters are speaking."
(I asked ma what she thought of this post... she said it needed a bit more arrogance.)
Cassian managed not to drop the fish. But… yes, he was quite prepared to admit: there was something going on here that was way beyond anything he'd encountered before.
But he stayed where he was and looked instead at Ro.
"That's your game this time, Q? Seems too simple for you. What's the real game here?"
"Why Ro Laren. I'm hurt. Truly. If I had a heart it would be broken." He vanished and reappeared dressed in clothes more familiar to the rebels than to the Federation. He even had the proper insignia and rank markings that placed him very high in the command chain. "But fine. There might be a few small details. One. You violate the Prime Directive, I'll help. You decide to arm them, I'll arm them. Out of the goodness of my... well." He smirked. Another flash and he was leaning back on a chair just like the one from his ship. "And before you start to worry, no one will be using the weapons I will take for them. Off old decommissioned Federation ships."
Ro's jaw clenched.
"What else, what else. Ah yes. There is the issue of which side you'd help, isn't there. I mean this poor fellow here.." He vanished with the light and sound again then reappeared beside Cassian, grabbing his face and pushing it into duck lips "Well, his are a desperate people, ready to martyr themselves..." Her fists clenched. Q patted his head then reappeared into the seat. "But, I mean, well by Federation standards, they're terrorists. But then there was a time when the Federation said that about the Bajorans too, wasn't there."
Ro looked ready to hit someone.
"So there it is, all spelled out so that even someone with as little brain as the two of you can understand it. Three years, Ro Laren. Side with the proper government, side with the rebels, or hide and eek out a desperate life all on your own while the galaxy. Running away again, like the scared child you once were. Still are perhaps. We'll see over the next three years, won't we? Me, the rest of the Continuum, and your precious Federation. But then... if you help them... it would hardly be the first time you were court martialed and put in prison. And if you don't help them... well it wouldn't be the first time people died because of you." With a smirk he vanished. The shuttlecraft reappeared.
Cassian's facade broke when Q appeared beside him—then touched him. He jolted, but couldn't break away; before he could try a move designed to deck Q, the being was gone again, and Cassian overbalanced and nearly fell. Cassian used the stumble to grab his secondary blaster out of his ankle holster, but by the time he snapped upright and aimed… Q was gone.
Training meant that where Cassian, as a child, would be trembling now, the adult was stone still. As he turned his eyes again to Ro.
She put her arms behind her back, scowling. "The Q is the name of both a race, the Q collective, and that one particular Q. He, or it, in particular seems to have it out for my Captain and ship. Supposedly all powerful." She shook her head. "He toys with lives as if they were games and then claims the supposed moral high road."
Cassian opened his mouth, then closed it again. He looked around them, still trying to figure out where the Ferengi, and then Q, had gone. Then finally, looked back at Ro. Demonstrating that he didn't really understand, but simultaneously did grasp enough of the danger: "We should get out of here."
"Those guys... were probably never here in the first place, except Q. And there is nowhere you or In have the power to get to that he couldn't reappear at, if he had a mind to."
He spread his hands (one still holding the small blaster) in frustration. There were few things he didn't know about in this universe, and this was particularly frightening and infuriating, but the most urgent thing wasn't necessarily to understand it. Yet. "So what do we do?"
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before she spoke. "We do nothing. I find some place to live unnoticed for the next three years on the off chance Q actually keeps his word, or better yet someone from the Federation finds me and I get to find out when and where I actually am. You go about as if you never met me. Forget me if you can."
It wasn't just about her anymore. He'd just encountered something that could threaten the whole Alliance. He wasn't about to turn his back. That was how you got stabbed in it.
Was he serious? "Even you have to see by now that I am hardly a child. I can take care of myself for a few years. I've done it before, back when I actually was a child, I can do it again." Without slavers hunting for her this time.
"This isn't just about you. I can't just go about my business knowing… whatever the hell that was… is out and about in the universe. You know something about it. That might help me make sure it doesn't hurt my people."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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"Okay. So where are we going?" He needed coordinates, or at least a heading.
Want someone else to have found her craft to give them a reason to not split?
Sure! Have her call him when she finds out, or he can follow her…?
He set down where she'd instructed, which was a helpfully broad, flat stretch clear of people or structures. He released his restraints to accompany her back to the exit, where he palmed the wall control to set down the ramp.
"Hey." He caught her attention before she started away. "I don't know what your organization does. But if you ever want to join the fight… gain allies and assets… ask for Fulcrum in the Albarrio Sector. It'll get back to me. Or comm me—" He rattled off his personal channel, not knowing if she'd be able to memorize it from that or not, but hence the backup.
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And sure enough there seemed to be a half dozen Ferengi trying to dismantle the shuttlecraft. She drew her phaser but kept it within her coat in case he disobeyed and was watching.
"Did you fail to see where it says Enterprise on the side?" she asked, stalking to the scavengers who froze when they took in her uniform, then started laughing when they saw her size. "That's a Federation ship you are attempting to dismantle, and you don't have the best track record with the Enterprise do you?" she asked.
"They allow children on their vessels. They are weak. And that is why they will lose."
So. Didn't just LOOK like the same Ferengi they'd just defeated then. She drew her phaser and aimed it at the one in the lead. "Odd. That's not how I remember it going when you idiots tried to take the Enterprise last time. Do you really care to underestimate us again?"
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HAd to jump names for this icon >.>
She advanced on them, they backed off until the shuttle was fully in veiw. And then with a bright flash of light and an odd sound they were gone. A single human looking man in a uniform that mostly matched hers stood in their place.
Laren bit back the urge to swear at him in Bajoran. "Q," she said, voice cold and hard.
"In the flesh. Well... sort of." He looked down at himself. Then he smirked at her. "What? Did you think I was just going to let you fly off and ruin all my fun?" He then sized up Cassian dismissively. "You and your stray. It's almost cute enough to be sickening."
ICON WIN
I love this one so much
"Now now now. Is that gratitude? Here I am giving you the chance to prove the so-called morality of you mortals. So. To start with..." He waved a hand and the shuttlecraft vanished. "I will send you home. In three years." He smirked as fury grew behind her eyes. "In those three years, I'll be watching you. You will be judged. Consider yourself a test case. When your rules and your morals don't match, which wins out?"
"What are you talking about?" she snapped at Q.
"Why I would have thought that was obvious." He smiled seeming amused by all of this, of course. "Your beloved Prime Directive. The two words your precious federation hides behind to keep from going to help people who need you. So here is someone who needs you. You have three years. You can keep to your Prime Directive and stay to yourself, ignore what they're going through. Don't help. Or you can violate the prime directive and help his people, save countless lives. But never work in Starfleet again."
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"Who are you to keep her here against her will?"
If you need me to edit, let me know.
(I asked ma what she thought of this post... she said it needed a bit more arrogance.)
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But he stayed where he was and looked instead at Ro.
Again, let me know if I need to edit
"Why Ro Laren. I'm hurt. Truly. If I had a heart it would be broken." He vanished and reappeared dressed in clothes more familiar to the rebels than to the Federation. He even had the proper insignia and rank markings that placed him very high in the command chain. "But fine. There might be a few small details. One. You violate the Prime Directive, I'll help. You decide to arm them, I'll arm them. Out of the goodness of my... well." He smirked. Another flash and he was leaning back on a chair just like the one from his ship. "And before you start to worry, no one will be using the weapons I will take for them. Off old decommissioned Federation ships."
Ro's jaw clenched.
"What else, what else. Ah yes. There is the issue of which side you'd help, isn't there. I mean this poor fellow here.." He vanished with the light and sound again then reappeared beside Cassian, grabbing his face and pushing it into duck lips "Well, his are a desperate people, ready to martyr themselves..." Her fists clenched. Q patted his head then reappeared into the seat. "But, I mean, well by Federation standards, they're terrorists. But then there was a time when the Federation said that about the Bajorans too, wasn't there."
Ro looked ready to hit someone.
"So there it is, all spelled out so that even someone with as little brain as the two of you can understand it. Three years, Ro Laren. Side with the proper government, side with the rebels, or hide and eek out a desperate life all on your own while the galaxy. Running away again, like the scared child you once were. Still are perhaps. We'll see over the next three years, won't we? Me, the rest of the Continuum, and your precious Federation. But then... if you help them... it would hardly be the first time you were court martialed and put in prison. And if you don't help them... well it wouldn't be the first time people died because of you." With a smirk he vanished. The shuttlecraft reappeared.
Nope! Love it!
Training meant that where Cassian, as a child, would be trembling now, the adult was stone still. As he turned his eyes again to Ro.
In a very low voice: "What… the hell…"
YAY! I'm glad!
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She looked disgusted.
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It wasn't just about her anymore. He'd just encountered something that could threaten the whole Alliance. He wasn't about to turn his back. That was how you got stabbed in it.
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Was he serious? "Even you have to see by now that I am hardly a child. I can take care of myself for a few years. I've done it before, back when I actually was a child, I can do it again." Without slavers hunting for her this time.
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