Star Trek: Lineage Ch. 08

"What is the meaning of this?" Alaria said through gritted teeth.

"You know, the turbolifts on this ship tend to be very dramatic places," Casana said, ignoring her. "If something important is going to happen, there's a good chance it will happen in a turbolift."

"I said-"

"I heard you," Casana barked. "I know what you did."

"What are you talking about?"

"We have our own saying, you see. Beware Romulan's bearing gifts," Casana explained, her eyes narrowing. "You see, I've been busy. When we were attacked, it was without warning, which means the Orions were cloaked. Which isn't surprising, considering the fact that they're Orions. They could easily buy a few cloaking devices from one of the lesser Klingon houses, especially if they promised to use it against Starfleet.

"They also could have bought some old Birds-of-Prey. Lord knows there are enough of them in Klingon scrap yards, and the Klingons aren't very picky about who they sell them to."

"I don't understand what this has to do with me," Alaria snapped.

"Bullshit," Casana spat. "The Orions didn't get anything from the Klingons. They got them from you."

"We have had problems with Orions raiders. That's why we were hunting them."

"No, I mean they got them from you personally," Casana explained. They stared at each other in silence for a moment.

"How dare you," Alaria hissed. "I am-"

"You are an agent of the Tal'Shiar," Casana cut her off. "I knew it the moment I saw you. After spending as many years as I have around Romulans, you can pick out Tal'Shiar in an instant. You're all just so damned... emotionless. Like Vulcans."

"You arrogant..."

"A Trill, arrogant? No," Casana gasped. "The thing that puzzled me was why. Why would you go to all that trouble just to save us? Then I remembered something Jeff said during the attack. The Orions weren't using disruptors. So I scanned the crap out of this ship. Every breach, every impact, every scratch. And you know what I found? Plasma and antiprotons. Every inch of this ship is dripping with plasma residue and antiproton traces."

"Plasma weapons are decades old."

"Plasma torpedoes, yes. But these were energy. I recreated the battle from the sensor logs, and all of the plasma hits came from one ship, while all the disruptors came from the other. And they targeted the same areas. It was a field test."

"You have no proof," Alaria sneered. "The Orions were destroyed by our weapons. Any residual traces can be explained as residue from our attack."

"Not all," Casana smiled. "Jeff got off a good shot. Blew one of the wings off of a Bird-of-Prey. And on that wing was a single cannon. When help comes, they'll tractor us back to starbase. Unless someone tells them to collect that cannon."

"What do you want?" Alaria said, admitting defeat.

"I don't intend to tell Starfleet about what I've discovered."

"What?" Alaria looked up in surprise. "Why?"

"What's the point? My government will accuse your government of plotting against the Federation. Your government will deny it," Casana explained, waving the disruptor from side to side. "Starfleet will trot out the cannon. Then the Romulan ambassador will go before the Federation Council. He'll admit that the Romulans are developing new weapons, and he'll say that the Orions stole them. He'll apologize to people of the Federation, and he'll give his deepest regrets to the families of those killed," Casana continued, placing her hand over her chest and swooning dramatically. "And that will be it. Starfleet won't be able to prove that you gave them the weapons, so we'll just drop it. End of story. Except for you."

"You see," Casana smiled, crouching down across from Alaria, "the Tal'Shiar will not be happy with you. Your mistakes will have caused a great deal of embarrassment to the Romulan Star Empire. The Tal'Shiar will lose a lot of prestige in Romulan politics. And they will blame you."

"I would likely be executed."

"If, on the other hand, I was to say nothing," Casana explained, "you can take credit for a successful operation, and, more importantly, not be executed."

"In exchange for what?" Alaria asked.

"How very Romulan of you!" Casana said gleefully. "A debt of honor."

"And what have you done that would place me in your debt?" Alaria laughed.

"Save your life."

"You impudent-"

"You listen to me!" Casana screamed and lunged forward. She pressed her foot into Alaria's chest, pinning her to the wall, and pushed the disruptor against the Romulan's forehead. "You scheming cost a lot of lives, lives I care about! I'm not going to let their deaths be wasted in some diplomatic pissing match. You can either accept my offer, or face the Tal'Shiar."

Alaria hesitated, weighing her options. She had none. "Very well."

"Good," Casana smiled sweetly and stepped back. "And remember: Trill have long memories. Now, where were you headed?"

******

Deck 5, Junior Officer's Quarters, 1800 hours

"Ten years, and I'm back here again," Sahar sighed, sitting on one of the bunks. The Athena had suffered heavy damage to its accommodations, forcing the crew to use all of its spare quarters until repairs could be made. Like most of the officers, Suvak, Sahar, Kara, Casana, and Zula were now quartered together in previously vacant crew rooms. "So much for privacy."

"We are short accommodations, so two of us will have to share a bunk," Suvak observed.

"I wonder who that will be," Kara smiled, staring at Sahar.

"Not me. Dibs!" squealed Casana as she came through the door. She ran at Sahar and leapt onto the top bunk.

"For fuck sake, would you watch it?" Sahar cried, narrowly avoiding Casana's knee.

"This is gonna be fun!" Casana giggled, lying down on the top bunk. "Hey, Zula, why did Jeff want to switch quarters with you?"

"Gee, I don't know," Zula replied from her chair across the room. "Maybe something to do with how the last time the four of you were together, the ship had a hole shot through it?"

"Or it could be the company," Kara said with a smirk. She sat down next to Sahar and wrapped an arm around her. "Married man like him, it'd be hard not to be tempted sleeping with four women."

"Speaking of women and holes," Casana said, leaning over the edge of the bunk to look at Sahar and Kara, "would you two please keep it in your pants while we're here?"

"Yeah. Some of us are supposed to be celibate around humans," Zula added. "In fact, I'm telepathic, so don't even think about it too loudly."

"Fine," Sahar agreed. "We'll try to contain ourselves until we get new quarters, as a way of saying 'thanks'."

"Thanks for what?" Zula asked, turning her attention back to her PADD.

"For calling us to the Armory," Kara explained. "If you hadn't called us out of our room, we would've been killed in the attack." Zula put the PADD down and looked at them.

"I didn't call anybody."