Hiding Out, part 1

Posted on Fri Jul 23rd, 2010 @ 8:06am by Commander Raven Adams & Khiy Tal'ehrihn

1,355 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: On Typhon Station
Location: Space

ON

"How long has it been now?" Khiy asked as he stared at the ship on the display screen.

"49 minutes now...Sir." The helmsman responded, clearly unsure of how to address Khiy.

"There haven't been any transmissions to or from the ship?" He squinted his eyes slightly as he scrutinised the craft as if to determine it's intentions by look alone.

"Nothing. She is quiet." The comm specialist chipped in.

"Is she okay?" Khiy asked while never taking his eyes off the screen.

"As far as we can tell, Sir. Her life signs are stable. It's hard to tell from here..." The Captain of the ship said from the command chair where he sat. He made sure to moderate his tone so as not to convey his annoyance at the situation. His ship, the ITCBellum Dea, another one of Khiy's Ju'Day class attack freighters, had sat in this exact spot while cloaked for the better part of an hour now.

The Captain wasn't so much annoyed at following his bosses orders and following the Raven class ship, as he was annoyed by Khiy's doing nothing once they found it.

Khiy could hear the captain shuffle uncomfortably in his seat behind where he stood. He knew the man was unhappy about such a monotonous task, but he was on Khiy's payroll on one of Khiy's ships. More to that, Khiy really didn't care at the moment for his feelings. For his part, Khiy was worried about the pilot of the vessel, not a thousand meters from where he now stood.

With a quiet sigh to himself, Khiy relented. He was starting to worry. "Open a channel on a narrow band."

Raven sat in the command chair of her ship, listening to Wagner and eating two pounds of rich Betazoid chocolates. She couldn't bear to listen to her favorite music as it reminded her of Ian and his betrayal. All systems were at stop -- except for those needed to keep her from drifting.

She hadn't taken out the Hawthorne in quite a while, keeping it securely docked on the lower decks. She kept it for emergencies -- or when she needed to get away, like now.

She wanted to ignore the hail. She was allowed to sit in space. But she decided she'd better look and see who it was. The last thing she wanted was someone beaming over asking if she was in need of assistance.

Her eyes widened when she saw the data on the other ship. Khiy. "This is the Hawthorne," she said, answering the hail. "I'm fine. Go away."

Khiy stood on his bridge with a very confused look on his face from the response. He turned to the Captain, "Have the channel routed to the situation room." Without waiting for the man's response Khiy walked off the bridge and into one of the adjacent rooms.

Khiy stood for a moment, alone, in the situation room. He waited for the chirp indicating that the link had been re-established. "The name you logged that ship out on tells me you aren't fine Raven." He said in continuation of the conversation.

She sighed and set down her chocolates. "I wanted to hide." She chucked mirthlessly. "I forgot you would notice Morticia's ship." She paused, unsure of what to say. Because of their shared past, he was the only person who really knew who she was. That made it a little easier. "I'm eating my way through a kilo of chocolate."

Khiy wanted to laugh at the comment, but managed to hold his tongue. Instead, he shook his head and smiled to himself knowing that Raven wouldn't see it. She was definitely upset, fortunately her coping mechanisms had turned decidedly more benign over the years.

"Well, would you care to share some of your chocolate with me?"

"No, but you might as well come over." Khiy was nothing if not stubborn. The last time she tried to out stubborn him she lost -- badly.

Maybe talking to Khiy would help her get a proper perspective on this whole mess. Or maybe he'd look the other way if she decided to do something a little more creative. Like brand a scarlet A in Ian's forehead.

Khiy nodded and started to walk out of the room "We will be de-cloaking about a thousand meters off your port side...Please don't shoot us."

"The way my day's gone, I'd miss. Even at this range," she replied.

Khiy didn't respond as he left the privacy of the situation room and stepped back on to the command deck.

"Decloak the ship and beam me over." He ordered the ships Captain. "Once I'm on board, you go silent again and wait for my order to return."

The Captain nodded. "As you wish."

Khiy quickly stepped down the ramp and disappeared from the bridge. He made his way to the transporter, making a quick stop at the replicator before stepping on to the pad.

The world around Khiy split and fractured as he was transported off the Bellum Dea and on to the deck of Raven's ship, the Hawthorne.

Khiy looked around for a moment at the new surroundings. The interior reminded him a lot of Raven's quarters in that it seemed eerily dark inside. There would be no mistaking who this ship belonged to.

"Cozy." Khiy said aloud, in as much to announce his presence and also determine where Raven was.

"Always better when you're getting in and out of tight situations," she replied as she spun the Captain's chair around to look at Khiy. "Welcome to the Hawthorne." She held out a box. "Want some chocolate?"

Khiy held out the box of chocolate cherry blossoms he replicated before beaming over. "Actually I brought my own. I wasn't going to deprive you of your muse."

He took stock of the woman sitting in front of him as he walked closer. "Raven, you really look," horrible "...stressed."

"Thanks. I feel it," she said, popping another chocolate in her mouth. "I broke a cardinal rule. I didn't look before I leaped."

He swung a nearby chair around and sat neatly in it. "I'm not sure I follow, Raven." His fingers absent mindedly unwrapped one of the chocolates he brought along.

Part of her wanted to say nothing, to tell him to go away. But she also needed to talk and Khiy was someone who already knew far too much about her. "It's that whole girl meets boy, boy says he loves girl, takes girl onto the holodeck... Girl finds boy was also dating someone else and was only using her for what he could get." She tossed a chocolate wrapper in the direction of a trashcan and missed. "Stupid girl should have known better."

Khiy stopped chewing the chocolate in his mouth and instead digested the information. After a long moment, he finished the chocolate and opened his mouth. "I'm sorry Raven." He said sincerely.

She threw another chocolate wrapper in the direction of the trash and missed again. "Yea. Me, too. So, like a wounded animal, I came here to lick my wounds." She looked over at Khiy. "You know, you're probably the only person who knows I'm out here."

He shrugged in his typical dismissive way. "It's likely not many other people would know what to look for."

Khiy took a small bite out of another chocolate. "You're wrong if you think that you are the stupid one. This is in no way your fault Raven. When the heart gets involved like that we become a slave to it. You deserve much better than to have that trust betrayed."

She laughed mirthlessly. "Neither of us deserved it. Anna was smarter than I was. She didn't sleep with him."

Khiy didn't know who this Anna person was, but from the way Raven said her name he assumed that the two must be familiar. "How did you find out?"

(To be continued...)

Commander Raven Adams
Chief Intelligence Officer
Starbase Typhon

Khiy Tal'ehrihn
Chairman
Trans Galactic Trading
Starbase Typhon

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