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Star Trek Adventurer	By : Tcr Category: +S through Z > Star Trek: Online Views: 2690 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Disclaimer: Star Trek is owned and copyrighted by Paramount Pictures and CBS. For full disclaimer, see Chapter 1.

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Chapter 12: Serpents in the Garden
The brisk pace she set for herself was just right as she jogged along the path beside the open field. It was a little faster than the standard run Academy instructors enforced, but that didn’t bother her; she hadn’t quite adjusted to the slower pace of Starfleet, meant to give everyone, including Tellarites, an equal footing. There was a cool breeze that rushed across her skin and Taka was glad the holodeck had supplied that. It was a gentle, soft reminder of home.
Though Andoria was a chilly place, most Andorians had an average temperature higher than humans. A benefit from the Andorian evolution on their homeworld. She would’ve passed out, she was sure, had the holographic environment not included that.
Not to mention she was wearing heavier sweatpants and the Academy sweater.
Sure didn’t help her nose though. It still hurt like Hell, as though it had just been broken. And that, she was sure, wasn’t going to disappear soon. It stung, but no worse than her own anger.
Not entirely directed at Erra. It had been her decision to ultimately attack her with the volleyball, but that wasn’t entirely it. No. That had simply been the endgame of a situation long played out and the devastation wreaked upon their friendship. The same damage that she had caused on Io by ordering Erra to investigate that Bird-of-Prey.
Her antennae flinched. Someone was there.
“You know, you’ll pass out if you keep that up,” a familiar voice stated from behind her. Taka glanced over her shoulder before feeling her feet slip from under her. As she tumbled to the ground, Renha laughed. “Or you’ll do that.”
“Damned rock,” Taka muttered before standing. “Attache.” She patted her sweatpants down and sighed irritatedly.
“Renha, Ensign. Please, it’s Renha.”
“Then I’m Taka, Renha.” She dusted her sweater off before shaking her head. She stepped over to the pale Aenar. “How may I help you?” She looked into the dull, unseeing eyes. “I’m assuming it’s not just to see me fall on my ass, now.”
Silence fell over them for a moment. Taka swept her hand across her ridged brow, cold sweat coating her fingers as a gust of wind blew over her skin. It was cold enough to make her forget it was on a holodeck and not back home. Almost.
It was strange. She hadn’t been homesick in her four years at the Academy, she hadn’t thought about the visiting at any point in time, and now she was thinking of it and reminded of it with everything she did. She pursed her lips and knitted her furrowed brow. She didn’t want to let on about her homesickness; it wasn’t Andorian, Hell, it wasn’t even Starfleet officer material.
“Reminds me of home,” Renha said. Her clouded eyes and antennae dropped sadly. “I know it’s not, though.” She shook her head. “I’ve been tasked with announcing we’re approaching the Jouret System. Captain Korolevna wishes myself and T’Rela present as well.” Her eyes looked up at Taka as though she could see her. “Your homesickness is hardly surprising, Ensign zh’An. You would be surprised how many other men and women aboard the Adventurer feeling the same.” She sighed. “It’s intoxicating, to be sure, and wafting off everyone in waves that I needn’t use my abilities to know.”
“That’s at least somewhat reassuring,” Taka smiled to herself. “I was starting to think I was the only one missing home.”
“Your Vulcan friend has been,” Renha paused, searching for the right word, “yearning for Shir’Kahr. Ensign Netu has been missing Hathon. Tanis,” Taka noted Renha’s use of Tanis’ given name, “wishes to return to Mak’ala and the Tenurial Ice Cliffs. Ensign M’Akl, too, has been missing Cait and Istara. No one aboard this ship doesn’t feel some sense of homesickness.” She paused. “My apologies, I didn’t mean to tell you things you’re well aware of.” Her antennae twitched, silently passing her apologies on to Taka. “We should hurry, Taka. Ambassador T’Rela is likely to be on the Bridge already and I don’t think Captain Korolevna wants to wait too long.”
“I don’t trust T’Rela,” Taka stated bluntly. She regretted the words as soon as she did, but there was nothing she could do. Once they were out there and all that. “I don’t know why, there’s just something I don’t trust about her.” Taka watched as Renha’s antennae drooped, then curled upwards; she knew something about T’Rela she didn’t want to share. “You know something, Renha?”
The Ambassadorial Attache went silent. Her antennae curled back onto her head, against her skull, acknowledging she knew about T’Rela, but something that she couldn’t say. Her eyes fell, as though there was something else, information that could ultimately hurt Taka if she knew about it.
“She’s Section 31,” Renha admitted finally.
And that was exactly why Renha hesitated. The hate and pain Taka had long suppressed rushed to the surface and she wanted to punch something - someone. Her anger had to roll of her like waves, Renha recoiling in fear, as though she believed Taka would strike her.
“That Terran-centric, defenders of truth and justice, secret organization?” Taka scoffed. “They’d let her in?”
“You know of them?” Renha asked surprised.
Taka admitted Renha’s reaction wasn’t much of a stretch. There weren’t too many people who even knew about the ultra-secretive organization and fewer still who even knew what strings they pulled behind the scenes. The Federation was supposed to be a true paradise, the Aktanaslaas, or Garden of Eden to Humans.
But every garden has a snake.
Section 31 was but one.
Her hatred hadn’t been without precedence, though. Her mother had had dealings with them; dealings that hadn’t ended well for either member of Section 31. Taka breathed deep, trying to calm herself.
“My mother had dealings with them aboard the Jonathan Archer,” Taka said. “They tried to coerce her into destroying the ruins on what eventually became New Romulus. She refused. They tried to… remove the issue. We Andorians don’t surrender easily.”
Renha cocked her head. “She died.”
“Murdered,” Taka corrected. She turned away, “Computer, arch.” She waited before continuing to Renha. “By those arrogant, self-serving, Terran pricks!”
“They employ drastic means, yes, but they’re not entirely Terran-centric, Taka,” Renha stated as the Andorian Ensign stepped over to the arch. “They enlist anyone willing to put forth the defense of the Federation as the ultimate goal. And they have defended the Federation from itself on more than one occasion.”
Taka sighed as she tapped commands into the computer interface. “And what? You’re one of them too?” She shook her head. No, she was a good judge of character and she couldn’t find the same level of distrust as she did with the Vulcan Ambassador, not in Renha.
“I’m not,” Renha confirmed Taka’s thoughts. They did little to ease her mind, though, as Renha continued, “T’Rela isn’t the typical Vulcan.” Taka raised an eyebrow and her antennae showed her piqued interest as they stood rigid. “She served two full terms with Starfleet, through Hell and back.
“She’s seen and lived through some of the worst times in the Federation’s history. She knows what the Federation can do to itself, she knows the worst Starfleet has to offer. She was a Cadet aboard the Enterprise in 2285 and survived the Battle of the Mutara Nebula. She survived both encounters with the Borg, at Wolf 359 and the Battle of Sector 0-0-1. She lost the Toronto during the Battle of Cardassia Prime. If she joined them, I sincerely doubt it was an illogical move on her part.”
“Computer, end program,” Taka ordered. The holodeck landscape dissolved into the black and yellow panels. “Whatever her reason was, it doesn’t excuse her joining Sector 31. If they were willing to murder my mother, how many others have disappeared because of them, brushed under a conspiracy at the highest levels?”
They were harsh words, but they were true. In Taka’s mind, there was never a good justification to join something that actively approved the murder and deaths of innocents to further any goals. The idea that Section 31 operated with that wide scale, open ability scared her - she would gamble it would terrify anyone who knew of them. How many plans had been enacted through the course of the Federation’s history that ultimately led to the slaughter of countless lives in order to push an agenda no one knew about? Had they been responsible for the death of Chancellor Gorkon and the ambush at Khitomer that nearly plunged the Federation and Klingon Empire into war a hundred years ago? The Tomed Incident and the deaths of 11000 men and women about countless starships? Had they been the reason the reports from Archer’s Enterprise regarding the Borg had been ‘forgotten’ and ‘lost to time’, deemed far too much fantasy than a truthful report, only to have it come back at Wolf 359 and bite them in the ass?
How many situations had Section 31’s hands in them? Shinzon? The Hobus Supernova? The Second Klingon War? The destabilization of the Empire leading to this subsequent re-alliance the galaxy found itself it? Had that just been pawns on the board to Section 31? Had they known about the Undine threat and pushed it under a desk? Had they planned or even allowed the destruction of Romulus that had begun this entire decline?
She pushed the thoughts from her head. “Computer, uniform, Takala zh’An.” In a flash, a solid red top and black pants appeared in front of the arch. The single gold pip on the right side of her uniform’s shoulder glistened in the light and Taka beamed with pride. Though it had been a few days since she had changed from her Academy uniform, each sight of that pip was a reminder of what she had fought to attain. She turned to Renha. “If you’ll excuse me, Renha, I’ll be out in a moment.”
“Ah, yes,” Renha said, “though we’re blind, we still make people uncomfortable changing around us. I will be waiting, Taka.”
The door closed behind the Attache and Taka ordered it locked before turning back to the uniform. She slid from her training attire and into the red uniform with haste, tugging on the bottom, pulling it tight against her. Gold would have looked better, she absently thought to herself, but I’m no engineer or operations; Helm is where I wanted to be. She moved to the arch, placing her Academy training stuff in the replicator slot. “Transfer to my quarters, computer.”
“Yes, Ensign zh’An.”
Taka tapped the commands into the computer and the door opened. Renha turned to face the sound as Taka walked from the room. She placed her hand on the Aenar’s shoulder and Renha nodded, following the Andorian as they both headed towards the turbolift.
It was done in silence, the trip seemingly taking longer than it actually was. Their conversation regarding Section 31 had soured the mood and, while Taka regretted that much, she knew the rest of her words were true to her. She held nothing but hatred and contempt for them, regardless of what they truly stood for. It didn’t matter they were there to ‘protect’ the peoples of the Federation; their methods were abhorrent.
“I heard what happened to you, Taka,” Renha said. It was obvious she was trying to break the angst between them, Taka’s delivery of her words sounding like an attack rather against her rather than against the organization.
“It was an incident,” Taka deadpanned. She knew it wasn’t. Hell, anyone could see it wasn’t, but she needed to keep the peace. She was the Acting Executive Officer; the crew needed her right now.
“An incident?” Renha repeated. Her antennae twitched angrily. “I find it hard to believe that a broken nose was simply an accident.”
“That’s the official report I entered.”
“And I doubt it’s true.”
Taka shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. The crew must have a cohesion. Erra’s not wrong about the direction of her anger.”
“I asked people about the Io Incident,” Renha countered. “That was years ago. Both of you need to forgive yourselves and each other and move on, both of you.” They stopped at the turbolift. “It was a horrible accident, but you were both young and stupid. Both of you.”
“And she took the worse end of that stupidity,” Taka said as the doors opened and they both stepped in. “I’m to blame. Not just for her physical scars, Renha, but also for her psychological, her mental ones. She never deserved any of that.” She stopped, looking upwards at the roof of the turbolift car. “Bridge.”
“And neither do you,” Renha said. “You made a mistake. If you were human, they’d say human nature, live and learn from it. But you’re not.”
“No, I’m not.”
“And we Aenar and Andorians, what’s our saying?”
“Shala sein horla kep,” Taka stated. “The winds clear the ice.” She sighed and her antennae curled. “The ice needs to be cleared between Erra and myself.”
The door opened to the Bridge of the Adventurer.
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Star Trek Adventurer