Covert Scans

Posted on Sun Mar 10th, 2024 @ 6:42am by Lieutenant Marikit "Kit" Urso & Lieutenant JG Orion Wolff & Lieutenant JG Revana Nazar

Mission: S1 Episode 7: Prime Factors
Location: Capital City, Sikaris
Timeline: Date 2371-09-16 at 1300
3668 words - 7.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

It had only been an hour since the end of the senior staff briefing and the call from Vengeance that had informed her of their find. A technology which could transport people over 40 thousand lightyears away could be a huge boon for them. She was already planetside for her shoreleave, so she didn't even have to slip into something casual. She had suggested they go as tourists in order to avoid arousing suspicion, and her suggestion had been accepted. She stood on the outskirts of the busy square where one of the strange Sikarian transporters was held and looked out at the crowds of strolling Sikarians and tourists. The square was an obvious hub for transport but was also quite well decorated and served as a lovely place to relax. She wore a shoulderless, strapless brown dress made of a soft Sikarian fabric that hugged her generous curves like it was painted on. It had buttons that were made of a golden metal and stopped at her upper thigh, giving way to beautiful toned green legs.

Kit and Orion finally rounded a corner together after having beamed in a little ways away to keep from being overly conspicuous by suddenly appearing at the alien’s transporter pad and immediately starting to scan. Kit for her part was in her usual casual ensemble of jeans, a beat up band shirt, and her leather jacket. When she saw Revana standing there in… what she was wearing and all of the eyes going to the woman who was most definitely dressed to grab male attention, she let out an audible sigh. They’d have to make it work.

“Don’t stare, Orion.” She pre-chided the nobleman next to her before they were in earshot of Revana.

As Orion walked down the busy street, he found himself feeling a bit nervous. He adjusted his jacket, trying to maintain a low profile and not attract the attention of security forces. "What are you talking about?" His attention turned briefly to Kit before he started scanning the the plaza discreetly. Though almost immediately his attention was drawn to the Viridian skinned woman that that replaced Kit as the Chief Engineer for the Gladius. He couldn't help but notice that while technically covered, her outfit might have been more at home in a bedroom rather than a public street. Despite being taken aback by her attire, Orion tried to keep his focus on their surroundings.

They were there on business but the Revana's presence was probably going to draw more attention than they would have likely wanted.

Despite his effort to concentrate on their mission, Orion couldn't resist stealing a quick, appreciative glance at the woman before turning his attention elsewhere. He couldn't deny that her beauty was striking, but he knew that he needed to stay focused and keep his mind on their mission.

Kit of course noticed immediately when Orion did the exact thing she said not to do and rolled her eyes immediately. She didn't point it out though as they approached Revana and Kit smiled. "Hey. Ready?"

Revana returned the smile and saw the judgement in it. It was something she was used to seeing, of course. She always stood out in a crowd her entire life. A green girl couldn’t hide. She had other ways of directing attention from what she was up to.

“The pad is just over there in the middle of the square.” She said, nodding in the direction where two Vidiians with a gang of merry children stepped onto the round device and disappeared. “We won’t want it be too obvious, but it seems like a public thing. I doubt we’ll have to sneak too much.”

Her eyes moved from Kit to Orion and lingered there for several long seconds.

Orion was captivated by the gentle and soothing tone of Revana's voice. He glanced towards the group that had suddenly vanished, and his attention soon shifted back to their charming companion. He couldn't help but admire her graceful curves, barely concealed by her attire, a slight smile forming on his lips as he was entranced by the subtle play of light and shadow, which highlighted her feminine form in the most captivating way.

"No, I doubt there's a need for much sneaking about with people so open with what they have to offer."

Kit looked up and watched the two eye fuck each other for a moment and then cleared her throat. "Alright let's get to it shall we? We'll see how this goes here first and then we may find it beneficial to actually use the transport ourselves since it seems to be a free for all."

"Let's". Revana said, and started in the general direction of the transporter, passing from shade into sushine. She kept pace with the other two, looking at Kit with a curious expression. "Urso, how's are ship switch going for you so far?"

“Mmm? Oh.” Kit blinked and smiled. “First of all, you can call me Kit or Marikit if you want. To answer your question though, it’s been fine. Busy, but fine. I’ve only had like… six complaints lodged against me or something. Apparently my expectations are,” she paused and brought her hands up, air-quoting as she said, “unreasonable.”

Her hands drifted back to her sides and moved naturally as they walked. “I didn’t manage to break anyone’s nose yet though. Good for you on that, by the way.”

“Revana Nazar: first in Love, First in war.” The green woman said with a vicious smile as they stepped to the side to dodge a pair of Sikarian women walking across their path. “A woman’s got to have some fight in her in the Fleet. I’m sure the department will adjust to your high expectations. They’re smart, dedicated officers.”

Looking past Kit, she eyed Orion again, her beautiful green gaze Landing on his body and then his eyes.

“How about you, Orion? The Vengeance Science Department is a slightly bigger pond for you. Are you being swallowed up?”

Orion flashed a playful smirk as he caught Revana's eye. He held her gaze for a moment, his mind racing with possibilities, before finally responding to her comment with a flirtatious tone. "I wouldn't say I've been consumed by it, but I have been exploring the new position, trying to find what feels right and works best."

“If you two talk anymore about swallowing and positions, I’m going to get the hose.” Kit spoke up from in front of the both of them. As they approached the platform, she slowed and began to inspect it visually. “Sure doesn’t look like much on the surface.”

Orion involuntarily chuckled and a smirk appeared on his face in response to Kit's remark. However, he quickly regained his focus and turned his attention back to the matter at hand - their business with the trajector. "I'd say it looks even more simplistic than our transporter pads, I don't see any signs of a buffer unit or anything that looks like power relays or reimaging foci."

“That could all be underground.” Kit pointed out as they drew closer. Eventually when they were close enough, she shoved her hand in her pocked and pulled out her tricorder. “Let’s see.”

“I would suspect they keep those components away. It keeps them protected from the natural wear and tear the elements would cause, and...” Revana smiled at the two others, her pearly white teeth standing out from the ruby red of her lips, “It would make it hard for nosy neighbors to figure out how it works. What do your scans tell you, Kit?”

"They tell me this is some weird shit." Kit replied as she looked at the tricorder. "Neutrinos for one thing, and look at this dispersion pattern here." She motioned Revana closer for the woman to have a look.

"I've never seen this in practice before, but it looks very much like theorized patterns as a result from folding space." Theoretical problems weren't usually taught in the standard courses at the Academy, but Kit didn't automatically assume that Revana hadn't taken them.

"I see what you mean," Revana said, stepping up next to Kit and not being shy about getting in her space to see the display. "What I wonder is how they manage to power this thing. I can't imagine they can do it with the components present on your scan."

Revana turned and stepped up to the console near the device, accessing the location database and viewing the options it placed before her.

"Amazing. There are thousands of locations stretched out over thousands of lightyears." she said, looking at the visual database for one of the worlds.

"I need someone to go through it." Kit said and then looked between Orion and Revana. "Either of you want to volunteer or are we just going to wait around for someone to stroll up?"

She'd at least offer it as a volunteer position first.

"The Great Lights of Nioll are apparently incredibly romantic." Revana said, looking to Orion with a smile, playful and flirtatious. "What do you think, Orion? Does it seems like a good first trip for Kit's experiment?"

"Work is always more pleasant when a pleasant view accompanies it," The Terran nobleman smiled, letting his gaze move over Revana's curvaceous form as he stepped up to the console to examine the displayed image. It was a breathtaking view, and he could see why it was considered such a popular romantic destination.

“Gods above.” Kit rolled her eyes and sighed at both of them. Revana was leading the man by the nose and Orion was trotting after her like a happy puppy. “Fine, both of you can go. You’ve got five minutes of canoodling on the other side and if you aren’t back by then I’m coming to get you with the hose.”

Revana grinned at Kit's reaction, but said nothing more. She simply stepped onto the pad and looked to Orion.

"Coming, sir?" she asked, meeting his eyes.

Orion smirked and gave a little chuckle at Kit's reaction, though he knew she'd absolutely do it. He had no doubt. As he followed Revana's swaying hips, he stepped onto the platform to stand beside her. The anticipation of the trajector's operation momentarily distracted him from the emerald-skinned woman standing next to him. He couldn't help but wonder how it would feel to be transported from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Despite his distraction, he couldn't deny the allure of Revana's presence as she stood beside him.

“Should just have to say it and off you go.” Kit prompted.

“Nioll.” Orion stared clearly.

With a near-instant flash, the public square disappeared, replaced with a dark beach with sand almost as black as the nighttime sky. The sea was illuminated, however, with colors of the most magnificent purple, pink, and blue. Revana gasped as soon as she saw it, and all of her flirtatious playfulness fell away. It was certainly one of the most beautiful things she felt an immediate pang of pain in her heart at it, yearning and sadly sweet.

"My Gods..."

-----

Kit’s joking manner had immediately given way to business. Her warm chocolate eyes were transfixed on the device in her hand as it lit up with new readings. Each appearing statistic pulled her gaze to it, and she licked her lips while totally transfixed. This trajector was truly an amazing piece of technology. Her excitement quickly faded, though, as readings stopped coming in.

“The fuck?” She smacked the side of the tricorder a few times. “Ah, come on now.”

Luckily for her, she happened to look up in time to see three armed Sikarian police officers striding on the other side of the manicured bushes along the slightly winding path that would lead them to the platform. Alarmed, she closed the tricorder, quickly trotted off down the path, and stepped through a few sets of nearby bushes and behind a tree. Pulling her commbadge from her pocket, she placed it against the tricorder and tapped it.

“Urso to Vengeance. Lock on to my commbadge signal and beam it up.” As she spoke the words, she knelt down and placed the tricorder with the commbadge on top of it at her maximum reaching distance away and then, after she stood, gave it an extra little push with her foot.

“Acknowledged.” A man replied on the other end, and she watched as the commbadge and tricorder disappeared. Giving a sigh of relief, she took a second to close her eyes.

-----

The sensation of being transported by the trajector was almost ephemeral, like being in a dream and then waking up as the sounds of the surf and the tang of sea air were the first things he noticed. He began to look around at the incredibly breathtaking view. He'd only ever seen a black sand beach a handful of times on Terra, but he'd always found them to be more impressive than the pristine perfection of a white sand beach. It was an awe-inspiring sight, to be sure, and he let himself become lost in the moment, forgetting Revana or their flirtations. It was unlike anything he had ever experienced before, taking in the kaleidoscope of colors that both demanded and commanded his attention.

After pealing her eyes away from the stunning view of the technicolor sky, Revana glanced at Orion to gauge his own response. She knew grime his expression he was just as transfixed by the sight as she was. Smiling, she stepped into his space, but kept herself from touching him; an exquisite tension building between them.

“I think this is the perfect place to make love.” She said with a grin. “We have to acquire this trajector...I think my heart would break if I couldn’t come back.”

Orion blinked, and it took him a moment to realize how close Revana was to him. Her words processed through a coy smirk formed on his lips, and his attention turned from the gorgeous scenery to his lovely companion. "It certainly would be a memorable place, that's for sure."

Licking his lips, he turned away from her with some reluctance. Looking back to the trajector pad, he considered how this technology could change the face of the Alpha Quadrant. The Imperial fleet could strike anywhere, anytime, and the Alliance would be helpless in stopping them. "It is an amazing technology, though Kit was quite serious about coming after us with the hose if we were back in five minutes, so unfortunately, we'll have to put a pin in any extracurricular plans we might be able to dream up here. She's a woman of her word."

“I didn’t take you for the obedient type,” Revana said, a smile playing at her hips, but part of her seemed to pull back as his hesitation. Perhaps he was too affected by what Kit wanted, which wouldn’t do. Terran men were scared of Orion women like little boys. Oh well. Her radiant smile lingered on her face with a hint of disappointment. “A lion in talk, a sheep in practice.”

"By the gods, what a pity," he said, shaking his head and giving her a wry smile. "I thought you were one to appreciate some clever banter and lightheartedness, Revana. It's a shame to learn otherwise."

His demeanor quickly shifted as he turned to face her. The look in his eyes was no longer one of desire or admiration but rather a cold and steely gaze. He spoke in a firm and assertive tone, determined to make himself clear. "Since it appears that you are not the kind of woman I had assumed you to be, I will clarify things so there can be no misunderstanding."

"We are not here for leisure, romance, or a tumble in the hay," he declared in a resolute tone that brooked no argument or opposition. "We have a critical mission that could determine our return home to Terra. I have no intention of delaying it, and leaving Kit behind to perform a possibly illegal act on her own is both reckless and perilous. I will not risk the safety of a fellow officer to indulge in some carnal distraction. You are a beautiful woman, but you are not that beautiful."

He appeared to be finished with the conversation, having retrieved his tricorder to collect some data on the trajector from this journey's end. Once he'd gathered the needed data, he was on the pad and returned to Sikaris.

Revana had been flirting with a man who, until just moments before, had been drooling all over her and sending strong signals of interest that bordered on ridiculous. She had given him the slightest bit of challenge when he'd pulled back, and he showed her that he was nothing more than a vain little boy by becoming extremely cold and insulting. She frowned deeply as he lost his emotional control and read her the riot act, furious but unsurprised. She was treated like this all the time in the Terran Empire. She was beautiful until the second she didn't give a man what he wanted, like that was what she was made for. If any genuine attraction had been there for Orion Wolff, it quickly shriveled up and died as he shouted at her. To top it off, he hopped on the pad and left her alone on the planet without a word. What a psycho baby man.

Revana's fists balled up and she imagined stabbing Orion repeatedly as she climbed onto the pad, she worked to calm the swell of anger before requesting Sikaris and blinking away, not sparing another glance at the gorgeous sky.

-----

Orion returned to the trajector pad on the Sikarian homeworld. As he looked around, the world appeared much duller and colorless than the vibrant place he had just left. He rubbed his eyes, feeling a lingering effect from returning to mundane reality.

Revana returned after Orion but stood noticeably further from him than before. Her face was still hot, and she was angry at how she had been treated. Despite those feelings, she showed the control she had been trained to show and smiled at Kit coyly. No one would know how upset she was by looking at her.

“It’s a paradise, Kit. You must see it.” Before walking off the pad without Orion, she said, “What did you get from your scans?”

As soon as they were both off the platform, Kit came up between them, firmly grabbing each one by the arm. She walked forward, pushing them forward as well. “Oh my gods, there you are. You sneaked off without me!”

She laughed as if something funny had happened and continued walking them along the path and past the guards lingering and doing their own scans. Once they were a little past them, she looked from Orion to Revana and back. “One of you get us out of here now. I don’t have my commbadge.”

Revana knew a bit when she saw one and offered no resistance when Kit took her wrist and started them off away from the pad.

"Nazar to Vengeance," she said, tapping her commbadge. "Three to beam up immediately."

After a few seconds of pause, the transporter's blue beams converted them to nothing. They reappeared on the transporter pad shortly after.

"Did someone catch you, Kit?" Revana asked, her voice a soft purr as if often was, as she stepped gracefully off the pad.

"Pffff... no. Almost, but no." Kit laughed, good-natured and oblivious to what had happened between Orion and Revana after they had stepped onto the platform. "I beamed my tricorder up to the ship beforehand, just in case." As she said it, she stepped over to the console to collect both her commbadge and tricorder from the console there.

"Let's head down to engineering and go over this data, shall we?" She prompted while pinning her commbadge back on.

"I gathered some scans from our destination just to see if there might be anything different in case we needed something for comparison." Orion offered up, seemingly over his attraction to the scantily clad Revana as he instead focused on the task at hand. The fact that there had been Sikarian security at the platform after they'd started their clandestine attempt to gather intel about the trajector was something of note even if they didn't get anything else from the outing. "It would seem that they take the security of the trajectory seriously despite it being so publicly available to anyone to use."

“Of course they do. It’s one of the most powerful technologies in existence.” Revana said with a tone that suggested Orion’s observation was obvious. She fell in step with Kit, standing on the other side, and away from him. “If one considers the potential, one might imagine Terran soldiers using these pads to travel to Qo’Nos with weapons in hand. Vacations are nice, but the Glory of the Empire can only be increased by possessing something so powerful with such a potential to surprise the enemy.”

Kit blinked as they walked, her head moving from one to the other and back. To say they had gone frosty fast would be an understatement. A fleeting part of her wondered what happened, but they had much more pressing concerns than some silly flirting or... whatever they were doing.

"First step is to figure out how the shit it works before we start drifting off to lalaland with what all we could do with it." She walked the group to the turbolift and once they were all on, she gave a decisive command.

"Engineering."

As the turbolift began to move, she opened the tricorder again.

Hopefully these two could keep up.

END