What Still Survives Part 4

Posted on 10 Sep 2026 @ 1:55am by Lieutenant Commander Aev Flammia

1,747 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Beyond the Raptor's Veil
Location: Kaohht Dhael’Reth & USS Arawyn
Timeline: Currentish

[Kaohht Dhael’Reth, Research Zone II]

Jhun stepped back into the viewing room and found the situation had changed considerably in her absence. Two soldiers stood on either side of N’Vek with disruptors trained on him, while Tovan waited nearby with the composed look of a man who had spent the last several hours making certain every order had been carried out exactly as given. Jhun regarded the scene for a moment before turning her attention to her lieutenant. “So,” she said, allowing herself a small smile, “everything went according to plan?”

Tovan inclined his head. “Our forces control the station and every vessel attached to it. Those who resisted have been taken into custody. The remainder understand what will happen if they decide to follow their example.” His eyes shifted briefly toward the viewing ports. “There are enough bodies outside the station to make the point clear.”

N’Vek’s jaw tightened. He knocked aside the muzzle of the disruptor nearest him, earning an immediate step forward from the soldier holding it, but his attention never left Jhun. “Do you understand what you have done, Colonel? This is treason against the Free State. Against the General. Against your own sister.” His composure was beginning to fracture, anger pushing through the careful discipline he had maintained since her return. “Do you imagine she will shield you from t’Rehu or tr’Kaelev when this reaches Command?” He raised a finger toward her. “If you continue with this, you will have signed your own death warrant.”

Jhun looked around the room as though considering his warning in light of the armed soldiers now occupying his station. “I would say I have already continued with it.” She stepped closer, stopping just beyond his reach. “N’Vek, because we have known one another for a very long time, I am prepared to extend you a small courtesy. You will remain alive for the moment. Abuse that courtesy, and I assure you the space outside this station will prove considerably less forgiving than I am.” She glanced toward the soldiers. “Take him to the dungeons. He still seems rather energetic. Correct that on the way.”

One of the soldiers answered with a nod and drove his fist into N’Vek’s face before the Major could respond. The second struck him across the abdomen with the butt of his disruptor, folding him forward. What followed was brief but deliberate, a succession of blows intended less to incapacitate than to humiliate. N’Vek managed to remain upright longer than Jhun expected, stubbornly refusing to give them the satisfaction of hearing him cry out, until another strike sent him hard against the deck. Only then did Tovan intervene. At his order the soldiers stopped, hauled the bloodied Major to his feet, and dragged him from the viewing room.

Tovan watched them disappear through the doors before looking down at the streak of green blood left across the floor. “Was that necessary, Colonel?” His tone remained respectful, though the question carried more unease than he intended. “We already have a considerable amount to explain if Command discovers what has happened here.”

“He was remarkably eager to occupy my chair after the General reassigned me.” Jhun showed little interest in the blood. “It is useful, on occasion, to remind ambitious creatures how low to the ground they actually crawl.” Her attention shifted beyond the observation glass. Saetare had returned to the corner of her cell, though this time she was not withdrawn into herself. Her violet eyes were fixed directly upon the viewing room. She could not hear them through the barrier, but there was no uncertainty in her expression. She understood enough. “The Free State values results, Tovan. It always has. If we deliver the gateway and give my sister the soldiers she has spent years demanding, no one will care how Kaohht Dhael’Reth changed hands.”

“Perhaps.” Tovan did not sound convinced, and there was little reason for him to pretend otherwise. Whatever reservations he had entertained before the coup were irrelevant now. He had committed himself to Jhun’s course the moment his people turned their weapons on the station command staff. “We have complete control of Dhael’Reth’s communications and external relays. I have ordered our people to continue transmitting scheduled reports to Command under the previous authentication codes. As far as they are concerned, the station is operating normally.”

“Good.” Jhun’s expression became more serious. “That fiction will not survive indefinitely. Someone will notice an irregularity, or N’Vek will be missed by someone inconveniently attentive.” She turned from the window. “Send the message to our people aboard the Federation vessel. Arlen, Arwan- whatever absurd arrangement of sounds Starfleet gave it. We need Saetare’s child brought here. Begin the extraction and have the Aylhr prepared to receive them.”

“Arawyn,” Tovan corrected. Jhun gave him a look that suggested the distinction mattered very little to her. “I will transmit the order.” He hesitated, then added, “There is another consideration. The Federation response. The boy is a Starfleet officer, and his adoptive father is an admiral. Taking him from a Federation vessel may produce consequences beyond the border.”

The trace of amusement disappeared from Jhun’s face. She studied Tovan for several seconds, and when she answered there was nothing theatrical in her anger. “What consequences?” she asked. “Will Starfleet cross into Free State territory to retrieve him? Will the Federation Council authorize an incursion because one officer has disappeared?” She waited, though neither of them required an answer. “They will protest. They will demand explanations. They may move ships toward the border so their diplomats can feel properly supported while they issue those demands. But they will not begin a war for one man, regardless of who adopted him.” She stepped closer to Tovan. “Do not waste time fearing what the Federation might do. Concern yourself with what I have ordered you to do. Bring him here.”

Tovan held her gaze for a moment before lowering his head. “Understood.”

Beyond the glass, Saetare remained perfectly still.

Her eyes had never left them.

[USS Arawyn (sometime later)]

Gamma shift had always suited Taren Lysa. Arawyn became a different ship during those hours, stripped of much of the movement and conversation that filled its corridors during the day. Most of the crew were asleep, the lounges had emptied, and even the steady work of the ship seemed more subdued. For Taren, the quiet afforded something increasingly rare: time in which she did not have to perform for anyone.

She walked alone through one of the aft corridors, her footsteps barely audible over the subdued hum of the ship. There was much to consider now. More than there had been yesterday. More, perhaps, than there would be tomorrow. Her hand rose absently to her face, and one fingertip followed the ridges across the bridge of her nose. She had worn them long enough that the gesture had become familiar. Bajoran skin, Bajoran features, Bajoran history carefully constructed and committed to memory until even the lies had acquired habits of their own. The disguise had felt strange at first. It still did, sometimes. But she did not hate the face she wore. Not entirely.

At the far end of the corridor, an engineering access panel stood open. Lieutenant Sovek knelt before it with a collection of tools spread beside him, several bundles of circuitry and optical cabling hanging from the compartment in considerably less orderly fashion than Taren would have expected from a Vulcan. She slowed as she approached, looked once over her shoulder to confirm the corridor remained empty, then stopped opposite him and rested one shoulder against the bulkhead.

“You seem busy, Sovek.”

Sovek did not look away from the open panel. He adjusted one of the instruments in his hand, studied its reading, and returned it to the toolkit beside his knee with the same measured care he gave any engineering task. “An observation which is both accurate and unnecessary, Lieutenant,” he replied evenly. “This relay has developed a minor synchronization variance. Leaving it uncorrected would be inefficient.” Only then did he glance up at her, one eyebrow lifting slightly. “I presume, however, that you did not come here to discuss routine maintenance.”

Taren smiled. “Oh, yes. How I enjoy our conversations.” She glanced toward either end of the corridor before lowering her voice. “We received our orders. We are to collect the asset and return him home.”

Sovek turned his attention back to the open panel. He made a small adjustment to one of the relays and studied the diagnostic display for several seconds before answering. “I have completed the preparations that were requested. Will you be accompanying the asset?”

“No. I’m staying here.” Taren folded her arms loosely across her chest. “Someone needs to observe what happens afterward, and my position aboard Arawyn remains useful. The Aylhr will intercept you at the rendezvous point as planned.” She reached into a pocket and briefly touched the small case concealed there. “I have the sedative. Medical will not notice it missing until after this is over, and it should put him down quickly. We only need to disable the ship long enough for you to get clear.” Her expression soured slightly. “And then there is the AI. That troublesome little creature of his.”

“I have accounted for both difficulties,” Sovek said. His tone remained as calm as if they were discussing a routine systems diagnostic. “You will receive the location where Commander Flammia is to be brought. Once he arrives, no further assistance will be required.”

The sound of conversation drifted around the bend ahead of them, followed by the quiet laughter of two approaching crewmembers. Taren immediately straightened. By the time the two science officers entered the corridor, whatever familiarity had existed between her and Sovek was gone. She gave the Vulcan engineer the polite expression of a security officer concluding an ordinary conversation during her patrol. “Very well, Lieutenant. I look forward to hearing from you later.”

Sovek merely inclined his head and returned to his work.

Taren pushed away from the bulkhead and continued down the corridor, exchanging a passing nod with the science officers as she went. The calm aboard Arawyn would not last much longer. She found herself curious to see what remained of it once Commander Flammia disappeared.

[To be continued]

Colonel Jhun t'Annhwi
Special Warfare Division, Tal'Shiar
Romulan Free State

 

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