Keep All Your Roses, I'm not Dead

Posted on Thursday, 24 December 2020 - 8:16pm by Captain Barret Stillwater & Commander Soral & Lieutenant Talarn Zilth & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie

Mission: Operation: Ouroboros

ON:

Soral and Mac entered the medial bay where the captain was. Soral was not surprised to see Zilith there by his husband's side. The captain was awake and Soral let out a breath that he'd been holding. Mac got to the two first. "Sirs." He stood by the bed remembering how comforting they were when Haru was first brought in. "Captain, how are you?" He looked at the Cardassian and tried to convey an encouraging look. "How are you, Sir?"

Talarn stood when the two officers entered. He watched them approach, nodded to them and sat down again. "Things are as to be expected..." he responded to Mac's inquiry. "I am fine..." His gaze shifted to Barret.

Mac moved behind Talarn and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He will be alright."

Soral studied the CO and his husband. "Starfleet Security is looking into this and I have Mac here looking into it as well."

Talarn patted Mac's hand on his shoulder and nodded. "Thank you, Lieutenant and thank you as well, Commander. Do you need my assistance? I am the Tactical Officer after all and I've just... been here." He didn't want the Lieutenant Commander to think that he expected time off or that he had abandoned his post. His gaze shifted to the Vulcan.

Soral raised his hands. "Not tonight. Just be with Commander Stillwater, but I do understand that there was a mission to be undertaken to Venus. I will be brought up to speed shortly and we will leave day after tomorrow."

"Fuck that," Stillwater replied, clearing his throat. The two conversing like two ships passing in the night, gingerly navigating around an iceberg and trying not to collide with one another in the process, carrying on with that iceberg being Stillwater himself. "Commander, if Talarn can be of any use right now, even marginally, you make damn good use of him. His sorrowful Cardassian ass goes to waste standing around here tending to my needs. I have an armada of doctors and nurses to order around who can care for me. What I need right now is the both of you clear-headed and taking care of business."

Commander Stillwater looked at Talarn, flashed a comforting gaze of content, and shifted his focus on his First Officer. "I was poisoned, Number One, not mutilated and left comatose," Stillwater fired off. "A little poisoning is not going to keep me down and out for long. They can bench me for the time being due to medical bullshit, but once I am out of the window of concern, I'm coming back into the game all phasers firing. We had an Admiral killed, an assassination plot against the President of the Federation in the works, and who the fuck knows what else is left in the bottom of Pandora's box."

"I will ensure that everyone is working, Sir." He cleared his throat. "Originally they suspected Grol."

"Naturally, though I told them to work immediately to clear him. I had no doubts of Grol's innocence in the matter."

Talarn crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. He didn't like to be dismissed, but he understood Barret's command. He snorted at the Grol comments and shook his head. "I'm fairly certain that whoever is responsible for this is more than likely no longer on this planet. At least I would hope not. I'm sure that if I killed an Admiral I would be on the first transport out of here. Of course, that doesn't account for the narcissist that likes to stick around to view the chaos that they caused. Poison is a coward's weapon though, so I would assume that they fled." He took a deep breath. "The way to get to the bottom of this is going to involve figuring out why this was done. Who has the most to gain by the Admiral's death?"

Soral shifted uncomfortably. "There are some options and I am not certain that I like any of them." He waited to be given leave to speak by his CO as was his habit.

Talarn looked up at the Vulcan. "I just hope that Starfleet wants whoever is responsible for this dead, because when I get my hands on them they will be." His tone was more than serious.

Mac gave Talarn's shoulder a squeeze.

"Save them for me," replied Stillwater. "I want a piece of them myself. I got lucky, the Admiral was not as fortunate."

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