Planes of time, Part 2 – By Anna Lena Bäuschlein

Chapter Two: 

Nicholas Tores and Interpretations

“Do you have any idea what you do to me every time you break the rules?” Admiral Chiran wasn’t exactly furious, more like desperate as he shouted at Commander Tores. He had argued with the young officer like this much too often to think that he could actually change him. Tores was a very direct person, so without hesitation he answered: “No, Sir.”

With a sigh, the admiral rubbed his face. “You know that there are people who would like to see you demoted to Lieutenant, as a security guard, far away from any command position?” Nicholas knew that this was more a statement than a question; therefore he didn’t answer. And he knew exactly where this conversation was going. As far as he was concerned, it was pointless to continue it, but non-telepaths somehow always felt the need to re-hash things.

“What did you think you were doing there?” Chiran asked.

Again the Betazoid answered immediately. “My job.”

Sovereign-ReadyRoom-01Sighing, the admiral shook his head. “Your job is to follow orders, and this time your orders were very explicit.”

Up to now this conversation was going just like nearly every other one the two of them had had in the past two years. Several times the admiral had asked himself if he should change his tactics, but somehow they always ended up at this point, and by now he knew he had no chance of changing anything. Still, he didn’t want to leave it at this, so when the younger officer didn’t respond, he decided to be even more specific: “Your orders were to assure the safety of all ambassadors aboard the Nevelle.”

“That’s what I did.” Nicholas answered.

Admiral Chiran didn’t agree. “I guess that my definition of ‘safe’ differs a little from yours.”

Tores knew exactly what the admiral was getting at. Most of the admiralty rated his actions somewhere between totally wrong and utterly foolish. Well, maybe Chiran, at least, didn’t think that badly of him, but like the admiral said, there were still enough people who wanted him as far away from any position of responsibility as possible.

Sighing, Nick replied: “None of the ambassadors were ever in any danger as long as they were on the Nevelle.”

Admiral Chiran sighed and shook his head. “I think the ambassadors see things a little differently. One of them was nearly murdered, and a lot of people were injured. I got tons of complaints in the last two days. From the ambassadors, their governments, even the other admirals who got complaints from them. I’m already way behind with my other work. All because you just couldn’t do things right, even once!”

Tores knew he didn’t really mean that; otherwise they wouldn’t be talking there right now. If Chiran really blamed him for all that had gone wrong, he wouldn’t have asked to see him personally, but would have sent him straight to Admiral Tharesh.

Tharesh was the most feared admiral in Starfleet. All other admirals in this quadrant answered directly to him, and most of them were not happy with that. Some even threatened to send their senior officers to Tharesh if they screwed things up. Tores almost felt sorry for Chiran that he had to deal with Tharesh even more, after what had happened now. Almost. “He was nearly murdered. That means he’s still alive. If it wasn’t for my actions he would most likely be dead now, along with everyone else on the ship.”

The admiral sighed. “I don’t doubt that, it’s just that…” He broke off and tried another approach. “Couldn’t you have just tried not to do this all on your own?”

Now it was Tores’ time to sigh. “I didn’t try to pull this off alone, I simply didn’t have the time to ask anyone for help.”

Chiran gave him a doubting look. “So you didn’t have a second to tell anyone what you were about to do before you confronted someone who was insane enough to blow up the whole ship if he wanted?”

Nick rolled his eyes. “Firstly, I didn’t know that back then. Secondly, he was still the Vichellian ambassador. And actually all that I had to go on up to then was a bad feeling about that man, that I wasn’t even sure of.”

Ready Room Fish Tank

“You could have told the captain that you sensed something about him.” Chiran said.

The commander snorted sarcastically. “Oh really, as if the captain would ever base his actions upon my feelings.”

“You are a Betazoid, after all…” the admiral started off, but Tores interrupted him.

“Do you remember what happened last time I told him I sensed something? And back then I really was sensing something, and not just having a bad feeling.”

The admiral ignored the commander’s last remark. “If not the captain, you could have at least told someone else. Or increased the security around…”

Nicholas got a feeling that he was about to repeat himself and they were not getting anywhere, so he did what he always did in situations like this. He interrupted the admiral once more, which he would never have dared to do with his captain, and asked: “Did you read my report?”

And although they had had this part of the conversation very often before, and he knew exactly where it was going, the admiral, as always at this point, replied: “Sure, why?”

“Because,” Tores answered with more than a slight sense of déjà vu, “in this entire conversation I haven’t said anything you couldn’t have read in there.”

The admiral sighed. “I’m on your side, you know that.” he said. “But a lot of higher ranked people are not, and some of them are very keen on seeing you demoted or even expelled. And that they haven’t found a reason to do that up to now, doesn’t mean they wouldn’t have done in the future.”

Commander Tores was about to give his usual reply, that it wasn’t his fault and he had never done anything against regulations, when he noticed that something was different this time. “Wouldn’t have?” he asked, a little confused.

“Yes,” the admiral replied, “’wouldn’t have’. They won’t demote you in the near future, or if they do, at least it won’t be my problem anymore.”

Nick wasn’t really sure if it was happiness or regret he could hear in Chirans voice, but at the moment he was too stunned to say anything, still trying to figure out what was going on. The admiral continued.

“There seems to be someone who desperately wants to have you.” he said. “You are to report to shuttlebay 2 at 1700 hours station time tomorrow.”

“What?” the still shocked Commander finally managed to say. Then he shook his head and asked the more fitting question: “Who?”

The admiral smiled. “I have no idea. It seems to be a section 31ish thing and you know they don’t like me. I’m only the messenger,” he said, clearly a little dissatisfied with not knowing more. “But you better be there in time, so go and get your things together now.”

Nicholas Tores left the office without answering. He was so engrossed in wondering who might want him so desperately as to bypass the official transfer procedure, that he didn’t notice anyone, and only spoke to the turbolift and the computer in his quarters. But one thing he knew for sure: This was either going to be the chance of a lifetime, or his worst nightmare.

Avatar photo

Author: Marc Stamper

Trek geek extrordinaire and the TrekMate tech wizard. Always liked Trek but when TNG started here in the UK I fell in love and have not looked back since. Podcaster since January 2012

Share This Post On

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.