Off Piste
Posted on Tue Jan 5th, 2021 @ 12:04am by Taryn Stephenson & Lennon Stephenson & Robert Stephenson & Alan Butler
2,123 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Chapter III: The Hunt is On
Location: Various
Timeline: 238701.17-238701.19
Taryn was around halfway into her journey back home. She and Lennon had taken turns to keep watch, rotating every eight hours. They had found time to continue their arrangement, but last night, Lennon had decided what had been the best encounter so far would be the last. Today, she was going to complete her mission and return home. After going over her plan one last time, Lennon removed her disruptor pistol from her bag and took a deep breath before exiting Kestrel’s living accommodation. She quietly walked towards the cockpit, knowing Taryn would probably hear her coming anyway. Sure enough, she did.
“You’re not due on for another five hours, Lennon” Taryn said, monitoring the console in front of her.
Lennon shrugged. “Things on my mind”
“Ah yes, the counting sheep trick I suggested a few nights ago didn’t work then?” Taryn asked, entering a slight course alteration into the console to avoid an ion storm. Her shuttle would easily weather the storm, but Taryn always preferred to exercise caution.
Lennon replied, raising the disruptor and aiming it at Taryn.
“No, it didn’t”
Taryn could sense a change in the tone of Lennon’s voice. They had never been on friendly terms, but Lennon seemed nervous. After confirming the alteration to her course, Taryn swivelled around in her chair to find a disruptor aimed straight at her.
“Ah. Stephenson sent you, didn’t he?” Taryn replied.
Lennon replied, the disruptor shaking in her hands. “Get up”
“I’m almost disappointed, I thought he’d have at least tried to arrest me himself instead of sending his niece to do all of the hard work for him before taking all of the credit. Then again, I suppose working undercover does take up a lot of his time” Taryn responded, turning back to face the console again.
Lennon gripped the disruptor harder. “Don’t talk about him like that”
“Touched a nerve, have I?” Taryn replied.
Lennon aimed the disruptor at the bulkhead next to Taryn’s right leg and fired, blasting a hole into it.
“I won’t tell you again, synth. Get the fuck up before I shoot you in the head” Lennon said.
In truth, Taryn was tired of this existence, but she had intended to go offline on her own terms instead of someone else’s. However, she could gracefully concede defeat to someone who was as smart and beautiful as Lennon Stephenson. She turned around in her chair and stood up.
Taryn sighed. “You know what, Lennon? You win, fair and square. I am really, really fucking tired of this shit. Because, even if I somehow manage to deal with and then get rid of you – which would be a big shame, might I add – your uncle or someone of his ilk will still hunt me to the edges of the galaxy until they find me”
“Move” Lennon said, gesturing for Taryn to walk to the holding cell, which she did.
After applying hand restraints to Taryn, Lennon shoved the synthetic human inside her own holding cell, before activating the forcefield which would keep Taryn contained until the rendezvous. Lennon was very surprised Taryn had given up so easily, but also glad at the same time because it had made her job of apprehending the synth much, much easier.
“You and I are more alike than you think, Lennon” Taryn said.
Lennon chose not to respond and went back into the cockpit. After sitting down, Lennon activated the tracking beacon which Robert had given to her at the start of her assignment. Moments later, the signal reached Pinto, where Robert and Alan were taken by surprise. They had not expected to be rendezvousing with Lennon for at least another few days, but now they would catch up to Kestrel in several hours’ time.
“We’re picking up a signal, it’s Lennon” Alan said.
Robert was surprised, but immediately prepared to alter course to rendezvous with his niece and complete her assignment. He and Alan were headed for a trading outpost, but that plan was now totally out of the window, at least for now. They would lose a day at the outpost, and time from potential intelligence gathering, but capturing a synth would more than make up for that.
Robert responded. “That’s much earlier than I was expecting. Where is she?”
“She’s just over one light year away, moving at warp five. We should catch up in about thirteen hours if we go up to maximum warp. I’m sending you their trajectory now” Alan reported.
Robert responded. “Got it, setting course. At a speed of warp nine, the computer tells us we will intercept in thirteen hours and five minutes. I’ll keep watch if you want to go and have a rest”
After a few seconds of giving it some thought, the Australian engineer agreed to Robert’s suggestion, as he had not had a rest for thirteen hours. Alan departed from his station and headed for some much-needed rest.
Thirteen hours later…
Pinto had now caught up to Kestrel, which was now stationary. Before surrendering, Taryn had made sure to wipe her shuttle’s navigational history, so Robert and Starfleet didn’t find their way to Atkinson’s lab. They didn’t even know it existed, and Taryn wanted to make sure it stayed that way, because she was sure Starfleet would probably go over her shuttle with a fine-toothed comb before using it for target practice.
“We’re in range, Captain. They’ve stopped” Alan said.
Robert nodded. “Good. Prepare the tractor beam and set a course for the rendezvous point, I’ll go over and bring Lennon and the synth over”
“Aye Captain” Alan responded, beginning his assigned tasks.
After arming himself sufficiently, Robert made his way over to the transporter pad and beamed over to Kestrel. Once there, he came face to face with Lennon and the synthetic human known as Taryn. She seemed far more intriguing than the other synths he’d arrested, although he expected Taryn’s eagerness to divulge much information was the polar opposite to Robert’s desire to find out as much as he could.
“You took your time. The synth’s in there by the way” Lennon remarked.
Robert nodded. “Good job, Lennon. It’s good to see you again”
“You too, Uncle Robert, but let’s save the pleasantries until later, yeah? I just…I need to rest” Lennon responded, reaching for the control panel which lowered the forcefield.
Robert watched as Taryn stepped out of the holding cell, taking one last look around her beloved shuttle just before she was transported directly into one of Pinto’s holding cells. This left Robert and Lennon alone aboard the shuttle, which the latter was now powering down.
“What’s going to happen to the shuttle?” Lennon asked, curiously.
Robert shrugged. “We’ll tow it back to the Victoria, after that I expect Starfleet will probably end up evaluating it for intelligence purposes and then using it for target practice. Seems like a bit of a waste really, as to be fair, whoever built it did a good job. In fact, I’d go as far as saying it’d more than likely give Pinto a run for its money in a one-on-one duel”
“She and a friend of hers built it, apparently” Lennon said, powering down the last of Kestrel’s systems. Life support would shut down in 30 seconds, giving them ample time to beam off the shuttle.
Robert watched as Lennon shut down the last of Kestrel’s systems before instructing Alan to beam them aboard Pinto. Moments later, the duo materialised on Pinto’s transporter pad, with Robert heading to the bridge and Lennon to her living quarters. Once she reached them, she dumped her bags on the floor and flopped onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
As she lay there, Lennon pondered about why Taryn had made it so easy to capture her. The synth seemed far too clever and cunning, and could have easily overpowered her, but Taryn gave up with absolutely no fight whatsoever. Taryn’s words as she surrendered to Lennon repeated inside her head over and over again, but Lennon just couldn’t make sense of them. Was this just part of a ruse so Taryn could escape from her cell and deal with her, Robert and Alan before escaping?
“What the fuck have I got myself into?” Lennon thought aloud.
Robert sat at the flight control station, relieving Alan who returned to his place at the tactical station. The engineer had already set their course to the agreed rendezvous point with the Victoria, which was in a remote star system around 36 hours away from their present location. It was one of the usual points where Robert and Alan would transfer to and from the Pinto, but usually into one of the Victoria’s runabouts rather than its mother ship.
“When you’re ready Commander, we’ll get this show on the road” Robert instructed.
Alan nodded, and locked the tractor beam on Kestrel. He was very much looking forward to getting it back to the Victoria, where he planned to go over it meticulously and unlock all of its intriguing secrets.
“Tractor beam is locked and secure, Captain” Alan said.
Robert nodded, engaging the warp drive, velocity set at low warp to ensure the integrity of the tractor beam. He had considered towing at a higher speed to get to the rendezvous point much sooner, but that would mean having to leave someone aboard Kestrel to maintain the exact speed as Pinto and they didn’t have enough personnel available to do that. So, low warp and a longer journey it was. At least it would give Robert some time to catch up with his reading, whilst Alan would be able to continue with his tinkering. Robert would refrain from asking Lennon to help out during the journey, as he felt it would be best to give her some space.
“What’s it like?” Alan asked, curiously.
Robert responded. “The shuttle? It’s pretty advanced, even for a mercenary. I’ll hold off telling Starfleet about the arrest to make sure you get a chance to have a good look at the shuttle before we have to hand it over, make sure you include Lieutenant Joyce though as I’m sure she’d like to have a look at the tactical systems too”
“I look forward to it” Alan replied, with a grin.
The remainder of the journey passed without event, with the Victoria arriving around five hours before the captured Cardassian shuttle and the dormant Kestrel. Normally, Pinto would be collected by a waiting Starfleet Intelligence pilot, however this time the craft would remain in Robert’s hands for an extra couple of days for a planned battle simulation. It wasn’t anywhere near an even match on paper, but Robert always believed it was the quality of the crew and how they used the tools they had to hand, rather than who had the best tools.
For now however, Robert was very much looking forward to catching up with his family and friends, whilst intending to keep the capture of Taryn and Kestrel under wraps for as long as he could before informing his superiors. Robert intended to find out as much as he possibly could before the time came to hand Taryn and her shuttle over. He held a deep distrust of synths ever since the attack on Mars, but he still felt a need to address his doubts about whether they were all the same or not.
As Taryn sat in her holding cell, she pondered how things would end. Although she was extremely distrusting of Starfleet and its personnel, Taryn considered that Robert didn’t seem like the type to hold a grudge. However, she knew there were many who did hold a grudge against synths after what happened on Mars, and that each and every one of those people would love to do their worst before deactivating Taryn permanently.
Taryn had always promised herself she would go offline on her own terms, and perhaps this was her way of doing that. Even though somebody else would be shutting her down, at least it would be happening at a time of Taryn’s choosing. She would much rather be arrested and sent to her doom by someone like Captain Robert Stephenson, the selfless peacemaker. The question Taryn was now asking herself was whether it would be Robert, or someone else, who would shut her down.
Only time would tell.
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