Personnel Dossier Admiral Zandor"Tholian Lieutenant inbound!" shouted a hoarse voice as red and yellow beams, well, beamed through the cave. S'tarr threw a plasma grenade the moment the Tholian he just warned the rest of the team about beamed in. It bounced of the armor and instead exploded in the middle of a group of Tholian ensigns that had also beamed in.
Ducked behind the rocks in this cave somewhere in the Paehhos Crater on New Romulus, five Starfleet officers dressed in all black Odyssey Excursion uniforms were battling wave after wave of Tholians. Admiral
Zandor, who lead the team, was a thirtyfive year old woman with black hair in a ponytail.
Gilora was a Cardassian science officer, one of the few within Starfleet and knows her way around more than just science stations.
S'tarr was a Caitian tactical officer, a gentle man who often fights but barely ever goes to war.
Blackmore was a young engineer with a bright future. No one can remember Starfleet 0718 Model Android Officer's official designation all the time, so they call him simply
Andy.
All equipped with Antiproton weapons, this elite team of soldiers was raining absolute devastation on the Tholians.
"Commanders incoming!" S'tarr shouted again once the last wave was defeated. And indeed, a couple seconds later a big Tholian Commander beamed in. Being fired at by five weapons at the same time, he quickly died.
Gilora immediately went to the other side of the cave, meaning to scout the path ahead. She did not notice however, the second Tholian Commander beaming in behind her, who aimed on the rocks above Gilora's head. Zandor, still rushing with adrenaline from the fight, slid under spidey's legs and tackled Gilora, pushing her out of the way of the now falling rocks.
The tackle and being hit by several smaller rocks disoriented both Zandor and Gilora while at the other side of the rocks a heavy firefight was still going on. By the time the firefight was over, the two were looking around. Their tricorders were broken, as was Zandor's rifle, the other side of the tunnel had collapsed too and the only light reaching them was coming from where the roof used to be. While Zandor and Gilora stood up from what would be an intimate position in any other situation, a mechanical voice could be heard at the other side of the rocks blocking their path:
"I am reading two lifesigns behind the rocks. One human, one Cardassian, both are conscious. The path at the other side has been blocked off too, although according to my previous sensor readings, the path was ending there anyway." S'Tarr responded:
"That's good to know, Andy. S'Tarr to Hyperion, beam Zandor and Gilora to this side of the collapsed roof please." An older voice answered:
"Impossible Lieutenant, we just received word of a Tholian fleet coming this way. We are moving to intercept them and are out of transporter range. We'll return once we're done." S'Tarr acknowledged the answer and suggested using their weapons to cut through the rocks.
"I don't think that's a good idea, S'Tarr. The rocks don't look particularly stable on this side and we don't have a lot of room avoid them if they're falling again," Zandor said, but Gilora had other ideas.
"If we go all the way to the back, maybe even try to climb on some of the other rocks, we'd be save from any rocks falling down." Zandor stood by her original opinion.
"No, unless we have exhausted other means, I'm not ready to try that yet." Gilora looked annoyed at Zandor. Andy then came with the idea of a singularity to pull the rocks towards the cavern, where the rocks wouldn't be in the way as much. "Can you pull that off, Andy?" Zandor asked impressed.
"Off course. If I dismantle the Tholian environmental suits, I can get the necessary parts." Zandor looked at Gilora, who looked skeptical. She was relatively new to the Admiral's forces and hadn't seen anything impressive from Andy yet.
"It is possible, but if it goes wrong and the rocks get somehow thrown this way, we're dead." Zandor ordered Andy to continue, saying to Gilora:
"If it goes wrong, we'll at least have a wonderful opportunity to experience a two dimensional existence."
Gilora laughed (a welcome sight to Zandor) and decided to sit down, just next to the light beaming in from the roof.
"It's a pity it's too high to climb up," Zandor said while Andy started his work. She too sat down, right next to Gilora, in the shadow. She couldn't do anything at the moment anyway.
While Gilora got lost in her thoughts and stared ahead, Zandor looked at the profile of Gilora's face. Gilora was Cardassian, that was for sure. But what Zandor never realised untill now though, was that Cardassians can be hot too. Zandor looked away, to avoid attracting Gilora's attention.
Gilora had noticed Zandor had been looking at her though, but she decided to ignore it. She was used to Humans looking at her. Usually derogatory terms shouted in her direction ("spoonhead" was a favourite among Humans and Bajorans") or whispers behind her back was what followed. She had learned to ignore it.
An hour or so later, Andy pulled both Zandor and Gilora from their train of thoughts. "Admiral, I am about to launch the singularity. Please stand back in case I made a mistake." Zandor acknowledged and she and Gilora did as Andy suggested. Andy launched his device that launched the singularity. The singularity appeared and the rocks started to vibrate. Before anyone (even Andy) could react, one of the rocks shot away from the pile, shot to the other side of the cavern, hit Blackmore's leg who then screamed in agony, shot back into the pile what resulted in another shooting away. By now Andy turned off his device and the pile collapsed again while the second rock hit the wall of the cave right between Zandor's and Gilora's heads. While S'Tarr tended to Blackmore's wound, Gilora lost her cool:
"Andy! You defective piece of copper clock! Get your head out of your mechanic,-" Zandor interrupted her.
"Gilora, that is enough!" Gilora was about to turn her tirade against the Admiral, but before she could say anything, Zandor looked her sternly in the eyes and said: "Calm down, Lieutenant. That's an order!" Gilora shut her mouth and turned away, while Zandor walked to the pile of rocks again. "Andy, what the hell happened?"
While Andy explained he must have made a mistake in his calculations, Gilora managed to cool down - by slamming her fist into the wall of the cavern and bruising her whole hand, possibly even breaking a couple of bones. She didn't make a sound though.
Andy managed to convince Zandor to let him try the singularity one more time. While he started to redo his calculations, S'Tarr came to the pile and reported:
"Admiral, Blackmore's situation is bad. She needs surgery, but since she isn't going to get that here, the wound will worsen. By the time the Hyperion will be back, the wound will be so bad that she will lose her leg." From the back of the cavern, Blackmore shouted:
"Don't you dare to let it worsen that much, you overgrown ball of fluff or I will turn your fur into a coat for my mother!" Zandor suppressed an inappropriate laugh and ordered S'Tarr to do what he can.
She then looked down and saw the broken remnants of her rifle.
"That was a fine weapon. A pity it is gone now," Gilora said, who now stood besides Zandor.
"Yeah, it was. It was also quite expensive to make. Elite Fleet High Density Rifles are hard to come by," Zandor said. "How's your hand?" Gilora looked at it. It hurt badly.
"It's fine. I'll let that doctor of yours take a look at it when we're back on the ship." Gilora turned to look at Zandor, who hadn't even looked at her hand.
"You're lying. Come here, I'll see if I have anything for it." Zandor opened one of her pouches. "Oh damn, one of the rocks must have crushed my hyposprays when I tackled you. Maybe the fluid can still do some good." Zandor reached for Gilora's hand and placed it on her leg. Gilora adjusted the placement of her hand a bit, so that she was closer to the pouch the fluid was in. She then noticed her hand was now on Zandor's thigh, and quite high even. Zandor noticed this too and hesitated for a moment, before she started to blush and tried to get her complete attention at getting the fluid out of the pouch (and tried to completely ignore that that wasn't the only fluid that was leaking - she was quite sensitive to being touched in that region, even through the thick Odyssey Excursion uniform).
Still blushing, Zandor looked right into Gilora's eyes (who had been looking at Zandor's face the entire time) and asked: "Is that better?" Gilora responded:
"What do you care?"
Surprised and somewhat disappointed, Zandor turned away from Gilora and asked Andy: "How far are you? The view on this side isn't getting any better, Andy."
"I need about ten more minutes, Admiral." Andy said, but S'Tarr then reported a problem.
"I scanned the cavern again, Admiral. It's unstable. If we try the singularity again, there is a chance the whole cave will collapse. Trying to cut through it with our rifles might have the same result. I am sorry, Admiral, but the only thing we can do right now is waiting for the Hyperion to return."
"Understood, Lieutenant. Guess we'll have to make ourselves feel at home for the time being. Andy, you're on watch." Everyone acknowledged and Zandor sat down again.
Gilora sat right next to Zandor. For a while both of them were silent, until Gilora broke it.
"I'm sorry." She looked at Zandor and when Zandor looked back, she continued: "For what I said earlier. You didn't deserve that." Zandor answered loud enough for only Gilora to hear:
"No, I understand. I have read reports of your previous superiors. You haven't really had the best experiences when it comes down to social interactions within Starfleet. Which is ,-"
Before she could finish her sentence, Gilora reached out to Zandor with her bruised hand. Her hand still hurt, but she didn't mind. Gilora let her thumb slide across Zandor's lips. Zandor closed her eyes and before they knew it, the both of them were intertwined in a passionate kiss.
"Admiral Zandor, this is Commander Dragovic on the Hyperion. We are ready to beam you out." It was the same older voice from before. Zandor and Gilora stood up and before responding the hail, they looked one more time at each other.
"Understood. It's nice to hear your voice again, Krunoslav. Five to beam up. Beam Blackmore immediately to sickbay."
The next day, on the U.S.S. Leviathan (Zandor's flagship), Zandor sat behind her desk in her ready room. Blackmore stood in front of her.
"I'm sorry Blackmore, that your injury prohibits you from being a standard member of the away team. You really were a good engineer." Zandor stood up, walked around her desk and leaned against it while crossing her arms. "I can give you a position on the bridge though. Now that Zarva is with child, she has been asking for more time on the secondary engineering station, so the position is yours, if you want it." Blackmore looked depressed. Being on away teams in the most weird, dangerous and unknown places had been the times when she felt like she belonged. For the past several years, she lived for those moments, the rush, the unknown. Holding back her tears, she accepted:
"Thank you, Admiral. At least my live won't turn boring on the bridge, knowing you." Zandor shook her hands and dismissed Blackmore, who then left the Admiral's ready room. When the door opened, she saw a Kobali waiting to enter.
"Ah, Netteya, wasn't it?" Zandor said when she saw the Kobali too. Zandor invited her in. "I am quite pleased to have from the exchange program on my ship! I read your personal dossier and I think you'd be perfect for a spot on my away team that just opened up!" was the last thing Blackmore heard before the door closed again.
Screenshot of Zandor & Gilora
