Rift In The Ranks

Posted on Fri May 31st, 2024 @ 7:05am by Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel & Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov
Edited on on Fri May 31st, 2024 @ 7:05am

Mission: S1 Episode 8: Resolutions
Location: XO's Office
Timeline: Date 2371-12-25 at 1230
3465 words - 6.9 OF Standard Post Measure

It was roughly half an hour after the debacle on the bridge that Lyra had left her station in the hands of one of the auxiliary officers. The whole thing had left a bad taste in her mouth. Of course she sided with Andrei for the most part; Annalise was too cautious, but Andrei’s approach left much to be desired. She knew he was desperate to find a cure for his family while Annalise was determined to protect the rest of their people; both goals seemed fundamentally at odds. Andrei had retreated to his office, and Lyra walked into the entrance doors.

“Jasper.” She greeted.

“He’s pissed.” Jasper warned her.

“Yeah I know.” Lyra waved him off and stepped into Andrei’s office proper.

When the door opened, Lyra saw the long black hair on the back of Andrei’s head. He sat in his desk chair, facing the back console display.

“I asked to be left alone, did I not?” He asked, his voice dark and dangerous.

“I didn’t really give Jasper a chance to say anything.” Lyra admitted as she walked into the office and the door closed behind her. She moved up beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder as he sat there, offering her presence, but not pressing him.

“Well he’s lucky it’s you.” He said somberly, but his eyes were still trained on the logo of Imperial Starfleet presented on the screen. He was clearly frustrated, but strangely introspective. “Do you need something, Love?”

She glanced at him, her expression unreadable. She couldn’t decide if he was purposefully being aloof or if he really didn’t think she would come to him after what had happened; or maybe he just didn’t want her.

“I wanted to come and speak with you.”

“Good.” He said, turning and looking up at her finally. “There’s clearly a lot to talk about.”

Andrei turned and activated a pad on his desk. An indicator on the side would make it clear to Lyra it was an encrypted device.

“I can’t allow her to remain in command any longer. I don’t believe she has any real intention of trying to save the away team, and every day we get further away.” He said. He was angry and his behavior was unusually reserved, but he wasn’t bursting at the seams.

Of course Annalise wasn’t trying to save the away team, she was trying to continue to lead the crew to Terra. There was literally no one else in the entire fleet that cared about the away team as much as Andrei for obvious reasons, but Lyra couldn’t help be certain he wouldn’t have cared at all had his family not been on the planet. Truthfully, she didn’t know why he hadn’t remained with them, but maybe underneath it all his ambition would win out over everything.

When he offered the PADD to her, she took it, but instead of looking at it her eyes remained on him. “What are you proposing?”

“I’m proposing we do away with her. I’d prefer her dead, personally…it might be cleaner that way, since dead people can’t fight back. But I assume you and most others would want to save her and keep it bloodless.” he said, and initiated a conversation which might change the entire trajectory of the Fleet.

Lyra narrowly avoided rolling her eyes at his statement, instead taking a brief glance down to the PADD. “Yes I think that would be the smarter short term move.”

“Assuming she plays ball and goes peacefully. We could risk a serious fight trying to hold her hostage for more than a few hours.” Andrei commented. “Her allies would inevitably try to save her unless proper fear was put into them, and people might end up dying anyway. At least, if she were dead, there would be nothing to fight for.”

He leaned back in the chair, his fist clenching from the interaction earlier. If Lyra was annoyed with his point of view, he either didn’t notice or didn’t give it much thought. There was more than one way to take a ship, and he wasn’t claiming his personal desire to have her gone was the only option.

“So, if not that, then what shall we do with her to keep her away from the half of the senior staff who have served under her since arriving in the Delta Quadrant?”

Lyra shifted to sit on the edge of his desk. “She does seem to genuinely want to protect the people in this fleet. Assuming that is true, when she sees how much support we would have I doubt she would try to retaliate; a lot of people would die. If we kill her, we’d also likely end up with a number of dead Terrans seeking vengeance. I also can’t say it’s generally a popular move to kill a beautiful young woman regardless of circumstance or reason.

We’d have to confine all of the former Gladius personnel on the ship as well if we remove her.” She paused then, pensive a moment. “Though, truthfully, I don’t think she would be against going back for the away team. Not if she was given something concrete.”

Lyra understood that Annalise didn’t want to take enormous risk on the chance of a “maybe”. If Lyra were in that position, she likely would have done the same. The problem was Andrei cared about nothing or no one besides his family. The fleet could go down in flames and everyone - perhaps including her - could die if it meant he could hold his sister and mother again; he wouldn’t care. That depth of loyalty could be admirable, but it didn’t generally make a person capable of logically thinking things through.

“I’d suggest we work on planning this little coup, but we wait to enact it until after you get back with information on the cure. If you have it and she still says no, then we can remove her.”

Andrei wasn’t too concerned with the optics, but he trusted Lyra’s instincts and was willing to steer a less extreme road with her. He licked his dry lips and nodded.

“I can do that. After all, if she will act, there’s no reason for all the drama of removing her from the captain's chair.”

Lyra nodded. She was proud of how Andrei was handling this, but wasn’t sure it was right to point that out to him. Truthfully she had come in here expecting him to be in a blind rage and completely unreasonable about the whole thing. She moved a bit closer to him while remaining on the desk.

“Do you know where you’re going to look for information when you get to the conference?”

“I figured the best place to start was a hospital, if I can find one. The Vidian Scientific Database is networked to all of their facilities. We already know the Lovarr doesn’t have any serious information on the disease or its cure, but I’m more interested in finding personnel records.” Andrei answered, taking a deep, calming breath. “If Dr. Pel is located on the fringes of the Sodality, we can contact her.”

On watching him take the breath, Lyra moved again and this time slid into his lap, though sideways so she was on his thigh with her long toned legs over the arm of his chair. Her hand went to his chest, but she didn’t press for anything at all.

“Or we can just go to her and take it from her. Talking to these people has never gotten us anywhere.”

“That’s true.” Andrei said, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close. He seemed to genuinely calm a bit more with her against him. “These aliens have always been wolves or sheep, and their stubborn stupidity can be astounding. I’m not sure Annalise is willing to fight though. It depends how challenging the odds would be.”

“Perhaps, but we will see. She is Terran and while she is certainly more cautious than I agree with, I don’t know that it necessarily means she wouldn’t fight for our people. If she isn’t, we remove the lamb from commanding the lions.” Lyra moved her hand from his chest and brought it up to trace the features of his handsome face. “We’ll get your family back, Darling.”

“We’ll get them all back.” he corrected, and grabbed her hand quickly. He brought it down to his lips and kissed it gently, looking into her eyes. “Jasper and Jackie will be with us, for what that’s worth. We can avoid calling in the Legion considering we’re trying to do this peacefully.”

Pretty words, but she knew it wasn’t about any of the others in the end.

“See I thought Jackie’s giant crush on the woman would prevent that.” She was clearly joking, and the corners of her lips turned up in a smile. “We’ll have the great majority of the security department with us as well, obviously. Some of the engineers… Sovas will support us as well.”

“Jackie likes every pretty face, so that’s nothing new. Besides, she loves my father and tells me she’s the son he never had.” Andrei said, returning the grin. “Obviously Kit won’t be for us, and I’m not sure if Nairobi will be willing to do anything drastic. She doesn’t seem like a risk taker to me, though I don’t know her very well.”

Lyra was quite sure Andrei could charm Nairobi into doing anything, but she wasn’t about to say that and add to her list of women she would likely have to take care of some day. It was already quite long. “We’ll need to find some way to draw those two out of engineering when we do this. Kit is much smarter than she lets on and very quick.”

“But she isn’t strong.” Andrei commented, eyeing Lyra. “A bit of cloak and dagger just before we arrest her will do the trick. I don’t imagine anyone in the department will press the issue when they know Annalise and Kit are both locked away and I am in command. I know many of them personally anyway, and I have no reason to suspect they’ll have some problem with my leadership. We could always bring Revana over to assist us…but I have a feeling she’ll be needed to keep an eye on Stagg. He’s one of the idiots who might actually try to stop us.”

Lyra didn’t react when he spoke of Revana, though she found it interesting he expected her to somehow keep Stagg in check while more or less dismissing Kit out of hand. “Yes, he probably will. He doesn’t like you after all.”

“I can’t imagine why.” Andrei said, running a hand through her hair. “We can make use of Immy to manage ship systems until we have control of every department. What are your thoughts on medical?”

“Brasken will be interested in a cure even if he isn’t necessarily overly supportive of the rest. Once that type of person gets something like that in their head, they rarely give up on it. He still looks for one on his own even after these months.” She leaned into him a bit more, relaxing. “The others… well, a bunch of nurses and doctors are hardly a physical threat and if we bar their access to ship systems they won’t be problems.”

“I hope they want to save Mika and Riley as much as we do. Everyone has lost someone they worked with every day.” Andrei said, and then consulted the PADD he’d given Lyra for the next item. “It would be a shame if something happened to Orion during this mutiny, wouldn’t it?”

“Much like it was a shame what happened to Johnathan during the attack in the nebula.” Lyra noted, convincing in her somber tone but delighted in those dark eyes. “If you’d like, Darling, though I admit I enjoy watching his face every time one of us passes by; so angry and ineffectual.”

“He’s the kind of weak man who can’t give up. I’m sure he masterbates to some fantasy where he makes love to you while I stand in the background crying.” Andrei said, shaking his head. “The man has an insatiable taste for justification. He despises that I’m better than him and he always has.”

Lyra laughed at that, shaking her head and sliding her arms around his shoulders. “He’s a weak man who lets that kind of petty grievance stand in his way and always will. He could probably have plenty of wealth and power if he could just accept his place as lesser.”

“He never will. And that makes him as dangerous as it makes him useful. I should find a way to keep an eye on him.” he said, and then kissed her cheek gently. “Where shall we keep them? Their quarters? The Brig?”

“We could tie Orion up in our quarters, keep him as a pet.” She teased and then kissed his forehead. “Separated would be best. The ones we worry about the most should be kept in the brig and away from being able to be nuisances, the others can be locked in their quarters and given access to nothing.”

“I’m sure he could be trained to bark like a dog and fetch the paper.” Andrei said with a chuckle. “That sounds like a good plan. Your friend Maya will need to be arrested as well. Does that bother you?”

“I doubt there will be much of a friendship after this regardless of if she were arrested or not, really.” Lyra noted and was frustratingly cryptic on her actual feelings about it. “It doesn’t matter.”

“What do you mean? I thought the two of you were getting along well.” he asked, looking confused. “It’s not like we’re killing anybody.”

“No, but it’s a betrayal and she already thinks I did that once in a way, I suppose.” She shrugged and kissed his forehead again. “She likes Annalise. The woman kept them safe and going for a long while, that kind of thing inspires a lot of loyalty.”

“We can make sure she has an extra comfortable cell as a sign of love.” he said, moving his hand through her hair again. It hadn't been a joke, and he didn’t smile. “And it’ll only be a little while anyway. The amount of time it takes to secure the cure and travel back to the Gamma Eridine System. You can visit her and make sure she knows it isn’t personal. Didn’t you say she has a boyfriend stuck on the planet? For all we know, she might be willing to help us.”

“She does, though they hadn’t been together too long so I don’t know how much she might be pining after him; with how she talked though I’m not sure they got out of the puppy love stage though, and that is strong.” Lyra sat, pensive, but was relatively certain Maya wouldn’t forgive the insult. “I wouldn’t risk trying to bring her in. She speaks very highly of Annalise.”

He nodded. It wasn’t that they needed Maya, though having her at the helm would certainly help things. It was much more that he noticed Lyra had no other real connections but him. Part of him loved that and adored having so much of her attention. The part that loved her unselfishly, however, knew she could use a friend. He knew from experience Maya was a bit softer than what Lyra probably required, but he also knew that Lyra genuinely liked her.

“Well, you could always make friends with Nat. I’m pretty sure she’d do anything we asked of her for almost nothing in return.”

“She probably would. She does seem very… into us.” Lyra smirked and reached up to play with Andrei’s black mane of hair. “Maybe we can just get everyone on our side by saying they won’t get served at After 11 if they don’t stand with us.”

Andrei laughed at that, the frustration of his argument with Annalise mostly forgotten. “We’d get almost everyone on our side right away. And I’m pretty sure all we have to do is let her watch us have sex. She looks at us like we’re on her menu.”

Lyra wasn’t entirely sure she made it on the menu or if it was just another case of a woman desiring what was hers and Lyra was merely standing in the picture.

“Maybe so, maybe so.” She smiled and kissed his lips gently.

“Is there anything else you can think of that we need to figure out?” he asked gently, his lips still close to hers. “I’m sure I’ll be called to the principal’s office soon.”

“I can’t think of anything right now except solidifying who will join us.” She replied and remained close as she was. “You probably will, naughty boy. You need a good spanking.”

She grinned then, devious, and playfully nipped his lower lip. “I think that falls under my duties.”

“Well then you’d better get to it before Annalise gives it a try, hadn’t you?” He asked with a grin, kissing her back and nipping at her lower lip just as she had.

“It isn’t something I enjoy.” She said and sighed dramatically, slowly pulling herself out of his lap and standing up for effect. She tapped the desk in front of her. Then, she giggled in a strange mix of feminine and evil.

“Oh wait, yes I do.”

“Well then.” he said, standing up as well and leaning close to her. “In the name of justice, go on.”

Lyra moved out of the way so he could put his hands on the desk and lean forward. She stood at his side, lifted her hand, and gave his rear end a sharp swat, though instead of pulling her hand back she playfully grabbed a handful of his flesh and gave it a squeeze.

“Justice served.” She grinned and then jumped up on his back playfully, her arms around his shoulders and her breasts pressing against his body.

Andrei grabbed her hands and laughed, spinning around several times with her attached to him.

“Thank you. I know you beat me because you love me.” he said, and then backed up against the window that displayed the streaming stars outside the ship, gently leaning her against it.

Lyra didn’t squirm as he pinned her between himself and the window and instead she shifted her head forward to kiss tenderly under his ear. “You know I do.”

It was spoken softly and genuinely, words of one lover to the other. She kissed him again, her lips lingering on the soft flesh there.

“Faulkner to Petrov.” Annalise’s voice cut in through the comms.

Andrei sighed immediately, at first from the intimate and arousing kiss and then from the interruption from the last person he wanted to speak with. He tapped his commbadge impatiently.

“Petrov here.” he said, and left it at that.

“I would like to see you in the ready room.” Annalise continued, her voice firm but not angry.

Lyra made a slight sound, nuzzling the tip of her nose in the spot where she had been kissing.

“I’m finishing a meeting, Captain. May I join you when I’ve taken care of the business at hand?” He asked, sounding amiable and relaxed as his hand moved up Lyra’s thigh.

There was a slight pause, then Annalise spoke again. “I’ll be expecting you in no more than thirty minutes, Commander.”

“I can make that work.” He said. “Petrov out.”

As soon as the comm line was cut, he turned around, pinning Lyra against the window the front way and kissing her passionately on the lips.

“I don’t think I learned my lesson from the first beating. You’ll have to try again.”

“Oh is that so?” She asked and slid her hands down his back to grab hold of his behind with both hands. It was playful and flirtatious and she gave him a squeeze. “Well then… assume the position, Commander.”

END