The News

Posted on Wed Oct 21st, 2020 @ 1:28am by Commander Mindo & Ensign Aenardha Sh'vastarth

Mission: Shore Leave
Location: Mindo's Quarters
Timeline: current

ON

For Lieutenant Mindo, Brad Keselowsky was the last person in the Alpha Quadrant he wanted to speak to at the moment. But he was desperate, and sometimes you do crazy things out of despair.

Mindo had been shocked when he saw the news. The USS Tornado, Mindo's prior assignment before joining the Pandora, was being decommissioned. Mindo's exit from the Tornado had been abrupt, with no real explanation as to why he was reassigned. It happened so fast he hadn't had time to say goodbye to anyone. Not even Caradan, the only person he truly loved.

The last time they saw each other was an evening after much confession of each other's hearts. They had spent that evening on the holodeck, but in a cabin overlooking an extraordinary sunset made perfect with the presence of a violet moon. The planet's rings had added to the spray of color in the sky that night. A fire had been cracking in the fireplace.

The memory of that perfect evening was burned into Mindo's mind. He may have gone whole spans of time without thinking back to that moment but it was there all the same. Now, know that the Tornado was being decommissioned, her crew already dispersed and/or redeployed, that memory was burning ever brighter and the ache of the unknown was burning ever harder.

Now Mindo was determined to find the truth. Why he had never been able to make contact with his old ship. Not even Caradan.

The call came through fast and soon Mindo was staring at the unpleasant face of his former Assistant Chief Engineer, Brad Keselowsky. He was still in uniform but appeared as though he was in the middle of removing it after a long day. The red of his shirt was not the yellow that Mindo had remembered from their days as engineers aboard the Tornado. Behind Brad was the sight of an apartment, not some ship's quarters. That unpleasant face became more unpleasant as it formed a smile that appeared almost painful, both for its owner to form and for Mindo to look upon.

"Lieutenant Mindo, my man!"

There came a muffled voice in the background. Mindo could barely hear it at all.

"It's Lieutenant Mindo, honey!" he called over his shoulder. Setting his focus back onto the screen, "that's the wife. She's in the bath. Always enjoyed those sonic showers, but I introduced her to an actual bath. She flippin' loves it man."

"You... got married!" Mindo said, trying (and failing) to hide his surprise. "Who is the, er, lucky..."

Just then, a toweled woman came into the room, long black hair down and still wet. Mindo's eyes widened as he recognized the familiar face of Tiffany Crismore, another former Engineering officer on the Tornado. "Mindo!" she said, smiling widely.

Now Mindo couldn't hide his shock. "Ensign Crismore?!"

"Yep! Former Ensign Tiffany Crismore-Keselowsky, in the flesh," she said, "...with a towel on."

"And Weapons Specialist, Lieutenant Junior Grade," whilst masking the 'Junior Grade' with a forced cough, "Bradford Keselowsky-Crismore," he corrected her, "in the fles...er...partial uniform, at your service."

Mindo was still stunned. "When?! How?!" Now he couldn't help but smile. For some reason, he was beginning to see it. The two of them seemed completely incompatible, but as they say, opposites attract!

"It was a spur of the moment kind of thing in Reykjavik. We got back to Earth after the decommission. Tiff and I decided on a vacation to Iceland and to deal with nobody else at all. Just get away from everything and everyone. We had like a month of leave each so we took it."

Crismore nodded. "It was almost romantic!" she said. "But he hates the way I tell the story, so we just humor him." She looked at Brad and smiled. "In the end, I realized as crazy and dopey as he is, I just can't live without him!"

Mindo grinned wide. "Well good for both of you! What are you doing now?"

"We're in San Francisco, at Starfleet Academy," Tiffany replied. "I do programming work on simulators, holodecks, things like that. Every simulation has to get my stamp of approval before it can be run. It's fun work!"

"And I am back and forth between the Academy and Starfleet itself. They heard about the phase rifle I designed for...oh...what was that Orion chick's name?" Brad got a punch to his shoulder. "Meera. Yeah, Meera Deloria. Well, they apparently want to see more of my ideas. But I have to take a few classes on weapon mechanics and work under the Master at Arms for a bit."

Then it became time to get on with the 'why' of this call. "Sir," Brad spoke up, "what can we do for you?"

Mindo sighed. He'd been so happy to see his old friends, he'd forgotten the reason he had called.

"You can tell me where Cara is..." he said finally.

Tiffany's eyes widened. "Oh..." she said quietly. "Chief, you don't know?"

Mindo's stomach tightened. "Know what?"

"Yeah," Brad spoke up, "I was just thinking the other day wondering if you knew or not."

Mindo's heart thumped into his throat to the point that he felt he either had to give up breathing so that his heart could beat, or somehow stop his heart so that he could breath. Either way, cutting away a lifeline seemed seemed the only solution. All the while, he could only ponder if the love of his life was truly gone.

"LT, sorry," Brad continued. "Caradan is fine and well. The last time I saw her that is. Sorry to be so cryptic."

Mindo could feel his heart return to its regular place, his lungs operate once again, a cold sweat starting to wane and his thoughts less terrifying.

"You go and finish your bath," Brad said to Tiffany. "I'll tell him what I know."

"Alright," Tiffany replied with a nod. "It was good to see you again, Chief!"

"Likewise," Mindo said, but he had hardly heard her. He now had a feeling of intense anxiety running through him. He couldn't help but feel that all of the questions he'd had for the last two years were about to be explained. And from the sound of it, things were going to be different. Mindo didn't know how, but he knew.

The goofy and obnoxious Keselowsky that Mindo had grown to know and to love to hate had disappeared from the viewscreen and was replaced by a more serious Keselowsky, the rare Keselowsky sighting that Mindo had caught only brief glimpses of during his time on the Tornado.

"Oh where to begin," he said. "It was the final mission of the Tornado. You probably heart the Cosmic News Network report on a rebel uprising within the Klingon Empire some time back." Brad shook his head. "Fake news. What CNN did not say was that it was almost a full blown Klingon Civil War. Now Starfleet told us not to get involved as this was an internal affair, but we were already deep inside Klingon space and the Empire had already asked for our help. That alone made us a target to the rebels. By this point, Captain Takato was taken prisoner. We had gotten intel on the captain's location and Caradan, she was our XO by this time, had a plan. It was a kickass plan if you ask me. Her plan was a solo away mission. We both know that Starfleet's sphincter closes up tighter than a snare drum when they hear of a solo away mission. Nobody goes alone. Either Caradan knew people in high places or someone in a high place approved her plan, because she was given the green light almost immediately. The plan was simple; mimic a Klingon rebel, infiltrate their ranks, learn of Takato's location, expose herself as a Changeling and escape. The plan worked. The rebels ended up seeing Changelings everywhere. Just being accused of being a Changeling spy was a death sentence to them. They trusted no one and the rebellion fell apart."

Brad paused a long second.

"But, Caradan could not run fast enough though. The shuttle she stole was overtaken by a rebel battle cruiser. She got a message to us though, which we used to triangulate her last position and to find the cruiser. LT," Brad's eyes beamed at Mindo, "Caradan was taken prisoner. She became a POW. And the Klingons, the rebels mind you...not imperial...they...they were not kind to her. They had some device to keep her from changing form, keep her from regenerating. They...they beat her, sir. Tortured her. They rap...I actually do not know what all they did, sir. Just heard rumors. I do know she has a terrible aversion to the holodeck now."

Mindo began to squirm as he listened, reminded of his own terrible history, only hearing it happen to Cara tenfold.

"Once we found the Battle Cruiser, we had three allied Birds of Prey join us. The cruiser was scanning in all directions to the limit of their sensors. They knew we were coming, just did not know when. We made it obvious though. We came from all directions and it was a balls to the wall firefight. We boarded the ship. I didn't as I was too busy holding the Tornado together. Our chief engineer went though. We lost a few that day, but we left that place with Captain Takato and Caradan safely aboard and that Battle Cruiser and everyone on board drifting through space in a mass of debris."

"Did she..." Mindo stuttered. "Did she say anything? I mean, about it?"

"I did not get the chance to speak with Caradan. I wanted to but she would not speak with anyone. I mean...she spoke with only a few, before isolating herself in her quarters. And only...oh what was her name?...Riaan Rrareth...yeah...only she was allowed into Caradan's quarters. Then the rumors of how the Klingons treated her started. Our chief engineer was some dumb little shit and was claiming PTSD after the battle. So, I took over as chief engineer. Starfleet told us to not worry about repairing the ship. Just get Warp Drive, Shields and Life Support up to par. That was it. Because the Tornado was done. We got back to Space Dock and immediately the enlisted and civilians disembarked, Riann included. So, I do not know if she would be of much help in finding Caradan now. After debriefings were done, I was one of the last to disembark. I did catch a glimpse of Caradan out and about. She was speaking to some other officers. No one I knew and no one of the Tornado. I wanted to give her my goodbye's but some Lieutenant Commander stopped me and told me to move on. What can an ensign say against that much brass huh? So, I disembarked, caught up with Tiff and we went on vacation. We've not been in contact with anyone from the Tornado in a long time now. Most, we would not even know how to get into contact with at this point."

Brad started working at his computer terminal. "Sorry, but I do not know where Caradan is now. Perhaps her BIO..." he finished typing. "Yep. The Tornado is the last entry. Nothing follows. No further assignment. No contact frequencies. Nothing, sir. I can try reaching out to anyone from the Tornado and see if they know anything. Riaan, if you can locate her, may know something. Otherwise, in your search for Caradan, I can only wish you luck and hope that a miracle comes your way. Because, if Caradan has not reached out to you, then I can only theorize, with some theories bordering on conspiracy."

Mindo shook his head. "I don't think theories are what I need now. Damn it. I came to you for answers and what I get is more questions." He ran a hand through his hair. "Thank you, Brad, for telling me. It was good to see you again, I mean that. And I'm very happy for you and Tiffany. I know she'll take good care of you," he added with a smile. Then a thought came to him. "It looks like we're headed back to Earth soon. I'd love to get together for lunch or something. And I know Greep and Zo would love seeing you again! They were transferred here about two weeks after I arrived."

"Yes," Brad said, "it would be good to get the ole crew back together again. And I will see who I can find that may know something. In the mean time, I do hope some answers do come our way. You take care of yourself L.T."

"You do the same, Brad. Thanks," Mindo replied.

OFF