Stardate: 74806.08

Time:  2008 hours

Location: Alpha Quadrant – USS Heracles

-Captain’s Ready Room-

Vausees sat in her chair, her eyes closed, her mind playing over the past two weeks. Most of it had been uneventful other than the discovery of the Commander of the Diplomatic ship that she had been tasked with escorting into Cardassian space. Now she had been ordered to return to Earth for the trial of the Commander and she was not entirely sure what she could do or why she was even being brought into the light of this heresy committed by this highly decorated and up until recent highly honored man. 

A sigh left her lips as she suddenly felt a familiar hand in hers and opened her eyes to look into the bright emerald eyes of her fiance’s eyes. She opened her mouth to once more apologize but was stopped by a finger on her lips.

“You do not need to explain anything to me, baby,” Debrah stated as she smiled at her, “I will, as I have always said, follow you to the burning and dark gates of hell and back through to the light of our love.”

Vausees couldn’t help but tear up slightly at this statement. She had only felt this one other time and fate had been unjust and unkind to that part of her life. But here she was feeling that same feeling, but the timing was wrong. It should have been with their friends and family while they were listening to a pastor while they were being married, not on a ship heading back to Earth under orders to return.

Gently she removed the finger from her lips and kissed it before looking once more at Debrah. She stood up next to Debrah and the two of them exited out of the ready room and onto the bridge.

Cody had been sitting in the command seat since his Captain had left the bridge for her ready room. He stood up when he heard the door slide open and both Vausees and Debrah exited out of the room. 

Vausees held up a hand to halt him.

“Commander the ship is yours. Let me know when we have reached SOL, and if anything that requires my attention,” she said to him as she headed for the main lift.

Cody nodded and retook the command seat as he watched both of them leave the bridge. He logged the change of command on the computer and looked over at Trever.

“Mister Neif, reduce speed to warp 4,” he ordered.

This caused Trever to look back at the Commander with a funny look on his face. It was met with a grin and a motion toward the almost closed lift door. Trever returned to nod and input the command into the navigation console and the stars in the view screen gave a noticeable slowing; even though no one on the ship felt it.

-Vausees and Debrah’s quarters-

Both Vausees and Debrah lay in each other’s arms; Debrah was playing circles on Vausees back as they lay together, her eyes closed with her head back and rested on the bulkhead of their room.

Vausees stirred and raised onto her hands as she looked at her soon-to-be wife. “I am glad that you are here,” she said before she leaned in and gently kissed her.

A smile crossed Debrah’s lips; after their lips parted, “I could never see myself anywhere else.”

“Not even back on your ship?” Vausees asked as she straddled Debrah’s thighs, her kimono exposed her legs as she sat there on Debrah.

“Well,” Debrah grinned as she teased Vausees, “now that you mention it,” she continued to tease her Captain and love, “I think I should check in on my ship that I handed over to the closest thing I had to a brother.”

She watched the shock on Vausees face and tried to hold a straight face only to fail. As she burst into laughter she wrapped her arms around her. “No, not even back on the Torgus. Unless you were there with me,” she stated in a tone that meant that she was done with this part of their conversation. “Now  lay your ass down next to me and close your eyes.”

Vausees couldn’t help but still at how playfully aggressive her love was being and submitted. She slipped over her love’s legs and laid beside her. The feeling of strong, tender, protective arms was all she felt before she succumbed to the much-needed and long overdue silence of sleep.

*** two hours later ***

Deep in the thralls of sleep, a soft chime echoed in the darkness of her mind as she slept. Again she heard the chime and she cracked her right eye slightly open as she looked into the dim light of the room. She felt a movement behind her, as Debrah slept, and then her arm.

A soft groan escaped her lips, “Computer, time,” she said softly into the room.

She was greeted by a soft beep, and a soft voice, “The time is 2200 hours.”

‘It has been only two hours,’ she thought to herself. “Where is the chime coming from,” she requested as she pressed herself against Debrah, who responded by wrapping her arm further around Vausees.

Another soft beep and the soft voice replied, “The chime is coming from the Bridge, and Commander Bettencourt.”

Turning over she placed a soft kiss on Debrah’s nose, and in a soft voice she spoke, “Wake up my love.”

Debrah slowly opened her eyes and slipped her arm from around Vausees as she stretched, which gave Vausees a tantalizing view, which sent heat into her body.

“Is it time?” Debrah asked.

“It is,” Vausees replied as she carefully covered her loves chest, resisting the temptation that lay hidden now.

Debrah grinned as she lowered her arms and sat up, and leaned over, “We could have a bit of fun in the shower,” she suggested in a teasing tone as she slipped from the bed and walked toward the adjacently attached bathroom; along the way she dropped her kimono and looked over her shoulder before she disappeared from Vausees view. Taking the hint Vausees followed her, her kimono falling to the deck on top of Debrah’s.

-bridge-

Vausees sat in the command seat as the bright blue orb of Earth came into view as they passed by Jupiter. They were greeted by three Federation runabouts.

“This is Captain Viktor of Earth Defense. Please identify yourself and the reason for your entrance into Earth space, before transmitting your security clearance and code,” a voice said over the Heracles’ intercom.

“This is Captain Vausees Vax, Commanding Officer of the USS Heracles, I am under orders to report to Earth,” Vausees stated as she swiveled the armrest console toward her and input her security clearance and then her Earth Defense code.

A moment later the runabout captain’s voice came back over the intercom, “Please follow us and do not deviate from us, otherwise you will be fired upon and destroyed.

The ego of this captain had Vausees smirk at his confidence and reminded her of someone else that was onboard. “Understood, Captain,” she replied and then closed the comm’s.

“Cody when we get to ESD give everyone orders for shore leave, and if Chief Tanner gives you any lip feel free to relieve him of his command and have him escorted off the ship under further orders to not return until the reason for our return is concluded,” she said as she looked at the Commander.

-Earth – Fergouson Ranch-

Debrah closed the wardrobe and then the door to the closet, having unpacked both hers and Vausees bags. She took a seat on the porch that overlooked the beautiful scenery of a lake and the rocky mountains that were on her and now Vausees ranch. Her eyes closed as she thought about the look on Vausees face when she left her in San Francisco.

Vausees had asked her to accompany her to Starfleet Headquarters but Debrah shook her head. “This is the only time that I cannot,” Debrah said as she had taken Vausees black duffle off of her shoulder and placed it next to her, on the ground next to her duffle. “I’ll see you tonight,” she said before she kissed the corner of Vausees’ mouth.

-Starfleet Headquarters-

Vausees sat in a waiting room as she had been ordered to do so. She felt like she was waiting for her own court marshall or the dean of her former school. She swallowed the feeling down and was greeted by a familiar feeling of her symbiont. 

‘Vax it is good to feel you once more,’ she thought to herself as she sat there in silence

‘You have no reason to be scared,” the Vax symbiont told her, ‘You are being called forth to testify as to why you placed Commander Ty Reginal under arrest.’

‘I know but it still feels weird to be back here again,’ she replied, as the last time had been to testify against her number 1’s father, and that had been hard on her. As she didn’t know how the trial would go, let alone how it would affect her, then Chief Security and Tactical Officer.

Suddenly the doors to the waiting room slid open and a man dressed in solid red stepped in. 

“Captain Vax?” the man asked her.

She stood up, “That is correct,” she replied as she stood there.

“Follow me,” he ordered as he led her out of the waiting room and into a hallway that led toward a courtroom. 

As they needed the room Vausees paused for a moment as the man held the door open for her. The look on his face was one of confusion. “Captain, are you okay?” he asked her as he stood there with the door open.

Vausees took a breath to steady herself and nodded, “Yes, sir, just needed a moment to gather myself,” she stated and then entered the courtroom.

After taking her seat she looked about the room and noticed that it was mostly empty except for a couple of assistants and security officers. She sat there in silence and closed her eyes wishing that Debrah was by her side. She hated being alone, even if it was just for a testimony against another Senior Officer.

Suddenly one of the assistants yelled out, “All rise!”

Vausees instinctively knew that meant to get up as top brass was about to enter the room. As she stood there she felt all of her nervousness suddenly leave and she silently thanked her symbiont.

‘We’re going to need to work on your nerves, Vausees,’ she heard in her head as she stood there, her chest slightly puffed out; the sign of a confident and steadfast Commanding Officer of the Federation.

The next thing she heard rather than saw was the doors behind her slid open and several pairs of boot fall heading her way. Turning her head she saw Commander Ty being escorted into the room, his uniform stripped of all insignia and rank and his wrist bound together by a pair of energy cuffs.

“I hope you know what you are doing, Captain Vausees,” he said in a gruff tone.

“Putting a traitor and terrorist away,” she snapped back before she turned her attention to the panel of Admirals and Top brass. 

“Commander Ty Reginal, you have been brought before the council to stand accused of treason and attempted terrorism,” an Admiral stated as he looked up from a PADD that was in front of him. “How do you plead?”

“I do not deny any of it, but I hold the values of the Federation above all things and I firmly believe that the Cardassians will strike us once more. As such I will be vindicated when that happens,” Ty stated as he stood there and looked at the Admiral.

Vausees shook her head and for a moment looked at the floor ahead of her. She knew his kind and knew that he could not be trusted to uphold every law and value that the Federation stood for.

“Captain Vax, it has come to my attention that you had outside help in locating the device that Command Ty Reginal had attached to the Diplomatic ship that he was in Command of. Is this correct,” the Admiral asked Vausees.

Vausees nodded her head and replied, “That is corrected, Admiral.”

“Can you be one percent certain that your outside source did not co-conspire with Commander Ty?”

Once more Vausees nodded, “I can Admiral.”

“How can you be so sure, Captain?” the Admiral asked her.

“I am without any doubt confident that my source could not have placed the device or for that matter known about my mission ahead of time, Admiral, as I had contacted my source after the Heracles went into the “Red Alert” status and I had exhausted all of my resources to located the cause of the alert status,” Vausees stated.

“And who is this source?” the Admiral asked her.

“My source is Thý’ella, the Prothypourgós of the Angelikós Zilotís. Who are descendants of the Tkon,” she stated as she looked at the Admiral, “I also request that the title that she bears and the name of her people be stricken from the record.”

This request shocked the Admiral, “And might I inquire as to why you have made this request, Captain?”

“The Angelikós Zilotís is not a member of the Federation at this time, and since we all know of how potentially dangerous the Tkon were I request the aforementioned title and species be stricken,” Vausees stated as she stood there.

The Admiral nodded and looked at the courtroom recorder and motioned for the title and the species name to be removed from the log.

“That having been said Admiral I have total trust and confidence in Thý’ella and her people. Without them I doubt that myself and my ship would have made it back and Commander Ty would have accomplished his own mission to cause another war with the Cardassians,” Vausees said as she glanced over at the man standing near her.

A sharp sound of a gavel sounded off and the Admiral gave Vausees a warning. Vausees apologized and began her testimony. Shortly after her testimony the Admiral dismissed Vausees and she left the courtroom feeling much better about herself.

-Fergouson Ranch-

An hour later a shuttle landed on a pad just outside of an elegant ranch-style house and lowered its ramp. Vausees walked slowly down the ramp and away from the shuttle. As she walked toward the door it opened and Debrah stepped out.

“Welcome home, baby,” she said as she stepped off the porch and wrapped her arms around Vausees. After a long kiss, the two, headed inside.

Vausees lay inside of a deep tub, steam billowed from the edges as Debrah walked in with a glass of wine, and offered it to her.

“So how long are we here for, baby?” Debrah asked as she sat on the edge of the tub.

“As far as I am aware just until after the court hearing and sentencing,” she stated as she took a sip from the glass and then leaned her head back; enjoying the heat from the water in the tub.

“That long,” Debrah said after she swallowed the wine that she had taken from her glass.

“I could request leave for us,” Vausees said as she turned her head and looked at Debrah, “After all Cody is more than capable of handling the Heracles while we are away,” she stated as she closed her eyes and leaned her head back again.

A grin crossed Debrah’s lips as she heard what Vausees had said. “I am glad to hear that you are enjoying the luxuries of the Fergouson Ranch.”

“Oh I most definitely could get used to this, however, I do need to pay my respects to someone first,” Vausees said; her voice somber as she spoke.

Debrah instantly knew who she was referring to and nodded before she leaned down and gently kissed her lips. “I love you Vausees,” she whispered

“I love you too,” Vausees whispered back and smiled at Debrah.

***Two days later***

Vausees leaned against Debrah and held a PADD in her hand. On the screen was the courtroom that she had been in a couple of days ago. Ty stood there as the Admiral delivered the council’s verdict. A smile crossed Vausees’ lips when he was pronounced guilty of treason and attempted terrorism. The smile faded slightly when he was sentenced to hard labor at a penal colony instead of life behind bars.

“Well at least he will no longer be a Commander within the fleet,” Debrah stated as she looked at the slight smile on Vausees’ face.

“Yeah, there is that,” she said as she looked back at Debrah realizing that she was correct and that it was a small victory, even if it wasn’t completely the sentence that she thought the man deserved.