Chapter 18

"We need to seriously talk about Lieutenant Commander Picard's report about what he saw down on that ship. I'm not gonna lie, Cynthia, your decision to clear him for duty worries me." JP Hanson leaned back against the couch in the captain's ready room, taking a sideways glance toward Captain Sarna, who remained motionless at her desk. In fact, she had spoken only minimally since Hanson and Gavin finished debriefing her following their return from the derelict freighter.

Cynthia Gavin, meanwhile was as animated as ever, despite still recovering from her recent serious injuries. "Picard had minimal physical injuries and assured me that he's ready to get back to work. Would you have preferred he lie about what he saw, Jeff?"

"Frankly yes," shot back Commander Hanson. "He said he saw his dead father, for God's sake. He was hallucinating!"

Gavin laughed, and then seemed to regret it, massaging her sore shoulder. "Jeff, if Picard was hallucinating, then we all were. I know what I saw...and heard," she gave Captain Sarna a very focused look and noticed that the captain, who had been quiet for several minutes, looked almost completely disconnected from the conversation. Cynthia Gavin had seen that look before, and it left her unsettled.

Captain Sarna now was well aware of the reports from the freighter, which had turned out to be something of a traveling laboratory. Everyone on board was dead before the Stargazer crew had arrived; everyone, that is, except for the killer, accompanied by the pink fog the Stargazer crew had been ordered to track down.

"I heard the threat to the captain. I'm still not sure what I saw," admitted Hanson.

Sarna finally spoke. "Should we assume that...this collective hallucination, or alternatively a man rising from the dead to strangle one of my officers, was caused by the presence of that fog?"

"The so-called fog was seen by the away team at several points on board that ship. Yet no one, not even the deceased crew showed any sign of having succumbed to the kinds of diseases found to have infected the one hundred and ninety-nine people who died down on the Gallo colony-which Starfleet would apparently prefer me to conclude was caused by this pink fog-"

"Which you seem very resistant to doing," Sarna interrupted dryly.

Cynthia Gavin raised her chin stubbornly. "I tried to capture a sample of the fog, Captain and my tricorder came up with absolutely nothing. It was just as elusive when we were down on Namib One. The fact that this fog was seen near Gallo just before the colonists succumbed to a myriad of familiar illnesses, all of which are treatable with conventional medicines, only shows that its presence is so far purely coincidental. There is no actual evidence that the fog entity is responsible for the deaths of the Gallo inhabitants."

"I'm not as certain as you of that fact, Doctor. What I do know is that Finnegan was the only survivor from the Gallo colony and that Finnegan is no colonist..."

"What do you think he was doing on Gallo, sir?"

Sarna looked directly at her second in command. "I don't know, J.P. But I happen to know that Finnegan has a connection to this cloud. In fact, I now believe I've encountered this thing before myself."

"Gabby, why the hell didn't you say anything about this before?" Dr. Gavin sat forward suddenly and then steadied herself on the edge of the couch, looking quite pale. "Ow!" She caught her breath and gradually regained a healthier color.

Sarna got up swiftly and moved to sit down on the edge of her desk. "Are you alright?"

Cynthia Gavin looked up, noting the captain's recently detached gaze had changed, and her brow was knitted together with concern.

"Yes...the analgesic is wearing off and I've no one to blame but myself." She took in Sarna's slight smile and found that it both comforted and irritated her. She hugged herself protectively. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

The captain raised her slim eyebrows. "I was just wondering how my chief medical officer could possibly have cleared herself for duty so soon after being nearly killed just hours ago."

"I'm fine," said Gavin indignantly.

"Of course you are," Sarna said mildly, but her calm seemed to anger Gavin further.

"You have a hell of a lot of nerve to question my judgment, Captain, when you know that Finnegan is out to murder you, and you continue to operate as though you are not at risk!"

Sarna shook her head and looked away. "To answer your question about why I didn't say anything sooner, you both had enough information about Finnegan and my history with him, to know that he has reason to want to kill me. I've never tried to hide that."

Gavin sat back with a groan and covered her face with her hands. When she dropped her hands, she was still clearly upset. "I suppose your recent honesty is meant to comfort us?"

JP Hanson cleared his throat, uncomfortable with playing referee, but he was aware that he was sometimes required to fill that role with these two officers. "Getting back to my point...I want Picard off of mission command for Namib." He wasn't prepared for how quickly Sarna's mood turned before he realized his mistake.

Arms crossed, she leaned down intently. "You want him off the lead? Why? And don't tell me it's because he broke protocol down on the freighter, Number One, because the only person who broke a clear protocol was you when you took off your helmet and ordered Picard to do so as well, thereby endangering the both of you."

"Did you see T'Pel's report? She took off her helmet as well, sir."

"Actually, all we know is that T'Pel was exposed. She claims she didn't actually remember removing it," Gavin said.

"My point is, J.P., that unless you're trying to convince me to scrub you from the mission too, it's not in your interest to point fingers at Picard this time," continued Sarna. "I'm satisfied with my crew's actions down on the freighter, and that should be enough for you."

The emphasis on the word "crew" was unmistakable. Sarna had not yet mentioned Tanek, but she didn't need to, for Hanson to figure out that she wasn't happy with the visiting Vulcan exobiologist so far. Not only had he engaged in risky, perhaps questionable conduct on board the freighter, but he'd also refused to provide a report following his return with the rest of the team, leaving many of his activities on board the freighter a mystery.

Hanson took a big gulp of tepid coffee and tried to keep his hand from shaking. It was no use badmouthing Picard to the captain, she clearly believed in the man's abilities almost to a fault, but Hanson knew he wouldn't be able to let this one drop. "Now that the three of us have been exposed, sir, we could compromise the mission. It's risky to leave him as away team lead when he could suddenly fall ill."

"Cynthia's cleared you, Picard, and T'Pel for duty...right Cynthia?"

"That's correct...all three of you tested negative for any pathogens. Unfortunately, you're correct, Commander, in that I can't guarantee you won't fall ill. If exposure to that pink cloud is all it takes, none of us who transported to the freighter can be fully cleared."

Sarna looked up at the ceiling. "We beamed over to that ship as a rescue mission and discovered the entire crew dead and the presence of pink fog. The freighter's in-flight plan showed that it was headed for the Namib moon, just as we are. I need a healthy crew, but I also need to travel to Namib and take care of this situation."

"What exactly do you plan on taking care of, captain?" Gavin asked tightly. "Why does it always need to be a personal vendetta, when it comes to you?"

"Wait a minute," Hanson jumped out of his chair and began to pace with a look of confusion on his face "Sir, are you going on the away team mission?"

Knowing she'd all but promised Hanson earlier that she would skip the Namib mission, Gabriela Sarna was unmoved by the criticism. She appreciated the opinions of her officers, but ultimately, she often made decisions which she did not always choose to explain or justify. Seeing Hanson and Gavin in agreement for once, was interesting. Gavin was right; this problem with Finnegan was part of a murky history that of the Stargazer crew, only Gavin was aware. "Let's move this conversation to the main conference room," she said with careful evasion. "Zev and Eneko will be attending via holo conference from sickbay, and I'm anticipating a thrilling report from Mr. Tanek."

When Jean-Luc's station at the helm began to flash blue, he knew it was time to attend a meeting in the main conference. Following a somewhat harrowing experience during which he had lost consciousness, he had regained his poise somewhat but found himself dreading the upcoming meeting. Even more disturbing were his feelings of guilt regarding Zev's injuries, which he continued to reassure himself were less serious than they had appeared. He nodded hello as Vigo approached ready to replace him, and froze only momentarily when he saw Commander Hanson exit the captain's ready room, only to engage quickly in conversation with Lieutenant Marx who was posted at the helm. Marx was apparently pleased with whatever feedback Hanson was giving him, in fact, as Hanson turned to go, Marx was beaming from ear to ear. Picard felt a twinge of something, and angrily he recognized it as jealousy. He paused, allowing Hanson to head off of the bridge down an adjoining hallway, leading to the conference room. As he followed at a safe distance, Captain Sarna and Doctor Gavin burst from the ready room, continuing an argument as they walked. He had wanted to ask the captain how she had outsmarted the Tholians, but the timing was obviously not right.

"You said you heard Finnegan's voice threatening to murder me-"

"And you don't believe me," Gavin snapped.

"I question how you would even know his voice. You never met Finnegan because I-"

"Because you always protected me from the truth? Not well enough. Perhaps there are some details about your previous life that you are conveniently forgetting, Captain."

"I can see that you are still upset about this, Cynthia..."

Cynthia Gavin turned to see that Picard was walking a respectful distance behind them, before turning her attention back to Sarna. "Can you? So that means our conversation is over, now. Am I dismissed, Captain?"

"Yes," Sarna said, watching with some relief as Gavin sped off down the corridor.

She sighed and glanced at Picard, slowing so that he could catch up. He expected the Captain to say something clever, but they simply walked on in silence.

Twenty-year-old Beverly Howard tried the subspace link-up again, to no avail. Considering giving up, or throwing the communicator against the wall. She had been up for three nights straight, and she needed to tell Walker, or yell at him, or at least talk to him. Unfortunately for her, Walker had disappeared two days ago, after demanding to hear everything she could remember about her last days on the Orpheus research station. As the memories flooded back she was having some trouble making well-reasoned decisions. The receiver was not accepting visual input, but after a few more irritating seconds, the connection went through. She held the communicator up, just as the connection as lost again. "Damn it!" She slapped the communicator against her thigh and then reached into a small bag to pull out a medical tricorder-recently borrowed from one of her favorite instructors. She typed a message into the small keypad. "

Walker, I tried to reach you, but you've disappeared again. If you get this message, please call me. I need to know the truth about what happened to my parents. I'm traveling to Luna tomorrow. The only way I'm going to get the answers I need is to go to the moon, back to Orpheus again. Love, Bev."