Dartanian Laree, or the Muskateer as he was called by John Warren and Vincent Viceroy owing to his name reference to a popular Earth legend was seen as the Betazoid Observer on New Governor's and was often shunned.
Furthermore, his effeminent appearance made that worse. Vincent Viceroy and John Warren were all man. They did not want to have much to do with the orange haired Betazoid. Dartanian, to his credit is a great man and has not held this against these members of the colony leadership.
The truth is... He was assigned to Governor's to observe the activity of the King's Fleet command and report to Vice Admiral Elizabeth Coren of the Betazoid Alliance and Admiral Tim Veltkamp of Star Fleet. His job was to provide the first report after the first month on their activities.
The second truth is this report gave him unfettered access to Third Corinthians. Commander Laree knew the stories. He knew that the John Paul II did pick up an entity and take it to Third Corinthians after the Omega Incident closed the wormhole. He knew about the Bajoran belief that this entity was their emissary. He also knew about Elizabeth Coren's on again off again hatred of Nicole Branson.
Dartanian Laree had a similar mistrust of this leadership. Tamryn Laree, his cousin was killed on the Tanmesad. He however could see the pain the imprisonment was causing. The Betazoid Alliance has been here since the Federation first arrived now over 7 years ago. He has seen what imprisonment meant to an occupied people. Dartanian knew the right thing. He was a man of honor.
He carefully slipped into the brig of Third Corinthians. He walked up to a cell and uttered the great line from Earth history, "Dr. Coren, I presume."
Orchid looked up, "Who are you?"
"Commander Dartanian Laree, Special Ambassador to Governor's Station.", Dartanian responded.
"Where am I? What happened?", Orchid begged.
"There will be plenty of time for that later.", Commander Laree responded.
Dartanian led Orchid to the shuttle and calmly moved away from from Third Corinthians.
Soon alarms were going off all over the place. Elizabeth rushed into Station Ops., "Identify the lifesigns."
"Commander Dartanian Laree, Betazoid Ambassador and Dr. Orchid Coren.", Autumn looked at Elizabeth, fear filled her face.
"Destroy the shuttle!", Elizabeth demanded.
"They are Betazoids!", Autumn looked back.
"Did I stutter? Destroy the shuttle!!", Elizabeth screamed.
Autumn engaged the weapons but did not fire. Her hand quivered as she raised it up.
Commander T'tan entered the bridge, "If you do this, Liz, I am leaving."
"This is a military matter, Commander. This has nothing to do with our relationship.", Elizabeth sternly looked at her Vulcan lover.
"Now fire the damn torpedoes!!", Elizabeth repeated her command.
"That is where you are wrong. In the past 2 months, you have become a much warmer, loving and forgiving person. This will show that you are are learning from that compassion. If you fire, you will have become that which you hate.", T'tan logically explained.
Elizabeth looked at T'tan. T'tan repeated her statement, "If you fire, I am leaving."
Elizabeth paused. Autumn could not bring herself to fire on a Betazoid and definitely not a Laree. There was a painful silence.
Elizabeth walked up to the console and tapped the COMM button, "Please take good care of her, Commander. She is a Coren you know."
The words sent all three women on the operations deck into tears. Something special can grow in the garden. Ephyra is a special place.
Posted by:
Commander Autumn Laree
Tactical Commander - Third Corinthians
Ephyra Colony
King's Fleet
Written by Commander T'Zohl of Vulcan
Based upon email request from
Nicole Branson
Governor
Ephyra Colony
King's Fleet
