Acrylos Teero was devastated. His new love Lady Thylara and her mother Thessa Valero-Lau were amongst those killed by Section 31, Admiral Windsor and the Executive Order of President Earl LaBarbara. He had spent the last two years showing her there was a better way. She had used the Force to open the Bajoran Wormhole and she had brought back belief in magic and spiritualism to the people of Bajor and for that she was summarily executed to maintain the status quo.
Acrylos Teero who helped revolutionize colonization with the expansion of Industrial Replication was without purpose and without drive. He just sat in the corner of the engineering department aboard the USS Quasar Quest. Captain John Warren knew how important his genius was to their survival and eventually to rebuilding the King’s Fleet.
John assigned the Vulcan T’Oy to the department. Her logical way would help keep the department functional while Ace found his sea legs once more. The Vulcan has served aboard the NX Lexington. She had served years before Lorca, Pike and Kirk.
Commander T’Oy had also served aboard the Lexington during its starvation era. She had survived the absolute darkness of space and brought that same logical approach to survival on Camelot. She just adapted and survived. She would be a wonderful influence for Acrylos Teero who believed he was better off dead. No one s better off dead.
The Vulcan was standing at a console trying to process the rebuilt systems put together on the damaged Sovereign by Command Tania Branson. Teero stood up and walked over. He stood by her for a while. They both took in the maze of jumbled Borg like rebuild controls. Tania was brought on board because she could make it work.
Teero finally spoke to the Vulcan beginning to explain how it worked and what Tania had done. Furthermore he began to discuss how it could be made better, could be made right.
John and Vash were walking down the hallway. Vash smiled as he saw the Bajoran laying on the floor rewiring the engineering console. John looked at the Cardassian, “Good job, Gul Enranet. He was salvageable.”
Vash smiled, “He was Tanmesad. We are survivors.”
Commander T’Oy joined Ace for supper. Galley saw them and immediately brought over a bottle of wine. Acrylos looked at his Tanmesad shipmate, “It’s not like that.”
Galley smiled, pouring the wine, “It could be.”
T’Oy looked at Acrylos, “Thank you Colonel.”
“For what?”, Acrylos looked at the time traveling Vulcan.
“For including me.”, T’Oy put her hand on his.
“The crew of the Lexington are always considered outsiders. I would not be surprised if we are next on the Section 31 list to keep the timeline pure.”, T’Oy frowned.
“No!”, Teero lashed out, “Not on my watch. Not again!”
T’Oy smiled. They enjoyed a beautiful meal. Teero got up to go to his quarters. The Vulcan laced her fingers through his. He walked her back to her quarters.
Commander T’Oy leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, “I know you miss her. Please just know that me and the others are here for you.”
Teero just stood there as the doors closed. What had just happened? She was a Vulcan. Perhaps she was more S’Nii than T’Zohl but she was still a Vulcan.
The Bajoran stopped by engineering. He just had to check. He put his hand on the rail and looked at the warp core. He closed his eyes and thought of the Tanmesad, countless other ships and colonies and he knew one thing. His job was to keep the birds flying. He felt his own heart match the pulse of the matter antimatter exchange.
Teero smiled and looked at the roof, “May the force be with you.”
Posted by
Colonel Acrylos Teero
Chief Engineer
USS Quasar Quest
