#420 - USS ANUBIS: Maya: Day 4 - 14:36 (" Seems That No Matter Where You Are, You Can’t get Away From Her ")

---
" Seems That No Matter Where You Are, You Can’t get Away From Her "
(Previous Post: " When Worlds COllide ")
---

Stardate: 60298.1436
Setting: USS ANUBIS, Bridge

While the rest of the crew of the USS ANUBIS waited for the Chief Engineering Officer to make their plan of delaying the Hirogen and Orion ships become reality, the Shilian woman had continued to focus her attention on the planet below. The metallic structure that had appeared and vanished behind the veil of a Romulan Cloaking Device still held the interest and curiosity of the scientist, but the Chief Science Officer had not let it consume all of her time since no actual proof of this had been found. Every so often the Shillian glanced at another screen to keep track of the progress of the Intelligence Liaison officer wishing in silence that she had been down there with her instead of Major Nikita Berkof, but this desire was quickly taken back when the Shillian scientist observed a large number of Cardassian soldiers on the trail of the the two women and the man that they were following. Scientific research and exploration was something that Maya could easily handle without a second though, but battling against a superior force in numbers and strength had been by far out of her field of expertise and better left to the Intel Agent and her bodyguard.

---
Stardate: 10298.1436
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside the Ruins, Corridor

Every senses of the Intel Operative were working overtime as she and her Marine bodyguard followed Xan deeper into the decaying ruins of this ancient civilization. Enaii held no love or interest in the rocks around her or the faded inscriptions that were on them, all that the Intelligence Liaison Officer had been interested in was to find this Mind Stone that they were after and to get out in one piece before the footsteps she had heard caught up to them.

"Why do you keep looking back over your shoulder?" Nikita asked, the repeated gesture having made the Marine increasingly nervous.

"We are being followed," the Intelligence Operative replied in a soft whispered voice, not wanting Xan to overhear the reply.

"Are you sure?" The Marine asked, realising only after the fact that the question had been completely pointless; Enaii had never been one to not be sure of anything she said. "Maybe they are ours?" Nikita added with a tone of optimism which was wiped from her mind by the look that the Intelligence Liaison Officer shot back at her. For that brief moment in time, the expression on the face of Enaii was folds colder than the world they had found themselves on. "If not ours, who?" The Marine bodyguard asked, somehow knowing that her friend had the answer.

Just as Enaii had been ready to identify those that had been following them to her bodyguard, Xan stopped and turned to insure that the two women had still bee following him, "down this path we will find the main chamber. We will start our search there." The two women remained silent and continued to follow, the Intel Operative placing her thumb against her forehead in a quick gesture to give the answer that her bodyguard had requested. The motion had referred to a joke from their days at the Academy but Nikita remembered it well and she knew exactly when it meant, Enaii had identified those behind them has being Cardassian and that was not at all a good news.

---
Stardate: 10298.1438
Setting: TOLAR IV, Inside the Ruins, Main Chamber

As the trio stepped into the room, even Enaii had to take a moment to take in the sights. The main chamber appeared to be some sort of ceremonial location with the walls filled with cryptic writing and pictograms which made little to no sense to the Intelligence Operative. Had the situation been different, the Intelligence Liaison Officer would have requested the Shillian scientist to beam down if only to see her eyes light up at the sight that Enaii presently saw.

"All right ladies," Xan said, turning to face the two women who had followed him this far, "here is what we are after. Legends speak of an artefact called the Yal-Tonil, or for us simpletons the Mind Stone. The artefact in question has already been found and brought to a secure location, what we have to find is a text that speaks of the special properties of the item."

Enaii contained with remarkable control her frustration, up until now the Intel Operative had actually hoped that they had been on the trail of the artefact itself or at least of their missing officer if not both, but now it seemed that they had been taken down a side road that had unfortunately led them to somewhere completely different.

"Do you have any idea of what this text looks like, or what it might have been written on?" Nikita asked, not at all willing to stay in the room for any longer than they had to knowing that a group of Cardassians were on their trail.

"Listen lady," Xan replied, letting his frustration seep through his words, "if I knew what the blasted thing looked like or even what it was written on I wouldn’t have asked for any help to find it. Spread out, look around, be careful not to break anything and if you find anything that anywhere resembles what I have mentioned, call me. The faster we can find this blasted thing, the faster you two will get compensated for your troubles and the faster we can get back to our warm ships and away from this frozen hell hole."

The Intelligence Liaison Operative said nothing and just motioned for Nikita to go down one of the corridors that stretched out from the room they were in. They needed to find this item quickly before the Cardassians showed up and trashed the place, but they would have to do this without drawing the suspicions of their employer. If the text was indeed what Enaii suspected it to be, their finding it would place them in a powerful bargaining position with whoever had the Mind Stone, the Intel Operative having figured that without this text the artefact had been useless to its current owner.

As Enaii and Nikita began to look around for this text without knowing about its appearance, the Intelligence Liaison Officer audibly sighed, frustrated with herself for having thought for a brief moment that the Shillian scientist would have been a good person to have with them right about now.

---
Jessica Solarik { maya_992003@yahoo.com }
Lieutenant Maya
Chief Science Officer
USS ANUBIS

"To see the world in a grain of sand,
and a heaven in a wild flower.
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
and eternity in an hour."
- William Blake (British, 1757-1827)

[_BACK_]