"What?!?" cried Kim in shock and hurt disbelief. "Oh Lee! How could you? I thought we were friends!"
"It's not like I did it on purpose, Kimmie! It was just a dumb accident -- it didn't mean a thing!" said Carter for the forty-seventh time. She was plainly nearing her exasperation limit.
"That's not what Kassia said..." accused Kim.
Lee Carter sighed. It had become painfully obvious that recounting to her friends the evening's events at the new station commander's welcome dinner had been a mistake. Or at least, one particular detail should have best been left out. "Never mind about what Kassia says," she retorted, a little angrily, but then she decided to switch strategies. In a more conciliatory tone, she said, "You don't believe in all that psychic esper mumbo-jumbo anyway, do you?"
From off to the side where she'd been quietly reading a tech manual and trying to mind her own business, Max Vasser harrumphed noisily and said, in her most corrosive voice, "Thanks for the vote of confidence, boss."
"You stay out of this," snapped Carter irritably. She knew that Max had very high esper ratings and her skills in that area had saved their butts on more than one occasion, but she just didn't need the distraction of her acerbic humor right now.
"I need to get out of here," Kim was saying, turning toward the exit. Carter could see tears brimming in the normally perky young woman's eyes.
"Wait! Kimmie--" but it was no use. Kim was through the common room's doorway, and the automatic door slid shut behind her with quiet finality.
Carter frowned darkly, though not in anger at Kim's over-reaction. She was concerned for the well-being of her flight team. This was not the best time for divisions to creep in, what with the entire Briar Patch Sector crawling with Jem'Hadar and who knows what else, and a new captain in charge of the station. She looked around the room at her other team mates, but as her regard neared each one, they quickly looked away and desperately pretended to be busy with something else. It had been an uncomfortable incident for all of them. Finally, Jo Schmidt, who of all of them was closest in age and temperament to young Kimberly Tycho, ventured the obvious question.
"Lee, What in the world happened at that dinner?"
Carter walked over to the briefing table in the center of the room and sat down heavily in her customary chair. Resting her elbows on the tabletop, she just sat, rubbing her temples with her knuckles for a few seconds. Jo walked over and sat down in the chair beside her. Max switched off the book she was reading and came over, followed by quiet and shy Sam Beckett, who had until now been keeping to herself on the other side of the large room.
Carter finished rubbing, and looking up, saw the three of them sitting around the table in their usual spots, waiting expectantly. "What is this, a mission briefing?" she asked, trying to dispel the overhanging gloom by lightening the mood.
"I suppose you could call it that," answered Max. "and you better not leave out any details!" Her face held the suggestion of a smile, but her tone made it clear she wasn't leaving until the full story was told. Carter saw identical determination on the other two faces. The bond between the five members of Banshee Squadron was tight; closer than she'd ever experienced in any other fighter group she'd ever served in. One of their number was in trouble, and the others wouldn't rest until the matter was resolved.
She leaned back in her chair and tilted her head back, organizing her recollections of the last few fateful hours, then began. "It all started innocently enough. It was the welcome dinner for our new commanding officer. Everything was going great until dessert arrived..."
The remains of the main course were carted away, and a platter of chocolate éclairs laid out on the table, along with carafes of wine and coffee. "Oh! I love these!" Lee Carter said, grabbing one of the pastries. A server poured her a glass of wine. As she bit into the éclair, Carter noticed too late that it was overfilled with cream. The filling squirted out the end of the éclair and across the table. "Whoops!" she said, reaching over to clean up the mess.
As Carter reached over, her hand struck her wine glass a glancing blow and it toppled over. The deep red wine spread out into a broad, heart-shaped stain pointing right at Garek Loran. Carter looked down at the stain, then up at Garek, who seemed suddenly uncomfortable.
Captain Mallory took the opportunity to test the rumors about her Chief Counselor, Kassia. "Counselor," she asked, "Word around the station has it that you have amazing powers of psychic divination. Do your talents and training extend to the reading of signs?"
Kassia chuckled. "I can see the future, and it's not usually dependant upon omens..." Turning to Carter and Garek, she asked, "Would you care for me to see what the future holds?" Her green eyes glinted with mischief.
"NO!" Garek and Carter answered in perfect unison. "That's okay. I'm pretty sure I don't want to know..." said Carter.
Max was the first to react. "What were you thinking, telling Kimmie that?" she asked incredulously.
"Yeah," chimed in Jo. "A heart-shaped stain pointing at Garek? You know how she feels about him."
"Yeah," agreed Sam.
"Yeah, well... Like I said, it was just a stupid accident. Quit ganging up on me; it's not like I planned it or anything!" complained Carter irritably. She drummed her fingers on the table top, thinking. "I better go see Garek and get this mess straightened out. I'm sure he can talk some sense into Kimmie."
On the way down to the station's engineering section, Carter mentally reviewed events. When she'd spilled the glass during dinner, she hadn't really placed any significance on it. Although, even at the time, she had wondered why she should feel so suddenly self-conscious and uncomfortable. And in that instant, when her eyes had met Garek's across the table, she'd seen the exact same feelings and thoughts mirrored there.
Could Kassia have been right? Was the heart stain an omen? Was there something between herself and Garek? Is that why she'd felt so abashed -- because somewhere deep down, her subconscious knew it? And is that why Kimmie had reacted so strongly to what was supposed to have been nothing more than an amusing anecdote -- because she too had sensed something between her friend Lee and her boyfriend Garek?
Too many questions. And worse, no answers. But one thing was for sure, that this mess had to get straightened out. Banshee Squad would cease functioning as the well-oiled machine it was if all five team members weren't at one-hundred percent. But even more importantly than that, she didn't want anything to come between her and Kim's friendship.
Stepping out of the turbolift deep inside Starbase 901, Carter found Garek exactly where she knew he would be -- in the heart of the Engineering sector, up to his waist in partially dismantled Nausicaan weaponry. His hands and forearms were smeared with grime, and he'd even managed to get some on his forehead. Not for the first time, Carter wondered how, in an age of ODN conduits, isolinear circuitry and EPS grids, he always managed to get so dirty, but decided that that was part of his charm.
But even as that stray thought snuck unbidden into her brain, Carter mentally recoiled in horror. What am I thinking?!? She angrily shook her head to banish all such fantasies. She swore a solemn oath to herself that that was the first and last time she'd ever think a thought like that about Garek. He's not even my type! she chided herself.
Erecting her best business expression on her face, she called out to get Garek's attention over the general engineering hubbub: "Commander!"
Garek looked up to see who was hollering. Carter thought she saw a strange expression make a fleeting appearance on his countenance, but it was gone so quickly she couldn't be sure. He put down the self-sealing stembolt he'd been adjusting and walked over to where she stood.
"Hi there, Commander Carter," he said affably. "How kind of you to grace our humble engineering facilities with your inimitably beauteous presence. To what do I own the superfluous pleasure of this visit?"
Carter winced. "Don't joke around like that, Garek."
Carter's reproach, and seeing that his jovial greeting had done nothing to lighten the serious expression on her face made him decide to cool it. "Okay. Sure. Uh... what's up?"
Before Carter could elaborate, she was interrupted by a voice from directly behind her.
"I knew it! The two of you together! Garek, you son-of-a--" Kim had approached Carter and Garek from the other side of the dismantled Nausicaan weaponry, out of their line of sight. Most likely, she'd come here seeking the truth from Garek on her own, but now found herself face to face with incontrovertible proof that her fears had been well-founded after all.
She took two angry strides forward and laid a round-house swing at Garek, smacking him hard across the face, then spun around and stormed out of the Engineering section.
Speechless, Garek rubbed his cheek, completely mystified by what had just happened.
Carter said, apologetically, "We have a little problem..."
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