Lilly/Lars - Reunions

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

""Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeward…and moreso given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

"Megan…" Lars said wistfully, and took a deeper drink. "How is… well, never mind." Silently reminiscing for a moment, he didn't even flinch at Lillian's comment about screwing, true as it was..or had been. The two unlikely lovers had drifted apart after SB7, separated by a wide galaxy and the wider gulf of their own career ambitions. Lars regretted it at times, but supposed it was for the best. Purple and gray weren't supposed to mix. Still…

He shook himself out of his reverie, trying to think of something else. Noticing her engagement ring then, Lars started to say something conversational, but quickly decided against it. In his experience, observations on matters such as pregnancy and marriage in women were best left to other women, lest he botch a compliment with masculine clumsiness. He assumed she must have had some marriage arranged by her family, with a high ranking Betazoid politician or civil servant perhaps. The possibility that the ring was tied to a certain Marine never crossed his mind.

Especially not with the subject now being discussed. Grimacing slightly at her mention of the 'straight and narrow' and 'people he'd been connected with,' but hiding it behind his drink, Lars continued in his most professional tone. "I had the opportunity to study the circumstances of your recent encounter with this Doclin character. I must confess it all came as something of a surprise to me, and you must know I don't like surprises. So yes, I am curious about why this virus is being unleashed against the unfortunate denizens of Betazed, and by whom, and exceedingly curious about your part in all this since it seems to be a whole lot more…intricate than most people would assume." It wasn't often Lars cared to admit his own ignorance, but in this case he thought it prudent. The connections Lillian spoke of had kept him in the dark about the matter of Doclin, even warned him not to delve too deeply into that area, but now Lars saw a chance to strengthen his own position by learning more anyway.

"And as far as I'm concerned we're friends too, so if I can think of any way of using my…connections…to help you out in this matter, I will. That's a promise, Lilly," he added familiarly, and smiled a charming smile again.

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

"Megan…" Lars said wistfully, and took a deeper drink. "How is… well, never mind." Silently reminiscing for a moment, he didn't even flinch at Lillian's comment about screwing, true as it was..or had been. The two unlikely lovers had drifted apart after SB7, separated by a wide galaxy and the wider gulf of their own career ambitions. Lars regretted it at times, but supposed it was for the best. Purple and gray weren't supposed to mix. Still…

He shook himself out of his reverie, trying to think of something else. Noticing her engagement ring then, Lars started to say something conversational, but quickly decided against it. In his experience, observations on matters such as pregnancy and marriage in women were best left to other women, lest he botch a compliment with masculine clumsiness. He assumed she must have had some marriage arranged by her family, with a high ranking Betazoid politician or civil servant perhaps. The possibility that the ring was tied to a certain Marine never crossed his mind.

Especially not with the subject now being discussed. Grimacing slightly at her mention of the 'straight and narrow' and 'people he'd been connected with,' but hiding it behind his drink, Lars continued in his most professional tone. "I had the opportunity to study the circumstances of your recent encounter with this Doclin character. I must confess it all came as something of a surprise to me, and you must know I don't like surprises. So yes, I am curious about why this virus is being unleashed against the unfortunate denizens of Betazed, and by whom, and exceedingly curious about your part in all this since it seems to be a whole lot more…intricate than most people would assume." It wasn't often Lars cared to admit his own ignorance, but in this case he thought it prudent. The connections Lillian spoke of had kept him in the dark about the matter of Doclin, even warned him not to delve too deeply into that area, but now Lars saw a chance to strengthen his own position by learning more anyway.

"And as far as I'm concerned we're friends too, so if I can think of any way of using my…connections…to help you out in this matter, I will. That's a promise, Lilly," he added familiarly, and smiled a charming smile again.

"Megan is good," Lillian told him with a smile as she drank more of the smoothie, finishing it off rather quickly and realizing just how hungry she was. "She misses you as she gets attached but she also has a habit of running from people she really likes, so the space is something I'm sure both of you think is better."

She smiled a little bit and pushed the cup away from her, shifting and hoping her stomach wouldn't betray that she needed some food. Lillian rested her hands on the table and looked at Lars, trying to carefully pick and choose her words and smiling as he used that charming smile that he always seemed to have equipped at the ready. She didn't know how much to tell him and how much to keep to herself, but she knew that she had to tell him something.

"Doclin and I have history and honestly, that's as much as I feel comfortable saying right now," Lillian told him, looking around a moment. "I don't want you to be put in danger by me dragging you into my mess, I'm upset enough that the people that I love are involved and that such a lash out on me has to be done on my home planet where my son is. I know that you are all here from me, but I need to do things on my own, pregnant or not. He is my fight and while he is putting others in the middle of it and it is certainly not helpful, I will eventually have this all under control."

Closing her eyes a moment, she opened them and looked Lars in the eye. "I don't want you to be involved in the same mess that Taylor and Marlo got dragged into. You have other things to attend to and if you're still in his company, let him know that that job he asked me to do is still going as planned. It's just taking a little while longer than anticipated."

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

"Megan…" Lars said wistfully, and took a deeper drink. "How is… well, never mind." Silently reminiscing for a moment, he didn't even flinch at Lillian's comment about screwing, true as it was..or had been. The two unlikely lovers had drifted apart after SB7, separated by a wide galaxy and the wider gulf of their own career ambitions. Lars regretted it at times, but supposed it was for the best. Purple and gray weren't supposed to mix. Still…

He shook himself out of his reverie, trying to think of something else. Noticing her engagement ring then, Lars started to say something conversational, but quickly decided against it. In his experience, observations on matters such as pregnancy and marriage in women were best left to other women, lest he botch a compliment with masculine clumsiness. He assumed she must have had some marriage arranged by her family, with a high ranking Betazoid politician or civil servant perhaps. The possibility that the ring was tied to a certain Marine never crossed his mind.

Especially not with the subject now being discussed. Grimacing slightly at her mention of the 'straight and narrow' and 'people he'd been connected with,' but hiding it behind his drink, Lars continued in his most professional tone. "I had the opportunity to study the circumstances of your recent encounter with this Doclin character. I must confess it all came as something of a surprise to me, and you must know I don't like surprises. So yes, I am curious about why this virus is being unleashed against the unfortunate denizens of Betazed, and by whom, and exceedingly curious about your part in all this since it seems to be a whole lot more…intricate than most people would assume." It wasn't often Lars cared to admit his own ignorance, but in this case he thought it prudent. The connections Lillian spoke of had kept him in the dark about the matter of Doclin, even warned him not to delve too deeply into that area, but now Lars saw a chance to strengthen his own position by learning more anyway.

"And as far as I'm concerned we're friends too, so if I can think of any way of using my…connections…to help you out in this matter, I will. That's a promise, Lilly," he added familiarly, and smiled a charming smile again.

"Megan is good," Lillian told him with a smile as she drank more of the smoothie, finishing it off rather quickly and realizing just how hungry she was. "She misses you as she gets attached but she also has a habit of running from people she really likes, so the space is something I'm sure both of you think is better."

She smiled a little bit and pushed the cup away from her, shifting and hoping her stomach wouldn't betray that she needed some food. Lillian rested her hands on the table and looked at Lars, trying to carefully pick and choose her words and smiling as he used that charming smile that he always seemed to have equipped at the ready. She didn't know how much to tell him and how much to keep to herself, but she knew that she had to tell him something.

"Doclin and I have history and honestly, that's as much as I feel comfortable saying right now," Lillian told him, looking around a moment. "I don't want you to be put in danger by me dragging you into my mess, I'm upset enough that the people that I love are involved and that such a lash out on me has to be done on my home planet where my son is. I know that you are all here from me, but I need to do things on my own, pregnant or not. He is my fight and while he is putting others in the middle of it and it is certainly not helpful, I will eventually have this all under control."

Closing her eyes a moment, she opened them and looked Lars in the eye. "I don't want you to be involved in the same mess that Taylor and Marlo got dragged into. You have other things to attend to and if you're still in his company, let him know that that job he asked me to do is still going as planned. It's just taking a little while longer than anticipated."

Lars kept his face impassive when she spoke of what must have been Sully and his schemes. In truth he had no idea what job his mysterious benefactor had asked Lillian to do, but he was not about to let on to that. "Regardless, I'll see what I can do to help," was all he offered in a flat, emotionless tone of voice. "I must owe you that much." Inside he was troubled, as he always was, to find out more about his mentor's machinations, mostly because Lars felt like he shouldn't have been excluded from so much of it. Jealousy, more or less. A part of him realized that this secrecy was necessary, but he still brooded over the whole thing in silence for a few moments, finishing his drink and spinning the glass around on the table.

Then he seemed to recover, and go on the offensive. "Under control? Forgive me for asking, but just how do you plan to do that? Even based on my limited grasp of the situation I can see that this matter is rapidly escalating, and it seems like this Doclin and his cronies have you and I and Starfleet on the defensive. Now it seems to me that the good Doctor is jabbing at you, goading you, threatening you, but never really hurting you as much as he could. You're letting him decide the rules of the game, and one day he might decide to change them to where you can never win and you lose more than you'd ever care to bet. So I say you need to act, and throw all your pieces on the board against him. Hell, borrow some pieces from other players if you have to. I'm sure our mutual acquaintance won't mind loaning you a few." That was as much as he'd say about Sully for the moment.

"But dammit Lilly, you're the one that can best see the whole game board right now and you're the one that has to do something!" Lars intoned passionately. His blood was up now, possibly at the thought of Megan and the terrifying possibility that she too could be threatened by this Doclin and his viruses. "So what are you -we- going to do about it?" he said forcefully, taking a few steps forward and watching Lillian intently.

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

"Megan…" Lars said wistfully, and took a deeper drink. "How is… well, never mind." Silently reminiscing for a moment, he didn't even flinch at Lillian's comment about screwing, true as it was..or had been. The two unlikely lovers had drifted apart after SB7, separated by a wide galaxy and the wider gulf of their own career ambitions. Lars regretted it at times, but supposed it was for the best. Purple and gray weren't supposed to mix. Still…

He shook himself out of his reverie, trying to think of something else. Noticing her engagement ring then, Lars started to say something conversational, but quickly decided against it. In his experience, observations on matters such as pregnancy and marriage in women were best left to other women, lest he botch a compliment with masculine clumsiness. He assumed she must have had some marriage arranged by her family, with a high ranking Betazoid politician or civil servant perhaps. The possibility that the ring was tied to a certain Marine never crossed his mind.

Especially not with the subject now being discussed. Grimacing slightly at her mention of the 'straight and narrow' and 'people he'd been connected with,' but hiding it behind his drink, Lars continued in his most professional tone. "I had the opportunity to study the circumstances of your recent encounter with this Doclin character. I must confess it all came as something of a surprise to me, and you must know I don't like surprises. So yes, I am curious about why this virus is being unleashed against the unfortunate denizens of Betazed, and by whom, and exceedingly curious about your part in all this since it seems to be a whole lot more…intricate than most people would assume." It wasn't often Lars cared to admit his own ignorance, but in this case he thought it prudent. The connections Lillian spoke of had kept him in the dark about the matter of Doclin, even warned him not to delve too deeply into that area, but now Lars saw a chance to strengthen his own position by learning more anyway.

"And as far as I'm concerned we're friends too, so if I can think of any way of using my…connections…to help you out in this matter, I will. That's a promise, Lilly," he added familiarly, and smiled a charming smile again.

"Megan is good," Lillian told him with a smile as she drank more of the smoothie, finishing it off rather quickly and realizing just how hungry she was. "She misses you as she gets attached but she also has a habit of running from people she really likes, so the space is something I'm sure both of you think is better."

She smiled a little bit and pushed the cup away from her, shifting and hoping her stomach wouldn't betray that she needed some food. Lillian rested her hands on the table and looked at Lars, trying to carefully pick and choose her words and smiling as he used that charming smile that he always seemed to have equipped at the ready. She didn't know how much to tell him and how much to keep to herself, but she knew that she had to tell him something.

"Doclin and I have history and honestly, that's as much as I feel comfortable saying right now," Lillian told him, looking around a moment. "I don't want you to be put in danger by me dragging you into my mess, I'm upset enough that the people that I love are involved and that such a lash out on me has to be done on my home planet where my son is. I know that you are all here from me, but I need to do things on my own, pregnant or not. He is my fight and while he is putting others in the middle of it and it is certainly not helpful, I will eventually have this all under control."

Closing her eyes a moment, she opened them and looked Lars in the eye. "I don't want you to be involved in the same mess that Taylor and Marlo got dragged into. You have other things to attend to and if you're still in his company, let him know that that job he asked me to do is still going as planned. It's just taking a little while longer than anticipated."

Lars kept his face impassive when she spoke of what must have been Sully and his schemes. In truth he had no idea what job his mysterious benefactor had asked Lillian to do, but he was not about to let on to that. "Regardless, I'll see what I can do to help," was all he offered in a flat, emotionless tone of voice. "I must owe you that much." Inside he was troubled, as he always was, to find out more about his mentor's machinations, mostly because Lars felt like he shouldn't have been excluded from so much of it. Jealousy, more or less. A part of him realized that this secrecy was necessary, but he still brooded over the whole thing in silence for a few moments, finishing his drink and spinning the glass around on the table.

Then he seemed to recover, and go on the offensive. "Under control? Forgive me for asking, but just how do you plan to do that? Even based on my limited grasp of the situation I can see that this matter is rapidly escalating, and it seems like this Doclin and his cronies have you and I and Starfleet on the defensive. Now it seems to me that the good Doctor is jabbing at you, goading you, threatening you, but never really hurting you as much as he could. You're letting him decide the rules of the game, and one day he might decide to change them to where you can never win and you lose more than you'd ever care to bet. So I say you need to act, and throw all your pieces on the board against him. Hell, borrow some pieces from other players if you have to. I'm sure our mutual acquaintance won't mind loaning you a few." That was as much as he'd say about Sully for the moment.

"But dammit Lilly, you're the one that can best see the whole game board right now and you're the one that has to do something!" Lars intoned passionately. His blood was up now, possibly at the thought of Megan and the terrifying possibility that she too could be threatened by this Doclin and his viruses. "So what are you -we- going to do about it?" he said forcefully, taking a few steps forward and watching Lillian intently.

"He has the means to destroy us at the moment, Lars," Lillian said rather calmly, shaking her head. "I will strike the moment I find his weakness and believe me, I will find it. He is pushing right now--trying to weaken me--and he will not get to Sareth. I will not allow it."

Lillian shook her head and ignored the grumbling of her stomach as she stood a moment and leaned on the table, looking at Lars only after taking a deep breath. She had to steady herself and make sure that she had chosen her next words as carefully as she could. The last thing that she wanted was Lars trying to upset the very delicate balance that she and Marshall had right at that moment.

"What we are going to do is save Betazed," Lillian told Lars firmly. "After that, if you still want to be involved, then consider yourself involved. Doclin is not above hurting my family and he's working his way through. First Taylor, now Sareth...I just have to find his weakness, and I will. I am handling this. If you want to help, I can't stop you but you cannot upset this balance. The moment he thinks he is threatened he will strike to kill and I can't let that happen. You have to trust me and my judgment. Lets just brief my Senior Staff and fix what is broken right now...we can focus on the future when we're not so crippled right now."

||USS Mitterand
||Transporter Room>Briefing Room
||1430


Lillian had known that she would have to talk to the other ship and since Admiral Flynn had told her to make sure that everyone was all up to date with everything, she went ahead and beamed over. They were practically to Betazed and she knew they'd be there by 1520, but right now she had to discuss tactics. She was certain that this ship also had their own medical, marine and science teams to send down and she wanted more than anything to just get this over with and get to her son.

Not only that but using a transporter had also made her feel just a little bit awkward considering hers and the baby's signals would get scattered and then put back together so the moment she ended up in the other Transporter Room she scanned herself with the medical tricorder she had brought with her and when she felt like she and the baby were just fine, she looked up and gave a small smile.

This was all part of the job--meeting and greeting and delegating.

Waiting to meet and greet her was an austere-looking older man, his dark hair graying at the temples and giving him that much more of an air of authority. His uniform was perfectly pressed and creased, and his rank pins looked as though he shined them every hour. He returned Lillian's smile with a nod, but his stern features robbed the gesture of any warmth.

"Captain Crae? I'm Martin Wierzbowski, captain of the Mitterand. Welcome aboard," he said soberly, and gestured to a Takaran officer standing beside him. "This is Commander Jevli Burast, my second in command." The Takaran nodded respectfully, but remained otherwise impassive.

Captain Wierzbowski seemed pleased that the formalities were at an end, and they could get down to business. "Now then, we know what we're here to do so let's do it. My people are currently preparing for large-scale disaster relief operations, and I assume your crew are doing likewise, so there's no time for extended introductions. I do believe, however, that it would be a good idea to use what time we have for an initial briefing and delegation of responsibilities. Follow me to the conference room, if you please." With that he turned and strode down the corridors at a brisk pace, clearly trying to test the younger captain as his XO flanked both captains with a practiced leisurely stroll.

As they walked, the captain continued his rapid-fire assessment of the situation that faced the two ships' crews. "Our initial communications with first-responders on Betazed have not yet provided us with a concrete understanding of the scope of the attack and the outbreak. Therefore I'm planning on organizing a two stage response, with a smaller initial away team sent in first to determine the nature of the medical and security situation followed by a larger joint task force that is fully equipped and prepared to coordinate with local personnel. I think it would be best if your people attached themselves to my teams as needed so that we can avoid overlap." That the Fenris' personnel would be subordinate was implied, and the captain's tone did not seem to leave much room for debate.

Wierzbowski halted abruptly then, and fixed Lillian with his signature piercing gaze. "I've also heard, from a somewhat unreliable source, that you've had firsthand experience with the virus. Is this true, and if so is there any special insight you can provide?"

Lillian followed the set pace of the walk with absolutely no trouble at all and listened to the man as he talked. He had years on her and obviously more experience as she was a first time captain and she knew that she was going to have to take orders. Honestly that didn't bother her at all--she was used to being a CMO and that meant taking orders and doing as she was told.

Besides, anything that saved Betazed was in her best interests and if that meant that she had to take orders and instruct her men to take orders then so be it. This man seemed to know what he was doing and she wanted to make sure that everyone worked together to get the outcome that she wanted: this virus eradicated. Then her history with the virus was brought up and Lillian knew that it was about time that she put in her two cents on the matter.

"Yes, I actually almost died from it," Lillian said slowly, taking a deep breath. "Admiral Flynn informs me that there have already been a couple of causalities and that no cure can be found. What I think needs to happen is for our Medical and Science teams to undoubtedly go down first and offer whatever help they can--to take blood samples and even infect healthy tissue if possible to see how the virus works exactly so a cure can be made since we do not currently have the cure on us. In fact I might have antibodies from when I had the virus and the cure, but I'd have to be permitted to do blood tests when we get there. I am of course not in charge here...that has been made perfectly clear and I am capable of dealing with that. The bomb, however...I have a Marine detachment that is more than equipped to meet up with the team already there to help to secure the bomb and dismantle it. Perhaps we should send our best engineers as well?"

If Captain Wierzbowski was surprised by Lillian's experience with the virus he didn't show it, but merely resumed his pace. "In that case I think you would be the best choice to lead the initial team, given that and your own medical experience. I'll coordinate things from up here for the time being," the captain responded firmly. "And you say you might have antibodies? Then I'll need you to speak with our own Doctor T'Lek about that. If she could get a sample of your blood on file here it would mean we could work on a vaccine that much sooner…once we have concrete data on the virus used down there of course."

He considered her other suggestions, and seemed to accept them grudgingly. "All right, I see the merit in that. Send down your Marine squad in the initial away team and have them link up with local security on Betazed to locate this bomb. But tell your people to coordinate with local forces and let them take the lead! We don't need any gung-ho antics here." The captain was clearly a Fleet officer of the old guard, suspicious of Marines.

"As for engineers…I can't spare anyone at the moment. We're straining the reactor as it is, replicating emergency supplies. But if you have some people to assist, then by all means send them down. Just make sure they don't get in the way of the medical staff." They approached the briefing room then, and the older man's stride slowed just a bit, as if he was momentarily reluctant to enter.

"I also have some…auxiliary personnel…aboard that I might be able to allocate to the search efforts," the captain muttered, a note of irritation in his voice. With that he keyed the door controls for the briefing room and strode inside. At the far end of the room a figure in a gray uniform lounged in a chair, booted feet up on the table and gloved hands clasped behind his head.

"Hello, Captain," Lars said amiably, then nodded to Lillian "Captain." Seeing Wierzbowski's frown, Lars took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "How are the mission preparations coming along?"

"You have Lars," Lillian said when she saw the familiar man in the gray uniform.

Lillian couldn't help but look at him as she tried to get her words straightened out in her head because there was a lot more to focus on right here than on the fact that Lars was there and she needed to make sure that she kept her mind on the task at hand. Right now they were trying to put together a relief effort on their part even though people were already on Betazed and Lillian needed to focus on that. It was time to be a captain and a leader and not her emotional self.

"I might not have antibodies, there is only one way to know, and that is to test me down there with the virus," Lillian explained slowly, trying to focus on the mission at hand and not on Lars. "I can send my Marine force down, but I believe it would be best for my spare engineers to help with the bomb--after all it's more of a bio weapon than an actual weapon of destruction. There is an airborne threat and someone needs to dismantle it...find it first. Has it been found?"

She took a seat for a moment because she was feeling pained from standing, her ankles a bit sore. "My men will not get in the way, they are only here to help. The most important part of this mission is the medical staff and I think it is in Betazed's best interest that we give them our very best medical and science personnel and I will lead the first team down as you suggested to try and help with the cure situation. Right now we need to cure the infected and prevent the spread. This virus is spread through blood, so quarantine is easy and it doesn't affect non-telepaths, but I don't know if it can be carried and passed by non-telepaths. The airborne virus must be secured and stopped, however, or it may just exterminate all the Betazoids here...myself included as I don't know how the virus has mutated to become airborne."

"So you two have met…" the other captain mused, then returned to business.

"Local security forces are still searching for the second device, and thus could use assistance from your Marines in locating it. If you have competent engineers able to defuse and secure that thing, send them down too. We've received authorization for personnel to use deadly force if necessary when confronting those responsible for the attacks, so apprise your people of that. But stress the importance of caution too. The second bomb needs to be defused, secured, and turned over to Starfleet Medical for analysis of the virus in the interest of a long term vaccine. If such a thing were to spread, the casualties amongst telepathic races could be…severe," the captain said grimly, and fixed Lillian with his piercing gaze as he said it, perhaps to remind her of her own stake in the matter.

"That brings me to your own part in all this. It seems like a risky proposition, exposing a Starfleet captain to a potentially deadly virus in the vague hope of a finding a cure….but it may be our only viable option in the end. That decision is yours, Captain," the older man intoned, clearly gaining some respect for Lillian at her proposed sacrifice.

"Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment," Wierzbowski said stiffly, and marched back into the corridor, where he could be heard having a muted conversation with his XO until the doors hissed shut. Lars had been listening with a distracted look on his face the whole time, but when the other captain left he snapped out of it.

"Feeling all right, ma'am? You look a bit pale. Can I get you something?" the Intel man offered accommodatingly, and stood to move over to the replicator. "I hope you won't take Captain Wierzbowski's gruffness personally. I've come to find that that's just his style of command, and command is what he likes to be in. He hasn't taken too well to ferrying my team around lately, and I suspect this mission is in fact an enjoyable diversion for him."

"But I suspect not so much for you…" he offered sympathetically. "It can't be easy dealing with attacks on your homeworld…and more so given that you have a history with this particular pathogen," Lars offered coyly, hinting slightly at Lillian's past connections to the virus and its creator. In truth he didn't know as much about all that as he would have liked, and was trying to take advantage of the situation to learn a bit more.

"We both know how I feel about people calling me 'Ma'am' even though I can't avoid it now--comes with the added pip..." Lillian said, hinting for Lars to call her by her name as they were alone.

Then his comment about her being pale really hit her and it dawned on her that she had been far too stressed out to eat anything at all and she was hungry. She really needed to eat something and if Taylor knew she had skipped a meal he would be lecturing her about hers and the baby's health and that made her feel incredibly guilty, which made her straighten up a little bit in her seat. She and Lars had an interesting past and while she was mad at him for leaving Taylor behind, he had come to her and offered to be there for her and she had forgiven him for his judgment on the situation--she knew Taylor had not.

Taylor had gone through a lot being left behind, and in getting left behind, Lillian had had quite a challenging time trying to find him. Especially since most people thought she was crazy for even holding out hope for Taylor still being alive but deep down she knew it and she had gotten him re-instated when he had returned to her looking to come home. What would happen when Taylor and Lars had to talk again, only the Four Deities knew and Lillian hoped she was there to smooth it all over as Taylor was bound to attack.

"I actually haven't had lunch yet...don't suppose I could get a smoothie to tide myself over?" she asked him slowly before taking a breath. "I'm more worried about my son than anyone else, honestly. The whole thing is tragic and I will find a cure, but my son is telepathic...his Vulcan half helped that to happen and Vulcan physiology...I have no idea how this will effect him should he get infected. This virus needs a vaccine. I'll feel a lot better once we're there and my Marines are searching for the bomb. Speaking of which...you and I should brief my Senior officers."

She nodded slowly and then looked at Lars. "How have you been?"

"Lilly it is, just like the old days," Lars said happily, secretly pleased at being able to avoid being deferential to anyone through titles. Not that it sounded convincing even when he did use ranks when addressing superiors. He nodded pleasantly at her request, and took an educated guess at the flavor. "Chocolate smoothie," he commanded the replicator, and in a lower voice added "…and a Vodka Gibson." After both their beverages had materialized he brought Lillian her smoothie before retreating a few steps back to nurse his drink and eye her sitting there.

He nodded enthusiastically at her suggestion about briefing. "I've received authorization to assist on this mission; my superiors agree that this is a far more pressing issue than my team's previous assignment. I've pulled all the data on the top suspects behind this attack, and can give your senior officers a quick rundown on what we've uncovered. I assume you'll fill in the gaps where appropriate? Between the two of us we should be able to make this thing go smoothly, just like the old days too, eh?" he said with his best charming grin. Lars never missed a chance to feel important, and in all the excitement he had forgotten about the thorny issue of Taylor Lucas all together.

He feigned humility when she asked him about how he'd been. "Well, following the personnel shakeup at SB7 I was reassigned to Starfleet Intelligence as part of Vice Admiral Brynner's executive staff. Pushing papers and flying a desk and all that rear-echelon hero stuff. It's a living." In fact, Lars was exceedingly proud of this accomplishment, and it gave him a great deal of comfort knowing he was now intimately enfolded into the upper echelons of Starfleet Intelligence. It protected him from a great deal of unpleasantness, a reward for years of loyal service he was sure. "It's a lot of the usual bureaucratic wrangling, though I sometimes see some action when the Admiral sends me out to go take care of some Intel brushfire," Lars continued, glossing over the extent of his activities as usual.

"How are the rigors of command treating you? It's not your first time of course, but a starship is a bird of a different feather compared to your previous experiences." He smiled as he sipped his drink and considered those experiences that he'd witnessed.

"Lucky you, I just got a ship and an ever expanding waistline," Lillian said shaking her had, drinking some of the smoothie and then chewing on her bottom lip. "Alright, I can't complain, I do like being captain. I just...times like this I wish I was the CMO again. Finding problems, curing diseases. I do have people to count on and delegate to as well--I even have my own Yeoman and believe me they are much more useful than I was ever led to believe. It helps too that my personal life--besides this detour--is all on track. You're also no longer screwing my sister, so I don't hear all that much anymore about that part of her life. Megan's focusing on becoming a renowned Diplomat and I couldn't be more proud."

She wanted to throw that in as a mother hen and as an older sister just to make her point since the two might cross paths, though she doubted that. Megan was busy dealing with keeping people from going on and off Betazed that weren't there to help and Lars had other things to attend to. So Lillian just had to say it to remind him that the two of them had history and it was okay if he asked her hard questions. Nodding a little bit, she even ran her fingers through her shorter hair and her engagement ring was flashed at the Intel officer.

"In fact I'm proud of you, Lars. I told Marlo that you had it in you to be on the straight and narrow," Lillian said with a motherly smile thrown his way. "And speaking of the straight and narrow...I assure you that you have absolutely no idea what you're dealing with down there. Starfleet has been in the dark about Doclin since the dawn of his time and now isn't any different. Then again, there are other people you've been connected with that might know, right? The last two months I learned a lot more about Doclin that I didn't know before and we both know who I'm talking about."

Fact of the matter was that Lillian knew just as much about Sully now as she did then, but she knew that Lars had information that Starfleet wished they had and he was just playing it close to the vest. While she trusted Lars, she also knew that there was a lot about him that she didn't know and that she never would know. That was perfectly alright with Lillian but she wanted Lars to know that she didn't like to skirt around issues and if he wanted to talk about this, then they would talk about this.

"What do you want to know, Lars?" Lillian asked him calmly. "Do you want to know why Betazed is the target? Do you want to know why I know things above my pay grade? As far as I am concerned we are friends, so just be straight forward with me."

"Megan…" Lars said wistfully, and took a deeper drink. "How is… well, never mind." Silently reminiscing for a moment, he didn't even flinch at Lillian's comment about screwing, true as it was..or had been. The two unlikely lovers had drifted apart after SB7, separated by a wide galaxy and the wider gulf of their own career ambitions. Lars regretted it at times, but supposed it was for the best. Purple and gray weren't supposed to mix. Still…

He shook himself out of his reverie, trying to think of something else. Noticing her engagement ring then, Lars started to say something conversational, but quickly decided against it. In his experience, observations on matters such as pregnancy and marriage in women were best left to other women, lest he botch a compliment with masculine clumsiness. He assumed she must have had some marriage arranged by her family, with a high ranking Betazoid politician or civil servant perhaps. The possibility that the ring was tied to a certain Marine never crossed his mind.

Especially not with the subject now being discussed. Grimacing slightly at her mention of the 'straight and narrow' and 'people he'd been connected with,' but hiding it behind his drink, Lars continued in his most professional tone. "I had the opportunity to study the circumstances of your recent encounter with this Doclin character. I must confess it all came as something of a surprise to me, and you must know I don't like surprises. So yes, I am curious about why this virus is being unleashed against the unfortunate denizens of Betazed, and by whom, and exceedingly curious about your part in all this since it seems to be a whole lot more…intricate than most people would assume." It wasn't often Lars cared to admit his own ignorance, but in this case he thought it prudent. The connections Lillian spoke of had kept him in the dark about the matter of Doclin, even warned him not to delve too deeply into that area, but now Lars saw a chance to strengthen his own position by learning more anyway.

"And as far as I'm concerned we're friends too, so if I can think of any way of using my…connections…to help you out in this matter, I will. That's a promise, Lilly," he added familiarly, and smiled a charming smile again.

"Megan is good," Lillian told him with a smile as she drank more of the smoothie, finishing it off rather quickly and realizing just how hungry she was. "She misses you as she gets attached but she also has a habit of running from people she really likes, so the space is something I'm sure both of you think is better."

She smiled a little bit and pushed the cup away from her, shifting and hoping her stomach wouldn't betray that she needed some food. Lillian rested her hands on the table and looked at Lars, trying to carefully pick and choose her words and smiling as he used that charming smile that he always seemed to have equipped at the ready. She didn't know how much to tell him and how much to keep to herself, but she knew that she had to tell him something.

"Doclin and I have history and honestly, that's as much as I feel comfortable saying right now," Lillian told him, looking around a moment. "I don't want you to be put in danger by me dragging you into my mess, I'm upset enough that the people that I love are involved and that such a lash out on me has to be done on my home planet where my son is. I know that you are all here from me, but I need to do things on my own, pregnant or not. He is my fight and while he is putting others in the middle of it and it is certainly not helpful, I will eventually have this all under control."

Closing her eyes a moment, she opened them and looked Lars in the eye. "I don't want you to be involved in the same mess that Taylor and Marlo got dragged into. You have other things to attend to and if you're still in his company, let him know that that job he asked me to do is still going as planned. It's just taking a little while longer than anticipated."

Lars kept his face impassive when she spoke of what must have been Sully and his schemes. In truth he had no idea what job his mysterious benefactor had asked Lillian to do, but he was not about to let on to that. "Regardless, I'll see what I can do to help," was all he offered in a flat, emotionless tone of voice. "I must owe you that much." Inside he was troubled, as he always was, to find out more about his mentor's machinations, mostly because Lars felt like he shouldn't have been excluded from so much of it. Jealousy, more or less. A part of him realized that this secrecy was necessary, but he still brooded over the whole thing in silence for a few moments, finishing his drink and spinning the glass around on the table.

Then he seemed to recover, and go on the offensive. "Under control? Forgive me for asking, but just how do you plan to do that? Even based on my limited grasp of the situation I can see that this matter is rapidly escalating, and it seems like this Doclin and his cronies have you and I and Starfleet on the defensive. Now it seems to me that the good Doctor is jabbing at you, goading you, threatening you, but never really hurting you as much as he could. You're letting him decide the rules of the game, and one day he might decide to change them to where you can never win and you lose more than you'd ever care to bet. So I say you need to act, and throw all your pieces on the board against him. Hell, borrow some pieces from other players if you have to. I'm sure our mutual acquaintance won't mind loaning you a few." That was as much as he'd say about Sully for the moment.

"But dammit Lilly, you're the one that can best see the whole game board right now and you're the one that has to do something!" Lars intoned passionately. His blood was up now, possibly at the thought of Megan and the terrifying possibility that she too could be threatened by this Doclin and his viruses. "So what are you -we- going to do about it?" he said forcefully, taking a few steps forward and watching Lillian intently.

"He has the means to destroy us at the moment, Lars," Lillian said rather calmly, shaking her head. "I will strike the moment I find his weakness and believe me, I will find it. He is pushing right now--trying to weaken me--and he will not get to Sareth. I will not allow it."

Lillian shook her head and ignored the grumbling of her stomach as she stood a moment and leaned on the table, looking at Lars only after taking a deep breath. She had to steady herself and make sure that she had chosen her next words as carefully as she could. The last thing that she wanted was Lars trying to upset the very delicate balance that she and Marshall had right at that moment.

"What we are going to do is save Betazed," Lillian told Lars firmly. "After that, if you still want to be involved, then consider yourself involved. Doclin is not above hurting my family and he's working his way through. First Taylor, now Sareth...I just have to find his weakness, and I will. I am handling this. If you want to help, I can't stop you but you cannot upset this balance. The moment he thinks he is threatened he will strike to kill and I can't let that happen. You have to trust me and my judgment. Lets just brief my Senior Staff and fix what is broken right now...we can focus on the future when we're not so crippled right now."

Lars was both chastised and placated by her words, and so he nodded in acceptance of her resolute stance. He knew enough to know that he didn't know enough about all this to do anything on his own. Still, after they dealt with the crisis on Betazed he was going to request special detached duty from Vice Admiral Brynner to look into this issue more in depth. But for now Lillian was right. It was time to brief the senior officers and deal with the virus on Betazed.

Tossing his glass into the replicator's disposal, he checked the time to destination on the wall LCARS. "Not long now. Let's get to it then." Lars strolled over to the door and opened it. Captain Wierzbowski and his XO were still standing outside and when the door opened they hastily resumed their conversation, trying to make it seem like they'd been doing that all along. Several more of the Mitterand's officers were waiting in the corridor as well, and they turned to regard the Intel man.

"I think we had better assemble the relevant officers and begin the briefing, Captain," Lars told Wierzbowski calmly. The older man's face was creased by a frown, but he just nodded in agreement and waved to his second in command. Lars glanced over his shoulder at Lillian and beckoned to her. "Well Captain, time to get down to business, eh?" he asked nonchalantly, as though they had merely been discussing pleasantries the whole time. His casual attitude was for the benefit of the watching officers, as Lars knew that for once he needed to avoid trying to undermine anyone's authority for his own gain. He hated to admit it, but for the moment they were all in this together.

Good end and we can start a big briefing with the others?

By all means

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