Post 463: The Highest Law

Stardate:70927.1630
Title: The Highest Law
Authors: Fox Margolis, TC Blane, Zanh Liis
Scene: Various, Independence
Time: Following "Is it Really True?"
--------------------------------------------

Even flustered and a bit disheveled, Fox still struck an impressive pose as she waited for one of the two other officers to answer her query. She glanced back and forth between them and saw the two of them share a knowing look.

After a few seconds silence, Blane answered, "Yes, we have Corbinsky in custody."

"But how?"

"We," Zanh began, tilting her head toward TC, "outsmarted him."

"Swing, batter batter, swing," Blane mumbled, a sly smile also coming to his face. Again, the current CO and COO shared another look.

"Where is he now? Are you going to see him?" Fox's eyes were huge, as if she still could not believe what was going on.

Blane and Zanh started to walk down the corridor, and Margolis trotted down with them.

"In the brig." There was a sense of satisfaction in Blane's voice, as he knew by this point the treatment Corbinsky should have received in the all too capable hands of N'Dura. "And yes."

"Can I come with you?" Fox asked.

The others stopped and looked back at Fox. On the turbolift, they had agreed that speaking to Fox and getting any more information from her would be valuable as long as they held Corbinsky. But it was clear from their glances at each other and at her that the very last place they expected her to want to go was where he was.

"You've spent all this time trying to rid yourself of him," Zanh stated, "and now you want to see him."

She nodded solemnly. "This is the first time I've ever known him not to be in complete control of the situation. He might be more receptive to a friendly face."

"She has a point," Blane admitted. "Anything he might not tell us directly, he might indirectly through her."

The doors to the brig opened, and all of the holding cells were empty, save one. Corbinsky lay stretched out on a bunk, looking exhausted and deflated after his security screening and check up by Dr. McKenna.

"Wake up, Doctor. You have company." Zanh instructed.

Corbinsky sighed and opened his eyes. His head slowly lolled toward them, but the moment he saw Fox, his demeanor changed entirely. He sat up, eyes wide and mouth slightly open, and he just stared at her. He didn't seem to know quite what to say, and he didn't seem to like one bit the fact that she was seeing him behind bars, so to speak. He jumped out of the bunk and straightened the collar of his shirt. He walked to the edge of his cell, still gazing at her through the forcefield.

"If you take another step, it's going to smart," Blane warned, glancing back at N'Dura.

He turned to move away from the cell and winked at Fox reassuringly. He moved over to stand next to the captain and the ship's security chief, folded his arms across his chest and watched the events unfold before him.

Blane silently wondered where all of this was going, but smiled in the assurance that they were now cruising down a time line all of their own.

"Faustine," Corbinsky breathed her name with a sense of sacredness- almost as if he were uttering a prayer.

This did not escape Zanh's attention, and for the first time as she sized up the man, she was beginning to think that there was more to his interest in Margolis than just physical attraction or the twisted desire to stalk her. He actually looked, for some unknown reason, relieved to see her standing before him whole, healthy and in one piece.

This knocked Zanh off her guard a moment. She had been all set to go at him with a rapid fire barrage of questions, demanding to know what he'd done, what he planned on doing if they hadn't caught him. But he looked so utterly undone to her at the moment; rendered speechless except for the ability to whisper Margolis' name that she actually felt sorry for him.

Blane's eyes shifted to the left, taking in Zanh, and he widened them as if to ask her what she was waiting for. She held her hand up and gestured for him to wait a moment. She paced a few steps away, hands behind her back, eyes on the ceiling as she set about gathering her thoughts.

"Xander." Fox replied at last, attempting to paste on one of her award winning smiles, but finding herself unable. She didn't like the idea of him coming in and going out of her life the way that he had been, but she didn't like seeing him this way, either. Trapped.

Silence hung in the air a moment longer in the brig. Blane realized that all of their plans had revolved around catching Corbinsky. Now that he was in their custody, it seemed as if no one had seriously thought about the next step.It was the prisoner himself who finally broke this silence.

"A moment alone with you, if you please, Captain," Corbinsky asked, softly and without bravado.

TC Blane's head snapped back, and he seemed to gain several inches in height suddenly as he reacted to what had just been said. It was obvious he had no use at all for that particular idea.

Zanh regarded the doctor a long time, and then surprised N'Dura, Margolis, and Blane by nodding. "Could you give us a minute? It'll be all right."

With his mouth agape, Blane followed N'Dura and Margolis out of the room. The doors slid shut behind them.

"Thank you." Corbinsky's gratitude was sincere. "I fear I've gone about this the wrong way, Zanh Liis," he confessed.

He approached the forcefield that stood between them, and his eyes seemed to peer through to the very soul of the woman before him. She felt this as a physical chill, and shifted her weight uneasily from toes, to heels, and back again. "I tried to sweep in and charm you. I should have taken a different approach."

"How's honesty for an approach, Corbinsky?" Her eyes stared through him now. "You will find that I'm much more patient with people I believe are telling me the truth."

"The truth?" he paused, "is that we're not so different, you know, you and I. In fact, if the whole truth were told, you'd understand how alike we truly are."

Zanh laughed out loud. "Now how do you figure that? You're a genius, I most certainly am nothing of the kind. You revel in popping in and out of people's lives, creating mayhem for your own amusement. I've spent my whole life just trying to find one place to get to, and stay in, where I can manage to build a life while keeping the people I care about safe from harm. How the hell do you figure you and I are anything alike?"

"Because," Corbinsky explained, lowering his voice just in case Fox might have her ear pressed to the door beyond his cell, "you and I were, and are, both willing to live and die for a higher ideal. Deep down we both believe that love is the highest law, Zanh Liis. And we will do anything, consequences be damned, to protect the person we love most."

Zanh was awestruck.

All this time she'd been thinking that Corbinsky only suffered delusions of grandeur and saw himself as a genetically engineered, time traveling messiah meant to save the world---or control it, depending on the day. But now she saw him as what he really was, a brilliant, tortured man---who was trying for all he was worth to protect the woman that he loved more than any other.

"Do you think it was an accident that of all the past, present and yes, future TI agents that I could have chosen to interact with, that I have singled you out, Zanh Liis?"

She remained silent, just listening.

"Think again. History will long tell the story of Temporal Investigations Agent Zanh Liis and her journey with the Independence crew to save the Federation from losing the Dominion War in the Mudor Filament field. But the story that history does not tell as often- the one that spoke to me," he paused and cleared his throat, "is the story of the Bajoran war orphan who grew up loving one person, and one only. The one constant in her life she could depend on. And when he was snatched away," he paused, watching as Zanh inhaled sharply in shock at the memory.

Every time she recalled that dark day, she had the same involuntary physical reaction--- the irresistible urge to breathe in. As if an inescapable vacuum was sucking the v! ery life and breath out of her lungs.

"She was willing to march straight into Hell itself to save him. To turn back the hands of time. To right what had gone so wrong."

She hung her head, unable to look at him now. "Your point, Xander?"

"My point is, your Jariel. . .my Faustine. We have gone to great lengths to try to protect and keep them. Sometimes, things get complicated. Sometimes, we are able to help others along the way in their journey as we go and that is what I am offering to you, Zanh Liis. Nothing that will alter or damage the timeline. Just a little help along the way."

"And the thing I've lost, that I don't realize yet?" She couldn't take it anymore, she had to know. "Is it Jariel?"

"Have you not thought it odd," Corbinsky paced as he spoke, "That you have not seen any sign at all of the Alchemy yet? Do you really think that a prototype ship would be that good at evading the sensors of this behemoth now that you're so close to your designated rendezvous point?"

Liis turned several shades paler, and she gasped. "Salvek?"

Corbinsky nodded sadly. "Salvek. . .Reece. . .Lair. . .Maak. . .Biggs. . .Grace. . ."

"No," Zanh lashed out. She lowered the forcefield between them and grabbed Corbinsky by the collar. "NO! They're not dead, are they? TELL ME!"

"If you don't hurry," he replied, his face etched with sincere sorrow on her behalf, "they will be."

--------------------------------------
Lt. Faustine Margolis
Operations Officer
USS Independence

Lt. TC Blane
Chief Operations Officer
USS Independence

and

=/\= Zanh Liis
Acting CO
USS Independence NCC-90791