Post 390: Barbie Girl

Stardate:70815.1420
Title: Barbie Girl
Authors: Fox Margolis and Zanh Liis
Place: Quarters/ Ready Room
Time: Following "Here Comes Trouble"
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"I'm a Barbie girl, in the Barbie world-
Life in plastic, It's fantastic!" ~Aqua
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Fox waited for about five seconds. Then she let out a piercing shrill. "The nerve of that man!" she exclaimed.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she glanced around her quarters. It was the last place she wanted to be right now. So she marched to her door and was about to leave, when she realized that she was barefoot. Shaking her head, she turned back around, went to her closet, and found a matching pair of pink, knee high boots. Now completely attired, Fox left her quarters and paced down the hall.

She did not have a destination in mind as she absent-mindedly catwalked the hallways. She just wanted out. She did not care about anyone else who passed her and the intrigued looks they gave the ex-model.

"Where to go, where to go," she mumbled to herself. Security seemed like the obvious choice. After all, it had been N'Dura who she had confided in about Corbinsky in the first place. But now he was actually here, it was truly clear that his intentions were far greater than simply being his usual charming, smug, and arrogant self.

This was bigger than her, and growing exponentially by the second. Fox sighed. She knew what she had to do. Stopping at a panel on the wall of the corridor, she asked, "Computer where is Zanh Liis?"

[Zanh Liis is in the Captain's Ready Room.]

"Okay, back to the bridge," Fox replied as she changed course. It only took a matter of minutes to get to the bridge. Once there, Fox breezed past her comrades and went straight to the ready room.

Zanh sat with her arms folded, watching the stars streak by out the window as the Indy had just jumped to high warp and was headed for Earth. She wasn't in the best of moods.

"Enter at your own risk," she replied when she heard the door chime. Fox paused a moment, but realized that she really had no choice but to risk it.

"I need to speak with you, Captain?" Fox remarked softly, a little anxious about the likelihood that her secret was soon going to be a secret no more.

Zanh spun in the chair, an expression of amusement crossing her face as she took in Fox's attire. "Well hello there, Barbie. Did you park the Dream Car outside?"

"Sir?"

"Nevermind," Zanh's head throbbed now as badly as her spine did, and she realized that she was so old that no one was getting her jokes much anymore. "You need something, Fox?"

"I need to speak with you about a...problem. Concerning a visitor we've had to the ship recently."

"Oh?" Zanh sat up in her chair, all joking aside now. "Someone who came up from Trill? Or Bajor?"

"I wish." Fox replied slowly, wondering how on earth you introduce the fact that you've got a time-traveling stalker into polite conversation. She fidgeted for a second, but then made herself stand still and focus on the problem.

"An old acquaintance popped in. Quite literally. He came to say hello."

"Okay." Zanh nodded her head slowly, not sure where Fox was going, and so trying to encourage her to continue.

"And if he's here, it can only mean trouble for us. I mean, the man disdains Starfleet; he thinks he's better than the rest of us." She paused and bit on her lower lip. "But then again, he is gorgeous," she reminisced, "and intelligent, and..." Fox shook her head. "I have got to stop doing that."

A faint and understanding smile crossed Zanh's lips. "Oogling over this person?"

"Yes," Fox replied, her hand unconsciously reaching for her neck to play with the Andorian gem. "Anyway, Xander," she continued.Zanh interrupted, Fox's story beginning to fit together.

"Wait a minute. Xander. As in Dr. Xander Corbinsky?"Fox's eyes widened slightly.

"You've heard of him?"

Zanh rose from her chair and leaned an elbow against the window, crossing one foot over the other. "Unfortunately. There was talk years back, in circles among those who share my former line of work-" Zanh paused, "You do know that I used to work for Temporal Investigations?"

Fox nodded.

"Corbinsky is something of myth and legend among TI agents. Rumors of his little visits, just popping up here and there, in this time and that-" she sighed. "I was one of those who held the opinion that I would believe how powerful he was when I saw it. It seems I'm going to live to regret that challenge."

"Is there anything we can do as far as preventing him, well, temporally, from reappearing on the ship?"

Zanh shifted, folding her hands and bringing her index fingers to her lips. "I'm not sure yet. I'll have to think on it, talk to some people," she spoke softly. "If the stories are true, then expecting the TI of 2386 to be able to track someone like Corbinsky would be akin to asking Zefram Cochran to take his first warp flight on a tricycle. We're a little out of our depth here."

This information wasn't making Fox feel any better.

"But as of now, Lieutenant, I don't want you to so much as powder your nose without a security detail present to hold the puff for you. Got that?"

"Yes, Sir." Fox gave a half hearted smile. "Thanks for listening."

"Anytime. If your friend shows up again, I want to be the first person you tell."

Fox turned around and left the ready room, leaving Zanh to create a mental to do list of everything that would need to be done in order to even try to be prepared for whatever Corbinsky had in mind.

"This is what happens when you let Barbie out of the Dream House," Zanh groaned, as she realized she had a few items she needed to retrieve from her quarters.

Urgently.
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Lt. Faustine "Fox" Margolis
Operations Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791

~and~

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