by Salvek and Zanh Liis
80621.19
A little while after Breaking Point
-=Captain’s Quarters=-
80621.19
A little while after Breaking Point
-=Captain’s Quarters=-
Having cried herself out, Liis sat on the couch in her living room and stared at the wall.
Too lost in her own thoughts to notice the flashing light of the console across the room indicating she had a message waiting, she wondered where Jariel had gone- and if he was ever going to come back.
Everything was so wrong. How had everything gone so wrong?
She had a thought and suddenly bolted, across the room to the shelf opposite her position. She grasped the small suitcase on display and opened it. She rifled quickly through its few contents and pulled out a small, dark device.
With sweaty palms she struggled to hold on to it as she flipped open the lid.
For an instant, she closed her eyes.
If it was lit, then she would know that everything was wrong for a reason. Maybe the reason was something she was sent to fix.
Maybe she was still Jumping- maybe she wasn’t where she was supposed to be in this position as Captain of the Serendipity. Maybe like so many other stops along the way, she wasn't meant to stay here and never had been.
Maybe this had all been another illusion- a phantom branch of the timeline never meant to continue beyond a certain point.
Beyond this point.
She opened her eyes at last and confirmed her sinking fears. The compass was dark, and silent.
Consumed by hatred for both the device and the situation she found herself in, Liis threw it as hard as she could across the room with a shout, and it broke into pieces as it smashed against the window and fell to the floor.
“What the hell am I supposed to do?”
[Sickbay to Captain Zanh.]
Her hand trembled as she tried twice to activate her badge and missed. The third time, she finally managed to touch it. “Zanh.” Her own name sounded strange to her as she spoke it.
[Lt. Commander O’Sullivan is conscious, Captain. We thought you would want to know.]
“Understood.”
Closing the channel, she thought of the way that Keiran had looked at her earlier, and what he had said.
She couldn’t ever save him from himself, he’d told her.
Could she manage to save herself from Time?
-=Quarters of the Executive Officer=-
"Are you going to relieve me of duty?" Lair Kellyn asked, arms folded across her chest as she stood in the center of the bedroom. She didn't expect him to say yes, but she still wanted to ask.
"I do not believe that is necessary." Salvek replied. Following the brawl he had escorted her home for a change in uniform. Each of them were stained with various drinks from across the quadrant and several meals that had been converted from sustenance to weapon during the melee.
Stomping her way around the room, she took a look in the mirror and decided she'd come out of the mess pretty well off. Especially compared to...well...the other guys. Her ears were still ringing with the sights and sounds of the fight.
She was grateful that Arie was spending the night over at the Blakeslee's tonight, because she would not have wanted to have to try to explain in this moment why her mother was in such a state.
Kellyn didn't understand what was going on with herself. Maybe it was a phase of some moon somewhere, or the mother of all mood swings or the tension running through everyone around her. But whatever the cause, she'd been feeding off this nervous energy and it heightened every sense she had. Colors were more vivid, everything seemed so vibrant- and she felt every single one of her emotions amplified ten times over at least.
That meant happiness, sadness, irritation, and finally the righteous indignation which had fueled her to defend her friend Jariel in his moment of need.
Salvek pulled the top of his uniform off over his head and tossed it in the reclamation bin.
"I did bash him over the head with a beer bottle." Kellyn said, referring to the unconscious Dane Cristiane. Her voice had a tone of being slightly ashamed but Salvek knew her well enough to know that if Kellyn could have changed her actions, she likely would have found a bigger bottle to hit Dane with.
"I believe the focal point of the problem is the instigators of the conflict, not those who stepped in during the fight. Mr. Cristiane may choose to press charges but I believe serious discipline for all those involved is not warranted." Salvek dropped the rest of his uniform to the floor, and stepped into the sonic shower to clean the rest of his body off.
Kellyn leered at him sideways and bit her lip as he crossed the room. Her heart was still pounding with the adrenaline from the brawl, and she wondered how she might work out the remaining aggression coursing through her.
She leaned against the wall outside the shower, waiting for him to finish.
"If Dane does press charges I'm going to need an advocate."
"Do not worry. The Captain will handle Mr. Cristiane, and if he presses the matter further, I will defend you myself."
"I still can't get over Camen, I've never seen he react to anyone like that." Kellyn said.
"I believe there is much more to the actions surrounding the Vedek and O'Sullivan than meets the eye. I cannot discuss it yet."
He turned off the shower, and spent a good half an hour discussing the brawl with Kellyn after she cleaned up.
Mostly to tell her privately that she displayed "excellent form" in how she conducted herself in the fight which was Vulcan for 'Call me crazy but on some level I enjoyed watching you throw people around the room.'
She never did cease to make an impression on him.
"I should check on the Captain." He said finally. Kellyn had already drifted to sleep and Salvek was content to leave her be now that she had finally settled down from the events of the day.
He pulled the covers up to her neck, brushed her hair out her eyes, and kissed her cheek.
Departing his quarters, he asked the computer for the Captain's location.
^The Captain is in her quarters.^
"Where are Keiran O'Sullivan and Vedek Jariel?"
^Both are in Sickbay.^
Salvek raised an eyebrow, wondering if their emotions had gotten the best of both men once again.
"Salvek to Breaux."
[Go ahead Commander.]
"What is the status in Sickbay?"
[Other than bumps and bruises and the considerable damage done to Cristiane's head by your wife, nothing serious. Except for Keiran of course- we almost lost him but he's stable now and talking to the Vedek.]
"Understood. Thank you."
*O'Sullivan is speaking to Jariel. Fascinating.*
Salvek rang the chime on Zanh’s door, but was met with only silence in reply.
He rang it twice more, then waited two minutes precisely before ringing it a last time. Still lacking a response and knowing she was in the room alone, he felt justified to use his security clearance to unlock the door.
The latch released and he stepped tentatively into her quarters. “Captain?”
Still no response.
“Zanh Liis,” he crossed the carpet in long, swift strides now, growing more concerned by the second. “Are you all-”
The sound of shallow breathing caught his finely tuned hearing, and he saw her on the floor in the corner. Her knees were pulled to her chest, arms wrapped around them and with her head resting down against them. The sight was difficult for Salvek, and he took a second to center himself.
He had seen Zanh Liis in a lot of ways in the years they had known one another, but never quite like this.
“Zanh Liis,” he repeated, dropping to a knee beside her and placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I’ve been told that O’Sullivan is critical in Sickbay. Are you all right?”
It was a stranger who looked up at him, Salvek thought, upon seeing her face at last.
Her eyes were blood red and swollen, her complexion ashen. She stared at him blankly, her voice hollow and rasping as she finally acknowledged his presence in the room.
“I may never be all right again.”
He offered a hand to pull her up, but she resisted.
"Salvek, you know, don't you." It was a statement, not a question.
Salvek did not answer. He was still worried about the matter of the timeline- O’Sullivan had been clear enough that if Liis were to know the truth about the past they had shared in variants of the timeline that not only her life, but the very line itself would be in jeopardy.
“You do know.” She concluded for herself. “Keiran told you, didn’t he. About us.” The word ‘us’ seemed so foreign on her tongue when used in reference to anyone besides Camen that she could hardly make sense of it.
“It seems that once again the futility of memory resequencing is evident,” Salvek replied, even as he wondered if that were in fact the only thing going on aboard the ship.
He’d been told as he and Blane dealt with those involved in the earlier scuffle that some of the crew had complained of nightmares, of hearing voices, and Logic dictated at this point that there was sufficient reason to doubt that whatever phenomenon was causing Zanh and O’Sullivan to suffer so was affecting them alone.
“I’m disappearing, Salvek,” Liis confessed. “The needle’s spun off the compass and everything I thought defined me is in question.” Her eyes conveyed the depth of her emptiness and confusion more so than any words could.
“Captain, please accompany me to Sickbay. Perhaps there is something that the doctor can do to intervene, and prevent these episodes from continuing.”
“I don’t think anyone can. I’ve cheated Time once too often and now it’s going to make me pay.”
Slowly, Salvek gathered Zanh up and assisted her in rising. Even though she did not want to go she was too weak to resist him.
Without another word, he bore the weight of his commanding officer and friend as he led her along slowly, out into the corridor.
“You will be all right, Zanh Liis,” he promised her. “You are not alone.”
Commander Salvek
Executive Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Executive Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012