by Salvek and Zanh Liis
90207.0200
-=The Headquarters of Temporal Investigations: Location: Classified=-
…continued from part one…
90207.0200
-=The Headquarters of Temporal Investigations: Location: Classified=-
…continued from part one…
"Come on. There's something I need to see." Liis beckoned him on as he stopped, denoting how the faces of the 'clocks' seemed to be covered with symbols and signs that made no sense to him.
It was then that he realized that likely his work in Transwarp Theory, when written out in symbols and equations, likely would make little sense to someone in another profession.
In this moment he had a new understanding, and appreciation, of the reasons why Zanh Liis' mind worked so differently from his. It had to, in order to allow her to do her job properly.
For decades that job had been to protect him and his future, and he felt immense gratitude in the moment, as he stood in this place with her, for all that she had done.
“You wished to talk?” Salvek asked at last, hoping a change of subject away from TI would help him return to a state of calm.
"Yeah. But first, ah, hell, what did I do with it?" Liis grumbled, then she remembered. "Oh yeah. They said I couldn't bring my knife with me." She rolled her eyes, as she indicated her boot and knew that Salvek understood she'd been told to leave her weapons at home on the Sera.
"Countless times I walked the halls of this place armed to the teeth. No more compass, and suddenly I'm not allowed to carry a nail file."
"What are you...Captain?" Salvek became alarmed as Zanh knelt down beside a particular clock on the wall and began trying to pry it loose.
"I'm about to commit petty theft. You're about to ignore it."
"I...am?"
"Yes. You are. Either that or your tour of The Clock Room is officially over. I need something pointy. What have you got on you?" She watched as he gave her a glance that was downright disapproving, before she realized what she had said exactly.
She actually laughed. "I was not making a remark about any part of your anatomy, Logic. Will you relax? This thing belongs to a friend of ours on Bajor, and now that it's not needed here any longer, we're going to see to it that he gets it."
"Not needed?"
"See? Just as I thought. It’s stopped." Liis explained. "Signifying that my Temporal Guardianship of him has ended. I thought he'd like it, maybe as a wedding present, someday."
Liis figured that if what Hartcort had said about Fleur and Jariel seeking to adopt a child were true, that day would come sooner rather than later.
"But Captain, this is against,"
"Hey now,” Liis helped herself to Keiran’s favorite two-word phrase of warning before continuing. “Don’t you dare quote chapter and verse to me, you don't even know TI code. Besides, I have written, amended, and or broken more than ninety percent of the codes on the books here. So either help me or get out of my way."
"Perhaps if you asked Captain Lindsay,"
"Lindsay," Liis frowned, fighting again to get her nails beneath the clock face where it met the wall, "...in fact...owes me… a clock." She thought about how he obliterated the one that Vox had sent to her and Keiran as a wedding present, though she knew why he'd done it, and was grateful for it.
"Vulcan, do you or do you not have anything that you can use to help me here?" Working with one hand was getting her nowhere and they both knew it.
Salvek actually sighed.
He reached down, grasped hold of the clock face with the superior strength of his fingers, and twisted sharply.
Immediately came the pop and sproing of an overextended coil, and he nodded to her serenely. "You may continue, if you wish. I, intend to take in the view on the other side of the room. If you will excuse me."
He moved across the way and noted with astonishment just how many clocks were on the walls. He found it difficult to fathom just how many souls like Zanh Liis and Keiran O’Sullivan worked tirelessly, thanklessly, behind the scenes to keep History from collapsing in on itself. In on all of them.
He settled his eyes upon a name on the wall, ignoring the muted profanity slipping from Zanh Liis’ tongue as she tried to disconnect the last wires protruding from the back of the clock.
“A-ha!” He heard her shout, just before the sound of clock bouncing off floor echoed down the long room. A moment later she was at his side; with the clock, wrapped in loose wires, tucked under her arm.
“Solmek, of Vulcan. His clock has also stopped. Is his Guardianship over as well?”
“No," Liis squinted, peering closely at the display. "He’s dead. Like I said, you need to know how to read it.”
Salvek glanced at the face of Jariel’s clock, under her arm, and then at Solmek’s on the wall. Each was stopped at the exact same time, which made little sense to Salvek.
“Do you have a clock as well? Or Commander O’Sullivan?”
“Yes.”
“Are you not curious to read them?”
Liis shook her head slowly enough that, uncharacteristically, her earring did not jingle.
“No,” She mouthed slowly. “Do you want to see Arie’s?”
“Absolutely not.” Salvek replied. His response was so quick and definitive that it took even himself by surprise.
“Then we understand each other.”
“What became of Solmek?” Salvek asked, turning his attention back to the clock on the wall.
“I don’t know. He hasn’t been born yet in our time. We should probably go.”
As they walked back towards the exit, Liis finally got to the matter she had wished to speak to. “So, what did you see in there? When you melded with Taris.”
“Evil. Anguish. A tortured soul.”
“But you forgave her, after all she had done.”
“We are the sum of our experiences, Captain. We each start as a blank slate. In Taris’s case, she began building up layers of hatred over her soul virtually from birth. Any good in her died when she was a child, only being so close to death would allow me to touch that part of her, which had been buried for so long.”
*The sum of our experiences. Of our memories. * Liis thought back to the day she had used that very phrase in speaking to Will Lindsay in Scotland, and she wondered if it made more sense to him then than it seemed to make to her now, the way that Salvek was using it.
Salvek took one last look at The Clock Room. He could not help but think of the fact, before he left, that Zanh Liis had seen fit to remove a clock that was no longer of use to Temporal Investigations, and that clock was not his, or Arie’s or Kellyn’s.
Liis allowed him to satisfy his curiosity, as she waited for him to continue.
“Do not mistake my actions Captain. I am glad, for my family’s sake and yours, the Taris is dead. However, I cannot live my life forever holding on to the fear and anger she inspires. I found the one piece of her that was not consumed by evil, and took the opportunity to share my forgiveness before she died.”
“The Away Team almost died so you could satisfy your conscience, Salvek.” She stopped short of saying I almost died; because she knew that aside from Keiran, no one was more acutely aware of the fact than Salvek was.
He’d watched it happen, right before his eyes, and done all he could do to prevent it.
“You and I both know that loyal men and Lindsay’s stroke of a pen are the only reason you are still my First Officer. Lassiter could have pulled you. Permanently.”
“You could have stopped me.”
Salvek regretted the words as soon as he spoke them, and apologized immediately.
“Yeah, I could have. I didn’t because I’m loyal and I respect you.” Liis looked into his eyes, searching for a reason for what he said.
Her anger was trumped by her concern for him. It wasn’t like him to snap at her like that, especially when he knew he was in the wrong. “What happened to you in the meld, Salvek? You aren’t yourself.”
“I saw evil.”
“There’s a saying on Bajor. He who studies evil, is studied by evil.” She had little doubt now that he needed help.
“Perhaps my decision to meld with Taris was not wise.”
“You think?” Liis blurted, before she could stop herself. She felt a headache coming on. Usually, the sort that only dealing with someone as beyond reason as say, Dane Cristiane was up until five minutes ago or Ashton Ledbetter had been for eternities could cause.
Suddenly she turned on him, uncertain for the moment that he was the man she knew, and could trust, any longer.
“Admiral Lassiter may have seen fit to return you to duty, but I do not. She…doesn’t know you as I do.”
Her heart sank, even as she spoke the words.
“Commander Salvek, I am relieving you of all duties aboard the USS Serendipity until such time as you…” she stopped, fighting the insistent tears that bit at her eyes as she snapped the lids shut to prevent them. She clamped her teeth down against the interior of her cheek, gathered her courage, and continued.
“Until such a time as you are Salvek again.”
“I have never been so close to such malevolence. I do not know if I have the discipline to cope with everything I saw, Liis.”
*Liis? You call me Liis?* She thought.
Liis grasped him by the shoulder as tightly as she could with her one good hand. “I want to help you, Salvek. But I know I can’t. Just like you couldn’t help me when the Sylph were manipulating me. Something is going on in that brilliant mind of yours, but what’s worse is that I can feel something is fighting for your soul. Please, don’t let Taris take you after we have finally sent her away for good.”
Liis saw nothing of the friend she knew in the eyes of the man standing before her, and what she saw in his place frightened her.
“Go to Vulcan. Hell, I’ll even take you there myself, on the Alchemy. Will you let me? Let me help you, Salvek.”
“You have plans on Earth to complete,”
“I have meetings here I must complete tonight. After that, I have a vacation that can wait.” Liis insisted. “You’re my friend, and my First Officer. We’ve saved each other a hundred times over without the other even knowing it at the time,”
Her eyes plead with him in a way that words could not. “Please, trust me when I tell you that you’ve never needed to be saved as badly as you do right now.”
“I trust you.” He said, truly feeling that if he could not accept that she had his best interests at heart that he could not believe in anything. “I left an impression of peace on Taris before she died, but I fear she may have left something in me as well.”
Liis saw that look again, the look that told her there was a maelstrom raging behind the fraudulent façade.
“I appreciate the offer to take me to Vulcan, but that is a journey I cannot ask a friend to make.
“Lair Kellyn?” Zanh asked.
Salvek merely nodded.
“Then as soon as you can go, Salvek, take your wife and go.”
---------------
Commander Salvek
Executive Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Commander Salvek
Executive Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012