by Keiran O'Sullivan
80624.0200
-=Soundtrack: To Go Beyond (II) by Enya=-
...continued from part one
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
80624.0200
-=Soundtrack: To Go Beyond (II) by Enya=-
...continued from part one
-=Sickbay, USS Serendipity=-
Keiran caressed Zanh Liis' face gently, tilting her head back and kissing her on the forehead, the bridge of her nose, and finally on her cheek, so near her lips that Salvek thought if his mouth moved another centimeter, they were going to have to watch more than one person die here tonight when Jariel finally snapped and finished O'Sullivan off.
"Don't try to suffer this heartache for me, Zanh Liis. I know you want to, that you're willin' to try and Liis..." Keiran lowered his voice even further, just more than a whisper.
"...I love you for that. But you can't save us by doing it. You can't save me by doing it." He blinked slowly, and tears rained gently from his face down onto hers.
"These aren't your rightful memories, you can't keep them. If you do, you'll die, you hear? Then everythin' will be wrong." He brushed her hair back tenderly.
"'Tis not your burden. Was never meant to be. You didn't earn it, you don't deserve it.
"What you remember, what we were was the truth then, but you have give it up now. You have to let me carry it, for the both of us." He pressed his cheek against her hair. "I'm beggin' ya. I'm the only one who can."
Keiran focused with all his might now on his every conscious thought. Instead of trying to resist the pain each memory brought, he gave himself over to it completely. He concentrated on the sadness that he was feeling; for the lost lives that came before, and the torment that he was suffering in the very real 'now'.
He held onto the pain as tightly as he could, even as he continued asking Zanh Liis to stop struggling and let it go.
-=Aboard the Sylph Mother Ship=-
The Luminary reeled in pain as the memories she had been projecting from Keiran O'Sullivan into Zanh Liis fed back into her own mind, amplified by not only the strength of her own conflicted emotions, but the sheer force of will of the man that the memories belonged to.
*Stop, stop,* She screamed.
Aboard the Serendipity Keiran continued to focus on the pain as intently as possible. He ceased trying to grasp hold of the happy memories woven in among the horrors he was reliving, and instead he accepted the emptiness and grief entirely, surrendering to it.
This reaction was not something that the Luminary was prepared for.
*What is happening?* The healers felt a sudden disconnect in their link with the Luminary, as she began to suffer the consequences of her overconfident, stubborn and self-destructive actions.
*The Luminary attempted to conduct a complete memory link alone,* one healer thought to another, and all the rest reacted with shock. This was something that no Sylph had ever done successfully. They always worked in groups of three at minimum, to do otherwise was...
...suicide.
*We cannot save her now,* the youngest of the healers assigned to the Serendipity Intervention declared, knowing that the Luminary's time was short and ticking away. *Disengage from your link with her. Hurry.*
The last of the healers assigned to this particular Intervention withdrew from the Luminary's mind, leaving her abandoned- with no one else to absorb the back feed of neural energy radiating from the 'animal' called O'Sullivan.
As the alien began to lose control over his thoughts, the veil was lifted from Keiran's eyes, and he realized suddenly that there was a definite, malevolent force at work here- raging within him.
Raging within Liis.
"Liis, I know you can hear me."
Jariel continued to watch in stunned silence, still supported by Blane and Salvek as Keiran gently rocked Zanh Liis in his arms.
"'Tis not your battle to fight, my darlin'. No matter what you do, we can't win."
All around the others were dead quiet too, just staring.
His voice broke as he buried his face in her hair, "I have to let you go. I know that. But I can't lose you entirely. Not again. Not like this."
Suddenly, Liis' body stiffened sharply and she gasped a deep and painful groan.
One last time, Keiran O'Sullivan pressed his lips against her cheek and breathed words which were intended for her ears alone.
"An Lámh Fhoisteanach Abú."
She moaned softly, and then the tension paralyzing her subsided at last.
Her entire body relaxed as she deeply exhaled, her head falling forward from Keiran's shoulder and resting once more against his chest.
TC Blane looked away.
Unshed tears gleamed in Vol Tryst's eyes as he was held captive by the strength of the emotions swirling around him.
*****
Aboard the Sylph ship, the Luminary screamed in horror, completely overcome at last by the powerful neural energy that O'Sullivan redirected back to her. She shuddered mightily, then fell still and silent.
The Luminary was no more.
*****
Trembling and gasping for air like a man about to disappear beneath the surface for the last time before drowning, Keiran O'Sullivan closed his eyes.
He pressed his lips against the top of Zanh Liis' head and kissed her.
After a long moment, he looked up at Jariel Camen and slowly nodded.
"It's over."
Keiran's eyelids fluttered. Still holding Liis to his heart, his head lolled to the side as he slipped into unconsciousness.
Seeing that he was in danger of falling from his perch on the edge of the bed and taking Liis with him, Blane and Salvek leaned Jariel up against the wall and hurried forward.
They kept O'Sullivan from hitting the floor, as the livid Dr. Breaux moved forward and lay Zanh gently back on the bed once again.
"Get him the hell away from me before I break the Oath."
Blane and Salvek lowered Keiran to the floor and a med team began to evaluate his condition as Avery and T'Dara scanned the Captain.
"Is she breathing?" TC demanded, speaking the question before Salvek could.
"I'll be damned," Breaux gasped, scanning Zanh with a tricorder. "The areas of her brain that were stuck in overdrive... they're silent."
His surprise quickly turned to disappointment.
"Several areas of her brain are...silent."
[[But she's alive?]] Jariel hurried forward now, and stood at the opposite side of the bed from the doctor and nurse. How he wished that he could speak to her with his own voice in this moment.
"She's in a coma," Avery explained, as preliminary data began to come in from his latest scans. "I don't know what has become of her ability to remember anything, or anyone. But yes, Vedek Jariel, she is alive." He turned his attention to the triage team on the ground. "O'Sullivan?"
"His neural activity appears to be returning to normal, Doctor. Vitals are stable, no signs of long term brain damage."
"Gods...what the bloody hell," Breaux growled, as he tried to fathom the unfathomable.
In all the commotion, no one had noticed that even as tears threatened to spill down his face, Vol Tryst's expression had changed completely.
He nodded slowly now, as though listening to a voice that only he could hear. He stepped forward, toward Commander Salvek.
"We must speak with the Vulcan." The tone in his voice immediately hit home with Blane, who spun on Tryst and leveled his phaser.
"Intruder alert!" TC shouted, rushing forward and holding his weapon against Vol's chest.
"We meant her no harm," Vol intoned, in a voice clearly not his own. "We must speak to the Vulcan, about making amends."
-----------------------------
Lt. Commander Keiran O'Sullivan
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Lt. Commander Keiran O'Sullivan
Chief of Security
USS Serendipity NCC-2012