by -=/\=- Zanh Liis
80720.17
Concurrent with Alone Together
80720.17
Concurrent with Alone Together
Soundtrack: Killing Me, by the Graham Colton Band
------------------------------------
-=Dining Hall, USS Alchemy=-
------------------------------------
-=Dining Hall, USS Alchemy=-
"So I told him, look, Pointy, get someone else to man the science station while we're in orbit, I'm cashing in my shore leave and you can't stop me." Reece continued indignantly, jerking his thumb in the direction of Salvek. The Vulcan, engrossed in conversation across the room, remained completely unaware of the Trill's tirade.
"I'm tellin' you, Liisy," Reece elaborated, "I've got plans."
Zanh Liis stared at a blank point on the wall across the room, and Reece had finally had enough. He rolled his eyes, reached around her and tapped on her shoulder as if he was standing behind her.
"Hm?" The Captain replied dreamily, turning to look back but finding no one there. She returned to the present and looked up at the Trill.
Eyes which normally would, at worst, have held annoyance at his insistence on undivided attention- or at best affectionate annoyance at his insistence on undivided attention, simply held nothing at all.
"Zanh Liis," The tone of Reece's voice got a hold of her quicker than anything else could have. He rarely if ever called her by her full name, let alone in such a serious tone. "You could worry a guy, you know, if you tried hard enough."
"I'm sorry, Reece." She looked for somewhere to set her half-empty glass and glanced toward the door. "I'm exhausted. I haven't slept in days, I think I'm ready to take Dalton up on that offer of a hypo."
"Have him give you the long-acting Eszopiclone," Dabin slipped instantly and easily into the clinical knowledge of previous host and medical doctor, Rilan. "It'll knock you flat."
Dabin observed the similarly morose expression worn by one Jariel Camen across the room and shook his head gently. He took a step, prepared to leave her to the business of speaking to the LMH. "It's all gonna be okay, Liisy. You know that, right?"
"Yeah." She was unconvincing, and unconvinced. "I know that."
Reece impulsively kissed her on the forehead and gave her shoulder a squeeze before moving away.
Zanh said silent thanks for the gesture and started toward McKay. He was chatting endlessly with Vox' newest, unrequested addition to Liis' crew compliment, and that was just fine by her.
*Two birds, one stone.*
Out of the corner of her eye, Liis saw Jariel approaching and finally had sufficient motivation to interrupt the story Dalton was telling Ensign Steele.
"Sorry, but I need a moment of your time, Doctor."
"Of course. Apologies, Ensign. Rest of the story will have to wait."
"Thank go... I mean, what a shame." Landry said, adding an 'aww darn' snap of her fingers for emphasis. "Well, I think I'll see if there's any food left. Nice meeting you, Doctor McKay." She nodded to Zanh. "Captain."
Liis nodded back, eyes cold as stone.
"What can I do for you, Cap'n?" McKay asked after Steele had gone.
"Sedative." Liis replied quickly. "Enough so that the next thing I know, we're at Betazed."
"Finally." McKay sighed heavily with relief. He tapped his holo-emitter, preparing to transfer his program back to Sickbay. "Don't move, I'll be right back." He shimmered and vanished, and Liis headed for the door.
TC Blane took a few steps forward from his current location when he saw the Captain move toward the exit. He had a delivery for her, and if she was making her departure from the party now could be the time for it.
Before she could reach the doors, Liis stopped mid-step, feeling a hand tug her backwards by the arm. She looked over her shoulder and saw Jariel Camen behind her.
He raised his hands to sign, and the last of Liis' patience evaporated. "Just stop it, please? Stop." She hissed softly.
[[Stop what?]]
She lifted her own hands into the air and signed forcefully back to him. [[When did you plan on telling me that you can talk?]]
Jariel's lips parted, but he did not speak.
"That's what I thought." Liis snapped. "You were happy to tell her though, weren't you?" She gestured with her eyes toward Le Marc, and then flew out the doors just as a very confused looking Dalton McKay walked back in through them.
"I couldn't transfer my program back and bring this with me," he said, explaining why he had not used his emitter to return the way he'd left. "Zanh Liis, good God woman, hold up!"
She ignored him, striding down the corridor. He hurried to pass her, holding out the hypo as the proverbial dangling carrot to get her to stop.
"Use this once, and next thing you know, I'll be welcomin' you to lovely Betazed," he promised. "But I will be looking in on you to check that you're still breathin'. Where will you be?"
"My stuff is in vacant crew quarters, twenty one alpha. Look me up at your leisure." Liis replied, snatching the hypo from his hand. "Thanks." She hurried down the hall and summoned the lift, shocked to find when the doors opened that TC Blane was standing inside of it.
She jumped back a step in surprise. "Damn it, Thomas, you Spec Ops types walk through walls, I swear. You were behind me in the other room just a second ago."
"Walking through walls is among our specialties." He grinned a moment, waiting for her to get inside the turbolift with him. As soon as she'd given the command and the lift started to move, Blane's grin was replaced with a somber, concerned expression.
He produced an old fashioned, paper envelope that he had quite literally hidden up his sleeve. "This belongs to you."
He held it out, but Liis hesitated to take it.
She almost told him 'never mind; burn it, shred it, eat it for dinner', she didn't care, just as long as it was gone.
But she couldn't.
Her hand shook as she reached out and grasped it with the sort of care and caution one uses handling spun glass. "Thank you, Thomas."
"Neither rain nor sleet." Blane replied, saluting her. Liis didn't get the meaning of the remark, but was too preoccupied to ask now just what it meant.
The doors parted and TC held them open with his hand as she stared, unmoving still, at the envelope.
"Walk you back, Captain?"
"Thanks, but," Liis' voice faltered. "This is a journey I have to take alone."
He stepped aside so she could pass and a moment later the lift, and TC Blane, were gone.
******
Liis moved into crew quarters and called for the lights to come on at fifty percent. She flung herself down onto the small cot in the corner of the tiny room and stared up at the ceiling a long time before looking down at the envelope again.
She now regarded the hypo that Dalton had given her; but after another moment of consideration she set it aside.
She needed to stay here, now, and process all of this. No matter how badly it hurt. She drew a deep breath and truly looked at the letter for the first time.
Her name was written in small, elegant script on the front. She had not seen her name written by his hand in this timeline that she could remember, but oh, how she remembered the way it looked.
She'd seen it written thus thousands of times- on the sheets upon sheets of love letters Keiran had written for her marking every special occasion, anniversary, or even just when he was feeling particularly poetic in times gone by.
She allowed her fingertips to brush across the letters and linger there.
Just when she had adjusted to the shock of the emotions that seeing his handwriting had produced, she felt another.
The second jolt came upon turning the envelope over in her hands. When she did, she saw that it was sealed only by a small, brittle circle of sealing wax.
The crimson substance bore the impression of his signet ring, and the sight made Liis glad she had not been standing when she first noticed it. Her knees would not have continued holding her up if she had been.
She couldn't bring herself to break that seal.
Instead, she hurriedly grabbed for her suitcase and without looking, rifled around inside of it. A moment later she pulled out a small pocket knife, flipped it open, and made a clean slit across the top of the flap; exposing the delicate onionskin pages of the letter inside.
She took them out and unfolded them gently, reverently, with trembling fingers. She closed her eyes tightly a moment, drew in as deep a breath as she could manage, then looked down at the paper.
"Liis,"
The moment she saw just the first four letters forming the simple salutation of her given name, she panicked.
She folded and replaced the pages back into the envelope as quickly as she could without tearing them.
She shoved the letter beneath her pillow, grasped Dalton McKay's hypo, and jammed it into her arm.
Within seconds everything around her melted into the welcome, beckoning dark of unconsciousness.
------------------
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
USS Alchemy NX 53099
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
USS Alchemy NX 53099