788: Less Than a Scream

by Vol Tryst and Zanh Liis
90222.15
Concurrent with Three Men, One Way Out

-=USS Serendipity=-

"So, in other words," Vol sipped tea from a pretty pink china cup in between words. He was sitting in the quarters of Grace and Reece, looking across the coffee table into the wide, childlike eyes of February Grace.

"In other words I'm bored outta my brain!" Bru protested. "I have been working with Cristiane over the comm, as he sits in a simulator on the holodeck trying to learn the controls of the Alchemy's helm. But it would be so much easier if I could be there to teach him directly."

"And a lot more fun." Vol surmised.

"Exactly." Bru sighed. "Other expectant mothers get to carry on with their jobs and they're just...multitasking on an unconscious level. I have to stop and do one thing at a time." She realized that she might sound ungrateful for the miracle that was happening as her child came into being in a way that seemed almost too magical to be real. But she was simply feeling caged in, and that wasn't good for her, Vol knew, or for the baby. "I know a lot of women enjoy being pregnant, but I find I wish I could skip to the ending. I just want to be a mother. I want my daughter to be here and to start getting to know her."

Vol couldn't help but smile in amusement. She figured out, it seemed, before she had even become a mother what it takes most mothers years of trial and error to find out. That their children are not mounds of clay to be molded, but rather complete beings upon birth who need guidance, yes, but who are fundamentally who they are inside. A parent's job was not so much to shape a child, as to set boundaries within which they could get to know who the child already was. It had to be Grace's wisdom from past lifetimes coming through, he thought, and that immediately reminded Vol exactly what made joined Trill so unique as beings.

"It's almost over, February. But try to enjoy the experience you're having now. The last thing you want to happen is for me, some day down the road, to enjoy saying to you 'I told you so.'" Vol said daringly.

Bru wore a smirk as she locked eyes with her friend and Counselor.

"You can't say that unless you first tell me something that I deny or disagree with. Such as, oh.... I don't know, such as this incubation period being nothing more than uncomfortable and inconvenient."

"That is true." Vol concurred.

"Are you saying that?" Bru smiled.

"Only in the case that I'm right and you're wrong. Which we'll only be sure of---"

"Somewhere down the road." Bru rolled her eyes, silently blaming the hormones for hindering her skills to have seen that one coming.

Vol stood up, gathering his things and saving all the notes he had made on his PADD. He continued speaking, with more seriousness this time,

"Just hang in there a little longer, then you'll be working so much you'll wish you had more time to spend at home."

"Promise?"

Vol reached over and squeezed her hand. "I promise."

"Well, soon as I'm free, you and I are due for lunch out and a day of shopping on the nearest civilized world." Bru muttered. Vol, with a big grin on his face, bent down to kiss her on top of the head.

"Absolutely."

The second Vol stepped out into the corridor, his badge chirped, calling him urgently to Sickbay.

"What's wrong?" he asked. The two words he received by way of a hurried reply frightened him, his wide grin from just a moment ago was replaced with a worried expression.

[The Captain.]

-=/\=-

The moment she started to come around on the biobed in Sickbay, Zanh Liis tried to get up.

"Report," she demanded, reaching out her right arm ahead of her and nearly hitting Ensign T'Dara in the face unintentionally as Zanh began trying to get any sense of direction; up, down, left or right. "What's the date?"

Everything was dark, but she knew she was awake, and alive. The question in her mind was not so much where she was, as when she was.

"Tell me the stardate!" She demanded a second time, as she struggled against the dulling effects of the blast on her hearing. She could barely, at the moment, make out even the sound of her own voice as she spoke. "Where is Keiran O'Sullivan? Answer me!"

She could see nothing with her eyes, and so the dark images of the alternate timelines superimposed themselves over current events inside her head and heart.

She was certain that she'd lost him, again. "What is the Stardate?" She repeated desperately. "Is Keiran alive?"

"Stardate 90221, Zanh Liis," Dalton McKay said loudly, trying to get her to hold still while still treating her injuries. "You're hurt. You've been beamed back to the Sera. We're trying to find out what happened below."

"I can't see."

"It looks like you got a face full of somethin', Cap'n, I'm workin' on it but you're buckin' like a prized bull at the county rodeo!" McKay placed firm hands on her shoulders, trying to press her down into the biobed again.

"I'm only going to ask one more time," Liis said, her fear for Keiran overriding the pain she was in and her own disorientation from the loss of her vision. "Where is my husband?"

McKay sighed and braced himself. "We don't know yet."

As Vol Tryst entered Sickbay, the tortured, almost primal scream radiating from deep within Zanh's soul reached him before the sound of her shouting. He reeled, feeling the intensity of her panic like a pair of icy hands around his throat.

"You have to find Keiran, please," she begged, "You have to find him."

Vol wanted it to end and for a moment it seemed like he was physically restrained against some invisible force. He thought to signal the doctor to sedate the Captain, but thought better or it. Vol would feel guilt for having even thought of it later, for right now he managed to ground himself to what he was needed for.

"Captain!" Vol bellowed.

"Don't 'Captain' me you..." Zanh halted herself mid-sentence when she recognized the voice, if not the tone of the Betazoid. She inhaled deeply before heaving a shuddering, rage-filled sigh; Vol sensing that she felt she had every right to continue her tirade.

Vol began approaching the Captain's bedside and McKay jumped at the opportunity to fill the silence. "Captain, in case it interests you at all: You are in Sickbay, you suffered..."

"Where is Keiran O'Sullivan?" Zanh shouted again.

"Cap'n you've gotta hold still. For starters, you've got splinters of glass in your eyes, and who knows what else is wrong with ya. We have to get them out, heal the lacerations or your sight could be-"

"I don't care about my bloody condition." Zanh's volume now plummeted to barely a whisper as she grabbed a handful of McKay's tunic with her right hand and growled each successive word with increasing, almost threatening determination. "Find. My. Husband."

"...just thought you'd like to know." McKay sighed, as he gently pried her fingers loose of his uniform and took his leave of her; but not before catching Vol's gaze to visually express that he needed the man to keep Zanh exactly where she was. "I'll be ready in five minutes with a surgical team." McKay announced. 'Til then, she's all yours."

Zanh remained seated and upright, crossing her good arm over her torn sling as she obviously contemplated reverting to rebellious patient, getting out of this place and finding Keiran herself. Injured or not, blind or not, she'd find her husband through any means if she needed to.

"Please Captain." Zanh raised her head to look in the direction of Vol's voice. "Stop..."

It was but a single word, but Zanh could tell it was heavily weighted. She didn't understand at first, but she didn't need to wait long. Vol approached her, she could hear his foot falls, but he did so slowly, almost cautiously.

"Stop trying to find a way to pick a fight. You're in Sickbay on your own ship, Captain, there are no enemies here. There's no one you can justify giving a sucker punch to. Please Captain, you're injured. Let the--"

"Shut up." Zanh said flatly. Vol sighed, lowering his eyes to the ground in despair as he now rested on the edge of the Captain's med-bed.

"Captain."

"Ensign. I will not sit here and have you tell me I should be nursing my wounds while my husband is--"

"There are good people trying to find Keiran. They are more than capable."

"I can help." Zanh started to raise her voice. "I know the layout of that building like few others. I can,"

Vol wouldn't come to find the odd coincidence until lights-out that night. What was strange, in almost a humourous way, was that Zanh was the second woman that day who would tell him, in their own way, that they didn't care to be imprisoned. Whether it be by pregnancy or through injury, neither Bru nor the Captain did well when they felt constrained.

However, this was a realization for later in the day. Right now, Vol had a hot-tempered Captain he needed to douse.

"No, you can't." Vol remained calm. Zanh was dumbfounded, for only half a moment,

She responded with a painful, wordless sound; something more than a cry, but less than a scream.

Now Vol decided that fighting fire with fire might prove to put Zanh in the right mindset.

"You are in no condition to do any saving, rescuing or rampaging tonight. You will most certainly make your injuries all the more severe and potentially harm anyone who would seek to stop you for your own good."

Vol paused briefly, realizing that at the moment, that person was him. He resisted the urge to gulp. "You are not leaving this Sickbay Captain."

Zanh and Vol were very still; Vol having stood up, and Zanh still sitting with her back straight.

"No enemies here," Zanh muttered bitterly. Hot tears formed and burned her injured eyes like the very fires of hell. "There were enemies down there, in that building, lying in wait for me."

"Captain?"

"Tucker Brody." Liis droned, "I want to tell you a story about a Starfleet shrink I once knew, called Tucker Bro...dy." Her words slowed and then stopped, horror twisting her countenance as one memory set another alight.

Vol's words of response caught in his throat. The sensation offset in Zanh was bizarre, if not unexplained. What would bring about such... fear?

"Vol, I remember what happened. I." She reached out her arm toward him, teetering precariously over the edge of the bed. He didn't hesitate for a second, stepping closer again and allowing her to grasp on to him for support. Her fingernails, though short, threatened to pierce his arm through the fabric of his tunic if she clawed any harder.

"Will and I, we were on the roof. We were talking and then I just went flying. And I," she tried to rise, but Vol's hand gently reminded her that she was really in no condition to stand. "The building shook and I was thrown clear. I remember going over the side, falling. But I got caught on something on the way down. I was pulled back toward the brick, and then."

She turned even paler than she'd been before.

In the bright lights of Sickbay, Vol could not escape what the attack, whatever it had been, had done to her. He was sickened to see her this way, her face cut and bleeding, her eyes sightless beneath distorted lids, swollen completely shut. He felt the torment in her soul as she realized what had happened.

"Someone blew up the building, Vol, and Keiran was in it. He." She began to waver from side to side, and Vol gently lowered her back toward the pillow.

"They blew up the building and Keiran, Thomas, Will...Salvek," Liis repeated, beginning to shake. "They were all in it."

Vol could only be a comfort to his Captain now, as all the memories were unveiled. There was nothing to say except to stay beside her, but Dalton came into view and gave Vol the signal to step back.

"Zanh Liis, if you ever want to see the light of the sun again, you have to let me do my job now." Dalton said sadly, as he asked himself just how many times he was going to be called upon to stitch this woman back together. "Dr. Hartcort is scrubbing in and he and I are going to do all we can to try to save your sight. But I have to tell you, honestly, it ain't lookin' too good."

"Sight. What is sight if..." Liis fought the pain, fought the call of darkness because she had to say this before she gave in to it. She thought back to the alternate time when Keiran had died, and she had ended up in the mental hospital under the care of one Tucker Brody.

"The only way to save me, any part of me," Liis stated sadly, "Is if they find a way to bring my friends...to bring him..." She shuddered at the sudden sensation of something cold against her skin as McKay stuck a hypo to her neck without waiting for her to finish.

Her words diminished in volume as she was taken into unconsciousness. "Find Keiran. Bring him home. And...tell Vol..." she insisted softly, "...about Doctor Brody."

Vol watched as McKay's eyes widened. Liis had spoken to him recently about the alternate time and the man called Brody, because she found she was having a harder time dealing with the memories of the Paradox than she wanted to admit to anyone- even to Keiran.

Vol's eyebrows furrowed quizzically as he looked to the Hologram. "Doctor?"

"Story will have to wait, Counselor," McKay unlocked the wheels on the biobed containing Zanh and pushed it toward the surgical suite. "But it's a story you need to hear."

Before long Vol was left behind, while McKay and Dr. Hartcort went to work.

------------------------
Ensign Vol Tryst
Ship's Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012

and

-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012