Tranquilize

Posted on 06 May 2013 @ 9:47pm by Crewman Neo & Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Petty Officer 3rd Class Bo Chalan & Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil

5,481 words; about a 27 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Outside LTjg Kiri Cho's Quarters
Timeline: MD5 1245

ON:

A Vulcan wearing boots, matching green pants and a heavy embroidered tunic which reached the top part of his legs made his way down the hall. After reporting into Mialin he had changed into more comfortable clothing. He'd have to change again in a few hours, but he wasn't going to sit around dressed up with nowhere to go. A pair of earbuds rested comfortably in their permanent home, stuck in his ears. Loud drumming and guitar blared out of them, loud enough to be heard by the passing Galileo crewmen. His fingers tapped against the tops of his thighs to the beat, and he ignored everyone who passed him by. Up ahead Neo noticed a woman making her way out of the opposite turbolift, her teal uniform stained by blood and a spattering of green, residue from leaves and plants. The pilot arched an eyebrow and made his way up to her, leaning against the wall right outside her door. He yanked out one of the earbuds and looked down at her sideways.

Stone was still smeared across her face. Once they were back on the ship the rest of the group seemed quite intent on returning, apparently she wasn't dealing with it very well though. Someone she knew had just been killed in front of her, she could have almost died as well. Her steps were small, her face stunned into wide eyed shock. This new situation didn't help. A stranger, out of uniform, tall, she was already scared. This was too much, Kiri started to back away. Words escaped her, breath caught in her throat.

"Are you all right?" the tall Vulcan asked her.

He wasn't coming any closer, Kiri stopped backing away. Swallowing hard she looked very intensely at him for a moment, was she all right? There were bruises but she was in one piece, she hadn't seen herself in a mirror yet, "Yes," Her voice very raspy, "I think so."

"You have a little bit of guts on your face," Neo said skeptically, tapping his own jaw with his index finger.

Copying his action with her finger she felt how rough her skin was. The blood was barely even dry, all of a sudden she could smell it again and it made her sick. Suppressing her stomach's reaction she shuddered, almost too scared to breathe. After a long pause she regained herself enough, "I see, th, ank you." Kiri slipped into more of a daze than before, shock starting to kick in.

Neo assessed the situation, eyes narrowing, the only visible indication that he did in fact have facial expressions. Wide-eyed and covered in blood. The girl obviously witnessed someone get injured. She was petrified. He'd stumbled into some sort of panic attack. He couldn't just leave the girl there, pitiful as she was. His head drifted to the side as he watched her. "Come. We'll go to sickbay. Clean you up."

"I'm not hurt," Kiri shook her head as she tried to regain herself, sick bay was for sick people. There it didn't feel like she had any cuts of her own under the blood, no one had said anything. She knew that her problems were in her head, and she didn't want Kohl or anyone to see her like this.

"Don't care. You're in shock. You need medical attention."

But she didn't want to, she didn't feel like she needed to. Coming to a complete stop she looked down at her feet for a few seconds. He was a complete stranger who was telling her what to do. She didn't know him and much less trusted him or what he thought. Was he just another reporter? if he was then she shouldn't let him see her like this as it was, "I'm fine," She repeated.

"Fine is subjective and variable. And irrelevant." Neo held his fingernails out in front of his face as if they were more interesting than the basketcase in front of him. "I'd be negligent if I didn't insist. You're covered in blood. I am certain there must be a rule about that somewhere." Covered in someone else's guts, see a doctor. "Sickbay." He gestured to the turbolift.

"It's not my blood," Kiri protested a little stronger now. She just didn't understand why he was so fixated, she just wanted to shower and not be in this state. That was just about all she could focus on and it felt like it would fix all of her problems. It wouldn't but she wasn't exactly level headed.

"I'm aware. Doesn't change the fact."

She didn't really understand what the problem was. Yes there was blood, yes she stressed and shocked. Why wouldn't she be, why wasn't everyone else? Did he not know? Holding her ground she looked at him with bloodshot eyes, "Lieutenant Stone is dead."

Neo blinked. "I don't know who that is. I arrived two point seven hours ago." He assumed that this Stone was currently spattered all over her uniform. "Once again, I cannot leave you here while you are agitated and traumatized. Sickbay."

"I'm not staying here," He had no right to tell her what to do, "I'm going to change, and shower." Kiri was annoyed, it felt that he was stopping her from becoming clean. That was what she wanted, why did he have to become involved?

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself." Neo leaned against the wall again, crossing his feet. The solution to his problem was fairly simple, in his opinion. "You to sickbay, sickbay to you." He shrugged and fingered his commbadge.

She just said. Torn between wanting to shout at him and turn into a sobbing mess, Kiri started a rather numb walk past him. Towards the turbolift but she had no intention of going to sickbay.

Neo followed her and reached up to hit the panel calling the turbolift. Once it arrived, he entered alongside her. "Deck 4," he called to the computer. It opened to deposit them out on Galileo's main deck and he watched as Kiri stepped out, presumably to head toward the sickbay.

She wasn't counting on him stalking her. Was he going to get physical with her if she didn't do what he wanted. Was he going to wait for her to go somewhere less open and attack her? In sickbay there would at least be other people but she still didn't want to go. Looking at him with a glower she finally gave in. She wasn't happy with it and with an aura that was akin to a sulking child.

Neo paid zero attention to Kiri's aura. With all the empathetic lenience of the Stone that decorated her uniform, he led her into the sickbay and waved over the first medic he saw.

Sickbay, the moment before

"Barcelon to L5," Chalan Bo said with a mild smirk, moving a gleaming cylinder from a grey square to a white. It had been a little over an hour since the medical department had been depleted to just himself and the Emergency Medical Hologram; so many medical staff on away teams. He didn't understand why, exactly, but he was happy to hold down the fort. Happy, though there was little to do. Doctor Zimm had come in a little while before for an antihistamine hypospray and aside from that, Sickbay was just himself and their Betazoid resident, Kestra Orexil.

The woman across from him considered the Tr'kalex board thoughtfully, tapping her fingers together. The day before, even that might have been too much for her. She was improving, and that was a very good thing, but she needed activity and stimulation to speed her recovery - not only of her physical self, but of her spirit as well.

Kestra nudged a low, squat square forward two spaces. Grak to N3. She didn't look up from the board. My spirit is just fine- she began, then exhaled as a lash of petulant, stricken energy side-swiped her. Her obsidian gaze flicked towards the Sickbay doors just before they opened... and a girl from her dreams stepped inside, slick with blood. Did I fall asleep again?

Kiri didn't like being treated like a lost dog. What she wanted to was to shower and have as few people see her like this as possible. But he didn't seem to care about what she wanted at all. There wasn't anything physically wrong with her, this was a waste of everyone's time. Sulking she kept quiet and looked at the two occupants, one she knew and one she'd never seen before.

"Found her outside of her quarters like this," Neo explained to the Bajoran abruptly. It was fairly evident why she was there.

Bo crossed to the young woman. There was blood, yes, and a few other stringy bits that might well have been flesh, but they were on the outside of her uniform and he couldn't see any tears in the fabric- still. "I am Chalan Bo," he told her quietly on his approach. His uniform and the medical tricorder on his hip should have been enough to tell her just what he was doing there, but the pallor of her skin beneath the dried blood made him think 'shock' and that required slow and steady explanations. "I'm a medical officer. You're safe now; can you tell me what happened and where you're hurt?"

Pulling out a PADD, Neo got himself out of the way while Chalan Bo examined the girl. He still didn't know her name. Not that he cared. He wasn't in the V'Ket anymore, but a lifetime of training made it impossible for him to ignore her as someone he had found, she had unwittingly become his responsibility. He would stay until he knew she was all right. He sat himself down on Bo's unoccupied chair and silently continued playing the portable game loaded on his screen. Sound blared out of the earbud laying over his shoulder. He seemed completely indifferent to the fact that a person sat across from him.

The Betazoid observed the scene with growing confusion. It didn't feel like one of her dreams, but the actions and thoughts were so disjointed, it might well have been. The falling girl, covered in the remains of something evidently deceased. The Vulcan, responsible yet disinterested. Kestra flexed her hand absently, rubbing a tightened muscle. The Trill recognized her - how? Had- no, the ensign in the sciences division. Kestra had never had cause to speak with her, but she remembered her picture from her file. Cho, Kiri. Kestra's brows rose substantially, Stone is dead?

Yeah, Neo's thoughts appeared in her mind, dry as firewood, stacked and ordered. I think she saw him die.

To Kiri the unspoken words came across almost as static, a fuzz at the back of her brain that she couldn't consciously even feel. Blinking at the Bajoran man she struggled to find her voice at first, "I'm not hurt." Other than some bruises that hadn't even appeared yet on her bottom, there wasn't even a scratch on her own skin. Yet she had been dragged here against her will.

"All right, come sit," he patted the biobed closest to her with a small encouraging lift of his chin. "Let's make sure you're right." Her pupils were a little too dilated for his tastes; her eyes a little too wide. He wanted to take her blood pressure and check her head in case she'd rapped it against something. "Can you tell me what happened?" he asked again.

Following Bo's lead Kiri sat on the bed, settling more into the glum rather than angry side of her emotions. Energy seeping away from her she answered, "There was, a large creature, maybe nine feet tall, very muscled, and giving off natural EM radiation. It attacked from the undergrowth, very fast and, killed him." That was all she wanted to say, her body felt cold and her stomach sick. This wasn't something she really wanted to think about right now, or ever.

On the away team. The away team... which one? Where was she? "The rest of your team?" he asked gently, wrapping a band around her forearm to check her blood pressure.

"They are fine, but," Kiri looked hesitant for a moment, "They didn't react, it was like they didn't care." They had acted as if she was crazy for being scared, being horrified at the dead. To her they barely seemed to even notice.

They were under attack. In a crisis, one controls one's emotions for the sake of survival and mission success, Kestra soothed, exhaling calm into the room. She couldn't speak to whatever the true reactions of the team had been, but she could understand that having an officer in the field during an attack that devastating who did not seem to be in control of herself might be distressing for them.

Apathetically, Neo moved his thumbs across the controls of the PADD, shooting three men from atop the rooftop from his player's position on the ground before letting his virtual character run through the warehouse and down into a tunnel system. There, he was greeted by four camouflaged soldiers who promptly threw grenades at him and shot him several times. The little green bar at the top of the screen told him he was dead. He reloaded the same level he'd been playing for the last three days.

Like whiplash Kiri's mind reacted. Six, five, nine, four, two, zero, zero, cat, queen, dale, grendel, Hundreds of numbers and words as her self learned defence to the voice in her head, for all the good it would do her. Her mind was private, her mind was her own. She didn't want invaders, she didn't want people to enter uninvited. The words were noise to her as much as she could she tried to ignore them. Already panicked it didn't help, wide eyed she tried to focus on the nurse, bringing her hands to her temples. She couldn't even tell where the voice was coming from, or where she'd heard it before.

"Sometimes sense seems wrong in the moment," Bo answered the Betazoid and rested his hands over Kiri's. "It seems unlikely, but talking about what you saw, how you felt - it will help. But right now you need to breathe. Inhale and exhale, with me, hold my hands, there you go. In and out. Steady breaths."

Kestra listened with idle curiosity to the slew of random numbers and words the Trill repeated. As though she were trying to protect against some kind of psychic attack. The girl was clearly unstable, overreacting to the mildest of stimuli. And seemed to have the very barest of comprehensions of what a telepathic mind could do - enough to think of throwing up a shield, but not enough to know when or how to do so. She'd asked a question. Kestra had answered, in the only way she could. She's unwell, she told Bo. She will only make herself sick if she continues in this vein.

She didn't want to be here. Kiri didn't want to be poked and prodded, she didn't want voices in her head, she didn't want to have blood on her face. She didn't want to be surrounded by strangers. Talking about it made sense but she didn't want to right now, the list of things she didn't want was growing huge. With an expression mixed of frustrated and miserable she looked up at Bo, "Can you just scan me?" Bringing her hands from her temples they turned into fists for a moment before settling in her lap. With the voices stopped her breathing settled on its own. Coming into contact with a stranger didn't feel like it would make her feel any better.

Head buried in his PADD, Neo leaned back in the chair he was sat at until the legs began to tip backwards. He rested his foot against the edge of the table. What are you here for? he bounced the thought over to Kestra casually. At least, he tried to.

Kestra lightly tapped the arms of the hover chair she was seated in and answered him, her voice dry as dead leaves, Coma.

Ouch, came in a sharp prick, empathetic needles. Been there, Neo sent back, skipping rocks over a still lake.

The Bajoran, for his part, still studied Kiri with worried, watchful eyes as the sounds from the monitor informed him of her increased heart rate, and somewhat normal blood pressure. A little elevated. He grabbed a box of antibacterial cleansing wipes from a nearby console and handed them to her. "You can wash off your face and hands with these," he said, then keyed in a few commands into his tricorder before beginning a series of scans.

Her skin stung at the touch of the pad, dried blood didn't come away easily though. Without a mirror it was hard to tell where it all was, let alone the bits that were in her hair. Working from left to right Kiri tried, pulling hard as the pads turned yellowish brown. When most of it was gone her skin looked rather raw, flakes still stuck in the folds of her eyelids, bridge of her nose and even her right ear. The most important part was to her the blood was gone, some of the panic was past. Now a gnawing numbness started to reach thorny tendrils into her being.

Kestra's lips twitched with a softened mirth at the Vulcan's response, and as the young science officer slowly began to back down from her panic, she bowed her head slightly. I'm Kestra, she told him.

"You're all right for the most part, although your heart rate's still a little faster than I'd like." He took the dirtied wipes from her and disposed of them safely, returning with a cup of water. "Drink. I need to give you a hypospray against infection, just in case you were exposed to anything. Then I recommend you get cleaned up and see a counselor at your earliest convenience. Can I trust you to do that on your own, or do you wish to stay here? We've got biobeds and there's a sonic shower right through that door-" he pointed.

I'm Neo, the Vulcan answered Kestra over the medic's comments. A moment later he looked down at his PADD as a grenade blasted him and six of his men beyond the perimeter radius. He blinked slowly, mentally rolling his eyes.

Neo. Her lips parted on a sigh of a smile. The girl is in pain and you're blowing up your digital compatriots?

Do you have a better idea?

Kestra's nose twitched slightly in thought. I can't speak and my 'words' cause her nothing but further consternation. It's clear enough to me she needs comfort. Can't you feel it?

Nope, Neo sent. Touch-telepath.

Once she'd been frustrated by that limitation. Now, she nearly longed for it. Feeling so much... it made her feel larger and smaller, but not herself in either size. The question was: was being who she'd been more important than who she was becoming? Why was she this way now? What purpose did the Deities hold for her to give her so much even as they took away? Kestra looked to him, You're doing quite well without.

I'm Vulcan, he thought back. We're supposed to be without. His own brother was a clear testament to that. Half the time Neo wondered if Liyar were really crazy, or if proximity telepathy just fried his brain.

Liyar- she laughed brilliantly in his mind. I knew you felt familiar- not familiar- reminiscent. Shall I call you brother, too?

Brother? Neo asked suspiciously. His distance from Liyar was more obvious the longer he thought about him. Why would you call him brother? Was this girl another person that Liyar had unwittingly adopted? Couldn't he just get a sehlat like a normal person?

She could have told him. Tried to explain. But words were pitiful things and meant little in the face of history. I probably needn't remind you, but breathe. Holding his gaze, she gave him a taste of //feartrappedwillIneverbefree endless corridors leading from horror to horror Liyar's face in the darkness, a hand, a rope wordscreambattlerage Trija down down again through and through then light air familiar faces the searing of a tube down her throat gaspstruggle wake lighttoomuch painstillnessfrozen Liyar's hand holding a glass of water, familiar minds and faces at the side of the biobed, hope.// Kestra released him with a slow blink. Life debts are never forgiven.

A dull thunk set his chair down on the floor as his legs dropped. Neo hunched over protectively, bracing his elbows against his knees, expression still. He rarely had telepathic contact that intensive, not with anyone other than Shen, and that was - different. This was pain. It hurt. Slivers of glasspanic rained in his head, cutting him. His training took over, and he shook it out, let it beat at his mind like a battering ram. Translucent. Disappearing walls, disappearing minds. Searing sun. Lockdown. Neo looked up as it faded out. He's Nirak, Neo's mindvoice was scratchy, as though parched. Going into someone's horrorzone.

It was easy, too easy, to spread the balm of lakeshores and starry nights over the pain she'd unintentionally shared with him. Another flaw, a new discovery; she'd meant to show pictures and instead had given him the horror she'd experienced. Not the whole of it, thank the Deities, but too much. I do not know Nirak. But I know the stories of the Spirits of Salvation and the way they lay paths to Truth and Freedom, not with magic, but with chances. With people in the right place at the right time. I know I had given up hope and he found me. I know that he and my cousin drew me out of a place I could not escape on my own. Not everyone would risk themselves for a stranger in that way; there's a purity in that. She watched him, I did not mean to give you so much of it. I apologize.

Neo waved a hand. No offense where none is taken. Purity, he thought, or stupidity.

Sometimes I wonder if one is not needed for the other, Kestra thought wryly. Either way, I am grateful.

Drinking the water Kiri felt a little better, though she wasn't that keen on having another hypospray today. She was vindicated that there was nothing wrong with her and she got to have a shower in her own room just liked she wanted. In her mind she was right and the man she'd met was was wrong, "I will see a counsellor soon." It wasn't the reasons she wanted but any reason to spend time with Dawn was good.

"Do you have someone you talk to?" Bo asked. "I'd like to schedule you while you're here, just so it's in the books and doesn't get lost in the mess of away team returns - all right?"

"I've been seeing Lieutenant Meridian," Kiri was going to see her, she needed to. Today had already filled up though, there wasn't going to be time, there was too much to do.

tag Bo

Kestra glanced between Neo and Kiri. Perhaps your brother is not the only one to pick up strays?

Yeah. I routinely allow civilian-whateversmallweakchildren to run around with guts all over their face, Neo replied.

She's an ens- Kestra's ears twitched slightly as though she were listening to something quiet far away. Lieutenant junior grade, she corrected herself. Not a civilian. And she's well- at least physically. The rest- that is something else, and little to do with guts on her face. Can you truly say you are sitting here watching her checkup because you somehow mistook an officer in uniform for a civilian?

You've seen her, yeah? She's a baby, Neo thought.

Who needs looking after?

Yep, the Vulcan nodded.

And so you did. Kestra glanced at Neo, onyx eyes gleaming knowingly. You took responsibility for the needs of a stranger. How is that different?

Neo stared at her evenly from across the table. It's different. It's my job. His lips twitched vaguely. Was my job.

And now?

Pilot. You?

I was the Chief of Security. Now... I've no idea. She exhaled, You're here for him. Gave up your work to look after him. You miss it.

He's family, Neo rolled his shoulder. You've been in his head. You think he's stable? Neo asked, obviously unconcerned with subtlety.

I don't know I'm in a position to judge stability, she thought wryly. But I think he is. If not always; he's brilliant, capable, and has great reserves of will. I am not worried he will lose control to the detriment of others. Perhaps to himself.

Yeah. Good thing he's got a babysitter now. Neo's eyeroll was silent.

You've an instinct for taking care of others. I'm glad you're here for him, even if you're not. But it needn't be all that you are. You may find something for yourself on this little ship as well.

You were the chief of security, yeah? Don't want to go back? Neo pressed the heel of his boot against the table again.

To protecting others, yes. As you do, I feel.

Yeah. Kaiidth, right. Security on this ship, what's it like?

It has gone through some changes - and as Lieutenant Stone is apparently not returning to his command post... she looked sadly at Kiri. I believe it will change again. Someone else will need to take the reins. I imagine the Captain is working on that now. Or will soon. The poor girl... Kestra folded her hands in her lap. She's so conflicted.

What is there to be conflicted about? Neo asked. He thought the situation was relatively straight forward. He was alive. Now he's dead. No one really cared about him. Not even she cared about him. She just saw him die. My people have a saying for that. Tran'shi'yoreda shiyavri'laro.

Seeing the transition of life to death can be a horrifying experience. She nearly died, being there when it happened. Do not be so quick to judge what is in her mind and heart. Humans are complex creatures and she learned her ways from them.

The idea that one could be so damaged by a single experience of death was completely foreign to Neo. A stranger's death. Not even a stranger; someone who had been decisively disliked. He allowed his utter lack of comprehension to float to the surface in response. One could almost see the question mark pop over his head.

Kestra looked at him kindly. You could learn to understand, by asking her. It is not for me to speak of the experiences this brings up for her. That is her choice to share or no.

The question mark wobbled and then fell apart, splashing on his head. He could not see a situation where asking that would be at all tactical. It was his own natural curiosity, rather than any care for her feelings. He didn't understand human emotions, and it wasn't for him to understand. She'll see a counselor.

She needs more than a counselor. She needs friends. And if your curiosity leads you to talk to her, to try to understand her, then what motivates you may not be what matters. Only what you choose to do because of that motivation. She lifted her brows slightly, and brushed her fingers over the control of her chair, moving away from the table and navigating across the sickbay for a cup of water.

Neo watched her hover away, shook his head once and went back to his PADD.

Bo set the hypospray with a basic antibiotic and antiviral, lifting his brows apologetically. "It's a pain, I know, but better safe than sorry, right? You'll feel a slight pressure..."

Kiri winced but said nothing, holding her breath. Was everyone else on the away team going to go through this or just her?

"There. All done. Now - let's see if we can't schedule you in as soon as one of the counselors return to the ship, right?"

"It will have to be tomorrow," She replied, looking up for a second.

Bo frowned. "Right. Well, drink another cup of water and hang out for another minute while I find you an appointment time. What's your schedule for the rest of today?"

"I have away missions from sixteen hundred," Kiri had to write up a action report as well as set up her own away mission for that resource moon. There wasn't time for her to feel sorry for herself, or anything. If she was working she wouldn't think about it, that was what she always did. If she ran away from her problems then they might solve themselves, maybe.

"What's your next mission?" Sending her back out on anything, when she was still rattled from her last mission, seemed like a lesson in poor personnel management. Bo took her cup, refilled it, and returned it to her while pulling up the appointment database on his PADD.

"A sub-aquatic Survey on the other M-class moon," Taking the cup again she held it, she didn't really feel like taking another drink. The shaking at stopped, she seemed more upright and even more awake. Her next mission shouldn't be too much work, the one after that though, no, she'd be fine.

"Ah. You should get some rest before you head out on that. Would you like a sleep aid?" Bo asked, gaze flicking between her face and the schedule on his PADD. "How's... thirteen hundred tomorrow?"

Kiri didn't think that sleep was really an option, "That is when I all of my missions are done," Right after she she got back to the ship she'd be with Dawn, that wasn't that bad. Closing her eyes for a moment she added, "I already have a sleep aid."

"I'd suggest you use it, wash off, get some rest before your next mission. And if you have any dizziness, feelings of anxiety or being overwhelmed, you are welcome to come back to Sickbay. Lieutenant Orexil may be getting tired of beating me in all our games of Tr'kalex; and you might find some relief in giving her a run for her money."

Kiri didn't know what that game was but she wasn't in the mood for games. A shower was what she was planning to do all along before being dragged in here, "I will try," She wouldn't be that much better until after she had a chance to clean her hair anyway. Then she had to get ready for the other away missions.

Bo nodded, stepping back. "On your way then, Lieutenant. May you find peace in time. I'll send you a reminder about your appointment time tomorrow."

Neo rose from his chair and slipped his PADD back into his pocket, winding his earbud over his ear and clasping his hands behind his back. "That's my cue," he said, offering a salute to them and turning to head out.

Dropping down from the biobed Kiri forced a smile that wasn't really a smile, "Thank you." Looking at the wordless Lieutenant Orexil Kiri wasn't sure if she should say anything or not. In the end another forced smile was the best she could do as she headed back towards her quarters.

OFF:

LT(JG) Kestra Orexil
Former Chief of Security
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Crewman Neo
Support Craft Pilot, FCON
USS Galileo

Crewman Chalan Bo
Medical Officer
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

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