Sunset Marquis

Posted on 26 Apr 2013 @ 11:31pm by

3,841 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: LTjg Liyar's Quarters
Timeline: MD6 0150 Hours

ON:

"So," Maenad was leaning against the wall of the turbolift, hands gripped the railing behind her. She looked at Liyar who was standing across from her, riding with her up to deck two. "I'm tired," she yawned.

Liyar popped the power cartridge out of his phaser and charged it down, placing it in his back holster as they entered the lift before he unzipped the vest of his uniform, resting against the edge of the rail on the opposite side. The doors closed, leaving them alone, exposed in harsh fluorescent lighting. His posture was casual and calm, arms folded over his chest. "Perhaps you should attempt to rest," he replied. The away mission had been long and arduous, but once they split up into their teams, it had been approximately eleven point six hours of productivity. No gigantic shark-bugs threatened to rip them in half. Bonus. "It has been a long day."

When the lift stopped and the doors opened, Maenad followed Liyar out into the corridor until they reached his quarters, which was several doors before hers. "Are you going to sleep?"

The Vulcan shook his head. "I have an away mission at 0400 hours. I require sustenance," he said. He keyed open the panel above his door. "If you wish, you may join me until I must leave."

"Sure," she said, smiling. She had never been to Liyar's quarters before and she found herself a little excited to see where he lived.

The doors opened to reveal a thoroughly unexciting living space. All of the standard Starfleet utilities were present; a couch, a table, a replicator and a computer console. The computer desk in the corner was the only area of Liyar's quarters which gave the impression that he actually lived there. PADDs were stacked neatly along the sides and on the floor in front of it. Various equipment in rested boxes and cases behind the chair. Some looked like they could be instruments, or perhaps weapons. Other boxes contained wires, components and portable comm systems overflowing. Liyar walked over and turned the screen on, checking it for a moment before closing it down. The rest of the space was entirely spartan, there was no mess or fuss, it looked exactly as expected of any Vulcan living area. On the shelf near the couch meditation supplies rested. They looked as though they hadn't been touched in some time. Liyar headed over to the replicator and tapped in the controls, which displayed in a foreign language. "Would you like something," he asked in a stilted way that suggested he was quoting what he thought was the proper terminology.

Maenad followed him inside and saw a drearily depressing room. She wondered how anyone could live here. She had lived on Vulcan for a year and had seen more lively homes than this. "Liyar," she was expecting to hear an echo on account of the empty walls, "where is all your stuff?" She went to the middle of the room, and looked around. There was a disbelieving smile on her face. She walked over to the shelf with his meditative belongings and studied them without touching.

The shelf that she was staring at was made of metal and embedded into the wall, making it clearly part of the original set-up and not something he had brought with him. There was a fire-pot set on a small tapestry and a few transparent stones that looked like knick-knacks. Since he was Vulcan, the assumption could be made that they did have an unknown use. "I did not bring much with me," Liyar explained. He extended his hand toward the computer desk where the PADDs and boxes were. The only interesting things there were the small spherical fereikek reh, the psionic transceiver and a few books that Athlen had given him. A book of haiku inspired by Vaikreyan, Wicked and The Wizard of Oz respectively. Liyar had been unimpressed by the attempt at irony. "Only those. The majority of my belongings are back on Vulcan." It was obvious that he didn't feel he lived there. He programmed a glass of sash-savas masu and a small protein bar called ob'taree.

She followed his gesture and went to the desk. She picked up the copy of The Wizard of Oz and quickly flipped through the pages. She laughed quietly, shaking her head. The saw the poetry book, but left it where it was and put The Wizard of Oz back where she found it. "You're hilarious," she told him, still smiling. Without asking, she led herself to his bedroom. "Show me your room," she asked after she'd already gone inside.

"The credit should go to Crewman Athlen," Liyar said from the replicator dryly. "Apparently there is a correlation." The picture of the Tin Man on the cover was particularly unsubtle. He unwrapped the ob'taree and demolished it while he strode over to where she'd made herself at home in his bedroom. (The irony of that was lost on him entirely.) There was nothing much to show. There was a bed which wasn't slept in, a small end table and a straw mat in the corner where presumably he meditated. On the utilitarian nightstand by the bed a worn, ragged cloth was folded over a military grade tricheq knife. Beside that were several clear PADDs of V'Shar grade, a small black phaser and a small cylinder of indeterminate use. He removed the larger but similarly constructed phaser from its holster and replaced it in the drawer. Inside there were several different power cartridges and modification tools, along with a toolkit. All had the V'Shar logo on them. Other than that the room was as dull as the rest of his quarters.

"Liyar," she was still grinning, "I do not approve of all these weapons laying around." She didn't touch anything, but she sat down on his bed. She was expecting it to be as stiff as a board, but other than the covers, the mattress was the same. "I wish I could make my bed as well as you can."

Liyar sat down across from her, finishing off the rest of the bar and crushing the wrapper in his hand. "It is only a product of repetition," he said mildly. He studied her for a few extra moments than necessary, took a drink and then asked, "How are you feeling?"

Maenad looked at him for a moment, studying his face. What was he eating? What was that wrapper in his hand? "Relieved," she said. "Tired." Shaking her head, she replayed the day in her thoughts. The blatant questioning of her authority, the disrespect she'd been shown, Stone's gruesome death. Being here with Liyar now, it made it all seem so meaningless. "Better," she added.

"Good," Liyar said. They had spent many hours together cataloguing the different flora and fauna of the planet, but the presence of two additional people had put their ability to genuinely speak on hold. "And physically?" he asked, recalling the previous day.

"Exhausted," she was unaware of the trace of a smile that remained on her lips. "But not as sore."

Liyar nodded. "Good. Ensure that you get adequate rest later on," he suggested. He drained the last of the juice and leaned over to place the empty cup on the nightstand by the ra-de'kutha.

"Later on?" she asked.

"When you return to your quarters," he clarified.

"Oh, right," she shook her head. "Would you rather sit in your living room?" Maenad asked.

"As you wish," Liyar said. Standing, Liyar guided them back into the main area. The cup followed him and he deposited it in the replicator before turning to lean against the wall beside it. He watched while she flitted around and examine his belongings with little reserve. The behavior inspired an odd mix of shock and amusement in him. He had never heard of anyone acting that way. It was too familiar, to Vulcans it would even be intimate. He doubted she knew that. "You should have something to eat," he said again.

Maenad went up to him. She wasn't hungry, but it would be easier to eat and be done with it so he wouldn't pester her with it all night. "Just a piece of buttered toast," she said.

He typed in the order and it appeared in the buffer on a plate. It certainly wasn't much, but he held it out to her. "Are you certain that is all you want?" he asked.

"Please," she said, taking the plate from him. "Thank you."

He nodded and followed her over to the couch after replicating another protein bar. Sekhet had told him to eat more. Following his own advice, he unwrapped the second one and leaned forward on his elbows.

Maenad ate the toast faster than usual, just to get it over with. Her thoughts replayed the last few days in her mind. She recalled the captain's suspicions of her competence during the incident with the shuttle, Kohl's lightheartedness in sickbay when he removed the glass and shrapnel from her body, Pendleton's worry for her, her bizarre and patience-testing evening with Kiri, and back to today's mission. The captain withheld that Stone had been eaten alive by a monster, her away team questioned her authority and undermined her from the very beginning, and she hadn't had the spine to assert herself before they had gotten the better of her. But, right now, her mind returned to the lecture she had been given by the captain in the ready room two days ago. Equally battling for processing time was Lirha's apparent attachment to her and that she was seen as an inferior. Maenad had wanted to tell Liyar sooner, but recently she hadn't had an abundance of time.

Lirha still had feelings for her, but she didn't know how to reconcile them with the fact that Maenad hadn't reciprocated. There was no one she felt comfortable enough to talk about her personal life with except for Liyar. And, he was the most trustworthy person on board. Still, she hadn't fully built up the confidence she needed to broach the subject with him, even though she desperately wanted to. "You should eat more than granola bars," she said to try to distract herself.

"It is ob'taree," Liyar said. "Fasting meals. They are highly nutrient dense." She was one to talk, he looked at her plate with its single limp piece of toast pointedly. He fell into another silence as he ate, contemplative. His awareness of Maenad sharpened on point, metal against metal gleaming in his mind. He sat up imperceptibly, eyes narrowing as the distance between perception grew closer, clearer, collision course. Whispers passing through. He rubbed his wrist unconsciously. Flashes of color. Green, yellow, shifting into paint blobs, meaningless faces. Emotions dripped from them like black tar, pooling below. "You are not all right," he said into the empty room quietly.

Maenad glanced up and looked at her friend beside her. A semblance of a smile crept onto her lips. There was never any getting by him. In a way, it was comforting. She wanted to tell him, and he wanted her tell him, so his not-so-subtle encouragement always made her feel rather foolish. "The other day," she began, "after my shuttle mission - the one where I was hurt - Captain Saalm ordered me to her ready room." Maenad put the empty plate on the table. "She was very suspicious of me. I had the distinct impression that she was questioning my judgement as a mission leader. She was trying to find holes in everything I said. She withheld the sensor readings until after I gave her my account of what happened, as though to confirm whether or not I was lying." She sighed, her smile became embarrassed as her cheeks rosied. "I started to cry, I was under a lot of stress, and she changed tune. She came around her desk, sat beside me really close, and started to tickle the back of my neck." To show him, Maenad did what Lirha did on her to Liyar. She moved close to him. "Like this." His skin was soft to touch and warm, but also in its own way was firm and gruff. She blinked away the intimacy of her touch, knowing that if he'd done it to her she would have become giddy inside.

Liyar's head was cocked toward her, listening and absorbing as she described the events of yesterday in more detail. None of what she said surprised him. He had after all been there that morning in the transporter room. The longer she spoke however the closer she moved, until he felt the play of her fingers against the back of his neck, soft and cool. Fingers knitted together between his knees, he shifted minutely under her touch. He brought his elbows back to rest his hands on his knees instead. "I see," he uttered quietly, arching his eyebrows as though to invite her to continue speaking.

"And then," she put her finger under his chin and raised it, turning him toward her. Rather than telling him what Lirha did, she was showing him. "And then she kissed me." She stopped herself, though, even though she could feel a fluttering in her chest and the warmth in her cheeks. "On the lips." She put her hands back in her lap, twisting her lips as she bit her tongue in her mouth. "She said she still cared about me, then dismissed me." She sighed. "And yesterday she was really rude to me when I asked about the dangers we'd be facing. I'm so confused, Liyar. I don't know what to do." Her voice had taken on a plaintive tone by this point, like she were begging for answers from him.

His head tipped up, following her movement with little thought. Something dissociated and strange flipped in his stomach, dissolving into pins and needles. His eyes found hers unhesitantly, nearly black in the dim, muted lighting of his quarters. Liyar straightened, but otherwise remained completely still, watching her. Excepting one of his feet, which slid backward until it rested against the bottom of the couch. Her emotions had turned closer, warmer, contemplations of intimacy and reaction unintentionally slipping from her fingertips. Then she was speaking once again and she sat back. She left him like temperature changing, pressure, atmosphere returning to normal. He blinked a couple of times and nodded, resting one of his hands beside him and leaning on it.

It took him several extra seconds to catch up before he spoke again, evenly. "It appears that Captain Saalm's actions, contradictory as they are, are motivated by her personal feelings toward you. It is apparent she has not been able to," he made a face and gestured, "move on, as you say." He found that he was extremely displeased by this. Maenad had distracted him from the subtle coldness that spread through him. That distraction was now gone. Although he was completely unaware of it, the silent emotion was fury. Jealousy. "If you do not wish for her to make those advances toward you, I would suggest that you take a pheromone suppressant and instruct her not to approach you again," he said, far more oriented now.

"She's the captain, Liyar," she said like she'd rolled her eyes. "I can't just not see her anymore." She nudged him, then got back to sharing her angst. I felt guilty then because... I don't know," she faded off. "But now, I think I feel angry." Maenad looked at him.

Liyar's expression didn't change. "She is the captain," he agreed. "Which is precisely why if you are uncomfortable with her advances then it is necessary for you to tell her." His words got a little flatter as he finished. "Her position is irrelevant."

"You're lucky to be a Vulcan," Maenad said somewhere between truthfulness and a joke. "I wish I could be a Vulcan."

"In what way?" Liyar asked, curiously.

She had to be more careful with her tongue, Liyar constantly reminded her. "Well, you deal with your emotions better than I do. You can speak your mind, say the truth, and it's expected of you because you're a Vulcan. If I were as blunt as you are, I would wind myself into a lot of trouble."

"It would be extremely unethical for you to get in trouble for telling the captain to cease her overtures toward you," Liyar said, oblivious to how he sounded. "A captain using a personal connection between herself and a subordinate to influence that crewmember's actions would be committing an abusive act."

"I know!" Maenad almost shouted. "It is, you're right. I know." She sighed. "I just need to pretend it never happened and forget about it." She didn't know, nor did she care, if she were being rational about it, but Maenad just didn't want to face it. She had told Lirha she wasn't interested. That should have been the end of it, and for Maenad it was. "It isn't my problem." Before Liyar had a chance to respond, she held up a finger and added, "I deal with it by talking about my problems with you, Liyar. Just by sitting here, a lot of my stress has gone. I feel better, thank you."

Liyar moved forward so he sat right on the edge of the couch, physically empowered to speak. He didn't for a long while. Not until, "How you handle the issues in your life is your choice," he said at long last. "As a Terran, that is a luxury you have and should use to its fullest extent. Ignoring the issue is entirely your prerogative. But if she approaches you again with intimate intentions, then it will be a violation of the boundary which you have already delineated. That is an act that should not be tolerated."

Maenad yawned and wiped her eyes. "Yes, yes," she sighed. "I know, I know. And did you get the impression today that the away team didn't like me?" she asked him with a frown. "Because I did."

"The expedition participants were largely impatient and agitated," Liyar told her as honestly as he could. "It is likely that Lieutenant Stone's death affected them more than they were able to consciously integrate. You became a target for their frustration after the away team was delayed. They do not dislike you as a person. Since they do not know you, that would not be logical."

"You have such a way with words," she joked.

"I am a diplomat," he said back, eyes glinting in reserved Vulcan amusement.

Maenad laughed and leaned against him, putting her head on his shoulder playfully. She sat up properly again and shook her head. "What is your schedule like tomorrow?"

"I have one away mission at 0400 until 0800," Liyar said, settling back into the couch after he was finished his nutrient bar. "I have been consulted as a terrain expert. The planetary AOI has been noted as densely cavernous. We will be traveling to R2-R03."

Maenad hung her jaw, staring at him. "That's in three hours," she exclaimed. She moved to the edge of the pillow. "I should go." She put her hand on his knee. "I'm sorry. I know you told me, but I didn't realise how late it was, or I just wasn't thinking." How could she have been so selfish? He'd been awake already for probably at least twenty hours, and now would be awake until at least the time he got back.

"It is of no consequence," he shook his head. "I did ask if you wished to come in. I slept two days ago," he reminded her of his unfortunate collapse in her bed. He watched as she sat up, getting ready presumably to go. "Stay, if you wish," he said. "Unless you are to return and rest yourself."

She bit her lip. She didn't want to go, but she felt that it was that time of night where she had to. But Liyar had just told her not to leave. Life was so difficult. "I do need to sleep," she admitted. Her eyes were still that shade of purple they'd acquired recently. Although she was exhausted, her complexion and eyes looked like she hadn't slept for years. If he asked to sleep there, she thought that she might, but already her mind was playing tricks on her. The thought of leaving his quarters in the morning and being seen by someone in the corridor gave her an arrhythmia, even though it was entirely platonic. She remembered kissing him, then, and beat it down like a fire. "But I'm fine for now," she was probably lying.

"You are exhausted," Liyar contradicted her, watching her under furrowed brows. She looked exhausted and felt it, zooming in and out, cold-flashes. "I did not realize the extent. You should go and get some rest, Maenad. I will speak with you tomorrow."

Maenad opened her mouth to protest, but knew she had nothing to say that could win. She wanted to stay, but Liyar had made himself perfectly clear. She was still clinging to delusions. She knew it, and he did them both a favour by offering kindness to stay and then telling her to go home. She closed her mouth and sucked on the back of her bottom lip. "Okay," she said, almost like she'd been defeated. She looked at him once and then walked straight to the door, where she paused. She put her hands together, not realising that she was tugging nervously at the fingers of one hand. "Good luck on your mission," she said with a careful smile, not trying to seem too anxious, and then hurried out into the corridor. She blinked, looked at her feet, then twirled around and left him by himself.

Liyar let out a small breath through his nose. Through the entire time he had finished speaking to when she'd left had barely been a minute. He hadn't been very clear. His original request for her to stay had been genuine, born out of an impulsive desire for her to remain, to recapture the easy comfort they'd reached. But her bone-deep dragging exhaustion had gotten more obvious to him. He would have been remiss, even negligent, to ignore it. She had an away mission earlier that day as well. It was for the best, he thought, that she get some sleep. He leaned back into the couch again and rested his arms on the side, staring up listlessly at the ceiling. It held no answers.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer, SSC
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

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