Nightly Confessions

Posted on 17 Dec 2013 @ 11:43pm by Alexander Iella & Lieutenant JG Victoria Crawley

1,914 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 04 - Exodus
Location: USS Galileo: Officers Mess
Timeline: MD6 0230

ON

Victoria ended her log abruptly and faced the wall, biting her hand in frustration. She felt so helpless, like everything was spiraling out of control and there was nothing she could do about it. As if getting attacked by those damned drones wasn't enough, now they were escorting them God-knows-where. And they were crawling all over the ship. Everywhere she went, there they were, pacing the corridors, watching silently in the corners, completely still and creepy as hell. She would have done anything if it meant this would all be over.

She took a deep breath and looked over the clock, running a hand through her hair. It was late, but she suddenly needed to get out of her room; she just needed to walk or something. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and got up, throwing an oversized sweater over her pajamas and walking out into the corridor.

As she came out, she saw one of the drones walk past, his (or maybe her?) cold, dead eyes staring straight ahead, ignoring her. Victoria shuddered, but moved on to the mess hall, doing her best to ignore the other drones marching around the ship. By the time she finally got there, she was starting to feel a little bit calmer, but still far from ready to sleep. Inside, she made a beeline for the replicator and got a cup of green tea before sitting down at one of the tables, just staring blankly ahead.

A loud string of cursing in Trill came from the mess kitchen before slowly translating into english, "Stupid son of a..." came the voice as a loud crash resonated throughout the room. A few seconds later a rather annoyed looking Trill left the kitchen into the dimly lit mess hall. Carrying a box full of precooked meals, Alex set the box with a bunch of others at the edge of the door. He had been cooking almost non stop for to get all the food he had replicated before the attack so it wouldn't spoil. He had been up for almost 46 hours by this point, but a steady diet of caffeine had kept him awake. Turning back to head back into the kitchen, Alex stopped as he spotted his new companion sitting at one of the tables. Arching an eyebrow, Alex rang his hands on the cloth he had in his pocket before making his way over to her. "Bit late to be up." He stated as he sat down across from her, directly in her line of vision.

Victoria looked up sharply at the man across from her. Who the hell was this guy? She'd never seen him before; at least, not that she could remember. He seemed nice enough, though. At least he's not drone, she thought bitterly. She gave an noncommittal shrug and took a large swig of her tea. "I couldn't sleep." She winced inwardly at the edge in her voice, but said nothing further and went on to staring into her tea cup.

"Well, I dont think a cup of tea would really be helpful in putting on to sleep then." Alex replied with a smirk, he had noticed the distinct edge in her voice, but at the moment alot of people had that edge, it was a stressful time. "Little comfort food would be better in my opinion. It's always helped me, and it can be pretty therapeutic to make it."

She shrugged again and kept looking down into her cup. "I don't...actually have a comfort food." Was this a thing with normal people? Victoria wasn't really sure.

Alex looked at her shocked, "Really? You dont have a comfort food... well I think we will have to remedy that." Alex said flashing a smile, "Tell me, what do you like to eat, over anything else? What do you like to eat when you're feeling sad?"

Victoria rubbed her eyes and looked up at him wearily. "Usually, whatever I can find. It just depends." Her fingers traveled idly around the rim of her cup as she studied the man. She wasn't sure why, but she felt...somewhat at ease around him.

Alex frowned slightly as he pondered, "Really, nothing in particular? Not a cake, or pancakes, anything?" He asked to no reply. "Well... We'll just have to try a bunch of things." He clasped his hands together and stood, "Come on then." He said extending his hand out for her to take.

She looked at his hand for minute, not sure she could trust him. He seemed really nice, but then, so had the man who killed Peter. Shaking her head violently, trying to get rid of these horrible thoughts, she took his hand and stood up slowly.

Alex lead the way to the messy kitchen, much of it was still covered in pots and pans that had flown everywhere. Thankfully the fridge and freezer had sealed itself though, and all the food that had been stored in them were still there. Opening the fridge, Alex dropped the woman's hand and waved them at all the fruits and sweets, "Alright, choose some things and we'll see what we can do."

Victoria gave him an odd look. "Anything? Don't you need this stuff to feed the crew or something? Isn't it all earmarked for specific things or whatever?"

"Nah, I already cooked all that meat I had replicated for the BBQ idea myself and the Chaplin had. That will last us long enough until we can get the replicators back online. Everything here is free to be used." Alex said with a shrug, "As for earmarking it... that's no fun. It's constricting, sticking to a receipt is boring, making it up as you go? Now that's fun."

Victoria cracked a very small smile and reached out to grab an apple out of the fridge, closing the door and sliding down to sit on the floor.

"Huh... an Apple eh?" Alex said arching an eyebrow. "I think we'll have to work on your culinary choices." Alex joked as he leaned against the door and slide down it to sit beside the woman. "I never introduced myself, I'm Alex."

She looked at him for a minute and said around a mouthful of apple, "Victoria Crawley. Alex, was it?"

"Alexander Iella actually, but everyone calls me Alex since it's shorter." Alex said as he glanced over at her and smiled. "Victoria... hmm seems like a mouthful, anyone ever call you Tori? Maybe Vic? Nah.. Victoria suits you, I like it." He rambled on slightly before looking ahead. "What brings you to my mess hall this late Victoria."

Victoria pressed her lips together and looked down at her apple. "I...it's been a...difficult night." That was the understatement of the year.

"It's been a difficult few days for everyone involved. The Borg are pretty much everyone's worst nightmare. Hell its the nightmare of 2 hosts for me." Alex said with a sigh. "It's been... interesting battling the fear I have, and my last host Ezra has, for the Borg."

Victoria's head shot up when he said the word "host." She studied his face for a minute, then blurted out, "Wait, you're a Trill?" and immediately smacked her forehead with her hand, embarrassed. Wow, Victoria, just wow. Awkward much? "Sorry, that was a stupid question."

Alex laughed, "No no, it's okay. Yes I'm a Trill and a joined one at that. You've been off in your own little world, I understand." He said patting her knee comfortingly.

She flinched slightly at the contact; she wasn't used to being touched like that and it didn't help that she was jittery and on edge as it was. He was right, her mind was definitely somewhere else. She brought her hand down from her face and rested it on her other knee, leaning her head back against the wall again. "How long have you been joined?" She asked, after a brief pause.

"About three years." Alex said nonchalantly, "I worked for 8 years towards the task of getting joined. After I was... I changed.. alot actually." He leaned his head back and let out a sigh, "I used to be a rather introverted Engineer. I spent alot of my time in a room working on various engineering projects. After I was joined, my personality changed immensely, I dropped engineering and took up cooking. I became a rather outgoing and happy person, great with people. Gotta admit... scared the crap out of me. To change so much, almost literally overnight."

"Was it...hard? Getting used to everything, I mean. Did it hurt when it happened?"
She took another bite of her apple.

"Oh yeah, It was definitely hard. My entire life changed." Alex said with a shrug, "It didnt hurt though... It felt more like... I dont know it's hard to explain. One moment I was alone in my thoughts and memories, then the next, I had 3 other people in my thoughts, their memories mixing with mine. It was exhilarating."

"That must be really cool, though. All that...stuff floating around inside your head." She smiled at him, bigger this time and absentmindedly twisted her ring around on her finger.

"Yeah it kinda is. I can go do something, something I've never done before, but something a previous host has done, and I can do it... Albeit really not as well as them." Alex said with a shrug. "It can come in pretty handy sometimes... though other times not so much."

Victoria nodded and stared at her apple core, suddenly not sure what to say.

Alex let silence last a while before finally looking over at Victoria, "You do know, that once this is all over, I will have to cook something for you. Its unheard of for someone not to have a favourite food."

She laughed a little. It was kind of odd, she had to admit. "When would you have time? You have a whole crew to cook for."

"Well, I think this ship will be needing quite alot of repairs once this mission is over and done with... I think we will have a fair bit of time on our hands while she sits in spacedock." Alex said with a smile.

She cast her eyes down at her hands and focused on her ring. "I'd like that. Thanks." And she meant it. Nobody had ever really offered to do anything like that for her, and she certainly wasn't going to turn down his offer.

"Hey, best way to get through something... have something good waiting on the other side to live for." Alex grinned.

She looked at him and smiled yet again. She noticed she'd smiled more in the past few minutes here than she had this whole damned week.

"Right, I think it's time for both of us to get some shut eye, It's pretty late." Alex said pushing himself up to his feet before turning back and offering Victoria a hand.

Victoria looked over at the wall to check the time; her eyes widened. Silently, she took his hand and stood up, rubbing at her eye with her free hand. Yeah, the exhaustion was starting to set in now. It was definitely time to sleep.

"Sleep tight Victoria." Alex said with a smile as ushered her out of the mess.

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Lt. JG Victoria Crawley
Psychologist
USS Galileo

Alexander Iella
Civilian
USS Galileo

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