Food for Thought

Posted on 20 Aug 2015 @ 1:08am by Jynn & Ensign K'os Beaumont
Edited on on 23 Aug 2015 @ 12:58am

2,381 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4
Timeline: MD 01 2200 (after Vortex)

ON

K'os whistled cheerily as he made his way to main shuttlebay. He'd spent most of the last couple hours checking over damage control teams and issuing progress reports to Grayson. One of the more pressing issues was to check on the external communications network that had been set up as a patchwork solution. When he entered he hadn't anticipated there to be anyone else. He raised an eyebrow in curiosity at the intriguing man that was already at work on his own project.

"Hello." K'os said, to get the man's attention as he closed the distance.

Jynn turned in excitement towards the voice that had hailed him. He was so pleased with the outcome of his little project as well as the other implemented idea, his babies being used for such useful purposes, that he had just finished dancing around the shuttle moments before this other person had showed up. He was still a little flush as he smiled at K'os. "Hello!"

K'os gave a tight-lipped grin, beaming his trademark dimples at the bald man. He hadn't yet registered that he was a Deltan. The proximity hadn't yet sent the usual telepathic alarms. His limbic system was currently engaged, and having been working by himself for the last couple hours hadn't yet disengaged his chaotic hyper-emotional mind. Several different conflicting emotions ebbed and flowed within his brain making his eyes glisten with excitement.

"I'm K'os. K'os Beaumont." He said in introduction.

"Jynn... Jynn," He replied, also feeling rather excited at the moment, though this was most normal for him. He just loved these anonymous ambushes. "Just Jynn," he clarified, chuckling a bit at the thought of being named Jynn Jynn. "What brings you around these parts this fine," he spoke as he looked towards the shuttlebay door with a pause.

Without a word he walked over to the control panel that worked the doors and with the press of a button the hatch began to open. He stared out the opening doors into the beautiful view of the void for a few seconds as if to clarify an unanswered question he had had then turned back to K'os. "What brings you about these parts this fine evening," he questioned with a sly smirk. He hadn't seen a star bright enough for him to call a 'day star' and so 'evening' had sounded most appropriate to him.

K'os squinted at the man as if he were a puzzle to solve. He had a tendency to mimic expressions and Jynn was no different and the smirk on Jynn's face was reflected on K'os' face. He watched as the bay doors opened with a raised eyebrow. "I've come to check up on the external comm's setup we've got going on here. Apparently we're using one of the shuttles for the time being." K'os moved towards Jynn. "It's nice to meet you." He extended his hand to shake Jynn's.

Jynn eagerly attached his hand to K'os' and gave it a surprisingly gentle shake given the emotions within the room. "A pleasure for the both of us, I am certain." He kept his hold on K'os' hand as if reluctant to let go. Contact always made his meetings more pleasurable. "I am more than happy that our shuttles have uses beyond taxiing people to and from various locations. Who would have thought they'd be so multi-purpose in such an emergency!"

"I know! It still amazes me sometimes the ingenuity--" K'os' pleasant smile suddenly evaporated from his face and he jerked his hand free as if Jynn's had suddenly become too hot to touch. He immediately felt stupid for not recognizing the man as being Deltan. Surely that's what he was. He had assumed the bald head was just alopecia or a fashion statement. "You're empathic." K'os stated while his voice wavered with emotion. Even though the man wasn't Betazoid and the intoxicating psilosynine wasn't present, the fact that he derived pure pleasure from the brief contact was a dangerous reminder that his need for telepathic contact was still ever present. He took a step back to get distance from Jynn as he scrambled to dig out his work gloves from his pocket. His heel caught a power junction cable and he toppled over onto his bum, hard.

"That I am," Jynn replied as his face turned to a somewhat concerned look. He was always curious as to people's reactions to his state of being, but he had to admit that it was getting a little tiring overloading other empaths whenever he met them. He just hoped they would forgive him for his uncontrollable nature. So many so out of practice. He walked over to the floored K'os and reached out his hand once more, this time offering assistance, and allowed him time to don the gloves he had dug for. "Everything alright?"

Before K'os had even made contact with the ground he'd disconnected himself from his emotions. Clamping down his mind with a skillful nudge of his Vulcanoid ability. His face became passive nearly immediately. "I am fine." K'os said calmly. "I hadn't noticed the power cable, that's all." K'os looked at the outstretched hand. To show he was truly fine, he jammed his gloves back into his pocket. Taking them out had been a habit, a crutch that he had to remind himself that he no longer needed. With freshly created walls around his mind, he took Jynn's offered hand and allowed himself to be helped up. Satisfied that he had control enough that nothing was transferred through the touch he let go of his hand once he was standing.

K'os dusted his butt off and moved away towards one of the shuttles. "Frankly I'm surprised. Do Deltan's -- you are a Deltan I presume? Do Deltan's not have control over their ability? I sensed you actively projecting. Was that done on purpose?" K'os' voice was even and calm.

"I can actively suppress it, but to block such a lovely ability just feels so wrong. To experience emotion even beyond my own? That, amongst our other abilities, makes it truly a gift to be a Deltan," he said with a smile. "If it is a bother, though, perhaps it's consolation to know that a lot of the times I barely register other's emotions over the ever-present and powerful aura of my own."

"A gift to be a Deltan?" K'os said, allowing a small amount of annoyance to creep in before he dashed it away skillfully from his mind. "Perhaps when you're on Delta IV but some species are sensitive to it. It's why we don't wear strong perfumes in close quarters, it's the same thing." K'os stood staring out at the stars thinking before he let out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding in. "And it's not a consolation by the way, because it isn't a matter of privacy and I'm not a private person. But if your 'ever-present and powerful aura' can't be controlled or mitigated I ask that you keep your distance." K'os lifted his hand and pointed his palm towards him. "I can practically feel you from here as it is and I'm already getting jittery."

Jynn was curiously silent for a moment. It had never really occurred to him that others could possibly be bothered by their gifts of extra-sensory empathy. To feel as others feel certainly gave a more complete picture of the person one was meeting. He could feel the building annoyance and as it was not a feeling he experienced often he decided to feel a little annoyed, himself.

He walked along one of the power cables to a monitoring station that was farther away from K'os than he had began. As he glanced over the readouts he became a slight bit defensive as he decided to better explain the aura K'os was so put off by. "I apologize if my aura bothers you, but my aura is me. My personality. To reduce my emotions would be as to," he paused as he tried to think of a good analogy. "To enhance a Vulcan's?" It was almost an actual question to K'os. Jynn hoped the description was apt.

"Enhance a Vulcan's?" K'os repeated with a raised eyebrow. That was a poor analogy in K'os' mind. He also didn't care for the fact that Jynn most likely used it because of K'os' supposed ancestry. Both of which the Deltan knew as much as K'os knew about Deltans. "It seems a bit contradictory of Starfleet to impose mandatory pheromone restrictions on Orion crewmembers but seemingly have forgotten to review your case. I'm not Vulcan. I'm a hybrid species and my hyper-emo-- my abilities were extensively reviewed before being allowed an active duty designation."

K'os turned away and begun reviewing one of the shuttlecraft so Jynn couldn't see his expression. Since touching Jynn's hand, the control process in his mind was harder to concentrate on. He'd felt an intensity in the touch that, if he were honest, was consuming his thoughts. He licked his lips. The man wasn't Betazoid, but it brought up all the associated feelings of his addiction and he was projecting his annoyance on Jynn unfairly. He took a few deep breaths like the doctors in Sickbay had shown him to calm his rising blood pressure. Kohl would have calmed him with a simple look and a hand on his chest to ground him. Which made K'os feel even more annoyed that he always had to rely on someone else to keep him grounded and focused.

He reached his hand out and touched the edge of the shuttlecraft, ignoring Jynn for the moment. He let go control of his limbic system and allowed the tornado of emotions and memories to rush forward to drown out the annoyance and frustration he felt. The colours of the shuttle became more vibrant and intense and smoothness of it made him think of a calm lake. He let out a laugh which he attempted to stifle. Moving his hand along he gained more distance from Jynn. When he was satisfied with his quick emotional 'fix' he put his walls back up disconnecting himself from the colours and memories letting them fade away along with the feelings of annoyance and frustration.

He looked over at Jynn with wet eyes. He blinked them away before he said, "I can understand your reluctance to inhibit your abilities. Medication was something I had opted out of myself. But in Starfleet there are always others around you that you need to consider. Your gift might be someone else's bane."

"My pheromones are quite in check." Mostly, he thought to himself. "What you and the other empaths feel is simply the state of my being. Much like my senses my emotions are always at a peak." He stopped for a moment as he thought of K'os' words and just how much he was affected by Jynn simply being Jynn. Perhaps exercising a bit of empathy amongst empaths would help calm things down. "I suppose I could try meditation. To be quite honest I've never experienced a quietness of the mind." He closed his eyes in an amateur attempt at quieting meditation. His attention clung to something random, the soft buzzing of electricity throughout all the devices in the bay. A moment later and all he could think about was bees. He smirked to himself a little.

"Mindfulness meditation isn't something you can just will, lieutenant. It takes practice and patience over time." K'os' eyes lifted towards the ceiling. For Pete's sake he thought. Perhaps he was a bit envious of the the fact that Jynn could just walk around hyper-emotional while K'os had to struggle everyday to keep himself from emoting and coming across as a manic unstable crewmember. K'os began inspecting the make shift communications array that had been set up on the shuttlecraft before saying, "Your words indicate a hedonism that I would find admirable if you were, say, an Argelian. But your sentiments to me just sound reckless and irresponsible."

K'os was satisfied with the work that had been done to the shuttlecraft and began moving in the direction of the door before he stopped and turned back to Jynn. "I say this from experience. I almost destroyed someone here once. A Betazoid crewmember. By being reckless and uncontrolled like you, I nearly killed him." His thoughts of Ellsworth and their telepathic affair would have made his stomach knot up had he not still held control over his mind and body. "You never know what affect you might have on other people or empaths on the ship, and quite frankly I'm surprised that you wouldn't at least try to exercise some self-restraint. Your 'state of being' is strong. I can feel that. But sometimes we have to make little sacrifices and make changes to ourselves in order to function with other people. Otherwise it just becomes selfish pleasure seeking. Perhaps I'm over-reacting. If so, take it as food for thought."

K'os' words seemed more prophetic to Jynn than he probably could have imagined. To ignore or suppress his emotions seemed almost anathema to his existence, but in his very short stay within Galileo he had already jumbled up most of the empaths and had broken his race's most sacred vow with yet-to-be-determined consequences. He was still unsure of Tuula's well being and he was most certainly unsure of what would happen to him as a result. All the paths seemed to lead to terrible fates.

After his brief moment of distraction all of his thoughts had suddenly come to the forefront again in a torrent of mixed emotions and thoughts. An almost deafening hurricane even to himself. One of his thoughts was certainly that of relief that the other empath was far away at this point. He stood in place as he allowed all of the new and old thoughts to eat away at him. "Food for thought," he repeated in a quieted tone just loud enough for K'os to hear as he departed.

END

Ensign K'os Beaumont
Assistant Chief Engineer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Jynn
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

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