Distress

Posted on 14 Jan 2013 @ 7:38pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk

2,580 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 02 - Resupply
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 3, Cho's Quarters
Timeline: MD16, 0330 hours

Her world was very small right now. Just herself and no one else. She felt cold, she was shivering but was that because she was cold? The speed of time seemed to be changing up and down, sometimes fast, sometimes slow but everything passed through her. Breathing was hard to focus on, her lungs were hurting, tight. The rest of her didn't feel like her body, distant and any movements delayed. Bruises and strains were there but didn't hurt, just existed. Her head ached.

She looked very small as well, dressed in her uniform with her shoulders close together. The teal making her hair darker and the black making her face paler. It hung loosely around her shoulders, messed and caught at points but otherwise lifeless. Her eyes were large and puffy, lips bitten and broken, her skin shiny with sweat. Clammy hands held each elbow and Kiri wobbled, the shaking made it hard to keep balance. Her gaze was settled into the middle distance while shades of people moved all around her, talking, shouting, most carrying weapons. None of them seemed to look at her though.

Kiwosk's hand was pounding with intense pain, but he couldn't help but see Kiri sitting, more like curled up in a little ball. He rolled his shoulder and walked carefully over to the young woman. The symptoms of severe shock were all over her body: the clamminess and the paleness of her skin, the redness around her eyes from crying, the dilation of her pupils. Carefully, he knelt down beside her. "Hey." He gave her a soft shake. "Hey, look at me Kiri...it's all over now. We got you back kiddo." He was being informal, but he knew that she needed a friend, not a subordinate, he knew the look, had felt the exact same feelings she was feeling, only he had never had the chance to sit down with someone, he had to keep fighting at that time.

At first it felt like she was underwater, his voice didn't get to her clearly. Several seconds of processing let her have the gist of it and then she tried to nod but all that happened was her head juddered. Pushing away with him she touched the wall and started to slide upright before her legs slipped from under her.

He snatched her in a hug faster than he thought he would have been able to given the amount of exxhaustion. He felt her legs give out from under her slight frame. "it's alright...it's alright, I got you, no one is going to hurt you now, ok?" He eased her back down to the ground, propping her up in a sitting position. "Kiri, look at me, you need to fight through it. You're safe. We got you back. It's me Cyrus!" He went back to kneeling in front of her and gave her a small smile and a wink. "The big baffoon, you remember me?"

Gripping his uniform Kiri didn't let go even when she was back on the ground, "Yes, I just, no." She sobbed, sucking in air as her ribcage shook, "They, I couldn't." The breathing catching in her throat she choked, "What, where are they?"

He leaned forward and wrapped her in a massive hug. "They're gone Kiri, they're gone and they aren't going to come back, okay?" He rocked her back and forth slightly, letting her sob into his large shoulders. "They are all gone and you're safe. Stone, me, Chandra and Theron all got you back safe. Quinn too." He gave her a quick smile and looked her in the eyes. "There's a saying us marines always say: Never leave a man behind. We would never have let them take you away Kiri. "

Stunned she kept clinging to him as he held her. He felt huge but he felt safe, no one was going to hurt her if he was close. The walls that she had put up were starting to break down now, she wanted to just cry and scream but she couldn't. Even now she wouldn't let herself, in a broken mumble she asked, "Is Maenad okay?"

He nodded slowly. "Lieutenant Panne is just fine, if anything, I don't even think she woke up." He chuckled slightly. "We made sure that we chased them away from getting closer to the Seniors Quarters." He paused as he eased up on the hug, giving her a little more room to move around. "Smoak is in Sickbay at the moment, but he's going to pull a full recovery." He gave her shoulders a slight rub to break up some of the stress tension in them. "Let it all out. I'm not here to judge you Kiri. I just want to make sure my friend is okay, if you need to cry, that's why I got me some big shoulders." He gave her a wink.

That was very kind of him. A cold shiver jostled her body, she was tired. Having not been able to sleep now it was early morning and she was running on empty. Kiri did feel like crying, what surprised her was how much she liked hugging. A deep breath almost took her off balance, "Not here, please." There were still people all around, everyone would be looking at her.

He looked around. "Tell you what? I'll take you to your quarters and I can stay for a little bit, I'll head back here after I know that you're okay. I have a responsability to Smoak to. Is that okay with you?" He shifted himself so he was squatting in front of the Science Officer. "Can you stand?"

She nodded but it wasn't completely true. Her legs were likely jelly and her knees felt swollen. Using him for surport she let him lead, trying not to think too much about what just happened. How close she had come to being killed and how bad an officer she had been.

He let her use him as a brace as she struggled to get to her feet. "Easy now, don't over stress youself...that's it." He smiled softly as she managed to get to her feet. "You let me know if you can't walk any further okay? I'll carry you the rest of the way." He offered to her. "And be honest. No one is going to judge you. Where's your quarters at? I'll take you there. "

"Deck 3," She answered weakly as she felt more and more embarrassed, he was holding her up. Being so nice to her when she had been scared of him before, "Sorry, I, should have done something."

"you have nothing to apologize about." They made their way slowly down the the corridor to the Turbolift. "There was nothing that you could have done differently. " He held her up as Kiri kept putting one foot in front of the other. "You were in a bad situation and there is nothing that could be changed in how it was played out. Had you reacted in any other way than you did, it could have just made things worse. You did really well. " He knew that hostage situations were tense at the best of times. It was no surprise that she was blaming herself for actions that she had no control over. "I don't want to hear apologies for things that were beyond your control, because you weren't the one making the decisions. You had no control. No one can fault you for that, and if any do, you come get me. I'll set them straight, alright?" He knew first hand the feeling of terror, what was worse than being the hostage, was trying to free the hostage, one wrong move and you had blood on your hands that you would have to spend years trying to clean.

"But I would have helped them," Kiri trembled at those words and lent into him a little more. She hadn't wanted to help them, but they said they would kill her, shouldn't she have died first? What if there was a next time? Then, how did she know they were really gone?

"But you didn't, and you held out for as long as you could have. No one can hold you at fault for that. Not everyone can stare death in eye and not blink. I know I can't." They made it to the turbolift. "Deck three." He ordered before looking back to the Trill. "You've never been in a situation like this before, you didn't know what was going on, and you didn't even have time to register what was happening before it happened. Being prepared to face danger is one thing, you can brace youself mentally. " He gave her a one armed hug. "But being caught unawares is a lot harder to fight through, and I think you did a good job given the circumstances. "

She didn't think so but she didn't know what to think any more. Letting him lead her and manhandle her she started to get a bit warmer. Falling silent she didn't say anything until they reached her quarters, even then. It was dark inside and everything was as she left it, neat and tidy and empty. Looking up at Cyrus she took note of his face, "Are sure they are all gone?"

Smiling and sounding confident he nodded. "Positive. One got away, but we were able to get the other one. Security will be on high alert until we high tail it out of here tomorrow." He moved her inside and had her sit down. "Would you like some water?" He asked moving over to the replicator.

Kiri nodded, as she settled into the sofa. At first she perched as she normally did but without thinking her knees crept up to her chin again. Yesterday Theron had been with her when she was upset, now Cyrus. It didn't matter but she didn't want to be alone, "Will you stay?"

He looked back towards her as the two glasses of water began replicating. "I can for a little while, then I have to make my way back to the Sick bay." He smiled. "If you don't want to be alone, once you feel better, you can come back with me to Sickbay and wait with me to see if Smoak is feeling better."

Still looking rather miserable she watched him, she should go and say she was sorry, make sure he was okay. He was hurt trying to help her, if she had made more noise then he might be okay. "Would he want to see me?" It was partly her fault at the very least but she didn't know him at all.

"Of course he would want to see you Kiri." He replied. "Smoak was doing his job keeping you safe, to see that you were safe and sound will make him feel better. " He smiled reassuringly. "But we don't have to go back right away, we can stay here and you can relax for a little bit, you can talk...whatever you'd like." He rolled his shoulder and resisted the urge to flex his damaged hand.

Thinking about Kiri remained silent until he handed her the water. Her throat was bone dry now she thought about it. In almost a flash all the water disappeared and she slid the glass under her chin. Her hands went back to hugging her knees and in a quiet voice she asked, "Were you sleeping?"

"Sleeping? OH! You mean before the attack." He sat down beside her, he nodded. "Yeah, I was just about to sleep when the alarm went off, I figured I didn't have the time to grab much, just my combat knife and my hand phaser. I figured going to Deck 4 was a better option than trying to waste time getting extra weapons, so I swung by to just grab a bracer tricorder and headed straight to deck 4 instead of trying to arm another rifle. " He shrugged nonchalantly. "I didn't want to waste time after I heard that Smoak went down, I guess it was the right choice, you had been taken captive and the last thing I was going to do was let them get away with that." He passed her his own water, and went to get two more. "You need this more than I do at the moment."

Placing the empty glass on a coaster she smiled as she drank most of the second glass, "Thank you." She knew that it was his job but it was nice to know that people seemed to care about her so much. If she wasn't still in shock she might have tried to make more bad small talk but instead she remained quiet. Looking at the water then at him again, watching his eyes.

"You take your time kiddo. I'm not gonna push you to talk or anything, I know when I went through my ordeal, I really only wanted someone around." He looked at her quietly. "I know the feeling you're in. Shock and trauma are ugly things to deal with alone. " He smiled. "So you're not going to deal with them alone." He set the other glass down by the partially empty one and sipped his own. "Pola helped me a great deal adjusting, you know that? Her and I hit if off really well. " He smiled, remembering how she had dealt with his injuries and made him feel welcome. "Don't think I would still be here if it wasn't for her, you know. "

"She doesn't really speak to me much," There had been a gift for her birthday and some kind words when they had lunch together but other than that. There only seemed to be arguments, "You got your job back."

"I got lucky, is what i got. A crewmember had made my life a little more difficult than I thought they would. When the mistake had been cleared up, it was just a quick little tap on the PADD. " He chuckled. "It was very possibly I wouldn't have been reinstated had the Lieutenant not have rethought his actions."

"Oh," Kiri didn't hear about that, "Congratulations though," She started to sound fairly distant as she spoke, "I wouldn't have liked you to leave."

His eyebrows raised at that. "Well, I appreciate that Miss Cho. I don't think i would have enjoyed leaving either. I've met with a lot of good people here, and would like to serve with them for at least a little while. " He smiled. "If I have my way, I won't be going for quite a while." He looked at the chrono and sighed. "We should be getting back to Sickbay, do you think you are willing to come along. I don't really want to leave you by yourself right now...as a friend, not as a Security Officer."

She didn't want to be left alone at all, finishing the last of her water Kiri placed that glass inside of the other one, "Okay." Standing up wasn't exactly easy but she could do it on her own now. All round though she was still shaky and rather cold.

He made his way over, just in case and opened the door, letting her walk out. "We'll take it nice and slow Kiri, we got plenty of time." He told her.

OFF:

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

CWO Kiwosk
Security/ Tactical Officer
USS Galileo

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