Friends in Spotty Places

Posted on 23 Jan 2013 @ 6:30pm by Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Lieutenant Kiri Cho

1,569 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 4, Ventral Sensor Dome
Timeline: MD01: 1000 hrs

Lilou tapped her thumb against the desk after Stone left. He'd said she was fine. He'd said so. How could she be fine? she wondered, chewing her lower lip. She was kidnapped. She tapped the LCARS console on the desk, "Computer, where is Lieutenant Kiri Cho right now?"

"Lieutenant Cho is in the Ventral Sensor Dome. Deck four."

So she was on board. She was working.

Lilou scowled. Kiri would probably be working even if she had a broken arm and a knife sticking out of her back. Rising, she strode purposefully out, leaving a tag on her office door to call on her if she was needed, and headed directly for the turbolift. When she disembarked on deck four, she moved with a single minded purpose until she reached the dome and tapped in her code into the access panel. The door opened and revealed Kiri, lit by her console and not much else. Lilou exhaled audibly, though she hadn't meant to. She hadn't realized until she'd heard the news of Kiri's abduction just how much the other Trill had come to mean to her. They had a strange kind of connection, maybe, but it was one. "Good," she said softly. "You're okay. You seem okay. Are you?"

Kiri looked rather startled. She was enjoying one of the best parts of her job, looking at stars in the very very long distance. Tilting her head slightly she managed a small forced smile, "Yes? Is something wrong?" Standing up from the desk she started to move round it.

She looked whole. Uninjured. Just working. "The Chief of Security just... he said you'd been kidnapped. I thought- I don't know what I thought. I worried." Maybe he'd been lying. Just to try to force her to tell him something.

So he was telling people too, that unsettled her slightly, "That was a few days ago." Kiri answered though on thinking about that she was a little unsteady, "Thank you for being worried." Raising her hands to her chest she took a few steps closer, reading the worry on the other woman's face.

Lilou tucked her head to the side, searching Kiri's expression. "A few- how- why- can you-" She wound her hands together at her middle as she stuttered. "I didn't know. But you are all right?"

"I'm getting better, working helps," Of all the people that she'd spoken to and talked about this to. Peers was the one that seemed the most emotional about it with. To put it oddly, she seemed to be the one that cared the most.

"Yes," Lilou agreed. Working did. "Did they hurt you?"

"Somewhat," This was the painful bit, having to remember how afraid, weak and useless she felt.

Lilou felt a dark fist form in her stomach. It wasn't right. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know," That was the answer she had used every time someone had asked and she still didn't know. There was a feeling that she should but it was countered almost perfectly by the fact that thinking about it hurt.

"It doesn't seem like it yet, but you will want to eventually, even if you don't particularly feel like it," Lilou spoke softly, from experience. "It helps, despite the fact that that seems counter-intuitive. Not with me, necessarily. A counselor you trust, maybe." She bit her lip. She wanted to find the people who'd hurt Kiri and... do... something. Stun them with a phaser and lock them in a tiny box forever. SFI Operatives. What could they want with an unobtrusive science officer? "I'm..." She couldn't find a way to put it into words in an appropriate way. "The fact that someone hurt you makes me very angry. Not at you. At them. Did they get away?"

"One of them did," Kiri bit down on her lower lip, "I saw the other man die." The stun blast to the head and then the sound it made as his head hit metal. Looking very uncomfortable Kiri wasn't very far away from Peers now, with a deep breath she added, "Are you free tonight?"

Death was too kind, especially when it came to people who doled out fear. They needed to know what it was they'd inflicted on others, not simply be snuffed out of existence. But the one who'd escaped... he needed to be found. Punished. Punished for a long time. Lilou nodded slightly, "Unless the Captain says she needs me for something on the starbase before we ship out. What do you need?"

"I thought, maybe we could have dinner together?" Kiri had been considering it since they talked about it before. There wasn't anything other than work she was doing that evening so it seemed like a good time. It would also let her put her head in order if she did want to talk about it.

"Yes, good. Mess hall? Or... I mean, we could replicate something in my quarters if you like." Her quarters were, in her opinion, large enough to house ten officers, not just her. She'd never in her life had so much room just for herself; she felt like she was drowning in it. It would be good to have someone else in there, helping to fill the space. And it would give them privacy if Kiri decided she needed to talk or melt down or... however she was dealing with this. She seemed in much better shape than Lilou had been a few days after her attack - well, she was walking and talking and working and not slipping in and out of consciousness on a biobed, but still. Even weeks after she'd gotten out of Sickbay, Lilou had just been able to scrape herself together for her work. "I've got a table," she added with a small shrug.

"I wouldn't want to intrude but that sounds nice," The mess hall didn't seem the best place to her to talk about things that she'd rather not everyone know. There were a lot of emotions inside Kiri, more than she was used to. They might not stay inside forever, it might be better to let them out somewhere safe. Lilou seemed better than the counsellors in her eyes, they were similar weren't they?

"Okay," Lilou flexed her hand at her side then carefully, awkwardly, touched Kiri on the shoulder. "It's good that you're here," she said quietly, then let her hand fall. "I'll... see you tonight then. Yes? Okay. Syto beans and grakizh. You just get yourself there."

Kiri fixed eyes with Lilou, that was nice. Maenad hadn't come close to touching her, Theron had stroked her back and touched her hand, Cyrus had held her up when she couldn't move. At none of those points did Kiri want to hug the other as much as she did right now. She wouldn't though, she couldn't. Instead she reached out herself, brushing fingers against fingers for a second before retreating, "Will you let me know when you are ready?" That was stupid, what was she thinking? Turning rather red Kiri backed away slightly, "Sorry." It was nice to be touched by someone.

"Seventeen hundred," Lilou answered. "Or any time after that. Or-" She bit her lip, "Kiri, if you need- I'm just on deck seven. You can come down any time."

"Thank you, I will." Kiri was still rather red, she managed to smile though. While she was the one that brought it up, she was being invited to something by someone. She'd wanted that for days now, weeks. Someone was going to extra effort for her, they cared. She was starting to feel that they were actual friends, rather than friends in progress.

"Right." The engineer ducked her head a couple times, then awkwardly tapped Kiri's fingers back. "I'll see you at seventeen hundred then. Or before." She bit her lip; she was reassured somewhat by seeing Kiri well and fine, but there was something hovering just behind the facade that she couldn't quite see. She wasn't good enough at reading people in general and Kiri was really good at hiding what was going on with her. Probably at least as good as Lilou had learned to be. Why? she wondered for the first time. When did you learn to wear masks like mine? "Be safe."

Wearing the mummers mask had become more natural to Kiri than her own feelings. Her walls were a thousand miles high and hundreds thick. The ground under them had started to give way under its weight though. Crumbling down and she was starting to escape the tower she had built for herself. She had never been outside though, it was scary. Maybe she had found another princess that had been locked away and was almost as lost as she was. There was definitely a connection between them. Kiri couldn't see that though, she saw someone who she felt comfortable with. Someone she cared about and seemed to care about her. A Trill that shared problems with her, that she didn't feel inferior to, but equal. Yet she didn't seem to worry about messing it all up. Smiling again Kiri realised that both of their fingers were the same temperature, they weren't hot. "You too, take care."

[OFF]
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ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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

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