Recruitement Ep. 4 Grease Monkey Pt. 2

Posted on 26 Jan 2013 @ 3:03am by Lieutenant Lilou Zaren & Chief Warrant Officer 4 Cyrus Kiwosk

3,034 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, corridor
Timeline: MD02: 1450 hrs

[ON]

Lilou pushed a hand through her hair as she stepped off the turbolift onto deck two. The readings seemed steady on the impulse engine, but she wanted to eyeball it anyway, just to be sure. Not that they didn't have support from the USS Venture if they needed it, but she didn't want them to have to rely on the larger vessel for power. Not if they didn't have to.

As she was rounding the corner past the observation lounge towards the access panel for the engine, she spotted Kiwosk inside and paused. Now was as good a time as any to let him know her recommendation. Although he did look like he was relaxing... well. It wasn't as though she planned on taking up a great deal of his time with it. She stepped inside the lounge. It wasn't filled to brimming, but it was the afternoon and it seemed some of the off duty officers had elected to take their meals in here rather than the mess hall. She tucked her hands behind her back as she landed near Kiwosk and lifted her chin in a small greeting. "Taking in the sights?" she asked quietly.

Cyrus chuckled. "I'm actually waiting for someone, he's an old friend of mine from the Fitzgerald. He's going to be coming to help me train the recruits for this team. " How have you been? Still want that drink?" He smiled

"I'm on duty," Lilou hedged with a small shake of her head. "But I'm well enough, thank you." She perched on the arm of the chair across from him. "I'd been under the impression you would be training the recruits yourself."

"I am, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't seek out the best of the best." He smiled. "I called up my old Commanding Officer from the Fitzgerald, he had just recently retired and wanted something to do, so the Fitz has dropped him off here at Starbase 185, I'm hoping to greet him when he comes down. " He smiled and sipped the coffee in his hand. "I drink way too much of this stuff. " He remarked before taking a small sniff of the black brew.

"Anyways, I'm sure that you weren't here to talk about my old friend. What can I do you for ma'am. " He placed both hands evenly on his coffee mug while he looked the young woman in the eyes.

"You asked for a recommendation. I was going to send you a memo, but since you're here..." She tilted her head, "Do you have a minute?"

"Always. I'm just taking a small lunch break." He smiled. "Who do you have in mind?"

"Senior Chief Petty Officer Arthur Willis. He's our Computer Systems Specialist; knows the ship at least as well as I do and he's quick on his feet. Have you had a chance to meet him?"

Cyrus chuckled as the vision of throwing Willis through the air came back to him for a brief moment. "I've seen him once or twice." Cyrus replied.

Lilou tilted her head to the side curiously. She wasn't entirely clear on why he laughed, but... "If you need a quick-thinking engineer, you won't find better. Except for Markum Quinn. Or, I guess, me," she added with a little furrowing of her brow. "He's good, really good, and not just at the mechanics aspect of our work. Anyway. You asked. That's my answer."

Cyrus nodded and reached for the PADD he kept in his back pocket. "I'll make a note of it. He doesn't have an issue with it?" He asked, simply to confirm.

"I spoke to him yesterday; he seemed genuinely interested." She bit her lip, watching as he made a note. "I hope it works out; this would be a good thing for him, I'm sure of it." She slipped into the actual seat of the chair she'd been perched on and leaned forward, "Are you taking any precautions against- Kiri Cho is a friend. I'd like to help, if there's anything I can do, preventing anything like this happening again."

He looked up suddenly upon hearing Cho's name. "I've been checking up on her personally, Lilou." Suddenly dropping the formalities for a split second. "I was the one that shook her out of her shock, I... I know how it feels so..." He heaved a sigh before sipping his coffee once more. "Other than the occasional pop in to see how she is checking out and the suggestions to go see a doctor and a Counselor there is little else I can do, it's up to her to do what I suggested. Besides, she outranks me, I really can't tell her to do anything. " He let the cup rest in hands a brief moment before setting it back down onto the transparent surface of the dining table. " I guess my advice is the same as what I'm doing, just pop in and see how's she's handelling things, being taken hostage is not something you get over in a couple of nights."

"I know," Lilou said quietly. She'd been one kind of hostage for all of about thirty minutes, and then a hostage to that memory for the last two years; it had been more than enough for a lifetime. "I'm trying. But I meant- if there's anything I can do for you all. If there are potential breaches or... you need more detailed schematics... I'd have to get authorization, but. Anyway, if you're taking precautions against someone getting in again... I don't even understand how they got on board to begin with."

Cyrus reached over and patted her on the shoulder. "I appreciate it, and I will definitely not tell you that we won't need your help, because let's be frank, we are all in this together." He smiled reassuringly. "Things happen for a reason, good and bad...we may not always understand why, or how, but that doesn't change the fact that they happen." He sighed. "What's happened recently, your guys' first mission to the infiltration of SFI, it is all a very hard pill to swallow, but we have to in order to continue to progress, though I think most of the crew is beginning to understand that a little too well. " He sighed.

"I'm getting off topic, I should bring up the past, it's just full of painful reminders..."

Lilou twitched when he touched her; the contact had come out of nowhere and she didn't know him well enough to handle it with aplomb. Still, she breathed into her stomach as the panic threatened to rise, and made herself stay still. "It can be," she agreed, "yes." She watched him curiously. "What do you know about our first mission?" she asked. She'd thought it was classified.

He returned to his original position and sipped his coffee once more. "Well, only heresay. I was informed a little about it when the SFI operatives were storming the ship, but little else." He thought back and shrugged. "I don't rightly remember, something about Sienna and it possibly being a new warp design...I don't rightly remember." He chuckled. "If i wasn't important enough to be put in the loop, I certainly shouldn't be sticking my nose in where is doesn't belong."

"Have you been alright since that whole thing happened? I know that a large portion of the crew is still skittish as all hell." He asked honestly.

"I'm fine." This, she said quickly and definitely. Had be been briefed on Sienna? Or had someone in the crew told him, outside of the classification bounds? If that was true... She wasn't even sure what that meant. That someone was talking who shouldn't be. He was Security, maybe he had a right to know, but that wasn't up to the average officer. That was the purview of the Captain and the XO. "They're skittish?" she inquired. She hadn't noticed anyone being skittish. Well, except for herself. And Kiri. But they both had perfectly valid excuses that had nothing - or little - to do with the previous mission.

"Yeah. the last mission really weighs on a lot of the crew. I'm actually sad I wasn't here to help lighten the load." He smiled. "My mother and sisters always teased me saying that my shoulders were made to carry the world's problems. " He shrugged. "Maybe that's why I joined up in the Federation in the first place....to help everyone else live normal lives without fear. " He chuckled. "My CO on the Fitz was the one that told me that we are out here to give others the chance to live the lives they were destined to have."

"That's..." Nice. A good philosophy. The words ended in her brain. She blinked several times in a row. Fitz. Fitzgerald. USS Fitzgerald. She wasn't sure why the name finally registered in her brain. Maybe it was the tone of voice he'd used saying 'CO' or the fact that his saying 'shoulders' made her pay attention to the way he held them. That had been one of the ships guarding against the Dominion remnant forces. Mostly a marine detachment. Her gaze focused even as her pupils started to grow larger and larger. Stance, posture. It was getting harder to breathe and trying to push that breath down into her stomach wasn't working. Wasn't working. Marine! No. No. No! Stupid. Idiot. Calm down. Safe. Safe! Her brain was shouting orders, but her body had a rhythm down. Impulse reactions. Energy in motion. There were other people in the lounge. Even if he'd threatened her, she could have gotten away, could have been protected. He was one man. She had a tool belt with a laser cutter. She had people around her. Breathing hurt and there was a kind of fuzziness in her ears. Sour on her tongue. Blood and bile in the back of her nose. She couldn't run. Running would be impractical. But she stilled. More and more still as her pupils went from dilated to tiny pinpricks. Air. She needed air. Forcing her gaze away from him, she focused on the void beyond the glass, the pinpricks of stars in the distance. Lamar. Lamar was a marine, had been; he was good. He was a good, kind person. He was not a person who would break her bones. Lamar was good. So it was possible that this Kiwosk was good. It was possible. Except that he was still in the security business. Except that he was working for Stone, who could change his mind about her at any moment, send her to the brig. Send Kiwosk to get her and bring her there and if he happened to find somewhere on the way, somewhere quiet, somewhere without escapes, he could do whatever he wanted because Stone wouldn't let anything happen to anyone in his department. No. Absolutely not. She didn't know what she looked like, she couldn't think that far any more. All she could do was press her clammy, freezing palms to her thighs and attempt to squeeze just a little bit of air in, just enough to keep her conscious, she couldn't let the gray all the way in. She had to protect herself.

Kiwosk waited paitently, instantly noticing the sudden constricting of her chest, the panic displayed in her eyes. She had tried everything not to flinch when he had touched her. Dear god, she's having an attack... Cyrus's mind raced as he tried to figure out what he had done wrong, but nothing had come to mind. Her eyes were everywhere but him, suddenly focusing where the gap between him and her was on the table near the glass. Cyrus took a deep breathe, knowing that panicking would only cause her to have a complete meltdown. "Ensign Peers...Lilou, I need you to come back. You don't need to look at me, I'm not going to touch you, I'm not going to hurt you." He brought his voice down to simple whisper that she could hear comfortably. It was soothing, calming. "Lilou, I need you to focus hard, whatever triggered this, I'll apologize for later, but I need you to realize I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you. You're safe. Whatever happened is long and done, you're not hear to be afraid, you're going to be just fine. " He kept his eyes on her and brought his hands up, open. "I don't have anything on me, you can trust me, I'm not going to do anything, but you need to focus and come back from wherever your mind is taking you because I can't help you if you stay there. i want to help you." He spoke to her soothingly, much of the same way he had spoken to Kiri. "I would never harm you or anyone on this ship."

She knew that. Damn it, she knew that. Hadn't she just been saying that? Couldn't he hear her screaming in her head? Except she didn't know it, not really, couldn't trust that just because he was here meant he was safe, because that meant nothing. She could lie. Officers could lie. Marines could lie better. Of course he would say that, wouldn't he, the insidious part of her brain whispered. Of course he would say that there was nothing to fear. He doesn't know, does he? They don't know fear, these muscle-brained careless men with their big hands breaking bones, snapping you like a twig, catching and grasping. They do. They do, she told herself fiercely. You saw him. You saw him scared and hurting just a couple days ago. You were strong for him. Brave for him. Not the other way around. They're not all like... they're not all the same. They're not. Merciful spirits, let me breathe.

"Take a deep breath, think of something other than me...think of someone or something that you care about." He suggested, he pushed himself a way slightly to give her more room. "You're fighting with yourself that much is plain, just focus on what I'm saying, and breathing." He inhaled deeply before letting it out slowly.

She gasped, shuddering slightly, and the influx of oxygen to her system helped some. It was worse, knowing he was there watching her. Either he was honest, and really didn't mean any harm, and this was just mortifying in every possible way imaginable. Or he was dishonest and she was showing him just how weak she actually was. And worse than all of that, there was nothing here to fight. Nothing to give her a focus from her own mind. At least when Stone had pushed her, she'd had someone to defend. Something to argue. Here there was just the vicious cycle of her own terrible brain. "Tssss," she managed to say, which was supposed to be 'shh' or 'shush' or 'please stop' but her jaw was locked. She shut her eyes hard. Water, dense and dark and still as glass. Cold caverns above. Solid rock below. A breeze. A bit of condensation touched, slides, falls, is absorbed by the water below. A single ripple spreading outward, simple and easy, one round expanding even circle. She managed to breathe a little more, flex her hands. "Mfine," she said, then took another breath. "I'm fine." The sudden addition of air to her lungs and oxygen to her brain after the tension made her feel a little woozy. She wanted Lamar; wanted him there so much her hands actually ached because of it. Or was that the lack of circulation? "I'm sorry."

Cyrus could only blink for the first few moments. He managed a weak smile. "No harm, no foul. So long as you are okay." He looked at her worriedly before debating with himself. "You don't have anything to apologize for, at all . We have all been there, I'm not going to say it's easy to get out of, but I know you can. If you need anything...." He allowed himself to move back towards the table. "Any questions, any data referring to anything I've done, anything that will help you...consider it done, okay?" Inwardly he cursed himself for having brought up the entire idea, he had no idea that he was going to upset the poor Engineering officer. "Don't scare me like that, I thought you were having the big one..." He chuckled weakly as he spoke.

Every one was a big one, she thought, exhausted now. Her heartbeat was still tripping. Tremors in her skin. Horrible. His words had been so much mumbling mush in her ears up to that point; more calming gibberish she assumed. Mortifying. She wanted to sink through the floor. "I'm sorry," she said again, shaking her head. "I should go. Willis. Willis would be good." She gingerly pushed herself up and out of the chair and stood for a half-second to get her bearings. Her legs felt coltish. Walk it off. She wanted to find Lamar. Or find Carlisle. No. Just walk it off. Get it out of your system. Don't bring this to them. Not right now. "Thank you for your time."

Cyrus has seen enough Post stress from his time in corps to know when to push and when not to. He simply nodded and let her walk away. If he tried to talk to her further she would only relapse which would cause the situation to get worse. "You take care of yourself, if you need anything...." He left it open, it would be up to her to take it or not. He doubted it, and he didn't know why he felt that, but something he had said triggered the reaction, that much was clear...

He watched her leave and looked back at his coffee, it suddenly reminded him of everything that had happened on board the Fitzgerald. Maybe, maybe some things were worse than dying...or in his case, almost dying...

[OFF]

ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo


CWO Cyrus Kiwosk
Security/ Tactical Officer
Master-at-Arms, TRT Squad Leader
USS Galileo

RSS Feed