Things Will Get Better

Posted on Wed Mar 24th, 2021 @ 5:28pm by Commander Alexis Agrax (*) & Commander Christopher Mitchell

Mission: Cosmos
Location: New Rixx
Timeline: 2396
961 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Alexis jumped as someone stumbled into the colony leaders office she had turned into a nice quiet corner of the colony to escape the noise of so many sick telepaths when she was little to no help to them. She had been helping the Engineers but even they were not needing help anymore now the weather controller was back online and the storm outside had stopped. The colony was only left in turmoil now inside.

She had checked in hours ago but she had decided to find somewhere to sleep and rest after being awake for so long when she and the Executive Officer had been lost in the jungle but it was hard having to wear something that left her practically without one of her senses all the time.

She sat up from the sofa pulling the sleeping bag up to her chin and looked at the person properly.

“Commander?” She wondered seeing Christopher.

He almost jumped out of his skin at the mention of his name. Wiping sweat from his brow he shakily nodded over at her and continued his search for something caffeinated. His shaking hand almost knocked a stack of neatly-piled ration packs over, forcing him to take half a step back and lift his hands up in frustration.

"...so hard to get something to drink?" he growled in uncharacteristic annoyance.

Alexis frowned and slowly undid the sleeping bag moving across the room now that she realised who it was. She had had a marine walk in earlier who had promptly apologised and wandered back to her correct room. Slowly she put her hands on his seeing the annoyance written all over his face. "Deep breaths." She whispered carefully. "Let me. You have your coffee with milk and one sugar right?"

"Tea...tea would be better," he replied, slumping down into a seat. "Thanks. It's weird, so hard to concentrate. When someone said it was the Betazoid version of the flu, I figured we were looking at a sore throat, maybe bit of a stuffy nose." He rubbed his temples with his forefingers. "This is intolerable. And the suppressors make me feel sick."

"I would say welcome to my world but I do not want to welcome you to my world." Alexis soothed disappearing to the replicator and ordered a strong tea. He seemed like the type to like Earl Grey too so she was hopeful she had made it correctly. "It is like that for a betazoid but it had mutated and is rewiring you all." Alexis reminded sitting back on the sofa wrapping herself up in the sleeping bag.

"I don't want to be re-wired," he scowled. That it was making him irritable was a clear sign that he wasn't his usual self. He took the cup and wrapped his hands around both sides, trying to suck some of the steam in. "You seem to be doing better," he noted.

"I took the suppressors but I also have..." She turned and flipped her hair up to show the device on the back of her head. It looked like the device that the new chief Engineer wore visible on his temple. "Vriaral gave me his spare inhibitor as I was no help to him earlier. It helped the echo effect I was feeling. I might not be able to be affected by it all being telepath but having so many of my crew members thoughts so clear and... well let's just say I now know far too much about some people. Let me help you." Slowly she took it off and indicated to him. "Turn slightly."

"What are you doing? No..." He put his hand up to stop her. "You need that inhibitor more than I do. Sure feeling like this sucks - a lot - but you're more of an expert on this illness than I am. It's more important that you're clearer in mind than I am. And Major Drake can keep the rest of the people down here secure."

Alexis shook her head at him with a smile on her face and put his hand down. “Relax Christopher . At least use it so you can rest a little and I would hate for you to slip into my thoughts accidentally you will know all my secrets then.” She said gently, trying to appeal to the gentleman she knew he was. She could cope with it a little bit better for longer hopefully.

"Secrets? I thought we didn't have any secrets..." he mumbled, feeling the inhibitor make contact with his skin. It acted quickly, though it felt like a fog had descended on his thoughts, isolating them. Focusing was still hard, but for a different reason to before. He wobbled slightly, a moment of slight vertigo hitting before it settled. "Just for a few hours, right?" he said, fixing her with a look.

“Oh, we have many secrets Christopher. Got to keep some mysteries.” She said grinning at him as she teased him just a little to try and lighten the mood enough for him to feel a bit better. She could only imagine how it felt to be just experiencing telepathy for the first time and how it would feel to him. “You do not even know half of my secrets.” She whispered to herself as she looked away shrinking under his gaze. “Yes Sir.” Alexis assured quickly as moved away and sat on the sofa wrapping the sleeping bag around her like a cocoon.

"All right then." He watched her to make sure she was settling down before finding himself a spot on the opposite end of the makeshift living space and curled up himself. Just for a few hours, he told himself. Then things would start to get better.