It is not what you think

Posted on Thu Apr 1st, 2021 @ 8:02am by Dixoho Saa (*) & Micheal Robertson

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Cargo Bay
Timeline: MD06 10:00
1916 words - 3.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Dixoho sighed to herself as she finally decided to head to the cargo bay to look at the mess of a shuttle. What was inside made her sigh, even more, it looked like the Captain was back in his vessel. She nearly turned and run but she needed to talk to him about what he said and the fact she was pretty sure that he thought her and Leiddem were a thing, well more than a thing. Sure they had fooled around but it was just that they were friends first. She hauled herself up on to the shuttle giving herself a few moments to adjust and get her breath back first.

".....I know, Rebecca," Micheal was speaking to his ship's AI, Rebecca. She was a construct that was created during Micheal's first time in the Andromeda Galaxy. They had been together for nearly five years now. It was an open secret that the AI was completely loyal to Micheal. She had saved his life more than once.

"No, Micheal! You...you cannot leave! You certainly cannot leave me!" Rebecca cried in anguish. She was about to say something else when she suddenly straightened and turned to face the open hatch. "Miss Saa, would you please come in and knock some sense into this man?'

Dixoho stepped into the cockpit and shook her head. Why would he ever listen to her when he had never before? “He is not my problem as he never listens to me, Rebecca.” The woman wheezed a little before she stood up straighter. She could have been given a few more moments to prepare herself.

Sensing something was wrong, Micheal quickly snapped an order. "Rebecca, scan Di, now!"

Without acknowledging verbally, several internal sensors, those that were working, quickly ran light blue beams of energy all over Dixoho's small frame. Less than a second later, Rebecca's face fell. "Oh, no, Miss Saa!" She whispered, the pain that she displayed on her holographic face resembled that of a family member receiving bad news of a loved one.

"What?!" Micheal barked, his own worry beginning to build. "What did you find?!"

Rebecca's image seemed to collect itself. She turned her gaze to Micheal and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Micheal. Though you are my creator, when you granted Miss Saa full command authority to the Alexandria, and, thus my program, you caused certain ethical subroutines to become active. Just as I am unable to discuss your personal issues with anyone, without your consent, Miss Saa now possesses the same protections." She turned to face Dixoho. "Unless you wish for me to discuss your personal issues with Micheal?"

"It is not different than what has been happening for my whole life," Dixoho said climbing into the co-pilot seat as if it was nothing.

"Your lungs?" Micheal whispered, his heart dropping. "So...it's true then, what Cassie told me. You...you..." he twisted his face up in pure anguish, unable to bring himself to say the words.

"You are dying, Miss Saa. Though my programming does not contain a complete medical directory, I can see that, without proper medication and regular treatments, you will most like be dead by the end of the next year." Her image turned somber. "Though, it will be quite difficult towards the end. You have my condolences, Miss Saa."

"She's not dead yet, Rebecca!" Micheal roared, as much as he could in his weakened state. He grabbed a tool and hurled it towards the aft of the cockpit. It pierced a control surface and stuck there, sparks spewing lightly from the site of impact.

His rageful eruption done, his strength sapped from him, Micheal collapsed into the nearby seat, exhausted, weeping softly. "You can't die," he whispered weakly through the tears. "I just found you."

“I just fixed that.” The redhead said frustrated as she saw the hole and winced at the sparks and how much it was going to take to fix it again. “Well, I am on a time limit. We can’t get the drugs I need and I’ve been dying since before you met me. It’s just obvious now. The mirror universe me...” she did not like talking about her Doppelgänger from the other universe often as it was like waking up from a bad dream constantly but in this case, she had done some good. “she and Mahone did some good. If they had not used imperial tech on me I would already be dead.”

Micheal cringed in apology. "Sorry, honey," he said without thinking. He stood and carefully moved to Dixoho's side. "But, where can we get the meds? Why did you stop receiving them? And why the hell isn't Reuben tearing up the cosmos to get you more? I know how protective of you he is. Almost as much as I am." He reached up with his right hand, gently brushed a few stray hairs from her face and then cupped her left cheek in his large hand. Without thinking, he gently rubbed the spots on her temple with his thumb. "I can't lose you, Di." He whispered.

The woman closed her eyes at the caress on her temple. It was soothing and reminded her of nearly a year ago when he had done the same thing without hesitation. It was nice to be touched and looked at like he was looking at her, even with his sad eyes.

“Reuben has been but, they are not available anywhere. The doctor we had never ordered them at the last place we could get them.” The woman admitted. The man had tried his best, everyone had been trying. “Michael, I’m not yours to lose. It’s been a year, I can not just slip back into that.”

Micheal looked as though he had been gut-punched. Was it really over between the two of them? Dropping his hand from her face, his gaze turned to the control panel that was in front of them. "Okay," he finally said after several long minutes of painful silence. "You want don't to resume our relationship, I won't push it any longer. As I said earlier, Alexandria is yours."

He reached over to the control screen that was in front of Dixoho. "Computer, recognize Micheal Robertson, co-owner of Shuttle Alexandria."

"Michael Roberston recognise." The computer responded.

Dixoho rubbed her face. "I do not wish to resume it yet. It has been a year. We are both different people. It would destroy us both to slip so quickly back into something that was not stable when you left." She pointed out being the voice of reason. "And right now you are on pain meds I am barely awake pre-coffee... I am not willing just to fall into anything that with hurt anyone."

Micheal suddenly started to see what Dixoho had been saying all along. At least, he hoped so. Raising his brows, he cautiously asked, "So, you don't want to jump right back where we were. Would you be willing...to start over, fresh slate?" He stopped breathing as he awaited the answer that he hoped, he wished, would be said.

Dixoho looked back at him and nodded. The slate was pretty covered with marks in her opinion, after her doubleganger and the events in the other universe but she had missed him and worried about him. She wanted to at least give him a chance to try and work through things. “I do not know how long I have and I am not sure we can completely scrub our slate out as some of the wounds are pretty deep but I do want to try and see if we can try.” She said slowly to make sure that she was understood completely.

Micheal smiled so brightly, that it could nearly put a supernova to shame. "I'll gladly take as much time as we can get." He reaching out, he took both of Dixoho's hands in his, careful not to squeeze too hard. "And, I promise you. The biggest, most powerful promise that I can make. No matter what it takes, no matter what I have to do or sacrifice, I will find a way to save you."

Dixoho looked at him sadly. "I will not be accepting that promise but I appreciate the sentiment." She assured softly as she stood up dusting off her trousers. She looked at where the spanner was embedded in the wall and frowned still. That type of anger would never do or be accepted. "I will not be fixing that." She assured quietly.

Micheal nodded, accepting her words. He knew that she had to know where his heart was. When she pointed out the destroyed panel, he grimaced. "Yeah," he began with a sigh. "I'm sorry about that. My anger has had free reign this past year. I'll get it reigned back in. And I'll get that fixed first." He tried to give Dixoho a cute sheepish grin, but, his embarrassment for losing his cool bled through.

"Good. Took me ages to sort it all out." Dixoho said softly. "I will see you around Michael. I am going to head to bed." She glanced back as she got to the door. "Night Rebecca."

"Good night, Miss Saa. Sleep well." Rebecca's avatar gave the Trill a somber smile as she spoke. When she and Micheal were alone, she turned to him and the smile turned to a frown. "Micheal, I told you not to rush things, didn't I? Rosie told me that you practically hurled yourself down to the rec room and, in front of everyone there, proposed to her?! You are my creator, but, what the hell were you thinking?!"

"I know! I know!" Micheal yelled back, though his anger was not as sure as Rebecca's was.

"You know something, Micheal," the avatar said, "if you had programed me with actual physicality, I would kick you right in the ass! Because that is what you would deserve!"

"I know!" The Texan bit back. "Enough already! I had planned on taking things slow, alright? It's just...what Cassie said....and then seeing her, oh my god, Rebecca, she looked soo beautiful! I just... I mean... damnit, I couldn't stop myself! How many times did we talk about how I was going to ask her? I mean, the ring, for God's sake. I worked on building that ring for six months! It had to be perfect for her, because she's perfect for me. I mean..she...she's..." He slumped down into the nearest chair and began weeping.

Rebecca moved to his side, unable though to touch him and give him comfort. "She's dying, Micheal. Short of some kind of miracle, I don't know of anything you can do to help her.

Micheal was quiet for a few beats, slowly looking around the cockpit that was in disarray. Control panels were open, the wiring was ripped out and hanging loose, power circuits were flickering all around him. Suddenly, a revelation dawned on him. "Computer, disregard early command authorization query. Rebecca, are your construction subroutines accessible?"

The computer replied first, sounding out with a musical double beep. Rebecca replied after. "Hold on," she said, closing her eyes for a beat. She then opened her eyes again and continued. "Ready, Micheal."

"Seal the hatch, allow no one in except myself and Di. And now, let's see what we can get done here." He moved to the nearest open control panel, getting to work.