Forming An Alliance

Posted on Sun Jun 13th, 2021 @ 6:35pm by Alexis Agrax (Mirror) & Executive Officer Kyle Reece (Mirror)
Edited on on Sun Jun 13th, 2021 @ 6:41pm

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: ISS Fenrir, Commander Kyle Reece's private quarters
Timeline: Immediately following jp "Heart Break"
3100 words - 6.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Alexis waited by the door flirting with the security officer whilst things finished up and everyone left with Jake shooting her daggers and some mental words that Alexis would never repeat aloud. He was not happy but once he was assured that things were okay, the Captain called him off. The woman surveyed the damage of the room and then the man sat there finally quiet and looking lost. “So now you want to talk about stuff?” She wondered quietly leaning down to start gathering things into piles to repair or throw away. The cleaning bots would be confused and lost without some assistance, they would not be able to clean.

"She's gone." He said simply, his words as hollow and empty as his eyes were. He was feeling completely numb, as if his heart was ripped out and utterly destroyed. Because it had been. He was so lost, his mind still screaming in pain and anguish, that he didn't even notice Alexis tidying the destroyed remains of his cabin. Collapsing back into the couch, he found some small amount of release, when he felt the bruises and cuts on his body finally start to speak up. Leaning his head back, he said again, in the same level of emptiness, "She's gone."

Alexis frowned as she rose, her dress swishing around her heels as she took him in trying to work out what he was going on about before she decided to venture into his mind. She had no idea what he meant for a moment before he realised there was only one ‘she’. She frowned a bit putting down the book on the side moving across to where he sat. “How? When?” She demanded.

"She was tortured and slowly taken apart right in front of my eyes about an hour ago. A communique had come in for me this morning, as I was getting ready for work. The id on the message was hers, so I answered it. Thats when I saw.....I saw....." he screwed his eyes shut, new tears streaming down his face. "Look in my mind, you'll see it all. I can't say the words."

The woman did not need to see it. She had seen enough for one lifetime and she was barely classed as an adult by her species standards. She could see how beaten and bruised he was by it all. She really wished he took the offer to have Ledeya check him over but she was able to fix most of this without the other Betazoid helping or a sickbay trip. Alexis sighed and slowly knelt in from him with a first aid box.

“The computer will have a record if I wished to see it. Why did someone do that?” She demanded using short sentences to get through what he was feeling.

Shaking his head, Kyle replied. "No you won't the message had a destruct command on the end of it. As soon as the message ended, it self destructed, erasing all evidence that it was ever sent. Believe me, I looked. As for why? I was told that it was a warning. Of what and by whom, I have no idea." Sitting up, he looked Alexis deep into her eyes. "I'm giving you a direct order, as the Executive Officer of the ISS Fenrir, flagship of the Terran Empire. Read my mind. I cannot be the only one to feel this pain." Then, as his strength started to wane, he reached up, and placed his shaking right hand gently against her soft, warm, left cheek, and said, barely above a whisper, "Please?"

"I can't. I... I have enough pain in my head already." Alexis whispered. "Please do not do this. It will not be my pain. I knew nothing of her, I will just have the horror." She whispered almost begging as she looked at the cut on his cheek and tried to start healing it.

Lowering his hand back down to his lap, he seemed to sink into himself even further. "I understand," he said softly, as his eyes fell to the deck. Please forgive me for asking. I will never ask again. I give you my word." While he sat there, motionless, as she continued to tenderly treat his self-inflicted wounds, inside, he was still raging. It was as if a demon that had been securely locked away, suddenly broke free. The last time he felt this magma hot rage and heart-shattering anguish, was when he watched his father kill both his baby brother, Liam, and then his mother. The satisfaction of burying his throwing darts into his father's chest started to burn deep inside of jim. He would find out who had done this. No matter the cost. And when he did, he would take them apart one cell at a time.

The woman said nothing for a long time focusing on his injuries, she was no doctor but she had cleaned up and fix her own injuries. She forgave easily but she was sure that she would never forget that he had wanted her to share in the horror. She could not take on seeing anyone else ripped apart in front of her eyes. It was a stark reminder of what she had seen in the final seconds of Betazed. “Do not let the anger consume you. You are in the wrong place to allow that to happen.” She said gently as the cut finally sealed over and left him with just a pale line across his cheek now.

Kyle seemed to have calmed more, on the outside. On the inside, he was still roiling. "She was pregnant." He said quietly. His left eye twitched after he spoke the words. "I had recieved a quick message from her last week. On it, she said that she had a wonderful suprise for me and asked when I could get to see her. I was never able to get back in touch with her." His eyes started to well up with tears. "She was six months pregnant. I...I saw them...rip our child, our daughter...." he buried his face in his hands and wept.

Alexis stayed where she was and just stayed silent letting the emotions wash over her but not letting them drown her. She would be no use if she did. She looked at the first aid box and saw what he needed right now - a sedative. It would take the edge off everything. He could not make a false move no matter what had happened. She pressed it to his neck silently and waited for the anger that she knew would come and then the peace of the anger being taken from him for a little bit.

But instead of anger, Kyle relaxed and looked her. Relief flooded his mind and body as the sedative did its job. "Thank you," he said honestly and warmly. He then slowly sat back in the couch, his eyes getting heavy. "Thank you for everything. Thank you...for listening. It may not be much....but it helped..." His head laid back against the back of the sofa be was still sitting on. "I know I can be difficult at times, maybe even pigheaded. It is only because I am trying to do the best job that I can do as Executive Officer on tbe Empire's flagship." Slowly, he started to drift off. Right before he did, he said something powerful.

"I love you Alexis Agrax." And then he drifted off to sleep.

Alexis said nothing in response to his words and declaration . She watched as the man’s eyes closed as he sat back awkwardly against the back of the couch. She moved him so he was laying on his side and put a blanket over him watching him for a few moments before she rose moving to his console. She refused to believe there was no trace of anything from the communication. You could not just send messages like that unless Gregnol was involved and it was a warning to know his place. She could not believe that the man would do that knowing the woman was pregnant. Six months pregnant was impossible to hide. When he woke hours later she sat surrounded by PADDs working away.

The first thing Kyle's senses picked up was a soft, delicate perfume. It was extremely pleasant to his nose, and made him smile softly as he started to regain consciousness. Then, a split second before his eyes sprang open, the cold, stark reality came flooding back into his mind. His Lizbeth, the woman who had stood by his side over the past fourteen years of service to the Empire, his wife, the mother to their...their...

He bolted up off the couch and nearly collided with a cleaning bot, as he hurried to the toilet. Once he got there, everything that had been in his stomach, came back up. Unfortunately, there wasnt much there, so alot of the time, he was dry heaving.

After a few minutes, he cleaned his mouth and reentered the living area. Moving over to his replicator, he was in a daze. "Altair water, cold." When the beverage appeared, he grabbed the glass and downed the entire drink in a few large gulps. Then, putting the glass back in the replicator, he pressed the reclamation control, and the glass vanished. As he turned away, he stopped, suddenly conscious of the fact that he was not alone. "Oh! Excuse me, Alexis. I didn't know you were still here. Forgive me." He looked like a man whose whole entire world had been ripped apart and destroyed.

Because it was.

“Well, I did not think you would wake so soon,” Alexis muttered. She was lying by but he did not need to know that. She was normally forgotten and over looked so it was nothing new.

"Would you care for any refreshments of any kind?" He suddenly realized how he looked. But first, his guest's comfort must come before his own.

"No thank you, I have sorted myself out." She said pointing to the glass of wine by her and the half-finished yoghurt that was there. "Sort yourself out." She prompted as the a cleaning bot paused for a moment to move around Alexis and carried on with what it was doing.

After looking down at his shredded uniform, Kyle met her eyes again and nodded. "I'm gonna take a shower. If you would care to, please stay." He then turned and headed back towards his ensuite, removing his uniform jacket and shirt as he went. The scars on his back clearly visible as he moved out of eyesight of Alexis.

Alexis said nothing but returned to the research she had been doing with Gregnol’s permission. She had shared what the cause and the man seemed genuinely surprised and reflected that with his emotional state. When the man returned Alexis was sat on the sofa with the wine glass refilled and her PaDDs in better order than they had been when he had left the room. “Gregnol came by whilst you were sedated.” She admitted.

Kyle grimaced slightly has he heard this. "Not exactly the impression of me that I ever wanted to give him." He sighed as he moved back to the replicator and ordered a coffee and a plate of mini pastries. As he carried both of them to the sofa, he added, "I'm sure he's looking for a new first officer right as we speak." As he sat next to Alexis, he held the plate to her, silently offering her a pastry.

"He was hard to read but he was stunned by the reason for it," Alexis said shaking her head at the offer. She crossed her legs under her shirts and turned to him trying to work out how to explain to him what she had been up to whilst he had been sedated. "I do not think it is a warning from him." She admitted. "Who else have you pissed off?"

Putting the plate down on the replaced coffee table, Kyle took a small cherry danish and a napkin, then after taking a bite, placed the danish on his napkin and sat back, sipping his coffee. His stomach was still a bit raw, but he needed the sugar and caffeine.

Shaking his head as he considered the question, he replied. "To this extent...I honestly don't know. Maybe it has something to do with what we spoke about earlier. On the holodeck." Shaking his head again, he added. "But I have ensured that I was always careful. I even followed your advice, and started keeping my head down in that area." Unless, he thought, Unless someone I've been dealing with isn't who they say they are.

"Well, Imperial Starfleet are interested in one of their officers, no matter species, dying like that. I was able to find where the communication came into the system but it will take a bigger communicator computer to process where it came from. Imperial Starfleet Security has taken everything I have on Gregnol's orders." She had been busy and it was showing on her face and the way she sat back now.

After carefully, and quickly, placeing his mug on the coffee table, Kyle turned to Alexis, reaching out with his right hand and gently touching her knee closest to him, a look of admiration for her care of both him and the situation, was mixed with the possibility of exacting vengeance on those responsible, in his eyes as he gazed into her beautiful twin pools of obsidian. "What else did you find?! I thought the whole thing was lost!"

"This is why I am an asset despite my bouts of madness," Alexis commented gently. "The computer cannot just lose stuff. It is impossible for that to happen." She rolled her eyes. "Always a trace just needs more than me. Nothing really but its ghosts are still there but everything was taken. It is out of our hands."

His features softened and he gave he a sad, but appreciative smile. "Thank you, Alexis. I can't tell you how much this means to me. You are more than an asset to me. Much more." As he spoke, he reached up and gently cupped the left side of her face with his right hand. Inside, he was torn. He had just watched his wife being torn apart, as well as their unborn child. Those images would haunt him forever.

Then, there was the part of him that had started to grow very fond of the woman sitting next to him. Was it love or lust? No, not lust. He had felt a connection to Alexis when they spoke. The physical attraction was a definite plus, however, it wasn't the whole foundation of their relationship. At least, he didnt think so. So, the only actual answer there could be....was he was growing to love Alexis Agrax.

Alexis lent into the touch for a moment before she pulled back. She was not going to be a rebound despite how things had been developing.. “I am sure you’ll repay me one day.” She assured with smile. Everyone either paid their debt or died with the debt over them.

Feeling an odd distance between them, Kyle suddenly realized what his touch must've seemed like. Pulling his hand away he blushed heavily. "I...I'm sorry. I didn't mean..." he suddenly stood up and moved to the nearest viewport, staring out into the void of space.

After a few moments, he said, his eyes still on the stars, "Alexis, while I know my words may sound desperate, they are true nonetheless. During our short time together, I have grown more than fond of you....I am in love with you. I understand if you don't feel the same way about me. I'm a Terran afterall. However, my feelings for you are true."

Alexis frowned as she watched the man stood them contemplating life and what he was going to do now. “You are emotionally vulnerable right now Kyle.” She whispered from her seat. “But I do not mind Terran’s, my daughter is half Terran.” She revealed softly. No one knew about her daughter somewhere out in the universe.

Turning his head to look at her when he heard her say she had a daughter, he couldn't help but see the unborn daughter, that would have been his, had she been allowed to live. "You...you have a daughter?" His voice was quiet and full of a mix of pain and admiration. "What is she like?" He was on the verge of tears as he spoke.

Alexis set her chin in a defiance look before she answered. She did not regret her actions or what she did to secure her daughter. “I do not know. I set her away so she did not end up in a breeding camp.” Or like me… she added mentally.

Lowering his gaze to the deck, a few tears broke free, running down his face. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "No p-parent...should be seperated from their child." Braceing his hands on the top of the viewport, he hung his head and wept.

“It is how this world works.” Alexis said slowly. “Kyle rest. I will stay make sure no one disturbs or worse.” She said finally once the tears had subsided from him.

Looking at her, he nodded. "Between you here and Micheal out there, I do feel safe. Thank you." He then realized the time. "Oh! It's so late! Um..if..if you are staying, I'll sleep on the couch. You...you should have the bed. Please. It's the least I can do for all tvat youve done, and are still doing, for me."

Alexis shook her head. “I am comfortable here.” She said simply taking one of the pillows putting it behind her head.

Nodding his head slowly, Kyle moved to a nearby closet and pulled a blanket from inside. Walking back over to Alexis, he gently laid it across her body. Then, without thinking about it, leaned in a gently kissed her forehead. "Thank you." He whispered before standing up and turning to head to his bed. "Computer, recognize Alexis Agrax as an authorised occupant in my cabin." He glanced back at her. "That way, you can set the environmental controls to you liking, Alexis. Good night. Sleep well."

He then reentered his bedroom and, after stripping down to his boxer briefs, crawled into bed, extingising the lights in his bedroom.