Alice in Wonderland

Posted on Sat Apr 22nd, 2023 @ 8:58am by Executive Officer Laurier Cami (Mirror) & Chief Engineer Jeassaho Kea (Mirror)

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: ISS Wrath Of The Prophets
Timeline: 2398
1712 words - 3.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Jeassaho knew that most people on the ship either hated her for being brought in to fix the mistakes on the ship or were in the one percentage who knew her real identity and hated her more than the rest combined. The executive officer was one of those cases and Jeassaho could feel her watching her from above. Eyes were often on her but it was hard to deny the Bajoran watching her when they were both alone in the communication compartment trying to re establish the communication to the dry dock. “Did you need something?” Jeassaho asked quietly as she pulled herself out from the turbo tube.

"Fifteen minutes and a Klingon dagger," the Bajoran shot back. A threat, but also a deeper desire to actually do something rather than just sit in dock and wait. Waiting was the silent killer. "I think most of them would thank me, if they knew the truth."

"Fifteen minutes and a Klingon dagger and you made Executive Officer of this thing..." Jeassaho answered back rising to her feet. "Well then... they do not exactly have standards." Jeassaho knew they had no engineering standards so that obviously extended to the crew as a by-product. "I would not need the fifteen minutes or the dagger but then again this is why I am doing something to help the situation and you are snarking at me."

"Oh I only snark at the really interesting ones," Cami snorted. She watched Jeassaho work for a few moments, arms folded. "So, you're the Butcher's woman. You know, I was a little curious; the woman who supposedly tamed the Terran that destroyed her homeworld...I thought you'd be taller."

Jeassaho pursed her lips and shrugged. it was a question most people had for her when they found out who she was. Why the Cardassians wanted her kept a secret for the most part; she was a useful tool to keep the butcher in check and a war prize. It was just a shame that Jeassaho was a lot more useful as an engineer than just a simple jewel to be paraded around. "Was not the butcher when I married him." She reminded. "Nothing wrong with my height."

"Cute. So your boyfriend slaughtered your entire people and that's all you've got?" Cami raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Most people would have sworn a blood oath. Gone on a vengeance trip. What's that thing the Terrans call it...your 'white whale'?"

"My husband destroyed my planet and people with me on it, your people saved me when they transported people from the senate out and I have been your people's prize to pass around since," Jeassaho commented as she turned away and bent over the part she was trying to make work again. "I am not exactly sure how I am meant to go anywhere or do anything to avenge anything."

"If you want it badly enough, you take it," Cami responded, a dark expression crossing her face for a few moments. After all, that was the reason she was here. "You make alliances. You fight, and you scrap and you kick your way to the one who wronged you. And then you carve out their heart so they can see it before they die." There was a strange look of joy in her face at the notion. Finally, she looked back down at Jeassaho. "If you stick with me, maybe you'll get a chance at meeting him again."

“Speaks to the woman who has never been a trophy in her life.” The engineer shook her head at the woman and her concept of fighting, scrapping in and kicking a way out of life. It was not how wrist people were able to cope with the loss of Betazed.

"Nope. I'm more the one who makes them my trophies," Cami replied, deadpan.

“Look I promise not kill you in your sleep if I can stop listening to your self centred egomaniac spill about righting wrongs in the universe. The world does not work like that for me and many other women who are not in power. I’ve spent the last three years passed around by men and women as a prize for your government.” She did not baulk at the memories of the parties and the engagements she had been forced to act in. “The wife of the butcher look how we have tamed him, even your Captain cheered at the concept of having me onboard despite me being a bloody good engineer and having improved your engines by 25%.”

Cami pursed her lips. "I noticed," she said coolly. "I didn't come down here to kill you, Butcher's Wife. I wanted to see you work; the way you operate. For someone who could end up on the wrong end of some Cardassian's anger - or worse, his...pride..." She flicked an amused eyebrow up at the connotation of what she meant. "You handle yourself without fear. That's an attractive quality. I like competent individuals. But I really like the ones who don't hide themselves away."

“Glad we have that confirmed.” Jeassaho picked up a hypo spanned and tossed the broken part over her shoulder. “Got nothing to hide especially from someone.” Jeassaho commented. She knew Cardassian pride and whims and there was nothing that surprised her now about being a trophy of war. “Now if you want to be helpful I need someone’s help.” Jeassaho needed a second person to hold the relay whilst she aligned it properly and the executive officer seemed more useful than most.

The request for aid was unexpected, but not one Cami shirked. As XO of the Wrath of the Prophets, she wasn't beneath getting her hands dirty. She manoeuvred herself around, at one point almost straddling Jeassaho - which she thought about lingering on for a moment - before grasping hold of the relay with both hands. "You know these systems well. Certainly not just a trophy, as you said."

“I was an engineer of the rank of commander for imperial Starfleet so I am well versed in engineering.” Anyone who had reached the Commander rank in imperial Starfleet either was practically an assassin or more competent than anyone else. Jeassaho liked to claim it was the second but she was fully aware that she was no at all innocent. Jeassaho did not miss the look at all and smirked just a little as she started the aligning process. “Do not move.” She instructed in a soft voice.

"I wouldn't dream of it," Cami's leering grin back left little to the imagination. "I must admit, it's a refreshing change for someone to be the one giving me orders. I could get used to it..."

"I will let the Captain know," Jeassaho answered back not even looking at the woman as her gaze was on the screen and aligning correctly.

"The Captain is a bore. He thinks his title gives him something that he doesn't have." She glanced over at Jeassaho. "He thinks it makes people care what he thinks. In that way he's just like the Terrans: self-serving and a fool. But you...you are neither of those things. You don't seem to care about what people think. And you're certainly no fool. At least, not yet."

“Course I do not care. I gave up caring many years ago. Fools die and as you can see despite my planet burning around me I am very much here.” Jeassaho pressed a final button and called out to the computer to confirm the alignment.

Cami released her grip as the computer confirmed the work was holding. Satisfied that the task was complete, she slid around next to Jeassaho. Close. Probably uncomfortably so. "I can hear it, you know. The rage? That little fire that burns..." she lifted a finger, touching the middle of Jeassaho's chest. "Right here. Like so many others burned by the Terrans, they leave their mark on you."

Jeassaho raised an eyebrow at the woman as she stood there telling her a little fire burned within her. Of course, a little fire burned, she was nearly burned alive on a planet that was burning because her husband decided despite her being on the surface in the senate that he was still going to burn the jewel of the terran empire so no one else could have it. "Of course I do... I was nearly burned alive on a burning planet. Has that ever happened to you? Some betazoid they said it turned them mad..."

Remaining close, Cami pulled down the collar of her uniform, showing a single long scar a little over an inch wide. "Terran slaver tried to break me in once upon a time." She smirked. "Little did he know that I like a little pain play now and then. A little madness is healthy for the soul."

Jeassaho watched the woman and noticed the scar and how deep it went and how it had healed cleanly. She obviously had gotten a lot better medical support than most slavers got. "You would like a friend I had back in the day, you would appreciate her madness. Alexis... I hope she survived." Jeassaho commented looking at the woman thoughtfully. "My soul is healthy though so please do not worry about it Ma'am." Alexis was quite happy where her soul was in regards to her future and sanity.

Cami held out one hand. "First you tell me you watched your homeworld burn, the next you tell me your soul is healthy." A second hand raised, palm-up, as though weighing the two statements. "Someone is lying to themselves if they believe that's true. But the madness..." She leaned closer, whispering the next part softly. "The madness is insidious. Lingering grief that festers, grows and consumes. And then it becomes just that: madness." She smirked, just about ready to nibble on Jeassaho's earlobe but withdrawing instead. "You'll find we're all quite mad here."

"Then call me Alice in Wonderland," Jeassaho commented with a roll of her eyes. This woman was dangerous and it was more dangerous as she had now intrigued her. This was going to take a lot of explaining to Mealiana, to say the least.