Broken Things

Posted on Sun Sep 15th, 2019 @ 3:29pm by Alexis Agrax (Mirror) & Executive Officer Jake Ford (Mirror)

Mission: Mirror Mirror
Location: ISS Fenrir
Timeline: 2296
1613 words - 3.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The dress the inquisitor wore as she entered the Mess was more lace than anything else but what did anyone expect when they were there for two reasons. Inquisitors were there to maintain everyone’s loyalty to the empire and to seek anyone who wasn’t and to soothe the souls of men and women in charge of ships if those Captains demanded it. Gregnol did not often according to Selina and he had not of Alexis yet so the woman was free to seek out the alcohol-fuelled Mess and mingle as she saw fit.

Jake's eyes flicked-up as she entered. He noticed her presence first from the reactions of others; the way eyes suddenly dropped to the floor, avoiding her. Fear, he realised. Nobody wanted to draw the attention of an inquisitor. Jake, on the other hand, had no fear. Fear was weakness. Instead, he leaned back, leered, and pushed out the chair opposite him with his boot.

The woman looked his way as she senses one mind that seemed to almost call out to her and smiled as she grabbed the large glass of amber liquid that the woman at the bar passed her without hesitation. They shared a small smirk and unspoken communication before Alexis moved to where the offered seat was. "How kind of you." The woman greeted.

"Kind?" Jake grinned. "Frankly I think it's better you're sat in front of me. That way I can see the knife coming instead of feeling it in my back. Figuratively speaking, of course."

"You have saved me from the naughty thoughts of that Commander stood at the bar who cannot take his eyes off of me. He likes to think that I am some science experiment that he can conduct." It was her way of saying thank you. "I do not need to use knives to kill you Jake. I could kill you a lot more or a lot less painfully but why would I want to do that, to be honest?" The woman said simply as she took a sip of her drink.

"Why, Alexis," he replied, emphasising her first name a little less than she had his. Since they were on first-name basis now, for some reason. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you were coming on to me." He smirked, amused by her comments rather than threatened. He indicated back towards the bar. "I'd offer to take care of the competition, but we both know a little competition is healthy for the soul."

The woman shrugged. She was not going to lie, it would work in both of there favours but she wasn't that desperate to throw herself at any man. "He is useful. He brews illegal alcohol that is the best I have ever tasted." The woman whispered softly to him letting him in on the secrete. "Why he is alive and why everyone else keeps him alive. We all have our place under the butcher"

"Interesting choice of words," Jake noted, tilting his glass a little. "Do you regularly serve 'under' the Butcher?" he asked plainly.

Alexis bit her lip for a moment before shaking her head. “No. I am new to this ship in this role. I was his chief of security once upon a time before he blew the planet I was stood on up.” She said leaning across the table. “I hear that my predecessor on occasion served ‘under’ him. We all get lonely after all.”

"That we do." Jake's expression softed marginally. The glimpse of vulnerability might have been genuine, but she could just as easily be playing him: toying with his emotions to look for weakness. He sipped the drink in front of him. "Let me know if that's a problem you need the security department to handle."

Alexis snorted into her glass her vulnerability gone as quickly as it appeared. “Security can do nothing for me. I’m outside of there domain directly under the captain.” She smirked at her choice of words again. Her and Gregnol went back further than majority of his crew. She had been there at his wedding.

He twitched a little at her amusement. "Perhaps so. But don't be too quick to dismiss the usefulness of the ship's security. There might be a few more men out there with a mind towards 'science experiments'. The Butcher might need a new Inquisitor, and we've already started to become such good friends."

“They cannot kill me so what is the worse they can do?” She reminded him.

"Alexis, there are far worse things than death, believe me." Like losing those you love dearly, he added silently. She might have heard that within his thoughts, he wasn't sure whether she would be probing hard enough to sense it.

You don’t think I know that? The woman pressed the thought into his mind a little more forcefully than she meant to. “I was there on a planet whilst it burned beneath me. I’ve been to hell and back.” The woman said before sitting back in the chair drinking the amber liquid like a shot.

It was a strange moment, the oddly familiar sensation of a Betazoid speaking in his head. Something he had once yearned to feel again. This time replaced with cold anger. "It feels good, doesn't it? The rage. The thirst for blood." His voice lowered as he added, "Some days it's all people like us have left."

“For you maybe.” Alexis said bitterly before the Science commander stumbled over and plonked himself on the left hand side of the pair putting drinks down in front of them.

Jake barely registered the arrival of the science officer, instead locking his eyes on Alexis for a long moment.

"Move along, Commander. That seat's taken," he said, not even giving the man a look.

“You are looking lovely this evening Agrax. Was a surprise to see you in such lovely attire.” The man slurred as Alexis looked at him for a split second before she glanced back at Jake.

“You heard him.” She agreed feeling the burning. Sensation inside of her as her abilities wanted to get out and show this man who exactly was boss.

Jake could see the look in her face. He could tell without being a telepath what she was thinking. The notion drew the slightest smile from him. He wanted to see her deal with it herself, to reveal what she was capable of. Besides, she was hardly going to let him make like some sort of white knight. So he said nothing, and with his eyes he dared her to cut loose.

“Oh come on?” The man tempted. He wanted to get in with not new inquisitor before anyone else, he wanted to protect what he had going in the bowls of the ship. Alexis turned and looked at him, she slowly stood and moved sitting on his lap. His face turned to one of joy and then to horror as she whispered in his ear something. He quickly looked around and shook his head.

“I thought not.” Alexis whispered returning to her seat with a caress of his cheek. No one needed to be hurt today.

The smirk on Jake's face broadened. "Now that is a trick you must teach me one day," he remarked.

The man moved away and Alexis shook her head. “I am pretty sure you don’t want me to teach you.” Alexis said as she felt the power inside of her swirl trying to find some release.

"Pity. You might have enjoyed it," he shrugged.

"That would be the issue. I was Chief of security once upon a time." Alexis said shrugging back at the man. She wasn't like many other interrogators who were there purely to survive. She didn't actually care. "Now where were we before the bootlegger interrupted"? The woman wondered glancing around. No one was watching them anymore, they wouldn't dare after Alexis had let the Commander walk away unharmed. No one else would get that option that evening.

"Things worse than death," Jake replied, an eyebrow curling up. "And rage. I'm sure you know it. You probably feel it every time you probe a Terran. The reminder of what you've become, of who you are. I know, because I saw that world burn too."

"You did?" Alexis asked taking a sip of the booze that the commander had left. It was the hooch that he brewed, it was good if overly strong. It was a taster of what he could provide if Alexis wanted him too.

His expression, previously casual, hardened. "The ship I was on arrived four hours after the capital was destroyed. Normally I would have revelled in the sight. But knowing your wife is on the surface changes your perspective."

The woman watched the reactions on his face, she did not need to be in his mind to know the pain that it caused. Slowly she leant across the table and put both her hands over his. "I am sorry." Was all she said.

Jake snatched his hands away sharply. "I don't need your pity," he snapped, pushing away from the table. "There's nothing to feel 'sorry' for. We do our duty for the Empire, just like the Butcher did. Pity is weakness."

Alexis rose and downed the rest of the drink. "Now you know my weakness. I pity fools." Alexis said as she passed him deciding that she had, had enough of games for the evening.

OFF::
Lt Jake Ford (Mirror)
Chief of Security
ISS Fenrir
(PNPC Ford)

Alexis Agrax
Inquisitor
ISS Gaman
(PNPC Gregnol)