Ten Steps and Screen Watching

Posted on Thu Dec 19th, 2019 @ 9:22pm by Commodore Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri (*) & Lieutenant Junior Grade Karis

Mission: Cosmos
Location: USS Cosmos
Timeline: 2396
1424 words - 2.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Karis was going about her routine as much as possible. She didn't really know a lot about what was going on down on the base, about as much as anyone else knew so she was trying not to worry too much. Ryon had survived some pretty horrible things before she'd ever met him and that was before he'd had starfleet survival training.

She wasn't sure if it was a sound or the change in air pressure in the room that let her know someone else was there but she turned her head, her red hair curly hair pinching slightly as it was tightly forced into a bun on her lower neck. "Captain." Karis said, making her stance more formal.

"Relax Lieutenant," Ledeya instructed quickly as she stepped up to the console that the Science Officer was leaning over. She quickly looked at the data unsure but it was the visual that they had established with a drone. "I have only come to look as well."

"Are you worrying too?" Karis asked her quietly. Maybe she didn't have a personal relationship with anyone down there but she certainly had a professional relationship with everyone and it was even possible that she considered her colleagues her friends.

"Of course I am. My whole senior team is pretty much down there somewhere." Ledeya said without a hint of emotion. It was not needed in this situation. She had the same feed on it her ready room but it was doing nothing to help her staring at it alone.

Karis nodded, "I keep telling myself it doesn't do any good. At this point, I can't control the outcome. It's not like a science experiment where I'm curious what the results will be or I have a guess as to what my findings will uncover." She shook her head suddenly and glanced up at the other woman. "I'm sorry, did you need something from me?"

"Not in the slightest." The Captain assured picking up a stool and sitting on it easily. She really just wanted one of the senior officers in her presence so she could reassure herself she had not lost all of them. "You are the only senior officer I am left at the moment. I do not want to let you out of my sight." She added.

"Ah. Well they will come back. They have to. I don't want to lose Ryon and I don't want to start over, again. I've had enough hormones and feelings and worries to last a lifetime already. Thanks universe for singling me out." Karis knew the Captain had no idea what she was talking about but it didn't matter. She probably understood the sentiment.

The woman had not realised that Karis and Ryon were close or that hormones were involved but it explained a lot. "What to talk about it?" Neither of them were using ranks or rates so maybe they could learn a little about the other as they were both watching and waiting.

"Yes . . . but I don't know how he would feel about me telling you." She seemed to think about it for a moment but it would help to talk to someone. Surely he couldn't fault her for that. "I'm Kriosian which usually doesn't mean anything interesting, we have four toes on each foot, a backward way of thinking about things and a warmer planet than earth so Starships feel cold to me. But, about two years ago weird things started happening. Actually it was with someone else first. I had this uncontrollable urge to touch him and when I did I started feeling really weird. A trip to sickbay found that I was actually a empathic metamorph which is a fancy way of saying that when I touched him my body immediately began this journey into becoming a better mate for him. It's super rare and usually they figure out which people are ones when we are very young. I was a late bloomer. But something happened and the imprint, that's what we call them, didn't take. So I started over again, the ship I was on exploded after a battle and just as I was getting out of a pod Ryon reached out to take my hand because I had hurt my ankle and was about to fall. And what did I do without ever having spoken a word to him? Imprinted on him. So it started all over again. Thankfully it seems to have worked this time and Ryon's been really nice about everything. I expected him to run for the hills. But he was curious about me I think and so he stayed."

Ledeya opened her mouth a few times to stop the woman but gave up pretty quickly as the Doctor in her got interested herself in what was being said. Metamorphs were indeed rare but obviously it was all working out if they were both on her ship. "Well, as long as it doesn't impact on duties I guess it doesn't bother me." Ledeya said thinking she could possibly spill her soul but did not, it would undermind her in the eyes of her crew.

Karis shook her head. "We're both fine, it won't." She watched her Captain for a bit. "Forgive me, but was there something you wanted to share. I'm great at keeping secrets."

Ledeya wanted to share, wanted to allow someone other than the Chief Medical Officer know who she was really. "No, you are quite alright dear." The woman assured quickly. No one outside of her own species would understand and it was too soon to reveal with things that like to her crew.

"Well I just basically bared my soul so I feel kind of awkward considering it was to you. Are you sure you don't want to share something back? That way we can give each other secret looks when we pass in the corridor and laugh about things that no one else will understand. I could use a laugh. So could you i imagine."

"I'm Betazoid but I cannot be telepathic as I am medically muted, to put it bluntly for my protection and your protection." Ledeya finally said after a moment of contemplation. Sometimes women needed to support women and it was obvious that something was off about her.

"Were you born this way?" Karis asked curiously, wondering if something had happened to her or if she had always been medically muted, as she'd put it.

“Not at all. I... it’s hard to explain but the occupation changed me.” For a second she was stood in front of Jem’hardar barely trained screaming at them telepathically until they let her go. “Changed my species.” She covered for her zoning out.

"Oh." Karis said. "So we've both had to deal with physical changes. Is there anything other than medication that they can do? Would anything else help it?"

“No. It would be to dangerous for them to do it as well.” The Betazoid was under no illusions that she was permanently altered. It was her a pariah with a majority of her world And it made her wondered if it was partly why she just could relax enough to let people close enough.

"Well . . . that's unfortunate but to be honest it doesn't change much. You're still who you think you are, losing or gaining an ability doesn't make a difference. It's not our abilities that show us who we truly are, it is our choices," Karis said reciting something in human literature she'd recently read. Karis couldn't help but smile, although she believed it, it was rather silly.

Ledeya was about to comment when she glanced at the feed from the planet and saw people appear on the Communications Array. "People!" She cried before standing up moving the feed to a bigger screen to see exactly who it was. "Ehestri to the Bridge."

"Yes, Ma'am?" The Officer in charge said.

"The missing crew have reappeared on the surface. I want them beamed straight up and questioned to who is missing and what happened." The Captain was already heading towards the door.

Her heart started pounding in her chest. She briefly thought about now following her but as the Captain pointed out she was the last of the senior staff still on the ship and so she darted after her, a few curls bouncing as she went.

OFF::

Captain Ledeya ‘Ed’ Ehestri
Commanding Officer
USS Cosmos / TG 72-B
(PNPC Gregnol)

Lieutenant JG Karis
Science Officer
USS Cosmos
NPC by Bowers