Posted by James Sinclair in Event Horizon Station- Promises

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Faye Calloway (Counter-Intelligence Officer) in Event Horizon Station- Promises

Posted by James Sinclair in Event Horizon Station- Promises

(snip)

Daggum began assembling his sandwich and smiled. “Paul. Paul Shaughnessy. He’s the one who got me off Orion, onto a ship. Helped me learn about systems and Engineering.” and he set the assembled sandwich on a plate and got comfortable.

“So when I was a kid, we’d get all kinds of species in the cages with us. Slaves, prisoners, people who lost a bet… all kinds. Anyway, one day they drop a captured space freighter crew member in the cage next to mine. Human. Got captured by the Syndicate and couldn’t buy his way out, so there he was. He learned pretty quick I could fight, and he offered to teach me things if I taught him how not to get killed in the Pits. I agreed. So, he taught me to read and write, a few languages, and he would tell me stories of space and the ships that moved through it. Those stories were the first way I learned that there was more than just the Pits. I loved those stories…” he said and took a bite and chewed, clearly remembering the times. “Anyway… he was held for a couple of years and he and I would speak at night after the task-masters had allowed us to sleep. But one day I came back… and Paul was gone. I looked at the Pit Master and told him I wanted to know where he had gone. The Master started in on me for speaking out of turn. I guess he didn’t think about it, but I had grown up a lot… I was already a very strong fighter. The pain didn’t really matter, but something just… snapped. So I grabbed him and choked him to death with my bare hands. Grabbed the key ring and opened all the cages, let everyone go. I watched to see if I could find Paul… but he wasn’t there.” and he took another bite and chewed slowly.

So… I spent the next few years on the streets, just trying not get sent back to the Pits. It was close a time or two, but I managed. By then I had grown a lot and my size made me useful. Took odd jobs in construction, but made the most money collecting debts and enforcing the rules of whoever was paying me. I was well on my into the Orion Syndicate, but then Paul showed back up. He found me working in a bar. Told me he had come back to try and buy my freedom. He had finally been paid for, thats ho he got out. He’d been on Orion weeks by that point. He heard about the break out, that there was still a price on my head. He offered me a spot on his crew, helping the engineers. I jumped without even thinking. Once we got in space, Paul explained that he was a former Star Fleet officer who had resigned and now worked on his own ship. He knew I had a good head on my shoulders; so I spent several years transporting cargo between systems with him. Learned a great deal about star ship systems, and by the time I was eighteen I had already seen a good chunk of the Alpha Quadrant. It was Paul that pushed me to apply to the Academy… he saved me. Almost as much as you have.” and he winked at her and took another bite.

Daggum

Just as Daggum had done for her so many times, Faye just listened and held space for him. Gazing deeply into his emerald eyes, she smiled. “I can’t wait to meet him. He made it so we could enter each other’s lives and have this amazing future together. I have to thank him,” she said after swallowing a bite.

“And I didn’t save you. You saved yourself a long time before I came along.” The way Faye saw it, he had had a lot worked out before they met, far more than her. She had sort of played catch up during their time apart and the way she saw it they were sort of on even footing now. She hadn’t been ready for him before and now she was.

~Faye

Daggum smiled and looked at her. Gods above she was amazing, he thought to himself. “No, Faye… you saved me from me. Before I met you, I was closed off. I was hard to know. I was defensive. I had confronted my trauma, sure… learned about the ongoing process of healing. But you? Faye, that brief moment when we were together before I left the Manhattan… I knew if I stayed that way I’d never…” and his face flushed dark green and he looked down, “… I’d never be able to be with you. That if I didn’t break my shell, how would you ever get inside it?” and he looked up at her. “I had learned to deal with pain before you. You showed me how to deal with happiness.”

Daggum

Truth sounded like many things and Faye had heard a lot of lip-service in her years but she had begun to understand over the last couple years that truth sat in a strange sort of discomfort. Even if it was beautiful. Because at the heart it, if she was to take what he said as truth (and she did), then it was her in her uncertain state, in her vulnerable attempt at starting fresh and living the newest chance at life she’d been given, in her deeply traumatized but determined state, that Daggum Hammor fell in love with. Reaching a hand out and resting it on his cheek, she leaned in and kissed him deeply.

~Faye