Posted by Ensign Karina Niles (Doctor) in Meanwhile… on the Station (for those awaiting the ship)

Posted by Lieutenant Ky’Laria (Scientist) in Meanwhile… on the Station (for those awaiting the ship)

Posted by Ensign Karina Niles (Doctor) in Meanwhile… on the Station (for those awaiting the ship)
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Karina was barely aware of what was happening, even as the words made her fall silent and realize how her body was reacting. Once more, the scientific part of her brain said it was natural, given the topic of discussion. But then… it changed....

She felt her heart pounding faster in her chest and the heat rising to her cheeks. Her lips parted a moment to gasp a breath then she bit on her lower lip as if trying to stop it. “I… ” the young Doctor couldn’t even finish her sentence. It made no sense to her mind. She was scared. That’s what her mind told her. She didn’t recognize the sensation, not truly, and that in and of itself frightened her as well. She set her hands flat on the table in an effort to control not clenching them.

Unmoving, Ky’Laria did little but to fix her gaze on Karina, as if to stare into her. “Do you feel, right now, like you are… in control?” A small, and gentle tilt of her head was all that marked a short pause. “You may be, you may not be… the fact does not matter. Do you feel like you have power over this moment?”

-Lt. Ky’Laria (Sci)

Karina couldn’t move. Whether it was something Ky had done, or merely what she was, it made no difference to Karina. Now that she was aware of it, it frightened her. Fascination still filled her eyes, though fear was on her like a second skin. When Ky asked if she felt in control, she shook her head. “No.. but I don’t think you are in control either, are you?” The curiosity she was still capable of surprised her as well. It was a question meant to ask if Ky did this for a specific reason, or if she did it because she had no choice.

“Given all the things which can vary, and change, even in this small space? In just this small moment? Probably not,” Ky’Laria replied flatly, ever staring into the doctor. Her questioning had not caused the Kuras to waver. “But does that make any difference to the way you feel?”

A young man appeared seemingly from nowhere and summarily intoned, “The Base Commander will see you now”. Then the hologram disappeared answering the question of how the aide has appeared so unannounced.

Junior Gamemaster Conspiracy Theorist

The sudden arrival of the holo made Karina actually jump and squeal, her hand going to her hip where her phaser would have been had she been armed. After he left, she shook her head and looked at Ky. “I … I can’t even describe how that… felt.” The last word came from her almost as if it had been an alien concept to her. She laughed but it was high and nervous. “I don’t remember being that scared in a rain of acid blood. How do you do that?” And again, the scientific curiosity wrapped her in safety and comfort as her heart fought to slow down.

Karina
Doctor

It had taken extreme, though unseen effort for Ky’Laria not to react with her own alarm at the appearance of the holographic messenger. She had simply darted her gaze to it, and observed its message before looking back to Doctor Niles with a small sigh. “Nothing especially… untoward, Doctor,” she grinned. “I have a natural advantage, in that I can sense the outward signs of your emotions just as well as you sense the inward ones, but… other than that, it’s simple, if not easily mastered.”

“Earlier, I alluded to one’s capacity to constantly seek to gain power over their circumstances,” she explained, slowly rising from the chair with her usual, effortless-looking grace. “To master their surroundings. There is a phrase in my language which translates- clumsily- to… ‘endeavour to bend as much of the universe as possible, to your will.’ It sounds far better in its original form, but it is the essence of what it means to be Kuras.” Striding around the table, she slid the two empty glasses, one at a time, to the corner at Karina’s right elbow. She left them there for a moment and, feeling Karina’s struggle to calm her heart, the Kuras placed her hand on Karina’s shoulder with a slowly mounting pressure. She did not clutch at the woman; it was firm pressure with an open hand - a somehow calming weight. “Be. Still, Doctor…” she commanded, but with the same low, soft intonations as before.
Karina had listened, her gaze now once more focused on the woman as she rose and rounded the table.

Picking up the two glasses, Ky’Laria moved to return them to the replicator alcove. “Holding dominion over one’s small corner of the universe,” she began a new, her tone referential to the poorly-translated maxim she had mentioned moments before, “It sounds as though it needs to signify feats of… omnipotence. How else can one hold sway over something so… universal?” she asked, visibly satisfied by her own turn of phrase. She pressed a control, and the glasses shimmered away into the matter recycling buffer. “But one has more influence over one’s environs than most beings will ever fully understand,” she offered as she walked back over to the table to stand beside Karina’s chair, looking down at her.

Turning slightly in her seat, about to rise, she paused with Ky’s hand on her shoulder. The command to calm didn’t do as much to ease her as the touch had. Karina’s whole life was rooted in the substancial, in the science, in the here and now. Feeling the slight pressure of the woman’s hand pressing down on her shoulder seemed to be the reset to the anchor within her that she needed. It was as if, in her fear, she had half risen from herself. And in the same manner it intrigued her that Ky could affect her that way, it was equally astonishing she could flip her abilities and calm Rin. “Thank you,” the doctor managed to smile and murmur as the woman released her. She took a deep, steadying breath and stood up.

“Come,” she said, her smile a friendly invitation but her voice again melding congeniality with compulsion. “It would seem that at least one of us has an appointment.”

-Lt’ Ky’Laria (Sci)

A slight smile crossed her lips. “I think it may be me. I had been asking the last two days to see him. I thought, perhaps, he would be willing to impart a way I might help with finding the ship. I don’t have access to the monitoring facilities upon the station because of not being crew, and not being cleared.” She sighed in resignation. “I fear the answer will be there is nothing to do but wait. And mark my words,” she shook her head, “he’ll offer me a place in medical to keep occupied in till the ship returns.”

She followed Ky out of the room and was beside her in a few steps as they entered the hall.

Karina
Doctor

As Ky’Laria strode down the hallway, she looked over her shoulder to Karina, amused by her apparent certainty. “Very confident of you, Doctor Niles… what makes you so sure that he has a position for you?” she challenged, looking into her holsters and reversing her earlier decision to remove her rank caps.

Her uniform stretched over her left side as both hands reached up to affix the left shoulder cap. “Do you think he might find some use for me, as well?” she grinned.

-Lt. Ky’Laria (Sci)