Posted by Lieutenant Commander Gravel Mardusk (Chief of Security) in Pre sim - Guess who’s coming to dinner…

SNIP

He smiled and simply stood up. He led her out of the tent, and the sounds of the oasis enveloped them. Frogs, insects, and some kind of nocturnal bird led an orchestra of night sounds. He held out his hand to her and smiled.

Mardusk

She set her smaller hand in his larger one. The juxtaposition making her smile once more. “I’ll have to be careful,” she laughed. “On a bad day, I may wanna just walk that direction and not stop.” She smiled and walked towards the water’s edge.

Lera

“Well, if you do… just let me know. I’ll walk with you.” he said and followed her to the edge of the water. He looked at her and said “What are you thinking about right now?”

Mardusk

She laughed. “It’s strange. But I’ve never been in a holo program with water. I mean… in the Academy, the programs were for engineer training. And after that, I only ever did training holos and..” She shook her head, “Doesn’t matter.. I just haven’t seen water. It is incredible how realistic it looks.” She was smiling and almost mesmerized by it. Her mind fighting back at something that made her shiver then she was fine again. “I love it… honest.”

Lera

He chuckled and said “It is real… well, as long as the simulation runs, anyway. Go ahead… put a foot in. Trust me, it’ll feel fantastic.”

Mardusk

She laughed and moved her bare feet to the edge. As the softly rippling water hit her feet, she laughed. It was unfettered and rang out in the strange echo that the small closed space gave off. “Oh it’s actually cooling like it would in the desert. You can almost feel the heat under the surface.” She glanced back and looked like a kid who had seen seen the birthing day gift pile and realized they were all hers. “Join me?” She crossed her arms and slid off her shirt. Tossing it aside, she turned away from him and shrugged out of her bra as well. She slipped off her leggings and moved towards the water.

She inhaled and laughed as the cold water walked up her body as she moved towards the center of the pool. She didn’t know how deep it was, and didn’t care. She could swim enough not to drown and a single phrase would disappear it anyway. Her back was to him, arms rising as if trying to remain dry and warm.

Lera

Mardusk watched her, and he averted his eyes as her clothes came off, a darkening of his green skin being the only blush visible in the night’s low light. As he heard the first splash, he looked back, and saw her bare back entering the pool. “Well… um… ok, then. Glad I locked the door.” and he kicked off his shoes and pulled his shirt off. “Don’t turn around, dammit.” and he dropped his pants to the sand and then waded into the water with nothing on. Why didn’t I reserve four hours? he asked himself as the water went up over his waist.

Mardusk

Her hands wiped at her face, trying to cover it as pushing her hair up and out of the way and redoing her ponytail as she felt him move up behind her. “I guess I won’t look, then.” She dropped her torso into the water, hissing at the cold and giving a powerful stroke to drive herself closer to the center of the pool. when she got there, she stopped and realized she couldn’t touch the bottom. It was deep enough for her to swim in. She hovered in place treading water. She was laughing again.

Lera

Mardusk made his way out to the center with her, his toes touching bottom but just barely. He looked at her and smiled. He hadn’t heard her laugh so… unencumbered… before. “If you do, I do. That’s just fair.” he said. He splashed a little water at her and grinned.

Mardusk, CoS

She laughed again and splashed back. If he looked, for just this moment, there wasn’t even a hint of shadows in her eyes. She was happy, and he had done it. “HEY!” She said as she plashed him. “This is .... wow.” She laughed again. “I can’t even have imagined it was real. I figured it was just a projection.” She stopped stroking and let herself duck below the surface, coming back up, almost chin first, to let her set hair stick back on her head and not on her face. Wiping her eyes off, she smiled at him. “I love this…” She swam closer to him and looked up. “Don’t startle, I’m going to kiss you,” her voice was like his had been that first date in his quarters. She grabbed a hold of his shoulder and pulled herself out of the water enough to get part way to his lips. She broke into a bigger smile. “Ok, kiss me, damn it.”

Lera

He smiled and pulled her close, and kissed her. He relaxed with her with him, to the point they started floating. He broke the kiss and looked at her. “I’m really glad you are here. And me. You know… both of us. Together.”

Mardusk

She kissed him back and laughed when she realized she was laying on his floating body. “Now ‘this’ is the way to spend a date.” She laughed and settled her head on this chest.

They spent the remainder of the time floating and talking till the timer sounded the fifteen minute warning. Sighing, she looked at him. “Guess we need to head out. I have really enjoyed this Mar… thank you so much.” She was still lit up like she didn’t have a care in the world.

Lera
(mood killer extraordinaire)

He looked at her and smiled… then rolled his body, dunking her into the water. Finding purchase on the ground, he moved to the shore and then stopped when the water was a little above his waist. He turned and said “You first. I’ll cover my eyes.” and a big green hand left the water and covered the top third of his face.

Mardusk

She squealed before going under, giving a hard kick to the water and coming up beside him laughing. “No fair,” she sputtered and wiped water off her face while treading water.

When they got to shore, she smiled and kissed his elbow. “As you wish.” She moved to the shore and kept her back to him. He would look, or at least she hoped he would. She rung out her hair the best she could and used her hand to slosh off most the water before replacing her bra and shirt. She was bending over pulling up her pants as she started absently humming.

Lera

Whether or not she looked, she wouldn’t have known with her back turned. But as she started humming, he said “You ready yet? The sim will end I don’t want to be standing here in my birthday suit.” and he chuckled.

Mardusk

She laughed and finished and walked towards the tent, not looking back. “Ok, I’m done. You can look. And you can get dressed. I certainly don’t want anyone else getting ideas on you.” She laughed and gave him some privacy to get changed. The cool sand on her feet felt good as she moved into the tent to get her boots.

Lera

He stepped out and used the shirt to dry off. He then got dressed and walked into the tent. He looked around and then looked at Lera. “Two minutes. Anything you want to do before our time is up? Or you wanna call it and head back?”

Mardusk

She smiled and shook her head. “I’m good. How much do we have to clean up?” She looked at the food and the pillows and such. Her hair was a hot mess, wet and dripping everywhere and she was struggling to get it back in a ponytail while wringing it out.

Lera

Gravel smiled at her at said “We actually don’t have anything to clear. I… made arraignments. Shall we head out? Might be better to not have the last view of this place as a grid with piles of burnt kabobs.” and he laughed. He offered her his arm and said “Care to walk me to my quarters? I hear there are ruffians about, and you seem like you can handle yourself.”

Mardusk, CoS

She laughed as he offered his arm. “I agree. I like this memory.” She took his arm and headed for the door. “And I’d be honored to protect you on the way to your room. Stars forbid if I were to let anything befall you after such a fine date.” She was laughing by the end of comment as they entered the hallway.

Lera
Eng

As they made their way through the ship, they came to the Arboretum. “Want to take a look? It’s actually kind of impressive. But if you’ve seen it already…”

Mardusk

Her eyes lit a moment. “I’d love to. I had forgotten there was one on board. This is the first ship of this kind of size and, well, luxery, that I’ve been on. Most have been basic and mundane.” She palmed open the door and stepped in, an appreciative whistle falling before she realized she was blocking the door and double skipped to let him in. “Sorry,” she laughed.

Lera

He smiled and said “No apologies. You are the best looking road block I’ve seen.” and he stepped in and looked around.

The place was actually huge and paths wound their way through the gardens. Gravel stepped next to her and looked down. He offered her his arm, and said “I’m glad you are here.” His tone held a bit of the uneasiness he must have felt asking her to dinner, but there was also relief.

Mardusk

She blushed at the compliment. Her arm reaching up to wrap around his. Her small arm, while not able to reach all the way around, still managed to get far enough to rest her finger tips on the inside of the crook of his elbow.

She let him lead them around a bit. Her free hand reaching out occasionally to run with a bare feather touch over the edges of some of the plants. After a few moments, she asked him, without looking up. “Why would you think I wouldn’t?” She knew, but hoped she was wrong.

Lera

He stopped as they passed by a bench, and he gestured for her to sit. The bench was next to a small retaining wall around a group of trees on a rise, and Mardusk sat on the wall. He took a deep breath and looked at the ground, and played with his fingers. Finally, he spoke.

“So this is gonna make you mad. I just really hope after you get done being mad, we can maybe try this again.” and he gestured ‘around’. “After our first meeting, I pulled your file. And I read the report of when you got held. And something just… well… it just didn’t sit right. Don’t ask what, ‘cause I really don’t know. Anyway, I had a crime scene recreation done. Took briefing statements, physical evidence, helmet cam recordings… and I had a guy dump all of that into the Computer and recreate what had happened to you right before the rescue.” and he kept his face down and he picked at his fingers as if he felt guilty.
“I don’t know how you did it, but you weathered that like a pro. Hell, I know Intel folks that would have cracked long before that rescue. But you took it, and you took it by choice. And that really impressed me. A lot. And then I thought about you and then what those bastards -” and he almost bit the last word as he spoke it, “- did that and I just knew.. knew… that whenever you’d look at me you could see them. And I really didn’t want to do that to you.”

Mardusk

She sat on the bench and watched him perch on the wall. When he started to speak, she watched him from the corner of her eye as she fiddled with her own fingers. She knew, of course. But to hear him tell it, she realized it wasn’t what she had thought. Whatever reason he set out do find when he started the project, it was here, there, in the middle of the room, chained to a post, that had distracted him.

When he finished, she stood up and walked over to stand close enough to rest her rest her hands on his arms. “I don’t see you that way, Mar. I don’t.” The shortening of his last name had been so common for her in her mind and when talking to Mike, it was automatic when she spoke to him.

“Perhaps, if Fleet or Ops had rescued us. Or if I hadn’t already been dealing with Orions enough to know that what happened wasn’t usual habits, I would have acted different to you. Maybe I would see this…” she ran her hand over his arm indicating his skin, “differently.”

She took a deep breath and let it out. “I was an ass the first time we met. You were right. I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. But when I turned and saw you. It was size, Mar…” she tilted her head and half bent over to try and look into his eyes. “JUST size, that startled me. I swear it to you.”

She sat back on the bench, but was on the edge of the corner closest to him. “After that, I thought maybe you had just kept your distance because you thought I feared you. That’s why I tried to get you to stay. To let you know I wasn’t scared of you. I had just been startled the first time.” She looked down at her hands once more. They had been at odds for the wrong reasons. And it had taken Mike to kick them back to sense.

Lera

He looked up and smiled a kind of sad smile. “Well… you certainly aren’t the first person to tell me that, at least.” and he shrugged his shoulders, the muscles there rippling like waves. “And I get that, absolutely. I mean this…” and he stood up and held his arms out wide, “… isn’t exactly the most comforting and zen inspiring frame to have come up behind you.” and he chuckled a kind of resigned chuckle and sat back down. He sighed and said “I’m really sorry, Lera. Last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable. And I’m sorry I did that recreation. I know it was an invasion of your privacy in a way. But I deleted it, just so you know.”

Mardusk

She laughed softly and shook her head. “Honestly… I could get used to having that,” she held her hands out to reference him, “behind me. I’d feel safe.”

“And I don’t care about the sim. I wish you had told me, sure. But then I could have given you more information. More context for what you were going to see. I didn’t take it, the abuse, because I wanted an adrenalin high, or am a risk taker. I didn’t do it to be all heroic. I did it because I knew I would survive. Angela was a science geek. Great at her job, couldn’t lift anything heavier than a petre dish. Gwen, great security officer if she was in the office like Koll is. Much like him, knows the ins and outs, can fire a phaser, but would have broken out of choice. And Arie and Rebecca just weren’t built with bodies meant to withstand repeated blows.”

She stood up and walked a few feet away, a deep breathe in and out to calm herself. “We discovered they liked the fight, the struggle, the resistance. If we laid there, and took it. They got bored. It’s why we weren’t raped after the first night. When they tried with me the next time and I shut down, he got mad.” She shook her head, “Furious… I told the others. They laid there, and then they were left alone. By the fourth day I had made the connection. The guys calmed the girls to keep them docile as much as possible. I was the ruckus raiser.” She laughed cause it was almost ridiculous in thinking. “It didn’t stop the abuse on them all the time. But it shortened their ordeals. They found they could rile me up by hurting the others. Once I peaked in rage, they left off the others and used me.” She went silent, her back to him still. Then her voice got almost quiet. “I’m sorry you had to see it.”

Lera