Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim - The End… Of The Beginning

Posted by Lieutenant Dr. Solomon Kane (Chief Science Officer/Research & Development) in Side Sim - The End… Of The Beginning

Posted by Lieutenant Alexis Bonner (Assistant Chief Medical Officer) in Side Sim - The End… Of The Beginning
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

The Lieutenant in the red uniform moved through the halls, nodding and smiling to a few faces here and there as he made his way to the Science Lab where he knew, thanks to GALEN, that Lieutenant Alexis Bonner was working alone at the moment. Approaching the door, he ran a device over the access control panel and the door opened. He stepped through as the door slid closed and locked behind him.

Alexis didn’t usually work in the main science labs, but they’d needed extra hands for an experiment they were setting up. And she had nothing pressing to do. She was waiting to hear back about the nanites and the tritanium slips were not progressing well. They’d had to completely start the computer programming over from scratch. Everyone had left the lab unnoticed by Alexis, and she was engrossed in reading a medical journal. Hoping to find an answer for a previous patient of hers.

Soulis took in the room at a glance. Various work stations, benches, and such filled the laboratory. In the far back right of the room was the office for the CSO, one Solomon Kane; who Soulis would be getting reacquainted with shortly. The thought spread a grin across his face even as his eyes focused on the lone figure in the room. There, at her station, surrounded by PaDDs and a shimmering field, sat Alexis… his most important asset (whether she wanted to be or not).

She heard the door open and close, she’d look to see who had returned as soon as she finished this paragraph....then she heard the door lock and she thought that was strange, but before she could turn around…

“Hello, my sweet. I hope you are packed and ready. I told you I would be coming for you.” he said, the grin taking on an unmistakable edge of maliciousness.

Soulis, Intel Creep

Icy cold fear and misfired nerves. Let him get close, then stop thinking and start hurting. She didn’t want to do that, but he was already close, just like she told Solomon would happen. Where was Solomon? Where was Frigga? With Solomon, she had gone with Solomon, he was more fun than Alexis. The weight of the ring on her hand was only slightly reassuring, but she was careful not to fidget with it and draw attention. She turned very slowly backing away from Soulis. He looked the same as three years ago, but he didn’t. Gone was the effort to be kind, to sweetly coerce her. He was scary and cruel those months with Intel. But today there was an evil malicious intent about him, all directed at her. She stepped away again and shook her head. The more she refused him the faster he’d want to prove her wrong. “I’m not going anywhere with you.” And she reached for her combadge to alert security of an intruder.

Bonner

Soulis smiled and said “Go ahead… call for help. Call Security. OH NO WAIT! Call Solomon… yes… call him.” and he walked towards her. “He and I have much to discuss. Oh… but I don’t think that comm badge is going to work. I spiked the computer, you see. Your comms won’t work anywhere. So you see…” and an arm shot forward and grabbed her wrist hard. “You are coming with me or you are going to feel everything you fear. Then I will com back and get your little fruit and have… a word… with Mr. Kane. Oh, you will be quite asleep, don’t worry. But I’ll record what happens to him… so you won’t have to wonder.” and he yanked her to him and pressed on the wrist band he wore and…

Nothing.

He stared at Alexis for a moment in confusion and then pressed again. Still nothing. “Wha… what did you do?” he said through gritted teeth as his face turned an ugly shade of red.

Soulis

It was the absolute hardest thing Alexis had ever had to make herself do - allow him to grab her. Oh he’d got ahold of her plenty of times, but there was a difference between not being able to stop him and not stopping him. Her eyes watered as he squeezed her wrist hard enough to bruise. She twisted her wrist trying to line up the smallest part with where his finger and thumb met, to pull her wrist free. She couldn’t stop the rush of adrenaline caused by her fear at his anger. She wanted to ask him for the video so she could watch Solomon beat his a$$, and tell him that she didn’t do anything, Kane did it. That Kane was smarter than her and much more of a man than he was. But she wasn’t sure if that would help her and she was…don’t think, just hurt him

She clawed her free hand across the back of his that held onto her and then grabbed the ring finger and bent it backwards trying to break it in order to get her other hand free. She reached up and scrapped the ribbed rubber sole of her shoe on the inside of his leg from the knee down, pressing hard, scrapping and tearing and cloth and flesh. And then stomping the heel of her shoe into the soft instep of his shoe.

The sudden flury… fury… caught Soulsi off-guard and he yelled as nails scratched and his finger popped out of socket. As the sole scrapped down his leg he screamed again and then cursed loudly.

All the while, she whispered, almost at the subvocal level so the ear bud would pick it up, “Solomon help. He’s in the lab.” And then she pressed close screaming in his ear, she kneed him, stomped on his foot, kicked at the inside of knee, clawed at the soft fleshy part of his neck between throat and clavicle, gouged at his eyes, and then went limp hoping her body weight would throw him off balance.

Bonner

Soulis flinched and struggled to keep his face clear, barely managing to get his eyes out of the way of her fingers; managing only to push her off of him long enough so that as she started to fall, he drove a knee hard into her solar plexus and driving the air from her. He grabbed her by her upper arms and, in his rage , lifted her and threw her over the workbench and onto a stool before she fell to the floor.

He let go of her wrist but it would need medical attention and then she couldn’t breathe. It was like a fire igniting in her chest and sharp pain as she tried to take in breathe to shocked lungs, and her vision went black around the edges from the impact, and then she crashed, landing hard on the stool as it toppled and some felt like it popped. She rolled to the cold floor and she sucked in breath, but there wasn’t enough to speak to make Kane hear her.

“You… you… b!+<h!!!” he yelled and looked at himself to make sure nothing was bloody before grasping his hand and groaning slightly at the dislocated finger. “I… I should kill you for that. But you are lucky I need your brain.” He came around the bench and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her to her feet. Growling into her ear he said “You pull anything like that again… dear… I will kill you. Now I don’t know what you did to stop my transporter. We will address that after we go get your little project. But I suppose now I’ll have to deal with your little boyfriend later. So… point for dear sweet Alexis.” and he shoved her forward. “R&D lab… now. And if you so much as twitch, so help me I will kill the nearest person that isnt you. Got it?! Now go.”

Soulis

Alexis flinched as he growled in her ear, flinching away causing her to jerk her hair in his grip making her eyes water. But let him growl low like that. Solomon was listening, she was certain. Her breath heaved, and she held her arm still with the other, she knew it was hurt, but didn’t feel it yet. He needed her mind....he had no idea what her and Solomon’s minds had waiting for him. She was eager to let him have that tiny orange. Still half bent from being thrown she nodded. She didn’t do anything to his transporter, Kane did. And she couldn’t wait to watch Kane deal with him…

She walked down the corridor, trying walk like she wasn’t hurt to those they passed. Luckily no one spoke to her. She stopped outside the lab door. “I can’t get in genius” was that sarcasm? “You broke my combadge, so the door won’t open.” She really really hoped Kane had some nasty surprise when Soulis hacked the door.

Bonner

Soulis looked around and then pulled a small wand-looking device out of his pocket and waved it over the access control. The door slid open to reveal the R&D lab…

But no Kane.

Where are you? She had to focus, keep her head, but the pain was starting to register and she could not get distracted by it.

“Inside.” and Soulis shoved her through the door. He waved the wand again and the door slid closed and locked. Turning to her, Soulis said “Get the fruit. We’re leaving. And don’t be cute. Hurry up.”

Soulis

She stumbled and failed to bite back a sound of pain as he hit her arm....of it was broke…that wasn’t good.

“Medical lesson - My right Humorous is broke and my left Flexor Carpi Radialis is torn. I can’t pick it up.” She leaned against a work table, hissing at the throbbing. “Kane wouldn’t need the medical lesson.” She muttered it, making the comparison, the pain making it hard to think clearly.

Bonner

Soulis shot towards her with speed born of rage and pain and he pinned her hard to the counter top. “WELL KANE ISN’T HERE NOW, IS HE?!?!?” he screamed in her face, flecks of spittle landing on her cheek and lips. Breathing heavy, his eyes bored holes into her before he finally said “Where… is… it… then?” past teeth practically grinding in anger.

Soulis

Alexis squeezed her eyes shut against the jarring in her arm. Okay, time to stop goading him…he was going to kill her…though that might be preferable to being dragged off with him. No…Kane’s ring, fake or not, wasn’t going to let him beam her off the ship. She was okay…no she wasn’t…she felt sick suddenly, fear and pain. She just had to buy her time to get away....find a way to hurt him and get away. Unfortunately he was too close, pinning her on the counter top, to kick or stomp him again, and her arms were useless. And she wanted to watch as the orange did it’s work…Still.looking down, seemingly scared…okay not so seemingly, she nodded to the back counter. “It’s over there.”

Bonner

Soulis looked in the direction of her nod. At the back of the room was a secure stasis unit. Capable of holding four cylindrical sample cases, it currently held one; inside of which was a soft blue glow. Barely visible through the transparent aluminum viewer was a long branch with dark green leaves… and two vibrant, large oranges.

Soulis smiled and turned to look at Alexis. He leaned forward and licked her cheek and whispered “Now there’s a good girl…” and he pushed off the counter and walked to the unit. He looked at it for a long moment and then turned to Alexis and said “Come here and open it. Of I even think an arm has been tripped… I’ll find one of the many children on this ship and what happens to them will ensure you never sleep a wink again. Now unlock it.”

Soulis

Alexis flinched away biting back the need to scream at him to not touch her. She needed him to take the d@%m orange. As he walked away, again she whispered only loud enough for the ear buds to pick up, “Kane where are you?” She never called him Kane.

She stayed leaned against the counter. “I can’t. You broke my combadge remember? Triple redundancy: voice, biosign and combadge signal all have to match.” Her voice was strained and even to Soulis it would be obvious she was in too much pain to lie. “It’s not alarmed, ask GALEN.”

Alexis stumbled as she tried to move away from the counter, almost sliding to the floor, barely catching herself on the injured arm, and whimpered loudly. “Take it, just leave the children alone.”

Bonner

Soulis looked at her and his jaw muscles clenched… and then he slowly turned around. He pressed the release and the cylinder slid forward slightly with a hissssssss. Soulis grabbed the handle and pulled it free… and the unbalanced back end started to fall to the floor.

Instinctively, Soulis’s injured hand went to the base and he caught it in his hand. He looked at Alexis and smiled and said “Good girl. Now… come on Alexis. Time to go. We have a lot of wor-“
If he had been looking at her, Soulis would have known something was wrong from the gleam in her eye when the unit tipped and he caught it. Alexis shook her head and sank to the floor. She was not going with him.

And all the lights in the room went out.

It was dark. She was seriously hurt, trapped with this monster, and she could hear movement just out of reach. She was going to die…in the dark. She could feel her heart racing and it was hard to breath around the tightness in her throat, her body trying to expel air to scream. Her light! But she couldn’t reach it easily, not with her injured arms…and then…

A familiar voice in Alexis’s ear said softly “Whatever you do… don’t make a sound. He has to think you aren’t afraid of the dark. Deep breath. Its almost over.”

Alexis closed her eyes and hung her head, holding back her scream. No sound, no light…she couldn’t do it. She tried to breathe, but she couldn’t. She couldn’t scream..then he would find her in the dark and hurt her. Solomon said it was almost over, but where was he? It had been an eternity, where was he?? In her panic there was no logical sense of time. And then she heard his voice again, in the room this time.

Then Kane’s voice seemed to be all around them. “Soulis… Star Fleet Intelligence… tsk tsk tsk… you’ve been a baaaaaad boy, you sniveling piece of crap.”

Soulis’s voice came from the dark where he stood holding the container. “Mr. Kane, I take it. We meet again. Show yourself, Lieutenant. Ill make it painless, I promise.” His words dripped with venom and condescension.

“Oh… but see, thats the difference between someone like you and someone like me…” Kane’s voice whispered from the blackness. “I won’t. In fact… Alexis and I just gave you a little present. And that present is, right now, taking away the one thing you treasure the most.... your precious little mind.“

Suddenly the lights flared to life in a building flash. Kane was standing right in front of Soulis. The Intel Commander was able to blink once before a knee shot forward and up into his groin area, dropping him to the deck and sending the container rolling away.

Kane knelt next to Soulis, who struggled to breath from the immense pain clouding his vision. “You stayed so focused on her. You could have done your own work, you know. Your own business and left her alone. You handle your own when you become man. And you become a man when you handle your own. But you chose not to. You chose not to be a man. You chose to be a piece of s#!t instead.” Soulis was slowly catching his breath… until Kane flashed a fist forward and drove it into Soulis’s diaphragm, causing him to expel all his air, turn bright read, and make it so he couldn’t breathe.

Kane looked at him and shook his head. “Its disappointing, really. You were given a shot. Walk away. I told you to walk away… but you didn’t. You thought you were smarter than me. And you know what? You probably are.” Kane leaned in really close to Soulis and stage whispered “But I am exponentially meaner than you. And more devious. And far more malicious.”

Alexis watched in a sort of daze as Solomon beat the hell out of Soulis, again. Eyes dilated, respiration uneven and rapid, heart racing, pinpricks of light flashing (that was new…no tunnel vision) and a strange sort of vertigo and rolling stomach she’d never had before. She made a noise, pain mixed with disbelief, Soulis was not smarter than Solomon.

Kane stood up and looked down at Soulis. “Right palm, look at it.” Soulis slowly looked at his hand… dozens of small little points of blood covered his palm. “That is where you injected yourself with a modified neurotoxin designed by that vision of intellect and bravery.” and he gestured to Alexis. “As we sit here… your brain is getting f@$ked. By this time tomorrow, you’ll have lost about sixty IQ points permanently. By the time its run it’s course? Well… intellect isn’t everything, right. I mean… you still have your health.” and Kane raised his leg and kicked Soulis in the stomach to keep him gasping for air.

When she saw the blood on his hand she began to laugh but that jarred her arm and it hurt. In his ear Kane heard her voice strained and chocked, “14 minutes, 20 seconds left. 5 minutes and it’s going to start hurting.” Her voice was strained and if asked later, Alexis would have no idea how she’d managed to hold onto the numbers.

Kane looked at Alexis and said “Except for the minor adjustment I made to your part of the plan. I added a dormant Andorian flu virus series. Not contagious, no symptoms…” and he looked back at Soulis and grinned.

“Well… except the impotence part.” and he suddenly bent down and grabbed Soulis by the collar and lifted him to standing before driving his knee into his ribs three or four times in quick succession. Kane let the uniform top go and Soulis crumpled. Whimpering, he started to speak, but Kane bent down and grabbed him by the jaw, forcing him to look at Kane, and locked eyes with him and said “No no no no no… you do not get to talk. You get to suffer. Period.” and he threw Soulis’s head back. Standing up, Kane looked around and found the cylinder. He walked over and picked it up carefully. Walking back to Soulis, Kane said “Alexis, my love… turn your engagement ring stone counterclockwise two times, please.”, his eyes never coming off of Soulis as he dropped the container in the man’s lap.

Kane, CSO and really mean when he gets mad

Alexis blinked trying to focus. Her ring…okay…she settled her right arm against her side to support it and then rested her left hand against her midsection under her right hand. Her fingers should still work right despite the broken bone. It took a moment to get her fingers just on the stone and then turn it…once…twice.

Bonner

Kane squatted in front of Soulis, who was having great difficulty breathing. Kane’s head cocked to the side, the feral eyes that never seemed to rest moving over Soulis… appraising him… as both a doctor… and a predator. “Broken ribs hurt, don’t they.” Kane said as he reached forward and pressed a fingertip into the area he knew the sharp, jagged points of the broken ribs were. Soulis cried out as much as he could with little air in his lungs, and Kane nodded slowly. “Yeah… they’ll be able to fix you up physically. But that stuff in your blood? Yeah… I meant what I said. Oh, it won’t take away much if any of your knowledge. You’ll still know physics and biology and science… but you just won’t be able to… kinda… piece it all together. Not like you were great at that anyway, otherwise you wouldn’t have needed Alexis. But now? Whew… now it will be a lot worse. And you’ll know that you knew it before… that’ll be the real kicker. It’ll be right there just close enough you can get it… and then “poof’… gone into the broken and blocked synapses of your brain. Oh, and before you think you’ll reverse it? Yeah… you can’t. Even a neural regenerator won’t work. See the synapses aren’t just broken and burned… their redirected back onto themselves. Like a feedback loop. And that means it seems to your body that they are working… so there is nothing to fix.” and he held his hands up and shrugged. “Oops… guess that means your value to Intel will be dropping significantly over the next day or so. Oh, I’m sure they will try to fix you… you are so absolutely valuable to them, right? I mean, it’s not like you are just some cog in a much bigger machine… right?” and Kane leaned in close to Soulis’s face. “It’s not like you are replaceable… right?” And Kane patted his cheek softly as a stunned Soulis began to realize what was transpiring as the tattooed doctor-turned-engineer-turned scientist stared at him with a feral grin.

Alexis watched, well more like listened, her vision was a little fuzzy. Blinking several times to bring clear the fuzzy dark edges in her vision. She knew it would begin to clear as endorphins eventually began to race through her blood stream to ease the pain. Watching him taunt Soulis, Alexis realized Kane was actually really scary, she hadn’t realized that before. Like predatorily instinctually scary. And it was amazing. The look on Soulis’ face made her laugh, and then cut off. That arm really hurt.

“Naw… you’re special. No one can do what you do, right? No one… no one anywhere…” and Kane looked over his shoulder at Alexis and then back at Soulis. “Well… we both know the reality there, don’t we?” He stood up slowly and looked at the chronometer on the wall. “You have about thirty seconds left till those cooked synapses start to hurt.” Kane walked over to a workbench, opened it, and pulled out a flask. He walked over and stood over Soulis, watching him carefully. Taking a drink, he offered it to Soulis. “One for the road? No? Ok.” He took another drink and walked over to Alexis.

“Heya, champ.” he said as he squatted in front of her. “You ready to finish this thing?” From the other side of the room, a low moan began…

Kane, CSO

Alexis looked at Solomon, “Hey.” She shifted slightly, “Yeah…” She looked over at Soulis as he began to moan. “What’s like? Hmm? What’s it like feeling everything you fear, Soulis?” The man looked at her with confusion and moaned louder. “You wanted to be an augment, now you are…augmented stupid.” Soulis’ eyes widened slightly, and then fear as the pain increased. Alexis put her head back, “I can turn on a light, you will never not be what we’ve made you.” She looked at Solomon, “Yeah, I’m ready.”

Bonner

Kane nodded and stood up, helping her rise to her feet. He slowly walked her over to where Soulis now lay cradling his head. “W… wh… what… what… did… what did you do to me?!” he cried as tears ran down his face and he gasped for air between spasms of pain rocking his head and chest. Kane looked down and him and shook his head. “Pretty pathetic there, Soul-patch. Again… you could be a man… but you choose not to be.” and he glared at him through the hair falling across his face. He then looked at Alexis and jerked his head once at the prone figure. “Say your peace.” he whispered low enough that she only heard it in her earpiece.

Kane, CSO