Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Shuttle Bay - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light

Posted by Commander Dr. Royal Sinclair (Executive Officer) in Shuttle Bay - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Shuttle Bay - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

The worst part was that they had to walk past where everything else happened in order to get to the beginning. But Dira felt she could compartmentalize for the moment at least to get them where they needed to go. She spun on the ball of her foot and headed out of the shuttlebay.

The shuttlebay was a straight shot along 9B to the access point between the primary and secondary hulls and the arboretum was all the way at the other end of the deck on A. They crossed the threshold into A and Dira kept going, moving at a purposeful pace past where everything went down. Soon enough they stood at the arboretum entrance and the door slid open at their presence. Dira stepped inside, took two more steps, and then stopped.

“I was doing my usual rounds, walking the ship as I always do. But lately it had been a bit unnerving. I kept getting pings on my senses, like someone was there, but there never was. Over the course of a couple weeks it got worse and I finally broke down in the Psychiatrist’s office. Which got complicated but long story short, we decided that my mind needed a break, I needed a break. So I agreed to a neurosuppressant and light duty. No bridge work, but I could work in my office and have meetings as needed. So I walked into the arboretum looking for a bit of respite I guess.” She gestured to the main path that went around the green space. “I did the loop and then was heading for the exit, but then someone left ahead of me. I saw just the profile of them and it was that of someone who shouldn’t be here. So I followed them out, knowing it was likely just someone that looked like him and we could laugh it off.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“So do the loop. Walk it with me.” Sinclair said. “But now… remember the moments. Tell me what you were feeling, not just the thoughts in your head. Talk me through who and what Dira was in those moments.”

Sinclair, XO

Dira shot him a rather disgruntled look. She was all for therapy and working through stuff, but there was a time and place and she wasn’t sure she was ready. Trust him to call her on her very factual description of events. This was going to be one of those times where having a first officer who also had been a therapist was going to be a right pain in the ass.

Drawing air in through her nose, she breathed out through slightly parted lips and looked for a steady place within in her. And then she began to walk. Slowly, but she had been meandering at the time anyway. “I remember thinking how strange it was not to be able to sense anyone still. I had dampened my telepathy before but it was always temporary. This was the last day I took the suppressant and I already knew that I didn’t like the feeling. Normally, even with mental shields, some stuff leaks through. There is always this background hum of indistinct thought and emotion. A collective presence of the crew I was always aware of, whether I wanted to or not. But not being able to feel them left me off-kilter, even if it did allow me the chance to work through some stuff from before without those weird pings.”

“I also was thinking about how I hadn’t sang for the crew yet, not at all. A friend of mine from my previous posting called it my ‘musical moods’ and I still get them, but I had been going through this big transition and felt lost about who I was now, about some of the new things I was experiencing. But I felt the urge to hum, so I did.” They came around the back bend and could once again see the door and she stopped, frowning. “I felt like I was losing my mind. I had been hearing voices all through the week before and now I was seeing things. It was unsettling and all I knew was that I had to figure it out.” Her steps quickened towards the door. “I could see him there for such a brief moment and then he was gone, disappeared into the corridor, and I really didn’t think about it. I just followed him knowing it was just my imagination.”

Her heart rate had increased and as they reached the door, she didn’t hesitate and stepped right through. Dira was barely even aware of Sinclair now that she let her mind go there and actually remember in detail.

Out in the corridor she looked to the left and then the right, saw the mysterious man and moved down the corridor and rather than keep going down the length of the ship, she took a quick right into a short corridor. “He disappeared behind a door and I immediately regretted the neurosuppressant,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I knew I couldn’t always rely on my abilities and so I had to make a judgement call.” She stopped in front of a door. “Let it be, or follow my instincts that the man was behaving strangely and that it required someone’s attention. I didn’t want to startle them, so I drew up a warm and friendly demeanour and stepped through.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Sinclair stayed silent, but he watched Dira closely. He could see her mind go back to the events, could see her breathing increase in rapidity. He watched her look, her mind’s eye see the man…

Sinclair, XO

“It was so stupid! I wasn’t thinking clearly, obviously, but had I had access to my abilities, I would have known it was him. We had spent hours in therapy together and I knew what his mind felt like. And yet I just walked in like it was completely normal. And the next thing I know something was sprayed in my face and Im faling to the ground. And the last thing I saw before everything went dark is his face. I woke up elsewhere, in another space, but I didn’t know until I escaped that it was pretty close by and that he had dragged me through the jefferies tubes to a spot he had all set up waiting for me. It was all so planned, so calculated, and I played right into his trap,” she said with a bitter laugh, her frustration at herself, at the circumstances.

Captain Myqian, CO

Sinclair leaned against the bulkhead. “So how does that make you feel? Knowing he got the better of you?” he asked in non-judgemental tone; but with just enough emphasis to make her take note.

Sinclair, XO

His voice cut through and her head whipped in his direction, eyes blazing. “He was an idiot, an emotionally damaged one, but an idiot nonetheless. It’s frustrating! How can I be trusted with entire crew when I can’t even have the good sense to not walk into a space with a stranger when I’m already suspicious of what they’re doing? And they gave me a ship!” Dira laughed but it was a deeply bitter one. She slapped together door to the maintenance space and sighed, her eyes welling with tears. This was even the worst about the whole mess. Just an embarrassing note she couldn’t shake.

Captain Myqian, CO

Royal looked at her for a long moment and then said “Did I ever tell you about my first ever check-in with DH?” He chuckled softly. “First assignment out of the Academy. USS Challenger. Security officer. Man, was I stoked. All my classmates had orders, and we decided to celebrate. So we went out. O’Houllihan’s. Pub outside the Academy main gate. You know it?” he asked.

Dira nodded. “Practically an institution.”

“So we are there, and we are talking about our new assignments. Annandale we may have had a pint or three.” and he grinned at her a moment. “Anyway… in walks Cadet Brewer. Gods above I hated that guy. Arrogant, entitled… real prick. And the feeling was mutual. He hated me just as much. So Brewer… Brewer didn’t get a ship. Brewer got assigned right back at the Academy. You and I both know that that means they don’t think you are ready for the big leagues yet. And he was piiiiiiiissed. He has a few, I’m ignoring him, and after a few he starts cracking on the Challenger. ‘Junk’. ‘Rust Bucket’. ‘Relic’. And I will admit it… it was getting to me. The constant needling. But then… then he goes and calls her a garbage scow to. my. face. So I swing. He doesn’t even flinch. Just grins and goes to the deck. I’m confused. ‘What the hell is happening?’ I say to myself… and that’s when Shore Patrol arrests me. Assault. Yeah, extenuating circumstances. But I’m in the brig at the Academy and I’m half drunk and supposed to report in four hours. The spring me with just enough time to grab my kit and make it to the shuttle. No change of uniform, no shower, bloody knuckles. So I have to report to my very first DH looking like a complete wreck and smelling of booze with an arrest report that is less than five hours old.” He looked at Dira and blinked a few times.

“Turns out Brewer missed being selected to the Challenger by just a few points. A few points was all the difference between space… and babysitting Cadets. So he figured if I screwed up enough, he could capitalize on it. And I fell for it… hook, line, and sinker. I was smarter than him. I was a better officer than him. I knew my job better than him. But he still found that button.” Je looked at her again and then said “So now you tell me why that story matters here.”

Sinclair, XO

She winced. “Good people can make poor decisions.” Dira could feel that swirl within her gut that had show up in Kane’s office. “But your decision only hurt you. Mine got four, no five, members of my crew seriously injured. We’re fortunate no one died but it should never have happened in the first place.”

Sinclair nodded and said “True. But no one died. And I’m fairly certain from Commander Kane’s assessment of the device he disabled.... dead was an intention.”

She turned and looked back towards the main corridor where she had escaped into and had a painful and terrifying stagger to safety that she wasn’t sure would come. There was anger in her voice even though it dropped in level. “I could have ended it all on the Calypso but I hesitated. I didn’t want to harm someone who was working through difficult things. I thought, ‘so what if he’s taking his frustration and misguided affection out on me. I’m a professional and I can handle it.” Her chest felt so incredibly tight as she whispered, “I was so very wrong and there have been consequences I can’t shake.”

Captain Myqian, CO

“True again.” Sinclair said. “But as my dear ‘ol Sinear would always say when I started in on the ‘if only I had done X’ when playing rugby… ‘Aye, lad. If’n ya had, it might have been different. But ya didn’t… so accept it.” He looked at her a moment with narrowed eyes and said “Dira… you are the Captain now. You don’t have the luxury of second guessing your decisions. You made a call. For better or worse, you made the call and all of this happened. But at the end of the day… you did nothing wrong. You were the target of a psychopath… and your crew made it through it. That is better than most could have hoped for… or expected, under the circumstances. So take the lessons, learn them, and move on.”

Sinclair