Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Deck 9 - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light

Posted by Commander Dr. Royal Sinclair (Executive Officer) in Deck 9 - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light

Posted by Captain Dira Myqian (Commanding Officer) in Deck 9 - Shadows Are Not Immune To Light
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Of course I was angry,” she said, the distress fading from her voice. “Rage, actually. It flared the moment the ship shook and I knew he had caused it. Coming after me was one thing, but to harm my ship, my crew? Unforgivable.” Dira drew in a deep breath. “When I made it to the corridor, and the main in my chest kept increasing I wondered if that was where I was going to die. But then Frigga showed up. She tried to get help but no one was around. But then William was on the move after I injured him and he was angry. Frigga got defensive and she protected me, which was good because I was so weak I couldn’t move any farther. And the computer didn’t recognize my voice commands so I couldn’t summon help. I just sat against the wall and waited for something to happen one way or another. But then Surra and Zoi showed up, and then a doctor and I was beamed to Sickbay.” In this middle space between the place where her nightmares began to form and the place where she found safety, it was neutral. This room wasn’t the problem.

Captain Myqian, CO

“Okay… so we go further.” He turned and opened the maintenance hatch. He looked inside and said “Well then…” and then looked at Dira. “After you.” and he gestured to the opening.

Sinclair, XO

Her heart pounded in her ears and Dira tried to taken breaths but it was so damn hard! Eyes wide, she shook her head, nails digging into her palms. On the surface he knew what he was asking of her, and so did she. But try as she might she couldn’t will herself to crawl into that jefferies tube.

Captain Myqian, CO

Sinclair stepped in front of her and set his two heavy hands on her shoulders, bracing her in the present. “Look at me… look at me, Captain.” he said firmly.

Her mind snapped to focus on him. Her dark eyes took him, echoing the terror she felt within that she had been keeping under tight wraps as much as possible. His hands were weights that anchored her in this space and she forced herself to take deeper breaths.

“It is entirely within the realm of possibility that at some point you are going to have to crawl into this very space in order to fulfill our mission… or maybe even save this ship. Freeze up now all you like… but you can not freeze up like this again. So you are getting in that tube. You are going to immerse yourself in that moment. And then?” and he squeezed her shoulders. “And then you are going to come out the other side of the tube and the moment and realize that neither holds any power over you anymore. Because you have to. You are the Captain… you don’t get to ‘not’ get past it.”

Sinclair, XO

More tears slipped over her brown cheeks and she dropped her head. “It’s not about Captain Myqian, or rather the Commander Myqian I was then.” She lifted her head again, anguish etched into her features. “He came for Dira. For me. He stalked me on this ship, poked at my telepathy until I thought I was losing my mind and had a breakdown in the psychiatrist’s office because he was biding his time while I was going through a difficult resurgence of grief. How he laid the ground work for me to second guess myself long before I came to the Ogawa.”

“Yes. He did all of that.” Sinclair agreed. “And it was cunning and clever… and all for nothing. He didn’t win, Dira. He came for you… But he didn’t get you.” Royal said with emphasis. “He may have diverted you for a period… but he didn’t get what he was after. Remember that.”

Dira gestured loosely to the open jefferies tube hatch and turned out from under his hands, moving to touch to wall just above the opening. She looked back at him, and wiped at her eyes with her free hand. “Fine, so we do this. But this wasn’t just some random abduction. This isn’t a single moment of trauma that needs to be worked through. This was a man taking control of a woman to satisfy his own desires, and whom was willing to harm and even kill others to keep her to himself.” There was so much more to all of this than just the facts that unfolded that day a couple weeks ago. This was complicated, layered, and brutal, even if things never got as bad as had been promised to her. Unless he had been through the same thing, this was not something she expected him to understand. She slipped into the jefferies tube without another word and just tried to stop herself from sobbing the entire way.

She took a right and then another and pushed open another hatch. They stepped into a small space that was meant only for maintenance access. Though tall enough to stand in, it wasn’t more than 3 metres square. There were panels for access to specific systems and there were various conduits and pipes that ran along the walls or from the ceiling through the floor.

Dira stood there and it was so clear. Her, at first laying on her side, then sitting with difficulty and bound by the feet. Her arms had bene puled tight behind her and writs bound with stiffer optical cable to one of the pipes at the wall. Him, sitting there before her, working away on his plan while he waited for her to wake up. Then all that nonsensical conversation. “He had me bound by the ankles and wrists, and my wrists were tied to that pipe over there,” she said flatly. “He had gone so far as to have a glass of water waiting for me, though it was really stale and had clearly been there awhile. He had done such a good job tampering with the computer that GALEN didn’t even know I was here. No one did. At one point I sent a telepathic plea to Zoi for help. But she’s El Aurian, and not an outright telepath. I knew by then that I loved her, so I tried on the off chance that it might work, that she would know.” Dira turned her gaze on Royal. “It did, and I’m so grateful William never even considered the fact that I’m not heterosexual, that what he supposed was friendship with Zoi is so much more. I’ve not doubt he’d have found a way to kill her if he even suspected he had competition.”

Captain Myqian, CO

Royal crossed his arms on his chest and leaned against a panel. “Tell me how you felt when you first came to. After the grogginess… when you realized what was happening.”

Sinclair, XO