Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in Too Often to be Coincidence

Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in Too Often to be Coincidence

Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in Too Often to be Coincidence
Posted by… suppressed (32) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
Sisnil let her go. “I’m thanking you for even considering doing it.” He looked at her, “It’ll be easy. No one will question you sending a quick message.”

~ Zoi

Drafvia nodded, “I know. It’s who might be watching and what the might do that scares me, Sisnil.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“You’ll be quite safe.” Sisnil believed that, he wasn’t just saying it so she’d do it. “Even if the Syndicate happened to be there, they won’t be watching for some Starfleet officer sending a message.”

~ Zoi

“I… I wasn’t going to go in uniform. That way no one could trace me back to the ship.” If she changed her hair, altered her clothes, removed her ja’risia, altered her eyes or bone structure a bit, she shouldn’t be recognizable.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Even less reason to be watching you,” Sisnil said. “If I were at a non-fleet station, the last thing I’d be doing I watching what some random woman is sending. Unless you look like you’re doing something you shouldn’t be.”

~ Zoi

“I guess you’ll have to coach me. My security instructor told me I always looked like someone was after me.” That was because she always felt like someone was. She changed the subject abruptly. “What’s your favorite part?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil looked confused. “Of what?” Then he caught up and realized she switched topics. “Oh - the holodeck program. Easy, the cat.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia grinned, “I like the cat too. Will you show me the fish pond?” It came out shy and uncertain, but she wanted to see it.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. They headed back through the building and to the front gardens and he stopped at the main fish pond. “It’s a koi pond, like from Earth Japan. I don’t know, I’ve always liked them. I added a number of other water critters that can live in the same kind of water as koi. The monks will upkeep the water and feed the animals.”

~ Zoi

She knelt down and stared over the edge. “Oh! They are stunning! They are more stunning than Risan Sishyr fish.” She had never seen fish like these. They almost seemed friendly, rising toward the surface and watching them as she watched the fish.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil had the computer give him fish food and then gave some to Dradvia. “Sprinkle it on top of the water and the fish will come for it.”

~ Zoi

She looked up and over her shoulder at him when he spoke. Then she turned back to the pond. She pinched the food between her thumb and forefinger and sprinkled it across the water.

The koi rose to the surface, their mouths opening and closing to grab the flakes. One wasn’t quite fast enough and stared at her through the water. “Here you go.” Dradvia sprinkled some right above him and then quickly added more to stop the others from stealing it. “They’re so graceful.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil watched them with interest. Whether he’d admit it or not, it seemed to relax him. “I don’t know why, but I’ve always liked them.” He said.

~ Zoi

“What’s not to like?” The koi came to the surface, opening and closing their mouths, looking for more food.She sprinkled more with a soft laugh at their antics. “They are very friendly aren’t they? Are they really like this?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “Typically.” He sat on the edge, pulled his socks off, and dipped them into the water. “Come on. Put your feet in.”

~ Zoi

She hesitated a minute and then sat, pulling the robe away from the water and carefully put her feet in. The water was cool but not cold, comfortable and a bit nerve wracking. She was afraid she would hurt the fish.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

It was something Sisnil had done as a child, put his feet in a fish pond. He was pretty sure it couldn’t hurt the fish, after all, there was worse things than feet in the pond water they liked to live in. He seemed at ease as he leaned back, supporting himself with his hands. He let his feet be still in the water. Kicking could hurt the fish.

~ Zoi

Dradvia was very still, watching the fish rather than their surroundings. After awhile the fish became curious and came to investigate their feet.

Sisnil was an enigma. She was curious about him, but neither of them really wanted to talk about their pasts. She didn’t want to find out something she would later wish she didn’t know. And there were things she didn’t want people to know about her.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil knew all too well not to ask people about their pasts. If she wanted to tell him anything, Dee would do it in her own time. He wasn’t afraid of his past. There were things he wasn’t proud of or even ashamed of, but he wasn’t afraid of it.

What he was afraid of, was if she’d learned some of the things he’d had to do at the hands of the Syndicate, Dee wouldn’t want him around anymore. Sisnil liked her. And she helped with the intense loneliness being separated from his twin caused.

But Sisnil had started out as an honest freighter. Nilly and Norry’s freight, on the Albatross. That’s what they’d set out to do. But money was hard to come by, and they hadn’t been able to keep their ship in good repair with their earnings. Let alone live on them.

So they’d begun accepting any job, so long as it wasn’t violent. Smuggling, transport, you name it, the Albatross would do it. Their original crew began to turnover, uncomfortable with the legalities of their business.

But Sisnil and Noril were good at illegal. They had no trouble with their work, and that earned them more work. Their ship was kept in better repair. They ate better.

Then the Syndicate came. Then came the bargain. The Syndicate’s protection and work in exchange for some profits, undying loyalty, and obeying the law and word of the Syndicate. It was presented as a choice, but it wasn’t. It was join or die.

So, the brothers became Syndicate members. The crew Sisnil left behind began to form. His jobs remained mostly the same, but occasionally the Syndicate would call on them. Make them do something. Eventually those somethings became more and more outside Sisnil’s comfort zone.

Sisnil and Noril went from simple smugglers, to Syndicate smugglers, to Syndicate transporters, smugglers, and enforcers.

Not to mention the Syndicate’s use of their telepathy. Oh, of course, they’d refused at first. The threat to their ship, crew, and life had persuaded them to see the Syndicate’s point of view.

The brothers became the Syndicate’s call-boys for a variety of jobs. If they’d wanted it, they could’ve moved up in the organization. But they were happy with what they were, flying around in Albatross, doing the best they could. Trying to make up for the deeds the Syndicate forced them to do by being the best they could in their other jobs.

But with Dee’s past, Sisnil wasn’t sure she could forgive the things he’d been made to do. He’d have to tell her eventually, he was sure.

But not now. Right now, he wanted to watch koi and enjoy her company.

~ Zoi

Dradvia knew all about the people that were forced to ‘work’ for the Syndicate. She had met enough. Begged for their help. Someone had tried once, to get Kryssa out. It had been 2 weeks before they let the woman die. The penalty for helping a slave escape was worse than death.

She was sure there were things she never wanted to know, but she ignored that. She didn’t have to imagine the things he was forced to do and how they ‘encouraged’ him.

For now, it was peaceful and she enjoyed his company.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

The penalty for not serving the penalties was even worse. Eventually, Sisnil lifted his feet and made the computer give him a towel. He dried his feet, put his socks back on, and folded his legs. “Thanks… For sitting with me.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia pulled her feet out and requested her own towel. “Thank you for not filling it with pointless chatter. Not many people are comfortable in silence.” She stood slowly, careful not to slip on the slick stones. “I’m glad you made this. I’ll use it a lot I think.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Good.” Sisnil stood too. He shrugged, “There are times for pointless chatter. This wasn’t one of them.”

~ Zoi

“Two years of forced silence… It can still be hard sometimes to have a casual conversation.” She headed around the building back to the main door where she had left her shoes.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil followed her. “You never seem to struggle at it to me.” He commented, looking at her. “Then again, I don’t really view the occasional silence as a bad thing.”

~ Zoi

“You don’t ask questions I can’t answer.” Some things were too upsetting, some she had been conditioned to stay silent. “You don’t try to get anything from me.” Dradvia wasn’t nieve enough to think he never wanted anything or never would, but he didn’t force.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I don’t need anything from you,” Sisnil said with a shrug. “Not so badly that I’d have to try and make you. And our shared previous association can help with that. I already know what that life is like. No need to ask certain things others might be inclined to.”

~ Zoi

“Most people aren’t even trying to be supportive. They are morbidly curious, and then they don’t believe you.” Or they want to be my hero after the fact. As if wishing they had been there makes it all okay. She stepped I side and shrugged off the robe, hung it, and slipped her shoes back on. “Similar experiences foster understanding.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil smiled sympathetically. “Sorry.” He wouldn’t call their situation similar, he was not one of the Syndicate’s slaves. There were worse fates than his. But he didn’t say anything about it. He slipped his shoes back on. Then he went to the computer terminal and was doing something for a minute. “There. This program is uploaded to the library for anyone to use.”

~ Zoi

“Why?” She looked at him curiously. “I mean, why are you sorry? What happened to me, the way people treat me is not your responsibility or your fault.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil glanced up, puzzled. “Hmm. Sorry you have to go through that. Sorry people are insensitive, I guess. It’s not my fault, but it seemed the right thing to say.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia nodded slowly. “I can see that. I just hate saying ‘I’m sorry’. We used to say that all the time on the slaver ship. We’d chant it like a prayer, scream it with our final breaths in the hope it would save us. It never did. Even if we didn’t do anything wrong, we would say it. It didn’t matter. We were sorry. We never knew what for.”

She took a breath and straightened her shoulders, “But apologies have such power no matter how they are uttered.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “Thankfully, my situation with the Syndicate is more agreeable - I do what they ask, they leave me alone the rest of the time.”

~ Zoi

She almost reached for his hand. “I’m glad you were one of the lucky ones Sisnil.”

Sisnil smiled, but it wasn’t a happy look. He was lucky, that he would admit. But one day, he’d have to lift the numbness he felt and actually deal with the things he’d done.

Dradvia switched the subject, “If it’s okay with you, I will probably recommend this program to people. It’s very lovely.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded, “That’s why I designed it. Recommend it to everyone.” He looked at her, “It’s a good way to stave off boredom.” Then he grinned, “Keep me from doing anything stupid.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia knew it wasn’t easy on him. She knew he had things that haunted him, if he was a good person at the core. She thought he was. She was still glad he hadn’t gone through what she did.

It was hard for her. He could feel that, but she took the leap anyway. “You can always come find me. Anytime, you know, if… if it’s too much.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

He smiled. “Thanks, Dee. You too, you know. You need me, I’ll be there.” He terminated the program as they left. “The cool thing is, when it opens, it’ll calculate how much time has passed and “run” that much time so… Time passes in the program without it having to run in the background.”

~ Zoi

“I can’t wait to try that. See what the weather is, the plants change, the koi grow. Was that hard to program?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer