Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in You Have To Trust Someone Eventaully

Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in You Have To Trust Someone Eventaully

Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in You Have To Trust Someone Eventaully
Posted by… suppressed (42) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
He did smile a little bit. “If you build me a time ship, we’ll never have met. I don’t think I can live with that, either.” Sisnil said, grinning at her.

~ Zoi

Dradvia was sure that would affect her more than it would him. “If you warn yourself ahead of time, you will alter the future and you won’t know you never met me.” Her smile was sad, “You’d be with your crew, with Vash, and Noril. That’s much better than here.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Hmm.” Sisnil said, like he couldn’t decide. “Let’s think about something else,” he said at last. Otherwise he’d cry and he’d not stand for that.

~ Zoi

“Okay.” Dradvia looked around the scene, “How… how did you learn to do all that? I’ve only ever seen military groups pull some of that off.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I’ve had ex military crew before, but honestly? You get good, or you get dead,” Sisnil said with a shrug. “We have to be better than Starfleet, to steal from Starfleet.”

~ Zoi

“You taught yourself all of that?” Dradvia waved to the holodeck scene around them. She was impressed, she couldn’t imagine learning all that without a teacher… well maybe she could. She had taught herself a lot about medicine in the same way. “Necessity.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “Necessity.” He looked at Dee, “Noril and I bought our ship intending to be honest freighters. Things just… Didn’t turn out that way.”

~ Zoi

Her head tipped to the side, “What happened?” There was no judgement, just curiosity and willingness to listen.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Work wasn’t very… Plentiful.” Sisnil said. “Then.... Well, the Syndicate happened. Trying to make money, we stepped on their toes.” Sisnil gave her a look, she knew what that meant.

~ Zoi

Dradvia nodded. “You were good. So rather than put you out of commission, they decided to profit off of you. If you hadn’t agreed, they would have killed you all.” She had been privy to some of those ‘negotations’. Lokhar was very pleased to show her off. She had been a prized possession. He used Kryssa to read people’s minds, and kept her close by to control Kryssa.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Exactly. We all became Syndicate members. My ability to read minds made me more valuable than some others. One of our crew was killed on the spot.” Sisnil shrugged, “It was years ago now, it is what it is.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia wasn’t surprised they had killed someone. Usually the one they felt was the least useful. Sometimes it was who was the biggest threat. The Syndicate preferred to keep them though. “I’m sorry about your friend.” She sighed. “Why is life always so hard?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil shrugged. “Bad luck?” It had been the “least useful”, a newer crew member with little experience. The death hadn’t been quick. He hadn’t deserved that. “I’ve gotten… A little numb to losing people.” He said with a shrug.

~ Zoi

Dradvia stared intently at him. She didn’t believe that. He had just got good at pushing through and burying the emotions. She wasn’t going to call him on it. Allowing yourself to be numb was sometimes the only way to get through. “What about your crew now? You have a medic? What is he like? Other than yelling at you?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“His name’s Eli, he’s… Well, what you’d expect of an ex-combat medic.” Sisnil said with a little chuckle. “It helps, my crew can be stubborn as all the hells, but he can handle them. There’s John, he’s part of my crew. Stubborn and abrasive but good at what he does. Engineering. And Nathan, my first mate and our weapons expert.”

~ Zoi

“Good engineers are underrated. Mako… he was taken a few months after us. He was really good. Lokhar found out. He was put to work in engineering. 4 month later he was ‘employeed’ rather than…” Well, Sisnil knew. “I was happy for him.”

“He’s lucky.” Sisnil said.

She looked confused, “Noril isn’t your first mate?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“We’re co-captains.” Sisnil said. “We work together. With me gone, well… It’s just Noril now. He’s never been as… Assertive as I am. I hope he’s alright.”

~ Zoi

“He will be. He didn’t get this far and not learn. You said so. I am sure Vash and Eli will keep him that way. Yeah?” She couldn’t help the slight twinge of jealousy that she hoped she tramped down before he noticed. She had no right to be jealous of any of them, but she was. They had each other.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“If they don’t, I’d put money on John being the one to backstab him.” Sisnil said as if making a completely normal, casual comment.

~ Zoi

“He must be really good to keep him around if you think he would betray the crew,” Dradvia observed.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“He is very good, but he’s also the most unpredictable and the most hardheaded. When I was there, I sensed no question in his loyalty. But with a weaker leader… I am less sure of him.” Sisnil shrugged, “Nothing I can do about it now.”

~ Zoi

“He’ll be okay. He may defer to you when together, but I’m sure he can stand on his own. He’ll be okay.” She cautiously reached over and set her hand on his arm. “Can he pass your training programs?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“We compete and see who does better.” Sisnil said. “There’s thing I’m good at and things he’s good at.” He shrugged, “Guess I’ll find out once you get that message out.” He appreciated her touch. Sisnil was a physical person. It had been hard for him, since meeting her, to refrain from touching her.

~ Zoi

Dradvia nodded. Perhaps she could find a way to get a message back from them. “So his style might be a bit different, play to his strengths, but he’ll be okay.” Dradvia had been an affectionate child, but that had been… her time in the Syndicate had killed that. It had been hard though, not to have anyone to lean on, confide in, be close to. She couldn’t manage it though. She was too afraid now.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. He set a hand gently on hers. “We’ll both keep doing what we do. Keep moving on.” He said and smiled.

~ Zoi

A tremor went through her at his touch. Fear or delight was uncertain, but she didn’t pull away. She would handle this so she could help him right now. “That’s all any of us can do. It’s not all bad. Maybe not ever great, but not all bad. You have time to work on your programming.” Dradvia was rambling now, unsure what to do or say.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil laughed. “The only challenging thing I’ve done was the gardens, and I accomplished that in one day. I think I’d rather test myself against the Security department or something. Though,” he winked at her, “I might need a doctor on call if I do that.”

~ Zoi

“Well,” she blushed just from a wink. “I might excuse those injuries since it’s real people.” Her head tipped slightly. “Why don’t you do that? There are open training sessions for all crew members, and holodeck programs available for whomever wants to use them.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“My holodeck programs are better,” Sisnil said with a shrug. “I can see if they’ll let me join a training session… Just because Morris is all ‘you’re crew’ doesn’t mean everyone else is. Stevens proves that.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia shook her head. “Stephens isn’t the whole crew. Besides that has nothing to do with who you are except a rival for me.” She shuddered, pulling her hand back to hug herself, rubbing her arms against the chill she felt. “If you weren’t around me, he would never bother you.” Dradvia hated it. It made her feel worthless, like an object.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I’m a mind reader, Dee, he’s not the only one. I haven’t sensed that kind of thing from the senior staff, at least. But…” He shrugged and sighed. He looked at her and smiled, “He sees you like that. I don’t and I never will.”

~ Zoi

She looked at him sad and a little lost. “I know you don’t, Sisnil.” Dradvia rubbed her arms again. “You know people can’t see you as part of a group if you never join the group. You spend time around me. That won’t get you around the crew.” Dradvia was too shy to ‘hang out’ around people. She preferred to blend into the wall with the crowd around.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil shrugged. “I don’t… I mean… I guess they’re not my crew so I’ve been avoiding them.” He said at last. “I mean, there’s enough people aboard this ship to be a small town.”

~ Zoi

“I get it.” She did. She didn’t feel connected to anyone, couldn’t trust complete strangers. There was no one… Dradvia glanced up at his face and looked away as heat flushed her cheeks. There was Sisnil. “Can’t trust them. You know why I go? I mean I don’t hang out with them, or join events often, but I like to know who is around, who belongs, who doesn’t, where they are supposed to be, who is likely to lose their temper, or be abrasive. So I know what to expect.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “I look for similar things, but I’m also looking for who I can trust, who is likely to backstab me or hurt me.” He glanced around, as if expecting someone to jump out of the shadows. “Who is ‘safe’ and who has it in them to kill me.”

~ Zoi

“Exactly that.” She did the same, except she never found anyone she could trust. “I prefer to know the degree of threat. If I learned anything, everyone has the ability to stab you in the back if given the right incentive.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“True, but it depends on what that incentive is. For Eli, it would have to be something very strong, very personal.” Sisnil said. “For Noril… Well, there isn’t a thing in the world we’d backstab each other for. But for others… Maybe the right amount of money. Maybe a better position.” He shrugged. “My Syndicate training makes it easy for me to discern these things without so much as a word.”

~ Zoi

“Reading minds doesn’t hurt either,” she said. It was serious, but she smiled at him. “It depends on the person I guess. The only thing I am ever sure of is that everyone will betray me given the right incentive.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I think I’d die without my telepathy,” Sisnil said. He smiled sadly at her. “I wish I could tell you different. But I’ve been backstabbed too many times for that.”

~ Zoi

“Same. Most of the time I want to know the truth, rather than someone try to soften reality for me. But,” she shrugged, “There are some things I wish I didn’t know, that I had been shielded from. I’m better off knowing, I just wish I didn’t sometimes.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “We all have things like that. Right now, held by Starfleet, it’s not just that kind of thing I wish I didn’t know, but valuable Syndicate secrets that put me at risk from both sides.”

~ Zoi

“Yeah. And they both expect, they demand, undying loyalty without earning it.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Every organization expects that,” Sisnil said. “How they go about enforcing it… That’s what’s important.”

~ Zoi

“I guess,” Dradvia said. He wasn’t wrong, but it was a fine line that didn’t excuse what either organization forced people to do. “That’s why my word means something to me. These groups, the people in charge just throw around words like air to breathe. It means nothing to them. But they suffocate people when you take it away. I won’t be like that.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “In my world, all that matters are actions, because it’s all too often words are meaningless.” He shrugged, “It is the way it is.”

~ Zoi

“I know,” she agreed. “I don’t take anyone at their word, and I don’t expect anyone to believe mine. It only matters to me.” Being loyal to herself.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. He could see how it would end up that way for her. He closed his eyes. “Then at least you have found that for yourself.”

~ Zoi

“I guess,” Dradvia shrugged feeling shy. “It’s a very lonely existence that way. Unable to take anyone at their word or their actions. I’m alive, so I guess that’s something.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer