Captivity

Posted on May 26, 2015 @ 1:28am by Lieutenant Eve Dalziel
Edited on on May 26, 2015 @ 1:29am

Mission: The Lights of Hyperion

"Captivity”

(Continued from "Miniature Disasters, Minor Catastrophes")

=/\=

"Fascinating. Pure energy, pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all."

-Spock to Kirk, TOS: "Errand of Mercy"

=/\=

Location: USS PHOENIX

SD: 2.150520.1904

Scene: Brig

Dalziel nodded at Security (well the officer acting as Security, anyway) as they allowed her entrance to the cell where Evangeline “Sedna” Montoya was being held, if for no other reason than she might be a danger to herself or others. Her rap sheet said a great deal more, but seeing as they were all despots due to ‘crimes against the Federation’ there was still the faintest of chances that the woman might redeem herself one day.

Miss Montoya looked pale and wan under the lighting of her sparse accommodations. She looked up listlessly at her visitor, nonplussed at the strange woman dressed in a teal trimmed uniform. “Who are *you*?”

She sighed almost inaudibly. “I’m Eve, the ship’s Counsellor.”

Sedna wrinkled her nose as if the tall woman had announced she was the latrine in a garbage scow. “Goody.”

Eve sat down opposite the cell, outside of the confinement beams that had long since replaced steel bars as the method of choice for today’s modern prisoner.

Montoya stood, knowing exactly how close she could come to the barrier without setting it off. She edged over to get a better look at her visitor. Her brunette hair was perpetually messy, in choppy layers, the longest of which covered the nape of her neck. Her brown eyes were nearly the same color and had an opportunistic and feral quality.“You’re not one of those telepaths, are you?”

“Nope. But if that’s what you prefer, it can be arranged. But I didn’t think you’d like the risk of turning your brain into oatmeal, so we’re doing this instead. Okay?”

Montoya nodded slowly. Obviously the woman across from her wasn’t the the warm-and-fuzzy type. “I thought Counsellors were supposed to be helpful,” she offered.

Eve raised an eyebrow. “You know that’s bullshit, right?”

Sedna’s mouth gaped slightly. “W-what?”

Eve took out a PADD and readied herself to take notes. “It’s all up to you, Missy, I’m just the facilitator. Now tell me about your parents.”


=/\=

Scene: Loftus-Arn Quarters


Breathing was automatic. In, then out. For a length of time that was what Dido Loftus-Arn did; she breathed. And slept. And everything else remained still.

Slowly, her mind began to awaken. In the haziness of being half-asleep, she reached out to Solomon with her outstretched arm and hand, and found nothing but an empty bed on his side. It was cold. Her eyes broke open, afraid, the reality of why he was not there waiting for her, dwelling in the shadows of her living nightmare.

Captain Kane’s words, now long since stale but remembered with an odd clarity, wove around her consciousness like ribbons around a maypole. They were present, but not touching. Had she imagined it? Surely, it wasn’t true. Any moment Solomon would walk through that door with some explanation about how he’d stayed in the lab all night, and they’d have their morning meal. They would share the events of the day before. They would work. They would fall asleep tonight cradled in each other’s arms. And tomorrow would be more of the same beautiful life. Except…

It wouldn’t. Dido sat up in bed. “Computer, locate Solomon Arn,” she begged. It was a ritual she had repeated several times.

The computer chirped. [[Solomon Arn is not aboard the PHOENIX.]]

“Where is the Arn symbiont?” She clutched the sheets with her hands.

[[The Arn symbiont is not aboard the PHOENIX.]]

“When was the last time Solomon Arn was aboard the ship?” Tears prickled at her eyes and stung with the need to be released.

[[Solomon Arn left the PHOENIX at two point one five point zero four zero two zero zero five two.]] The mechanical voice of the ship’s computer almost sounded sympathetic somehow.

She couldn’t restrain her grief any longer. Dido leaned forward, bringing her knees up under her chin and wrapping her arms around her legs, and rocked back and forth, alternating between sobbing and gasping for air. With each day, the wound opened anew, and she was as lost now as she ever had been.

The tears subsided, but the hollowness in her chest remained. There was the chasm of Solomon’s absence that nothing could ever fill. She wanted someone to blame, and wanted his death to have meaning, a sense of purpose beyond what it was. So far, she had found neither. Solomon had simply been doing his job, and the man who killed him was dead himself.

Dido still remembered her conversation with the woman they had come to LIMBO for. She had said her peace, had held nothing back, but it still didn’t bring with it the satisfaction and relief she was seeking.

The only thing that had brought a smile to her face recently was the little pug that wore the canine equivalent of a Captain’s uniform. Squishy? Was that his name? Dido wiped her face with her hands. “Dido Loftus-Arn to the Counselling department.”

[[This is Owen Arion. How can I assist you?]]

‘I- I need to see you as soon as possible. Do you have any openings today?”


=/\=

Scene: Brig

“And she wasn’t happy to see me… and she didn’t *care* that I was in trouble. I was just a goddamn inconvenience to her,” Sedna spat, referring to her mother in less-than-glowing terms. If the woman was finding it difficult to share her opinions with the Counsellor, she was doing an awfully good job of pretending.

“Is that why you ran off with Rawyvin Seth?”

Anger flashed in Montoya’s eyes her face flooded with color. Her fists clenched. “Ran off with? How *dare* you say that! I was taken by that man. I was his captive. I will admit that I don’t remember everything from the time I kept his company, but the more clear headed I get the more I know I did not *want* to be with him!”

A flicker of auric light behind Montoya caught the corner of Eve’s view, like an apparition. Before she had an opportunity to turn her head and examine it further, it exploded into a miniature nova.

Eve raised her arm to shield her eyes and face as pure reflex. Somewhere, in the back of her mind, she knew if the forcefield was breached, a uniform sleeve would do little to protect her from injury. But her logic was clearly overruled by her fight-or-flight response. Simultaneously, she thought she saw the barrier of the cell sway outward in advance of the blinding light, like the prismatic surface of a soap bubble.

The explosion flung Evangeline Montoya against the forcefield like a rag doll. She bounced when she hit the floor. There was the distinct crackle of broken bones, and parts of her clothing had been burned away, radiation burns showing on the skin underneath. A trickle of blood was coming from her right ear.

Eve came up from the floor- how she got there she wasn’t certain- and after assessing the prisoner’s condition, which was serious, looked down at her own extremities. Everything seemed intact. She called Engineering for help. “This is Dalziel, something’s happened in the Brig. I need transport to Sickbay *asap*.”

After what felt like an eternity, Suvek’s voice came through. [[One moment Lieutenant, we are clearing the triage area. There was an accident in the Armory.]]

Eve’s brow furrowed. “What kind of accident?” It wasn’t like the Marines to make mistakes.

[[That matters not. Prepare for beam in less than 20 seconds.]]

“It’s Montoya. Something ‘went off’ inside her cell. I think it was radioactive in nature, and her injuries appear to be significant, but not life-threatening.”

Cade’s tired voice cut through. [[Let me be the judge of that,]] he said as the two women coalesced.


=/\=

Susan Ledbetter

Writing for

Lieutenant Eve Dalziel

just the facilitator