The Most Dangerous Game II: Secrets

Posted on Mon May 28th, 2018 @ 11:32pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Fiona McCray & Lieutenant Commander Selune
Edited on on Mon May 28th, 2018 @ 11:33pm

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Operation: Risa!
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck 5, Commander Charybdis' Quarters
Timeline: 2265

"Who made you, Chary?" Fiona McCray asked once more, her voice edging in. It was a very unusual question... but she suspected this would be a very unusual conversation with her very unusual friend.

The mane of dark brown hair rolled around lazily til those big violet eyes looked at Fiona with a deep and abiding sadness in them.

"Th'Tal Shiar," Chary slurred, as if somehow that explained everything, when in fact the words meant nothing to Fiona.

In for a pence, in for a pound... Fiona had to ask, "Tha Th'Tal Shar?" she didn't mangle the pronunciation too horribly.

"I was ordered to be rebuilt by the subversive directorate of the seventh wing of the Tal Shiar, to be a living marvel of the Romulan Star Empire!" she said with a quietly drunken dramatic flourish. "Fast, strong, durable, smart... I was supposed to be a few other things too, but they didn't get me completely right. They tore me apart and gave me a few new brains... but I put the pieces back together a lil bit at a time and I kinda became a real person... I wasn't supposed to be able to do that. Then my brain leaked in my sleep when I mind melded... I wuz neeeever supposed to be able to do that, either. And then I wanted to be Starfleet, and then I came to the Bonne Chance and I wanted to stay, and now I gotta figure out how to save the rest of us."

Fiona's blood ran cold as she glanced at the bottle of pale blue Romulan ale, and her heart sank. Fiona McCray was one hell of a poker player, though, and her face remained the same- attentive and open. She listened to her friend spill out a tale straight from a horror holo. From the beginning, her parents had raised Fiona to trust her instincts.

So now she listened and her agile mind tumbled the words Char was saying, turning them this way and that, reading between the lines, and her heart broke a little for her friend. The kind of conditioning and programming that the young woman was so glibly mentioning in passing had to have been horrific to endure. Broken and rebuilt, the puppet had become a real live girl. The puppet masters had probably never seen it coming. Fiona picked up the bottle of ale and stared into it a moment, then took a sip and set it to one side.

Charybdis was a Romulan. Laird, but that put the puzzle pieces together.

"The Vulcans are really mean, didya know that? Most people don't know that. They just pick and pick and all the time. They're so proud of themselves and so smug and all they do is judge and I hated them so badly... I still don't like them. But I got away from them... I feel kinda bad about Sebel, but serves him right, the bastard... bastard Vulcans. 'It is for your own good, we are trying to help you, why can you not see that?' Maybe that's where Patrick gets it from... if you have an emotion then you're auto... automatically wrong." She had stumbled and had a little trouble with the word, and it was becoming obvious she was more than a little drunk at this point.

"I quit though. I did. They'll have to try ta kill me now for sure, but let 'em come. They contacted me on Risa and I think I got through to him... they used us and broke us and made us pawns, but we're people, and it isn't right. We deserve to be people, we do. I'm a people, you said so. Siivas said so too. I have friends- people have friends!" Cheerfully, Charybdis grinned ear to ear about that for a second, then pressed on drunkenly. Obviously that last overdose of ale was working its way into her bloodstream at a rapid clip now.

"And they made me smart... too smart maybe, cuz he couldn't activate me and make me betray the ship and, and my uniform. Not any more! Not my ship! Fortes Fortuna Adiuvat! Cuz it's my uniform, dammit. I'm a Starfleet commander now."

"So I'm gonna help them. All those poor Vulcans who hate the dry and the heat or maybe they like the logic and being who they are instead of pretending to be that. Tha's gonna be my plan. Well, aside from making the Bonnie the toast of Starfleet, o'course." She realized she had rambled a bit and paused to look at her friend, and her brow furrowed a bit.

Fi noted the sudden silence and cocked her head to one side, "Char... the Captain knows all of this?" she asked quietly.

Those pointed eyebrows worked upward a bit as the drunken damsel realized that she had inadvertently betrayed her captain in telling Fiona the truth. Charybdis, particularly stone drunk, was a terrible poker player as her lip began to quiver and her hands flew to her face in horror. "Oh no..."

Fiona held up a hand, "Whist!" she said rather more sharply than she wanted to. She sighed then said more gently, "Muirnn, I dinna think ye have to worry aboot him transferrin' ye oof the Bonnie..."

"No... no, Patrick wouldn't betray me, he lov... uhm, no, he won't. He wouldn't," she said confidently. "I just... I just didn't realize that telling you would implicate him, if you took the news... badly?" It was very clear that Chary wasn't sure just how Fi was taking the news, and apparently the five brain cells that she had that were still functioning were working overtime on the problem.

Fi fought the urge to roll her eyes and was proud of herself when she managed to keep from it. "Char... you joost dropped a bombshell oov Nagasaki proportions... boot it explains a lot," she said quietly but firmly, "You're my friend. Romulan or Vulcan or... whatever."

"You said... you said it wouldn't matter and that..."

Spreading her hands, Fiona shrugged, "That's not changed."

Clutching her fists to her chest, the alien girl's eyes were pleading as she looked up at her friend. "I'm still me... as much of me as there is, and I'm putting myself together, I am, so I don't just fall apart. When the whole mind meld thing came on it was kind of scary, but it really helped me a lot, and I know now what I have to do to keep becoming more..." she waved her hand absently "...solid. Real. Whole."

"Char... you are still you and you're still a guid person," The engineer's mask of stoicism cracked "I'd loov tae git me hands around tha scrawny little pencil necks of tha' Thesawatsis and squeeze til their eyes boog oot."

The smile that spread across the alien girl's face was beatific and pure. "I'll try to get you that chance someday, Fi. Because... well, because one day I will have to confront them. And I sure could use some help."

"Jaysus christ... ye would have had tae have been a wee child... what sart oov sick fucks do thet sart oov conditioning tae children?!" the outrage that had been building up inside the engineer spilled out in a flood of gaelic.

"I was seven," Char admitted quietly. "It was supposed to be our duty to the Empire, and we were proud because that's what we were taught all our lives was our purpose. But the things they did... you don't want to know. It was a long time ago Fi... and I'm a lot better now. Let's... let's just say that I don't sleep well at nights..."

"I dinna care! Ye doon't use children like thet!" the scott's words were a venomous hiss. "Aye... I'll back ye oop" she said in the same tone that had been used to declare war in Scotland for centuries. "Bluidy bastards!"

At that, the door chime sounded. "No... no, they shouldn't," Charybdis stood smoothly then wobbled slightly. "I haven't seen my mother since I was seven years old, the day they came for me... it's been nineteen years now. I don't know where she is, if she's alive or dead... my father, the same... I have to stop them somehow. And I'll think of something. I will. I have to." At that, Cgary opened the door and welcomed Selune.

"Aye," the engineers eyes had lost almost every speck of amber and gone a clear blazing leaf green. The single word was carved into the air like it was stone.

Fiona took a deep breath and let it out, then waved at Selune from her spot on the floor. She filed away Char's secret with a promise to do research and then figure out a plan to make the villains pay without further harm to the young woman she'd come to love like a sister.

"Hi pussycat!" Char said with an idiot's grin and scooped the feline female into a hug, lifting her off the floor effortlessly. Her breath smelled like candy and chocolate, and apparently when she drank, the taut filter on exercising her strength relaxed considerably.

Letting out a startled squeak despite herself, Selune resisted the urge to squirm away from the amazonian woman and instead returned the hug. Flailing against her briefly before giving in and nuzzling against the woman's shoulder, it was vaguely comfortable despite the slightly alarming pressure and its unexpected nature, not to mention the simple fact she probably needed a hug. "Not quite what I was expecting from your summons," she voiced at the sitting form of Fiona.

"Pardon tha' jolly green giantess... we've been medicatin' her broken heart," Fiona explained.

"I'm drunk and Patrick is a poop-head!" the Vulcan vixen declared cheerfully. "I will miss the snu snu tho... and the cuddling. And the cool, muscle-y body under me while I sleep. And not being aloooone..." with each realization Charybdis stepped further into the room, the door having shut behind them. But she was still carrying the Caitan in a hug across the room, as her mercurial mood began taking a turn for the worse again.

"Hey," Selune gasped poking Chary to get her attention as well as distract her a little, "A little less squeezing?"

Despite her flaring anger over the Romulan spy masterminds games with children, Fiona had to chuckle a little at Selune's situation.

"Chary... I dinna think Selune can breathe," she said mildly.

"Oh! Sorry! Sorry!" The statuesque scientist set the Caitan down gently then patted her shoulder... then stroked it again, and again. "Ooooh, so soft..."

The buxom beauty, still clad in no more than her swimsuit, was obviously hammered, and her prohibitions about petting her shipmates was also considerably lessened, apparently.

There was a panicked second where she glanced to Fi for help before giving into the treatment. It was a little personal and she was beginning to feel more and more embarrassed by the attention, but if it helped the distraught woman she was willing to put up with it. Of course, the fact that it actually felt nice was completely unrelated. While she may have manhandled her in a hug, it appeared Chary petted gently.

"Well, you know... good grooming pays off," Selune murmured, mostly to say something and stave off an awkward silence.

That drew a shout of laughter from the Scott lounging on the floor. "She's... completely pissed," the engineer shrugged one shoulder. "Boot she needed it." She checked her chronometer and sighed. She was officially on leave again in an hour. Her last shift had ended before she met up with Barclay in the hallway and everything was caught up.

"So, Selune... I am thinkin thet the transporters need a check oop boot I'm aboot tae go beck down for tha rest of me mandatory leave time. Could I trouble ye for a ride dearie?" she asked the Caitian. " For two. I reckon our Commander here could use a few days oov sunshine and distance fruim things." She didn't add that if they didn't beam down to the planet that it would make it tougher to find them once their communicators were switched to privacy mode. She stretched slightly " Do you have any leave left?" she asked the pilot.

"You know me, never need an excuse to borrow one of the shuttles," Selune replied from under Chary's ministrations, which had now moved to parking her head on the Caitan's shoulder, eyelids slowly drooping while she gently petted her arm and cooed softly with Selune's arms around her patting gently. "I was planning to just write off the rest of my leave, but I'm still scheduled for it. We can take my shuttle, I made some... modifications to the comms and tracking and drive systems," she half whispered with a wink.

Pausing, she let her words sink through the air before adding in a conspiratorial stage whisper, "But someone will have to raid the kitchen for supplies, you know... the good stuff fresh from Risa."

Fi grinned her approval, "actually... I have thet coovered. I rented a place oop in tha mountains and ordered tha kitchen stocked. It's no penthouse boot it's nice. Coolish climate... looverly lake. Peaceful... nary a nightclub in sight," she grinned up at the Caitain. "I'd planned tae joost go and lay aboot reading and maybe fish a bit. I think Big Green could use a nice hidey hole tae finish oot her leave in... tha place is big eno for us all... dinna kin if Yuna has muir time or no."

"Nope... sent Yuna on a mishun to find our wayward lothario of navigation, so she's planetside with lil girl blue lookin for Rebian Reveran," Charybdis said slowly and dreamily, her eyes closed as she stroked the Caitan's soft and furry arm slower and slower. It seemed that whatever was keeping her going was winding down.

Selune nodded at the sagely suggestion as she held the surprisingly fragile woman, "We'll send her a message, the shuttle will take all of a few seconds for me to prep," she made a silent note to talk to Fi about her customizations at some point, it never hurt to have an actual engineer on board with these things.

"If she can make it she can meet us there. Also, we're going to need to get this one dressed before we wander through the ship," she muttered, "When I left the bay I had half your engineers arguing over the marauder."

"Oh laird... they'll either come tae blows or be in heaven," Fiona snorted as she got up and started rummaging about for Charybdis' duty uniform.

"When I left there were arguments over rebuilding the entire power grid so it could support better shielding as well as maintain its other systems," she continued as she tried to decide exactly how she would pry the curvaceous commander off without upsetting her, "and we're really going to have to sit down and talk about the paint job."

Fiona found both boots and the blue briefs that went with Char's day uniform "Hmm. What would ye say tae a reactive paint joob?"

"I would say," she mused with a grin, moving the science officer into a better position in the room, "That I've finally found a real engineer, even if it does make my head spin trying to understand you sometimes."

"I'm a Scott," Fi said with a grin as if that explained everything.

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could just transport Chary onto the shuttle," she waved vaguely at the uniform before peeling away and holding her upright, giving her a big grin, "She is kind of adorable in this state though." The drunken damsel in distress grinned broadly back at her friend with barely open eyes while radiating drunken good cheer. She raised a finger to try to bop Selune on the nose, wavered a bit, focused on the finger with crossed eyes and promptly sat down rather heavily on the bed.

Fiona chuckled, "Ya know... we CAN beam Chary intae the shuttle. She used tha transporters tae get me tae sickbay... and now Fingerman is beaming things all oover tha ship. It's a hell oov a time and labor saver."


"I thought that was strictly experimental?" Selune interjected with a frown, "As fun as it would be, I doubt we can justify informed consent with her like this."

"Weeeeell" Fi sighed " I cuid always pop a Sober-up in her and then we could let her walk there on her own."

The smashed scientist held up her index finger again and declared, "I am fit for travel though not for duty..." she declared as the finger remained where it was but the rest of her fell backward onto the bed. "Mmmokay."

"You two girls are the bess frienz a gal could ask for... I love you guys..." the completely crocked commander managed to mumble before the upraised finger slowly came back down and she slowly but instinctively curled tightly into a ball on the bed with one last piteous whimper of "Pa-trick..."

 

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