All My Live I've Been Controlled

Posted on 02 Sep 2015 @ 12:47am by Lieutenant (Sogh) Andreus Romar & Lieutenant JG (SoghHom) Jynn
Edited on on 02 Sep 2015 @ 12:57am

1,894 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 09 - Empires
Location: IKS Saalm - Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 01 - 2030 hours

[ON]

As was becoming force of habit, Andreus Romar had a tendency to stand back and allow Klingon officers to precede him in the mess hall. He was prepared --pleased even-- to allow the Klingons to take the freshest gagh and the best vintages of bloodwine. In truth, Romar enjoyed the texture of the half-dead gagh, and he smothered it in yamok sauce anyway. Romar padded to the far side of the dim and ruddy-lit mess hall. He chose a chair for himself that was at the very end of the long banquet table, which left a sizable gap between himself and a clutch of Klingon officers. When there came a momentary lull in the raucous coming from the Klingons, Romar could be observed lost in his own thoughts, softly chuckling into his gagh.

"What's so funny," a voice questioned from right over Romar's shoulder. "I do hope the little worms are not begging for mercy. It would be most un-Klingon-like," it said with a chuckle. "But I suppose if I where to hear that I would find it just as amusing as you do." With those words Jynn sat down in the chair at the table opposite Romar, awaiting an answer. He had hoped it would be just as amusing to him as to the person he had just interrupted.

The laugh drained from Romar's throat and his face hardened away any evidence there had ever been one. He kept his head tilted down, considering his gagh. Only after the other man sat down did Romar's eyes lift up to meet Jynn's gaze. "Nothing?" Romar said in a small voice, before he reaffirmed, "It's nothing. I thought of a pun about rutabagas." Romar's stare cut off to the side and he breathed in deeply. He wrapped his arms around his own chest, and then he asked, "How fare the engines today?"

"Rutabagas. Never heard of the species," Jynn mused with a finger upon his lips. He then reached over casually with the same hand and picked a pinch of Gagh for himself to enjoy. He swallowed the living meal whole before answering his question. "Bangin' on all cylinders," he said before pausing. "It's a human phrase. I do hope you won't report me," he said with a chuckle before continuing. "And how fare, well, how fare you today?" He wasn't sure what the man before him actually did for the ship aside from being its most well-spoken occupant.

Romar smiled softly at the Deltan's enthusiasm for communication. "My senses are all thriving with life, and I'm open to new ideas," was Romar's response. "I can't ask for more than that." It wasn't, perhaps, the sort of answer he would have given to an intimidating Klingon or Trill crewmember, but it was the truest response within him. Romar nudged the plate of gagh closer to Jynn, tacitly allowing him to continue to share that yamok-smothered serpent worms.

With a flash of a very Jynn grin Jynn helped himself to another pinch of gagh. Feeling the life slither and slide down his throat to their inevitable deaths was certainly an interesting experience, especially once they settled within him. "I see we have at least one thing in common," he spoke as he started to peer deep into Romar's eyes as though to try and read him like a book. "I wonder what other commonalties we share."

Although Romar tilted his head to the side, he eyes remained with Jynn. He studied Jynn studying him. Sounding like he didn't expect to find much, Romar shrugged and he asked, "Where were you trained? I fear I'm a product of my instructors." Romar took another handful of gagh for himself and slurped them from his hands.

As Romar asked his question Jynn took another pinch of his own, this time just a single worm. He dangled it above him as he tipped his head back and then, with a high pitched voice spoke, "Oh, No! Don't eat me," and then proceeded to swallow it. He chuckled a bit as the worm was sent to its doom. "It's amazing how much you can learn as a press ganged slave with telepathic abilities aboard a Terran pirate ship," he spoke with an answer to Romar's question that almost implied a 'no hard feelings' attitude towards his impressment.

His food and drink forgotten, Romar stared back at Jynn with a dubious look in his eyes. There wasn't a whole lot of sympathy in Romar's voice, when he asked, "You were a slave of the Terrans?" Mostly, he sounded incredulous.

"Not an empire sanctioned vessel," Jynn spoke, sure to clarify that he had never worked for the KCA's most hated enemy. "Oddly enough the ship I was on had the same shared enemy that you all have. After all, the empire can't just have pirates flying about and raiding all their ships and stations, can they?"

"Hmmm," was all Romar said at first. His attention was caught by what Jynn said first, and he mostly disregarded the rhetorical question. "All Terrans are inferior," Romar said. Unlike some of his colleagues there was no sense of disgust or bloodlust in his manner. It was fact. It was simple fact to Romar. "Surely, how they treated you must prove that, no?"

Jynn began to ponder Romar's statement and question. The humans had certainly seemed no less inferior than many of the other races he encountered. After all, they had just been looking out for their own best interests, much like everyone else in the galaxy. He stopped eating for a moment and with an elbow placed on the table he rested his chin in his hand. "I was treated quite well once I learned to obey. I was there to serve their own best interests and it seemed that serving their best interests was in my best interest," he said rather matter-of-factly. "Besides, freedom has such a terrible feeling." At times Jynn had almost wished he could go back, but his new life of servitude had at least become a most pleasant change of pace. It had not taken him long to adapt to his new life aboard Saalm.

Having lost all appetite for the gagh they shared, Romar stiffed his spine and knocked his shoulders against the back of his severe metal chair. A disgusted scoff was the only response that immediately came to Romar's mind, and it was eventually followed by what troubled him the most. "Once you learned to obey," Romar repeated Jynn's words with more import than Jynn had conveyed. "I can appreciate the fulfillment that comes from service, but you didn't choose to sacrifice your agency. You were... what? ...Taken?"

"They saw it fit to spare me. Should I not have been grateful? Obeying, just as any crewmember would do, ensured my survival. I was treated far better than most crewmembers aboard most ships where treated once I obeyed orders." He paused for a moment, small glimmer of regret in his eyes. "I felt freedom once. True freedom. It was the worst five minutes of my life. But then Lirha saved me and now I am indebted to her," he finished with a smile.

Romar nodded his understanding, but he wasn't smiling with Jynn. His sapphire eyes bored into the tattooed Deltan. Fascination burned within Romar, and he asked, "How did you serve the Terrans? What did they have you do?"

“Everything,” Jynn replied most vaguely. “Well, not everything. I mostly served as a ship hand during my early years. The longer I stayed the more I was trusted. Maybe it was my built-in influences, but I became a servant to all who dared risk me. I learned a lot that way. So much more in depth than reading books,” he said with a bit of a smile. “It didn't take long after that for Ghaz to see my potential. Aside from my every day duties I became the interrogator that captives begged to see again and again,” he said with a hearty laugh.

Twisting a face of confusion at Jynn, Romar asked, "And... how does an interrogator for Terran pirates become a pilot for the Queen Regent of the Klingon Cardassian Alliance?"

“Because I saved her life,” Jynn said with a most confident smile. “Though,” he began, his eyes looking around the room and the corners of his eyesockets for some clarification. “I suppose she did save mine, too. Maybe she doesn't owe me.” There was a bit of uncertainty in his voice, as though his one tie to the ship might have suddenly been severed. “But I guess I did make enough of an impression,” Jynn finished with an enthusiastic tone. “And now here I am to serve you all as I served them! How can I serve you,” he questioned with a smirk, diverting the conversation from his mish-mosh background to something more interesting, the fantastic looking Argelian with a penchant for eating live worms who sat in front of him.

The subtext of Jynn's question sailed obviously somewhere over Romar's shoulder. Romar scrunched up his face in shape of a question. He shook his head before responding. "I don't see how a pilot serves a gunner in the chain of command," Romar said, applying a matter of fact mien.

Jynn shrugged at the question. “I suppose not. Though in times of yore the pilot and the gunner worked very much hand-in-hand. I suppose with modern targeting systems and ships the size of city blocks this does not happen much anymore, though. Look, what I'm saying is, if you ever need anything, anything at all, don't hesitate to ask,” he finished with a smile.

Romar remained oblivious to the subtler meanings behind Jynn's words. "Even with computer-assisted targeting systems," Romar supposed, "We should practice simulated maneuvers together. I should learn the quirks of your flight patterns, and adjust my targeting accordingly." Remembering how hungry he was, Romar scooped up a handful of the remaining gagh and slurped them down.

“Of course,” Jynn exclaimed with much excitement. “See, I knew there was something I could do for you.” The subtleties where certainly there but that did not take away from the face value of Jynn's statements in any way. Though he did enjoy the more personal interactions he had always enjoyed personal interaction of any sort. He'd just have to settle for serving in a different way. “Just let me know when and we can fire up the holodeck.” He paused for a moment and with a wide grin continued, “Or we could use live fire, as it where. I'm always one to choose real, actual flight over some simulation. We'll just have to hope the rest of the crew doesn't get seasick easily,” he finished with a wink.

Romar lay his hands on the table between them and leaned in close to speak conspiratorially. He thought back to the personalities on display in the senior staff briefing today, and he considered Jynn's words about hoping the crew doesn't get seasick. "Or," Romar proposed with a wicked little grin, "We can hope that they do."


[OFF]


Sogh Andreus Romar
[PNPC'd by Andreus Kohl]
Gunner
IKS Saalm

SoghHom Jynn
Chief of Flight
IKS Saalm
[PNPC played by Jynn]

RSS Feed

Comments (1)