Food for a Broken Heart
Posted on 08 Jul 2016 @ 12:57am by Lieutenant Benice Gyce Ph.D. & Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan
Edited on on 11 Jul 2016 @ 6:30pm
1,490 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Episode 11 - Divinum Mundi
Location: USS Galileo - Mess Hall
Timeline: MD19 0900 hours
[ON]
Eelim finished his shift logged all the reports. He'd managed to keep his mind clear all shift. That was the good thing about him. He was able to focus on work when everything in his life was going to hell.
He decided to go to the mess hall. Entering, he didn't bother to look around. He went and ordered and then just sat there. Within a few minutes his food arrived, fries, chocolate, chocolate cake, more chocolate, several burgers and a bottle of whisky. He had the day off tomorrow so he didn't feel bad about getting drunk. Yet he couldn't bring himself to touch the food or drink. He just sat there, his shoulders hunched and looking as if someone had kicked him in the stomach.
Gyce had been sitting in the far right corner of the mess. She liked to observe life while she viewed her security feeds. Studying Life in general
Eelim poured a glass of whisky and tossed it back in one gulp. He was just about to have another when his eyes met Gyce's. Uh oh! Would she come over?
She did indeed. So many questions, now that she had had the chance to read his file. Former Cardassian military. Ties to a romance with a Bajoran. How much attrocities did he see and not prevent, during the Occupation?
That was not an conversation easily had, however. More so when her subordinate was clearly drinking. That nearly-always hard-to-read impassive face of hers stayed that way as she joined him.
"I do hope, if that's non-synthetic, you don't drink so much you can't work your next shift," Gyce commented with more curiosity than concern in her voice.
He sighed and motioned for her to sit down. "It's non-synthetic and tomorrow is my day off. I fully plan to be drunk. Would you like some?" He asked grabbing a second glass and pointed to the chocolate. "Some chocolate?"
"I'll have some tea instead, since I'm on-duty," Gyce declined politely, but did take the piece of chocolate offered to her very thankfully.
He sighed. "Relax ma'am. Long ago I learned how to focus at work. I learned that from the Romulans."
"As a detective, my focus is rarely skewered," Gyce countered, those brown eyes of hers trying to read him. "You worked with the Romulans... but did you ever serve on Bajor?"
He shook his head. "I studied on Cardassia at the Military academy until I was 16. I left Cardassia when I was 16. I studied for ten months on Bajor before I went to the Romulans and I spent 3 years fighting along side the Romulans against the Dominion." He downed a third and then fourth shot. Normally he wasn't this talkative but his whisky was working and the recent memories didn't help on top of everything else. "So no, never served on Bajor but it was my home for a bit." He blinked tears sprinting to his eyes. He shook his head to clear it. "Bajor was so beautiful before the damned Cardassians."
"...So now you drink because of what was done to my homeworld?" Gyce asked, more out of trying to understand his attachment. Cardassians normally looked at the resources and slave labor, not the beauty that Bajor had once been.
Well it was time. "I drink because Gul Derat, a dear friend, a man who saved countless of Bajoran and Starfleet lives during the war and the occupation has died." He'd received the word just before his shift. "My people were shameless. My own father served on Bajor. He was a Dal in Kendra province." He took another drink his words becoming a bit slurred. "I..." He looked at her. "Were you in the resistance?"
"I was..." Gyce popped her neck as she was able to put two and two together. "Your dad was among the Cardassian leadership that green-lit the camps in my region. I still bare the mark of that stint."
She fought hard not to hate this kid. Part of her knew he was not his father, but still, she had major issues now letting his lineage go.
Eelim looked horrified. He pointed to her cane. "You were in Kendra province?" He shook is head unable to comprehend. "I...My father worked under the Gul there." He reached to touch her hand and then pulled back. Tears springing to his eyes. "How can you even look at me. I..."
"I killed enough Cardassians in my lifetime to overflow my ledger," Gyce spoke with a hard swallow. "I've looked into the faces of the Cardassian boys I killed, that had no business being on Bajor... You're not one of those simple-minded boys."
It was not an exact answer but it would have to do. She took a sip of her tea to keep herself calm.
He swiped at his eyes to catch the tears. "Ma'am..." He thought for a moment. "I'm ..." He couldn't find the words to say how sorry he was for what she went through. He threw back another drink. "If...if you want I will request a transfer."
"You and I only have issue if you split my peoples' blood," Gyce explained to him rather coldly. "Then and only then would you see a reason to transfer out of here."
“I know that this is no consolation but I am nothing like my father. You see he sees me as he saw the Bajorans. He sees me as an annoying pest. I was the artist, not the warrior he saw me as weak and pathetic. Oh I gave speeches against what he stood for, against the Dominon, I used my art to rebel. When I freed the Starfleet and Romulans 17 years ago I made him look weak, he's not a type of man to forget that. He lost his position and everything. He threw my brother and sister in the brig for simply agreeing with me that what the Cardassians did unforgivable. He had my fiancée kidnapped and when I freed them well he hated me more.” He stood up and then promptly sat back down. He'd for sure drunk a little too much.
"Riiight...." Gyce sighed as she grudging stood up and moved to help him up and walk. "You're going to bed to sleep it off."
"I know saying sorry doesn't change anything and I know you hate me. I accept that."
"I don't hate you," Gyce corrected after a long and painful walk through the halls of the ship. Finding his room while channeling her pain was no easy task. "...I hate those that governed your people. I loathe the propaganda they spouted just to fill their ranks just to kill innocent Bajorans. I despise the military officers that took liberties, when my mother with forced to be a comfort girl... But I don't hate you. Because you are not them."
"I'm Cardassian, that's enough reason to hate me. Frankly I hate me..."
They got to his quarter's and she helped him inside. The room was filled with paintings and pictures of his Fiancée Luma, Myra. There were paintings of his Romulan friends, a beautiful image of the Galileo, various crew members and one of Gyce. "He pointed to pictures spouting names. Then seeming a bit too tipsy he pointed to a painting of Myra. "That's my Fiancée. She's an angel sent form heaven. She doesn't know I really love her. She thinks I'm just with her to protect her. I can't tell her that I love though." He held up his finger to his mouth in shhh gesture. "She can do soooo much better. So I won't tell her I love her." Seeming to forget that Gyce was Gyce he pointed to a painting of her. "That's my commanding officer. She's scary." He grinned. "I like her though. Don't tell her that I think she's scary." He took few more steps and sat on the floor. "Am I flying?"
"Higher than any clouds on Bajor," Gyce laughed, forgetting the situation completely as she let him sit on the floor. "I'm sure your boss means well, regardless."
He grinned a goofy grin. "I think we need a drink." He pointed to the paintings seeming to forget the drinks. "If you like one you can have one."
"I'll pass," Gyce rejected gently while she grunted as she dragged him up and onto his couch so he could sleep it off. "You need to sleep it off, I think."
Eelim laid back half asleep. "Can you sing me a lullaby?" By the time he'd finished the word he was fast asleep.
Gyce could only shake her head in disbelief. She left his quarters quietly. Confused, mostly. How was she to feel about the son of a man responsible for killing her family?
[OFF]
Lieutenant JG Benice Gyce
Chief of Security
USS Galileo
&
Lieutenant JG Eelim Galan
Security / Tactical Officer
USS Galileo
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