Hell hath no fury...

Posted on 24 May 2020 @ 7:19am by Commander Luke Wyatt & Nesh Saalm
Edited on on 29 Jun 2020 @ 12:45pm

2,841 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 04-0803 JO
Timeline: MD 03, 10:00

[ON]

Making his way down the corridor towards his destination Luke was filled with anxiety and dread, he hadn't the foggiest how he ended up making this walk but he knew it was something that needed to be done. If anyone knew what Lirha was upto Nesh would know. Luke also wanted to talk to her and tell her he was sorry because Lirha going away by herself into almost certain danger was his fault. He just wasnt sure how pissed she'd be. 'Maybe I should come back later' he thought after having already pressed the doorbell.

"Enter!" the voice was sharp as Nesh Saalm sat cross-legged on the floor, an array of weapons around her. She was sharpening the knives, eyes narrowed and the movements done with a mixture of care (because she had been shown how to do it proper, thanks Sis!) and anger (because frankly she was seven degrees of pissed off). She looked up and saw Wyatt, her eyes narrowing dangerously. "You." The word was sharp, dark and full of promise. No promise that sounded cheerful. With everything that was going on (and gosh was it enough to make her head spin), Nesh Saalm had come to the slow and cold realisation that her sister was most likely dead by now, that the ship was in ruin and that she would have to use her small arsenal of not exactly allowed weaponry on someone soon. The last put a chill in her that she nourished. She hadn't...drawn blood before. But she felt this might be it.

Luke entered the room without invitation and studied the array of weapons surrounding the young woman. "Will, you at least give me a fair fight?" He questioned with a tone mixed with regret and sarcasm in an attempt to connect with Nesh. Luke had excepted to be met with hostility and wondered if it would be more productive if the two simply sparred.

Nesh stood swiftly, holding the dagger before she tilted her head. "Only fights I ever give," she said before she bent to pick up and put away. "What do you want, Wyatt?" she demanded, because truthfully...she could do without seeing anyone right now.

Watching the young woman Luke let out a soft exhausted breath, he hadn't been sleeping properly and with the Galileo and its crew in such a state of disorder, he was mentally and physically fatigued. "I didn't know she would go off like she did and you must know I certainly didn't want to take over control from her." He said pleadingly with his hands out in front of him. "It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do, except maybe confront you about it. I wanted to come to see how you were doing and if..." Luke paused for a moment "And if you knew anything about what she had planned."

"Bullshit!" Nesh turned and moved closer to him, anger shining in her eyes. "She was your Captain! Hard for you? Ha! No, what is hard is that this crew still follows you after what you did! You took her ship from her, what did you think would happen?" she pushed him back, both palms on his chest, before she took a deep breath and stepped back...it was clear she was fighting with herself to stay calm. "You did not come to check up on me, Wyatt, you came to soothe your guilty conscience. Well tough luck."

"She isn't just my Captain! Silly Girl!" Luke flashed with anger but his voice remained level if not more hoarse. Composing himself just as quickly he continued with the pain from her push still burning in his chest "She is my friend, one of my damned closest ones but she was willing to risk everyone's lives, more so than ever... and... I had to do something otherwise we'd all be dead, and I came to speak to you because after everything she'd want you to be ok and particularly not do anything stupid"


Nesh watched him with anger before she shook her head. "No, you don't get to do this," she said, her voice suddenly cold with her fury...and in that moment she looked just like Lirha. "You do not get to pull the friendship card after a mutiny. You do not get to say you came here to see how I am okay. Because guess what? I am not. I am not okay with this, with you, with what happened. And if Captain Saalm was willing to risk us all for something, you know it was worth it...you know that it would be the right choice. Oh. Wait. You disagreed..." she tutted and turned her back to him, moving to the weapons...hesitating before she put them away. "She always valued your friendship. So in that memory, I won't hurt you."

Luke was thrown back to that moment on the bridge as if to be thrown back in time itself and to be staring down Lirha for a second time, his heartbeats echoed in his ears as anxiety began to overwhelm him. "If she truly believed in what she was doing she would never have let me mutiny in the first place, she would have stunned me and thrown me in the brig. Sometimes it is the people closest to you that need to do and say the hardest things to make you see sense, you surely must understand nothing is worth the lives of family, and we are all family on this ship"

"No, she wouldn't have," Nesh turned to face him, holding his eyes for a long moment. "She would never have hurt you, Luke, not even to stop you for taking her ship. You cut her her soul when you did that, she never had the chance to defend herself against that betrayal. And you know it. Or else, you would have gone about it all a different way. Family don't stab family in the back and take their ship. Unless they are Ferengi."

"How should I have done it then? Any other way and it would have been too late! How many times have you seen good people die because it was under orders and people were too scared to speak up?" Luke let her think for a moment before pushing on, moving towards her "And now try doing that to a friend whom you trusted your whole career, I didn't cut her soul away from this ship it was severed the moment the last one exploded and scattered us across the stars I have been trying absolutely everything to get the old Lirha back the one who I would blindly follow into battle not this Lirha whom would charge and die without a thought" Luke was now within arms reach of Nesh again as she put away her weapons desperately trying to get her to see reason as he did Lirha.

Nesh closed her eyes at the words, tightly. She knew Lirha had been changed...but not that changed. Her sister had a flaw, which was that she always did what was right, not just for the Federation, but for the greater good. Nesh had mocked her in the past for it, but Lirha...Lirha was right. And here Wyatt was...telling her that basically her sister had become a dictator on the ship. And unhinged, dangerous, to be separated from the crew...to be exiled. And what did that say about Nesh, who clung to her sister's ways now that she was not there? Who felt so much anger and hatred for the situation they found themselves in, who did not step foot outside of her room because of it?

Quick as a snake striking, her hand went to the knife and she turned, legs slightly bent, one hand to the side for balance, the knife in her hand moving steadily from side to side...a warning. "This ship and crew was all that she had left to remind herself of who she had been! And you took it away from her without a second thought!" she cried out, with pure anger. "You drove her away from us all and damned us to this existence! This is on you!"

Luke had stepped forward to turn nesh around to face him, he didn't respond to her words but instead looked down, he hadn't even noticed the knife that she had picked up most likely as a show of force or a warning but he did notice where it was now, embedded shallowly into his gut. "I'm sorry," he said sadly his own argument stripped away. The burn that had resided in his chest now lingered at the pit of his stomach and the crimson spot on his tunic grew bigger. He wondered if it would be easier to simply move in closer pushing the blade further into his gut freeing him of the burdens he now carried. She was right, he had betrayed Lirha, his friend, and his captain. He deserved a lot worst than an easy death. His body moved voluntarily forward for a fraction, and the cold feel of the blade slipping deeper sent alarm bells ringing in his mind.

No, not like this he thought just as quickly, the intoxicating and selfish thought of death gently leaving his mind like the feeling of the cold leaving as you step into a warm home. How could he have let himself slip into such a dark desperate state that he would willingly let Nesh take the blame for his death? "Nesh" He said softly.

Nesh had frozen in the spot when she had felt the knife cut through cloth and skin. She held his eyes and in her own mind, similar thoughts went. She could drive the knife deeper, twist it...she would need to pull it out and do it again, it would be a slow death otherwise. She suddenly blinked. Nesh Saalm was not a killer. She pulled the knife out, away, and threw it to the side. "Stupid," she hissed, but who at was difficult to know. She reached out quickly, for the clean cloth she had on the side which she was meant to use to dust with later. Now she folded it up and pressed it against the wound, firmly, holding his eyes. "Ease down, we need your legs elevated while I get the medkit," she ordered, her old training from when she had been in science kicking in.

He didn't argue back, whilst the wound was serious it was not life-threatening at least not so he could tell. He eased himself to the floor the makeshift bandage which already had taken its fill with his blood as it now began to seep and coverer his hand. "Your sister would be proud," He said in a light-headed daze, "Not many people can claim to have stabbed me and lived" The comment was true enough. The ex-marine had been stabbed, shot, and blown up but very rarely where those individuals around to take claim. Through all these thoughts, however, Luke could still here the small fading voice of death and peace.

"Accidental stabbing does not have the same ring as an outright attack," Nesh said and her voice sounded almost tired. She got his legs up against the sofa before she went to get the medkit, rushing for it. She suddenly looked as young as she was, more vulnerable and sad as she got the medkit out. She took the hypo, checked it, before she pressed it against his neck. There were three she was using. One painkiller, one to help against shock and one to help his blood clot. "Okay, dermal regenerator..." she took it before she put it down again, getting the scissors. She cut his uniform jacket and shirt open, exposing the area affected before taking his hand away. "Shh..." she breathed, her hands bloody as she removed the makeshift compress to start closing the wound, running it over it again and again, eyes on what she was doing.

Human blood was so red. And sticky. She felt it on her skin, under her nails, the smell of it...a hint of metal, something rich....she was glad to see the bleeding had slowed, the wound closing itself under the marvels of technology. And through it all, Nesh was silent, just watching, just working as she had once been shown in case of something bad happening. And something bad had happened.

The pain was beginning to subside though it was now more a concentrated throb, like a bruise you'd poke at as a child to see if it still hurt and your mother would scold you for making it worst. Luke too was quiet through the whole ordeal and watched Nesh carefully. She looked just as worn down as he did and felt a pang of guilt. He had done this to her, to Lirha and to himself through his actions and then tried to tell himself it was all for the greater good. Maybe it was, at least it was for his side of the greater good but now he understood that his version of the greater good wasn't always the same as someone else's. "I really did want to see if you were ok," He said finally.

"You know the answer to that. You knew before you came here," Nesh said and finished, taking a breath as she sat back. She pinched the bridge of her nose, leaving bloody fingerprints behind. "I'm not." She looked at Luke before she took a hypo, to press against him. "This will get your blood count up. You...should go to sickbay."

"And tell them what? You stabbed me." He said in a mocking bluntness. "I think I'll just rest a moment can you replicate me a new shirt, my measurements should already be in the ship's database" Luke pushed himself up the wall still clutching his stomach which had mostly healed, Nesh was good but she wasn't Warraquim good.

Nesh watched him and her entire body was tense for a long moment before she exhaled sharply. She got up and replicated him a shirt, placing it nearby him before she moved to wash her hands. She scrubbed them, looking ahead. "You walked into my knife," she finally said.

Wanting to say something witty but words failing him Luke simply said "Good point, well presented." The pain was starting to leave his body as the medication she had provided started to do its job but still, it felt like he had been punched in the gut. Taking off his blood-stained shirt Luke grimaced as the pain flared and he groaned loudly before taking the fresh shirt and redoing the motion but in reverse. Soon Luke was redressed and looked no worst for wear. "Good as new" He said without hiding his pain through his gritted teeth.

Nesh dried her hands and turned to look at him, taking a deeper breath. "We will never be that," she finally said, with a sudden tiredness. She put a hand to her forehead, closing her eyes as she considered it. "How are we ever going to undo the damage done here?"

Without hesitating Luke answered, "We're going to give your sister a chance, she has a plan and I fully expect her to follow it through and as such, this time around I'll be there to help her." Luke watched Nesh for a moment and couldn't decide if is she was checking her temperature or tired, he decided it was the later. "You're tired, maybe what we both need to do is have a good laydown, maybe well wake up and it'll all be a bad dream." Luke couldn't help but notice that her hands were still a shade of crimson, his blood staining them. He wanted to help her get rid of the rest of the taint but wasn't sure how to even proceed at this point.

"I mean, that was why she was disposed of...for having a plan..." Nesh said bitterly before she lowered her hands. "It isn't a bad dream, Wyatt. And there are consequences for every action, good or bad. I am learning that quickly now. But you should leave."

Luke wanted to say so much more but couldn't find the words to make it all ok so he sighed in defeat. "Ok, goodbye Nesh." He said sadly before turning to leave not waiting for anything further from their conversation. He wasn't sure if he had placed any more bricks back into their crumbling bridge or made it worst.

Nesh watched him go before she frowned, moving her hands to her face. She covered it as she started crying, alone in her quarters, a million thoughts in her head and a billion emotions churning. It felt like nothing would ever be the same again...

[OFF]

--

Lt Cmdr. Luke Wyatt
Chief Security Officer
USS Galileo

Nesh Saalm
Civilian
USS Galileo
[PNPC Vansen]

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