Moments of Clarity

Posted on Fri Sep 27th, 2019 @ 12:33pm by Death & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Mon Sep 30th, 2019 @ 12:49pm

Mission: Family Detention
Location: The Rihannsu Warbird, the People's Will. Guest Quarters
Timeline: 2396

Nine months ago.

Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox had brought a tray of calzones with her to the VIP Quarters on Deck 8 of the U.S.S Hera to visit a most unusual friend who seemed to like just about every kind of food there was.

She had done something to this effect at least once a week since she had helped free the room's occupant from an unnatural bond created with the Baroness Schwein von Alcott and, In the aftermath, had offered her hand in friendship. The friend in question was the literal manifestation of Death itself.

The entity had many names, but at the time, Dox hadn't yet discovered her true name of Masato Rei and called her Azrael. The lithe, dark-clad but friendly entity didn't mind as she couldn't remember that name yet either. They shared the calzones and talked.

But on that night, Dox was unusually quiet. It had been about a month since the Hera's disastrous mission to the abandoned Section 31 space station, 'Castillo De Muerte' but she was still struggling to deal with the deaths of the three security agents assigned to protect her: Reynolds, Smith, and Johnson.

It would have been easier to handle had the enhanced creatures of the base killed them in the line of duty, but they had been instead executed by their Commander, Lieutenant Alex Sexton. They had all come unglued in the stress and Dox had seen it happening. But the still raw officer failed to take command or control of the situation and three crewmembers died because of it.

So the young Rihannsu pilot was clearly distracted as she picked at her calzone and seemed half a galaxy away, talking with her friend.

"Something weighs heavily on your mind and I sense that it relates to my job, so to speak..." The pale woman waved a forkful of calzone in the air before poking it in her mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "You know, even if you feel alone, one of us is always listening, right? And I'm right here."

While much of the galaxy lived in dread of the woman, Dox found her unexpectedly warm. She had explained to the young pilot that, like her, she was the steward of a job. A responsibility that was hers to carry out, but one she always sought to do with compassion. She seemed to like having someone to talk to that wasn't about to die and Dox was glad to be her friend. Glad that she asked to know Death's name so that she could see her as she now did. But she also understood that that friendship was a responsibility and never wanted to ever think of the woman as a resource to be mined for information from. It was dishonorable and rude. But still, she did have questions.

"I... I don't want to ask anything that would be inappropriate, and I understand if it's something you can't tell me or simply don't want to, but I do have something that's been... I suppose 'weighing on me' is appropriate enough, if you don't mind my asking?"

Death nodded and set aside her fork for the moment, leaning back in her chair. "A certain... Long-eared friend... has cleared you and I trust you more than you may ever know, so, please. Feel free to ask anything you like."

Slightly confused by the woman's comments, Dox decided not to let it distract her as she rubbed an ear nervously. "Well... thank you. I... It was last month. On the space station. Castillo De Muerte. We... I...  had lost three crewmembers. They were assigned to protect me but... Well, I suppose you would know what happened. They were killed. Killed by the Security lead, of all people. And I was there, but..."

The raw young officer paused a moment to think as she looked down at the table between them. "I think a part of me thought everything was going to be okay because... well... I didn't see you there. And they died and I assumed I'd see you. Which, I suppose, was foolish of me, but I've still been thinking about it. And about them. And about failing them."

The pale woman sighed and picked her fork back up, looking it over as she thought about how to word her reply. "There are certain rules. Rules that the six of us as curators... Or agents... Ruling bodies? Whatever... We keep a lot of the essential functions of this universe flowing smoothly."

"One of my rules, since I literally escort the life essence of every living thing from this side of reality to the next, is that I'm never seen. Especially since I'm currently subconsciously doing it..." Casually, she waved the fork in the air, causing a silvery, white glow to trace its path as she thought. "At least a trillion, trillion times per second. The universe is a big place and I only cover this one."

"As for those three, I could assure you that there was nothing that you could have done. They were slated to transition that day and not even I could have rescheduled it. Attempting to do so would have caused long-lasting effects throughout other realms in the universe that I can't even begin to describe."

Again, Death waved her fork in the air, this time the lines forming a sort of fabric in the air above them. "With them extending further into the fabric of the universe, it causes other issues to crop up. Other connections not being made, new connections being made... Knots forming and loose ends... And between you and me, your Rita and Sonak couple are enough to deal with for now. If you heard even a hundredth of the things that the others complain about..."

"Anyway, the bottom line is that you need to look objectively at how you interacted with them during the time they were alive. If you can say that, without adding any knowledge of me into the mix, you and they lived well together, you did not fail them." With that declaration, the pale woman waved the silvery display away and set her fork back down. "Any other questions?"

Smiling lightly, Dox nodded. "I wish I had known them better. I had only just met them for that mission. I... rarely interact with security, but I think that's something that needs to change now that Rita's taking over the department. Especially if I'm going to go on more away missions."

Then she nodded again and cut off a fresh piece of calzone. "But thank you. I appreciate it. I don't... like I said... I don't ever want it to feel like I'm... using you as a resource. You're a friend, not Fedepedia. That would just be... I couldn't do that. But I do appreciate knowing that, at least. Thank you." 

"You're very welcome." Death picked up her fork again and resumed eating as well before another thought occurred to her, her head cocked to one side as if listening to something at a distance for a moment. "You know... I could bend that rule. You've seen me take someone with my main self, right?"

Without waiting for confirmation, she pressed on. "If I have to take someone or something close or dear to you, you'll be able to see a flash of what happens to know if they're at peace or not, ok?"

-------------------

Today.

Still a prisoner on board the Romulan Warbird, ‘The People’s Will’, Dox sat quietly at the small desk in the quarters she had been returned too and remembered those words shared with Masato Rei so many months ago.

While small even by the standards of Junior Officer quarters on the Hera, it was positively luxurious compared to the cell in the brig she had been locked in for a week and a half. Locked in and shackled to a chair in. So… the quarters were certainly an improvement. And there was now a replicator for basic protein meals and fresh clothes she had changed into.

It had been several hours since she had been returned to the upgraded accommodations by the Centurion's and her brainwashed grandmother, where the two shared their grief together for a time. Then, after Verelan had left, leaving Dox alone again, she had spent the first hour pacing and trying to process everything that had happened. Everything regarding the fate of her mother. Then she took advantage of the sonic shower to clean over a week of distress built up during her time in the brig and she hated how good it had felt yet again. She hated herself for enjoying the amenities her captors were now giving her to soften her up.

She was still sporting deep green bruises on her wrists, ankles and neck from the week she spent in cold meal shackles and they still were quite sore, but she put that out of her mind as she got dressed. Rendal was going out of her way to try and ingratiate herself, in spite of the circumstances and it was painfully transparent. Instead of the dark greenish gray prisoners outfit she had been in, she was given a simple pair of gray, Rihannsu uniform pants and a black turtleneck... the undershirt of a Rihannsu uniform, of all things. It was certainly meant to be symbolic but it was more comfortable than the stiff, filthy clothes she had been in. And it only had whatever meaning she chose to give it, and she refused to give it any power. But even now as she sat, she wasn’t thinking about such details.

Instead, her thoughts were centered firmly on family and that conversation with Death.

While shackled to a chair in the brig, Dalia Rendal reunited Dox with her long-lost father. Then she ran him through with her sword. He was dead.

While being returned to that same brig after thwarting Rendal’s attempts at re-writing her mind with the converter and making her loyal to the Imperium, her mother had tried to escape. And the Centurion that Mnhei’sahe THOUGHT had been loyal to her grandmother and was trying to protect them fired his disruptor and killed her. Jaeih Dox was dead.

Or was she? There was something in her brain that told her something was wrong. Something didn’t line up. And she didn’t quite know what it was for a long moment as she thought, staring into the screen of the computer in front of her on the desk.

Her father. It was her father, she realized.

When Rendal killed him in the brig, when he died in front of her, Masato Rei had been true to her word. The rules of her station may have prevented her from directly helping Mnhei’sahe, but for the briefest of moments, she was there. She stood above the lifeless body of her broken father, and from his form, she pulled the spirit of the man that he had once been to take him to the other side. Mnhei’sahe had SEEN it when nobody else could.

But then, earlier that day in the Brig, she saw the muzzle flash of the disruptor and she saw the empty cell where her mother was said to have been disintegrated. But that was all she saw.

No Masato Rei. No spirit of her mother. Nothing.

And Mnhei’sahe couldn’t believe that Rei would have failed her in that moment. Not when the woman had warned her, bending the rules for her again, that Jaeih’s time might be limited. No. Her absence meant something.

Somehow… impossibly… Jaeih Dox was alive. Mnhei’sahe knew it. It was the only explanation. Rei would never have gone back on her word in that moment. Never. So, that meant that her mother was alive. Somehow, the event was staged. Afterall, Jaeih had been an intelligence operative for the Tal’Shiar for years before Mnhei’sahe was even born. And even now, as an operative for the Hera had successfully gotten in and out of secure facilities with ease. She had skills her daughter could only imagine. And that Centurion WAS loyal to her Grandmother. He must have helped her escape.

It all made sense. Or maybe she was just deluding herself. But in this moment, with precious little hope for escape on her own, it was a healthy delusion. It was a healthy hope and Mnhei’sahe allowed herself the slightest of smiles, hidden underneath the hands crossed over the bottom of her face as she sat, thinking with her elbows on the desk.

But whatever her mother’s fate, she still had to focus on her own. She still had to stay alive long enough for her crew to come for her. Because as sure as she was that Rei had not failed her, she knew Enalia Telvan and the crew of the Hera wouldn’t either.