[JP] LtJG Gila Sadar & Ensign Gnai - We Are On a Shuttle Home, Thank GOD
Gila Sadar
((Shuttlebay 2 - Deck 12, USS Kitty Hawk))
To say that Gnai was excited to leave the Kitty Hawk and go back to the Artemis would be a gross understatement. Absolutely every aspect of its short posting on the Galaxy-class vessel had been nothing short of horrific. Just barely seconds after it had beamed over with the rest of the crew from Amity Outpost (and, thankfully, one friendly face in Lt. Jg. Sadar), the Borg Collective had commandeered its transportation suit and had started wreaking havoc across the ship, with little care for the unassimilated Galadoran that waited inside. Even getting freed from the suit had just tossed it into more danger (and… somehow… coffee).
The saving grace of the entire experience was Lt. Jg Sadar - Gila - who Gnai had known a bit from its first mission on the Artemis… and a horribly chaotic shore leave excursion to the Gamma Quadrant. She’d listened to it, and tried her best to keep the both of them from harm's way, despite the difficulty of the task. Gnai hated that it had needed her to carry it around, but in hindsight, there were no people on that ship that it would have trusted more than her to do so.
As Gila stepped onto the shuttlecraft and the pilot started preparing for their departure, Gnai felt itself finally relax. The anxious pulsing of light through its body started to slow, and its tendrils flared out slightly in the tank that she wore. It waited, not paying attention to the chatter between the pilot and the shuttlebay controls, but appreciating the calm and professional patter. The Borg were behind them.
Gnai: ~ I ::partial:: am very glad to be getting back to the Artemis… I ::partial:: still don’t know why they wanted us ::partial:: there. ~
Sadar: Y-Yeah…
Gila looked around the shuttle awkwardly, trying to decide where to sit, where to put the backpacked Ensign and - most of all - when to start the anxious breakdown that had been hours in the making at that point. Much like Ensign Gnai, she too looked forward to being home in familiar surroundings. The news that the USS Artemis had survived the Borg destruction was a loaded one, as Gila hadn’t been forwarded the casualty list, but she knew it had to be long… Numerous faces floated before her mind’s eye as she prayed for their safety. She hoped they were safe. She hoped there would be a lot of familiar faces ready to welcome them home.
She carefully placed the backpack in one of the seats, making sure to strap it in with seatbelts - she wasn’t about to risk anything considering the vulnerable state of the Galadoran - and then took a seat herself.
Pilot: Ready to go home, Sirs?
Gila nodded slowly.
Sadar: Yes please...
Gila felt the shuttle take-off, and she breathed out. Okay. Now, all they had to do was make it back to the USS Artemis. Which took them on a path through true pandemonium. For the majority of the last 8 hours, Gila had been involved with medical experiments, Jefferies’ Tubes escapes and transporter sweeps, and she hadn’t been looking to the outside of the Kitty Hawk apart from that brief moment before the saucer section crashed onto the surface of Luna.
Thus, the shuttle ride back to the Artemis was Gila’s first time coming to terms with how completely apocalyptic the situation had seemed for Starfleet, as the pilot took them through what seemed like the scattered detritus of hundreds, if not thousands of Starfleet vessels on their route to the Artemis. And Gila was speechless.
And she realized just how hopeless their situation had been.
Sadar: If only…
oO If only we’d been able to stop the Cube in the Badlands Oo
Gnai: ~ If only… what? We’d… stayed aboard the Artemis? ~
Gnai wasn’t sure what was resting on her mind. But it had wondered too, what might have happened had they stayed on the Artemis. It would have likely been the same thing… albeit, with less saucer-crashing. And with having to face their colleagues as Borg. No, perhaps being on the Kitty Hawk hadn’t been the worst thing in the world - the Borg had remained mostly faceless there, fellow officers, but not friends. Not people that they would need to sit next to during a briefing, or pass in the halls, wondering each time if their eyes would darken and they’d snap once again.
Sadar: N-No, uhh... Never mind... ::wrings her hands:: E-Ensign. I... Th-Thank you. I don’t think I would’ve made it through without you.
Gila knew better than anyone how prone she was to hopelessness. How very vulnerable her sense of duty and integrity was to succumbing to desperation, and she recalled vividly how the only thought keeping her climbing in the Jefferies’ Tube was the thought of Ensign Gnai, stuck in its suit, forced to witness the atrocities committed by the Borg.
The knowledge that between the two of them, it was the prisoner, and she was the only one with the personal stake in it to ensure it got out.
Gnai: ~ No, thank you. I ::partial:: could say exactly the same. I ::partial:: couldn’t fend for myself ::partial:: outside of the suit. You saved me ::partial::. ~
Sadar: A-As your Doctor, Ensign… A-A-And a senior officer... I-I hope you’ll take my advice and seek out a Counselor once a new method of mobility has been built for you?
Having a bit of normality with Gila - no, Lt. JG. Sadar - pulling rank on it in her own roundabout way was a mild relief. They could start to put this all behind them, and go back to the structure it had learned at the Academy, and that it had been used to after the short time it had been on the Artemis. No longer would it be stuck, floating around as essentially an extension of the superior officer that was carrying it around, because it couldn’t do anything but offer suggestions to her.
Gnai: ::bobbing up and down in its tank:: ~ That’s… That’s the plan. I ::partial:: think that being trapped like that… ~ ::lights fading slightly::
Being trapped in its own suit had been a nightmare and Gnai hadn’t realized until then just how vulnerable it was, even when technically safe in a suit of its own design. And having to follow along as the suit rampaged through the ship, with no autonomy…
But it was getting ahead of itself. That was for a professional to unpack, not for it to try and grapple with just hours later, still relatively immobile and trapped. There was a pressing question that Gnai hadn’t had the chance to ask, and now that Gila - Lt. JG. Sadar - had brought up rank…
Gnai: ~ Actually… Hm. I ::partial:: have a personal question. If that’s okay? ~
Sadar: Of course.
It felt strange to so candidly offer her agreement to this query - a query that, had it come from almost anyone else, would have instilled her with fear - but Ensign Gnai had earned her trust. Nothing like a bit of potential peril at the hands of a half-assimilated Galaxy-class vessel to shake two junior officers together...
Gnai: ~ Is it okay that I ::partial:: called you Gila? I ::partial:: was so scared, I ::partial:: am sorry if it was out of line. You didn’t tell me that I ::partial:: could. ~
Gila almost smiled, which was quite the feat, considering her headspace.
Sadar: C-Considering the conditions we’ve been operating under for the past eight hours, you’re forgiven, Ensign. ::considers:: But thank you. For the apology, I mean.
She didn’t give any indication that it could continue, so… Lt. JG. Sadar it was then. Neat and professional.
Gnai: ~ This whole day has been horrible. ~
An understatement, if there ever was one. But Gnai still couldn't find the words to properly express just how much it had hated every second.
Sadar: It shall be good to be back…
If it could have sighed, it would have. Such a humanoid expression of emotion, and one that was so alien to it. But after hearing it enough at the Academy, it could tell when it would be the perfect response in a conversation.
Gnai: ~ Indeed… ~
Gila fell silent as dark and intrusive thoughts started filtering themselves through her tired mindscape. Thoughts of darkened bone, the taste of blood and the groaning of metal tendons ripped apart. Gila still didn’t know what had happened when she was faced with Ensign Gnai’s suit, and thankfully, few seemed to have noticed. Certainly, no one had approached her to question her on it. But she was certain that Ensign Gnai, positioned as it had been, had been privy to it. And thusly, she needed to do some damage control.
Sadar: Ensign, I have a request to make of you.
Gnai’s filaments glimmered with lights of confusion, and a bit of apprehension. What exactly could she want from it?
Gnai: ~ Oh…? What is it? ~
Sadar: What happened on the Bridge… W-W-W-With your suit. ::twists anxiety ring as vivid memories materialize:: I-I would, uhh... A-Appreciate it if that could be... Kept between the two of us.
From what Gnai recalled, the moment had gone by in a flash. It had only briefly seen what she was talking about - the strange protrusion from Lt. JG. Sadar’s jaw, but even recalling it sent shivers down its tendrils. Something deep in the back of its mind recalled how dangerous something like that could be, how things deep in the oceans of Galador had laid in wait, jaws snapping up and capturing Galadorans, before dragging their prey down beyond hope of help. The memory was embedded deep in there, something barely even gracing the subconscious most days, but Gnai could still feel hints of it as it recalled watching her attack the drone.
There was no way that it would tell a soul about that. Or how it made it feel.
Gnai: ::bobbing up and down in agreement, color faded:: ~ O-o-of course, sir. No one will know. ~
Sadar: ::relieved sigh:: Th-Thank you, Ensign.
They sat in silence for a while, before Gnai could work up the courage to ask a question of Lt. JG. Sadar. A question that felt somewhat out of line. It was one thing to hide a strange facet of one’s biology from others… this felt like a completely different matter.
Gnai: ~ In a similar manner… would… would you mind not telling the others about what my ::partial:: suit did? I ::partial:: don’t want people to… be afraid of it. Or me ::partial::. ~
It paused in its short ramble, watching outside the windows as the USS Artemis drew closer. They were going home, or as good as home could be off-world.
Gnai: ~ And I ::partial:: want to be allowed to make a new one. Being stuck here, like this… ~
Gila nodded. This mission had to have been harder on the Ensign than on her - considering the nightmare it had to go through, stuck in an assimilated suit, witness to so many deaths at the hands of an instrument it was usually in full control of - and then stuck in a backpack on her. It’s eagerness to put all of this behind it was easily understood.
Sadar: You have my full confidentiality, Ensign... And I’ll make sure to get you to Engineering as soon as we get back. ::thinks:: Y-You’ll need a new combadge too.
Another short silence passed, filled with the subtle creaks and groans of the shuttle’s hull as it approached the Artemis. It sounded eerily like how the Kitty Hawk’s saucer section had, when it had started to settle down into the moon’s surface. A dangerous quiet, almost.
Gnai: ~ Oh. And… the coffee. If you could not mention that either, I ::partial:: would appreciate that. ~
It would have hated to have the rest of the ship hear how disoriented the liquid had made it. Already, it was limited by being aquatic, something that few of the humanoids aboard the vessel were hindered by. It didn’t need to have it be common knowledge that the most popular beverage of choice amongst the various humanoids could render it barely functional. Gila, meanwhile, couldn’t help but smile slightly at the memory. In the moment, it had been positively terrifying to have the Ensign almost incapacitated, but now?
She could see how it might actually have been slightly funny in different circumstances. No doubt Lieutenant Silveira’s poor sense of humor was rubbing off on her. Or perhaps this was just trauma finally breaking her brain. That was actually a rather likely scenario, now that she thought about it.
Sadar: Agreed, though I hope we can agree that it’s rather useful information if we get stuck with you out of the tank again, and your only options are a coffee pot and a vat of equally distasteful liquids.
Gnai: ~ Yes… it won’t kill me ::partial::, but I ::partial:: won’t like it. ~
oO Who knew coffee and Starfleet service had that much in common? Oo
And with that final thought, Gila looked out of the porthole and saw a Luna Class Starship approaching. Almost home... A comforting thought, if it wasn’t because it looked quite worse for wear. Noticing a particular injury on the Artemis’ hull, she frowned as she leaned forward, trying to get a better look.
Sadar: Wh-What happened to the Captain’s Ready Room?
END SCENE
LtJG Gila Sadar
Medical Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240006GS1
&
Ensign Gnai
Science Officer
USS Artemis-A
A240102G11