Battle of Conscience: Requiem

Posted on Mon Jan 22nd, 2024 @ 1:47pm by Lieutenant Commander Keishara Davaris

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Year One: Whispers in the Wind
Location: Keishara's Quarters
Timeline: MD 018 - 0312 hours

“Sis…” Kei tossed in her bed, the covers almost wrapping her like a cocoon. The sweat from her body clinging to the fabric like a spider in a web. “Siiiiiiiiiiiiisss…” she heard again from the side of her bed.

“Go away, Dodian.” Kei refused to open her eyes.

“Can you still smell the burning flesh?!” Dodian almost screamed with delight. “Reminds me of home. The furnaces, do you remember?”

“Hells Dodian!” Kei sat up in a rage and lashed out at the space where she thought Dodian was.

“Now, now… your temper has always gotten the better of you. Remember that sweet thing you headbutted when she got onboard the Moore?” Dodian was now sitting on the edge of the desk out in the living quarters swinging her legs much like a child on a swing.

Kei got up out of bed and made way to the replicator. She ordered a glass of water but it shook in her hands as she picked it up. “Don’t tell me you’re having performance issues?” Dodian mocked.

Kei gritted her teeth and closed her eyes trying to wish Dodian away.

“Oh no no. Not so easy Shara. You keep calling me here, so you must want to be punished.” Dodian whispered in Kei’s left ear before moving to her right. “Not my fault you couldn’t stop a terror attack. The loss of all that life… you sure you should really be ‘Chief’ of Security?” she mocked. “I mean at this point I’m sure our little Vekky wouldn’t put you in charge of guarding empty barrels in the cargo bay.” she teased.

Sighing heavily Kei took a sip of water from the glass, the glass itself chattering off her teeth as she tried to remain calm. “I tried to help them.” she said simply as she felt a tear stream down her cheek.

“Good job!” Dodian was now back on the desk swinging her legs and clapping her hands gleefully. “I mean you totally did such a good job that only what? 60, 65 people died? Did you not train some of their law enforcement as well?” she asked rhetorically.

“Frak you Dodian.” she turned to her and threw her glass at her. Of course Dodian wasn’t really there, a figment of Kei’s mind, and the glass simply went through her and smashed on the wall behind her.

“Good shot Shara.” Dodian winked. “Dead centre. Maybe you don’t suck at everything… although Segal did like it when you su–”

“Enough!” Kei shouted at the top of her lungs. Her breath ragged, bags under her eyes and a glistening sweat on her body that the sun only highlighted through her window. “You need to leave!”

“Make me.” Dodian shrugged. “Go on… use that big old El Aurian brain to will me away…I’ll wait…” she began to whistle.

It was something the real Dodian used to do to keep her spirits up. It was something she could control and sometimes they used it as a communication method to let each other know when guards were approaching or to give an ‘I’m okay’ signal.

Pinching the bridge of her nose Kei sat down on the sofa in her living space.

“Do you really think this is the place for you, Shara?” Dodian interrupted. “I mean I’m pretty sure the Captain just keeps you around out of a sense of obligation, of strange Vulcan guilt because you saved his life once. Your security team probably talks behind your back about how a hard taskmaster you are, the ice queen that you are. I don’t think Evelyn likes you, her right swing is sweet as frak I’ll give her that… made me smile. I think they all just put up with you… that’s why you call me!!” she jumped off the desk and moved close to kneel at Kei’s knees.

“You know I am the only one who loves you.” Dodian places a hand on the side of Kei’s head and runs her hand through her hair and down to her cheek before her eyes turn white and dried blood replaces what was once a pristine face. “But you still let me die. Everyone dies around you Keishara.”

Pushing passed Dodian in a blind panic, most unlike Keishara, she moved towards the arch that separated the bedroom from the living space.

Looking back Kei saw Dodian lying lifeless at the base of the sofa. One arm draped over the couch and a leg bent the wrong way. A lifeless look on her face, a beaten body an example of Segal’s wickedness to those that speak against him, those that do not please him, those that are of no use to him.

“I didn’t…” Kei croaked.

“That’s right…” Dodian was also now behind her whispering in her ear and pointing to her own body. “You didn’t do anything. Segal’s goons came for me and you did nothing. You let yourself take a beating before me, to ‘protect’ me and all it did was make them angrier when they got to me. Thanks sis. You are amazing at protecting the weak, the helpless.”

Kei moved back and fell onto her bed. Tears now soaking her face, Keishara now helpless as an overflow of emotion breaks barriers she has spent centuries building. Why was this happening now?

Curling up into a ball on her bed she hid under covers and pillows.

“Yeah, you hide sister. You’re good at that. All the lives you’ve saved will never wipe out the blood on your fëa (soul), especially if you let the ones you can’t save die in such large numbers.” Dodian laughed sinisterly. “See you in your dreams sis. I have lots of nice things planned for you… don’t go sucking on a phaser…”

Kei wrapped a pillow around her head. The attempt at drowning out the noise that Dodian made would be useless. A part of her own mind, a fractured part, and one that had begun to pop up more and more recently.

Kei prayed for relief and it only came as she fell back to sleep.

 

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