Waiting out the Q

Posted on Tue Apr 18th, 2023 @ 10:55pm by Kyle Cragen [Reece] & Commander Arrianna Salannis an Vantar & Quinn [ADMIN NPC]

Mission: WHAT IF?
Location: Rigel X Lily's Former Base
2829 words - 5.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The Base was silent, And it was just how she liked it. Silence, broken by the occasional sound of a falling piece of metal or water droplets. Arrianna looked at a planning console.

"So I now have attracted the attention of a Q. This is a significant drawback to the plan." Arrianna noted. "This being, has pretty much godlike powers, And can possibly stop my plans before they've begun. She's taken Cragen somewhere. I don't know where." Arri noted.

"And I've earned her undivided attention." Arri paced. "However, the Q have demonstrated in the past Omnipotent powers to shape the universe at their whim, even override the laws that govern the universe at will. However their psychology and mindset have always been Juvenile. Perhaps if I simply ignore her... She will find someone else to bother for her amusement." Arri noted. "If I wait out her rather undeveloped psychology, her attention will focus on others. It is her nature to amuse herself. In a staring contest... A Q will blink first."

====

Quinn, was watching closely and had tracked down her target in Kyle Cragen.

She appeared as the man was exiting his shower.

"Mr Cragen," she said ignoring the naked and wet El Aurian male as she did so.

Though he had felt her presence before he saw her, Kyle was still a little startled by Quinn's sudden appearance in his bathroom. "Quinn," he said in reply, his tone dlightly less annoyed than the last time they had spoken, back in his prison cell. "To what do I owe this visit?"

"A warning. You are being hunted." Quinn said. "I have managed to distract the person for now but they are extremely stubborn and crazy."

Kyle took a few moments, deep in thought, as he started to dry himself. Then, he replied. "Arrianna."

"Yup. And man do you attract the crazy." Quinn said.

Kyle nodded solemnly. "Of all the people I hurt, Arrianna was one of the worst." He shook his sadly. "Her pain and madness are my punishment." He sighed and leaned against the sink basin. "Not that she will be able to find me all the way out here. Hells, I don't even know where this installation is located. All I can focus on right now is finding the Elysium. Josie and Liberty and Kara...they were all aboard when she vanished. And I know they aren't dead!" He looked over at Quinn, stopping her from saying it again. They had talked several times, over the past several years, since the Elysium vanished without a trace.

"Had she been destroyed, there would have been debris of some kind, even subatomic. You can't destroy something as large as the Elysium and not leave some kind of residue behind. They're out there, somewhere. Lost, but alive!"

She merely nodded. "Well i can only distract her for so long. You need to deal with her before she deals with you."

He sighed softly and nodded, his gaze drifting off in thought again. "I know. It's beyond time to do so. Come what may, this is a penance I have to accept." He looked over at Quinn, the animosity he usually felt towards her softening some. "Do you have any ideas? I seriously doubt Starfleet is going to either let her in here, or me out there."

"True, but we may be able to trick her. I could... and I hate saying this, put her into a state where she thinks she killed you."

Kyle raised his eyebrows and tilted his head to the side slightly. "That would certainly save me from her wrath. However," he sighed again. "Perhaps we do a hybrid of your plan. Put us both in the same location, out of time and space. There, I can try to make amends to her. Then, if it looks like she is about to kill me, then by all means let her think she did."

Quinn assessed him. "Very well." she said calmly. "Some asteroid far from here will do I guess."

Kyle nodded. "I'll get dressed. The sooner this is resolved, the better." He moved to his small closet and grabbed a nondescript uniform to put on. In a few minutes, he was dressed and turned back to Quinn. "I'm ready."

Tag Quinn

=====

She found herself on what appeared to be an old Talarian Mining Complex. Instinctively she activated her tricorder and started scanning. She took a defensive position out of what lights were in the complex. Light did not suit her. Darkness had more applicable uses. For a woman who endured as much as she did, darkness was safe, darkness was useful. Her tricorder began to pick up an El-Aurian life sign in the complex.

She smiled at the realization Quinn's doing no doubt.. But also she had a wonderful idea. This place echoed magnificently. Maybe the sounds of a science officer's well loved and maintained tricorder... Would fill this El-Aurian with dred. She kept her dual disruptor pistols in her holster along with her retractable katana, and decided to stalk this man. She then sensed who it was.

Kyle had been sent to the location first, per his wishes, and he sat down in a large, well-lit room. There were two chairs, with a table between them. He would wait for Arrianna to arrive. He sat with his hands on the table, taking as non-threatening a stance as possible.

"There is strength in the darkness." Arrianna's crystal voice echoed through the room. She was still as beautiful as he remembered. "Light is revealing, but darkness, is comforting. It frightens people at first, until you understand its power. Then it is your greatest ally. You can use it to conceal your movements. Hunt down your enemy... And destroy them."

This was not the noble Starfleet Officer Bishop broke. This was an abyss of cold terror.

"The truth deserves to be in the light, Arrianna," he spoke aloud to the disembodied voice of the woman he had wronged so horribly. "Come sit. We have much to discuss. You will see that I am unarmed and in armored. You wanted to find me. Here I am." His voice was calm, with a touch of resigned regret.

Footsteps were heard. right in front of him. "The truth? The truth is a matter of perspective. What people see and hear. A convincing and comforting lie can be given to a person. And he and she will see it as truth." A cloaked woman emerged into the light, her face only barely visible. "Behold, what is left of Arrianna Salannis an Vantar."

Kyle did not react by her sudden appearance. "That may be true of others, Arrianna. However, there is an unchangeable truth between us. I captured and tortured you. My actions, and those that worked for me, caused you to be who you are today. I've known you as Arrianna, Flossy, and Veronica. May I know whom I have the honor of speaking with now?"

"What's left." she noted. "For now you may call me Veronica." She mentioned. "I was different once. Idealistic, Naieve. Filled with hope and vision." She mentioned. "I believed in upholding starfleet's vision. Before Bishop broke Arrianna Salannis an Vantar. She was a good woman who wouldn't hurt a fly. She didn't want to hurt anyone you realize? She lived Starfleet's greatest principles. But the vision failed her. In the end Starfleet was filled with ambitious fools. In the end they failed to live up to the line Doryan Kox taught her at Starfleet Academy. In the end people like Carrington betrayed her principles... and people like Highlaw broke her faith. People like Bishop broke her into nothing... and people like you broke her heart. It's the most cruel murder a woman could have ever experienced. She lost Josephine Carlyle. She had nothing left but endless amounts of pain and hatred. Which she took out on your organization." Veronica noted. "I hunted all of them. Every face Flossie saw. I couldn't find Bishop, Degan however I found.." She looked at him. "I'm afraid there's only two left from that sale where you crushed what was left of her love... The others are quite dead. They didn't expect a slave to be capable of killing them. And their deaths, including Deagon's, were rather anti-climatic." She noted. “If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" She spoke again. "Poor Arrianna.. She doesn't want to face reality now. She sees it as a cruel hell. No, she relies on me to make her revenge complete one day."

Kyle nodded sadly. He then indicated the chair opposite him. "Please sit? There are some things I must tell you, before you decide to do anything." It wasn't a demand, he was being honest and respectful in both his tone and mannerisms.

"So, you and I, ending up here. You realize I may still decide to kill you." Arrianna noted. "Revenge is revenge. And here we are.. Two Edmond Dantes. In love with the same woman." She noted. "But my anger transcends time itself. I was willing to tear you apart from the moment you were born. I may still."

Kyle shrugged slightly. You may have saved Josie from the 1600s, but I had already loved her before you arrived. And while you got to bring her back to the time line you both shared, I had to continue on, year by year, decade by decade, century by century, searching for the first woman I ever truly loved."

He let out a soft sigh, then continued. "And please don't tell me about revenge. I learned the power of that thought centuries before your ancestors were born. My mother and father were murdered, in 1400s England. I spent the next hundred and fifty years hunting and brutally killing those responsible, their families and friends. I had started to find some measure of peace, and then, you came along and ripped Josie from me." He tilted his head slightly before continuing. We are both responsible for the other's pain. Where does that leave us?"

"Here.." Arrianna noted. "But we have time here. After I destroy you, I'll have nothing left than to hunt down Bishop and destroy him. But is ending your life enough? Is ending Bishop's life enough? I know your side of the story, Would you like to hear mine before we have an ending of things?" She noted. "You can't rush revenge, and the more we understand each other, the sweeter it will be. Besides. I have had some time, since the woman I once was withdrew into the deep recesses of her mind. Now she sleeps, dreaming of her." She noted."She doesn't care about this world anymore. And me, I'm part of her.. I have sown the seeds of Revolution."

Kyle sighed softly. He recognized the anger, the fire, the hatred that was being aimed at him. He was in her shoes when he was just a boy. He could see where things were headed, however, he remained and didn't call out to Quinn. This woman deserved her time to confront her abuser, him.

"Soon every slaver in the quadrant will feel the ice cold sting of revolution. My allies, have been gathering strength. Slowly and surely these last five years, have been well spent ensuring that soon, every slave in the quadrant will have what they need. And when the day comes? Liberte... Equalite... Fraternitae.." She noted. "The Slavers will die... The taskmasters will feel their own whips before they are tortured and killed, those who purchased us will be worked with no rest until they expire. And those who stood by.. And watched... Those who followed their prime directive and did nothing." She slammed her fist on the table. "They will be crushed, stabbed and slaughtered. Garroted and impailed. Flayed, evered, emasculated, and eviserated... Without the slightest hint of mercy. This is necessary.. for a galaxy without slavery." Arrianna noted. "And I will make it possible, because you destroyed the good woman I once was."

Kyle didn't react to her slamming on the table, nor by her tirade. When she was finished, he waited a beat, then spoke. "So, if I am understanding you correctly, you intend to end slavery, by taking slaves yourselves? How is that a solution?" His question was asked calmly and without any condescension.

She pounded the desk and grabbed the chair, throwing it against the wall. "I was just FINE before I met you!!" She noted. "I didn't want to deny her to you!!!! I didn't want any of this to happen. She never mentioned you at all, nor told me if you meant anything to her." Arri noted. "When I first saw her.. I was instantly enchanted by her. Her poise, her grace, her love of knowledge. Even her canines. She did not belong in a world that treated women like property. She was a diamond." Arrianna noted. "A Diamond living in a world that refused to let her shine. And she was dealing with a stupid man by the name of James Weston, who did not realize for a half-second what polluting the timeline could do. Living her life in a time, avoiding the prospect of destroying the future. I couldn't help but to fall in love with her." Arrianna noted. "I then had to defend her from a board of inquiry to decide if she had broken the Temporal Prime Directive. Just by surviving." Arri noted. "They wanted to crucify both her and James Westin." Arri noted Slowly coming back. Did I want to take her away from you? Did I want to deprive you of her? No... If I knew, If I only knew... Things would have been different." She shed a tear. "I was once a better woman before I crossed paths with you."

Kyle nodded slowly, looking back on those days in the Kings court. "No, she wouldn't have said anything. We had only had a couple dinners together by the time you found her." He sighed, his shoulders slumping in regret. "I had been away from the court on a mission for the King. I had hoped to ask her to a third dinner, where I would've told her who and what I really was. Then, I was going to ask for her hand." He looked back up at Arriannna. "I do agree with you about her. Josephine is a pure and radiant diamond. She deserves all the happiness that life can bring her." He paused and looked her square in the eye. "You both do. I can never say it enough, however, I am very sorry for what I did to both of you."

"She's dead, gone, disappeared along with Lalor." Arri noted. "Not that Lalor would ever like me to lay eyes on her again."

Kyle shook his head at her. "No, she's not. Lost? Certainly. But not dead. I know it in my gut that she and the Elysium are still out there."

"She will not take me back after what I did. After filling my body and mind with so much vengeance. I killed every slaver I could. Except Bishop, He I could not find."

Quinn was watching from a distance but she was not sure things were calming down at all.

"Well, I cannot aid you in finding him, as I have not communicated once with him or any of my former associates since I was captured." Kyle frowned at the thought and admission.

"I don't know if I can go back to her. If she lives. I spare you Cragen. Killing you.... Will end your suffering. Now it's my turn to make sure you live." Arrianna noted and turned to leave. "There is no place for me anywhere."

Kyle watched Arrianna leave the room, his right eyebrow arched slightly. He waited to hear from Quinn that she was returned to where she was taken before actually believing his life had just been spared.

Quinn appeared beside him "She needs a white room and a tight jacket." She quipped. "I sent her home."

Kyle nodded sadly. He knew that he was ultimately responsible for Arrianna, or whatever she called herself these days, and what she did to others. "While I am glad she decided to spare my life, there is still a great deal of blood on my hands from her doing." He shook his head slowly. "Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I don't know if I can truly make amends for my former deeds." He sighed in resignation.

After a few beats, he stood from the table. "There's nothing more that I can do here. Please send me back, so I can continue my search for the Elysium."

Quinn nodded and snapped him back to his home.

~OFF~