The Big Thing

Posted on Fri Oct 20th, 2023 @ 7:26pm by Lieutenant Commander Rin & Lieutenant Myne Redal

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Secret corner of a undisclosed cargobay
Timeline: Current
3162 words - 6.3 OF Standard Post Measure

//ON//

Myne monched on the delicious tube grub she had, well, not made for herself, replicated for herself. Which was less than ideal. Honestly Ferengi dishes tasted better when not replicated, but such was life on a Federation ship she guessed. Not to mention, it was hard to import Ferengi ingredients out in the middle of nowhere in another galaxy of all things. Though if she achieved that, the latinum would surely flow. All she needed to do was basically learn a whole new set of technical knowledge not available to any species she knew off and invent something that no one has ever could. Easy?!

"Yeah, that is why they call this day dreaming. In the realm of dreams where the impossible is possible, and one Human can take a toothpick and fight off underground monsters without breaking a sweat. I've been watching too many old Human movies, I honestly need to stop." Myne grumbled to herself as she ate and calmed her disgruntled mind and stopped thinking of weird things.

Looking around she sighed and let her left leg swing over the side of the hammock to push against a crate and swing her gently. The cargohold was nice enough, quiet for most of the day and the temperature was pleasant, on the cooler side. She knew the roster of operations personnel and the inventory of the cargo hold, which meant it was easy to ensure her privacy or prepare when something from this hold was needed.

Thus, the corner she was tucked in behind supplies that were really not needed as they pertained to more civilian and mundane aspects of ship life. She had strung a hammock and had a bag with her clothes and other few precious belongings. And that was it, maybe a few smaller crates stacked nearby to act as nightstands so she could put her precious PADD on them at night. Mindlessly she rubbed her waist where she had been impaled, the wound long gone but the pain kept lingering in her mind like a unwelcomed guest.

After dying so many times, why did it feel so very much more personal now?! Was it her, Myne that was so deeply affected by it? Or Redal getting tired of having to deal with close or fatal encounters with death? Myne finished her tube grub and took her PADD, bent on... not doing anything really. Waste some time mostly, as she eyed the tall container acting as a door to her little corner of haven.

Meanwhile, Rin entered the cargo bay, looking for supplies. The organization of the room was practically non-existent. While the repair crews had sealed the hull breaches and others had restacked what boxes still remained, there was a definite lack of a catalog system, and that irked her.

Intel was slow, even with the limited crew. Half the department's usual tasks had been rendered pointless in this new galaxy. So she set herself to the task of reorganization. She'd need machinery to move the giant crates, but she could at least enter them all in a datebase and sort them into a more navigatiable form.

A noise echoed in the room. That was odd. People rarely came and went from this bay. When she had entered, she had been quite confident she had been alone. Now, looking around, she still saw nothing.

Had something snuck aboard the ship, hitching a ride in one of the recently returned shuttles?

She crept in the direction of the sound. From the way it echoed around the room, whatever was moving wasn't really disguising its movement.

She rounded a corner and found not some creature, but a sort of campsite pitched between two stacks of crates. And in the middle of it was her friend.

"Myne, are you ok?' Rin asked.

The sound came suddenly and it came just when Myne took her eyes from the so called 'door'. So for her, Rin has appeared in a blink of an eye out seemingly nowhere. Startled and with a loud yelp, Myne almost fell from her hammock. Thankfully she had a bounty of experience, as in the last few days, to rely upon as not to fall.

"Oh, hey Rin. I am just erm... organizing yes. Busy busy cataloguing all the things." Said the off duty Myne. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you like, be doing intelligent intelligence intelligentcing?! Ok, I admit, I have no idea what your department does." Myne's flurry of words ended with a very honest and apologetic shrug.

"I'm not sure what my department does right now either," Rin said. Most of her regular duties weren't really relevant in this new galaxy. She knew she had to address that soon, but this was not the moment.

"But you didn't answer my question." She took a second glance of the camp. Because it most definitely *was* a camp. There was no other likely purpose of the setup. "Are you...not living in your quarters?

With a bright smile, Myne shook her head and got up to sit neatly on her hammock while waving Rin over. "Come come, sit with me. And to answer you question, no, the lack of oxygen and damage to the hull have left my cabin I'll suited for you know, living." Myne lied with the most innocent expression ever.

"Welcome to my temporary cabin. They were booked everywhere else. And how can you now be sure what your department does? Intelligent intelligence stuff. Lots of tapping on consoles and looking very intense and intimidating people. I think. So, what can I help you with? Is your console busted again? UI went highwire? Did your data gathering, information scrambling, security thingy developed a personality? Because I actually have a cure for that!"

Rin carefully stepped around the various bits and bobs scattered around the encampment and eased her way not so gracefully into the hammock. She sat quietly for long moments there next to Myne, staring up at the ceiling as the hammock gently rocked.

"I could explain how my "intelligent intelligence stuff" recognizes the change in your voice, the fact you avoid my gaze, and the way you curl your hair around one finger when you're not being truthful," Rin explained softly. "Or I could point out that 100% hull integrity was one of the requirements for us returning to warp, and I was one of the people who signed off on it. Or you could just tell your worried friend the truth."

Myne wrinkled her nose adorably at Rin, like a fussy child caught with a lie and daring a brief moment of rebellion against the adult present. But she slumped and sighed, while her finger freed itself from her hair as Rin pointed out the unconscious giveaway. "It's nothing. I just don't wanna go back, that is all. Has nothing to do with all of my children having turned to scrap in there. I just don't wanna go there and... either have to collect what remains of them or worse... expect them to be there while knowing they won't appear."

Hugging herself, Myne leaned into Rin, clearing her voice as a nervous tick as she smiled bitterly. "You know, I managed to crawl out of my room after it went boom with something sticking out of my gut. I was playing the violin, which I took off of some dead guy, bleeding and hallucinating from the pain. Yet that... doesn't seem to bother me as much. It is just better here, in this cargo hold. No one died here, there's no oil to scrub off the floor, or blood for that matter. So see? I am all good Mama Rin! You can stop worrying now. Also... you are way too good at the damn 'intelligent intelligence stuff', booo!! I can see how every ship needs someone like you aboard."

Rin was confused, as she was 100% certain Myne had no children. A moment later she realized Myne meant her little robots. Those things were darling to her, equivalent at least to pets, which some people equated with children. And she mentioned having to clean up oil as if it were blood.

Rin was curious about the violin. Did she actually play, or what it all part of the hallucination? Rin played. It would be interesting if Myne did as well. But that wasn't the important part here. The important part here was her friend and co-worker was clearly suffering PTSD, and she's bet Myne hadn't seen a counselor either.

Rin had a selfish moment too. She had planned to ask Myne if the plant she had given her had survived the accident, so she might clip a bit and regrow one for herself. But its survival sounded unlikely. Certainly it was not priority.

She reached out and squeezed Myne's hand. "I can help you clean up. You need closure. And you can't live in the cargo bay indefinitely. They'll consider you unfit for duty."

Myne interlocked her fingers with Rin's and smiled with a sigh. "Can I not convince you that me living in the cargo bay indefinitely is the best course of action?! We aren't doing that well on staff and I have not slacked in my duties or efficiency you know. They won't bench me just because I am extra quirky. I am the nutty Trill after all."

Then, raising a curious eyebrow at Rin, Myne nudged her shoulder against her friends. "Why did you come here Rin? Surely you couldn't have known I am squatting here, not if I were to go on your initial reaction. Were you looking for something? You seem to have grave thoughts of your own. Can I completely change the subject and make this about you? Pretty please?" The young Trill looked more her symbiont's age than ever before but her desire to talk about Rin was earnest and eager.

"I was looking for some equipment," Rin explained. "And then I decided to start cataloguing, because this room definitely needs it and I have few things better to do. I don't like not feeling useful. We all have our purposes. Or at least we should."

"Oh? Do you need my help finding the equipment? And you are anything but not useful Rin, and you know it. Heck, you're senior staff silly. Not to mention you have a solid head on your shoulders and we're on a rather large ship with still quite a lot of people left alive on it. You can't tell me that your department doesn't have a purpose, even if its attention is now aimed inwards rather than outwards." Myne smiled encouragingly and nudged her shoulder against Rin's again playfully. "Honestly if I had you on my crew last century, I'd have probably had less mutinies to deal with!"

"Myne.... my comment was simply a reflection on my current lack of duties, not some existential crisis. We will adapt, as we have numerous times over the last few months. I'm fine," Rin assured her.

What Rin didn't say was that if she had been part of the Redal symbiont's pirate crew, Redal would be sitting in prison, at best. And, honestly, it would most likely simply be dead, either by her hand or that of a mutineer whom Rin might have quietly advised as to the best moment to strike.

"Myne, you need to address your living situation," she said, instead, hoping to get them off the topic of pirates and the violent personality that now lived inside her friend's head.

Wrinkling her nose at Rin, Myne sighed and replied in the most childish tone possible. Well, the most unruly childish tone possible. "Do we haaaaaaave toooo?! I like it here, it is quiet, hidey holey and clean!! Got a hammock and all the crates a girl could ever want! You sure I can't help you with something instead?" Myne looked at her friend as if desperately hoping for this last hail mary to work. Though, like any unruly child in the end, her shoulder slumped in defeat as she searched Rin's unwavering expression a few more times. "Fiiiine!! You're such a big bully!! What do we have to address about my awesome and perfectly normal living situation?!"

Rin sighed and gave her friend's hand a squeeze. "You're running away from the situation in your quarters. I understand you've gone through a lot. We've *all* gone through a lot. We've all lost people and things. We've all lost a certain sense of security. And we're all living under the weight of not knowing how we're getting home. You're not alone in this, Myne. Please accept offered help. We all have in these last months."

"Fine, you win. Darn the stars you are lucky you are amazing, or else I would've started to crack a ton of bad Ferengi jokes right about now and deflect even more than before!" Myne chuckled and gave in finally. "Alright alright, if you insist so much I'll do what you say. But only to make you happy, because I am that awesome myself and very generous and... erm... other good Human like qualities like that." Despite the humor, Myne's smile seemed to dim a little bit. "Though, out of all that you said, I've been homeless for a while now and I genuinely can't remember when I last felt safe. So at least those two are dealt with... listen and I really need to stop talking... I don't know where to begin. Honestly... I want to cry and at the same time I want to laugh my butt off."

Rin awkwardly put her arms around her friend. "Talk and cry as much or as little as you want. I can't promise we're getting home. I can't even promise to understand everything you are feeling, but I can promise I'm safe to talk to."

Myne melted into the embrace and nodded softly, gathering up courage to speak and holding tightly onto Rin. "I am afraid Rin. I am genuinely terrified that I felt nothing. I was annoyed and angry at dying again, amused by the dead and... terrifying and heartbroken about my creations being destroyed. How messed up is that? How messed up am I?!" She whispered, almost afraid of giving voice to the thoughts clouding her brain, her eyes watering as she clung to her friend. "And to make it all more messed up, the only reason I didn't go into shock was the violin. I took it from some guy's corpse and started playing a happy tune as if the ship wasn't burning around me."

Rin pulled her friend tightly close and rocked her slightly. She wasn't sure what else she could do. Damn that symbiont and everyone involved who thought it deserved another host.

"And, yet, you're still here. You lost yourself for a moment, but you're still here. You have the strength. I believe in that. I believe in you, Myne. I do think we need to find you some better ways of dealing with it, but you're still here. The fact that you hurt proves that."

"Heh, and I believe in the power of friendship. You know Humans think friendship is magical, right? Well, I kinda believe it too RinRin. You've been my anchor quite enough times already. I am sorry for always being your loony friend. Well, I am ready to follow orders Chief Inspector High General Grand Admiral RinRin!" Myne made a casual terribly wrong attempt at a old Earth military salute. "You sure there's nothing I can also do for you?! Haven't even asked you about how you fared through the whole insanity we have been thrust into."

"I am confident that has never been a real rank," Rin said. She didn't really want to talk about her problems when Myne was dealing with so much, but it seemed that Myne would accept it as a welcome distraction.

"Lost the contents of my cabin, except for the badge. Someone found it before the room fully vented. Lost Ebi, and I'd rather not talk about that. I'm moving on, in my own way. Did have a wonderful experience on the ice planet when the power went out mid-regen cycle and my brain couldn't tell the difference between awake and asleep. Wandered into the snow not knowing where I was. Captain Tonelly found me. Everything's alright now though. Just needed a stable power supply. Nothing to worry about. I've gotten through this ok."

"We could make it a real rank. I could totally hack the database if you keep Avalon distracted long enough. Damn AI already knows most of my distraction methods already. Sneaky gubbins." Myne shook a fist dramatically up in the air at a imaginary Avalon.

Then, as Rin spoke, Myne fell silent as her eyes teared up before she slowly wrapped her arms around her friend and hold her tightly with all the strength she could muster. "I am sorry I wasn't there for you Rin. And... I am sorry to to hear about Ebi and... when you will be ready, I will be here." Somehow her grip on Rin tightened even more, though the slight trembling in Myne's arms did betray she was pushing her muscles a bit hard as if to squeeze all the bad away out of Rin with the magical power of a very tight and love filled hug.

"Power supply... stable." Myne muttered to herself. "That is something I can help with. It must have felt terrifying to have your mind loose itself like that." Her hand moving to the back of Rin's head as she spoke and the shiver accompanying it did hint at a intimate experience with the topic. Eventually Myne did reluctantly let go of her friend though her expression was still on the tearful side. However her eyes were more determined than they had been in quite a long while. "Yes, I can rig something up for you that won't have the power get cut off when you are regenerating. Or at least I will load it up with redundancies so that if something goes wrong it will have enough time to safely wake up before it is forced to powered down."

Rin started to correct Myne, explain that the instability had only been a problem on the planet. The Elysium's power was relatively stable. But a few more redundancies wouldn't hurt. Getting yanked out of cycle during the accident had been rough, to say the least. Myne clearly wanted - even needed - to feel useful at the moment, so Rin decided to simply accept the assistance.

And Rin could probably benefit from accepting help a little more often.

"Thank you," Rin quietly replied. "Now, shall we tackle your quarters?"

"Yes. Lets." Myne nodded and got off from the hammock, but not before giving Rin another hug, to charge both of them with some warmth and comfort, knowing there is always someone there for you.

 

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