Out of Time
Posted on Thu Jul 30, 2015 @ 5:21pm by Captain Isha t'Vaurek
1,605 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Eye of the Beholder
Location: Captain's Ready Room / Promenade
Timeline: MD03 18:30
Why had she done it?
Isha turned the star-metal dagger over and over between her fingers. It wasn't like Eviess to steal, but she had taken this relic from her own collection.
Was I wrong bringing them here? Should I have left them on Cariel where they were among their own kind, among the people they'd grown up with?
Argellian seemed to cope with the change, but Eviess?
No. The terrifyingly intelligent girl rebelled at every opportunity, dug her heels in and refused to comply.
She's worse than I was at that age, Isha reflected.
What made her think it was in any way appropriate to go hunting a sentient being? What would this mean for the relationship between their peoples? They might be from another dimension but their existence would be reported, along with the planet that purported to be a long uninhabited world from their dimension.
Isha sighed and tucked the knife into her tunic, "Computer, please make an appointment with a counselor tomorrow for Eviess t'Vaurek, one who specialises in children's issues," she requested as she got to her feet.
She cast her eyes down at the screen in her desk - there were hundreds of reports that needed reading and signing off, many of them relating to the day's events, a day that wasn't over yet.
They would still be the same in half an hour. Isha was famished
[Promenade]
Tucked beneath two shops here was a coffee shop that she had found earlier and it seemed like as good a place as any to kill the time until lunch. Isha slipped easily through the crowd who seemed full of talk about the evening’s spectacle as above them the station slowly turned from functionality to celebratory.
Seeing Raedheol slouching in one of two chairs at one of the outside tables watching the world pass by. His left arm was draped over the back of the vacant chair. Isha paused and raised her eyebrows.
Casually Raedheol raised a hand and waved.
"What brings you here?" Isha asked slipping into the vacant seat; she was not surprised that Raedheol did not move his arm. "Tea, please," she called to a hovering waiter.
"Getting into the festive spirit," Raedheol replied unenthusiastically. "Did you and your friend buy anything?" he asked.
Isha sucked in a breath through her teeth, "I really don't think that is any of your business," she replied.
He leaned toward her, "You know that refusing to answer only makes me more curious, don't you?" he breathed into her ear.
Isha tilted her head around slightly and found his dark eyes dancing wickedly. "There's a name for men who spend their days lurking outside ladies boutiques, Rh'vaurek," she said with a half smile.
"Can a man not walk down the promenade without being suspected of malevolent intent?" he asked; a disingenuous response.
"Of course," Isha breathed feeling his fingertips fleeting trace over the nape of her neck. His touch burned even when his fingers were once again hooked over the back of her chair. "But why the same one that I happened to be on?"
"Coincidence," he shrugged, "Just like you choosing to pass this coffee shop."
"The coffee shop I happen to drop into regularly," Isha observed, acutely aware that if she tilted her head back it would meet his shoulder, and her cheek graze his.
Raeadheol smirked and straightened in his chair, "Really? Well I never knew that," he said brightly. "You're looking well this morning, you couldn't leave quickly enough after dinner last night."
"It was a disaster," Isha was exaggerating and she knew it, but the atmosphere had been tense as it had quickly become apparent that Raedheol and Milarno were never going to be the best of friends. "You could have made a little more of an effort to get on with Doctor Milarno," she asserted.
"What can I say, I didn't like him," came Raedheol's blunt response.
Isha twisted in her chair so that she could see Raedheol properly, "I wasn't asking you to like him, just to make it through a meal without trying to provoke him and without making suggestive remarks to his girlfriend."
"Some people just bring out the worst in me and anyway, he was asking for it, it was too easy to resist."
"He was perfectly charming," Isha retorted, "You just can't bear it when you're not the centre of attention."
"They're your friends, Isha, not mine. You want to entertain them, you provide the effort."
"I did, and hopefully they'll still be speaking to me after your performance."
"Have you contacted home?" Raedheol changed the subject as the waiter placed down their drinks then departed, "I don't want you wandering around this station on your own any longer than necessary."
"I told you yesterday that I am not sending for protection. I travel alone."
"Do I really have to remind you how hazardous that attitude is?" Raedheol said alluding to the same incident that had caused Isha to shudder whilst she was talking to Petro.
"I'm more cautious now than I was then, and as far as I am aware you are no longer waiting for an opportunity to abduct me," Isha said pointedly.
"No, I'm not, but if I had been I could have taken you several times over and nobody would even have noticed that you were missing. We could pick up where we left off if you want …" He left the thought hanging, delivered as it was through the most humourless smile Isha had ever seen; fortunately his eyes told a different story.
Isha sighed, "Why does it amuse you so much to make idle threats to me?" she asked.
"Because you're not one hundred percent certain that they are idle," Raedheol chuckled softly leaning forward, "The expression on your face is delicious, Isha, you don’t know whether to trust me or to run."
"By your own assessment I don't generally do what is best for me," Isha replied, her gaze not leaving his.
"I would feel happier if you were not so alone and so vulnerable," he said.
"Then get used to being miserable."
He leaned in then and rested his chin on Isha's shoulder from behind, "Then you get used to seeing me here," he told her.
Isha exhaled; his breath was warm on her throat and she raised a hand and gently pushed him back.
"Your schedule will make fascinating reading, Rh'vaurek, 10:00 stalk Isha … 12:00 follow Isha …14:00 listen to Isha's communications," she dropped her gaze and peered at him through lowered lashes, "When will you have time to get any real work done?"
"When you stop being so stubborn and do what I ask, without the debate," Raedheol suggested.
"If that is what you are waiting for then I’m afraid, Rh'vaurek that you are going to have a very unproductive department."
"Ignore my advice if you must, but I am serious."
"Yet you always told me it was a game, so really you only have yourself to blame," Isha smirked, "and as I recall, it was you who brought me into it."
"Something I should never have done, you should be tending your estates, not holed up in a station full of vermin."
"Is that an admission of culpability?" Isha asked softly.
Raedheol shook his head and leaned back, "I should never have allowed you to seduce me."
"It wasn't me that did the seducing, Rh'vaurek."
"It was never part of my plan," he responded, "but you smiled at me with your eyes and I was lost, it was the single most alluring thing I’d seen before or seen since."
"And look where that got us," Isha said turning her bright green gaze on him.
"And now you’re doing it again, d'Ishaal," Raedheol said, pulling away.
A silence feel between them as they remembered that they had ordered tea but they did not need to speak, they poured and drank mechanically, neither of them willing nor able to act upon what they knew, not yet, anyway.
Isha laid a hand on Raedheol's knee, "I have to go," she said, "I have an appointment. You could come if you promise to behave," she added.
As he rose, Raedheol asked, "Who are we seeing?"
"Doctor Adams," Isha said, "as this day is some Bajoran festival or other I decided to treat her."
Raedheol opened then closed his mouth. His eyes swivelled right then left and then he clapped his hands together, "Ah! I have an appointment of my own, almost fell out of my mind. I'll not be able to join you, but give the good doctor my regards, won't you," he said.
If Isha had needed one word to describe Raedheol's reaction it would be flummoxed; that in itself was unlike him, "Rh'vaurek?" she snapped as he turned away.
"Its nothing, Isha. I'll see you later," he said throwing back the same casual wave he had welcomed her with as he walked away.
Isha gasped as a cascade of ice tumbled down her spine.
That was almost ten years ago. Rh'Vaurek was missing in action, Milarno, Petro and Chelsea had long since departed the station. It was evening, not morning.
The only thing real was the tea before her and the empty chair.
Somehow Isha still felt the warmth of his touch as though it had only been a second since Raedhoel had walked away.
What was happening?
Captain Isha t'Vaurek
OOC Note: The scene in italics was originally posted in 2008 on the old yahoo group under the title 'Bad Pennies'. I've used it here as Isha's hallucination.
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