When the bough breaks

Posted on Thu Dec 31, 2015 @ 6:20am by Captain Maritza Soran

1,035 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Pangaea (Wrap up)
Location: Soran's Quarters
Timeline: MD04 2230

::ON::

After she had reported to Aldrex the full details of the debacle in the caves, Soran had excused herself, and walked back to her quarters as fast as she dared, eyes low, avoiding any reflective surfaces. She knew what coming, had known as soon as the adrenalin had worn off in the shuttle. She just wanted to put it off as long as possible

Once in her quarters it was much harder. She went to the panel behind the bathroom mirror, flinching as she caught sight of the shadow. She popped it open, and retrieved the hypospray. Crossing her living room, she dropped it on her desk, ignoring the reflection standing next to her own.

Then she reached under one of the chairs, and retrieved another. And the one under the mattress, the one inside the bedroom airvent, and the one stashed inside the bronze statuette of her old pet, a bird of prey not unlike a goshawk.

She lined them all up on her desk.

"Gosh. Are they all for me? You must have had a really bad day?"

The ghost's voice was mocking. Maritza looked up. Anna was sitting opposite her, reclined in one of the easy chairs. She was in every detail her last sighting of Anna. A naked, pale, bloodless corpse, shoulders stained with blood and other fluids she couldn't identify.

Her scalp had been peeled back and her skull had been neatly sliced away, exposing her brain. the neocortex was filled with probes, whisker-fine needles that rose out to thin wires that trailed down her back in a grotesque mockery of hair.

Despite being able to talk, her face was slack with death, tongue lolling forward, eyes unseeing.

"What's the total now. The Serenity? The Onedin? Are we pushing two thousand yet? You must be close. especially today. You came back with only half of those under your command."

Soran's face burned with shame. She wasn't going to argue with it. It didn't matter that half her command was just two people. There was no 'just' when lives had been lost. Lives she was responsible for.

She picked up the first hypospray and looked at it. She felt old, despite not even being close to thirty. It seemed so long since she'd looked at her father's earnest face, explaining why she needed ot be joined, because that was what all the best people,all the real people did, and vowing she'd show him what real people could do without a worm sitting in their guts

She'd failed quite spectacularly. And now two more people were added to the butcher's bill for her failure. She pressed the the hypospray to her arm and lets the drugs into her system.

"A temporary solution at best." Anna pointed out. "A few hours of peace. You'll still have to face me. Still have to face the fact that you are a disgusting whore who is too busy chasing glory to remember about everyone you trod on to get where you are now."

Soran picked up the next hypospray. Now Anna sat up, eyeing the hypospray with uncertainty. "This time its not going to be so temporary." She dumped the second hypospray into the vein in her wrist. It took a second or two before she felt, but her awreness was definitely getting fuzzy around the edges. She picked up the third.

"Killing yourself? That's your solution?" Anna sneered. "Typical. Can't face the fact you're a complete failure, so you're killing yourself. You arrogant, cliched, spineless, pathetic, gash!" Anna's voice was hot with anger, but there was fear there too.

Maritza looked at the spectre, "Don't know if it will kill me. Its possible. Too much of anything is poison. But I just want rid of you." She depressed the third trigger. All her nerves were fizzing now, spreading pleasent warmth throughout her tired body. like a massage from the inside out. She giggled. "Fuck, that feels good. Does that feel good to you?"

Anna seemed to flicker. Encouraged, Maritza reached for the fourth hypo. It took her three goes to close her fingers around it. Her fingers didn't feel quite right anymore, larger than they should be, puffy even.

"Drop it!" the ghost snarled. "Drop it and go to sick bay before you really regret it."

"Scared, bitch?" She was slurring the words. It was worse than even the exhaustion of sleep deprivation. She had to hold the hypospray tucked against her wrist so she could push the button with the other hand.

Not being close to the skin, the jet lost some power, and instead of being shot in painlessly, it stung like a sonofabitch, even through the drugged haze that was closing over her. It dropped from her numbed grasp, bounced onto the desk and off again onto the floor.

"Of a coward taking the cowards way out?" Anna spat, but there was hysteria in her voice.

"You don't want to die? You're my hallucination, my guilt. my shame." Maritza said slowly, having to think hard to enunciate clearly. "Isn't this what you want? You keep telling me i don't deserve this. You haven't shut up about it since the D'ama."

Anna was talking, but there wasn't any sound. The ghost seemed to finally be a ghost, wispy and insubstantial, instead of solid and real.

Maritza had a full attack of the giggles now as she pawed for the final spray. "What, no snappy comeback?" The spray fell into her lap and she tried to pick it up with stiff fingers. "You missed out on the last laugh." The hyposrapy dropped from her clumsy grip. Her field of vision was tunneling fast, everything white aroudn the edges, but she could still see Anna, fading fast, making angry furious gestures.

"Ha." She was having trouble focusing on the hypospray, everything else was lost in the blinding white swamping her vision. She made another attempt. It felt like trying to co-ordinate robot arms by haptic feedback rather than vision, but with thick gloves on.

She looked up at the chair opposite her desk. Anna was gone.

Then there was only light.

::OFF::

Lt. Commander Maritza Soran
2XO/Chief of Operations
DS5

 

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