More or Less Lost

Posted on Wed Sep 15th, 2021 @ 4:16pm by Captain Bethsabée Leroux & Petty Officer, 3rd Class Annikafiore Szerda

Mission: Mission 4 - Eden
Location: The Caelestis - Deck 23 Aft end
Timeline: Day 168 12:00
2313 words - 4.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Beth was delirious as she came too, it took her a long moment to work out what was going on. She could barely hold her head up but she knew that she was being held upright from the clasps around her arms, legs and torso inside one of the statis tubes that were all around them. She had no idea how long she had been out but she could vaguely remember she had been lifted from where they had slumped unable to fight off the effects of the gas as her head hurt from where she had been knocked into the statis tube as she tried to fight off the figure.

She glanced around wildly as she came to a bit more now that the air had cleared, she looked around for Annikafiore. “Annikafiore!” She said sharply not able to remember what language the woman spoke. She would have to keep calling her name until she woke.

In her own stasis tube, Annikafiore Szerda only responded with a tilt of her head to one side and a vague grunt. Her body swayed as if she were simply taking a summer nap, and trying to roll onto her side. Except she couldn't move. Even through her thick environmental suit, the tightness of the restraints across her limbs and chest started to echo into her semi-conscious mind, as did the staccato of her Captain calling her name. Annikafiore tried to speak --either in response or discomfort-- but it came out as mushy noises and sleep talk. A heartbeat later, her eyes opened and she sucked in a desperately deep breath.

“You are awake then.” The figure who they had seen across the ring. Silver, short hair slightly revealed a skinny face and bright white eyes, but this time those eyes were filled with anger. Beth turned from the Petty Officer to look at him. He could not be no more than twenty, he looked so young to look that angry.

Annikafiore's brain-fog hadn't fully passed; her perceptions were still skewed by the final whispers of dream logic. "What...?" Annika asked, and it was a guttural sound from deep within her. She blinked heavily until her eyes focused on the man who had spoken. "Why are... What...?"

“My name is Nathaja.” He said glancing at Annikafiore as she asked questions. “You are contained as I have no idea who or why you are in my home.” The barely an adult stated clearly. Beth could understand that in her foggy mind.

Struggling against her bonds briefly, Annikafiore replied, "And my name is Annikafiore." Had she been more cogent, the petty officer might not have responded before the Captain. She blinked heavily and then her eyes focused on Nathaja; focused more sharply than she had before. "We're explorers, Nathaja," she said. "We're explorers, but we got lost."

Beth took a long and deep breath in as she focused on the man and the fact that he would speak in standard to them. “Nathaja… you speak standard to us?” She asked the only question her brain was focusing on right then and there.

“No you are hearing it at… whatever standard is to you.” The man said moving to stand in front of Bethsabée’s tube looking at her intently like it was the first time he was properly seeing something. Beth was not liking the way she was being looked over at all but she was glad it was her and not her crew member. “My ship has neurotransmitter all around s that make it appear like I am talking in your native tongue.”

"Neurotransmitters," Anniafiore remarked in eureka-timbre. To look in her eyes, one could see the proverbial light bulb click over her head. "Our hand-scanners seemed to detect biological components to your computers in engineering. Now that... now that you can speak with us. ...What do you most want to tell us?"

That man looked confused at the pair as he was asked what he wanted to tell them. He had never been asked that before by EDEN and it left him confused for a moment. “You are not the Foundation? You have not come to rescue me? Is that why you have been checking out my ship because you are lost like me?” He asked quickly.

Nodding her head slowly, Annikafiore cleared her throat before she replied, "I think we're more lost than you..."

“We are definitely not the Foundation nor have we come to rescue you I am afraid. We did not even know you were on board until you attacked and killed one of my crew. That was you right? You are covered in blood.” Beth said sadly as she saw what the knowledge that they were not there for him did to him as his young face crumbled.

“He surprised me,” Nathaja explained looking away from the two women. “He is the first other like me I have properly seen and… we struggled.” He had been surprised and scared by the other man.

Her brow furrowing in visible consternation, Annikafiore echoed, "You... struggled?" Her voice cracked on that last word. Overwhelmed by the loss of Aurelius Davis --and now her own precarious state-- Annikafiore's hazel eyes took on a watery quality. For all her discombobulation, Annikafiore remembered her STC training in conflict resolution. She fronted her questions with empathy and with her own personhood. She asked, "Did he... attack you?"

Beth nodded at the woman to let her know she was doing well in taking over the questioning. "He did but I attacked back as he tried to contain me in that movement room." The young man admitted. Beth could imagine the scene that Aurelius tried to contain the man and the man panicked attacking out. It sounded like the bad luck the man seemed to have when it came to life.

Hearing the man's description of his encounter with Aurelius, Annikafiore closed her eyes, trying to will the mental image out of her head. Regardless of the absolute truth of his words, and the ultimate culpability, it was a terrible experience for both of them. "I'm so sorry, Nathaja," Annikafiore said, never wishing to ever be in his position. And certainly, she still recognized the power he still wielded over herself and the Captain.

"So now we know who you are Nathaja and what happened to our colleague. What happened to this vessel?" Beth asked wanting to discuss something less personal and heartbreaking. It was not the place to dwell on that when it would cause conflict and blame, they were at a disadvantage gassed and captured, Beth did not want the tubes activated.

Nathaja looked at the redhead and came closer pressing against the tub that contained her. "Some type of electrical storm hit the ship and it lost navigation control drifting into a world hole." He said almost absently like he was speaking facts and not something he had gone through.

"Was your ship automated when the storm hit? Were you in stasis?" Annikafiore asked, the curiosity flowing from her engineering training. Back on Earth, people loved talking about their jobs when all else failed. She could only hope it was the same where Nathaja came from. "Or was there a crew operating the ship?"

“It was automated. I was in statis.” The man looked at the woman as she spoke before he looked away as if reliving the memory that the two Starfleet personnel could not dream off.

Annikafiore nodded tightly at Nathaja's answer. If he had been in stasis with all of the passengers when the crisis had happened --when E.D.E.N. had been activated-- that would explain the state of the ship and E.D.E.N.'s uncertainty about where all the people had gone. "Yes, the main engineering compartment was too clean," Annikafiore said, recalling her observation. "We found no sign of a crew when we came to answer your distress call."

“How long ago did that happen?” Beth asked focusing better as her head lolled to a side and she winced at the sharp pain that went through her head.

“Ten or fifteen years ago. It was a long time ago.” Nathaja revealed. Beth looked at Annikafore as her worse fear came to fruition. The man was barely an adult but ten or fifteen years ago he would have been a child she suspected. He looked human enough to grown like a human.

Annikafiore frowned back at the Captain. She shed no tears, but her eyes remained watery. Her face had gone flush; she felt warm all of a sudden and it had nothing to do with a rush of emotion. Turning her head, Annikafiore considered Nathaja, looked right at him. "You were revived from stasis," she asked, "...too early?"

Nathaja nodded once firmly before shrugging. “No one was meant to be revived until we found our new home. It was meant to be a new start instead of the beginning of the end.” He decided if these were going to be the only other living and breathing souls, he was going to tell his story. It was not like it was a very long one as he barely remembered his life before he woke up from the statis chamber.

"What happened?" Annikafiore asked. Quietly, subtly, she tested the strength of the bonds around her thighs and around her upper arms. Unfortunately, they felt pretty strong. A wave of dizziness swept over her then, but it passed as quickly as it came. She asked Nathaja, "How were you revived from stasis?"

“We hit a nebula that was not in the system and it threw us around and damaged the systems enough that the computer stopped for long enough to stop the statis unit." Beth winced as she glanced around the unit that she had been secured in. They had become thousands and thousands of peoples coffins instead of keeping them alive. "My unit was blown open due to the computer core explosion and I was revived alone and…” He stopped as the memory became painful and uncomfortable for him. It was the memory of a scared and bloodied child who was alive because of luck more than anything else.

“Scared?” Beth offered wondering where his pod had been as they had found no extreme damage but they had done been in this area until that day.

When Nathaja didn't answer or acknowledge Beth's supposition, Annikafiore changed the subject. She knew she should keep him talking, keep him out of his darker ponderings. "I heard you say you were looking for a new home," Annikafiore said. "Our starship has been displaced as well. Our home world is... a lifetime away, maybe more. What set you on a journey to look for a new home?"

“Our home was lost. The universe in ruin. The foundation tried to save who they could.” Nathaja answered as he was pulled back from his dark thoughts. He was scared, he was alone apart from the damn Emergency Disaster Engagement Network. “You know where you are going. I cannot find where we were going on any charts.”

Her mind reeling, a confused, muffled sound came out of Annikafiore's throat at first. She understood the words Nathaja had said, but they didn't make sense to her in that order. She couldn't fathom it, and it didn't help that she didn't feel fully awake. Shaking her head, Annikafiore had to check that she hadn't misheard him when she asked, "The... universe in ruin?"

"Yes..." He said simply. He did not want to get pulled into more memories of what had happened to his world and the universe as a whole. It was not worth it anymore, he had spent so long thinking it over. He had spent the last decade thinking of the whispered conversations between his parents and the elders of the foundation whilst they planned what to do. "This place is not destroyed or in ruin but none of it is right. Nothing is where it should be,"

"You, uh," Annikafiore started to say, and she cleared her throat, before she said, "You could come with us. We have a long way to go." --Annikafiore looked at Nathanja, looked right at him-- Maybe you'll find a new place along the way..."

"I will never be accepted by your people." He hissed as he heard people in the distance talking. He knew it was only a matter of time before the crew came looking for the two women but he had thought he would have had more time whilst they regrouped.

What Annikafiore meant to say was that "her people" were explorers and protectors. She meant to say that everyone was welcome, and that the crew of the Atlantis wasn't even one people. She meant to explain there were representatives from several planetary governments among her people. However, a wave of vertigo swept through her senses worse than when she'd first woken up in bondage, and she only managed to speak one-in-three words out loud.

"Your people are coming for you," Nathaja revealed not knowing if they could hear much past what he was saying looking around for the only weapon he had a knife.

"They're only here to help," Annikafiore croaked out. Her vision spinning, she lost track of Nathaja, and was altogether thankful to be strapped into the stasis unit as her level of dizziness would have stolen all sense of balance from her.

"No one helps anyone without wanting something in return," Nathaja said simply as he started to prepare for the rescue party and their arrival. Beth could only look on and hope that Nathaja would calm down and that her crew were able to see past that the strange pale boy had killed one of them.