Necromance

Posted on Fri Oct 18th, 2024 @ 1:01pm by Lieutenant JG Zai & Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami
Edited on on Fri Oct 18th, 2024 @ 1:05pm

903 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Various | USS Arcadia
Timeline: Current

ON:

Adrianna had said nothing to Jason, but had been avoiding him for the best part of a week. The reopening of a wound was messing with her head. Her mother had religiously warned her: beware, your sins will find you out. Adrianna had always ignored the warnings, since undercover was undercover, but with Zai now knowing too much, her grief had resurfaced and was haunting her every thought and ever dream. She was reliving losing Vance over and over and over again. Now, she needed certain closure and the only way of doing that, was to talk to Zai.

Shift had just ended, and Adrianna knew where he would be. He would be checking on his hooch. So there she sat, on the floor of the tube, with a half drunk bottle of grappa. She looked like she hadn't slept in a week and looked all around rough. The bumbles of the hooch kept her company as she waited.

Zai finished shift, and now that Fang was off ship on a little mission for the CO, he had free reign. He headed to check the latest brew when he stopped short. "Well...don't you look...awful."

"Grazzi," she stood up. She ran her fingers through her hair and took a swig from the bottle, "one question, and maybe a favour depending on the answer and then I'm gone. We won't cross paths often except for work. We leave each other alone. Our feud is done with." There was a darkness in her eyes and a coldness in her tone.

He sighed. "There is no feud with us. A misunderstanding perhaps. Pasts, yours and mine, are complicated." He pulled the Grappa form her hand. "How about a coffee while you get your thoughts together?"

"Geez, I'd need two of those to even get a buzz," she rolled her eyes, "what you said the other night about necromant-- necromancy. Is he alive?"

"Complicated question Ms. Adri. Very complicated." He paused. "Are you sure you want to open old wounds?"

"They are already open," she replied, shaking her head, "I need certainty and closure. If he is alive-- I need to make things right."

"That is a complicated question. Can I tell you a story?"

"Merde," she groaned and sat back down, "fine, but make it a short one."

"Some time ago, in a galaxy that was just near the Klingon boarder, but in Federation space. A bad man escaped a Telerite transport to a prison planet. His friends turned on his liberator who saved the woman he loved. She got away but he was interrogated. Not long after another Klingon ship came with a crazy captain." He smiled and blinked several times. "That captain was able to obtain information that surprisingly wound up in the hands of Starfleet, and destroy the ship, but before he did he was able to liberate a liberator. The man was coherent but badly injured and made the crazy captain promise all sorts of things before he lapsed into unconsciousness. There were surgeries and medical procedures and when the man woke up he had no past but only an uncertain future."

He sighed. "His friend tried to revive what the man had lost but his friend's home on Earth was cleaned so well that not a trace of the items that could bring memories was to be found. When he came back to see his friend his friend was gone. I don't think the Crazy Captain has stopped searching but at last sight that liberator was very much alive, and forever different. But now, now he's missing."

"In English," she demanded, "you're saying he's alive?"

"He was the last time I saw him but he disappeared." He sighed. "You're ruining my philosopher's mysterious man routine, you know?"

"If you want to go back to being actually friends, you need to drop the philosophy with me and equally tell me where he was last seen and so on. I need this." Then the word dropped from her lips, saying a word she rarely said in almost a begging manner, "please."

"I'll send you details and the medical file so you can have as much information as I do. I would appreciate a hand in finding my friend."

She nodded, "let's keep this between us. I know that you don't like Jason, but I will talk to him in my own time."

He sighed. "Again! Haven't I kept your secret this long. Oh my Gods! Why am I the Villain here?"

"Loveable villain that is hardly a villain," she quoted, "Vance's words. Not mine."

"Pffft. He was exaggerating. I'm bad to the ..." He threw his hands up. "Wait wasn't I trying to say I wasn't a villain? Gods woman you are confusing the doodle out of me!" He grinned. "Now coffee? I know a good café, they have great coffee but can't get you name right to save the galaxy."

"You're an idiot," she snorted, "but yes, coffee. I want that information by morning though."

"Great let's get some coffee then." He motioned for the door. "I'll have the info to you by this evening...use your old code for Vance's ship."

She nodded. How could she forget that code? She used It day in, day out for years undercover. "Appreciate it," she replied. Now she had the dreaded task of talking to Jason. She couldn't leave him hanging forever.


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