If Wishes Were Dreams Realized pt I - JL Capt Neyes, Cmdr Ivanova, Commo Levine (apb Moo), Noturan Captor (apb Moo)

Posted on Sun Jul 13th, 2014 @ 8:22pm by Admiral Rochelle Ivanova

1,763 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: In the Dark

If wishes were dreams realized, than Rochelle knew what she'd wish for herself. She desired an end to her pain, both physical and emotional, an end to her years of torment and unfulfilled hopes. How much tribulation and loss could one person be expected to bear? How much loss should one person have to deal with before she was allowed to grieve?

As she held onto her knees, toying with the ends of her blood and dirt caked hair, her heart screamed at fate's injustice. She railed at life's capriciousness that would allow her to suffer for so long and with such little hope. What held her together? What gave her the strength to persevere through all the years of obfuscation and dead ends?

And, this... Would this be the straw that finally broke her?

Rochelle held onto her trembling heart as nearly twenty-seven years of grief welled up having been given purchase by the cold and drugs. It was too much, this kidnapping, her mother's death. Would the brutes that had stolen her release her from the pain, finally? Would it allow her to put resolution to the demons that had driven her for so many years? Or, would this be the thing that pushed her into hopelessness, over the edge from genius into madness. A cold, stormy blue eye peered out from behind her knees, her battered fingers releasing the autumn strand they held. Andrea had besought her to stop and think, to plot and plan and twist things to her advantage. The Whydah had stolen that from her, or had it? It had left her afraid of the dark and terrified of sleep -- but Landon and Almar had slowly begun to give her hope with their stories and their presence. She breathed a heavy sigh through parched lips, shifting to set her chin astride her dirty knees. She missed them, all of them -- even Archer, the self-righteous pain in the ass.

And then she spied it. The blue mark of her bond to the Atlantean high prince, designating her as the first and only human born Queen of a race she wanted no part of. Another set of memories. Another set of pains she'd all but forgotten. Another pang of hurt that welled up in her chest... And... Landon... He had her band. The memories of that night, the closeness of him as she'd begun to bare her soul and removed the leather that hid the truth from the world. The past she wanted to shake. A past his eyes had started to erase as they sprawled across his makeshift bed in the run about. Maybe she did have the fight left in her, the ability to spring from the ashes like the phoenix so many referred to her as after the Whydah incident. Maybe she did still have the power to take flight with fangs and talons bared and ready to do battle against the demons that haunted her day in and day out.

Maybe -- A light flickered in the corner, catching her attention and she lifted her weary head from her knees to study it.

"What's that?" A familiar voice, a man, said nonchalantly.

"The past." She responded with a sigh, her head tilting as yet another ghost came into focus. First Andrea, now him. So life like as the light wrapped in on itself to bring him to reality. "What I was trying to show you last night. Or was it the night before? I can't tell anymore."

The image of Landon was there, but also not. He skipped from view, then just outside it, teetering at the cusp of her vision. His voice rang clear however, just like he was really there. "Does it matter, Rochelle? Why'd you run off? I bet I'm worried." Neyes appeared across from her outside her little 'cage'. Sitting across from her he poked at the edges, looking inside like a child.

The redhead blinked, trying to focus in on him, his voice, the image of him. "No... It doesn't..." She practically whispered with a shake of her head. Getting to her feet she limped towards the specter, comforted by the sound of his voice - the strength of it as it boomed and reverberated against the stone and her body. "I didn't run off." She answered strongly, stopping her approach. "They took me, Landon, when I tried to go back to my run about. You probably don't even know I'm gone yet." The little redheaded captive huffed, folding her arms around her thin pajama clad torso, feeling her ribs expand and contract quicker as her heart began to race and her head tilted to one side. "I would never leave you willingly."

And then she caught herself, shook her head and reached to brush her hair from her face "The Vindicator, that is." Even to his false image, the hallucination her mind drummed up out of despair and need, she couldn't be straight with him. Instead she watched the flickering apparition, chewing her lower lip. She wanted to touch him. To blink and disappear with him.

"But you were going to run off weren't you." Landon's disembodied voice posed it more as a statement than a question. "You always do, don't you?"

"No!" She admonished, painfully crossing the rest of the distance between her and the vision, her head shaking. "Distanced myself emotionally from you, maybe, but I wouldn't have run off physically!" And then she stopped, realizing what she'd all but admitted, the faux pas causing cold fear to rip through her belly. "Vindicator has my loyalty. You have my loyalty. You know that."

Landon looked at her coyly, "Careful, they might hear you shouting." Suddenly standing at the far end of the room, he all but disappeared into the shadows of the cave. "How will you get out of this if I don't find you? Do you really need me to come rescue you? I thought you were a little more resourceful than that." He waved a hand in the air flippantly, "Seducing me emotionally, getting yourself captured. What's next?"

"And what if they do?" She stubbornly questioned, confused at his disappearance and then sudden re-flare. She sighed heavily, watching him. He wasn't real. It wasn't him. The mantra played over and over in her weary brain. He angered her, set her nerves aflame with his accusations and flippant remarks. The redhead's ire boiled. "I did no such thing, Captain. You..." She paused and dug through her thoughts to find something hurtful. Anything. "You're the one who sent me away! I was just going back to that damned run about for the night!" That wasn't fair. It wasn't right. The memories burned and seared through her senses one by one rekindled by the emotions they brought about.

Heat. She felt heat in the pit of her belly where fear had once been. Heat at the thought of his touch, their near miss. "I can get out of this. I'll come back, make it right." She vowed, tucking tangled hair back behind her ears just as soon as it escaped. She knew this wasn't her fault, or his. The stars had aligned, a cosmic shift of force and fate had driven them to this point. "Besides... It's against protocol for you to come for me." She all but sighed, wandering towards the nearest wall to lean her side against it. "You're so by the book, you probably sent the Marines or something and they'll miss every single clue, if there even are any. And that's if you know that I'm gone." But the wheels in her head had started to turn.

Both Andrea and Landon had both spoken of her resources, the knowledge that had catapulted her to the very tip top of her class in the Academy. The same knowledge and cutthroat demeanor that had saved Andrea, Dani and Pond from a similar fate. "What if I succeed?" The pain and cold and embarrassment of fighting against coming clean even to the shadows all began to slowly fade away into what could only be described as slow, flickering limelight. A thought had sparked. "And what if I fail?" She asked -- her options needing to come to life.

He was getting fuzzy, the details of his silhouette choppy if she tried to see him directly. "If you succeed you still have to get back to camp. Do you know where that is? But, if you fail, I guess I'll have to go against everything I hold dear in order to come rescue you. And by 'ME', I mean the Marine or maybe some slap-happy security officers.

"So...," he trailed off, "Do we remember if the Noturans warned us about crazy cannibal hermits? Is that new? I guess you're going to need something to beat them over the head with. Oh! Maybe you can talk them out of dinner. IE, you."

Rochelle snorted disdainfully, shaking her head and moving to rest her back against the cold wet wall that held her. "Not what I meant. If I succeed in an escape, you're right. I'll have to find my way back to camp. But if I succeed in escape, doesn't it mean I die if they catch me?" She asked, "I'm starting to think this is a fail fail situation." She turned her head to look at him, trying to focus, but giving up at the shimmering sight of his handsome face. "Andrea always said I needed to learn diplomacy, not just stick to my guns to get out of things..."

And then she shivered. "They're crazy, but cannibals?" She asked, once more pushing herself away from the wall.

"Hey," he quipped, "these are all your brain-thoughts. I'm just along for the ride."

A merrily cynical snort followed, coming from the other side of the cavern.

Ivanova whirled around, startled, nearly losing her footing.

"Brain thought," Captain Levine chuckled through her best Professorial Persona expression. "To have brain thoughts, one must have a working brain. And this one," she smiled at Rochelle, "well, let's just say I wouldn't recommend taking one of my notorious midterms right this moment," she smirked in self satisfaction.

The redhead froze, ready, practically trembling in cold anticipation. And then that voice, those words. She snorted in disdainful objection. "I'd still pass."

To be Continued...


Apparition of: Captain Landon Neyes
Commanding Officer
USS VINDICATOR

Commander Rochelle Ivanova
Executive Officer
USS VINDICATOR

Apparition of: Commodore Andrea Levine (apb Moo)
Starfleet Academy professor
Former CO; USS GRIFFIN

Noturan Captor (apb Moo)

 

RSS Feed