BACKLOG | Capt Neyes, Cmdr Neyes, 'Ennui' - "The Baffled King Composing Hallelujuah" Part III

Posted on Thu May 28th, 2015 @ 11:34am by Captain Landon Neyes & Commander Logan Grant, PhD.

2,125 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Ennui
Location: Trill Sector

=/\= Part III... =/\=

"You want to know what I would give to keep this from happening?!" Landon spat, angry tears forming in his eyes. "To keep her from dying before bringing our child into the world?" His voice cracked again as the words swelled in terrible agony. He could feel his grip tighten gently around the baby. She cried a little while he held her, but never enough to bring him worry. She was just like her mother, brave and strong. Something inside him was desperate to keep her safe, even if it meant telling the... whatever it was... he wouldn't change anything if it meant losing her. I can't be sure this is even real. He thought to himself.

"Whatever is mine to give." He said softly. "I would give anything to see Rochelle happy, and alive where she belongs." It was an honest truth if one was ever spoken. Landon would never, and could never offer up his daughter's life in exchange for Rochelle's, the Commodore would have his innards on a pike for even the softest suggestion. He would welcome the punishment if it were so. That wasn't the thought he had in mind, however. If there truly was some circumstance that brought them all together, it had to mean there were no loose ends. No lost souls. No lives taken at her or his expense.


The watcher's head tilted with a finite pout as she regarded the broken man and the baby he held. He'd trade his life, she could see it flashing in his head, but not the infant's in exchange for the woman he loved. To them it was just another point of confusion in a never ending game of chance, one where more questions arose than were answered. Landon wasn't necessarily human, but he was humanoid and had the same psychological spectrum the younger of the two humanoid races possessed. He was noble even if he held himself with no small dictation of arrogance, an alpha male if there ever was one. It was that nobility and that selflessness that seemed to resonate the most, and loyalty took a close second. Love was truly something more akin to to an enigma than a finite, tangible object. It couldn't be controlled or bottled, and what's more, the piece of the proverbial puzzle that twisted the watcher's head the most, was the fact that she could read within his mind that he'd want all or nothing, satisfied to live as broken as he was to teach his lover's honor to the child more so than sit there and wish for her return. Honor. Integrity. They were virtues that made the Q more interested in things than ever before, and they knew that by continuing to toy with and injure their specimens they were likely to never come to any real understanding.

A sigh broke through the manifestation's lips. "I could lie to you and say I'm sorry." It said with lifted brows, "But I don't know what sorry is aside from your lament for taking the woman away from your ship. I know that you're not sorry for loving her or creating life with her and I know that..." The paused and shrugged, "That you were given another chance at life. That's what makes you so very interesting." There was a smile now, more genuine and glittery than before as they approached, "You want her, but at the expense of no lives lost... You wouldn't trade your baby for her even though you've known and loved the woman for so much longer... That's an admirable thing, a lack of the selfishness I see running rampant within you humanoids." The strange faux-Rochelle grumbled and spoke quickly, flailing their hands as they did before coming to a rest scant inches from Landon's pensive form.

She reached for his face, holding it between her hands and tipping his harrowed face and dim lit eyes down towards them. How anyone could live being as short as the redhead they embodies was completely beyond the Q. It was absurd, but they had no choice but to make due. "This..." She said, "This is nothing. When you wake up it will be as it should be and nothing more or less."

The thought he was being toyed with, and their lives meant nothing more than some game to this creature made his blood boil. The image of Rochelle was impossible to handle, and it was all he could do to pretend he wasn't scraping the bottom of the barrel. Watching her die... it echoed his worst nightmares he'd been having for the better part of a year. His worst fears came to life before his eyes in this house, with this... this thing.

"Is that difficult for you to understand?" The voice of a Captain taking hold, "That I would offer you anything I can to save them both?"

"Yes." Q replied with a nod of their head that slowly dissolved into a shake, "No." It couldn't seem to make up its mind as it spun to articulate exactly what it meant while patting Landon's scruffy cheek. "I mean I can see that you would, but I can't understand the why beyond the word love. Love doesn't mean anything to me, it's a myth and a legend that has no significance to me personally, but I want to understand it better! That's why you were chosen almost three of your years ago. For me it went like the blink of an eye, but for you? Oh no. It crawled." It chuckled mirthfully, "I watched while you two tried to figure yourselves out like preteens at a spring fling dance. For someone so confident you really didn't think you deserved that woman. I was there the nights you spent yourself into your sheets over her and punished yourself for it with more responsibility and discipline. You couldn't shake her and more importantly? She couldn't shake you. It's that attraction and that..." They paused, playing with the beginning of Landon's barely there beard. Q was ranting now, babbling almost incessantly as they began to dawn on the realization of their own thoughts and the joy of winning that round of their alien game.

"Life. It was life! And life lead to lust and lust broke down to love. Sure sure, respect was in there in spades, but love. You could have had her on Notura, but you didn't want to steal from her her decency Why? LOVE! And then Romulans. Gotta love them crafty pointy eared fucks, don't you? Always coming in to screw the pooch at the last minute." 'Rochelle' grinned lasciviously. "Anyway... Good job." The sound of a light pat against the Trill's shoulder startled the baby enough for her to bleat in protest. "She's going to need to eat here pretty soon."

Neyes' eyes drew to the baby. "You let me worry about her." She coo'd and pressed a wayward arm into his, feeling around at her new surroundings. He turned his attention back to 'Rochelle', and let cooler minds prosper. "You're right. I was a man who needed someone to connect with. Rochelle and I were always good at supporting one another. If I had been responsible to my ship I would have asked her to be transferred when I first knew there was something between us," he paused, "but I let it continue. I didn't want to steal away her decency, her status, our careers, and also I owed it to my crew. Love is irrational, amazing."

Neyes was slowly backing toward the sofa, "It can also be dangerous."

"Like cupcakes?" It asked with blinking eyes trying so hard to understand. 'Rochelle' waved her hands at him as he sat down. He was obviously tired, obviously worn and so very close to completely broken, and 'she' knew this "The child. Eléna. She is the pinnacle of what love should create and what it can and does. She, like all children, is the humanoid's chance at immortality. They carry your legacy on even after death. In Eléna, Rochelle lives. Seed of hope. I've learned that by watching for longer than Neyes has been a thing." Q nodded fast, taking a seat beside him. It would have slid into his lap like it saw the woman do countless times, but the baby being cradled made things difficult. "Life itself is danger, mon Capitaine! You chose to live it just as you choose to let her live it." 'Rochelle' sighed, rubbing her hands along her knees. "Listen to me." She said, leaning her head into the warmth of his solid shoulder, "When you wake up, I want you to remember what it was we discussed here. The bits about this love thing and immortality. You'll thank me in the morning."

He almost held his breath when it sat down next to him. If this was some kind of dream, or something he could wake up from, he wished it to happen sooner rather than later. From his vantage point, he could still make out the blood on the floor of the bedroom. "You said I was 'chosen', two years ago. Chosen for what?"

"To be watched." Q shrugged as if it were so very simple. "No interaction, no... Guiding. Just watched and studied. You were all my specimens." It smiled proudly and drew in a deep breath, releasing it was a happy sigh. It didn't care about the cold, coagulating blood on his bedroom floor or the body left on the sheets. Those had all been forgotten, discarded toys. "You've been good today, deserve a treat really." She pivoted on her heel, her boot squeaking against the hardwood as she did and her brow furrowed as if deep in thought. "Ah! I know!" Its fingers snapped excitedly and with nothing more, no other word, it vanished into nothing more but a sparkle of sunlight illuminated dust floating through the air. It was gone just as quickly as it came, though one could never be completely sure it wasn't still lurking in one of the shadows or posing as a spider hiding in a corner. In fact it would never be truly gotten rid of now that it had found so many willing partners to play its little games and run the wheel of their experiments. The baby whimpered in her father's arms, closing her eyes as she set herself to sleep, nestled into his embrace without a single care - the only shred of evidence Q chose to leave behind, but she would only remain for as long as Landon stayed awake to nurture her, for come morning the man - who truly was still asleep - would awaken to news that going home was no longer a fairytale. It would be a reality with no further reason to leave... For now.

Vindicator would soon hum around him, comforting with her superior protecting grace while Tristan and the little boy Zed slept soundly in their rightful quarters. Rochelle wouldn't be alone at night, worried and bundled in his over sized old bridge coat that she'd kept, from when she'd been convinced he was dead, and never returned. The Horizon would set docked beside the Liberty and the Symbiosis Commission would be none the wiser that cloned symbionts existed, simply because it no longer did. Tristan slept unknowing that the very creature of contrition that lived in his belly would no longer exist upon the moment of his waking. The memories would be there, always remaining of nearly eight-hundred years worth of potent and valuable information, but the issue... Gone. Even the Commission's memories and records would be forever altered by the childlike snap of omnipotent fingers. Eléna, never truly having been real, wouldn't and couldn't be considered a loss. As such, Landon Neyes would have been granted his ultimate wish; everything would be it should be with his lover alive, with him, and no lives having been extinguished to grant such a miracle. In a way he'd been given chance number three and set free to learn about, and create, life and immortality. In exchange he'd given of himself two of his most important assets; his time and the full spectrum of his emotions - and they, he, had taught a bored little Q about true love and devotion in the span of only a couple hours.

Landon sat on the sofa cradling his daughter, and stifling scar etching tears as he gently bounced the sweet baby girl in his arms.

An untold number of hours later, sleep finally stole him away.


=/\= TBC =/\=

Captain Landon Neyes
Former Commanding Officer
USS Vindicator

Commander Tristan Neyes
apb Landon/Spaceman

All others played by Spaceman

 

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