#7 Determined to help

Posted on Sun Nov 7th, 2021 @ 1:37pm by Chief Warrant Officer Niraasha "Nira" Whisperwind

Mission: The Forgotten Children
Location: USS Amandora
Timeline: current

ON:

Having seen to Sickbay for the day Bjorgo made his way to Nira's VIP suite. He hadn't seen the Puazi female in several days and was wondering what she was up to. He arrived and standing before the door he hit the chime.

"Enter," said Nira's voice through the speaker, the door sliding open.

It was a veritable cave entrance covered in all manner of jungle growth and soil. How it was even possible he had no clue as he carefully placed his feet on the 'grass' and turf, which was no longer a simple carpeted floor. And, bioluminescence was everywhere he looked as he entered, even the places where his feet landed lighting up beneath them. The door shut behind him, dousing him in pitch black until the plants adjusted to not having the fake light streaming in to bother them. Now, a myriad of glowing colors assaulted his vision. Blues, reds, greens, turquoise; every color available to the rainbow was represented (like Pandora in the film AVATAR).

Coming through the small foyer and rounding the bend he saw Nira sitting lotus, waist deep in a crystal clear pond of water. She held a PADD and tapped keys as she read, flipping through pages and taking them in at a moment's glance before scrolling to the next. There was a small waterfall coming out of a corner of the room, the source hidden from view by the jungle. The base of the pond, all natural stone from what he could tell, was also aglow with an aqua color, bathing Nira and her lavender form in the soft light from beneath her bum, as well as adding to the ambient illumination from the rest of the arboretum around them. "What the hell have you done, Nira?"

One of Nira's ears twitched and angled his way, her head coming up slowly like someone who had been either focused, or drinking. A bit of confusion on her face. She blinked a few times before her expression showed she was now back in the moment. "I make home."

"Yeah...but..." Tore stopped to collect his thoughts, needing to say some things but making sure to word them right. He had seen Nira angry and it was not a pretty sight. "HOw did you get away with this. Internal sensors should have detected all this and advised you otherwise, and then not allow for this. These are quarters, not a greenhouse."

"Why do color of house matter?" Asked Nira in all seriousness. "Quarters can be molded to fit guest, yes?"

"Yes," he had to admit she was right on that point.

"So, my room now fit me," responded Nira, a bit miffed. "Computer know not what I do. Simple to obfuscate."

Bjorgo went to respond, not having noticed something earlier with his preoccupation with her quarters. Nira was dressed in her full combat regalia, weapons glistening from being cleaned and prepared for combat, and her short shorts were now long pants with a tabi style foot covering. The top, of course, remained as it was, bikini style. "Are you going somewhere?"

Nira stood up with just her legs and stepped out of the pool and came before him, handing the PADD over right side up for his viewing. "Cyndi need help, I will help. We are close enough to not tax me too much. Doht," she motioned at the PADD which he angled his eyes down to look at.

Tore was looking at an aerial view of the Dominion compound, which appeared to be several months old, but was the last known images captured by a Federation probe that had breached the atmosphere. The few stills it had captured had been sent right before planetary defense systems obliterated it. "Is this what I think it is?"

"Seh seh," nodded Nira, affirming the answer to his query. "I go. I see safe places. No see."

"Nira, that isn't a good i..."

Nira put a hand up to his face, stopping his words short. "Decided." With that she spun on her heel and walked to the other side of the pond from him, activating her portal.

"Nira! I can't let you go down there and stir thi..." He made to grab her left upper arm, to stop her long enough to talk to her. However her quadriscopic senses told her he was moving towards her, so she spun quick as could be and grabbed his right wrist in a steely grip.

"Remember Saqqara?" Nira asked this as she let his wrist go slowly, making sure he was not going to continue to try and physically detain her. "The injection. Keron particles mixed with Eldritch Magick, attached to a microscopic life form." This time she reached out and lightly touched the back of his right hand. The moment she touched him there was a black circle and within that circle , apearing imbedded in his flesh, were what looked like cinders burning. The only apt description his brain could come up with was 'hellfire'. And, as soon as it showed itself he felt an excruciating pain shoot from his hand and begin to course through his body. He grunted in pain, clutching the wrist of the offended hand, cradling it in his pain. The pain so bad his eyes began to water and he went to a knee in agony. What she had described with his injection was a mutagenic change of some kind and he would need to find out the how, why and what of it all.

"I own you," said Nira. "This power was to help clan Amandora. You waste it, this gift. If you cannot do what is needed for your matriarch, then I will." She snapped her fingers and the roiling burning mark disappeared and the pain subsided almost instantly. "It is within you. Find, then come find me."

Everything that made Bjorgo an augment came back to him. The anger, the arrogance, the willingness to kill without hesitation. His eyes glared at Nira and there was malicious intent behind them. "You will pay for this. Broken trust means broken bones. Get out of here." He watched her give him the same glare in return.

"If that is your wish," said Nira, her expression saddening somewhat. "It is shame you cannot see your worth. I tried. Goodbye, Tore." Her shoulders slumped in defeat, not wanting to make an enemy of this man. But, the Koth were on their way to the Milky Way galaxy, having been driven from Andromeda by her people and a coalition of species. The Koth were a liquid metal species that fed on the molten cores of planets, essentially turning them into big, cold rocks. They did not care that other species relied on said planets for their survival. The Koth were all that mattered to the Koth. There was no sympathy for what they did, no empathy for the pain of others. It was survival, plain and simple, at the expense of others.

As Nira began to step through her portal Bjorgo's wrath ahd cooled, especially when he saw her shoulders slump. What she had done to him with the burning mark was to get his attention, not to aggravate him. She was trying to tell him something. But, why couldn't she just come out and say it? Why the mystery? Was he supposed to discover what had been done to him through his own trial and error? "Nira, wait..." Too late.

The Puazi stepped through her portal and it closed behind her. But, curiously, something caught his eye. A glint of light reflecting off of metal. Nira's dual ring, the one she wore to create her portals, was lying on a rock next to the pool. She had left it, for him, he assumed. Tore picked it up, rolling it this way and that as he examined it. Sliding the dual ring onto his fingers he then closed his fist and pointed it to where the portal had been, thinking about joining Nira. Nothing happened except for a slight warming in his right fist. The power was there but he had to learn how to draw it out and use it.

Bjorgo's weird-shit-o-meter was now at redline.

Slipping the ring from his fingers he put them in his trousers pocket and left Nira's quarters. The command staff needed to know what Nira was doing. The Commodore especially.

OFF: