Post 469: Can't Be Helped

Stardate:70930.2300
Title: Can't Be Helped
Author: Zanh Liis
Scene: Brig/Arboretum Aboard Independence
Time: Following "Those Who Won't Be Counseled"
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Leaving Doctor Corbinsky to think about his situation awhile longer in the brig, Zanh moved past Blane, N'Dura and Margolis without offering a word as they waited for her outside the holding area.

The three exchanged glances and finally Blane, the senior officer, quickened his steps so that he might catch her in the hall.

"Captain?" Blane began, "What did he say?"

"A whole lot of nothing." Zanh complained. "Riddles and nonsense."

"Do you want me to take a shot at him?"

"Be my guest, if it pleases you. Otherwise, let him sit in there and rot until we get back from the planet." She stood outside the turbolift and pressed the button for service.

"Are you going to get some sleep then, Sir?" Blane suggested. He knew Zanh had been up for at least thirty-six hours by this point without sleep and they were just barely outside of Yensuli space. They were due to meet up with the delegation on the surface in just six hours now.

"Sleep? I have no time for sleep. We're taking the grand tour in a few hours."

"Exactly my point," Blane replied. "You and myself and," Blane wondered if Zanh had made up her mind who else was going with them.

"Vedek Jariel." Zanh finished the thought for him. "They asked us to bring as few people as possible. You double as my second command level officer, and required security as demanded by regulation. Jariel fulfills the roles of diplomat and ship's chaplain in lieu of a counselor."

"You and myself and the Vedek need to be fully rested to deal with the challenge of the assignment. You must get some sleep, Sir."

"Who do you think you are," Zanh groaned, her hand moving to her neck as she rocked her head from side to side, trying to work out a kinke! d muscle . "the first officer around here?"

"By default." Blane replied. "My job is to make sure you're still in one piece when Salvek gets back."

"Well, fine then," Zanh eyed him, knowing there was no point in arguing. "Mr. XO by default, do me a favor. Wake up Lily T'Ana and tell her that I want her and Dengar to get started this instant on reprogramming our external sensor grids. " She lowered her voice and whispered in his ear.

"There's a PADD in the top left drawer of the desk in the ready room, the security code to unlock it is beta charlie twenty-one alpha. It contains the cheat sheet Salvek left me in case there was any reason we needed to abort the war games and find Alchemy in a hurry. With this information T'Ana and Dengar should be able to recalibrate our sensors to track Alchemy's transwarp signature, and tell us exactly where they were after the last jump."

"That kind of makes the hide-and-seek exercises moot, doesn't it?" Blane frowned, disappointed. He'd been looking forward to playing cat and mouse with Alchemy. "We're going to cheat?"

"Nothing of the kind. The exercises are postponed until further notice."

"Zanh Liis?" Blane's hackles went up; something was wrong. "Is there a problem with the Alchemy?"

"I don't know for sure yet, Thomas. But I want to find them, and quickly. If they come up with any sign of Alchemy between now and morning, tell them to wake us both."

"I'll see to it, Sir." Blane assured her. "One more thing, don't you want to take N'Dura along with us to the surface as well? Four is a nice round number."

"Given the way these people feel about women, are you kidding me?" Zanh glanced at him sideways. "Are you trying to start an interstellar incident?"

"Hell no." Blane replied. He realized suddenly that N'Dura might not take politely to the view of women that their hosts held dear. "Perhaps you're right and she should sit this one out."

"Besides," Zanh concluded as the doors to the lift opened. "Someone has to mind the boat while we're gone." She nodded to Blane. "See you in a few hours, in transporter room one."

"Sleep well, Captain."

"You too, thank you." She stepped into the lift. "Deck 8."As soon as the lift doors closed, she rubbed her throbbing temples.

"Computer, where is Jariel Camen?"

>Jariel Camen is in the Arboretum>

*Of course he is. Where else would he be? * Liis thought. His personal form of meditative therapy was making things grow. Hers was breaking things made of glass. *How the hell did he ever decide I was someone he wanted to link his life to? *

"Computer, redirect lift to deck 46, the Arboretum."

She found that music was playing when she arrived.

The late night rain cycle had just finished, and everything sparkled with drops of water. The artificially simulated moonlight gave the space an eerie glow.She headed toward the section where the night blooming plants were situated, and sure enough there he was, down on one knee, analyzing the fully opened blossoms of a Bajoran Evening Star plant.

She watched him gently pluck a few dying leaves from the stem of the plant, in order to keep it healthy. If the dying leaves remained, he'd taught her, they would weigh down the whole of the plant and eventually, bring about its ruin.

*Was that what she was doing to him? *

He didn't hear her footsteps over the music, and she watched him sigh as the song repeated on a loop.

"I see the lonely road that leads so far away,I see the distant lights that left behind the day,But what I see is so much more than I can say,And I see you, in midnight blue."

"You're listening to ELO," She observed softly, and Jariel turned and jumped. "Proving that you've been spending far too much time with me."

Jariel shook off his surprise at hearing her voice, and raised his hands gracefully.

[[Or proving that I haven't been spending nearly enough time with you.]]

It had been four days now since their confrontation in her quarters, after which he'd left her with a pile of his old letters and many doubts about her worthiness to be a part of his life.

[[I've missed you.]] Seeing she was tired, he took a few steps and sat down on a bench nearby, and patted the spot next to him. Liis sat.

"I don't know why you've missed me. The way I acted the other night, I'm surprised you didn't decide to pack your things and catch the last transporter beam back to Earth before we got out of range."

[[I really wish you wouldn't say things like that.]] Jariel's eyes revealed how much her doubts injured him, and he sighed again. [[After all we've been through, all the time we've lost and all the time we've both wasted, don't you see that it really bothers me to waste a single second now? If you won't talk to me, what good is my being here?]]

"Your being here is my saving grace, Jariel," Liis took his hands in hers, and she looked down at their entwined fingers. "If my bad behavior has made you think for one moment that I could be doing the job that I'm doing, holding things together while Gilmore is away and Salvek is off and Corbinsky is trying to drive me mad- well, the rest of the way anyway," she squeezed his hands, " without you here? Impossible. I couldn't be doing it if you weren't here. I apologize for," the list seemed too long to itemize now. "I'm just so sorry, Jariel. For everything."

[[I'm sorry too,]] he freed his hands from hers just long enough to sign the words. [[I know that I don't ever need to doubt your feelings for me, and Prophets know I never doubt my own. So I shouldn't have let four days go by with nothing said between us. I won't let it happen again, no matter how busy you are. I'll march onto the bridge and into your ready room and throw everyone else out, if I have to.]]

"Now that, I'd like to see." Liis smiled, knowing that the mild mannered Vedek was capable of great acts of righteous indignation if sufficiently provoked. "I need you to come with me, in the morning. To Yensul. Did you get the message I sent you with the specifics on their culture?"

[[I did,]] he paused, and smiled as he called her by her title. [[Captain. I am ready and willing to assist in whatever way I can.]]

"Good. I'm going to need all the help I can get."

[[Is there anything else that you need help with?]] Jariel leaned a little closer. [[Between now and then?]]

"Well, if you're finished here," Liis said, taking his hand once again. He nodded.

She stood and pulled him up from the bench.J ariel didn't know where she was going to take him, or what she wanted him to do once he got there, but he didn't care.

He just knew that he didn't want to waste another moment of time they could be spending together, apart.
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=/\= Captain Zanh Liis
Acting Commanding Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791