Unfettered Orion

Posted on Wed Aug 12th, 2015 @ 6:37pm by Lieutenant Commander Michael Darwin & Ensign Reva Madhava

* Piper Medical *

Troubled, Darwin left Riley's room and was immediately assailed by a green dervish eager to spin past him into the room. "I can see him now?"

"Ah, no. He's exhausted, Reva, and dehydrated. Let's let him sleep and let what the doctors put in motion have a chance to work," Darwin caught Reva by a bicep and directed her away from Riley's room.

"But...," she caught what Darwin was thinking, what Riley had said, where he'd been beamed from. "Oh," she said, suddenly deflated.

"I'll walk you back and take the monitors with me."

"And take the second one off," she reminded him, pulling on her pant leg to briefly show the thing off.

"Right." He'd been in the middle of removing the first ankle bracelet when his commbadge had sounded off and the crewman on the far end announced that Sukotav had been transported to Piper for medical attention. He had tried to get the second monitor off and leave her behind, but Reva had been insistent upon leaving immediately to go see Riley. Who had just declined to see her. He looked at her to see that she was visibly crestfallen.

"A brothel?"

Darwin nodded, looking ahead as they left Piper and walked to a turbolift.

"Sursey's House? Is that really the one he said?"

"Yeah." He nodded again, still looking ahead, then something in her tone got his attention. He glanced at her. "What? Are you mad he would do that?"

"Do what?" For a moment, she was blank. "Oh! Sex with someone else? Oh, no. I mean... I'd rather...," her brow furrowed as she realized she wasn't as okay with it as she had always assumed she would be. An irritation that she recognized as more Orion than Betazoid rose up; it was possessive and jealous. She didn't tell Darwin that, though. "He could have picked someone here, could have not worried us for a day and a half." She paused then added, "I'm struck by the House, though."

"Why?" They had reached the turbolift and Darwin called it.

Reva answered as it arrived and they stepped in. "Sursey's? That's one of Seyla's places."

Darwin's head snapped towards her. "Seyla has businesses on Archadia?"

Surprised he didn't know that, Reva nodded. "Set up through Suresh's network, apparently. Before that whole alternate universe episode. Long before then, actually. You know she loved him, don't you?"

The little Orion was full of surprises. Darwin gaped at her for a full second - long enough that their lift ride ended. Stepping out, he commented, "Orions don't love." When she shot him a baleful glare, he defended himself: "That's what Seyla always says."

"She would tell you that," Reva strode ahead of him, ready to be done with him. "Maybe she's right. Maybe Orion females only possess men."

He watched her for a moment and thought about how she had been versus how she was right now. A part of him missed the wild child suddenly; another part kicked him for thinking that: she'd been out of control and on his last nerve. One more infraction likely would have found her out of the Fleet. In a few long strides, he caught up to her. "How do you know all that?"

"About Seyla and Suresh?" She smiled at him and turned suddenly flirtatious, holding his arm as she gave him a smoldering gaze. "Same way I know that right now you're thinking of baseball. Touch, Michael. You know that Seyla has always been one who likes to touch those she's talking to. When a question is asked or conversations take sudden detours... sometimes Seyla isn't the fastest at hiding her thoughts."

Reva shrugged. "She was telling me about the Archadian houses - she has a hard time staffing them because there's more demand for 'soft', compliant women and very dominant men - and how she, Suresh and...," she paused, then shook her head, "there was another person involved, but I forget his name. I'd never heard of him before. Anyway, the three of them set up the business. While she talked about that, she wasn't guarding her thoughts about Suresh and," again, she shrugged, "Telepaths do what telepaths do."

"What about these houses?" He was flummoxed he hadn't caught wind of them before now.

Still holding his arm, Reva smiled and said, "You're not aware of every pastry shop on the planet; you can't be expected to know about every business enterprise the Station residents get involved in. It's not as if she named the houses "Seyla's". She named them Marsey's, Seyzan's... there are a few others. There's not much more to tell, other than they aren't quite as legal on Archadia as they are here. Seyla has complained that her employees down there need more medical care than the ones up here."

They walked in silence for a moment, mostly because Darwin was too stunned to think of anything to say. When they got to her quarters she led them inside. Darwin picked up one of her little robots and turned it over in his hands, nearly jumping out of his skin when the bot protested and tried to climb his hands to right itself. "Augh!", he shouted, startled. He dropped it on the sofa.

She laughed. "Maybe you could return my other one? I made that little one," she pointed past him, "to go find it, repair it and bring it back. It'd be easier... and maybe less scary for you, if you just bring it back."

"You... Wait..., you made another one with the idea that it would get into my quarters? Again?" He turned a penetrating glare on her; everything in his demeanor communicated his irritation.

She smiled, though not brightly. "Ah... yeah? Maybe? I mean, I didn't send it out."

"Sit." He ordered her; she obeyed and he knelt to pull her ankle onto his knee. While he worked on the monitor, he glanced at her and said, "Shall we make a bet how long it'll take before I'm putting this back on you?"

"That's not fair! I've been a model citizen!"

"For what? A week?" He shook his head. "I give you two weeks.... maybe three."

She frowned at him, nearly pouting. Couldn't a girl get any credit for behaving? She noticed he'd taken the monitor off but he wasn't yet releasing her ankle. Indeed, his touch was.... "Lieutenant! Mind if I take my leg back?"

He jumped slightly as if she'd just nudged him and nodded. As he stood, he asked, "How often has Seyla been in here since Riley disappeared?"

"A few times. She stayed with me that first night, was here with me for lunch yesterday and came by before I went to bed," she answered.

He sighed, knowing that Seyla's pheromones were in the room. They didn't seem to be affecting Reva, though. "I see. Well, I'm done here, so you're off confinement. That doesn't mean that you should go running off to the Pit, alone or escorted. Understood?"

"I get it, already!" She shooed him out of her apartment.

*************
Lt. M. Darwin
End. Reva Madhava