Laughing At The Old Men

Posted on Wed Nov 11th, 2015 @ 2:30am by Ensign Six of Ten & Ensign Reva Madhava

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Reva's Quarters

* Reva’s and Desta’s Quarters *

Lounging on the couch, dressed in footed pajamas and her ever-so-comfortable-though-not-stylish cardigan, Reva hummed along with an old song and tossed her smallest robot into the air, catching it as it came back down. The robot, which wasn’t designed for air travel, kept up a steady stream of beeps, trying to alert Reva to its distress. “Well, come on, catch my hand, then,” she told it.

When the doorbell chimed, she caught the ‘bot and sat up. “Come in!”, she called and yelped as the ‘bot wrapped its legs around her hand. “Leggo!”

“What’s wrong?” Six heard her yelp as she stepped inside. She smiled, seeing the footed pajamas. “Stylish.”

“Thanks,” Reva laughed then brandished her robot-covered hand. “This thing. It finally got the message about grabbing hold. Of course, it nicked me as it did that. Come in, have a seat. Do you want a drink?” As Six got closer, she’d be able to see that the pajamas had a small green frog on them; Terrans knew the frog as Kermit.

“Just some water. I’ll get it while you disentangle yourself.” Six moved on to the replicator. “You want something while I’m here?”

“Nope, I’m good. What brings you by?” She pulled at the ‘bot’s legs, making it let go of her hand.

“Just a visit.” Six returned and sat down in the chair by the sofa. “It’s been a while and things seem to be settling down finally. How’s things with the professors?”

Suddenly, Reva cracked a smile and started laughing. After a moment, she cut her mirth down to mere chuckles and, shaking her head, said, “Oh, Six, I almost feel bad for them. Those two, Cyrus and Louie, have their shorts in a bunch because Suresh has Marabeth on the side... or both of you at the same time, whatever way the Pit is seeing that. They want to make sure that I tell you. Actually, I think they might want to kidnap you and de-program whatever brainwashing Suresh has done to you.”

Six blinked back at Reva. “How do they know about Marabeth? I just met them and you only mentioned his name so how did they get to Marabeth?”

“They went to Saturnalia, where Suresh talked to them and, I gather, sort of taunted them. He told them her name.”

“Keeping up appearances, I guess.” Now she began to laugh as well. “So, they want to save me from him? Ooookay. So what do I do about that? You think they’ll let it go?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t mention it today during classes, but then, I was busy with cadets,” Reva answered. “I’m not sure what to do about them if they want to push it. I can’t see them being dumb enough to actually try kidnapping and de-programming you.”

“No but one or the other might want to sit me down for a long talk.” She frowned in thought. “So, we need to come up with something I can tell them to put them off the scent, so to speak. Any ideas?”

“That you know and don’t care? That Suresh is polyamorous and, while you don’t necessarily like that and certainly aren’t playing around behind his back, you love him and put up with it?” Reva plucked at one of the Kermits on her pajamas. “Other than that... I don’t know. At least they’re onboard with my apparent dislike of Suresh.” She laughed.

Six rolled her eyes and laughed again. “I should warn Suresh then, so he’s aware of the situation. I can’t make a scene in Saturnalia for their benefit and demand he drop her though. The Six they all know would never dare do that. So I’ll work on my story.”

“Yeah. Hopefully the Professors won’t hang out at Saturnalia.” Something bothered her about that and she twisted a Kermit’s face. “Boy, that bothers me: males can go down there without being hassled but folks like us? Of course we can’t.”

Six nodded slowly. “Good point. I don’t think it’s their kind of place. It’s not really mine either but it’s useful. I go when I need to but you’re missing nothing, trust me. It’s scumville, present company excluded.”

“Oh, I know. I’m fine with not being down there. I now have a direct source for any gossip that might crop up down there, anyway: Robart and his crew. They like to fill me in. Oh! Get this,” her mood changed slightly, slanting more towards annoyance, “Robart brought Fisher’s crew back here. Pash, the one who abused Desta, was here, on the station! He attacked Desta’s date, Xavier, then went after Desta.”

“Here? Did you wring Robart’s neck for that?” Six frowned again. “Wait, I thought you said that ship exploded? How’d they live through that? And why bring them back here?”

“Robart did destroy Fisher’s ship. As he explained it to me, he’s a pirate and has a dislike of “wasting resources”. Fisher’s crew were resources - the ones who had nothing to do with me, he kept. Pash apparently had business contacts that were useful. Of course, now, Pash is dead - Security has his body and everything,” she frowned. She left out that Almans, Fisher’s engineer, was now also dead. Running into him in the Kyllini’s engine room had momentarily unnerved her, but Robart had been quick to remedy that. “Apparently Robart killed Pash in defense of Desta.”

“That explains why I’ve not been able to find her,” Six answered. “Likely she has been at Piper. I’ll track her down later today and see how she is. At least that scumbag is dead.” She gave Reva a rueful smile. “I’m starting to sound like my neighborhood.”

“Yeah. Pash and Fisher were a pair, both nutty.” Reva pulled her sweater closer. “If you don’t like Saturnalia, why don’t you tell Suresh you don’t want to be there?”

“All part of the job.” Six shrugged. “You wouldn’t believe how people down there talk around me as if I’m deaf. I guess since they only see me as his little toy, they don’t care what they say. They seem to think I am either too stupid or too afraid to give anything away.”

“And then you pass that on to Intel?”

“I do, if it’s relevant. Or to Darwin for Security to look into. Generally, what I find for Intel goes to Edana or Vic.” Six paused and now she traced her finger along the arm of the chair. “Have you seen Vic lately?”

“Oh, yeah,” Reva nodded. “We sat by the lake and chatted yesterday. I think he’s glad to have a... relatively uninvolved person to talk to.”

“I think so too. Thank you. I know he thinks a lot of you and I’m glad he has you to talk to.” Six sighed aloud and shook her head. “Time I suppose. It was a hard decision.”

Chuckling, Reva told Six, “I told him that if Riley weren’t around, I’d be happy to take his mind off... well, you. I’m not sure that helped, exactly - he lamented about coming in second again. But he also said that you told him someone else was interested in him. I agreed and nudged him towards Desta. Although... she’s out with Xavier tonight. Jeez, I hope Vic doesn’t come in second again!”

A slow smile spread over Six’s face. “She’s the one I meant when I told him that. I don’t know that Xavier is anything serious. If Vic were a possibility, I think she would jump at it.”

“Well, who knows,” Reva shrugged. “She might like Xavier - particularly since he nearly lost a hand because of Pash.”

“We’ll see what happens. I’m glad that you both are bouncing back though. Speaking of which…” Six’s smile returned. “When are you and Riley going to go down to Archadia? Maybe this weekend? I can have the house stocked up if you want.”

“I dunno. I’ll have to talk to him about going,” Reva hedged. “He’s... um... I think he might be here tonight. I hope he is. He’s been here every night since Fisher.”

"Is he staying once Des is out on her own?” Six reached for her water and had a drink. “Make me happy and say yes?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, smiling slightly, “Though it might be that we move to his quarters. We haven’t officially decided to live together, but I can see only one reason why we wouldn’t.”

What’s that?” Six wanted to know. “Besides one or the other of you being sent back to another quadrant.”

“You don’t think they’d do that, do you?” Reva looked fearful of that idea. “I was thinking that Riley might want his own space for a while after all of this. It’s been crazy.”

Six considered that, then reached over to take Reva’s hand. “There is one thing I can promise you, my friend. Riley’s had enough of having his own space. He wants you in that space. He risked everything to get to you, to save you and bring you back here. That’s not a man who wants separateness.”

She nodded. “I know that, intellectually, but sometimes... I just get afraid.” She shrugged. “I’m not as fearless as I once was.”

“I think you should decide where to be fearless and where not,” Six mused. “Who has earned trust and opened the way for you to jump in without worry. You have plenty of reasons to fear, or did, but they are gone. You have one great reason not to fear, but to believe. It’s a leap but one worth taking.”

“You know my grandmother would have a fit if she knew about this. About Riley, Niro, oh, gods... Fisher,” Reva chuckled, but it was obvious she was a little unsettled. “At some point, I need to call her and tell her relevant news. At least she’d be happy that I’m dating a Betazoid.”

“Is there a reason to tell her about the bad parts?” Six asked. “I am curious because I never had my parents. Now, I have you and Riley and Suresh and Bryce which, I guess, is my family, but no one who was ever in an adult role when I was younger.”

“I suppose not,” Reva reached out to her friend and put a hand on her arm. “What about... Edana and Darwin now?” Belatedly, she realized that Darwin was just about Suresh’s age. “Um... oh, Zeferino? Or Captain Hawke? As for telling Grandmother the bad parts, I won’t. I’ll gloss over them and just let her know about Riley and my position with the Academy.”

“If she is old, no need worrying her since it’s over.” She smiled then. “Perhaps Dae might be something of an ‘adult’ parent figure, but he’s a little younger than my husband.” That seemed to amuse her. “Age is a funny thing. The number sounds so much older than me but for his species, he’s still young. Go figure.”

“Hey, I’ve been doing research into the Borg because ...well ...I was wondering whether the nanoprobes could be used with Ignatius, but anyway, the Borg sometimes used incubator-type machines that aged infants, essentially taking them from infancy to near-adulthood or teen-hood? Do you suppose the person who went through that would know? What would their mental development be like?”

“I never noticed any difference, honestly,” Six answered. “Among the collective, we were all the same, whether they were taken as adults or as babies like me.” She frowned as if trying to recall something, then shook her head. “The maturation chambers were designed to make sure the brain and mental functions developed at the same rate so we didn’t have grown-up drones thinking like children and being weak links in the chain.”

“Children as weak links,” Reva nodded, disgusted by the idea that children were anything other than children. “If the Borg had encountered a species like Ignatius, do you think they’d have assimilated it or passed over it as being too alien?”

“I...am not sure.” Six took another drink of her water and set the glass aside. “I think perhaps Iggy would be much like Species 8472. They were avoided, you know. And if the Borg knew there was only one Iggy? They might have killed her to make sure there were no more.” She shivered and looked back at Reva. “Sorry, I know that sounds horrible.”

That was sobering and Reva frowned. “No, it’s a fact of what the Borg are. You were taken as an infant. Were you in a ‘maturation chamber’?”

Six licked her lips and finally nodded. “Yes. You are the only one who knows that, though I suppose the doctors have guessed. I don’t usually bring it up because I’m alien enough as it is. There’s no need to add more fuel on that fire. Maybe, though, that explains my awkwardness over life things.”

Reva’s mind went to work on that thought, racing away in different directions and whispering various theories and ideas. One thought that came back to her loud and clear was that, possibly, Six was no older than Ignatius. Her eyes went wide and she quickly apologized, “Oh, Six, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to pry or make you feel awkward. I just get really intrigued, from an engineering standpoint. I mean... the Borg... what they could do with machines and organics...,” she stopped, looking a little shamefaced. “I won’t tell anyone.” And then she couldn’t help herself: “Do you remember it or did others tell you you were in the chamber?”

“No, and I know that might sound strange. I suppose it’s much like your very early years that you cannot recall now maybe?” Six was silent a few seconds, then shrugged. “I just recall being...well..me. Me and all the rest I was connected to. Does it matter you think? Should I tell Suresh?”

“No. I don’t think it matters,” Reva shook her head. She laughed then explained, “Remember when Darwin complained that you and I were too young for the likes of Suresh and him? Boy, wouldn’t he just love this?”

Six rolled her eyes. “Hey, I’m still the age I am, I just had a...strange childhood..or something.” She smiled finally. “I think it would blow his mind, don’t you?”

“Yep, he’d just blow a gasket,” Reva used her hands to mimic Darwin’s head exploding. “Where’s he been, anyway? I think I’ve seen him once, maybe twice since Fisher.”

“Some blow-up down on the planet but Ed was expecting him back last night. I haven’t seen him yet though. I expect he’ll turn up at home to get caught up with Suresh and me, once he’s caught up with Ed.” She grinned at Reva.

“He and Suresh are actually friends, aren’t they?”

Six nodded. “As strange as it sounds, I think they are. Suresh said it all came about when they were gone to find the other Suresh. Those two, and Captain Hawke, Commander Zeferino... all seem to have gotten rather close, especially him and Li. Suresh doesn’t really talk about it though, and I don’t press it. I’m glad he has Darwin though, otherwise he’d have an awfully solitary life besides me.”

“Yeah. It seems to me that he reached out to Riley, at least a little bit, while we were on Archadia. Not that he and Riley could really...,” she shrugged and shook her head. “I’ll ask Rye if he wants to go to Archadia this weekend.”

“I suppose they could, just not out in public. That would be easy enough to work around though.” Six smiled once more. “Do, and go enjoy yourselves. You certainly deserve it. I’ll be here doing my best not to get de-programmed,” she joked.

"Yeah. Be careful with those old guys - and I mean Louie and Cyrus, not Suresh and Darwin." Reva teased her.

“Very funny.” The comm badge in her pocket beeped twice and she squeezed Reva’s hand. “Well, that’s my signal. Someone’s looking for me so I should get home and see who it is. Let me know about the house and I’ll bring the key.”

"Sure thing," Reva stood, hugged Six and walked her to the door. "I'll call you tomorrow. Bye!" She watched Six walk down the hall then realized she needed to change before Riley got home. He wasn't a fan of her Kermit PJs.

****************
Ensign Reva Madhava
Engineering Randomness

Ensign Six Of Ten
All Grown Up