There's Nothing Like Family

Posted on Wed Mar 23rd, 2016 @ 11:29pm by Lieutenant Commander Nicolao & Niro

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: The Brig

* The Brig *

Nico had put off his visit to Niro by a couple of days. Instead, he’d spent time with Dae in sickbay, then had come the memorial service for Sakkath, and spending time with Dru. Niro had been shoved to the end of the list and Nico hadn’t given it a second thought either. Now, however, he emerged from the turbolift in the main brig reception area. Since he still had a few days off, he was out of uniform. Even so, the officer at the desk knew him and snapped to attention.

“Good evening, Commander.”

“Hello,” Nico greeted him. “I’m here to see Niro.”

The officer checked Niro’s list and nodded. “Right this way.” He stepped out and took Nico back to the lift and down a level. They walked through a maze of corridors and finally arrived at the end, in the isolation area where two officers were on duty. “He’s down at the end. I must inform you that everything is recorded, of course. Just call if you need assistance.”

“Thank you.” Niro moved on past the two guards and their work area and continued on until he reached the circular seating area and Niro’s cell.

“Hello, Niro.” He spoke aloud, knowing that Niro’s telepathy was blocked and knowing that Nico speaking in his head would just annoy him.

Lounging on the bunk, Niro sneered and mimicked his brother, “Hello goody-two-shoes. About time you came to visit me, brother.”

“Sorry, I was off fighting the Borg and reclaiming the ones of ours that they assimilated.” Nico’s voice wasn’t harsh, it just sounded tired. “So you’ll understand if I got delayed. We’ve sent a team out to do some patrolling, in case you’re worried about assimilation still.”

“Screw you, Nico,” Niro grumbled, irritated that his brother would poke at that particular fear. “Are you just here to view me like a zoo creature or are you going to be my brother?”

“That all depends.” Nico pulled a chair over closer to the cell and sat down. “What does being your brother entail? I hate to say this but you being a zoo creature is pretty much the truth. What do you expect after what you almost succeeded in doing to Six?”

He smirked, “To Six? Just her?” He laughed and shook his head. “Whatever. She’s just a girl; she’s nothing to you. I’m your brother - your family - someday I’ll be out of here.”

“You said it exactly.” A wave of disgust swept over Nico. “Just a girl who knows little of the real world and you did your best to rewire her brain so she would run away with you. You did the same to Ensign Madhava and to Falasin. Is that the only way you can get someone to love you? It’s vile Niro, and extremely sad, tragic in fact.”

“Not everyone can be perfect like you, brother,” Niro commented, sounding bored. “Talk to me about other stuff. What interesting events have happened since I've been here?”

“Perfect? Would you really want my life? You saw first hand what I went through in that prison. You are the one who spent months putting my brain back together. Are you really envious of that?” Nico rubbed his eyes. It occurred to him that the one thing Niro could envy was Dru. “I heard that Falasin had been down to see you. I found that very interesting.”

“Falasin,” Niro mused with an odd smile on his face, “She's a simple one, easy to manipulate. Don't blame her for coming to see me, Nico, she's infatuated.”

“Is that all she is?” Nico asked. “I would think you might have a little appreciation for the one person in this universe who seems able to see anything good in you.”

“Mom could see the good in me,” Niro said, using the only barb he had in his armory. “You? Eh... take you or leave you.”

Nico frowned at the mention of their mother. The memory of the day she and Niro had been ripped away from the city and shipped out with the other regressives was still painful. “Maybe Falasin does and if you’re that lucky, maybe you should appreciate her and not spend your time rewiring her head.That’s why Dru always appealed to you, and Julisa. You couldn’t remake them.”

“I didn’t need to remake Julisa. Dru is yours to rewire,” he said. He was unaccustomed to such one dimension conversations; normally, he was inside the other person’s head, trolling through their memories and thoughts.

“That’s not my thing, brother,” Nico replied. “But whatever. You’ll do what you want and nothing I can say will change your mind.” He could, however, attempt to reason with Falasin and put Mamu on the case. “Why did you want to stay here?”

“Why wouldn’t I want to stay here? You’re here, so are Reva, Falasin, Six, my favorite sister-in-law, Dru. I’m surrounded here. Plus, I get to poke at Darwin and Suresh and Reva’s boy, Riley.”

“Leave Riley alone, he’s been through enough. That goes for the XO too. I can see how your last visit with her went. She has also been through too much lately.” Nico smiled slightly. “I’ll be glad to send Mamu down to see you though.”

“If she comes down here, then I want this force field lowered. She and I can go a few rounds,” Niro laughed.

“I don’t think there would be much of you left.” Nico laughed then. “Though I’d pay good money to see that.”

Despite himself, Niro smiled, enjoying his brother’s laughter. “You’d bet against your own brother?”

“This is Mamu, wouldn’t you?” Nico joked. “You know her. Well...as well as anyone can. How old do you think she is, really?”

“As the hills? No... older... she was probably formed right alongside dust in the big bang,” he laughed. “She sure looks it, at least.”

“Agreed but don’t ever tell her I said so.” Nico paused, watching Niro. “Is there anything I can do for you? Anything you need?”

“Some book recommendations. Maybe tell them I should have something I can do all day? Artwork, needlework, god only knows what.”

“Let’s put some thought into that. I know they won’t allow anything remotely engineering-related, but I could come up with something,” Nico assured him. “Are they letting you have time without inhibitors? To give your brain a rest?”

“Yeah. Once a quarter. One or two weeks, I forget, but I get a rest and get to stretch some muscles. ‘Course, they’re saying I can’t have visitors that week. They know that I’m a stronger telepath than anyone else on the Station,” he smirked smugly, letting his ego run free.

“Except for me?” Nico asked. “I can check and see if they’ll make an exception for me. If you want to see me that is.”

“Yeah, that’d be good,” Niro smiled. “I can just read your mind instead of waiting for you to spill the news.”

“What news I can let you see anyway.” Nico smiled. “I’ll send you down something when I get back upstairs. Some of Dru’s cooking to ease the replicator-fatigue and something to pass the time a little.”

“Good. That’d be good. Maybe someday I could convince them to let me have an ensuite kitchen,” he joked.

“Yeah, good luck with that. I should go.” Nico stood. “I’ll see you soon, though.” How soon he wasn’t sure. He still had a lot of issues with his brother.

“Sure. Good of you to stop in, Nico,” Niro said, sounding sincere. He watched his brother go, frustrated that he couldn’t read the man’s thoughts.

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Niro
Nico
Brotherly love