A Shadow Beneath the Waves

Posted on Sun Dec 4th, 2011 @ 10:09pm by Commander Sakkath & Captain Li Hawke

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Operations / The Nexus Club

With Nick on duty on deck 33 in case Oz needed anything, Li made her way home, hoping to find Sakkath there. Their quarters were empty and given her utter mental exhaustion, alone was not what she wanted. She knew he'd been out looking for some answers, notably from Connor. And she didn't need the computer to locate him, she could sense him in an instant. Without taking time to change, she departed for his office.

* * *Deck 27* * *

Sakkath had retreated to his office, a place where he felt he could be alone to consider the information he had gathered from both Connor and Ignatius despite the transparent aluminum walls. He was ever in view even amid his isolation, something that reminded him of the IDIC - entering into and receding from the whole all at once. A little bit of Vulcan poetry present in his everyday life.

He had just cast aside his PADD, feeling as though he had read and reread the same sentence the last several times he cast his eyes upon it. His concentration seemed to have abandoned him, he realized as he rubbed his eyes. Absently, he reached his hand out, thinking to utilize the kal-toh sphere upon the edge of his desk as a tool to order his mind. He stopped mid-reach, however, when he realized that the puzzle was more chaotic than it had been the last time he made a move.

Had someone adjusted his puzzle, he wondered a moment? Or had he somehow made the least logical of moves himself? There had been ... gaps in his memory lately, since disembarking the Takei. This could prove to be another, a thought that caused him to frown inwardly and fold his hands into his lap. He closed his eyes, seeking to center himself and cast aside the doubts and concerns that plagued him.

Li arrived, crossing to his office door, ignoring the looks she got from those she passed. She knew he would sense her presence, but even so she stopped at the door, watching him. Her gaze moved to the kal-toh sphere that had been the subject of his confusion. It looked more like her own attempts at the puzzle and not Sakkath's. His ...consternation, for lack of a better word weighed heavily on her. Finally she spoke, aloud.

"Something troubles you."

The Vulcan started, opening his eyes. How had he missed her approach was his first thought.

His next... was not his own. His eyes moved over her from head to toe, taking in the lines of the dress, her revealed shoulders and portions of her midsection. Little was left to the imagination, not that imagination was necessary.

"Quite possibly that dress," a Vulcan voice replied. "I had thought you to be out on business."

"I was, thus this outfit. I'd intended to change but then I felt...that I needed you. Mentally, it's been an exhausting day, but Oz is safe." Li's gaze swept over him, curious and wary. "You saw Connor?"

"I did... and how many people saw you like that?" he wondered, before shaking his head. "Forgive me, I am being too... possessive. Perhaps it is the stress."

"Only those down in the Pit." She paused, not sure that, given his mood, that was a direction she wanted to go. Then it struck her - this was Sakkath, he didn't have moods. She softened her voice to a more soothing tone. "Perhaps you are right. You were gone for a long time, and it was a difficult situation. Come home."

She suspects, the words rose in his mind, not fully formed thoughts but something Sakkath could inwardly perceive as he seemed to come back to himself. Impersonating you may prove harder than I thought. But it's no matter. I have time.

His body blinked several times as his consciousness returned to the moment, staring at his desk. "Li," he said, his voice even and free of emotion, save some slight sense of surprise at her appearance; pleasure in seeing her as he looked up. "We should discuss my findings. There are several implications of import."

The change in his voice, and the sense that he was just now recognizing her presence caused a chill to coil around her heart. She smiled however, as she answered. "I was hoping to do that. Here, or where?" She still had not moved from the doorway.

"Given that we both seem dressed for the occasion, perhaps dinner at the Nexus is in order," he suggested as he stood, holding his hands in the sleeves of his robe. He moved to stand beside her, offering two of his fingers from beneath the fabric in the traditional gesture. "It has been some time since I enjoyed the hospitality of Mister Banning." The suggestion to return to their quarters had fallen on alien ears, literally and figuratively.

She touched her two fingers to his as she spoke. "I'll need to change, I can't be seen out in this dress. It could blow everything and he would realize I'm not who I am supposed to be. Give me just a moment?" She had some misgivings about the Nexus following what had just happened, but now didn't seem to be the time to debate it.

He raised a brow in his usual quizzical fashion, but simply nodded. "As you wish." He picked up on her concerns but failed to understand them, attributing them to whatever had demanded she rush from home this morning.

Li made use of his replicator, then stepped into the small bathroom off his office. Leaving the door open slightly she began to change. "Tell me, my love...when did you realize I was standing at your office door?"

The wolf in his thoughts was very nearly slavering at the images caught through that opening in the door, and they concerned Sakkath, but he managed to cloak them, to shield them from Li. He could not afford to let any concerns bleed through his Vulcan calm.

"Why, when I spoke to you," he said. "It seems illogical that any other response could be appropriate."

"You greeted me twice. And the first time, you sounded almost angry about this red dress. I was just curious." There was a faint hum as she washed her hands.

"I recall speaking your name in greeting only once," Sakkath said. That was true, but he also lacked the memory of a few moments between his kal-toh sphere and seeing her. Had he really begun a conversation prior? "If I offended your sartorial sensibilities, I apologize," he added, thinking back on the dress. "It is not in my nature to demonstrate anger."

"I like your second reaction much better." She emerged from the washroom, dressed in a strapless black formal. "I recycled the other one." She turned slowly before him. "Better?"

"I am also not prone to value judgments," he admitted, but gave a nod of assent. "You are as lovely as ever."

"So before we go, what did Connor find?" His answer regarding the greetings worried her and she quietly shuffled that worry off to the place she kept the rest that Sakkath couldn't know about.

"He showed me the results of your hyperencephalogram. In isolating the anomalous pattern, we identified that it belonged to one Lieutenant Commander Rhys Balasz," he said, mindless of the attached emotions. His tone of voice was simply that of a Vulcan relating scientific facts. He could just as easily have been reading the registry number of the Berkeley to her, or telling her that their doom was nigh at hand. Whatever had threatened his control earlier seemed to be gone.

"I was...afraid of that." She frowned, Looking up into his eyes. "And?"

"In realizing the implications, I requested that Doctor McKinney examine me as well," Sakkath relayed. "Our minds have melded, Imzadi. The affliction is with me also. Or perhaps only with me. It is impossible to know how it communicates itself without performing another examination of your mental patterns."

The question arose immediately in her mind. Could this be the explanation for the past few minutes? Surely not. It hadn't affected her at all. Aside from the dreams. The memory of the last one rose in her thoughts, as vivid as it had been then.

"Regardless, he sees no immediate medical danger. I have spoken to Ignatius and believe a scientific solution can be reached. I will speak to Commander Leroy in the morning and discuss our options." He caught the dream in her mind, an image that he had called up not hours before in Connor's lab. He saw the question that lingered there, wondering who she would be lying with tonight, who she would be eating across from. And suddenly, even he was unsure.

"Are you sure you wish to go out?" She reached up to caress his cheek gently.

He turned away from her touch, trying to make it appear as though he were simply turning to leave, slipping through the portal from his office. "Quite sure," he said. Her touch was too volatile... after what had transpired the first time between them, he could not risk this situation worsening through contact. "I am certain the atmosphere in the Nexus will prove more agreeable than a quiet evening with my work."

Her dark eyes followed him, uncertainty suddenly washing over her, threatening to submerge her. Everything was off, everything was somehow 'wrong' but she couldn't put her finger on exactly what. That was also a concern, since she could usually read her husband like a book. And she had never known him to turn from her touch.

"Very well, let's go."

He nodded, proffering his crooked arm to her, before leading the way out into the corridor, his mind far more closed than usual despite the frenetic activity within.

It didn't take long to get to the Nexus and despite her exhaustion, she was suddenly glad to be around people, though why she couldn't say. Sulan was already off and so Janice seated them at a table. There was still a decent crowd there, and music was playing for dancing.

"Would you excuse me for just a moment, my darling?" She smiled at Sakkath, still standing.

The Vulcan nodded as he took his seat, the folds of his robes billowing for a moment as he composed them around him. A young man, nervous looking, came by to ask for their drinks, and Sakkath informed him of his private stock in Jackson's stores while ordering a Saurian Brandy for Li.

Eli nodded his reply and hurried off. From the table, Sakkath could see Li cross to the bar. Jackson was nowhere in evidence, so she spoke to the man behind the bar, only briefly. He nodded and she turned, slipping back through the crowd. Finally, she reached the table once more and sat down by Sakkath. Eli reappeared, left their drinks, and departed. Finally, Li felt as if she might possibly be able to relax. The brandy went down easily, almost too fast, and a watchful Eli sent a waiter over with another.

"Much better. This is just what I needed. You too, I suspect." She turned her attention to Sakkath once more.

Amusement colored the Vulcan's thoughts, despite his impassive features. He lifted the flute full of electric blue liquid and touched it to her second glass.

"To peace, and long life," he said, turning his usual greeting into something of a toast before sampling the liquor. He was accustomed to the effects of the alcohol on his physiology, sharing ancestry with the Romulans who crafted it. In a human, it was an almost instant drunk. The consciousness dwelling in his mind realized in that moment just the sort of constitution he was dealing with, and he understood that possessing a Vulcan body could prove to be more enjoyable than he had even dared to imagine.

If Sakkath had been able to reply to his 'guest,' he might have reminded him that his mental fortitude was just as impressive.

"Peace and long life," she echoed. The crystal of the glasses gave a soft ring as they touched, then she took another drink. "Are we dancing tonight?"

'Yes' and 'No' sprung immediately to mind, definitive in two different points of view, but Sakkath managed to force through the more diplomatic "If you wish it."

Her smile was soft as she answered. "The chance to be in your arms in a public place? Of course I do." The playful tone she used with her husband at times had returned. Maybe it was her own exhaustion that was making her senses screwy. That would explain a lot, and after all the work with Suresh, she was bordering on meltdown. Surely that had to be it. "Ready when you are."

He drained his glass, setting it down in every confidence that it would be full again by the time they sat once more. Rising, he led the way to the dance floor, taking the opportunity to carefully construct his mental barriers. His touch could not be allowed to communicate anything other than contact.

They waited for the song presently in progress to conclude before he took her in his arms, swaying slowly with the melody. The song was slow, melancholy, and suited the Vulcan well. He recalled the first time he had danced with Li, how surprised she had been, how he had written it off to Senior Officers setting an example. It was not a typical thing for his race, but he did secretly enjoy it.

Li followed his lead with the ease borne of practice. Dancing was something she enjoyed as well, though the sudden inability to read him bothered her. as the music continued, a sudden image rose, of the night the Speaker had visited this place, the dance with Norval that had been part of the fuel for the fires of rumour. She had not been here since then.

Though not transmitting, Sakkath had no difficulty receiving in such proximity to his wife and mate. His reaction was mixed, to say the least. Sakkath had known Norval since the Trill was a boy, since before his joining to the Tigan symbiont, and he trusted him as implicitly as he trusted Li. But now a second scent was in the nose of his mental guest, and he rose once more from the dark depths of the Vulcan's mind.

"Norval, Norval, Norval," he said as they continued to move. "I don't see why so many appeared to believe what they said about you. A Vulcan mating bond is not so easily broken, and ... well, Norval has never been 'traditional' where love is concerned, has he?"

"No, he hasn't." She smiled at Sakkath's choice of words, answering the question without a thought, though it had been asked in answer to her thoughts. "And you are right. To be honest, he did ...consider it, I suppose? Hoped? Never seriously though, and I'm glad you don't believe the rumours." Something in his tone caught at her though, maybe the repetition of Norval's name. It sparked some long-buried, random and unimportant memory, but at the moment she couldn't place it.

"Oh, I can think of things... people he considered far more seriously," Sakkath's voice said, before dipping Li gracefully along with a sudden surge in the music. "Regardless," he spoke as he lifted her once more, "a rumor will never change the fact that you've always been mine."

That alarm bell that had once dragged her from the dream rang once more. The words were the same, said just before, in the dream, Rhys had restrained her. Coincidence, surely? An echo from her memory, spilling over into her husband's speech. Of course. You're overwrought, Li. Now was not the time to analyze anything but instinct made her pull back from him.

Having his arms around her, preventing her escape had proved a simple matter. The Vulcan strength made him feel strong, stronger than he ever had before. He briefly wondered what more he could do, but the yelp that stemmed from Li caused that train of thought to come to a halt. He had... harmed her. And why not? She made her choice!

But that hesitation was enough to let Sakkath reexert his control. Control that initiated in the shoving of Li away from him.

"My apologies, you surprised me." She studied his face, then without a word, turned and walked back to the table. This late, the real partying people were mostly who was left and they had enough alcohol in them, they wouldn't have noticed Q doing a table dance. She stopped at their table, debating whether to sit down or leave. She lifted the new drink waiting for her and downed it, the warmth as it burned its way down most welcome.

Sakkath made the decision simple for her. He had already pushed his way through the crowd, making his way to the door. "Computer," he was speaking even as he went, "disable location services to my communicator. Operational override, Sakkath five-nine-gamma-echo." That alone made him think, even as he boarded the nearest turbolift. "And scramble my overrides. Utilize..." he paused to think of something Rhys, nor anyone else, could possibly keep up with. "Utilize an evolving algorithm based on the current time of day, to the second, of my codes being spoken on a hexadecimal meter." He reasoned that he could complete that calculation, but that the Commander's ghost never could. And last, but not least, he closed the bond he shared with his mate.

If nothing else, that action pained him.

It pained Sakkath and felt like a mental punch to Li. She set the glass down with deliberate care, then departed the Nexus. She felt mentally 'blind' now, with no way to track him, and she had no doubt that he would avoid the usual places she would check. He still had most of the day of his R&R left, so that gave her some time to play with. Even so, she decided that tonight being home alone in her quarters was not the place to be. She was in no mood for that recurring dream to become real.

She made one quick stop home to change, from Li to Isha, then departed for the one place she knew was safest, strangely enough. The Cherry Pit.

*********
Lieutenant Commander Sakkath
Crowded

&

Lieutenant Commander Li Hawke
Alone