Awakenings

Posted on Thu Jun 14th, 2012 @ 6:43pm by Ignatius Reilly & Commander Sakkath & Lieutenant Commander William Harding M.D. & Lieutenant Norval Tigan
Edited on on Fri Jun 22nd, 2012 @ 11:40am

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Sickbay

* * *Inside Sakkath's Room* * *

From the main area of Sickbay, there came a scream and the sound of a metal tray clanging against the carpeted deck. Loud voices rose in alarm, with shouts of: "Kill it!" and "Smash the thing!" and "Where's a phaser!?" echoing around the room. Suddenly the door to the private room that housed Sakkath's prone body opened and a large, hairy, black, blue and purple creature raced in and scaled the wall next to Sakkath's bed.

You! Double Male! Stop them! Those bi-peds are trying to kill me!, Iggy shouted inside Norval's brain.

Eric started first, having stood from the chair he was slouching in and drawn his phaser at the sounds issuing forth from the main of sickbay. Briefly, a thought that Norval had assured him this was only a precaution for Li's sake and that nothing was actually going to happen passed through his mind, but it wasn't until Norval started laughing that he actually started to relax.

The Trill set down the charcoal and sketchpad he had been working with, a half-finished portrait of the security officer sitting across from him adorning the page. "Go and calm them down, would you?" Norval asked, shaking his head. Eric's experience with Iggy had been limited, but at least he knew enough not to shoot her and incur Oz's wrath. He hoped the medical staff would feel the same way as he slipped out into the hall, holstering his weapon.

"And you," the acting Ops chief continued, "should really let us know when you're coming so things like this don't happen."

Iggy hopped from the wall to Sakkath's chest (had the Vulcan been awake, he might have grunted from the sudden impact) and scrambled towards Norval, stopping at a point where she was still on Sakkath, but leaning towards the Trill. Pausing there, silently, all eight eyes glittered as she stared at him. Finally, the spider asked him, And I would do that how? I do not exactly have a commbadge.

"That hasn't stopped you from learning to use just about everything else on this station," he reminded her, "but I do suppose the lack of vocal cords does present an obstacle... Well, with eight legs, maybe we can get you typing." The 'double-male' smirked down at his guest, the sounds of protests dying down in sickbay outside.

Typing... Iggy had the feeling that meant she'd have to know how to read. And spell. If she had eyelids, she'd have narrowed her eyes at Norval to show her disapproval of the idea.

"What brings you here, Iggy?"

Sakkath, she answered simply and turned to face the Vulcan. What is his condition?

"Stable," Norval replied, slightly unsure of what Iggy hoped to accomplish that a team of doctors had failed to. But... Li at least had trusted Iggy during the issue with Rhys, and Norval had heard that even Sakkath had sought out the spider when he faced with the threat of losing himself. "But still unresponsive."

As Norval answered her, the spider used her pedipalps to move the blanket covering Sakkath's arm. Once a sufficiently large enough swath of skin was exposed, she hunkered over his arm and settled down on it, resting her belly on him. Through that contact, she not-so-softly crooned to the Vulcan, Li's Mate.... Are you in there? Had she known Vulcan customs, she might have crooned, "My mind to your mind; my thoughts to your thoughts...."

Sakkath's mind, in the meantime, was quiet. So blissfully quiet... even though, somewhere in these depths that were the recesses of his mind, he was aware that he should feel nothing approaching bliss. He did not care. He enjoyed it, this time with nothing but his own thoughts. It was the ideal he sought in meditation but could never quite achieve as perfectly as he had. He only wished he could recall how he had come to this state.

Did it matter, though? He was content to enjoy the moment. There was no past, just as there was no future. Only the now, the present. This all-consuming nothingness that was ... perfect. It did not matter how he had arrived. It did not concern him if he would ever reach this state again. Every second was to be savored.

Things had been so crowded as of late that to be alone was a truly liberating experience, floating amid a void dotted by stars of purest thought. That was a powerful image, made vivid in his mind's eye, that sea of stars. His ebbing consciousness could recreate its picture perfectly, as though he had spent much of his life surrounded by such sights. And before he could question that sense of familiarity, it was all shattered. Shattered by a voice, a mind so foreign from his own that it initially struck him as little more than static noise in an otherwise serene space.

You cannot stay in here forever. Come, wake up, Iggy's harsh mental voice grated through the tranquility in Sakkath's head.

"Leave me," Sakkath insisted. "I am content here." Why could he not stay here forever? He felt at peace here. He felt that this was an ideal. There could be no place better to go to... could there? And wake? Was he not awake? So many questions. But here, he knew he had time to riddle them out. To learn the answers to any and every thing.

No, I will not leave you to languish here, inside your own head. Wake up! More than a hint of irritation came through in Ignatius' mental voice. You are Li's Mate and this... sleep... is making her unhappy.

"Where should I be if not my head?" He asked the question before he considered it. It was not... logical? Why did that word mean so much, all of a sudden? His mind insisted on its own importance, yet it also had to acknowledge that there was more outside of it that mattered, even if it could not quantify or qualify such a belief.

The mention of Li almost brought him surging back into himself. A bond, on a level he could not control, surged back to life, reaching across decks. Memories surged into his consciousness, though too many and too fast for his addled mind to make sense of immediately.

"What... who?" he stammered. He did not know how to reply now, confusion reigning where once peace was supreme.

As Sakkath's mind suddenly became jumbled, Iggy had slightly withdrawn from her contact to him. One thing had stood out to her: 'logical'. Logic was something she, as a spider, liked; insects behaved predictably, with their own order of logic. She unknowingly paraphrased T'Plana-Hath, Matron of Vulcan Philosophy: Logic grounds you, will help you find your answers in all that chaos. Think, Li's Mate, of Li and her need to mate with you, to create .... What were small bipeds called again? Iggy searched her memory, then recalled the word the Admiral had used. ...children. You cannot mate with her while you are stuck in there, alone.

Logic grounds you...

"Logic is the cement of our civilization," the words practically screamed their way out of Sakkath's brain.

will help your find your answers in all that chaos...

"with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide."

He saw flashes of his mother, T'Len, instructing in the Vulcan Science Academy. Even before that, raising him to accept the foundations of the Vulcan upbringing. He saw her rubies, adorned on the neck of another. He saw his father, the man he emulated, the diplomat for whom logic became the cornerstone of any negotiation. For whom logic tipped the balance of power... for what man or woman could argue against his or her self and the failings in his or her own reasoning?

Suddenly, he was outside of himself. He was aware of the world that surrounded him... of Starbase 900, the physical representation of his body. Of the wormhole that he did not even consciously know had opened, the link to his family in the Alpha Quadrant. Of the sun, which was Li... life-giving light, both for him and for all of Archadia. And of the dwarf star that had just come into the world. Through Iggy, he had touched his own mind and the mind of so many others, and in that instant the emerald eyes of the Vulcan fluttered open. Each connection that he made with a person outside of himself, even if only for a moment, was like a new set of synapses firing, an overwhelming sensation that left him dazed if in a conscious state.

Norval was aware of only a few moments passing between Iggy gathering up the sheets to reveal his CO's skin and the sudden, deep breath Sakkath had taken. It took him by surprise, and he stammered over his words before finally blurting out incredulously, "Iggy, what did you even do?" Still the Trill found his thoughts and managed a smile for the bewildered Vulcan coming to his senses.

"Welcome back," Norval said simply.

I was beginning to think I would need to bite you again, Li's Mate. She moved away from Sakkath's exposed skin and waved two legs at Norval. Put me on the floor, please, Double Male. Li will likely be here shortly and I do not wish to be flattened between them.

With a nod, Norval scooped Iggy up and placed her on the floor next to him before taking a good look at Sakkath's vitals. No dramatic changes, that was good, but he was sure a real - or rather, current - doctor would want to have a look. "We'll get a doctor in here to look you over," he said, and with a reassuring tap of Sakkath's exposed hand, the Trill headed out into the corridor to locate one.

Sakkath, for his part, pulled his consciousness back into himself, struggling to sit up in bed. He became aware of his surroundings, of the room and its surgical cleanliness, the monitors, the thirst in his throat. Sickbay... and on 900, if the height of the ceilings was any indication. But how long had he been here? And where was everyone? The last question, at least, was answered swiftly as Ophelia Payne entered, followed by Norval and another man in gold that Sakkath vaguely recognized. The Nurse was pressing gently against his shoulder, easing him back down onto the biobed, though not before a Doctor who Sakkath did not recognize also came into the room.

The doctor moved up beside Sakkath and across from Ophelia. "Welcome back, Commander Sakkath. I'm Dr. Harding." He paused to look at the readouts from the equipment monitoring Sakkath and nodded. "Vitals are stable still. There was an elevation in brainwave activity just a few minutes ago and --" He stopped completely as he caught sight of Iggy. His eyes widened and his gaze traveled from Iggy on the floor up to Norval's face. "What the hell is that?"

"Her?" Norval asked nonchalantly, gesturing with the toe of his uniform boot. "She," he stressed, "is Iggy. Say hello to Doctor Harding, Iggy."

For a brief moment, Iggy simply stared up at Norval, though her secondary eyes were on Harding, lest he make a move to stomp on her. Finally, she shifted slightly and 'said', Hello, Doctor Harding.

"Our friend here seems to be responsible for Sakkath's awakening," the Trill went on to explain.

I merely reminded him he needs to wake so that he can mate with Li, Iggy pointed out.

Harding jumped as the words popped up in his head. "It...pardon me, she can talk?" Her second comment brought a smile. "I suspect that was quite the incentive."

"Need I remind you, Doctor, that I am a Vulcan," Sakkath spoke for the first time, his voice a hoarse whisper issuing forth from a parched throat. "The elevation in neural activity, is it an item of concern or might I return to my quarters?"

Harding reached for a container of ice water on the bedside table and passed it to Sakkath. "As it coincides with your regaining consciousness, it was likely due to that and your interaction with Iggy. I'd like you to remain for a few hours so we can observe you, given the length of time you were down, but if you will agree to come back in tomorrow so we can follow up, you may go home tonight. No duty and absolute rest, Iggy's observation aside that is." The corners of his mouth twitched as a smile threatened.

Sakkath accepted the water and took a sizable drink from the glass, one he prolonged as he silently bristled against the rapidly spreading insinuations regarding his love life. "A sensible precaution," he stated, his voice already showing signs of improvement. He cleared his throat before setting down the beverage and folding his hands across his stomach. "I can assure that activity will be kept to the barest of minimums," he added, denying any fanciful notions of a passionate evening for this Vulcan, fully intending to devote himself to only two pursuits: meditation and recovery.

By Iggy's reckoning in that little spider brain of hers that had already outgrown its normal parameters, Sakkath was recovered enough. Further, he and Li were mates, therefore procreation was their first and foremost duties. As she moved forward and crept under the biobed, where she proceeded to climb the base and hang from the bed's underside, she said, The barest mating is still mating and thus good.

Sakkath suppressed a sigh as he closed his eyes, concentrating on the arachnid just below him though not in direct physical contact. There are things about Vulcan mating that are not, or rather should not be common knowledge, Ignatius, and that we do not discuss with outsiders.

Ignatius replied without being careful to target only Sakkath: As Oralia says, Vulcans are weird. She does not care if I watch while she and her mate--

"I think it's time to get you out of here Commander Sakkath." Harding shot a glance at Iggy, his smile now obvious to all. "Will you be taking Iggy along with you?"

"I think that our Chief of Security may be missing her," Sakkath decided, even while Norval very loudly cracked up at the edge of the biobed. "And if that is leave to return to my quarters, Doctor, I shall be very glad of the privacy." Already, he had one leg out of bed, his own advice lost on him as he had previously (futilely) tried to convince Li to remain in Sickbay.

"It is indeed," Harding answered. "I'll see you tomorrow, but feel free to call before then if you need us. I'll send Ophelia in with your clothes. Gentlemen." He gave them a nod. "Iggy. It's been an interesting visit." Harding turned and opened the door, then vanished through it.

Oralia is currently off the station. She will not miss me, so I will accompany you, Li's Mate, Iggy spoke up from under the bed. She was now peering up at Sakkath, with just her front legs, fangs and eyes visible to him. She hadn't a clue how annoying she was being.

Sakkath, only narrowly and with decades of training in emotional control, managed to avoid gritting his teeth. "As you wish," he struggled to say, holding out his arm for Iggy to climb. With the spider secured, he proceeded quickly from his recovery room to change and return home.

Norval, in the meantime, managed to calm his laughter long enough to purr in Eric's ear. "You know, this leaves the rest of our evening tantalizingly free."

Eric's grin was as mischievous as his boyfriend's. "Nexus in 30?"

"You're on," the Trill replied as he quite literally dragged the security officer from sickbay, leaving only Ophelia to wonder just what was in the air tonight.


________________________
Ignatius J. Reilly
One-Track Minded Spider

Dr. William Harding
Meeting The Wildlife

Lt. (j.g) Norval Tigan
Back to Assistant!

Lt. (j.g) Eric Edwards
Glad to not be on Archadia

&

Lieutenant Commander Sakkath
Awake ... and annoyed