Brynn Phytrelia Pt. 04

Thanks again to everyone still reading. I appreciate all the votes and feedback I've received on this so far.

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The second man was at Brynn's side. They were both so strong as they half dragged, half hauled her down the corridor. "Is she awake? Is she alright?" Someone asked with concern. It sounded like Lieutenant Gartner. Several people in the hall were looking rather murderously at Brynn, while others had pity in their eyes; not because it was obvious she had been affected by the misfortune, but because a Gifted who had such tenuous control over their powers were often a danger to themselves and others. Many on the ship knew firsthand how impossible it was to train with a difficult Gift, and how devastating it could be to lack such essential training.

Another voice now, but she couldn't tell whose. The light in the halls was dimming. "Miss, are you alright?" Commander Kitchiss knelt beside her. She nodded, mutely, looking scared and small. "You're not in any trouble. I just wish Captain Chariton had told us beforehand. It's lucky we have dedicated fire suppression in CIC."

"I've never..." Brynn started, but no one heard her. Her voice was really just a breath of air. She could barely feel her body as it moved, as someone pulled her to her feet and somehow, she found herself being shown into some living quarters and she simply dropped on the bed and sat with her hands in her lap. She would have said she felt numb, but that would mean she could acknowledge what wasn't there; instead, she simply felt blank, a space in the universe that was unoccupied. She hadn't even known him that well. It wasn't as if they had committed to anything, she was just a crew member. Not even a good one, since she should have been with him when he was taken. She was just...there. Doing nothing. Being nothing. She wondered if they'd shove her off. Somehow, she didn't care as much about it as she had hours ago. Or perhaps they'd keep her, seeing as she was clearly a danger. She didn't much care if that was the choice, either. Planets or ships, either way, it was all fire fodder.

She awoke with a start, but then laid back, relaxing. She was in a bed, with heavy, cool blankets. The room was dark, but she saw a figure sitting in a chair next to the bed. She didn't move to sit up, just spoke into the darkness. "Am I under arrest?" She asked.

Silence. Then the sound of a woman's soft soprano. "Let the captain know...she is awake..."

"Whose there?" Brynn demanded. She moved to sit up, but felt dizzy and decided to lie down again. About thirty seconds passed before the door to the room opened. The light from the hall was such that Brynn could not make out the faces of the people coming into the room with her. From where she was sitting, she could see the outline of a woman, maybe a few centimeters taller than her, and two taller men behind her. As the woman came towards Brynn's bed, the person who had been sitting next to Brynn stood, saluting her stiffly, and waiting as she stood at attention, staring at the doorway. The male escorts waited just inside the door. No one turned the lights on as the new woman's contralto spoke to Brynn.

"I see you're awake. Are you alright?"

"No." Brynn said simply. "Have you found the ship yet? Have you found Idris?" Their attackers had clearly been faster than the Avenger but Brynn acknowledged that she knew nothing about tracking ships through antispace.

"I'm not at liberty to discuss it, I'm afraid." She nodded to the woman still standing stiffly at attention, releasing her. The first woman...had she been guarding Brynn or just waiting for her to wake up? She left the room, walking out into the corridor and disappeared. As she left, the door closed behind her, the light from the corridor again blocked out by the door, returning Brynn to a room devoid of light.

"However, I would like to determine whether or not you feel confident you'll be able to keep your fires down to a minimum of one. The captain would like to speak to you, personally, and I do not think it would be wise of me to allow this if you're likely to try to set fire to her ship again."

"I didn't do anything on purpose. I wish I could tell you that I am positive I wouldn't do it again, but since I'm already being guarded, I think I'd have to be honest and tell you I can't guarantee anything." Brynn shrugged. "To be perfectly honest..." Brynn sighed, pausing a moment. "To be perfectly honest, it's never come on like that before. But, I can say with certainty I won't deliberately attempt to set fire to anything."

There was a long pause before the woman spoke again. She sighed loudly and nodded. "Very well. Will you please come with us?"

"It's not as though I have anywhere else to go..." Brynn wondered what the woman would have said if she refused. Would they have dragged her to the Captain? Really, while asking was more civil, it was only an illusion at this point.

"Not necessarily. Captain Chariton's vessel is still on the flight deck. Atalanta is fully functional and ready to depart, if you decide that you feel confident wandering off to find your useless-" Brynn heard the sound of the woman's teeth clicking as she forced her mouth shut, cutting off what she'd been about to say. "To find...Captain Chariton...all by yourself." She sounded bored as she said this. "So if you decide you're better off without us, then you have our permission to leave. Best of luck to you, of course. You can go bait the Delethirians somewhere else."

At the word "bait," Brynn's head came up. Actually...it wasn't a bad idea. "You're right." She threw back the blankets and slid out of bed. Her boots were nearby, but instead of putting them on, she picked them up in one hand on her way towards the door. "After all, I know one thing they will absolutely come back for, right? Just point me in the right direction."

The woman, and her guards, parted out of Brynn's path, allowing her into the hall. Brynn's visitor arched an eye brow at her as Brynn passed, then she moved to follow her into the corridor. Brynn looked to her left and to her right. Nothing looked familiar, and she turned to look at the woman, getting a good look at her for the first time since she'd shown up. The two men guarding the door moved to come behind her. The top of the woman's head came level with the bottom of her guard's shoulders. And then more guards filed out into the hall. About eight more of these tall, uniformed pillars of men exited into the corridor, standing almost shoulder to shoulder as they stood behind Brynn's visitor.

Brynn felt her eye brows furrow together as she took in the appearance of the woman. At a glance, she looked exactly like the woman who had put Idris into such a fit earlier, but there was something vaguely different about the woman in front of her. She looked older and her hair was a bit different.

She met Brynn's gaze, just a little confrontationally, then shrugged at her. She held out her hand to Brynn as if a serving tray was on it. "Well, if you haven't figured out your way around, I could probably show you how to get there." She smiled, but something about the expression didn't match the accommodating nature of her offer.

"If it wouldn't be too much trouble." Brynn said, clasping her hands in front of her. "After all, then you won't have to worry about me any longer, right?"

The woman rolled her eyes and sighed. "Very well then. Come." She motioned for Brynn to follow as she turned to walk down the hall. Her guards followed behind them about five or six steps back. Brynn didn't mind the guards. She was too occupied with trying to figure out her end game. Ophelia had to have some sort of training...something...documents or a walkthrough to the controls of the ship. Brynn didn't need it to work for long, after all. Only enough to get into space. She continued walking behind the woman, her head filled with details. What to say? How to convince Ophelia? And she would have to be prepared, no telling what they had done to Idris, or the others...

As they went down the corridor, it curved to the right before reaching a bulkhead door. The door opened into the room where Lieutenant Gartner was assigned. The man frantically stood and came to attention as the woman entered the room, his eyes glancing involuntarily over at Brynn before returning to look straightforward.

"Lieutenant, this woman has requested to be released from her accommodations. Please make a note in your records that this request was made voluntarily."

The man made a small nod, still standing ramrod straight and looking forward. "Yes, Ma'am."

The woman turned back to Brynn, standing a little too close to her. She turned to indicate Lieutenant Gartner as she spoke. "Please inform the Lieutenant that you are relinquishing your accommodations with the intention to disembark so that he can note it in his log."

"I will be returning to the Atalanta, and will no longer need accommodations aboard the Avenger." Brynn said.

Lieutenant Gartner hesitated for a moment, and the woman turned away from Brynn, taking a few steps towards him. "Do you have a problem making a note of the Atalanta whore disembarking from our ship, Lieutenant?!" She was yelling, pronouncing her words slowly as if chiding a small child.

The man stood straight again, ramrod straight, color filling his face. He shook his head. "No, Ma'am. I-...I'll make of note of it now...Ma'am."

"Good. If you're worried about having something else onboard to smell up your office, I'd be happy to make the necessary arrangements, Lieutenant." She said his rank with an emphasis on each syllable, as if to remind him of his place.

Brynn stared at the woman, anger curling in her stomach. "Stop." She said, losing the peace she had gained from her decision to find Idris. "Captain Idris and I - no, it's none of your business, and you will refrain from making any more comments to the contrary. I wasn't aware you ranked above her to make any such decisions. Lieutenant, thank you for showing such decorum, despite what you have to work with." Brynn's fists were clenched, and her speech was clipped and quick.

She arched an eyebrow at her. "Lieutenant, go get some coffee." She didn't even move to look at him.

The man stood from his desk, and slowly moved away, looking at Brynn from behind his commanding officer as he involuntarily left the room.

The woman moved closer, until she was less than a meter away from Brynn's face. "My job, as executive officer on this ship, is to make sure that pond-scum, and dangerous boat trolls are not given unobstructed access to my ship's captain and allowed to potentially cause bodily harm as a result of their own debilitating incompetence. If you have an issue with that, feel free to take it up with her. Or, you can even take it up with me. Otherwise, IF you wish to leave this ship, of your own volition, to go gallivanting around the galaxy, like some tyro pilot, who can't even find the throttle switch with two hands and a console schematic, then that is your prerogative. As for my observation that 'Captain,'" she used air quotes for additional emphasis, "Idris was anything but a sycophantic hack, if you are in disagreement with me, then perhaps you just weren't around him long enough for him to pawn you off to the first pirate threatening to confiscate his cargo. You should feel lucky that those savages have him and he's safely away from this ship, you, and my crew."

Brynn lifted her chin. "I see..." She said, slowly. "So that's what's going on here. Well, then, either you can follow me until I find someone who will actually be helpful, or you can leave now. I don't intend to follow someone so..." She paused. "No, I'll keep that to myself. Thank you so very much for your...assistance." Her voice was syrup-sweet. "I promise I won't do anything scary until I find the Atalanta."

The woman moved closer to Brynn, her face just centimeters from her own. "No please, don't restrain yourself on my behalf. Say whatever you're going to say. Share your thoughts with the class, boat maid." She looked like she was ready to hit Brynn, or do something else to escalate their encounter to physical violence. Then the door, the one the Lieutenant had left through, opened, and a woman came in. A woman who looked just like the woman that Brynn was standing in front of. Except the woman who came in was in a little more of a hurry. She groaned angrily, and moved towards them. "Tsela! WHAT are you doing?!"

The woman in front of Brynn turned to look at the person screaming at her. She folded her arms and turned her nose up in the air. "Nothing. I'm just enjoying myself..."

"Well go enjoy yourself somewhere else, as not ME!"

The girl in front of Brynn sighed, her appearance changing slowly from the woman, the one who was yelling at her, into an image of the woman who had so traumatized Idris on his ship.

The other woman stepped closer and backhanded Tsela in the face. "Get out of here!"

Tsela took the hit without complaint, laughing as she walked away, changing again into the appearance of another woman, one Brynn had not seen before. As she left the room, she commented, "Oh, Kadri. You're absolutely no fun." She giggled at herself, overwhelmed with laughter.

The woman closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through pursed lips. She opened her eyes and moved to Brynn. "You'll have to excuse my sister. I'm afraid that after Adria left us, her sense of humor only got darker..." She looked towards the door, a sad expression occupying her face for just a moment. She turned to look at Brynn. "Are you alright?" Kadri's voice was sincere, and she seemed to look Brynn over, convinced that something had happened to her that would be visible.

"Don't...touch me." Brynn stepped back from her, holding her hands up as if to ward her off. She hadn't even considered Tsela. "I just want to be away from this ship, and the people on it seem to want me gone just as badly."

The woman, had Tsela called her Kadri, sighed and frowned, holding her head with her hand. "No, I promise, it's not like that." She looked at Brynn, holding up her hands. "Please, I have no reason to try to chase you off. And Tsela is just...sick. Please don't let her actions represent the people on my ship. I assure you that more of us are like Lieutenant Gartner and Chief Warrence than are like her. And even if I am not fond of your captain, that doesn't affect my opinion of you." She sighed. "Please accept my apology for how you have been treated by my sister..."

"Accepted." Brynn said shortly. "But apparently I've already...signed out, or something. I just...can't find Atalanta." She took another step back, the thought of what Idris had gone through becoming more and more solid. Even though she'd seen one woman leave and another woman walk in, it was hard to keep in mind one was lying and one was trying to...be kind, or reassuring.

Kadri shook her head. "No, don't worry about that. Please, don't feel like you have to leave. We're en route to Initiative space right now. Just stay here and once we've reached safe territory, if you wish to take Atalanta and leave, then you should do so." She shook her head. "But I advise you not to make rash decisions while you are..." "While you are emotional," she didn't say. She hesitated, trying to be tactful, and not wanting to offend Brynn further. "And you're much safer staying on Avenger than going off on your own."

"I don't want to be left behind in safe space." Brynn groaned. Even people who had no idea who she was were trying to foist her off behind safe lines. "I want to find Idris, I want to know where he is, and I want him back on our ship!"

Kadri looked at her with a pained expression. "I sympathize with your situation, but what are you going to accomplish out here in the middle desolation? Do you even have experience piloting an interstellar craft? Or know the first thing about cargo ship mechanics?"

"I can learn." Brynn said, stubbornly. "What else can I do? Wait until someone else tells me they can't find him, or he's gone? Stay here and wait for...for Tsela, to show up again disguised as anyone she damn well pleases?"

Kadri closed her eyes, shaking her head. "I give you my word, Tsela will not come near you again. She's overdue for a stay in the brig anyway."

Brynn hesitated. Even if she managed to take the Atalanta out into space, there were a thousand other systems she had no idea how to work. If she did manage to get to the ship that took him, there wasn't really a guarantee she could get him back, either. It was a last resort plan, at best. "What would you suggest?" She finally asked, still frustrated.

This seemed, very much, to be the response Kadri had been fishing for. She sighed, nodding. "You can stay here, on Avenger, in private quarters. I'll see to it that guards are posted at your door and that accommodations are made that it won't even be necessary for you to leave and walk the corridors. Then, when we reach Initiative command, you can petition the admiral council to assist you with your endeavor. It is likely that since they have attacked us, a formal declaration will be made. Once the council has made a decision on what to do with our people, you can reassess your options."

"What? I mean..." Brynn stared at her. "Not only do I mean who and where and when, but I also mean how long? Why would I need to petition anyone? They took men from this ship. Other vessels. I would think that I hardly need to explain why this is hostile, so...?"

Kadri looked at the ground and huffed out a harsh breath before looking at Brynn again. She shrugged, spreading her hands in front of her. "If you can think of a better idea, then I am all ears. At least if you stay here, you'll be safe, and you'll be physically comfortable. And you won't have to be alone. It's possible that the Initiative will want to fight the Delethirians on their own, and then you wouldn't have to make a plea. My advice is to remain here. but I will support any decision you make."

Brynn shut her eyes for a moment. She reminded herself that she was not on the Atalanta; heat variations would not be dealt with understanding forever. "Can I stay on the Atalanta, but remain on the Avenger? It is middle ground." She finally said. "I will not be taking up room on the ship and my...my fire will not harm your ship. I am used to it, and I will respond to any calls sent to the ship. You won't have to worry about guards that way, either. The ship can guard itself."

Kadri hesitated. "Well, if you were to speak to the captain about it, I am sure she might be able to accommodate you. I can't immediately think of any reason why she wouldn't clear that, but it would have to go through her. May I ask why you are so hesitant to stay aboard?"

"I will not wake to be blindsided by that again." Brynn said, and gestured to where Tsela had left. "I know you say she will not do it again, and I am sure you will make every attempt to be certain of it, but she will not let go of what she holds so easily. Also, I find I'm having...difficulties...which are better managed on the Atalanta. And I will no longer get lost."

Kadri frowned, shaking her head. "No, I assure you that Tsela will not come near you again. And if the difficulties you are referring to are...your concerns-" she struggled to finish her thought, clearly not wanting to upset or offend Brynn with her observations, "your concerns about what happened in CIC..." She shook her head again, more final. "It's not something we're not equipped to deal with. You may not remember, but the trouble you caused was almost no trouble whatsoever, it was just...unexpected. Now that it is not unexpected, we're happy to take precautions to see that...it's not something you have to worry about. My elementalists are trained quite well, well enough to be able to handle some of the most...severe instances." She sighed. "And I have no problem having one of those said elementalists to escort you to anywhere you may have the desire to go while on board." Kadri seemed mysteriously insistent, obviously prepared to go through great lengths to accommodate Brynn's concerns.