wine and dine with the captains old and new

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

Picard had just finished his log entry for the day, and had decided to relax in one of the sensoriums. Leaning back against his chair, he called out, "Could you play some music?" Almost as soon as he said those words, the most horrendously loud guitar thrashing and guttural screaming burst through, knocking the captain over. He climbed back up and sat down, yelling at the computer.

"No! Not that! Something ... something light. Some mellow jazz, perhaps." He relaxed much more when the music began to play. "Yes, perfect. Computer, dim lighting three degrees." In response, the computer dimmed the lights, adding the additional light support of two candles on the table before him.

"Well, that turned out better than I expected," he said, grinning.

Comments

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

It's been...tiring. Between what Sam did, the Yeerk trial, realizing they have to deal with Brainiac, learning that people have been disappearing and reappearing, figuring out what to do about the armory...

"Well look at the two of us," says Cybil standing in the doorway. "Actually finding a moment to breathe."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Look at us indeed," the tuxedo-clad captain replied, raising a glass to invite Cybil over, "two commanders, former and present, finding the time to regain what sanity we seem to be constantly losing to the more ... colorful members of this crew." He sighed, still grinning wryly, more amused now than anything by the past events.

"Since the 'incident', I haven't heard the end of it from the crew. They all want the details of 'Captain Picard, the man who punched out a velociraptor.' Between you and me," the captain confided, "my knuckles were sore for hours."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

She walks into the room and her plantsuit transforms into a rather elegant holographic, red dress, her hair goes up into an up-do, and she smiles, as she walks over.

"I'm sure the velociraptor was just as sore," she says, "Personally, I'm hoping that'll be the end of it."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Oh, I'm sure he'll leave well enough alone for a while, but I was fairly certain we did this to escape the rigors of command, at least for a short while." Picard smirked, taking off his fedora and trench coat, handing the two off to a holographic maître d'.

"Please, have a seat, Cybil," he said, gesturing to the empty seat across from him.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"This is nice," she says, as she takes a seat, and although she looks and sounds relaxed, there is the distinct possibility it's just as much as mask as the one she wears while in command.

It's rather easy to tell that she's not used to this, to small talk, to any of it. Her career had been her life for years, and then there was Silent Hill.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Cybil," Picard said. "I'm a captain as well. I understand what it is to have troubles and try to hold them away." He held out his hand for Bennett to take, trying to be as comforting to Cybil as Deanna had been to him. He was no empathic counselor, but he did know about carrying secret pains and wearing masks. "If you need someone to talk to, my door is always open to you." He didn't know anything of what she'd experienced, but he did know, from her refusal to completely relax, and the way she brought up shop talk in such an unprofessional environment that she was holding something back.

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

Her mouth quirks.

"That obvious, huh?"

That she just can't...seem to relax. At all.

"It's almost like I can't stop feeling...on edge. Even when it's quiet on the ship, even when things are going well."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Maybe not to the rest of the crew, but I know that look," he replied. "It's the same look I had... after the Borg." He leveled a steady stare at Cybil.

"It never works to hold it back. I know, I learned the hard way."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"That was out of left field for you, wasn't it. Even with exploring strange new worlds, all of that--for you, that was beyond the ordinary. In the most horrible way possible," she says.

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"Unlike most drones, I was awake for the entire process. I felt their drills as they pierced my eyes and injected their nanites and cybernetics into my body. The Queen wanted me. Not just Locutus. Not just a drone. She wanted a counterpart, and so she tried to make me that counterpart. I fought, however, and she had no choice but to use me as a drone." Picard sighed and continued.

"I have heard of these Yeerk-infestees. How they could see, hear, feel, but not do or say anything. For me, it was different. It was like the part of me that was Jean-Luc Picard was locked in a Cardassian torture rack, while Locutus roamed free. Not only could I do nothing, but I could not even think, inundated with pain and the impossible-to-comprehend Borg hivemind."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

She takes a deep breath.

"Where I was before this..."

She shakes her head.

"It's like I can't even put it all together, can't even comprehend it. It was like...an overload of horror. Just...sheer horror. Nothing like the movies, no madman with a hook for a hand. It's like the world itself was made of just...horror things."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

Picard arched an eyebrow, not out of any disbelief, but out of concern for Cybil's response. "Slow down, Cybil. Start from the beginning. Nothing's going to hurt you now. You're among friends."

[ihatefire.livejournal.com]

"You all know I'm a cop. From a little town in West Virginia. Brahms," she says. "Worst we usually had were domestic disputes. Hunting 'accidents.' Lots of highway patrol work since half the town was highways passing through."

She shakes her head. "It was a good life. Half the time, it was just me, my bike, and the open road, even though, like being a cop anywhere, you saw some things that stuck with you."

She takes her glass of water in her hands.

"There was an abandoned town right nearby. Silent Hill--an old coal-mining town. Year ago, something had tripped a fire in the mines and they had to evacuate the entire town from the fumes. The fires were still burning away underground, after all that time. Same thing happened in another town in Pennsylvania, I read once."

She flicks her fingers against the glass.

"The road to Silent Hill was blocked off. Part of our beat was keeping trespasser out. We had a few missings persons over the years--thrillseekers, teenagers. Disappearing into the town. We usually figured they got trapped somewhere--maybe a sinkhole had opened up and they'd gotten killed. We'd mount a search, but there was never a sign of them--but that's why we tried to keep people out. The ground was unstable. It was dangerous. There were a lot of places to get hurt or lost. Now, I'm not so sure they just fell into a sinkhole somewhere..."

[clear-horizons.livejournal.com]

"What happened there?" Picard asked, now growing worried. It seemed almost that Cybil had suffered some preternatural horror, and it was difficult for Picard to relate to the supernatural, given his own experiences in his home. "Did you end up trapped in this ghost town?"