SIM:Lael Rosek - Shocking News Part I (Gorkon)

Previous sim "Developments, Part II"	Lieutenant Lael Rosek HCO Officer Starbase 118 USS Gorkon NCC 82293	Next sim "Shocking News, Part II"
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OOC: Takes place after Lael’s “Developments”
OOC2: Ayiana - Present Time

((Sevo’s Quarters, USS Gorkon))

:: Lael exhaled heavily as she stood outside the door to Ayiana’s quarters. The Trill was the only other person on this ship who knew exactly what had existed between her and Janel...the level of intimacy the two had reached before they were separated by duty, and now by the Veil of death. She still hadn’t entirely come to terms with it. She pressed her thumb to the door chime and waited. :: <nowiki>:: Ayiana was unpacking after shoreleave on Palanon. The Gorkon would be leaving soon on their next mission and she was only too glad to leave. A winter resort was not her first choice. As she was unpacking, the doorbell to her quarters chimed. ::

Sevo: Come in.

:: Lael tried to muster a modicum of calm as she entered the Trill woman’s quarters. ::

Rosek: ::smiles wanly:: Hey, Ayiana. I didn’t catch you at a bad time…

Sevo: No. Just unpacking. What’s up?

Rosek: ::pauses:: I have some news about Janel...but maybe you should sit first.

:: Janel? He was a young Trill who served briefly with them on the Victory a couple of years back. A bit shy, but otherwise he was nice. ::

Sevo: Um...okay? :: Ayiana sat down on the couch and motioned for Lael to sit as well. ::

:: Lael nodded and took the seat across from her, exhaling a shaky breath. ::

Rosek: ::rasps:: He’s...gone, Ayiana.

:: She couldn’t even bring herself to say the ‘D’ word. ::

Sevo: :: Ayiana blinked in confusion. :: What do you mean, “gone?”

Rosek: ::swallows roughly:: He was murdered, they think by someone he knew and trusted, but they haven’t figured out who. ::bitterly:: Actually, they’re closing the case and refuse to devote any more resources to it.

:: Lael was right. Ayiana was glad she was sitting down. She felt a lump in her throat as she tried to process the information she just heard. ::

Sevo: I...um...murdered?!

Rosek: ::blinks back tears and nods:: It’s taken me this long to accept it myself.

Sevo: How did you find out?

Rosek: An investigator contacted me saying he’d gone missing. Asking if I knew where he was. ::murmurs:: I talked to his mother and brother. Offered my condolences. ::scowls:: I will just never understand how he got cursed with that evil witch for a mother.

Sevo: I...I’m sorry. :: Ayiana remembered the pair were close for awhile. :: Yea I remember. She really stifled him.

Rosek: ::snorts:: That’s the understatement of the century.

Sevo: Do you know how it happened?

Rosek: ::shakes her head:: They don’t know much. Just what I told you.

:: Ayiana felt for Lael. She really did. But trying to express herself wasn’t easy for her. ::

Sevo: I’m sorry.

Rosek: ::murmurs:: Me too.

:: The two sat in awkward silence for a moment. It occurred to Lael that during their time in the other ‘verse, Ayiana was the one she hadn’t really spent much time with outside of duty. She’d always highly respected the Trill woman despite their minor differences of opinion on occasion. ::

Sevo: So...um...th-thanks for letting me know.

:: Lael simply nodded, at a loss for words. Ayiana had known him, too. But there was so much history between Janel and Lael that it was practically impossible for an outsider to fathom what had happened during their imprisonment...the things they’d been forced to do… :

Sevo: Are you handling it alright? You two were close for a while.

Rosek: ::laughs weakly and wipes away the moisture with her thumb:: Yeah. Until his transfer split us up. ::shakes her head:: If that hadn’t happened, we might not have broken up and I wouldn’t have gotten into a relationship with Jansen. ::smiles wanly:: Funny the little ‘what-ifs’ of life, huh?

:: Yea. Funny. Ayiana hadn’t had any of those nice “what-ifs.” But she saw Rosek’s point. ::

Sevo: Yea. I suppose.

Rosek: ::pauses:: Are you okay?

Sevo: Yea. It's just a bit of a shock. He was so...young. :: And coming from a Joined Trill, that was saying something. ::

Rosek: ::worries her lower lip and nods:: He was absolutely brilliant. So passionate about everything he did. ::closes her eyes:: It just kills me how his mother always made him feel like he wasn’t good enough.

Sevo: He was a good doctor, from what I remember. A bit shy and conscientious of himself, though.

Rosek: ::nods:: Yeah. But I guess I got to see a different side of him than most people because of Temlai. ::gaze drops to her hands:: I’m not the damsel in distress type typically. I can hand people their backsides on a silver platter easily. ::grimaces:: Must have been the drug messing with me. It was so fresh in my system that I couldn’t think straight. Had to rely on Janel to keep me anchored and safe.

:: Temlai. It was when the Victory crew were sent to retrieve a deadly virus from a Romulan planet. During the mission, Rosek and Janel were captured. Ayiana blamed herself for that, as she was a split-second too late in stopping the abductors. ::

Sevo: You never really talked about what happened while you guys were imprisoned. I get the impression that things got...intimate?

Rosek: ::blushes:: Yeah. The drug kind of accelerated things a bit. Messed with the part of our brains that controlled emotion and rational thinking. It hit him harder for some reason. Cleared out of my system faster than his. But not before… ::blushes:: If we hadn’t been interrupted...

Sevo: I...see. :: She didn’t really want to pressure Rosek into saying more, if she didn’t want to. :: Again, I’m sorry.

Rosek: ::nods:: But I’m getting help. ::grimaces:: Janel I think got the worst of it...despite my best efforts to the contrary. ::shivers:: They were going to hang him by his wrists in that freezer full of dead scientists...victims of the disease. ::stiffens and murmurs bitterly:: I thought I was sparing him by tricking the leader into putting me into his place. ::angry tears streamed down her cheeks:: But instead, they take him to another room and waterboard him. ::shivers:: He flinched when they first brought him back. Wouldn’t let me near him...not until he saw it was me and not them.

:: Ayiana didn’t really know what to say to that. It was just...horrible. ::

Sevo: I...I didn’t know you guys went through all that.

Rosek: ::exhales heavily and smiles sadly:: Yeah. It messed Janel up pretty badly. He wasn’t the same after that.

Sevo: How so?

Rosek: ::murmurs:: Depression, increased anxiety...I’m sure he had nightmares, too, though he didn’t talk about them. But I could see it in his eyes. ::sighs:: I still have nightmares to this day about being taken into that confined room and… ::swallows roughly:: I was involved in a support group for sexual abuse survivors for awhile there.

Sevo: I didn’t know. He acted pretty much the same. But he was always quiet and reserved.

Rosek: ::nods:: Yeah. I didn’t know what to make of it all. Even to this day, I can’t reconcile with what happened. It was...intense. I think we both kind of shut down after that.

Sevo: Traumatic events are often suppressed by the mind to protect oneself. Don’t feel ashamed.

Rosek: ::sighs:: Yes. Just when I’m starting to move past Temlai, I get hit with the other ‘verse. ::grimaces:: Jansen was the only thing that kept me holding on over there. I thought so many times about giving up. I--It’s hard readjusting without him.

:: Ayiana remembered how Rosek and Orrey had become close, in no small part to how her alternate self’s life unfolded in their universe. ::

Sevo: How are you guys doing now that he’s back?

Rosek: ::grins wryly:: Breaking a man’s nose utterly doesn’t exactly scream “Hey, let’s get back together”.

Sevo: Wait...what?!

TBC
---
LtJG Lael Rosek
HCO Officer
USS Gorkon
I238110RH0

&

Lt. Commander Ayiana Sevo
Chief Science Officer / Second Officer
U.S.S. Gorkon
Image Collective Co-Facilitator
FNS Contributor
Wiki Ops
V239109AS0