Pure Evil

Posted on Thu Jan 17th, 2019 @ 12:47pm by Lieutenant JG Ryland Dedeker & Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake

1,737 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: USS Vindex
Timeline: 2387

Jaya had put this off for long enough. It had been some time before an officer garnered counseling recommendations from multiple department heads, but somehow Ryland Dedeker had compounded that with a formal reprimand as well. That reprimand had been downgraded from a punch to the face from the first officer, of course, though Jaya knew when to pick her battles.

Incense was burning. Mellow orchestral music played quietly in the background. The lights were lowered but not dim. Jaya just hoped it would be enough to keep her center against a man who, by all accounts, thrived on provoking others. Despite everything, she held a sinking suspicion that this would not go well.

As scheduled, her door chimed in warning that someone was there.

"Enter," she called out.

Her posture was fixed and unassuming. There would be no helping the attraction she would elicit from the man. The best she could hope for would be to keep him on task.

"Good afternoon, Counselor." Ryland's blue eyes flashed with pure lust.

Hands and mouths where they should not be. Raging desires demanding release. Broken promises--

Jaya willed her mind to reject the images from Ryland's with a slight shake of her head.

"Would you like to sit down?" A wave of her hand gestured toward any available seat.

"Well, that depends." Ryland smirked playfully. "Are you going to jump me? You look a lil' tense."

Jaya could not deny she felt tense, but neither did she want to give him the upper hand. Instead, she answered him with still another question.

"Would you like some tea?" She raised an eyebrow of suspicion, heavy enough to beat him with it. "The Seyalian blend is my favorite." Without waiting for him to respond, she went to the replicator with slow, deliberate steps.

Her intention was to give herself another moment to reacquire her Deltan equanimity, but she could not shake the burning sensation of Ryland's eyes on her swaying hips. The visuals from his subliminal desires were horrid.

"Sure, doll." Ryland settled into the sofa and let his eyes follow Jaya's every move.

"Counselor Maera," Jaya corrected. "Not 'doll' or any other pet name." She turned around with two steaming cups of tea. "It is inappropriate to refer to others by names other than their given ones."

She offered him his tea before he could respond, then sat in her chair across from him. The sexual desire spiked, but with its increase came a sense of hollowness and despair. Jaya allowed herself a small smile at the observation.

Ryland patted the empty cushion next to him on the sofa. "There's room for two, and I don't bite." He grinned as he added, "unless you say please."

~Acute overcompensation~ Jaya noted to herself. ~But overcompensating for what?~

"That is inappropriate as well," Jaya corrected again. "I have given absolutely no cue or signal that I am interested in a sexual relationship, romantic or otherwise, so what makes you speak to me as though I am?"

Ryland dropped his head to sip from his tea. "I hear tell that Deltans are sexually liberated, as a people." He looked up at her over the rim of his cup. "That you mingle flesh and bone freely with one and all, without quarrel, no fuss or mess--just peace on earth and good will toward men through the world's oldest profession." His grin returned, though it had a savage tint. "Sounds like I was born on the wrong world."

~If you only knew~ Jaya fought to suppress the recollection of her adolescence, when she had been released from the isolated sequestration of youth and became introduced to Deltan society. The freedom. The unity. The connection with everyone. It--

"I am married," Jaya said forcibly, "and even you know it is rude to speak to a married woman like that."

Ryland chuckled at her discomfort. "Aw, I'm just telling the truth now. Isn't that what you shrinks like to hear?" He cocked his head at an angle. "Maybe I'm touchin' on a truth that needs to be revealed."

The man's primitive dysfunction did draw on Jaya's primeval sense of compassion and comfort. In Deltan society, someone like Ryland would have been brought into the fold by surrounding him with dozens of individuals from his community, all praising him and affirming their love for him--for days, if necessary--until his emotional reticence fell away, at which time they would all indulge in a communal...

Jaya shut down that part of her mind. Deltan psychology could no more apply here to this man than Warp Theory would apply to an agricultural society.

For his part, Ryland grinned ever wider. "You know, we could always make use of that Doctor/Patient privilege, have some fun, blow off steam. No one would ever need know."

Jaya understood the impulse to slap him. She repressed it, though, like other impulses that the man was attempting to trigger.

"You are a skillful manipulator, Mister Dedeker, I will give you that." Jaya fixed him with a firm stare that matched her cool, even tone. "But you have met your match."

"Well, hot damn," Ryland jumped up and made to unfasten his pants. "That's what I'd hoped you say!"

"Sit down, please," Jaya said, her tone remaining even.

Ryland smirked at her, then moved his hands to his flight jacket. His fingers moved slowly over the zipper, taunting Jaya with each motion.

"I said sit down, Ryland." Jaya's voice barely raised at all, but the psionic imperative was elevated far beyond normal.

The cocky man complied. He sat down without another word.

"It is plain to see that your hypersexualization is a classic case of avoidance. You will tell me what it is you're avoiding, right now, or I will remove your sexual function from your conscious cognition." She scowled at the man in earnest sincerity. "We Deltans can calm as well as stimulate, and I will 'calm' your mind into eternal impotent celibacy unless you start cooperating."

Ryland lost his grin. In fact, his mouth bordered on a snarl. Their eyes locked in a struggle of will, waiting to see who would break first. Jaya knew it would not be her, even if they sat there all day.

"Fine." Ryland conceded his defeat to her stronger will with a dip of his head. "I want to avoid forming attachments with people. Chasin' tail seemed like the best way to do it. People keep their distance, I get my rocks off, everybody wins."

Jaya ignored her disgust and pressed the deeper issue. "Why do you avoid attachments? It's a natural thing that can only be prevented intentionally."

"Just like--" Ryland stopped when Jaya frowned, her threat still ringing in his ears. "Never mind. You know, I'm not sure. Ever since I lost my wings... nothing's not much mattered."

"We both know it goes further than that," Jaya replied. "Your dysfunction most likely led to your demotion, so that can't be it. What happened to you that drove you to be a self-inflicted pariah?"

"I didn't do this to myself!" Ryland screamed with an angry finger stuck in Jaya's face. "You don't know shit about me. All this... psychobabble horseshit trying to get inside my brain and get me straightened out... it's not for me. So you can threaten me and cut off my schlanger or whatever else you've got in your big book of bitch tactics, but I ain't talkin' about nothin' else."

Jaya nodded as she listened. Ryland was shutting her out with his words, but the language of his heart was screaming for help. The pain broadcasting from his heart matched that of dozens of others that Jaya had felt from past patients. A broken home. Failed expectations. Not enough abandonment for an orphan complex, but just as much grief and shame. It was the cry of a prodigal son.

"When did you last go home, Ryland?"

Ryland grimaced, though he tried to hide it with a smile. "I imagine about the last time you did."

Ignoring the jab at her loneliness, Jaya followed up with another question. "Would you be welcome there?"

"That depends," Ryland replied with something between a sigh and a wry chuckle.

"Depends on what?" Jaya dropped her voice low and gentle.

"On whether I can bag me a foxy Deltan like Major Garlake." Ryland threw his head back and laughed far too loudly.

Jaya shook her head. "You brought this on yourself." She got up from her seat and stepped within arm's reach. With one hand on his chest and the other extended to his forehead, she impressed upon him a probing spike of contempt that pierced his latent, repressed shame. "Be stilled."

Ryland flinched for a moment, expecting something painful. When nothing happened, his cavalier facade crept back up.

"That was a good one, Counselor. Almost had me going there for a minute."

Jaya returned his smirk with one of her own. "I would never harm you, Mister Dedeker, but neither will I let you harm others or yourself. After a few days of flaccid hibernation, perhaps you will be more amenable to a respectful conversation."

Her meaning took hold, along with a certain numbness near his groin. "You... you wouldn't! You couldn't! I'll... I'll report you!"

"And say what?" Jaya offered him a sly grin. "I was such a turnoff in our session that you can't get it up anymore? The Foreign Ministry would be delighted."

Ryland glowered at her. "You're evil."

"I'll see you next week," Jaya said sweetly. "I'd tell you to behave until then, but I think we both know that shouldn't be a problem."

The glare from Ryland was bittersweet in Jaya's eyes. Manipulation was the resort of inferior therapists, but she had no intention of letting Ryland run amok as he had before.

"Pure fucking evil."

Jaya clicked her tongue. "Tsk. Such language. Next week we can cover how to appropriately speak to others."

"Or you can give me back my... manhood!" Ryland was not smiling. "Now... if you please."

"Ryland..." Jaya bit her lip to keep back her laughter. "The only one who can do that is you. Make amends, do well, and we'll see where you stand in our next session." She paused long enough to effect a taunting expression. "I can count on you to be here next time?"

Ryland left without another word.

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