Rhymes with Orange

Posted on Sun Oct 27th, 2019 @ 8:15pm by Lieutenant JG Jaya Maera Garlake & Lieutenant Colonel Storr Garlake

Mission: S1E3: Barbarians at the Gates
Location: Memory Theta, Deck 3, Senior Officer Quarters
Timeline: MD 4

The door near-silently acquiesced to Storr's arrival, obediently opening for his large frame and closing after he passed. His gaze slowly fell onto the now-empty sleeper couch that only days before had accommodated an expecting Orion. Now she was gone and in its place was a much greater knot in his stomach than was expected. Lithe yet confident hands snaked around his waist from the side as he felt Jaya's head rest against his chest.

"A penny for my thoughts indeed," he chuckled sadly as he extracted his right arm from her embrace and held her close.

"What...what happened?" he asked himself as much as his Deltan bride. Akiva had been more than deflective concerning Laena which was quite unlike his best friend.

Jaya's usual playful demeanor had turned solemn. "She left for Earth. The Academy, specifically. It would seem that she was accepted after all this time." A grimace pulled at her face. Sorrow such that even her Deltan serenity could not soak it. "There's another thing, though..." Her words trailed off as she searched for the right ones. "Most medical issues bypass my clearance, but there was one thing that was flagged and waiting for me when we returned. It has to do with Laena's baby." Her eyes glistened with grief that was beyond merely her own, and it was all she could do not to laden her husband with it. There would be plenty of his own for him to contend with soon enough. "She lost it. The miscarriage was sudden and unexpected. By the time she received medical attention, there was nothing to be done." She draped one arm across her midsection and stared back at the empty sofa sleeper. The emphasis was on the empty.

Storr simply blinked, broke Jaya's embrace, backed against the wall and slid down to the floor. The cold metal against his neck felt like it wrapped around his heart.

"She...she lost their baby? That's horrible!" a hot tear slid from the outside of his right eye. Akiva and Laena, despite their bickering and faults, were really making a go of it and the baby was the one thing that they had agreed upon as being a shining star in their relationship. He knew the acute loss that the Hebron felt when his android daughter had died (Storr still had trouble referring to her as such but as time went on it become easier) and the hope that he had placed in this new life. The man must be devastated. Blerrie hell, HE was devastated.

As he roughly sloughed the tear away with his sleeve, something began burning away at the coldness that had gripped his soul. A train of thoughts began churning.

"Wait...we haven't been gone that long. When did she leave for the Academy? Where has the grieving been?" The burly Afrikaner grasped the bulkhead behind him and straightened back up to full height "Jaya, a child died and I wasn't notified of it being senior staff and the Station Commandant. My best friend fobbed me off trying to discuss it, the mother up and abandoned us and her grieving husband for her career, and to top it all off Captain Mrazak somehow managed to get himself promoted which will get us into a ball of kak faster than..." Several irreverent things immediately came to mind but Garlake held his tongue as he took a deep breath as he looked down at Jaya. She didn't deserve his ire and he needed to head things off at the pass before he let his anger get the better of him.

Now it was Jaya's turn to be startled by unexpected news. "Mrazak got promoted to captain?!" She slid her slender hand against her forehead while her mouth hung agape. After seeing his leadership style firsthand, there seemed no rightful way that he should continue in that capacity, much less receive a promotion. In times of trouble, her therapist's hat came on. "I've always believed in the balance of the Universe, and despite these unbelievable things, I still have to believe in that. Laena is pursuing her recovery from past trauma in the only way she knows how, and my guess she's just added present troubles to that pile. Akiva is so withdrawn that his final words would be an apology for the mess of his corpse. Mrazak is a self-serving classical narcissist whose existence is predicated on advancing his own interests with little to no alternate interests. Altogether, they seem unbearable and unfair, but separately they are quite reasonable in their own way." Supposing that her clinical rationalization may not be as immediately helpful to Storr as it was to her, she backpedaled a little. "Of course, there's no accounting for insanity."

Garlake grunted as he stood, he fists tightening. "No, no there's not." So much for reaching that pass.

"There most definitely isn't! How on earth can someone 'pursue recovery' after their baby dying by immediately abandoning her husband and everyone she knows to instead pursue career goals?! Withdrawn doesn't begin to describe Akiva's response to this and I don't know how to change that. It...it feels like this whole station has gone mad and we're the only ones sane enough to see it." His large frame made the bed squeak in protest as he made his way from the foyer to the bedroom and sat upon it with a sigh. "The 'balance of the universe' aside, where is the respect for life here? I've seen more death here on MT than in my entire time with the Corp and that's saying quite a bit. God is not mocked and I feel that we're falling head over heals to do so at every opportunity."

Perhaps because she saw her husband in need, Jaya found herself rising above the fray where her psychologist's mind could assert itself. She slid onto the bed behind Storr, propped up on her knees, and ran her slender fingers across his shoulders and neck. "While the Federation generally values life, not every culture agrees on what that means. I can't share Laena's personal details, but I can remind you she is half Orion, and their culture does not value life except as a black market commodity. And, while Akiva's culture is peaceful, it's still categorically repressive in some regards, so much so that he fled it. Throw flawed, damaged individual beings into that mix, and you end up with a crazy mess indeed." She laid her head against his clavicle and wrapped her arms around his burly torso. Her hands barely met together across his muscled chest. "I don't know this 'God' of yours, but I admire the byproduct of your faith. Memory Theta would do well to have more of the same, my love." She gave his back a soft kiss and added, "I am a healer and you are a protector. Maybe that will be enough to help our loved ones and the universe itself."

Jaya's touch, words, Deltan pheromones, and womanly wiles nearly made Storr nearly forget what they were talking about as he let out an appreciable groan as her delicate lips touched his skin. Almost.

"Thank you, Boervrou. You truly are a helpmeet that I'm blessed beyond words to have." Turning his torso, he broke her grip and put his arms around her (without nearly the trouble she had in doing the same) and picked her bodily off the bed to place his dear bride on his lap before continuing. "If there is no respect for life, what are we doing here then? What's the point of 'saving the universe' if not to protect and preserve all that is dearest to us? What can be more dear than the life of a child and the sanctity of marriage and family? Doesn't even naked self-interest demand that we be fruitful and multiply?"

The rhetorical questioning struck Jaya's deep sense of intrigue. It prompted questions of her own. She turned her head askance and gave him a sidelong gaze. "Storr, what are you really trying to say? Do you want to be a father?"

Storr stopped. Jaya's bringing the conversation from the academic to the personal so rapidly was a jolt, not to mention the pointed question.

He met her eyes with equal parts steely determination, unbridled passion, and love and devotion that passed words. "I've wanted to wed you and father children with you since you first walked into my office. I think that now might be the time to make good on that second desire." Storr's burly form quickly enveloped the Deltan, her surprise and excitement inundating him with pheromones and mental misfires that would have completely disabled him even just a year ago. (Un?)fortunately, his constant exposure to near-death with Jaya had created a mithridatism against her sensual overload. He was ready.

They would have to arrange a prenatal plan with Dr. Wilson, as well as reevaluate Jaya's role on the field team, but the sight of her husband's distress being replaced by pure joy was worth it. Especially if it meant a lifetime enriched by a living creature literally birthed by their love.

"It's been said one ought to be the change they want to see," Jaya said by way of reply. As she swept her eyes over Storr--her brave, principled, powerful giant in every respect--she couldn't hold back a seductive laugh. "And at this moment I can't think of a better way."

Her eyes flared with a "come hither" look that was almost audible. She would bear him a child and enjoy every moment of the making.