True Vision
Posted on Fri Aug 16th, 2024 @ 2:14pm by Commander Arianna Frost & Captain Mrazak & Lieutenant Commander Kazyah Linn
2,178 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Mission 0: Everybody Has A Story
Location: Undisclosed Medical Facility
Timeline: 2386
~
"Two hundred meters." The wrist readout read as they moved onto the next point. The craft was within visual range down. They were almost there.
"Gol, visual." Andromache's voice came through as a distant echo.
Gol's voice came through equally disconnected, "three targets as expected, marks inside the shuttle, movement has not changed."
"Received. Proceeding to final," Quixote's voice echoed too.
Crate after crate, cover after cover, they had finally made it.
"Taskmaster, Quixote, engaging."
The whiz and whir of nadion bursts signaled phasers were in action. "Targets are—" Taskmaster's voice interrupted his transmission in mid sentence. "There are more! They're trying to flank our position!"
Images zoomed before Persephone's eyes, weapons fire, communications chatter.
"Where did they come from?"
"Get to cover!"
"We must extract the assets at all cost! Quixote, Andromache, Persephone, move to extract!"
More weapons fire and chaotic movement.
"Taskmaster, Andromache. Quixote and I are pinned down!"
"Hold position, all," Taskmaster ordered. "Gol, where's our god-damn overwatch?!" A phaser rifle blast dropped one of the newcomers. "Finally! Keep it up, Gol! Andromache, provide suppressive fire for Quixote and Persephone!"
"Persephone received, moving," Ari heard her own disembodied voice say.
Weapons fire to her left. She ducks for cover and looks over at the shuttle.
Explosion in concert with a bright light, pain in her face, air knocked out of her, screams, chaos on comms.
~
Arianna awoke with a start to a quiet, dark place, with quiet, rhythmic sounds in the background. She couldn't see. Why couldn't she see? She could feel her hands touching her face. There was something on her eyes. Her heart rate sped up, panic began to set in.
"Don't move," said a familiar voice. His low, cool tone belied the deadly skill with which he was known to operate. "I'll call the doctor if you wish, but you'd better lie still."
Ari's rapidly increasing heartbeat began to settle a little bit. A familiar voice against the unwelcome darkness. "Jor..." her voice came out raspy, her throat sore and scratchy. "What," she swallowed hard, as her throat cut at her in it's dryness, "what the fuck happened?" She realized she could hardly form sound as the question came out in a raspy whisper.
Here hands still patted at her face but in a more calm, gentle manner as the rest of the quiet sounds in the room gave clues as to where she was. A medical facility, or room at the very least. Her eyes were covered with...something. Medical patches, maybe? The left side of her face was very sore too, but the skin felt...new?
"The op went sideways," Kaz said. "You were nearly killed. A couple of the others didn't make it. Guess you were lucky."
"What's on my eyes?" She couldn't help but ask, her fingers tracing the patches. "Who did we loose?"
There were so many questions running through her head she could hardly make heads or tails of them, with the fuzz of the medicine in her system.
"Did we succeed?" She leaned her head sideways a little towards the direction she thought Joriel's voice was coming from.
"Depends who you ask," Kaz said cryptically, arms crossed over his chest. "You should get some rest. From what your chart says, they'll unwrap your eyes soon enough but it might be awhile before you're cleared for the field. Coming from someone who's been where you are, you should take it as easy as possible."
Ari sighed, she'd heard his words, but her mind was still cycling back to her question. "Jor...did we succeed?"
She had so many questions, but she forced herself to filter them out to the important ones first, success of the mission and the loss of their team members. She also needed to control the rising fear that was building deep within her heart. Would she ever see again? Or see properly at least? Could she get back to this job?
"You should probably wait for the debriefing..." Kaz sounded conflicted but he always stuck to the job. "Like I said, it depends on who you ask." He sighed in frustration himself. "Is there anything I can do? Someone you want me to contact?"
Something had happened to make him hesitate so. "I am asking you. Out of all of us, you say least, but you don't beat around the bush." There was her family, but she didn't want to contact them just yet. Not until she knew what was going on.
"The cell got shut down," Kaz said glibly. "There's that. The SO Desk ["Special Operations"] is expected to clear the entire sector. No more Black Nagus." He sighed. "But when the shuttle blew, we lost assets. IA is getting nosy because the cover field reports aren't holding up. Some ambitious Bolian prick named Commander Pron looking for a big break to make Captain without a command chair." This was another sigh. "I... might have to neutralize him if he compromises the operation."
Ari's fingers went over to her temples on instinct. "Fuck! Fuckin' fuck fuck!" She groused and sighed. So they had succeeded. That was some comfort in this newly darkened world. Her mind now switched gears. Time to ask the other question.
"Who did we lose?" Her voice came out raspy and hoarse.
"Everyone," Kaz said flatly. "Everyone on the ground but you."
Ari pinched the bridge of her nose. "Fuuuuuck!" She sighed, then sighed again. "Rest in peace, Andromache, Quixote." Another sigh, "Taskmaster? How pissed is he?"
"Actually, he's eerily calm." Kaz wore a scowl that showed in his tone. "Top brass gave him some attaboys. With our personnel rosters classified as they are, he's not accountable for the loss of assets, only the deliverables." What was left unspoken said volumes though. The mission was what mattered. Since it wasn't entirely botched, then the world would continue onward as it had before. Just minus a few people.
Ari sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Fuuuuck!" It took her a moment to process everything and then her own situation started to sink in. The state of her eyes and her future ability to do the job she loved. "How do you deal with it...Jor? Doing this job and your eyes?"
"I have senses you don't," he said plainly. "There are other ways to see than with eyes. Given training, your other senses may learn to compensate even if you lack telepathy." His tone softened. "Prosthetic options exist, but... I abstained for personal reasons. You might find them a good option for yourself."
Ari nodded, feeling the darkness grow a bit deeper as the world around her didn't move as it usually did when one nodded. She might need prosthetics to see.
She might need prosthetics to see...
The words rang in her head. Over and over, the words echoed in her mind, not wanting to go away, loud and insistent. The reality of the situation was sinking in.
She might not be able to get her vision back. She may need implants to see. If she's even eligible. She'd heard medical horror stories over the years. She may end up fully blind.
All these dour thoughts invaded her mind at that moment and she felt her eyes sting, and a small wet patch form under and below the eye patch. Ari reached up and wiped her eyes as best as she could.
"Uhmmm..." she made a croaky sound. "Yeah...um, I didn't peg you for the type to sit by someone's bedside, mate," Ari said, trying to move the subject away from her wet face.
"I'm not." He was nonchalant but something about his presence turned passively terrifying. "I am securing an asset."
This only made her patched eyes well up more. She wiped another wet patch away. For all the menace behind the tone and the wording, Ari heard the Romulan-Betazoid clear.
"Thank you." Her voice came out tiny and quiet as she struggled to keep the emotions away from consuming her, now that there'd been enough time for everything to sink in.
It was then that a distant hiss of the door brought reality back, again. But...had Joriel left, or did someone come in?
"Lieutenant Commander Frost, I see you're awake," said a male voice.
"Now's not a good time," Kaz said plainly. There was no disrespect in his voice, but the tacit suggestion for the other man to leave was not veiled.
The Doctor spared Kaz but a glance, "I understand this is a tough time, considering what happened and how, but I need to inform the Commander of her state and plans going forward. I won't take long."
Silence passed from Kaz. Perhaps he nodded or gave another nonverbal gesture for the doctor to proceed. But his weight shifted in his chair enough to grind it on the floor.
"Out with it, Doc." Ari cut the silence with a sigh. She was silently grateful to Kaz for being her proverbial guard dog, but she also wanted to know what was going to happen with her eyes. With her life. "Am I going to see again?" Frost hoped that the trepidation she felt in her core didn't come over through her tone.
The man sighed, "at present, I cannot say either way. We have done the preliminary surgery to stabilize your condition, however we were unable to repair all of the damage of the anti-matter blast. Once we can safely assess your condition in a few hours, we will know how many more surgeries you may need. Even with more surgeries, there is no guarantee we will be able to repair your vision."
Ari swallowed hard. "No chance of implants?" She could feel her pulse raising and her heart beating faster, fear bubbling within, mixed with grief and confusion.
The Doctor looked down at her kindly, despite knowing she could not see. "At present we cannot ascertain whether you are eligible for implants, I'm afraid. The damage you suffered and survived is quite unique."
"Fuck...." Ari sighed. "So...now what?"
The man looked between the woman in the bio bed, over to the vulcanoid in the chair, then back at the woman. "I am placing you on medical leave until further notice and will be sending the report to your Commanding Officer. Quite simply, Commander, time will be the one to tell."
"In that case, you may discharge her immediately." Kaz kept his tone soft but there was still an edge to it that wasn't to be trifled with. "I can take her from here while you... send your report."
The man levelled a look at Kaz, "Unless you have a medical unit ready and available to cater to the Commander's needs, the Commander is staying here. We need to keep an eye on her," the Doctor cringed visibly at his own awkward phrasing. "Sorry...what I mean is, she needs to stay under supervision until we have ascertained the condition of her vision and how many more surgeries she will need before we are confident that she will be able to see again."
"I'm blind, not mute," Kaz said. "The commander comes with me." His tone was rather adamant. "Accommodations are available."
The doctor glared at Kaz. "Do you have a physician specialized in Ophthalmology and Optics available on site?" he asked with a sigh.
"Are you two having a Mexican glare-off?" came Ari's croaky reply. She couldn't help herself, she had to ask. This situation was insane enough as it was and now the two blokes were having a go at each other and her mind couldn't help but conjure up images. She had nothing better to do but imagine, after all.
"I don't know what that means but it sounds impossible," Kaz said. Once again, his tone was calm and cordial, but somehow his presence was borderline menacing. For whatever reason, he wanted Ari out of there and the sooner, the better. "The good doctor was just going down his checklist before discharging you to come with me immediately."
The Doctor couldn't help a chuckle, "fine! You field types always get your way anyway. But I will be talking to your CO and I will send down a specialist to monitor your condition, Commander." He shook his head, "I'll get your papers sorted now. You'll be free to go momentarily." Without further word he left the room.
Arianna waited for a moment, trying to get her thoughts in order before she spoke. "You're worried."
"Yeah," Kaz said, "and I don't know why, and that makes me edgy. Something isn't right. I don't want you where you're supposed to be until this investigation shakes out. Let's back to the unit." By that, he meant the Castermer personnel. Nothing was going to be done in this facility that couldn't be done at any other one. "If we can't trust them, then we're fucked where we stand."
Always follow your gut. Ari reached out a hand. "Let's go."
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