Star Trek: Starbase 777 - ghoyiph-lounge

After making sure the officers that needed to be in the med bay stayed in the med bay (where did Starfleet get all those stubborn individuals?) and getting his cut checked and cleared, Tarsek found himself at the warbird’s lounge. Simply waiting till they were finally on 777. All of them, thankfully. Some in more need of attention than others, but all would live and all would get to go home.

He’d gone to Medbay first- what could be fixed there was fixed there, so he was at least in good shape to get to 777 and undergo more extensive repairs. He hadn’t protested it, mainly because he was too tired. People putting their hands on him had still made his skin crawl, though. He never wanted to be touched again for at least the next month, which was bad for him considering he would in fact need more repairs when they got to 777. But for now, he was chilling on a comfortable chair, plugged into a wall outlet and kind of staring into space. He could fully rest and close his eyes and probably charge a little faster that way, but he didn’t feel safe enough to be doing that. He didn’t know where Silver was at.. probably in the Engineering area somewhere ensuring their safe trip home. He wanted her with him, but he didn’t message her. He missed his guardian angel of an android maintenance engineer. Out of everyone, he knew she was the only one incapable of hurting him or being afraid of him.

Victoria had found a chair and plopped it facing against a wall. Normally, nothing would have been able to stop her from being in the medbay to help where she could. But now, well, she could barely muster up enough courage to be seen publicly at all. She sat, but leaned forward until she could barely be seen, blocked largely by the backrest, her face pressed into both palms. She wasn’t crying, but that would not mean her troubles were over.

He noticed the ones present, taking note of who was there and who arrived, and after how much time they arrived from med bay. Indirectly it was a way to get feedback on the status of the officers now liberated. “Lieutenant Bishop.” He soon noticed both in the room. “Lieutenant tr’Lliehn, I am glad to see both.” The XO stated. (edited)

He looked up, noticing both Victoria and Tarsek. Victoria.. he was glad she was okay, the Cell 2 inmates were all bonded together by trauma in his opinion, but Tarsek.. a part of him did still wonder what.. no. The Tal Shiar was probably lying to them all anyway, and rescue came right after. He’d be stupid to mention it. “… Good to see you too, Tarsek. I wanna get out of here and go home. I need to see my cat again.” He said quietly, still pretty much collapsed in his chair.

Tarsek nodded. “I believe we can all relate to your first statement. And I certainly relate to your last.” He thought about Shelly. Garcia should have taken good care of her he believed, completely unaware that the woman had been present during his rescue ~~really Tarsek, not even a suspicion?~~. “We will be there soon. You will receive proper care then, I am aware the med bay does not possess all the infrastructure needed for androids.”

Well, Tavek had thought that Silver was going to help take care of Azuki, but guess what Silver did -not- do? If you guessed “stay on 777 like a sane individual”, you’d be right! But no, she came out here and risked her ass and chopped off her hair to boot, if she asked him to restore it back to its original five feet of insanity later, he might actually lose it. So really, he and Tarsek were in the same boat here. “Yep.. they fixed what they could, but.. fuck, just from my own diagnostics, this body is beyond screwed. I’d need to rip out and replace almost all my wiring and half my circuits to boot. I might just have.. whoever’s left to fix me, I hate other people doing it but I doubt they’ll let me do it myself, fix what they can. Then I’ll get to work on a new body. I hope you’re in a better state than I am.”

Tarsek could not help but think about the practicality of Tavek’s statement. Of how for him it was a matter of replacing what was broken, going as far as having the option of replacing the whole body! He had seen colleagues fall with terrible injuries before, the unrecoverable kind that they would have to carry for the rest if their lives. How interesting to see someone practically imune to a similar fate. “I am not completely aware of the extension of your damage. I can tell you that I am in a better state than most…” Tal Shiar had not seen any advantage in trying to cause him physical pain. “If I may ask, what did they wish of you, lieutenant, and what was done in trying to accomplish it?” (edited)

After being cleared by the docs on the warbird Shane made his way to the lounge, still without a UT, but he'd get that when he was back on the station. He'd been stupid and he was sure he'd answer for that later but for now he was just happy to not be sleeping in a cot where half his legs stuck out. He nodded to Tarsek and Tavek as he walked in, eventually he hobbled over to a lounge chair looking at the stars. Oh how he missed the freedom of flight now. That sense of true freedom where you could just hit the warp button and go anywhere you wanted. Those were the good ol' days.

“Oh yeah, I haven’t told many people about the extent except the guys in Medbay.. yeah, that guy with the pink hair fried me. Drained my battery to 10% too, dunno if they wanted to go all the way to zero and they got stopped for some reason, or what, but I’ve got no clue.” He thought back and.. yeah.. there was really no reason. They’d not asked him for any useful info. It was torture just to torture. Well, psychological at first with all the stuff that was said, he reckoned, but it went to physical real quickly. “They didn’t ask me for any information, that was the strangest part of it. There was no reason. It was just.. for the sake of it, I supposed. They didn’t ask me anything useful. When I didn’t take kindly to them yknow, being bigoted to me, typical anti-android “you’re lesser than us meatsacks” type bullshit, that’s when they started frying me. And like.. fuck, it got to me, I think. What they said. Some of it was actually true and I’ve lived my life here pretending like it isn’t.” He shrugged, looking off into nothing. He didn’t know what to think anymore. He nodded to Shane as he walked by, seeing how.. tired, he looked. “You doing.. not horrible.. over there?” He asked. In standard, to be clear.

Saith was making laps around the room, quelling the whispers in the back of his head insisting he figured out just why he'd been made to hide instead of facing everything head-on. He checked in with a handful of people — usually a thumbs-up and a smile, and when the action was reciprocated, he'd move on. It felt surreal, having almost everyone back, and knowing the sabotage team were all on their way. It felt like months they'd spent planning, putting everything together, but it had been much shorter than that. Saith exhaled, running his fingers through his hair and ruffling it a little, trying to get rid of the bit of sweat from the heat of the first floor. He missed his spots... "Hey, doc, doing ok?" he asked Victoria— not someone he knew, but worth popping in, since she'd all but isolated herself from everyone else, and had her face buried in her hands.. The Ensign's brows furrowed, ridges, too. "Uh- can I get you some water or anything?.. "

”You were not the only one that was called for what seemed to be… entertainment purposes.” Tarsek revealed. They had tried to get to them all. Some through physical violence, some through psychological warfare and some through demoralization. Though it did call forward a feeling of disgust, banging on his emotional shields, that some had suffered for such a cruel reason. “There is a difference between a fact and an opinion over a fact. Maybe it would be wise to evaluate if their opinion over the fact is indeed to be considered relevant.” He offered to the android. Psychological healing would be nowhere as easy as replacing the body. Tavek was not able to replace his essence, ideas, without losing himself in the process.

Victoria did not immediately respond. When the ensign found her, she had just raised her head from her palms, staring with half-lidded eyes into the bulkheads, though still hunched over and bracing herself at her knees with her elbows. Such was the familiar feeling of the hours after an intense day at work, only compounded by factor of ten. When she did move to look, it wasn't without effort - her neck felt like it hurt to move, and she swore she heard it creak. "Huh?" she asked, shaking her head at the offer of water. "Yeah- yeah. As okay as I can be. It's just-" Stopping as she simply didn't know what word would be a fitting continuation of that sentence, she forcefully blinked her eyes and sighed. "Thanks for coming so quickly."

“Yeah.. lot of people in mine were too, I think. It’s just.. cruelty without purpose. Not even an excuse for it. They just want to watch people suffer. But, what can you expect. I’ve been in this situation before.. and it wasn’t much different in terms of pointless abuse.” He revealed, sinking further back in his chair. He hadn’t had useful information for his torturers the first time around either. But.. in a way, he was very, very glad he had been tortured then. If the Tal Shiar had been less awful to him then, when he was a blank slate who knew nothing of the world, nothing of what it meant to be good or evil or in-between.. he may have gone along with them. He shuddered to think of the harm he could have caused if that had happened. “No.. they were facts. I was created right after the Federation decided that they shouldn’t kill my kind on sight anymore. That guy just reminded me that the Federation could always just.. do it again if they wanted. I.. deluded myself into thinking this place, the Federation, was safer. It isn’t. Nowhere is, and I know that now.” He said, looking down. There was nowhere he could be without the risk of being killed for existing.

Saith hesitated, and lowered, sitting criss-cross beside her. "My name is Saith, sir. Saith tr'Dharvanek," he said, glancing up at her with as much of a sympathetic smile as he could muster. "Uh.. you're Lieutenant Bishop, right? We got a little bit so we could identify those who were missing, so.. um.. " He exhaled, averting his eyes. It felt almost invasive, seeing someone in such a vulnerable state. "Of course. We were always going to come after you, you know? We want to bring as many people home as we can, and... I'm sorry it took so long. They, uhm.. I wasn't there, but Eventide was practically shot down. We had to regroup, and..." ... "I'm glad everyone's alive and safe."

”I did not contest the fact, but how you judge it. It is a fact the Federation could decide to hunt your kind again, make people suffer by repeating errors of the past.” He exemplified. “Simply because it is a big enough organization with enough power, however, is it true that you think that fact likely? Or did they just make you doubt it by taking advantage of your vulnerable state during torture?” He waited a moment so Tavek could think about those words before continuing. “As long as there is power, no one is truly safe. Someone with malicious intent might make wrong use of it… do we not see it with Tal Shiar? Did we not see it with the Empire?” The way those who thought less of others also thought themselves in the right to use, abuse and discard with no remorse. “It is also a fact, one way or another, someone or something rises up to make things right. That is the cyclical nature of history.“ (edited)

Victoria traced Saith's movement with her eyes only as he lowered to sit alongside. "That's me, yeah," she nodded. Victoria hadn't been told about the Eventide, nor did she know it was coming after them. She supposed that she could recall someone in the brig suggesting that was the case. Regardless, she nodded in understanding. "It's not your fault," she assured, "we knew you would come. I didn't know how... I still don't really know how you pulled it off but- it's... better this way than if Eventide did get shot down." "Everyone's stable?" she made sure to ask, following a pang of guilt that she was in this room and not helping out, even if she wasn't sure she could.

“I know.. it does seem like pointless worrying to someone who would never have to think about this, isn’t it? But.. I know people who lived through it. She’s on this ship, actually, she did nothing but serve the Federation and they still tried to kill her, and when they couldn’t, they left her to die. How can I trust our safety to people who’ve likely never even met an android face-to-face? These thoughts.. they’ve always been in my mind, this shit just yanked them forward and gave them teeth.” He replied. He knew, it was stupid to worry so much, he should probably just move on with life and not think about it too hard. He was just.. very protective of his fellow androids, he thought it was his responsibility since he had missed the hell some of them had been forced to go through. He was less innocent, he probably deserved to be killed more than say, Silver, but if another ban happened, they’d all be killed regardless of what an individual did. “I suppose you’re right. History rights itself eventually. My worry is that if people decide not to learn from their mistakes, it will right itself too late for me, and for the people I love. I think we both know how widespread ignorance is. It’s one of the greatest diseases this galaxy will ever know.” And, would you look at that- a bit of Tavek’s (limited) eloquence was coming back as his battery exited “oh fuck oh shit we might die” levels and entered “yeah we can work with this” territory. Or, in normal person terms, he was at 30%.

Making his way through the door, Ed lit up slightly at the sight of everyone, alive and (somewhat) well. He approached, finding a seat that wound up nearby where Tavek and Tarsek were speaking. (edited)

He nodded. “I can understand the origin of your fear, it is justifiable. I also believe… you are in the right place to try and stop those who do not learn. To keep yourself and the people you love safe.” Before anything more could be said, however, an exclamation, not quite loud enough to be called a proper scream but fairly close, made itself present.

”Lieutenant Commander Tarsek of House V’hgai, son of Sopel, son of Terok!” And that was a full rank and name plus a traditional introduction. How could a woman so small such as Garcia let out such an imposing presence with just those words? “How dare you get kidnapped after I just arrived at 777? Are you trying to kill me?!”

Elohae slipped into the lounge then. Did so as discretely as possible as he looked for a chair to slip into. Once in there he settled into a comfy chair and just watched people talk, lipread some of what he could and attempted to just relax. He reached up as he did and disengaged his earpieces and placed them in a case he'd begged off the engineer who helped him. Sweet relief from the alerts and the like that had been weaponised to hurt him.

"Yep. No casualties," Saith answered with a nod. "Some injuries more major than others, but everyone who can be is being treated in Medbay right now." He was already thinking about how many flowers and get well soon cards he was planning on getting, but that could wait until the three-day trip back home had concluded. He sucked in a breath through his teeth, hands on his ankles as he rocked back and forth. "We owe the help to our allies, really. Their knowledge of the space and how things flowed around there helped us figure out where to squeeze into the cracks, and hatch a proper plan, you know?.. Team effort and all that." He stared at the ground in front of him, contemplating something, whether or not he should say it out loud. "I think that people, when they have a lot of power, get too confident. I'm not saying it was like, easy.. We had to borrow a whole ship, we had to figure out a code word, we had to short everything out, and without the people that were undercover I doubt we would have gotten super far. But that place was always banking on people being helpless. Scared. Exhausted. Hurt." He shrugged. "Sorry, it.. I shouldn't be saying this to you. You have more important things to worry about." He tilted his head, peeking up at her again. "Sure you don't wanna drink or something? Or, like, a snack? I'm sure you're tired of gray slop.."

Okay, so Tavek was much, much jumpier than usual, because that exclamation had been enough to make him startle enough to pull his charging cord clean out of his neck. He searched for the source of it before.. oh, it was someone Tarsek knew. He sunk back into his chair, plugging himself in and letting the two of them get in with their conversation. He turned to Edgar instead. “You doing okay, Edgar? All your injuries repaired?”

He nearly jumped out of his skin at the scream, brain jumping to the worst, before he heard the voice of his commanding officer, and swivelled to see Garcia and Tarsek. He glanced back towards Tavek, nodding. “I’m doing just fine.” He offered a thumbs-up, “No more stab wounds, so I think I’m good to go. How about you? The recharging going okay?”

”Lt. Cdr. Garcia, please, there has been enough agitation already, lets us try to mind our tone and manners…” What was Garcia of all people doing there? Oh but of course she was… she was Garcia. Tarsek could have facepalmed himself for not realizing this was the first place she would be, if had not been for his self-discipline and control.

”Oh so this is how we are playing this, okay…. Aham.” The woman cleaned her throat. “Lieutenant Commander Tarsek of House V’hgai, son of Sopel, son of Terok. How dare you get kidnapped after I just arrived at 777? Are you trying to kill me, sir?” Her tone was polished, a perfect officer speech, though the theatrical Starfleet salute made her irony obvious. She glared at him, sustaining the pose for no longer than a few seconds before tears could be seen forming in her eyes. “I was so worried… you idiot.” The last “compliment” nearly whispered as she came back to a normal posture. “Are you… harmed?”

“Good, good, no stab wounds is an improvement. As for me.. it is so nice not having a stupid low battery anymore. Rest of my body, though, not doing too hot. I’ll get what can be repaired, repaired, when we get to 777, but it’s time for me to bite the bullet and build myself a new body.” He said with a shrug, having already accepted it at this point. He was alright with it, as he could make the next one even prettier, with none of the issues his current one faced, he could customize the next one to his liking.

“Oh, yeah, I kinda forgot you could just… do that.” He chuckled, “Any changes in mind for Tavek 2.0? Or— I don’t actually know how many iterations there’s been.”

Elohae adjusted himself in his chair and signed a SSL greeting to Tavek and Edgar whenever their conversation might have allowed a brief glimpse of him. Just a briefly offered. “Hello.” Not that he reckoned Tavek would recognise him and they both seemed busy.

”As of the moment, no.” He said trying to reassure her. “It is alright, I am no longer abducted. I should have expected you to join the rescue team.”

“Holy shit, hey!” Ed waved, glad to see Elohae was alright, “Glad you’re okay!”

“Tavek 2.0 won’t overheat at the slightest sign of stress- and he’s going to be buoyant so I can actually swim instead of just sinking like a sapient rock.” He laughed. “Also he will have piercings and accessories that I’m kind of considering letting everyone in our division have input on. This is an Engineering group project.” He smiled before seeing Elohae approach. Thankfully, he knew SSL, so he could respond. “Hello, I hope you are doing alright.”

He grinned, nodding at the thought of getting to pick something out for Tavek’s new body. It was a bit of a strange idea, but also an honour. He pulled his knees to his chest where he sat, wrapping his arms around his folded legs.

”That just means you were!” The tears came and with it a hug she could no longer hold herself back from giving. “Of course I joined, and I don’t wanna hear anything about it, you would have done the same!” To anyone who spent 5 minutes in a room with a Vulcan as traditional as Tarsek, the sight of him being hugged, and allowing it, by a small human woman would have been unimaginable. And yet it was happening.

Elohae slipped to his feet at their words, ear pieces carefully stowed in their case in his pocket as he smiled and approached. He then signed to Edgar first. "Hi, thank you and glad you are okay too!" He then looked to Tavek and bowed his head a bit and smiled at them too as he signed in SSL. "Hello, I'm surviving, implant controls been returned to me, the Tal Shiar had adjusted mine for remote control." He had paused then and then added. "Which is very nice, both of you holding up okay?"

”I am your superior, it would have been my duty.” He stated.

”I am your friend.” She sniffed one last time before letting him go. “That’s all the reason I need. Mister ‘second in command’.” “I’m glad you are fine, I’m glad you are back.” She now finally took a look at her surroundings, after her focus was no longer completely centered on Tarsek. “Céus…. They had it bad.”

Victoria listened as Saith explained, barely moving at all besides a quick flick of her eyes to see what the rising commotion was about on the other side of the lounge. Okay. Cool. Everyone was stable. That meant that she hadn't caused any further complications on Ellie, she hoped, not that it really mattered in the grand scheme of her guilt. "Like what?" she asked, quickly enough that it might've seemed rude, although she was being perfectly genuine, "it's fine. I did ask, kinda. We were... definitely all of those things. I swear, I've never seen anyone enjoy hurting someone else as much as you could see in these guys' eyes. I mean, it was like they were at a playground. I'm sure they felt like gods." Clearing her throat following the thought of more gray slop, she nodded quite eagerly, even if her neck would creak in protest, "okay, yeah, maybe... anything you can find that packs the most flavour, if you don't mind?" (edited)

Elohae looked to the others then, noted the medical lieutenant and the others. Quietly waved to them also. The only one of them he knew who happened to know sign was Lieutenant Commander V'hgai. He seemed well, busy. Maybe others happened to know SSL, he discovered he didn't mind either way. He just wanted to relax right now.

Ed scooted to one side of the bench he’d been seated on. “If you wanna sit down, you can grab a seat.” He offered, before adding with a sheepish chuckle, “I’m… sorry about the language barrier, though. When we get back to the station, I’ll look into learning SSL.”

Elohae smiled appreciatively at Edgar then. Mouthed a 'Thank you' then as he settled down to sit next to them. When they then stated what they stated, Elohae's smile widened a bit. He then mimed then. 'Then we'll be able to sign to each other.' He somewhat wished there was someone who knew sign around. If anything he wanted to offer this ensign some of the books he had on the subject. They seemed like they actually wanted to learn and stuff. Damned language barrier. Elohae looked over the Ensign for a moment and nodded to them before he then, as he realized that what he'd signed earlier made no sense to them mouthed. "How are you?" Hoped they could lipread somewhat though also followed that with a point and what he understood tended to be a sign for okay people seemed to know.

As much flavor as possible .. Hmm. Saith nodded, hopping up to his feet to try and locate the nearest replicator. "I'm on it! You can count on me." Off he went, into the great unknown.

He nodded, silently planning in his head how to learn the basics of SSL in a few days. He’d probably wind up doing an educational all-nighter, but he didn’t mind. “I’m… surprisingly okay. Doing better now that we’re out of jail, y’know.” He chuckled, “How’re you doing?”

Elohae smiled a bit at what they said. He was glad they happened to be okay though part of him suspected that they weren't entirely okay. Not that that stopped a mouthed. "I'm glad." As he well, offered a thumbs up. Not sure what else could be offered. He was tired, his mind slowed by that exhaustion. When they then asked him that, asked how he was, Elohae grimaced slightly. He then proceeded to make a 'so-so' neither bad nor good gesture then mimed being tired then happy. "I'm not okay, but I'm not...bad, fairly tired but also happy."

“I understand.” He agreed, rubbing the back of his neck as he adjusted his position to be sitting cross-legged, feet tucked beneath him, “It’s… been a hell of a few weeks, hasn’t it?”

Eyes ring with the blank rings of exhaustion, bruises gone and body healed of much physical ills, Elohae idly traced his implants on one side of his head then. Traced that which he'd trusted once, that which had been subverted in however minor a way. Traced the defilement of what had resulted from the choice he accepted. He struggled with that, somewhat. Not that he allowed it to show that much, hoped instead that it'd not be noticed that he'd removed his earpieces. Just nodded instead, agreed with them and mouthed, 'it has. "Yes, it has." Looked distant for a moment before he mouthed. "..We all survived it, though."

“We sure did.” He affirmed, reaching out to offer a fist bump. He hadn’t had the best luck with the gesture, but he figured another try couldn’t hurt.

"Aye" Elohae mouthed before he then returned the gesture, the fist bump. Why not? He'd seen it done before and well, he wanted to return the gesture. Elohae then moved slightly and mouthed a question, did so slowly as he attempted to be understood. "Did I ever tell you my name?" Didn't know why he asked it. (edited)

“I don’t think you did, actually.” Ed blinked, realizing that he never fully learned his name. He felt a bit bad for it, but the chance had never come up.

"Ah" Elohae mouthed before he looked thoughtful for a moment and then continued on and mouthed. "Signed." And signed his name in SSL. Signed it slowly and carefully. Just his name, no sign name or anything like that. He happened to lack one anyway. "Elohae tr'Kymyra." Once he'd signed that he then mouthed. "Spoken." And mouthed his name slowly. "El-oh-ae."

He repeated the name through the signs, glancing to Elohae to make sure he hadn’t messed up too badly. “Elohae?” He asked, “That’s… a really nice name, actually.”

Elohae nodded a few times as he confirmed that the ensign had succeeded in signing his name. When the man then repeated the name back, he smiled and nodded slightly. He then mouthed and signed. "Thank you." Did so as he realized something. Mouthed then. "Did you tell me your name?" Looked and felt apologetic about the fact he might have forgotten a name. Mouthed then. "If you did, sorry if I forgot, what is your name?"

“No worries, I don’t think I did.” He shrugged, “Edgar Castelo. Ed works well, though.”

Elohae offered the Ensign a hand to shake then as he mouthed. "Edgar, that's a nice name." Careful as he mouthed it slowly, wished there were a better way to do it then than this, happened to be glad Edgar seemed to be able to at least lipread parts of what he mouthed. Mouthed again. "What would you prefer, Edgar or ed?"

He smiled, shaking the hand offered to him. “Either works! People typically use Ed, so that one’s just fine.” He said, careful to catch everything that Elohae mouthed. He couldn’t wait to get back onto 777, where he’d be able to understand him a little clearer.

Elohae smiled warmly at the accepted handshake and what they stated. "Alright, Ed." He mouthed then before he smiled. He wondered if the Ensign knew how much he appreciated their talking to him despite the language barrier that happened to be present. It meant a hell of a lot to him, the fact they'd elected to do that.