constitution-b LtCmdr. Akeelah D'Sena - A long long time ago, I can still remember...

[Dizmim ChNilmani]

((USS Constitution - Security ))

Akeelah had checked on a report coming from one of the Science labs but what someone had believed to be a dead body had simply been a mannequin used for some experiments. What experiment? She didn't ask. She didn't really want to know either. As long as nobody was harmed it was none of her business. And that mannequin did not count as someone. Not unless it developed life.

So the Rodulan had returned and written up her brief report of it being a false alarm when the door opened and a familiar aura entered. That energy, Akeelah hadn't sensed it for a while. A long while actually. She looked up from her seat and rose from her seat as she saw T'Mar enter. She was her former superior officer and at the same time she had been T'Mar's superior. When Akeelah had come on board it was as First Officer and with that T'Mar's superior. When Jalana had received command, Akeelah had stayed on board but returned to Security where she felt way more at home, and such T'Mar had become her superior. Rank structure was such a wonderful thing.

((OOC I cleared this with Mel ))

As T'Mar noticed her, her face didn't show a change, but despite her efforts to keep her emotional state hidden, Rodulans were very sensitive to surface thoughts and emotions. She didn't have to try, she didn't try. But she was immediately hit with a rollercaster of emotions that she had no doubt T'Mar would like to deny existed. The glimpse of surprise and pleasure to see her familiar face was immediately pushed aside by a landslide of guilt. That same guilt that Akeelah had sensed from her many years ago.


(( Flashback - 8 years ago - Dagorin IV Surface))

Crouching, Akeelah snuck through the bush-work, following the sense she got from him, the Xindi-Reptilian. He had killed something, he was ready to hunt. She needed to be careful. That was when she saw it. A shape, half a silhouette peeking out from behind a trunk. Carefully she sidestepped, still crouching, to the other side of the tree he tried to hide behind. As she reached the tree she stretched up to her full hight, keeping her breath low and slunk around the trunk, raising her phaser to aim at the back of his head. She could have shot him right here, but she hated to shoot someone in the back without a warning. Possibly a mistake.

D'Sena: I suggest you drop that weapon and raise your hands.

The reptilian head turned slowly, the disembodied hand still in his own hand. The first thing Akeelah saw was blood, all over his face, continuing part the spot on his chest she could see. What in the Artist's name had he done? He now turned fully and she saw the blood all over his front before her eyes snapped back up to him. He smiled, but she didn't have to be a telepath to know that it was fake. The pistol fell and his hands raised.

Lazlo: How's this?

D'Sena: Better. Now turn a--

Before she could even finish the sentence he jumped towards her. Without hesitation her finger pulled the trigger, several times hoping to hit him. She was a good shoot, though he was fast and had known the shots were coming and dodged them, she hit him with one. Regrettably that didn't slow him down. Before she could pull a fifth time his shoulder crashed into her stomach. A moan pushed out of her, along with a full load of air from her lungs. Instead of her being catapulted away, his arms wrapped around her. Since she had seen it coming she had moved a foot backwards and it now skidded over the forest floor, forming a little mound with the soil and leaves being pushed along the way. That leg was the only reason she didn't just fall like a rag-doll. ::

Lazlo: You! You're like him!

Once the physical shock of the impact left, the Rodulan raised her arms and hammered the hilt of her phaser into his neck, but that didn't have any impact, he was just too protected. Like him? Like who? She was like nobody! She wasn't even like her own family. She could either talk or fight, she chose to fight, but she still pressed one word through accompanied by the heavy breath.

D'Sena: What?

He was heavy and the anger she had felt before, the urge to hunt fueled him and his strength. She pressed the nuzzle of the phaser she had clung to into his back, ready to press the button, but the moment she lowered her finger, he changed directions, pulling her with him like she weight nothing, which caused her to lose grip of her phaser. She slid over the ground and it took a moment to dig her heels into the soil. She couldn't get to him with strength so she had to he faster or more flexible.

Lazlo: Your dead eyes! Your intruding thoughts! You're like him!

She realized immediately that he had met another Rodulan. One that obviously wasn't as careful as she was with her abilities. She kept fighting against his pull, grunting and moaning when pain jolted through her body. She needed to call T'Mar and Mandak, but his grip made it impossible for her to reach her communicator. He swung her around and pulled her with her back to his chest. Something primal was within him and as she looked over her shoulder, struggling to break free she saw his teeth, pointy and sharp, coming closer.

D'Sena: ::Grunting:: Oh hell no!

The usually so controlled woman, who had even now tried to keep that control, had to let go if she wanted to get away from him. The look of his teeth close to her head, the knowledge of what he wanted to do, was just that kick she'd needed. Akeelah rammed her elbow into his stomach and kicked back with her slightly heeled boot, hitting the front of his knee. Finally he stumbled slightly, so she now jumped around, raising her knee between his legs, even though she didn't know if that did anything for him. She did not think much.

As he bent over, she swung back and rammed the heel of her hand into his nose, seeing him tumble backwards. That chance the took and ran past him to where they had started and while running she reached down to grab her phaser. Twirling around she shot in his direction and tapped her badge.

D'Sena: =/\= D'Sena to T'Mar and Mandak. I need backup. NOW! =/\=

She shouted that way more than she had planned, but with her heavy breathing she wasn't able to control her speech at all. She saw him coming, and he was even angrier than before.

D'Sena: =/\= Follow ::panting:: the noise. =/\=

In the last moment Akeelah jumped to the side, but the Reptile had apparently anticipated that and reached out with one arm and just grabbed her, crushing her into the tree. The deafening scream of agony turned out to be her own. The cracking sound she heard was either the tree or her back, she couldn't say. But the hard feeling in her hand was missing. Her phaser was gone again.

Lazlo: ::grinning:: That was the best chase I've had in a long time. It's almost a shame it had to end.

D'Sena: ::Whispering with strain:: Let... me... go.

Lazlo: You want to leave so soon? We just got here.

D'Sena: ::Through clenched teeth:: I really... didn't want to.. to that.

Before he could ask she focused on him as much as she could with the pain running through her, and dug into his mind. She knew that would cause headache and the deeper she'd go on, the more painful it would become. Some people were said to have become insane from it. She didn't know how well it would work on him, but he had a penetrable mind so she hoped the others would come soon, to get her off his grip. Because she did the last thing she could to for defense, as her body didn't listen to her and her air became less and less. She concentrated her efforts on taking him out mentally.

It was successful, he raised his hands and held his head, grunting he dropped to the ground. Leaning against the trunk she remained on her feet, but it was harder than she had anticipated.

Lazlo: ::growling through the pain:: I was wondering...when you'd get to that.

The blood in her ears was rushing so fast and loud she didn't hear anyone approach. Akeelah focussed on the Reptilian brain, causing it pain just so he would leave her alone. She didn't like to do that, she had never done it actually, not even in self defense. But in this case she knew she had to do something, and since her body had been helplessly pinned against the tree with him crushing her spine, she had no other chance than to hurt him another way. At least until help was here.

A flash came from the side, someone had shot at the man, though she didn't know if it was T'Mar or Mandak. But as soon as he'd realized that there was someone else he fought against her mental invasion. It became harder to dig and claw her way in. Out of nowhere he retrieved a disruptor and shot in the direction the other shot had come from. Next she felt was something hitting her feet and sweeping them away from under her, just enough to make her carefully kept balance tumble so she dropped to the ground and in the surprise her mental hold on him loosened.

As the surprise faded she realized that he was gone. A Rodulan curse left her lips and she attempted to get up to follow him, but her legs gave him immediately, she didn't even get to use a little push to slide back up the trunk. With heavy breathing she began to slap her legs and didn't feel a thing. Vaguely she remembered the crack she had heard. .oO Deep Breaths... it's fine. Your body is just in shock. It'll be back in a minute. Oo.

So she leaned against the tree trunk and looked around, seeing her phaser only a few steps away on the ground. She let herself drop to lie on the ground and reached out with her hand. Her fingertips almost got it. The other hand pushed on the ground in front of her belly helping her just a little forward. Enough to grab the phaser and then back into a sitting position. She heard steps of two people come through the dark of the forest and hid the phaser behind her back.

It was Mandak with the Reptile right behind her, obviously he had the disruptor in his hand and in her back by the way they walked over. They hadn't fully reached her, when out of nowhere a light shot through the forest and into the man's neck, it made him drop the weapon. .oO T'Mar Oo.

A loud scream cut through the silence of the night. It sounded like a battle cry and the heavy fast steps following approached accompanying that scream. Just a moment later T'Mar came into D'Sena's view, pretty sure she had seen her earlier if not for being down on the ground. The Vulcan charged the man, her rifle raised like a battle axe. He attempted to dodge, but T'Mar crushed into him, sending them both to the ground. That had been rather effective, she had to admit.

D'Sena: ::quietly impressed.:: Not bad.

She was glad to see that Mandak and T'Mar had him under control. D'Sena hated to admit, but the feeling in her legs had not come back yet. She assumed that the crash had pinched a nerve or something other that was probably easy to fix once she got to a sick bay.


[[ A little later - Sick bay ]]

She still kept her eyes closed and tried to move her legs, with the aim to kick him, though not really. But accidents happen, right?

Nijil: Can you feel or move your toes?

D'Sena: Do they move?

Nijil: ::deadpan.:: No.

D'Sena: Then no, I don't. ::Squinting her eyes she looked up to him, raising a hand to block out that overhead light.:: Any news?

Nijil: You suffered a T6 injury, and had a minor disruption of your nervous system from your brain to your thoracic vertebrae..

D'Sena: What exactly does that mean?

Nijil: It means… That you damaged your back and have made moving a limited option.

.oO Oh no, you didn't just say that. Oo. Problem was he did. She had to ask more, find out what was behind it. She needed facts to grasp everything.

D'Sena: Were you able to figure out what causes it?

Nijil: ::beat.:: When you hit, whatever it was you hit, that you more or less shocked your systems.

That tree, that bloody reptile in its evening dress. She would love to give him a piece of her mind. Maybe she could get to the brig before their arrival at SB 118 - where he would undoubtedly be handed over to the authorities - and do exactly that.

D'Sena: I see. What will you have to do to fix it?

Nijil: We have proceeded ahead with your operation, however the results will take time to appear.

That surprised her. They did the surgery without telling her beforehand? Was that why he had given her the sedative? But no matter the surprise about that, she was sure he had done what he needed to do. That was why he was the doctor and not her. Well some more reasons than that. So now that that was done, there was a question left. ::

D'Sena: How long will it take until I get my legs back?

Nijil: ::sigh.:: Anywhere from another hour… to easily up to three months.

Her heart sank. He couldn't really mean that. Months? How was she supposed to do her job when she couldn't properly do her job? It was as if she hadn't even heard about the possible hour...

D'Sena: Months? But that means -

Nijil: *That means* you will be on high restriction until further notice. Seeing as you can't even walk at the moment. ::paused.:: Your file does not state you have a spouse or family on board, is there someone you trust to tend to you during your recovery? ::snarky.:: Unless you want to stay in here.

D'Sena: :: She raised a brow. :: I believe we both know, that it is better for everyone's sanity if I do not stay.

((/Flashback ))

These three month, had turned out to be seven years. At first the complications came from the tree itself. The sap of said trees on that planet was filled with a hallucinogen, the compound the Syndicate had been after for their drugs, had entered her blood stream on impact. It had damaged her nerves more than the surgery had shown on first glance. Once the regeneration of the nerves was concluded she still couldn't walk. According to the doctors she should have been able to, but nothing had worked. Cade Foster believed it was all in her head. Many years later it turned out he had been right. Many years in a wheelchair that she hated to be in.

And now T'Mar stood in front of her, still feeling that guilt. For not being fast enough, for sending her out for that job that lead to the fight with Lazlo. Blaming herself for that injury that had thrown Akeelah into a deep depression. But she had found her way out of it, and with a lot of work, blood, tears and pain.. she was where she was now.

D’Sena: Commander.

T’Mar: Commander T’Mar reporting in to get my clearances reinstated for duty.

So she was actually back. Good for her. Akeelah nodded slightly and reached out her hand.

D’Sena: Your orders, please.

It took until this moment that T'Mar realized that Akeelah was not below her eye level, she saw that shift in her face, felt it in the second part of the roller coaster of emotion. For a Vulcan, Half-Vulcan, she was really adept at broadcasting her emotional state. After the first surprise was washed away, the wave was overwhelming, a mix of disbelief, relief, more guilt...

T’Mar: ::softly:: You.. are healed?

Realizing she would not get the PADD just now she lowered her hand and took a calm breath. Stoic as ever though on the inside, it was quite a storm. She had never blamed T'Mar. She hadn't blamed anyone but Lazlo and for a long time herself. But never T'Mar.

D’Sena: It is a process.

T'Mar: Response

D'Sena: I regained control of my legs almost three years ago, with a lot of help of Cade Foster and leg braces. But I am still healing.

T'Mar: Response

D'Sena: I am mostly back to full mobility, though am at risk of relapse when I overdo it. Serok is a hound, reminding me to take breaks.

The Vulcan massage therapist had played a vital part in her exercise regime, a drill sergeant, without mercy, but he was fair at least. One of the few people who didn't take her bull, no matter what.

T'Mar: Response

She eyed T'Mar, though with her full black eyes it was hard to see where she actually was aiming her gaze.

D'Sena: Are you recovered? ::Smooth and subtle, as always.::

T'Mar: Response

--
LtCmdr. Akeelah D'Sena
Security Officer

simmed by

Commodore Jalana Rajel
Commanding Officer
USS Constitution B
Image Team Co-Facilitator
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