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------------------------------------- Flashback -------------------------------------
Zo'or and Jae'sta meet for the first time
Jae’sta – played by B
Zo’or – Played by R
Mit’Gui – Played by B
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Jae'sta lay there on the bio-bed, looking around the room. It was the strangest sensation. It was all very familiar, but she was disconnected from it, as if seeing it anew. Memories were passing through her mind, yet the people experiencing those memories first hand were not her.
Zo'or had received the report of damages sustained to the Mothership, as well as a personnel manifest, his eyes skimmed it with disinterest. The drones did their duty yes, but it was mundane tasks, and didn't serve any real lasting purpose he could see. If some were lost during the incident, he couldn't care less.
A name sprung out at him that gave pause, and he stiffened raising to the edge of his seat.
Ja'sta a Taelon had been injured and was in the infirmary presently, not a diplomatic individual nor synod member, however this one was important nonetheless.
He brushed aside the drone, stepping off his podium and exited the bridge, headed for where the fallen Taelon had been taken to. His long strides took him quickly to their destination, and he swept into the room, fingers splayed in concern. It was short lived, for what lay on the bio-bed was not at all what he had expected. He halted on the spot, head turning to a nearby healer, his lip curled in disgust.
"What is the meaning of this!"
Mit'Gui stayed at his station, "That is precisely what I am trying to figure out, Zo'or. If you do not mind."
Jae'sta noticed the entrance of another Taelon, but she stayed quiet. Zo'or...she knew that name. More memories. He was Synod leader now. He was a brat. But she didn't know him at all. She had never met him.
Zo'or gave the other Taelon a reproachful look, walking over to peer over the other's shoulder uncomfortably close.
"Well?" he demanded.
He didn't want to look at the creature laying on the bio-bed, it unnerved him, but a morbid fascination kept him from leaving.
"The casualties list said Ja'sta on it" he pressed.
Mit'Gui gave a short sigh, "This is Ja'sta, some-what.
His assistant was in the conduit with him when an energy purge was forced through. They should have been vaporized, yet we pulled...this out. It is reading DNA of both Ja'sta and his assistant."
"As far as I can tell, they were...merged, somehow. There was no extra residue on the conduit walls."
"That" The Synod leader spat, casting a dark took at the bio-bed "Is not a Taelon"
He was horrified, and his hands swirled in defiant arcs. He still refused to approach, instead resolved to shadow Mit'gai as he worked over his instruments.
Merged? How could this even happen, on his Mothership. Da'an's hybrids were all on earth, as far as he knew, and Ro'haa had been sentenced to embrace the void. How could such pollution enter these sacred walls so easily?
Mit’Gai pondered the information of his med-screen.
"Other drones outside of the conduit who were trying to get them out before the purge, said that they saw what looked like an energy field before the door had to be closed. No one activated it. So unless the ship itself acted of it's own volition, this is a mystery."
Mit'Gui glanced over to the Hybrid on his table,
"It would not surprise me if that was the case. Ja'sta is the closest to the ship out of any of us."
Zo'or's eyes this time flicked to the bio-bed to properly take in who lay there.
"The ship?" he mused, he didn't know Mother was so powerful, and if it was, what else could she do?
His gaze looked hungrily over the being like it was some kind of prize.
What could this...creature do because of that?
"A burst of energy?" Zo'or echoed, processing carefully what the healer was saying.
Yet he was still suspicious, this -was- a hybrid, part human, a lesser creature compared to their own kind.
"You have it contained?" he didn't want a hybrid wreaking havoc on the ship.
"Contained?" Jae'sta cooed, breaking the silence as she sat up.
"Exactly what are you worried I may do?"
Zo'or glanced the hybrid up and down as she sat up
"Well for one, you have tainted our esteemed architect Ja'sta" He stepped closer
"Who knows what else you are capable of!"
He glanced a warning at Mit'gai, as if to emphasize the urgency of his prior question of containment.
Jae'sta stood and began to back him against the wall.
"I am not so sure, but I will tell you it is difficult to figure it out with you talking. One thing I know, is I will not hurt anyone if I do not need to."
Mit'Gui just stood, watching fascinated.
Zo'ors shoulders stiffened, and his eyes glared coldly in the face of her defiance. Yet despite that, he was delicately trying to avoid any part of her touching him, he refused to be sullied by her atrocity.
-if I do not need to- that sentence ran cold through him, so she was dangerous then!
"Then figure it out faster" he snipped.
Elegantly, as if he always intended to, he side stepped away, waltzing over to Mit'gai to get out of the close proximity of the hybrid.
"That is the totality of your findings?" He glanced back at her briefly.
"Is there a way to reverse what has happened?"
Mit'Gui looked down at his hands, his voice firm but soft
"No."
Jae'sta moved around to look at the computer
"What I can tell you, is that I have all the memories of... Ja'sta and..." Her thoughts trailed off and she turned looking to the floor in deep thought
"A human. I did not notice at first. Strange." She pushed it aside and looked Zo'or square
"I know everything about this ship. My knowledge is still indispensable."
There was a mild burning in her gut. Anger. And she noticed a light from her hand. She stared at it in shock. She knew what it was. She knew what it meant to a Taelon.
Mit'Gui gasped, "Sha'kara'vah."
Zo'or's face fell slightly as Mit'gai confirmed that it was irreversible, and knew what that meant. To loose another Taelon when his people's lives were so precious, when he himself could not keep the species going by genetics alone. It lasted but a moment, he didn't wish for his sorrows to be revealed for all so see, or worse ridicule.
He wrapped that emotion tightly in armour, and turned to face the room his warrior self again. Cautiously he listened to the hybrid, watching her every move with a hawk-like gaze. When she mentioned about retaining the original Taelon's knowledge, he shifted uneasily, but was shortly convinced of her usefulness. Unlike the common drones he loathed.
At the glowing rising from her palms, his eyes widened and with a wistful arc of his hand he swore under his breath.
"Sha'brah!"
For indeed it was, staring him in the face, that which the Taelons had been trying to re-obtain for an eternity. A jealousy crept through his pathways, how was it that a hybrid would be blessed by Mother with such a gift. When he himself was left barren and without the working vestigial organs in his palms.
In a lapse of senses, he grabbed her wrist, pulling it towards him, the light causing his facade to diminish around his own hand.
"Sha'qura'vah! You said you will not hurt any one, this leaves much to be believed" he peered into her eyes, challenging her to prove him right.
She stared softly at him, the light in her hand subsiding.
"I have no desire to hurt you or anyone else. This is just as confusing to me as it is to you. I will only defend myself." It was an odd sensation feeling his hand on her wrist. She could feel his energy. He was a myraid of emotions.
"there are other places you could grab aside my hand, you know." She teased,
A look of confusion clouded over his face, her energy thrummed loudly in his grasp, and it was as if time stood still. The sound of it reverberated through him, and he properly regarded her with his lavender eyes for the first time since he'd entered the infirmary.
He hadn't expected to be able to feel the energy essence of a hybrid, nor did he anticipate how vibrant and powerful it would be. Her energies echoed the teasing words at him, enticing him in like a moth to a flame. Greedily his energy raced towards that of her Sha'qura'vah, but he had forgotten his caution and was swiftly burned by it, like a child touching a hot plate.
A small gasp slipped past his lips and he promptly let go of her.
"Perhaps" he almost whispered, straightening, and then continuing with a stronger tone.
"You can still be useful aboard the Mothership, if you are able to maintain your duties.." he paused "But on the bridge, where I can keep a close eye on you"
He lied, an outright utter lie. It was that energy he wanted near him, and he coveted it, but first he would learn how to not get burnt.
She quirked a brow, "When I do not need my workshop, if you need." She stared at him.
He was odd. She felt odd about him. Something to think more about.
Zo'or was flustered, trying to keep calm, but he'd just tasted ambrosia even if it burnt his tongue.
"Your workshop can be moved" he urged forcefully, trying to convince perhaps himself as well.
Jae'stas gaze hardened a little, "I am not going to spend every waking moment with you, Zo'or."
"And why not!" came his haughty reply.
Except he hadn't quite thought before he spoke, and became extremely aware of the other Taelon in the room. Whose eyes he sought out defiantly, in a quiet battle of wills.
"A newly formed hybrid must be monitored, and I no doubt expect that having been a Taelon, would be difficult to confine to this infirmary, if we must place her on Duty"
His hands both raised in folding arcs around each other, accenting his words stating his case.
She stood and listened to him, waiting for him to finish.
"Ja'sta had a routine. I will not break it. It is the best course considering I have a lot to figure out." Call it impulse, but it felt like he was hiding something from her so she pressed her hand to his.
Zo'or had stopped to gauge Mit'gai's response as a healer to weigh in on the situation, his hands dropping to neutral by his hips. In that moment he was caught completely off guard by Jae'sta as she pressed her palm to his, searching his energy pathways.
Another barely audible gasp stole from him, the air sucked inwards over his lips as light flashed across his vision and the reverberating thrum enveloped him. Somehow in that split second he had turned to face her, bringing both their hands up slightly between them, drawing it gradually higher as an expression of surprise turned to awe. But that awe in the face of all her hybrid power turned to uncertainty, as he felt it surge past the threshold of his hand and through him, searching his essence for what he kept deep within.
His energy recoiled folding back, trying to cover his emotions he fought hard to keep at bay. Yet her energy ebbed stronger, defying him, and that feeling of ambrosia wafted to him. He reached out cautiously to meet her, uncertain, unwilling to be vulnerable. He brought up his feelings of power being Synod leader finally, of great responsibility, and having the Taelon's best interest in the forefront. But he refused to give in to show his loneliness, his craving for gentleness and compassion.
His energy vibrated defensively, no matter how much he wanted another taste of her energy, he couldn't let her in that far. He broke contact by physically stepping backwards, eyes glazed over in shock.
"Do not do that again" he stated the request, coming out of the haze unsettled.
Jae'sta lowered her eyes, "Our goal is the same, Zo'or. I wish you would believe me." She said and turned to Mit'Gui, "Are we finished?"
Truth, she enjoyed the contact with him, but she could smell his fear. But she understood. He had to be guarded.
Mit'Gui gave a nod, "I have all the information I can get with scans. You may leave, or..." His words trailed off as he moved to leave, no longer being needed. Hoping Zo'or will just chill.
Zo'or's fingers splayed slightly at her words.
"That is yet to be proven, but, only time will tell"
He acknowledged her at least, having felt indeed that she was at the very least, most definitely part Taelon.
He had felt no malice when her energies had searched him, only questioning. But she had gone too deep within his psyche, and he didn't know how to feel about that, he felt, strange.
His eyes flicked over to the healer as the hybrid addressed him, Mit'gai was an odd Taelon, painfully introverted. Zo'or was glad for him to slip away, he was one less to deal with right now.
"So" he spoke to the hybrid, glancing sideways at her as he stepped away.
"What do we call you then? For you certainly are not Ja'sta, and, not entirely that human either" he paused, looking back at her over his shoulder.
"You however, most certainly are a Hybrid, and I shall accept that, for now" He felt more comfortable somehow now they were alone.
She thought a moment, finding the human's name, Esmeralda. She didn't feel human. She barely felt Taelon.
"Jae'sta." She said finally.
She eyed him curiously, "Do I excite you?"
His body turned to face her, a pale hand raising as if to pluck the word as it vibrated through the air.
"Jae'sta" he carefully let it roll from his mouth, testing how the name felt as he said it.
Satisfied, he accepted it as final for her.
"Very well, henceforth you are Jae'sta, Hybrid child of the Mothership"
A ripple flashed through him as he said child, not prepared for how that word would make him feel. In fact, he didn't think he had ever said such a word, he would try not to do it again.
"Excite?" he echoed back questioningly
"What a strange question" he sauntered back to her
"Why do you ask?" he stopped, eyes gazing over her face curiously.
"Because I've held the leader of the synods attention very tightly for a while now." She answered.
He almost tripped her with that one. Honestly, she didn't want him to leave. Not yet. She wasn't sure if she was ready to face this...newness. He wasn't THAT horrible.
She was right in that sense, and he had almost hoped she had said something else, but he must have been mistaken. He was the Synod leader, so he guessed perhaps it was just an honour to be regarded by him, as would a person before a president or royal?
In that moment he was so tired, he had to always be ‘on’ so to speak, to always be this role he had to play. But it was for the betterment for his peoples, and so he must bare it alone.
Alone. The word echoed in him, and he shoved it deeply away angrily.
"I see" came the clipped answer, a lot harsher than he had intended.
"I will not keep you from your duties further, Mit'gai has cleared you fit to return to them"
The ambrosia called to him, but he turned, fighting himself, walling himself off from such frivolities. A leader must walk this path alone, again his energies whispered. He called over his back as he strode for the door.
"I presume you will make arrangements for your workstation to be moved"
"Nope." She said, still watching him walk away as a small smirk formed.
"However, you are free to visit whenever you like." She said. She was feeling something. Something new to her Taelon half.
He stood stock still in the doorway, his height almost blocking it out entirely, the shimmering blue walls ebbed their rippling light on him.
"No" he replied forcefully, as this was a word he very much disliked to hear.
As it was something he had heard most of his life, and pertained to him being termed as too young, too incompetent. No was a hill he would climb and overcome.
He turned his head to profile and eyed her.
"You will do as directed" he then added smugly "By your Synod leader" and exited the room.
That was...exciting. she quirked a brow,
"Make me." She said to herself before heading out.
He was going to be quite upset with her as she had no intention of moving anything. But she found she quite enjoyed working him up.
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