Work Text:
Jankom Pog wakes with a slight tinge in his prosthetic arm. And it's not hurting but it is annoying enough to make him groan out loud in frustration. With every crazy thing that happened, he forgot to check on it and by the time Janeway ordered them all to bed, he was too tired to even put up an argument about it.
But, he acknowledgess begrudgingly, there's no getting around it now.
Jankom looks around in the dim light of their shared quarters and finds Dal and Zero's beds empty. Right, they're probably both in sickbay with Gwyn. Her bed is empty too, the PADD she's been studying Federation languages on tossed aside in a hurry, and at the sight of it Jankom has to swallow down his worry amd promise himself he'll check on sickbay later. His arm first, though.
Rok is still sleeping in her bed, hugging her plushie tightly, so Jankom sneaks out without a noise and finds his way to engineering. That's a good place to tinker around without anyone getting in the way, and it's his place, the slight humming of the warpcore a familiar and comforting sound, even if the Protostar is so new and her engine so different from his old sleeper-ship's.
Except, when he arrives, he finds engineering's decidedly not empty.
Jankom almost growls at first at the figure half-hidden behind the proto-warpcore's main console, small and round and familiar.
"Zero?" Jankom frowns. "What're ya doing here?"
His friend's huddled on the floor, hiding behind their pulled up legs, but looks up at Jankom's words, startled like they haven't sensed him enter at all.
That part's a little worrying, if he's being honest.
"Huh? Ja-Jankom?" Zero's voice chokes back at his name and their light, distinctly dimmer then usual, shifts anxiously and uh-oh, now that's worrying.
"I am sorry, I thought no one would be down here this early," they hurry to apologize, but Jankom waves them off.
"Yeah, the kid's still asleep, didn't wanna wake her up with the noise."
"W-what noise?"
Jankom grimaces in response and waves his prosthetic arm in Zero's face.
"This bad boy needs some patching up. Took a bit of a beating from Dreadnok."
"But... " Zero hesitates. "You fixed my arm. Did you do it while yours wasn't operating properly?"
"Nah, this? 'S no big deal. Just routine maintanance," Jankom laughs.
"Oh."
"You can help with it, if you wanna." And then it takes a second, but Jankom realizes there must have been a reason Zero came here when they thought no one else would follow. "Or-or I can leave! If you wanna be alone. It's a big ship, Jankom can find another place to-"
"I would like to help!" Zero chimes in, and they almost sound eager, almost like nothing's wrong and they aren't hiding from everyone else in engineering. For a second Jankom almost sees their light return to its usual brightness, but then it fades, as they hesitantly add, "I don't like to be alone very much..."
"Hah, after all that time, guess that makes sense!" Jankom replies with a snort and he immediately wishes he had more of a filter. He kicks himself mentally, tries not to think about how Zero probably can sense that, and decides to change the topic. "What Jankom doesn't understand though 's why are you here then?"
Zero hesitates.
"I suppose I did not want to... I don't... I don't know... " their voice breaks, but they collect themself quickly. "You are aware that Medusans... that we live in a hivemind? Under normal circumstances."
Jankom nods, because everyone who isn't dumb knows that. (Nothing about their circumstances are normal, though.)
"We are telepathic. If you need... some sort of help, the ones around you... know it. But here, with you, I do not-"
Ooh, Jankom thinks he's got it.
"You dunno how to ask for our help?"
Zero looks down, like they're ashamed to admit that's exactly what they've been trying to explain just now.
"Well, you just did it, dum-dum!" He laughs and settles down on the floor next to them. "How 'bout a deal, huh? You help Jankom with this, and Jankom helps you."
He takes up one of the diagnostic tools with his good hand and throws it in the air, catching it again expertly when it falls after a spin, and holds it out to Zero.
"Deal?"
He'd be happy to help any of his crew without anything in exchange, if he had to be honest, but that's not how they work, at least not how Tars Lamora works, so Jankom doesn't say that. He thinks maybe Zero knows nevertheless.
"You have got yourself a deal, Jankom Pog," Zero says solemnly as they take the tool.
Jankom pops open one of the panels covering his wrist-servoes, and Zero, a little hesitantly, begins the work. They know what they're doing, their own suit isn't a badly made one. The opposite actually, no matter how many pieces of constructive criticism Jankom would have to say about it and how many of his suggested improvements Zero declined already, much to his annoyance.
Now though, he doesn't need to give any instructions, so he figures this time is as good as any.
"So... " he starts. "What can ol' Jankom help you with?"
Zero doesn't say a word, and if possible, concentrates even harder at the task at hand.
"Ugh, come on, you know we Tellarites aren't telepathic." Jankom nudges them with his feet. "What's on your mind?"
Zero's hand stops, hovering over Jankom's arm, fist tightening around the tool.
"The Diviner," they whisper, and their voice is barely a sound.
"What about 'im?"
"I killed him, Jankom."
Oh. That's what.
"He's still alive, you know," he tries to argue.
"Not for long..."
"Serves him right," Jankom frowns, because it really does. After everything the guy's done, and not even just to them. And everything he was going to do, what he would have done if Zero hadn't stopped him the only way they could.
Zero's gotta know that, right?
"You don't understand." Their voice hardens and they throw their hands up. "I swore I would never do this again! Never! And I still did!"
"But, Zee-"
"DON'T YOU SEE?" Zero cries out and their shout makes an echo inside Jankom's mind. "THE DIVINER USED ME AS A WEAPON, BUT NOW I AM THE MURDERER!"
Jankom, out of options and desperate, grabs both their hands and at least that surprises Zero enough that they stop shouting, giving him a chance to shout back.
"Shut up, you big dumbass! You're not a murderer! You're nothing like him!"
Zero tries to pull their hands free.
"He used me to hurt people, Jankom. To kill them. And now I've done the same," they say, now quiet again, and broken, and empty-sounding.
That just won't stand.
"I think he used you to torture people who stood in his way, and what you were doing was saving Dal and Gwyn!" Jankom reasons and if Zero seriously thinks they can argue with him and win, especially when they're saying such stupid things about themself, then they're about to be proven wrong. "That's a pretty big difference in Jankom's book."
"And what have I achieved?" Zero isn't even trying to pull their hands out of his grasp anymore. "I only hurt Gwyn..."
Their light seems dimmer than Jankom's ever seen it before, and yeah, maybe he's doing the opposite of helping and now it's the panic overtaking him that makes him shake Zero like that could somehow knock some sense into them.
"Aaagh, stop that! Gwyn's gonna be okay! You said that! And she's not dumb, she's gonna understand it was an accident! She's gonna know you didn't mean to hurt her. You were saving her from that monster."
Zero stares for a long time and doesn't answer, so Jankom has no way to know if that helped or not. He thinks maybe it did. Bah, who here needs Janeway, he's got this.
At least he thinks so, until they start crying.
Jankom pulls back his hands in shock and Zero's arm fall down limply, as if they entirely stopped caring about even trying to control them.
It's bad.
It's not a sound, it's more of a feeling, a sensation just at the edge of Jankom's mind, and a certainty where he just knows Zero is crying. Almost like the times when they get overly excited and you can feel a slight buzz of energy in the air.
Except this is so much worse.
Jankom takes hold of their hands again. A stupid thing, since those aren't actually a part of Zero, but it makes him feel like he's being at least a little helpful.
"Come on, Zero, we'll fix this!" He feels stupid pleading like this, and he's trying not to, but he's still half-yelling. "Jankom can fix anything, remember? And we've got Rok and Dal and Janeway, and Gwyn will be okay too! You saved them! You're a big damn hero!"
Zero shakes their head like they're saying that's not true.
"Damn right you are!” Jankom will not let them believe that. “You're not a murderer or a weapon or whatever you're gonna say next. You can't convince Jankom you're anything other than the most annoying know-it-all dumb dumb friend he's ever had!"
"That's not... a very nice thing to say," Zero mutters, their crying quieting a little.
"Not when you say such stupid things about yourself," Jankom counters. "They aren't even true!"
"You... you really think that," they whisper in awe, and it's not a question, because they know, they can sense it.
And at least they stopped crying.
"All of us think that, Jankom's pretty sure." He nudges Zero with his elbow. "You better get used to it. To us too, 'cause you're not getting rid of us this easily! No matter what you did, we'll stick around."
Zero squeezes his hand, and that goes just about as far as they know about physical affection. Yeah, Jankom'll take it.
"Thank you, Jankom," they say softly.
And it's not done, it's not this easy, he knows. But nothing ever is when it comes to them, so he'll take this too. It's a start.
"So you think you'll be okay?" he asks.
Zero stops to consider the question. The warpcore’s humming fills the silence while they think.
"I think..." they finally say, "one day. I... better get used to it, I suppose."