JL | LtCmdr Rinehart & Arrain tr'Verelan | CIntel & CSec - "Just A Sunrise Away"

Posted on 241502.12 @ 6:38am by Commander Tierney Rinehart & Arrain Maec tr'Verelan

Mission: Holy Cow

Night time was a time of awakening and retrospection. It was a time that begged for life, perhaps more so than daytime, but had been quickly and thoroughly been trashed and cast askew. The darkness, as it spread throughout the land, had been damned as a mask for a myriad of goblins and demons. Monsters. Even the sunset, beautiful and powerful as it lit the sky afire, had been forsaken across even the most far off horizons. It was at the very moment when blues and purples stole the stage and sent the last shredded ribbons of sanguine and gold retreating from the sky, that Tierney watched the faintest first stars begin to find their place in the heavens. The wind blew, catching the freed locks of her plasma singed hair, setting them a fetter about her waist and ankles, and she would have sworn she could hear the darkness singing the most forlorn of songs. It may as well have been her, lamenting the fact that she was held ever captive by the light and the need for its concealing grace. While she couldn't make sense of the fear that surrounded things that were meant for her to embrace and love, she was drawn to them all the same -- and when she was alone, she was like the moon: terrified of the darkening sky, but completely and unabashedly in love with the way it cradled and supported the stars.

Someday. Someday she’d lose the fear associated with being the unknown. Someday she wouldn't have to hide and deny everything that had made her who she is and was. That someday was coming soon – though she could never have known just how soon that someday really was or else she’d have stayed close to camp and the others on that hellish, blustery day… Like she’d ordered the rest of them to do. She’d been naïve when she’d ventured out under the premise that the rules didn't apply to her as a so-called ghost, that steering the Romulan back to the group was more important that saving her own speckled hide. The day’s earlier explosion and subsequent actions that had lead her and the Romulan Arrain out into the unknown, had left her rattled and made bitter by the situation as a whole. Irritated by an insistent soft ringing in her ears, she soothed herself with the fact that at least the bleeding had stopped and the residual trauma to her delicate system by the explosion induced concussion wouldn't last much longer. Tierney knew she should be thankful for the small miracles of life, even if the greater situation still hung near critical. Her shoulder still smarted with every little movement she made, but the burn would easily be remedied by a dermal regenerator.

They were lost. Night was quickly encroaching. She couldn’t hide.

The Starling gingerly shied away from the first of the night’s long shadows. They grew with wild abandon as the sun sunk beneath the horizon, and the tree line along the edges of the makeshift camp gave them perfect fodder for their growth. But as she refused them purchase, the shadow’s fingers unfurled, begging to stroke and caress the warm freckle spattered porcelain of her skin… And she denied them, rebuked them, and turned away as the very faintest of its touches coaxed the softest beginnings of a glow from the spots it had managed to glance. Though as Tierney turned, her blood froze in her veins and her eyes widened ever so slightly as they fought to be sure of what they saw.

The Arrain.

Between her and the safety of light and solitude stood the Romulan shadow prince. It was almost ironic and fitting that he be the stone wall – beckoning forth the night as if it were a loyal hound and he its master – that stood between her and the safety of the light. He'd shot her, on accident, as she'd sent them tumbling down the steep, slippery slope of a ravine and deep into the unknown wilderness of such a foreign world. It hadn't been his fault, or maybe it was – he had walked off after all – and as the wind gusted, her hair plastered itself to her back and snaked itself out around her delicate little frame, reaching, arcing and curling towards him in russet spirals. It was if it promised to burn him in return, acting in warning flag of the danger lurking beneath her skin if she so chose to exploit it. The death of the breeze, however, left it faltering and tapering down to lick at her ankles and she was left cold, numb. Still poised with the promise of revelation, as the night mounted and the shadows continued to reach for her, Tierney could feel her heart racing – thundering madly against the inside of her chest as it tried to climb up her throat knowing that in moments the darkness would over power the dim light of the camp fire and he, of all of them, would be awarded a light show of an entirely different kind. She didn't fear him, but rather the bearing of her secrets, and self, to him.

“Lose something?” Tierney finally managed to ask him, folding her arms and tugging her throw tighter around herself in defense -- an action that brought with it a wince as the fabric and motion tightened against the injured flesh of her shoulder. At this point she truly deserved an Oscar for her portrayal of nonchalance in a situation that otherwise dictated panic and left her shivering with anxiety on the inside.

Maec eyes were turned star-ward as the last tawny strands of daylight burned at the tree tips slowly tapering away to reveal a beautiful gradient of amethyst to swarthy sheet of glistening gems. Beautiful. Breathtaking. He hadn’t even noticed the young woman until that caustic voice broke his thoughts and forced his gaze downwards upon her. Again. Like a loathsome blood-fly nipping at a hlai ears it was strange how this woman always seemed to end up near him. Coincidental? He was beginning to wonder at that. Reaching to his side he unsheathed his honor blade- a well-polished curve of silver that glistened with the intensity of the waning light while reflecting those diminishing rays in its master’s face. Turning away from the woman he reached out and swept the blade through the air in an arch that eventually brought it downward until it met the tips of the wavering windswept grasses. A flurry of grass fragments spilled into the air, caught the wind, and glided over his shoulder straight into the watching Intelligence Officer.

Tierney watched him as he unsheathed his blade, the glint of it matching the own beginning spark of a glow in her cold blue eyes. They widened, her breath stilled in her chest, and she watched as the wind caught him and only seemed to accelerate the elegance of his movements. The dark prince was a dancer, and she was caught in his perpetual ballet. Her head tilted ever so slightly, the full pout of her lips quirked into the slightest of smiles and then, in an instant, the beauty of his motion sent a swarm of broken grasses back towards her pretty face and left her ducking behind the colorful fabric of her throw to guard herself from it. “You’re so mature.” She huffed heavily and all of her concerns quickly dissipated into what felt like eternal irritation when he materialized. Lowering her arm, the Starling set about plucking the spoils of his little trick from her person and sighed, keeping a wary eye on him and trying to contain the tingling edge of amusement that his brand of insolence conjured. “How you ever managed to survive, I’ll never know.” She drawled and shook her head, releasing her throw to gather up the bits of weeds that had managed to land in her hair.

The shadows had been forgotten in the swipe of a magnificent blade through zephyr and flora and it seemed ever so fitting that just when she thought she had it all under control, he happened and he brought with him a different kind of darkness – One that settled in places it shouldn't and tugged from her the desire to escape back into the powdery beauty of the light. In the bat of a lash, the stars, both in the heavens above and dappled across the satin of her skin, appeared with all their robust glitter and shine, setting the weary world aglow with a magic it had never before seen. She knew, deep in the back of her mind, that it was dangerous – but caught up in finger combing the last bits of his prank from her hair, Tierney had been captured both by the shadows and the Romulan Arrain that stood only a few paces away with a knife in his hand. “And just what do you aim to do next with that toy? Hmm?” She asked, releasing the final bits of her hair and cast a swarthy glance in his direction. Even in the dim light, she could see as the night bled into the onyx of his eyes. She should have run, used her throw as a shield, and run for the safety that came with solitude and everything and anything that wasn't him or any others of his blood.

One swift movement set the blade back into its port within the ornate gem crested scabbard attached to his belt. He twisted around wearing a smirk but it dissipated when his eyes found the Intelligence Officer. Peculiar. Part of Maec desired to stare at the incandescent constellations beginning to tattoo their way across her flesh but instead of gawking he turned away. It was a slight twist-elegant and intentional as if that was what he had planned. “A toy?” A breath acrimoniously left his lips as an audible pout. “I should naturally be offended by your asperity but I am beginning to wonder if you can’t help but be obnoxious. They say my people are arrogant- but certainly you seem to be competing for our title.”

“One could argue that I’m keeping up with foreign relations by mimicking your customs.” The Starling chortled in response, amused with their steady stream of banter to the point she hadn't quite noticed the way he’d looked upon her. If she had stilled her mirth for just that moment, her heart likely would have completely stopped. Then would come the realization that the stars, her stars, for that’s what they were most akin to, had come out to play across the fragile lines of her body – playing and dancing across the bare expanse of her collarbone and up along the length of her long, delicate neck. Across her face, her girlish smattering of freckles had become a galaxy that caught and lit itself in the fathoms of her icy eyes, now so warm with light. She was but a breath away from ruin, and she couldn't help but watch him as he moved and sheath the gem caressed hilt of his blade. The weapon, just as beautiful and dangerous as its keeper, was yet another point of interest – and now with it gone, she was free to play.

The length of her fingers dipped down to the tufted flock of weed like flowers. On Earth they were called dandelions – silver and soft with seed tips that sailed away on the breezes. For so long she’d studied them as a child, fascinated with their aerodynamics and freedom. In the dusk they only served to catch her glow as she plucked and held them in her palm, studying them until the next gust kicked up and carried with it more than just her hair. Tierney grinned as the seeds left their spherical holder and slipped from her unfurled fingers to be carried back towards the dark prince’s ever pensive visage. There was something more… Something she’d missed before in their usual posturing, and now curiosity had gotten the better of her. The glowing Starling did the unthinkable for the third time in just a short while and moved towards him, allowing her palms to play along the tickling tips of windswept grasses as she did. “I think I’m doing a pretty good job, don’t you think?” She asked with a tilt of her head.

Teasing? Was this woman teasing him? He frowned and knelt before sitting cross legged amidst the tall flowing grasses. Maec looked at her- radiating a strange glowing pattern that resembled splatters of phosphorescent paint. She irritated him. At first he had thought it was her personality that he found odious but now he wondered if it was simply a ruse intended to agitate him. Either way they were now stuck on this ridiculous planet separated from the others. Together. What terrible luck. He shook his head and then turned his eyes towards the diamond speckled sheet of midnight that now covered the sky “we should look into the cause of the explosion and try to find the others.” Of course it would help if they weren't lost. He recognized absolutely nothing in this alien place- except the irritating and glowing creature that seemed to be creeping ever closer to him.

Coming to rest just a couple feet from where the Arrain had flopped down into the grasses, Tierney sighed and shook her head. To her he was an insolent creature, or at least that’s the party line she was trying her damnedest to feed herself as every second ticked on into yet another pitch black hour. He was loathsome, repugnant, and spoiled by the privileged roost his bloodline and birthed him into; all reports had come back with great big flashing red neon signs identifying who he was and what he was; the nephew of the Praetor herself. Even in the low light she found herself studying him, watching the scowl draw down his handsome facial features until they lifted only enough to throw out another tidbit of information, and she couldn't help but admire him for what he was; the shadow prince, the mysterious darkness that seeped about the ship and her crew like some form of bogeyman in the night – or maybe it was the fact that there was something greater lurking beneath his olive skin. Something better that she simply couldn't place a finger on, but knew it was there all the same. Something that kept him from killing her and framing it as an accident when she knew she’d succeeded in making him detest her as much as she aimed to detest him. "As you wish." The Starling admonished, taking a mock bow and sweeping her arm out in front of herself in one long graceful movement – or at least it would have been graceful if it hadn't been for the searing pain of her shoulder that left her pulling up short and opening her hand to release the tension against her throw with a strangled, muffled whimper. The woolen fabric fluttered to the ground, landing in the exhausted heap she wished her entire aching body could. Tired, thirsty, and hurt, even the stars across her skin burned dimly compared to the nights she was happy and well-rested . While she could lie and say she was fine, they painted a much different tale to anyone who knew how to read the lines they penned.

“If we’re going to do this, we either need to wait until morning or brave whatever’s out there.” She sighed as she stooped to pick up the offending article of warmth and turned her attention towards the forest and the myriad of nighttime sounds that filtered into her sensitive, ringing ears. Without the cloth, she was doomed to shiver and succumb to exposure or some animal drawn to the resplendent light she produced. With it, she was doomed to suffer as it rasped across her burnt flesh. She’d already removed and tied her damaged gray uniform top around her narrow waist, and while the tank top she wore under it was comfortable, it was hardly enough to protect her from the elements. Tierney knew that being out in the open, they were easy targets – but she also knew that neither one of them could scale the ravine they’d tumbled down nor was there any hope of going around it. The stream at the bottom had turned into a creek and that creek promised to tumble into a raging river.

“Sitting ducks until morning… Or you trust me enough to follow me.” She offered, finally tearing her gaze away from where she knew the tree line to be and chose to suffer under the warmth the Navajo poncho provided. The forest was filled with thousands of unknowns, but their small little camp had hazards all of its own – namely the variable of the Romulan that sat in front of her. “I swear to you that you’ll make it back alive, unharmed, and in one piece.” Now she just sounded completely pathetic in her own head, promising a Romulan that she’d chaperon him through the forest unscathed. Reaching to braid back her own hair as tenderly and gently as she could, the Starling rolled her eyes at herself and simply waited to see what path he’d choose and all the while almost wishing he’d give her that chance to rest her weary head and battered, cold little body – even if she was certain that it’d be safer to keep pushing onward.

“Darkness is our ally.” Maec’s dark eyes flickered reflecting the glow of the Stenellis’s flesh. He leaned back and then fell into the soft grasses as a gust of wind rustled through the forest canopy whipping the verdure into a tidal dance. “I don’t understand why you feel it necessary to console me.” He said, his eyes staring at the glimmering alien constellations that now jeweled the swarthy velvet above them. “Ever since my arrival you have shown an interest in me. At first I wondered if it was because you felt threatened. It would have been a natural reaction, I admit. However, now…” Using his right elbow to prop himself up he looked at Tierney “now I wonder about what you’re true intentions are. Why do you cling to me? Why do you console me? Death? Do you think I fear death? I have met death once. I have seen those dark insipid eyes, smelled his vapid essence, and tasted the desolation he leaves in his wake.”

Releasing her freshly braided hair, Tierney gestured to the glowing dappling that set her skin alight and lilted a soft, sardonic little chuckle ""Darkness might be your ally, but... Not so much mine." It went without saying that she stood out like a flashing beacon in the night, easily alerting the weary world to their existence as she simply continued to live and breathe and hiding simply wasn't an option with the stars being the only thing she could ever hope to camouflage with. The Shadow Prince's indifference and comfort in the dark only served to earn a tilt of her head and the toeing of her boot against the grassy loam. Struggling with her own discomfort surrounding the situation, there wasn't more than she could want than to escape it, move on away from the gifts of cold, hurt, and sense of extreme vulnerability it had imparted upon her. As she honed in on the sound of his voice and the glint of his eyes as they fell across her once again, her eyes narrowed in thought. "At first..." She sighed and ran her tongue along the fullness of her lower lip as she carefully thought about and chose her words. "At first I thought you were a mirage and when I realized that you were there and real..." The fidgeting stopped as she spoke and the wind shoved at her back once again, begging her to continue as she watched him watch her, "I was threatened. You're the proverbial fox in the hen house and I was bent on protecting the flock from what I perceived to be trouble."

It was the truth, a partial truth, but the truth. The mirage had given way to reality -- one far more impressive than any hallucination she'd ever heard of, but she'd never admit to the fact she'd found him impossibly beautiful. Beautiful and deadly like a brightly colored coral snake, and beautiful in a way the Starling couldn't quite define, something that should never have resided within the cage of a Romulan's skin. "You aren't the only one who's seen him. I've danced with him more than a few times and he's left me behind and alone while taking from me those who I love the most." Tierney's voice dropped to decibels barely above being whisper quiet. The sassy and caustic glint of teasing had been chased away by the proverbial quiet of a winter morning, soft and rife with honesty and sprinkled with the hesitation of crossing into the cold unknown. Opening up to him, even just that little bit, could be dangerous. To Hell with it, she sighed softly and allowed the glowing fathoms of her eyes to search his face in the dark. "I don't console you, tr'Verelan, not yet, but I do promise you your safety because I see something in you I'd rather not watch die."

Pushing himself up to his knees Maec closed his eyes and looked upward as a cool gust of wind uncoiled his rolling hair. He inhaled deeply. The air smelled fresh, clean, and calm. It held no lingering of the tense chaos that had led them astray. If he could live in this moment for an eternity he would. Encased in serenity. Unfortunately, as much as he craved such a thing, he knew better. His eyes split open and stared at the stars for a long silent moment before moving their focus to the glowing constellations dotting the woman’s flesh which she so ardently attempted to cloak beneath flowing garments. “What do you see in an enemy that causes such hesitation?” His eyes flared in the darkness reflecting her spotted frame in embers of peril.

Embers that burned and threatened to consume the evanescent child of the stars as she stood there and allowed him to study her. He was one of few who had come to see her secrets. Granted she’d been given no choice in the matter that evening, Tierney wondered if she’d bare them to him anyway – trusting him with the star-charts that caressed her porcelain hide. The last had been Karim, and while he hadn't run from her, the surprise had been written across his face. That had been in a controlled environment and out of complete medical necessity. He was her friend… Her Captain, the dark Prince was nothing more than a hardship she’d been saddled with, though now she truly doubted she’d want it any other way. While at first she'd feared him knowing who and what she was, she now couldn't help but feel the wash of relief and comfort that came with the release of a secret. He didn't watch her with eyes that wished to dissect her and there was no hint of horror, aversion, or surprise. If anything his gaze seemed to hold some strange sense of appreciation for the only outward reminder of what she held inside her; a power that was beautiful, and yet held the promise of chaos, destruction, and death.

The vesper sighed, and brushed at the tickling of baby fine hairs lying across her face, ones that couldn't be trapped in a quickly wound braid, and her chin tipped to him with her eyes finally meeting his. While her mind slowly spun and considered the situation, her fingers tightened gently around the neck of her throw; the only thing between her and the hypothermia she knew was imminent. “Hope.” Tierney breathed, “Honesty, integrity. Things I haven’t seen in very many, if ever at all in complete purity, but they’re all there.” She added, gesturing towards him. "I saw them in your eyes when you realized who you'd shot and I can see them there now." Her eyes refused to leave the smoldering onyx depths of his, even as she shivered in a combination of cold and anxiety. “If I’m wrong…” Her teeth worried the pout of her lower lip before she averted eyes only long enough to nod towards the gilded hilt of his ceremonial blade, “Finish this before I have the chance to be proven so.”

They were straddling a proverbial seesaw, struggling to find balance as the scales tipped and rolled between the animosity she’d tried so hard to hold onto and the inalienable truth that he wasn't the enemy. Or rather, that she prayed he wasn't. Without hesitation she released her hold on the brightly patterned Navajo shrug and the wind was quick to snatch it from her, slipping it from her body with the ruffled sound of heavy fabric tangling and crashing to the ground. Waving, as if in approval, the waist high grasses that surrounded them engulfed her offering greedily. “All I ask is that you strike true.” The Starling said, her hands dropping to rest at her sides. In her tank top and dirtied uniform slacks, she shone like a beacon in the night. Even the flimsy fabric of her camisole was a poor match for the larger spots that lined her tender belly and they burned through the soft white cloth, though muted, leaving her relatively exposed, bitter cold and vulnerable in the truce and trust she offered him so implicitly.

Maec stood. His right hand slid against the scabbard until it met the hilt. His eyes flared as his fingers slowly wrapped around the emerald colored satin grip. A slight jerk of his hand revealed a sliver of glimmering silver jutting just beyond the rim of the scabbard. He sighed and then pushed the sword back into its refuge. As tantalizing as it might have been to sever the spook’s head Maec knew that bloodshed should not be undertaken with levity. “Enough of this meaningless banter.” He collapsed into the grasses lying down on his back as his eyes gazed towards the stars above “we will wait until morning.”

For a long moment there was nothing but silence between them. She hadn't flinched when he'd risen, nor when the flash of his blade reflected in her eyes, but she had when he'd spoken and simply flopped back into the grasses like some big jungle cat lazing in the sun. The Romulan seemed perfectly at ease in the darkness, though Tierney could understand why. He was the darkness all wrapped up in a neat pointed eared package with the strangest eyes she'd ever seen. Her lips quirked into the slightest of smiles as she watched him and released the breath she'd been holding in an almost indignant sigh. "Then morning it is." She finally replied and folded her coltish legs, lowering herself to the grasses and gathering her throw around her. It was cold, and would only get colder. Wrapping it gingerly back around her shoulders, the glowering Starling could only hope that dawn would come swiftly, or else he wouldn't need to draw his sword to see her end.

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Lt Commander Tierney Rinehart
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS ENTERPRISE

Arrain Maec tr'Verelan
Chief Security Officer
USS ENTERPRISE