Ours Is Not To Reason Why

Posted on Thu Jul 14th, 2011 @ 3:07am by Lieutenant Commander Aral Aix & Lieutenant Xishaal Idrani

Mission: Too Close for Comfort...
Location: Sickbay, U.S.S. Arizona
Timeline: Following 'Aftermath; Damage Control'

It was the morning after the Phoenix had returned to the Arizona and Aral Aix entered Sickbay. He had a splitting headache and he could still taste Saurian brandy. Fortunately, by the Commodore's orders, the away team members had been granted forty-eight hours off duty and light duties thereafter. Aral had, however, forced himself into his duty uniform and made his way to Sickbay. He had only been a member of the Arizona crew for a few days and most of that he had spent detained as a terrorist. The only crew members he really knew were Cowell, Idrani, Lischka and Schenk. Given all that they had gone through in captivity, Aral could not but help feel connected to each of them. With this in mind, he had decided to visit Idrani.

The sterile smell and bright lights of sickbay were something of an affront to the Chief Science Officer's senses. Aral squinted as he took his bearings. Idrani lay on the bio bed at the centre of sickbay, bright blue amidst a spectrum of white. As he approached her he apprehended a shiney metal crash trolly and wheeled it over to her bed noisily.

"Andorian tuber root." He placed a small container and cutlery down on the crash trolley.

Openig her eyes slowly, Xishaal took in the scene before her just as one of her antennae extended fully to regard the visitor, the other, strangely seemed to only extend part of the way. "...Lieuthenant Commanderr.." she managed to say, her tongue still a bit swollen and she swallowed hard to adjust. "...What brring you here?"

"Social visit." Aral replied, "I don't know many people on the Az and wondered if you were up for a game of hoverball..."

"hmpf.." was her reply "...you've sspernt your night drinking 'n you want to plway games?" she added, laughing despite the pain she was in "...I'm not much for games, but rearly, What can I do in my condition?" Her neck still in a brace and one antennae not fully extending itself as she spoke. "I expect to be out of ssoon dough."

Xishaal's face suddenly contorted into a maske of frustration as she tried to concentrate on extending her other antennae, finally, her face dripping with sweat, she managed a smirk "...How're the others?" she asked, one eye brow cocked.

Aral regarded the wounded Andorian. She was in a state but there was something about her he respected, admired almost. She was brave and uncompromising. Were he honest, he was a intimidated by her. He had always been intimidated by Andorians. He was relieved when she appeared to get his joke. "We're all fine." Aral was touched by her concern for the others, and by extension himself. "The Commodore's out and about this morning, Lischka is recovering and I've not seen Schenk but he was OK when we landed." He paused, regarding her antennae, "How long until they let you out of here?"

"..That is good to hear..." Xishaal replied "..The Commodore, he's a survivor, he uses his temperment to insulate himself but to also show his affection for those underneath him" she began swallowing a bit as she adjusted herself on her bed. Ms Lischka, I worry about her the most, she..took Commander Roberts death the hardest! She tried to hide it but you'd be surprised what these can pick up" Xishaal grinned as she wiggled her antennae independently of one another "..as for the Ensign.." She rolled her eyes "..he's more of a love sick puppy, the way he obviously fawned over her, he's more warm water than frozen ice really" She smirked again as she looked at the Trill "...hmm.." she started to say before deciding against commenting any further

Aral's stomach hit the floor as Idrani discussed Lischka and Schenk. He managed to keep his face, for the most part, the very picture of collegial concern as he forced the hazy memories of last night to the back of his head. "What about the Trill." He smiled.

"..See, that right there! Dead give away!" The Andorian laughed ".. I thought I detected an increase in your heart rate when you said her name! I wanted to be sure and sure enough, when I mentioned Schenk and Lischka,..." Xishaal smiled wryly "..Look, It doesn't matter who does what with whom after however much alcohol, though I have to admit, although I'm probably not the ensigns biggest fans by far, I remeber the pain she tried to hide at the loss of Commander Roberts,. She tried to hide it well but these.." Xishaal pointed to her antennae "..can spot a liar from way off! She's been through a lot and to tell you the truth, I don't want to ever experience that amount of anguish second hand again! "

Aral was fascinated, almost charmed, by the Andorian's perceptiveness. He liked her matter-of-fact approach and cutting honesty. It was clear Idrani was subtle, not a quality Andorians were famed for, and that she cared a great deal for others. Aral fleetingly considered the implications of her gentle warning. It was clear that the Arizona would be a ship with very few secrets. He let the matter lie.

She winked at the Trill as she held up her bandaged hand and shrugged
"I should be out of here before our new doctors say that I'm ready to leave! You know, I managed to avoid getting injured the last mission and never thought something would happen this time. I've been thinking a lot about what...happened" She began to say as she tried to sit up

As the Andorian made to sit up, Aral precariously perched on the crash trolly, avoiding the plastic box he had deposited there. "I've tried not to think about it." Aral replied, realising just what memories and patterns of behaviour it vividly had brought back to him. "But... go on."

"..really? How interesting.." Xishaal finnally resigned herself to the fact that she just wasn't going to get any more comfortable "...well, for me, besides the fact that the Archadians gave off a sense of..duplicity, I can't help but to think that we were set up from the very beginning. Federation representatives implicated in a terrorist plot to destabilize their government when word got back that they were planning on backing out of their treaties with us.. I wonder if we'll ever find the true culprits"

Aral nodded. "What you didn't see was the scene at their government headquarters. They had suffered a famine and they mentioned a man called Lynch... a Federation representative. The Commodore didn't seem to have heard of him." Aral, of course, knew the identity of the true culprits, or at least he knew what the Commodore suspected and the Commodore had demanded his secrecy.

"Aral...do us both a favor..."

Aix sighed. "This is a confidence." He paused, sizing up the Andorian as if he shared her bizarre ability to read thoughts, "Section 31. Why? I don't know."

Xishaal looked at him for a moment, her mouth still open "...uh, well ok, actually I was going to ask for some water because my throat is getting dry and I sound like Trellian mud lizzard when my throat is dry.." she began "..but now that you mention it, I'm sure that they are to blame but what can we do about it? nothing! I've never met one of them but they are pretty well known to the Imperial Guard.." Xishaal smiled warmly "..not too worry, me knowing who it may or may not be won't change our predicament will it?"

"No, not at all," Replied Aral, "At the end of the day, you have to trust someone." As he spoke he hopped down from the crash trolly and went to replicate the water. He returned and handed it to Xishaal, "It puzzles me. The whole thing."

Taking a long pull, Xishaal seemed intantly better at having fresh water. "..what puzzles you? That there are those within our own government who would work seemingly against the aims of the very government they profess to protect?" She shrugged her shoulders and yawned "..all we can do is what we're trained to do.."

Aix took a second to contemplate the question. It was clear that Idrani's mind worked in a way entirely alien to his own; then again he was a scientist and she an engineer. "It's not what we do. It's the why question. Why our own people would do this to us? Why are they are so interested in a primitive people in the Delta Quadrant?" Aral shrugged; his first response to almost anything was to ask why. Sometimes the answers were surprising.

Xishaal smiled at the man and shook her head "...I was a pilot and Chief Flight Contorl officer here on the Arizona before I took over at Operations, I was used to flying wherever the Captain said to and when I was in the Guard, did what ever what needed to be done so that we won. These..people who you say you can't understand, are not too much different. They see themselves as serving the whole even if their methods go against what the whole says is right or wrong. I don't agree with their methods but I can understand their logic, however warped it appears."

Tilting her head she suddenly leaned over the side of her biobed and spit a blueish amount of blood onto the floor, wipping her mouth she took another drink and laid back down. "...In the end, all we can do is depend on the souls around us and our commander who's in the deep with us.."

Therein lay their difference. Idrani was able to speculate, understand and content herself with the moral picture's broad brush strokes. Aral wanted to understand the specifics, their goals, their aims, targets, assess the appropriateness of the measures to achieve it. It wasn't that he failed to appreciate the situation, it was that he wanted to understand it in the way he sought to understand other aspects of his work. Were he able to take the paradigm apart and reassemble it, he would have attempted it. Aral simply smiled at Xishaal and finished his water.

"Anyway, I'm in too much pain to try to understand the intricacies of interstellar politics at the moment, but I guess since i'm not going anywhere at the moment, from the look on your face, you have a different take on the matter?"

Aral just shook his head, not wanting to provoke her. "It's not acceptance... it's understanding I don't have." He replied, a hint of impersonal frustration crept into his voice, "Anyway, I should let you get some rest." He looked at her form, lying across the bio bed, "You need it." He smiled.

Nodding her head in understanding she smiled "..I need to get to work, but barring that, i'll spend my time thinking of our little problem." she added as she turned back on her side and closed her eyes "...tell the Commodore that I'm sorry, I failed to get back to the Phoenix....and..." with that Xishaal drifted off to sleep.

Seeing Idrani close her eyes Aral decided it was time to make his exit from Sickbay. He was due is routine physical but that was something that could wait, at least until tomorrow.