Secrets in the Garden

Posted on Fri Jul 15th, 2011 @ 3:28pm by Lieutenant Colonel Anastasia DeVries & Lieutenant Commander Aral Aix

Mission: Too Close for Comfort...
Location: Harponics Bay
Timeline: Following 'Of All The Places'

Aral watched Torrna make her exit from the Harponics Bay. He was surprised she was on the Arizona, then again he barely knew the ship or her crew. Believing himself to be alone in the cavernous garden, he decided to take a turn in the twilight. The plants were fragrant and the artificial breeze rustled leaves. Aral turned into a large enclave that contained an orchard. He approached one of the trees and plucked an apple, rubbing it against his uniform jacket.

"You have heard of Snow White and her poisoned apple haven't you?" a warm voice greeted from the shadows behind the man. "Not that I've been tampering or anything." A slight laugh followed. "Were you hoping to be alone?"

Aix jumped slightly at the unexpected voice and turned on the spot to notice a familiar woman with hair emerging from the darkness. She was smiling. Aral looked carefully at the apple before returning the smile. "It used to be one of my favourites..." Aral mentally stamped on Zalia's head, forcing down a wave literary exegesis that threatened to trip from his tongue. He took the measure of the woman, before recognizing her as the Colonel... the woman who had saved his life not two days ago. "I was just doing the rounds... getting to know the scientific facilities." It hardly explained why he was meandering round an empty harponics bay in the dark. Then again he wasn't the only one admiring the garden in the dark. "I'm happy to share the garden." He held out his hand, "apple?"

"You know... I use to find these fruits rather vile," Stace admitted as she approached the man and his 'gift'. "I think I must have ate them by the bushel until I could eventually stomach their flavor. Now... I suppose I would miss them if I were to never have another. It's always a love-hate relationship when it's a battle of the minds isn't it?"

Aral nodded slowly, his dark eyes reflected the advancing woman's face. "It's deeper than love and hate." He replied evenly, turning the apple in his hand. "In my experience it's life and death." There was a small glint in his eye.

"Ah yes... but we all live and die many times within one life do we not?" she questioned as gave a thoughtful glance upwards. "Though I suspect your lifetimes trump mine," she grinned. "Though your symbiont is still young, is it not?"

"I'm a mere child at two-hundred and eighty seven." Aral smiled, his white teeth glinting in the twilight. "I lived through the most painful death I ever suffered." Aix paused enjoying the exchange of riddles. "Everything I was - everything I knew about myself - swept out from beneath my feet as I watched with cold detachment." He plucked another apple from the tree.

The woman nodded slowly. It was a statement should could relate to though she had never suffered the physical finality of death. Emotional death? She could have probably given a lecture. "I take it your joining was unexpected?"

"I was seventeen... a transport to Earth. My academy interview actually. And when my previous host died, I was the only unjoined Trill." He paused to find the right words, "And when I opened my eyes, I was a different person." He inhaled the fragrant night air, "Imagine waking up a seventeen year old boy with a serial killer and a ninety year old, nymphomaniac, professor of literature inside of you... bursting to get out." The words fell from his mouth, the exhilaration of confession.

Stace grinned a bit. "If it makes you feel any better I've killed a ninety year old professor... though I don't think literature was his forte." She paused a moment before taking an additional look around. "This place is kinda... interesting. Which reminds me... what brought you here so late and in the confines of darkness?"

"I was just checking to see what passed for the Science Department around here... and the place just distracted me really. A secret garden." He admired the Bajoran ivy climbing up the bulkhead. "I never did thank you for saving our collective asses back there."

It was the mention of the incident on the planet that caused the woman to tense a bit. "No need to thank me... I'm just angry because I know this is far from the end. We're only at the beginning of what will be something rather ugly. I hope you're ready for some action. Unfortunately this won't be a leisure cruise... as you've already experienced."

Aral nodded. "I'm not a soldier, but I fought in the Dominion War. It almost killed me." He sighed. "As long as what we're fighting for is worth fighting for..." He shocked himself with his own naivety.

"I think you'll realize soon enough, as I'm sure you got a taste of on the planet, everyone has a little soldier in them. It's the drive that keeps us going forward. I have no doubt you'll perform admirably... and if not... well... I'll make sure to keep you in line."

Aral laughed. "Hopefully it won't come to that." His talents did not lie in warfare. Violence he knew well, but warfare... tactics... military discipline and the sacrifice that came with it did not truly sit within him. He regarded the Colonel, clearly she was tough but their conversation had led him to believe that much like himself at the end of it all she was a survivor. "I have a question to ask you," Aral began, "I know that you know something about Section 31 and I know they were behind what happened."

Aral couldn't quite believe his own gal. Prior to a conversation with the Commodore he believed Section 31 was a conspiracy theory, right up there with the Klingon forehead and the Lost Moon of Poosh. For all he knew DeVries herself was one of them.

"I'm a former member of their organization," Stace explained with a deep sigh. "They recruited me fairly early in my career... thought my background growing up during the occupation would be beneficial in some way to them. I suppose at the beginning I idolized them. It was an idiotic thing to do. They're nothing but trouble. Pure nasty trouble."

Aral's eyes widened at her revelation and then he smiled slyly. "And I would imagine they're almost impossible to part company with."

"So you've noticed," Stace smirked. "Every time I turn around some secret ninja is popping out. Keep your eyes peeled for me won't you?"

"I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but that shrubbery to your left is crawling with them." Aral gestured to a small patch of bushes that rustled in the artificial breeze. Aral rose to the humour but took the point Stace was making. "You circle round and I'll cover your rear." He smirked.

She chuckled at his words. "Like the rears do you? Or was that over the top?"

Aral feigned shock. "Colonel! This is no time for innuendo when you could be about to go down on me any moment leaving me alone to deal with that infested bush!" Aix pointed at the shrubbery and tried to hold a straight face.

"Uh huh... I can see right through you!" Stace tutted. "Though I suppose I have bothered you long enough. Perhaps we can 'chat' again later?"

"I'll see you then." Replied Aral, before taking a bite from the apple in his hand.

Stace grinned widely as she made her way towards the exit. "In the meantime... you can watch my rear... as I march it right through that door."