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Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #25 –
[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory Lab  | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Zodiac 
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There wasn't really any sort of conscious thought there, as to what would or wouldn't make the better interrogation technique or how to get his point across. No, Sarresh was just plain mad. Maybe this was what Ida zh'Wann had wanted. A chance for him to get something off his chest, in the wake of the loss of his lover. Or perhaps the Chief had hoped he'd explode over these people and scare the faith out of them, shake them up enough so that they might fall back on years of training and service that they seemed to have set aside.

Or maybe she'd just thrown this at him on a lark because nothing else had really done any good and Ida had nothing better to try.

Whatever motivations had existed did not matter in that moment. His grief was being funneled into his frustration and now he had an outlet that was acceptable to vent it all upon. Lt. zh'Ptrell might as well have not been there for how little she played into this for Sarresh. No, his focus was still on Bailey, who sat, clutching herself like a small child, caught up in the hands of an angry god.

"Would that I could, I'd cast your lot out," Sarresh hissed, as he leaned in, gripping the edge of the small table that sat between the two of them. It held his weight, for the moment, and he saw then, fear in her eyes. His lip curled into a contemptuous snarl, and then he pushed himself back, into his chair again, looking away. A hand reached up, and tugged down his face and jaw as he took a steady breath.

"We are supposed to be above such petty actions as the ones you've displayed. You helped in an assault on an officer because she did not think I was a god. We'll, I'm not a god. So you beat up a woman for no good reason. Not that it would have been a good reason if I were a god. You aught to be in the brig for what you've done," he noted, as his eyes swept over her.

Sighing he shook his head again. "You have one job now. And one alone. And that is to do better. To be better. To make amends and pretend that you are actually a Starfleet officer, Miss Bailey. You've already disappointed me once. I think it best that you not disappoint me again. Do you understand?"

"Y....yes?" was the meek response, not at all reassuring.

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #26 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Temporal Observatory Lab | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy Attn: @Brutus
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Zark watched, her gaze shifting between Sarresh and Bailey and then back again. The scientist was clearly mad, not that she could really blame him considering what the cult had done in his name, but this might not be the way to go about things. Hell her job was to protect him from any of the cultists but right now it looked like she might have to protect one of the cult's from him instead.

A thought that certainly didn't change when he hissed about casting all of them out and lean in towards the woman, his hands gripping the edge of the small table that seperated the two. Her antennae raising slightly, she took a half step forward, just in case. Even from the darkened corner of the room where she was lurking she could see the snarl curled on his lips, luckily the time traveller pushed himself back into the chair again and looked away, taking a steady breath.

Zark however relaxed her stance and took a half step back again, feeling her antennae slowly starting to relax again as Sarresh started to speak again, to his credit the man was telling her what she had down, how he thought they should be treated as a result before moving on to explain exactly what it was he expected from them. To simply do their jobs as Starfleet Officers, no more, no less.

It might not get them any potential information but at the very least it might very well stop the potential bloodshed, Zark thought. However given the meek and not very reassuring response he'd gotten from Bailey it didn't exactly fill Zark with confidence, after all the woman was clearly afraid of her "god" and if she wasn't convinced then what hope did they have convincing any of the others? Then again it was entirely possible that she was simply confused as to the new order or too intimidated and scared to comprehend or even acknowledge it at this time. The Andorian didn't know, nor did she know where Sarresh would go from here with his questioning.

On the one hand, the woman was clearly afraid of him even moreso now that she had seen his anger, leaving her more susceptible to questioning and possibly giving them some answers, on the other hand though she might not know anything at all. Admittedly Zark didn't know the hierarchy of the cult or if there even was one outside of Sarresh sitting at the top of it, albeit unwillingly. On top of that, given what he had just said it was entirely possible that Sarresh was simply done with Bailey and was ready to move onto the next cultist, whatever way it was going to play out, Zark would be ready for anything.

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #27 –
[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory Lab  | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Zodiac 
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The former Ash'reem had no idea how close he had come to provoking a reaction from the zhen assigned to protect him. Not in a move to defend him either, but to protect the woman that took the brunt of his now exhausted ire. He sat there in his chair, with Zark at his back, having inched forward and then back again all in reaction to his temper, and not to any threat to his person. The irony would have been impressive, had he actually lunged at the crewwoman.

But Bailey sat unmolested, biting her lip and looking nothing so much like a scared, kicked puppy. That didn't make Sarresh feel like the top targ however. His lips curled into a half disgusted snarl, and then he shook his head. "I want to know, Crewman Bailey, the instant any of you get the bright idea to go off and 'do something' in my name again. Too many people die, when the Devoted walk the halls singing my praises. I want to know, Crewman, that you can put this...fanaticism behind you. Because you lot seem to value my opinion, well you should know, and reinforce to your surviving friends that I am very disappointed."

Of course, she already knew that. He'd nearly vented his spleen at her (an organ he originally did not come equipped with, ironically). Her teeth were digging into her lips and her body seemed ready to shake itself apart. In tears, or in fears, Sarresh couldn't quite tell. The time traveler almost felt sorry for her, until he remembered she'd help ambush and nearly beat to death a pilot. He didn't really know the victim, but that reminder tempered any sympathy that might be building up inside his too human heart.

"You will tell me, won't you? I want to hear you say it," he pointed a finger at her as she started to open her mouth. "I want you to make me believe it. And I want you to know that I will know if you lie to me."

He wouldn't. Sarresh wasn't a telepath and his sense of smell wasn't as good at is used to be. His eyesight was a damn might better in 'regular lighting; and he still seemed to retain some of his excellent low light vision. (Though not nearly as good as the enhanced ocular implants he had prior to his Savi correction). Still, he watched as Mirisha looked first to him, then to Zark. She swallowed and then spoke.

"I will. I promise to follow the will -" Sarresh's hand popped up and he snapped his fingers at her, cutting her off.

"It's not about following my will, Crewman. It's about following orders of a superior officer. Following Starfleet rules and regulations."

"I...that is, yes, sir. I can do that. I will do that." Her tone was still differential, and meek, but that was, Sarresh thought, as good as it would get. He grunted and then sighed, slowly standing up. Those dark eyes of his stared down at Mirisha Bailey, holding her gaze for a long moment. And then he shrugged his shoulders a bit.

"Very well. I'll inform Deputy zh'Wann of the gist of our conversation and she will take it from there. I imagine you're going to be under guard for some time to come, Crewman. Try not to disappoint again. Lieutenant," Sarresh called out to Zark. "I think we have done all that we can do here."

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #28 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Temporal Observatory Lab | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy Attn: @Brutus
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Having settled back to her watchful position and being pretty certain that Sarresh wasn't going to actually attack the woman, the Andorian relaxed her stance and went back to doing what she had done before. Waiting and watching.

She observed the fact that Crewman Bailey now looked like a scared, abused puppy that had had it's will and hope beaten out of it. There was no fight in the woman and it had become pretty clear to Zark that she was no threat to Sarresh. The zhen listened to the time traveller as he gave Bailey new instructions to inform him of anything she heard the Devoted planning and asked her to put her fanaticism behind her, also insisting that she inform them all of his disappointment.

Zark had a pretty good feeling that Bailey had gotten that message already given the numerous blood vessels it looked like the man had nearly exploded when venting his anger at her. If it wasn't for everything the devoted had done, Zark would have felt sorry for the poor crewmen, sitting there, gnawing on her lip as her body trembled in fear, tears or a combination of both probably. Even in the reduced light she could see the trembles, it was a miracle that her body hadn't shaken itself apart or phased through the deck plating the amount she was shaking.

Zark found herself nodding in approval when Sarresh insisted that Bailey tell him what he wanted to hear, it was the best way to judge if you had broken your subject or not and to gauge their honestly. The security officer turned her attention to Bailey, watching and listening as she started to speak, proclaiming to follow the will of the scientist, which of course was not what Sarresh wanted. Which sure enough he quickly addressed.

Her tone meek, Bailey reaffirmed what she had been told to do and it certainly seemed like she would indeed follow her new orders. At least there was one devoted who would probably do as they were told, and while they hadn't gained any information that was enough. Even more so if other devoted didn't decided to fall in line, Zark had no doubt that Bailey would keep such information from Sarresh, so hopefully were something to ever pop up again, they would at least have a little warning beforehand.

Zark turned her attention to Sarresh when he addressed her and nodded. Walking over to join him, she glanced over at Bailey one last time before turning and heading towards the door, keying in the code to open it and stepped out into the corridor.

"Well I think that went about as well as it could have. You did pretty good in there Sarresh, lost your temper a little but it seemed to do the trick, at least with Bailey. I think you managed to convince her to follow orders and at the very least you've probably got yourself an informant should the devoted plan anything else. Not bad." she said with a smile and keyed in the door lock code once Sarresh had joined her.

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #29 –
[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory Lab  | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Zodiac 
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He had to wonder if andorians smiled naturally or if they picked it up from humans. They - humans - had away of endearing themselves to other species, and a way of spreading their mannerisms like a cancer across the galaxy. Or a brood of tribbles, which was just as bad. Sweet and cloying, but the more you had the more you liked, or so he'd heard. Somewhere. His eyes darkened as he realized he couldn't recall where, or how, just that he knew the words.

Letting out a soft sigh, he looked over his shoulder at the now locked door, then shook his head. "She's still a damned idiot," he noted bitterly. "But maybe now she is scared enough that she won't do something so styupid again. Maybe." The words tasted bitter in his mouth, instead of hopeful. He'd come with a job to do and he supposed in some way he had done that, at least in this case. Crewman Mirisha Bailey would not threaten another member of this ship. She would not raise a hand in anger. Very likely she would become the model enlisted crewperson, though like as not very timid.

But could he do the same for the others? That list was much smaller than it might have been a few weeks ago, or the last time the Devoted tried to hold the whole ship hostage. When the Rez woman had been killed. When they'd tried to send a message. When in the nebula they'd tried to install him as the commanding officer of the ship, a job he did not want.

"For a bunch of people that only claimed to want to exact my will, they sure don't understand what it is." Shrugging, he looked back and met Zark's gaze, steady and unflinching. "You're right, of course," he admitted, not shying away from her feedback. No denying tonight.

"I did lose my temper in there. I don't exactly have a deep well of control on a good day, Zah zh'Ptrell," he'd drug up the Andorian honorific from some deep recess, " and today is about the worst day I've had in at least a week." There was the acid lake. And waking up human. And...tonight. She's gone. Oh, Sel...

Reaching up, he pinched the brow of his nose. "I'm afraid that while Lt. zh'Wann was right to suggest I do this, that it might help with all that is going on right now." The Savi, the Captain being an obstinate ass, and his poor Sel, "It's just as likely to lead to me snapping someone's neck. Which, I suppise is another reason you're here. Can't have an informant if I kill them with my bare hands for being stupid, can I?" It was a poor attempt at gallows humor by a man who usually only laughed in bitter disgust. Yet he offered the Andorian woman a crooked smile all the same.

"I just hope the others as easily cowled or I might burst a blood vessel. That wouldn't exactly make Captain Ives day."

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #30 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Temporal Observatory Lab | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy Attn: @Brutus
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Now free of the room, Zark watched Sarresh look at her and could practically see the gears of his mind working, although she had no idea what he was thinking about. Mostly likely the cult but it never would have occurred to her that he was wondering if Andorian's smiled naturally or not, if she did she would have found it quite amusing.

While Zark nodded in agreement, she also had some sympathy for the woman, not much but a little. "I don't know, in some ways I can't blame her. Don't get me wrong, what her and the other Devoted did was clearly not the way to go about things, given everything that's happened on this ship with the Parasites and the other things that this crew has been through, at least from what I've read since coming aboard from the Cayuga, to find out that there's someone who has been to the future on board and possibly knows how things turn out and what needs to be done...I can understand them wanting to turn to that person for leadership and guidance in trying times. she said before taking a breath and shaking her head. "Like I said I don't condone or support what they did but I can beneath their actions I can see where they were coming from, at least in terms of their attention towards you anyway...and minus the god worship, that too." she added.

"Hopefully she won't, only time will tell but I think you made your point clear to her at least." Zark replied before Sarresh spoke again, talking about how they didn't understand what his will was. [color=#RoyalBlue]"I think in their mind they just assumed that you being from the future...or at least returning from it had knowledge on how to get us all out of this and thought that you had returned in order to do so, hence them trying to get you in command of the ship. It might not be your own personal will but looking at it from their perspective it kind of makes sense. If you did know how this all pans out and how to fix it so that we all get to go home and live our normal lives, the only way to guarantee that you could do that if the Captain didn't believe you would be as Captain yourself."[/color] The Security Officer added, pretty sure the man wouldn't like what she had to say, hopefully though he would at least see the logic in her words, even if he didn't agree with them.

|Zark listened to Sarresh and was surprised at the usage of the Andorian honorific and gave him a slight bow of appreciation before smiling softly in his direction "I can't say I blame you given everything that's happened, I might even snap too if I was in the same position, however you really should try to keep that bottled, at least in front of them. It worked on Bailey in there, but for some of the others, it might not, in fact it might give them the advantage, just something to be aware of." she told him.

Zark watched as Sarresh pinched the brow of his nose as he spoke and felt her antennae twitch at his words, and while she could see the attempted humour it also didn't change the fact that she knew he was telling the truth. "Well I will be sure to step in before there are any snapping of necks, for both your sake and theirs. As for the others we can only hope, we'll just do our best and see what happens."

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #31 –
[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory Lab  | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Zodiac 
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Sarresh let out out a grunt. "If they were going to follow someone like a god they should have taken up their devotion to Wenn Cinn. He actually came back from the dead," the time traveler pointed out. Then his face went slack and he looked off down the interior corridor, letting out a soft sigh. "Before he died. Again." He'd made the sacrifice play, for the betterment of all of them. He'd taken the Omega Device into the aperture and ...well.

Billions of lives. He has saved literal billions. That's a man that needs to be worshiped, not me. Sarresh didn't want to be worshiped to begin with, but he found himself feeling a trace of what the counseling department would probably all impostor syndrome. He didn't like it, at all. He also didn't know how he knew what that was, but this was an occurrence he was getting used to as time marched inevitably on, with him stuck in the 24th century. "Commander Wenn had what passes for actual divine intervention, and this lot needs to understand just what he did for all of us. Maybe that will shake them from their blind tendencies."

Sighing, he pulled himself up and continued to listen to Zark, his own darker musings left unspoken for the time being. She didn't want to hear him rant about divinity and the competition for followers. Ironically among two people whom had not wanted such devoted reverence directed their way. Wormhole Aliens, time travel and cults. What more could you ask for? The humor wasn't entirely lost on him, though he was scowling slightly and forced his features into compliance once more. The conversation flowed, and in his grief he focused on it more than he might other wise have done so.

Rubbing his chin, the displaced man gave a little nod, in the end. She'd said a lot, and after that one outburst he let her finish her piece. Just because he didn't like the logic she brought up didn't exactly take away from the truth of it. He snorted a bit though, and shook his head. Things with Captain Ives felt like a case of taking one step forward and two steps back. Every time he tried, it backfired. He was as much at fault as Ives was, but neither seemed to be able to over come the issues and how each viewed the relationship.

"The funny fact is I don't know what is going to happen. I have impressions of how things should go...kind of. Technically if history had unfolded the way it was 'supposed' to, we wouldn't have been in that nebula," he thrust his hand out to the wall, toward the outer hull, in the general direction of where they had come from. The timeline had been changed at this point and there was little he could do to undo it. No violation now. "That was supposed to be the start of an invasion.

"We weren't supposed to be here to stop it. That was where the invasion started. That lead to ...well. Be glad you can't see it. Be glad the parasites tried to infect the Borg Collective and we were here to stop it." He stopped, and grew a bit pale. His hand covered his eyes, and slowly dragged down his face, cupping his mouth and chin, before he let it drop away, shaking his head.

"If I told them all of that...they'd just take it as further proof. It's a damn causality loop and nothing I do can. shake it. Save apparently scaring them back to their childhood nightmares." He jerked his head back in the direction of CW Bailey's quarters. This little revelation did nothing to improve his mood because now a small part of his mind was wondering, rather loudly,if the presence of the Theurgy, which changed such a definitively pivotal moment in history had, in fact, been because of him. That was a dangerous path to thread, Sarresh knew, Go too far down it and he just might believe the garbage the Devoted had spouted about his purpose and just how much he impacted things.

"That's neither here nor there. Not killing the poor, misguided souls," - some of this sarcasm was resurfacing - "is the main concern, so I will trust in you on that count, Lieutenant." All the while that both had spoken to one another, Sarresh had been dwelling on what came next. Not just in the immediate sense, but int the long run for the Theurgy. With everything that had changed....he just didn't know.

And perhaps that, more than anything else, combined with the loss of Ryuan Sel. Perhaps that was what worried him. Not knowing what came next.

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #32 –
Lieutenant Junior Grade Zark | Temporal Observatory Lab | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy Attn: @Brutus
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Zark remained silent as she listened to Sarresh speak, clearly the man had a lot of anger and resentment bottled up inside, not that she could entirely blame him for that and so she let him speak and get it all out. After all keeping that kind of stuff bottled inside never ended well for anybody.

The Andorian continued to listen as he went on to talk about Commander Wenn, the man certainly deserved the credit for what he did nor did he deserve to be forgotten, although giving someone another potential person to worship could lead to more problems. Especially if said person was dead. You'd open yourself up to questions like "How could he be a god if he died?" or at the very least would cost you your leadership and whether Sarresh liked it or not, it was a position that in the Devoted's eyes he held, and as such he might be the only person to actually get through to them. Without him it could be chaos, then again it already had been so what did she know?

Zark gave him a sympathetic smile "Even an impression is better than nothing some might say and if like you said there are things that happen that would be worse and you get an impression of that and we change it, at least we know something about the future is changing. I'd say that was better going on blind faith...if you uh pardon the expression that what we're doing is actually making a difference. Maybe that's all these people want, is hope that things will be okay and we'll get through this." she told him.

Even if they do, the important thing is to get them to stop trying to take over the ship, hurt people and do their jobs without incident. If they can do that, worshipping you or not, that's the main thing for now. Life throws up things we don't expect all the time. Look at me, I didn't expect to be attacked by the Borg, to loose my ship and end up on this one yet here I am. For you it's being the icon of cult, we do what we can in the moment to the best of our ability to handle the situation because...well it's all we can do."

At his last statement, Zark chuckled "Well that is why I'm here after all. Just please try to make sure it's not you I have to stop, I'm here to protect you from them, not the other way around and I really don't want to have to explain that away." she grinned, wondering who the next lucky person was on their list to visit and just how they would react, with a bit of luck much like Bailey had all being well, it would certainly make things a lot easier on everybody and quicker too perhaps.
 

Re: EPIL: S [D06|1150] Loss of Devotion

Reply #33 –
[ Lt (jg) Sarresh Morali | Temporal Observatory Lab  | Deck 09 | USS Theurgy ] Attn: @Zodiac 
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A passing, surly expression flashed across the time travelers bearing, darkening his brow and tightening his jaw. Blind faith my ass, he thought, well aware that blind faith was the cause of all of his current issues. Well, perhaps not all of them. The Borg took some blame. Ducane took some blame. Ives. Probably Sarresh himself. But the issue with the Devoted, that was a matter of pure, unrestrained blind faith.

Which is not Zark's fault so don't hammer on her, he reminded himself and let the expression return to something more neutral, with a bit of a nod in acknowledgement of the words expressed. She didn't have the sudden flood of memories, standing on the bridge of the Versant of what had been the course of history. Of the death and destruction the Borg were supposed to have waged. Of course, they were still out there and how the Federation dealt with that threat would be a challenge to sort out.

He didn't need blind faith to know that they had in fact changed the course of history, just as these thrice-damned parasites have been. His mission was to prevent their incursions. And he did. But he'd also changed things drastically. Funny. Ducane hasn't dropped in to scold me. I wonder if I erased his pompous ass. He smiled at that, for a moment as Zark continued, but it fell away fast. Probably not. He'd be protected by the time ships chroninton blockers and temporal shielding.

That flicker of memory had him wishing he were back in his lab, to follow down that rabbit hole. He made a mental note to try and to summon up what he could remember about those systems as a possible upgrade to the Theurgy's sheilds. If he remembered this momentary insight.

Biting his lip, he quietly wondered if all security officers were this philosophical, or if it were just Andorian zhen's. He harumphed a bit. "I promise you, Lieutenant, that this goes far beyond my expectations." Probably. There was a chance that, before the memory engram encoding he did know there would be a cult, but he sure hoped not. Or that man was a fucking idiot. There was, he had to admit, a distinct possibility that this was in fact the case. Afterall, here he was in the 24th century, after having apparently volunteered for this shit show of an assignment. So what then, did he know?

Nothing.

Letting a small chuckled out, Sarresh shrugged and said, "Could just say they attacked first? Less paperwork that way." He wasn't serious, of course, but all the same. "The next poor delusional fool is Petty Officer Dylan Cobb," he noted, looking down the corridor. As with Bailey, as far as Sarresh was aware, he'd never met Cobb in his life. Are you their de facto leader now, Petty Officer?

- FIN
 
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