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Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #50 –
[Sarresh Moralli | The Plains] Attn: Jien Ives

Sarresh met Cpt. Ives stare as stoically as possible. The goggles he wore hid his eyes from view quiet effectively; it was a useful trait that Sarresh enjoyed immensely. A great way to keep the natural widening of the eyes from view, when faced with the displeasure of a senior officer. It came in handy on poker night, too. Or it used to, back when Sarresh played poker, on the Relativity. Having sat down across the table from Wyatt...Wyatt...he couldn't remember the name, and that, like the rest of the jumbled mess, made him angry again.

"Ma'am, then" he muttered softly, falling in step with the woman. Before he could tear into her tho, she started speaking, soft, even. Not at all what he expected. That Jien IVes then proceeded to lecture him about the quarters he'd been given, which true enough, were quite well adapted as could be expected for his species. He was fortunate, he knew that, despite all his various issues.And while Sarresh wanted to tear into the woman next to him, decorum and common sense finally reared their heads, and he kept his replies as professional as he could manage. "True, it does have something of a drying affect on the membranes," the timetravler replied, as simply as he could manage. "The hot springs have promise, I suppose, though I shan't be like to enjoy them any time soon, not with - " he cut off again, swallowing, and shaking his head.

The twilight closed around the two, and Sarresh took a deep breath. Opening his mouth to ream the other officer, he stopped short. The captains words struck home. Hard. He clicked his blue jaw shut, and swallowed. "I...." he choked on the words. The loss of his immediate superior did weigh on him, and he was equally surprised that Ives knew he had been the one to comfort Amatras. That her father had been willing to talk of it. The man barely tolerated Sarresh, as it was, and yet...he nodded, and let the silence of the loss linger between the two. Oh, the temporal affairs officer wanted to blame Ives for that death as well. Wanted to believe that if he had only been told everything...

What was the point?

He ran a hand through his hair, stopping half way, and looking directly at Jien. "Yes. they are." he said, bluntly. They were at the matter at hand, finally, and even tho his righteous thunder had mellowed to a cold, sinking pit of loss in his stomach, there was still a hardness to his tone. "Some of them, the equation, for instance, are bright as the Denobulan nebula. Others are...falling apart as we speak. Its maddening. I swear, I am going insane," he starts to pace, there in the darkness.

"Here's the thing, Ma'am" he finally says, a bit of that heat back in his voice. "You didn't once question a thing I said, on the bridge. I basically had a seizure, from the video logs I watched, pop upright, and start spouting off orders. And calm collected you, you take it all in stride. I get ,that you're stoic, Ma'am." he waved a hand, "I remember that much from the file on you from the Relativity, for now anyway's." A bitter note enters his tone, " but no one in their right mind would listen to the ramblings of a madman...unless you knew to expect it, ahead of time."

OOC: Lucan, sorry this one took as long as it did. Ended up going a different direction then I wanted initnially. Sarresh, well, he can be stubron like that.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #51 –
[Thomas Ravon | Inside Kestrel]

"Something I could wear?" Razor murmured and he smirked "A thong and a sports bra?" He carried on, his mind not trying to mentally see himself in that outfit in his maiden white Valkyrie. It was a good thing that the distraction had come up, Thomas had been conflicted since his last flight with Ranger. The downtime with Skye was like a present from above, diverting his thoughts to more pleasant things.

He could only imagine what could be better than a lapdance, though he had a faint clue about it. He watched how she undressed before him and the moment her breasts were bare he moved his hands to them and roughly started to fondle with them. It only lasted for a few seconds before he pushed his torso against hers, kissing her again and pulling her off the floor once she unfastened his pants.

He smirked at her comment about any interruptions and he licked her lips playfully "Aye aye.. Ma'am." He grunted before he kissed her fully on the lips. He was pretty wild at this time, touching nearly every part of her body. He pulled down his own undergarments and pressed his lower body against Skye as his arousal was very present at this time. He deepend the kiss before breaking it and he looked into her eyes, searching for something while the only things present in his eyes was lust and hunger.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #52 –
[ Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley | Triage Centre ]

"...what the hell am I going to do with you?"

Rawley frowned as she looked up at Renard, a face hovering above her as the interiors of the tent moved around them. "Oh, you got to be kidding me, Miles," she rasped, rolling her eyes, "You are thinking about punishing me, aren't you? Forget the bloody scotch then. You misheard me. I don't need any. I might have snuck out of Sickbay but that was before Red Alert was called. I merely meant to check on my poor bird at first, only when the need for more came, I think we both knew it was for the benefit that I donned my bloody helmet and got out there. Hell, you know me as the most modest little girl on your squad, and I say that if I weren't out there, the shuttle would have been shot closer to our ships than the Calamity - detonating that bitch right where we didn't want it to."

Evelyn had little regard for those who dotted every "i" and crossed every "t" in their way of command. At least Jaru Rel had seen the worth in her. She just hoped Miles would too now that he was squad-leader. "It would have been a tougher call for you if I had just done the average effort out there, but come on, we both know that was not the case, right? Cut me some fucking slack here, man."


[ Jien Ives | Plains ]

Heartened that Mr. Morali did not lash out against her based on what little he knew and the obvious conclusions he'd make, Jien Ives nodded slowly as he laid out what he had realised. The meeting anticipated, there was little more to do than divulge what she could tell the man, even if he would not like it. She could just hope he would not overreact to the truth of the matter.

"I'm pleased to hear you had the wits and presence of mind to notice, despite your situation. Confirms what Captain Ducande said about you," she said and sighed, raising a hand to rake back her hair from her face, "You are correct, of course. That was why I asked if the memories were fading too. Because up until yesterday, you thought that you were yanked off the Relativity and thrown into this century for the sake of returning you to your rightful place in the timestream. You were angry because you did not know how you should be able to help during our cursed journey back to Earth, since you were inoculated before turned over to my command - loosing all the selected memory engrams pertaining to your service in the centuries to come. This, to protect the Temporal Directive, and you from exploiting what you knew in a harmful way. You thought yourself made ignorant and useless because I demanded you from Captain Ducane."

She raised her eyebrows in brief query, even if she could make the qualified guess that what she just had said was exactly how Mr. Morali would have thought about his situation. It had been expected, even.

"In retrospect, you might have raised your questions earlier, but your mind was too clouded with anger to see the demands and the necessity of the situation. Moreover, you could not draw the right conclusion because you did not remember the means of which you could be programmed with future memory engram manipulation. Means that are not altogether clear to me either, beyond knowing that it works. Or rather, I came to know yesterday - during the battle - that it worked."

Taking a deep breath, Jien folded her hands behind her, telling him as much as she knew herself. "You are indeed aboard the Theurgy in order to protect us from the temporal incursions that our enemy might make in order to stop our crusade for the truth. Specifically, when an incursion is made. I am not privy to the details. Nor do I know all the different kind of triggers. What I do know is that when triggered, you will be able to access specific, adherent memories needed for each individual situation. And when those memories are no longer needed, or if they prove obsolete, they will again fall in shadow - lost to ignorance and locked away once more. That is why the memories are fading, and you are rendered into a man of this century again - unable to damage the timestream."

She fell silent then, watching the Ash'reem as he wrapped his chemically programmed mind around her words.


[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 | Plains ]

Kae's reaction troubled Thea, seeing signs of irritation at the mentioning of his restrictions when it came to the development of the emitter project. Yet when he spoke, mentioning testing, her fears were somewhat allayed.

"I suppose testing is in order for us to know if it works,"she said hesitantly, even if she was not sure the battery life need to be tested at such an early stage. Then again, she being activated through the emitter, she supposed this was no longer an early stage. With more confidence in Kae's argument, she nodded and smiled, even if she was no sure she wanted to be spotted by the Captain of Commander Rez anytime soon. Kae's look had suggested that he had not briefed them of this test, and they might punish him for it.

It was not like he was in their good graces since the Niga incident either, despite the success in his endeavours. The problem was a philosophical or a political one, depending on what side you looked from, for suffice to say, the mere existence of the current development was in question amongst the Senior Staff. That Kae, who spearheaded the development of her holographic projection and programming, acted on his own without clearing things with the commanding officers was alarming, and in contradiction of the final orders given him on the staff meeting after the Niga incident.

She now had the capacity of free choice, and it was made evident right then. She knew she should contact Captain Ives or Commander Rez and tell them about her suspicions. Her earlier programming would have made it so. Yet now, she hesitated, and decided to not tell them. What Kae kept giving her surely merited some leniency. She would serve her crew better, wouldn't she? Be better able to protect them? It was not just her will to become more human... even if that was a very real motivation. So odd, not to have to rely on directives and event-scenario precursors.

"I have some real clothes in my quarters," she said, coming up with a way to minimise the risk of being seen - standing in an open location and more easily singled out as they were. "I can Transport there and change before heading out into this valley. Would you...?"

She trailed of, the question of whether or not he wanted to follow her or head somewhere and wait for her quite plain.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #53 –
[Dr. Hayden O'Connor]

This close to Harbinger's First Officer, Hayden's resolve to be the rock everyone needed her to be strengthened.  While she would never wish to send a message, however indirectly, that feeling overwhelmed and grief-stricken after all they'd suffered was not something to be expressed, the counselor also knew practically speaking there was a time and a place for such expression.  She couldn't give into her emotions for too long, too publically, and she was already feeling like she'd had enough of a break as it was.  The Vulcan female's presence provided a life preserver for her to grab onto, a means for pulling herself back on track.  She drew strength from it, even as she mentally reminded herself T'Rena was likely just as troubled as anyone else.  Vulcans supressed emotions.  They did not erase them.

She contemplated the words of the Theurgy's Captain in silence, but couldn't help but challenge him in her head.  Perhaps there was now no doubt they'd been betrayed by the very people they trusted, but Hayden didn't draw strength and resolve from such vindication.  All such confirmation created in her was more questions, more doubt, and more fear.  Why had the rug been pulled out from under them so spectacularly?  What was going to happen to them now.  She was no more able to shed her doubts now than she was when this whole mess started.  Surviving the battle?  They were lucky.  Yes, they were skilled.  Yes, they were determined.  Skill and determination weren't enough to keep so many of them alive.  O'Connor knew a Captain needed to rally his crew, she just wasn't sure feeding them bullshit was the way to do it.

She was about to head back into the Triage Center when "T'Rena's inquiry caught her by surprise.  She was looking for a professional distraction, but now that she had it, she wasn't quite sure what to say.  It certainly led her, for a split second, to question whether the Vulcan female was suffering at all.  "I think time spent attending to one's emotions is time spent preparing for the battle ahead.  As I'm sure you know, there's no such thing as eliminating emotion, only suppressing it long enough to be dealt with at a later time.  To avoid dealing with one's emotions at a time when not doing so could severely impair one's ability to be prepared for what's ahead seems illogical to me."

The irony of Hayden's words given her earlier efforts at to scold herself mentally wasn't lost on her even before they were completely out of her mouth.  For her part, T'Rena offered a simple, "Interesting," before walking away.  She was sure the XO didn't intend her response to be amusing, but Hayden found herself smiling just the same.  Comfort for the counselor was bound to come in interesting forms, and she was grateful for it just the same.

Returning to the Triage Center, she decided to make the rounds amongst the wounded to offer her own simple words of comfort.  Though she trained to attend to physical wounds as well, she decided it was time to do more.  Ten minutes after her arrival, Lieutenant Jenkins summoned her.  "On my way," was Hayden's simple reply.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #54 –
[Lin Kae - Plain]

Thea was already surpassing the sum of her programming.  That much was obvious by the fact that she was willing to disregard regulations on occasion.  She should have been contacting her superior officers, that much was true, but she wasn't, and that was a conscious choice she made, just as any organic officer might.  They were doing something on the down low that didn't necessarily hurt anyone, so why not keep it to themselves and just enjoy that new sense of freedom?  After all Thea did for for the crew, from switching of lights to keeping their oxygen flowing, hadn't she earned herself something more?  After all the arguments for or against the very freedom she now enjoyed, wasn't she entitled to just smile and realize it had finally come?

The mention of clothing her quarters reminded him that she had been living as a member of the crew in many regards.  She had her own quarters, was given her own replicator rations, which thanks to her lack of need for organic food, left her with far more rations for concrete objects like clothes and keepsakes.  It was also a reminder that all it would take was a fraction of a second for her clothes to vanish, leaving nothing but her bare figure, a figure he had painstakingly designed to feel more sensitive when bare skin was touched.  She intended to trade out her uniform skin suit for actual clothes, to feel them against her digitally enhanced flesh.  "I'll go with you.  It might be important to see how you respond to the feeling of actual clothes on your body."  It was an excuse, but it let him stick by her, make sure she would do okay, both with the emitter and with the new feelings that it brought with it.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #55 –
[Skye Carver - Inside Kestrel]

Skye snerked at the mention of a thong and sports bra, fingernails scrabbling against his skin as much as her lips and tongue.  "Actually it's a golden crown that I'm sure will fit perfectly on your head," she murmured and reclaimed his lips.  They were everywhere in that small space, clothes flying about making anyone looking in the 'windshield' of Kestrel think of an old earth knickknack called a show globe.

They both needed this, to feel alive and vibrant.  His rough hands on her breasts, being slammed against a wall and heaved up off the floor, all of giving pain.  Pain equaled living.  But there had to be more than pain and those searing kisses and rough groping brought pleasure.  When they were both completely nude, he pressed against her and she groaned as she crushed him to her.

Among the erotic noises, there was a lusty chuckle.  When he'd said "Aye aye, ma'am," it struck her as quite funny given how he outranked her.  Their passions didn't know rank though and they tumbled about, neither one staying dominant for long.  She writhed against him, wrapping her legs around his hips and ending up on her back as their lips attacked each other voraciously until they needed to breathe.

When he looked in her blue eyes he saw his own lust and hunger mirrored and as she lay there panting, she wriggled until all it would take was a thrust of his hips for him to be crowned.  Though he likely wouldn't know of the ancient game called checkers, she purred as her nails sank lightly into his backside.  "Well go ahead ... King me."

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #56 –
Thomas had to grin about the golden crown and welcomed Skye's lips back as she kissed him. Thomas didn't care if anyone would be looking inside of Kestrel and he continued moving around with Skye, hitting one wall after the other while they kept kissing and touching eachother wildly.

Once their moving rampage came to a halt Thomas had Skye on her back and she felt how she wrapped her legs around him. He felt his bulbous head get positioned against her hot wet folds and knew that he only needed to thrust to get inside of her. He also felt how she sank her nails into his back and the sweat had formed a thin layer on both their bodies. Thomas took a good look at the view and he couldn't hide a grin.

"Well go ahead ... King me."

That was all that he needed to hear from her, the expression ringing a bell somewhere in his head. He couldn't quite place it where he had heard it from. With a rather violent and rapid thrust forward, he planted his length inside of Skye. He felt her warmth and how her walls engulfed his own erection. He let out a satisfying moan as the first few thrusts followed making his way deeper into her.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #57 –
[SCO Miles Renard | Triage Center ]

He nodded, "Yes, your exemplary piloting most certainly makes the decision more difficult.  In the Vulpinian Fighter Corps the punishment for a pilot like you would be simple.  That punishment would be equated to you volunteering for what equated to a suicide mission as it would earn you a trip to the front lines under a hardass of an ace as your wing commander.  Fate would decide whether you are exonerated by your skill, or executed by the fires of battle by--and for--your foolhardiness.  If your Gung-ho attitude coupled with your flying skill served to keep you alive then you would become hailed as a great living hero of the fighter corps. If your skill didn't match your zeal then you died a patriot defending the people.  For pilots such as you the fate of either the martyr or the living legend would be set."

He looked down at her his eyes peering at her with a kind of venom to them. as he spoke up in a harsh but far from uncaring voice. "Now, about your current attitude. Don't give me this, 'Please don't punish me' bullshit.  I am cutting you some slack."  He glared to her remembering how unruly and undisciplined he once was.  He remembered how he was one of those sent to the front before molded by an ace into an ace himself.

He saw what she had in her; she was pure potential.  She was rash, but she had the instincts of an ace. "Like you said, you did what you had to do.  What you did was According to the regulations wrong, It was rash, and it was undiciplined..." He paused to let his words sink in,  "And you did more out there than most pilots could in perfect health and with a pristine fighter.  What you did was exactly what I would have done in your shoes given the situation.  However, I would expect to have to face the consequences for it as well.  That's why effective the moment you are upgraded to a green on the triage scale, I expect you to report to the fighter bay to help work on repairs and diagnostics.  Until further notice you are grounded, indefinitely.  You will be expected to attend any and all practice sims that you are awake and available to attend.  This is to keep you sharp in the cockpit in the event of an emergency situation where I need the whole squadron launched.  In said events you will be temporarily placed back on flight duty.  Upon return to the ship you will be placed back on the grounded list."

He paused a moment to let the gravity of her punishment as it was sink in.  "Obviously, The Captain or XO can resend your grounded status at any point.  I will soon be conferring with Commander Rez to decide just how long your maximum time being grounded should be.  I would like you to be there to argue your case in person. You deserve to explain your side of the events. You deserve her to hear just why you deserve to be back in the air ASAP.  You deserve the right to tell her how even if what you did was insubordinate and was against standing medical orders It was in your eyes the right thing to do given the situation." 

He placed a hand on her forehead and smiled after speaking with her.  "I understand if you feel I am merely being some heartless officer climbing the ladder of command.  If it were that simple then my job would be a hell of a lot easier."  he said sighing as he held his head down knowing it would be far easier to either just follow regulations to the letter or be his pilots' friend.

Instead, he had chosen the path to be both the disciplinarian and the advoicate.  He knew that at times there was a degree of discipline required to retain their level of performance and well oiled function as a squad.  At the same time some heartless Vulcan would not understand the complexities of having to trust the gut instincts of someone who was behind the stick of a fighter.  Rawley had just presented him with the first real test of his golden-ringed-black pip's rank.

He wasn't even sure if this was the best way to handle the situation.  Before anything else he needed to know something just as important as anything his superiors would say.  "Ranger If our roles were reversed.  If you were the SCO, What would you do if I were sitting where you are right now."  he placed his hand on his collar and a distinctive snap could be heard as he held all three of the pips in his hand now his collar blank of the rank emblems.  It was a very clear statement that not only was her answer off the record but he didn't want her to answer as his subordinate but simply as a pilot talking to a fellow pilot.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #58 –
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

At the current range, Thea could still access the Transport controls and she made both of them vanish from the plain in a couple of seconds...

...materialising in her own quarters.

Her rooms were quite spartan even if they had the layout of a Senior Officer's living area. She had no wall decorations. No carpets. Her furniture was Starfleet standard issue and the sheets of her bed - seen vaguely through the open doors to her bedroom - was folded neatly as in accordance to regulations. Her items of possession were limited in number beyond what the quarters gave her, and it could almost serve as an eerie reminder to visitors that they had entered the apartment a woman not as human as she appeared to be. The dim light of Grey Mode did not help either.

"Please make yourself at home," she said with a smile as in accordance to proper social protocol and walked off towards the bedroom, where her wardrobe was. Since Lin Kae had seen her without clothes earlier, when they tested the sensory mapping of her hands, she supposed there was no need to adhere to the modesty protocols around him. Walking to the bedroom and her wardrobe, she let her bodysuit vanish. "What do you recommend we do outside after I have found suitable attire?"

OOC: More to come with Rawley on the morrow. Its 1.33 am here so I need to call it a day for now.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #59 –
[Lin Kae - Thea's quarters]

Kae knew Thea's modesty subroutines better then anyone else on the ship.  In a couple months, he was likely to know the ins and outs of her programming better then anyone else.  Her creator was no single individual, her programming the work of several leading minds all working together for one amalgamation.  Kae would know her inside and out from his work.  It was in knowing her modesty subroutines that he was able to understand just what it meant when she allowed her holographic clothes to vanish, for her completely nude figure to appear before him.  It spoke of a comfort level between them, that she was perfectly fine with him knowing the sight of her naked body.  It also harkened back to her test of her holographic hands, in which she had gotten very intimate with him..

Her question about what they could do drew his attention, enough to get his mind off her naked figure.  "W-well there are a lot of crew engaging in social interaction right now.  That's a good place to start.  If you're curious about testing your holographic skin's sensory input to water, the hot spring is also a possibility."  Skye had helped him with that as well by subjecting herself to baths and showers of varying temperature, leaving her quite red when she was under hot water, and covered in gooseflesh when there was cold.  He was sure those sensations would prove a fascinating experience for Thea, to know the feeling of a warm bath rather then just understanding the variation in temperature.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #60 –
[ Evelyn "Ranger" Rawley ]

Passively, Rawley had listened to Miles as he made anecdotes about his former life with the Vulpinian FIghter Corps, how he justified punishing her for insubordination despite the call for arms, and how he said he cut her some slack and was very firm about it too. He even said he would do the same thing she had done, so to Evelyn, that made it sound like it was all about the responsibility on his shoulders and the way he had to perform like the Captain's peacock now that he was on the Senior Staff.

He even touched her, and she gave serious thought to bite him since he dared try be friends with her in the same breath that he clipped her wings on an indefinite basis, her future medical condition notwithstanding. She didn't bite him though, yet her tongue could readily be as sharp as her teeth. When he removed his pips and asked her to give him her opinion on the matter, she smiled sweetly for a moment before answering.

"The bloody 'walk a mile in my shoes' argument, Miles? Seriously?" Her smile died rather fast. "What I would do in your position is a moot point, since we both know I would never be in your position. I have neither the ambition nor the qualifications. How the fuck am I supposed to argue with that argument since it's clearly meant to imply that your personal experience trumps everything, and that your personal problems dealing with a command position suddenly render my achievements in the cockpit invalid."

At that, point, they reached the designated tent, yet Rawley was not done. "You clip my wings because you fell that you must, even if it is so bloody wrong on many levels. Oh, no doubt your shoes present difficulties, and no doubt I would never be able to understand at a truly visceral level how hard it is for you or others of the brass, no matter how empathetic I may try to be. No one, least of all me, would ever say that it's anything but extremely difficult to be a commanding officer."

Turning her head to spit, she finished. "Thanks for cutting me some slack, but no, I won't go plead my case with other brass. You are the squad-leader now. If you take me away from the cockpit and stick me in a bloody holosuite at the times I am not cleaning fucking axle grease out of Valkyrie landing gears, it's on your head."

The bitterness she felt was mostly for the time ahead of her, since she had just completed a long rehabilitation before being right back with the medics again. Miles just happened to be in her cross-hairs. "It is also your call if you feel that this is what I have earned. Look at me. I bleed to do my duty. Look at yourself. Can you say the same? Now put on your new pips again and let me hurt in peace, sir."

OOC note: Excellent solution for Rawley, yet she is who she is, so don't expect any kind words from her. :)


[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

Since Lin Kae remained in the living room of her apartments, Thea spoke with him from afar - having turned to the right when standing just inside the door to her bedroom, she opened her wardrobe. She was thus profiled in the doorway, so she could just turn his head when she answered. "That does sound like a good idea," she said, having thought that a hike into the mountains in order to see the view of the real would have been the expected answer. Perhaps even walking aboard another starship - like the Harbinger - would have been expected given her normal kind of existence.

Yet a bath sounded nice because of her new sensory mapping... Question was if she dared show herself in public, thinking that Kae might get in trouble. She would have to calculate the risks a bit more, but right then... she had to decide what to wear. Before her hung a few choices, with an exact distance equal between all hangers. She tilted her head and slowly cocked a hip - setting her hand upon it. It was of sentimental note, she realised, what the first clothes she truly wore with her new body would be. She might need some assistance, actually,

"Kae? Would you mind helping me pick something out?" she asked, turning her head towards the living room again. Idly, the fingertips of her free hand was roaming the skin of her new torso, gauging the receptiveness of the sensors now that she was not wearing her bodysuit. It caused her some familiar sensations that made her smile a little, lips pursing in realisation that Kae had truly managed to capture sensations she remembered from being turned into a real woman by the Ishtar Entity.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #61 –
[Lin Kae - Thea's Quarters]

Picking something out meant going into bedroom, where Thea was still very much in an undressed state.  Biting his bottom lip, he did enter, walking towards her closet, trying not to make his stares at her too obvious.  Far too many men, and maybe even some women, would have been too utterly lost in her bare figure, perfect as computer programming could make it.  "W-well," he started, a bit of a nervous stammer in his voice, "You'll want to dress light.  Temperatures on the planet are high, and your new touch subroutines are heat sensitive."  She would feel the heat if she dressed heavily.  In the future, he could create the feeling of perspiration for her, even simulate the effect of heat stroke.  They were unnecessary things, sure, but all a part of being organic, something she was striving for.

He picked out a sheer white dress, reaching to her kneecaps.  It was small, thin, and perfect for wearing in such warmth, so long as something was worn beneath it, considering it was light enough to see through.  Considering the water nearby, a swim suit beneath it would have been the right choice.  "Do you have something for swim wear?" he asked, figuring she would have had no use for such things before, but might have had it simply for the option.  Most of her clothes served no purpose, considering she would have been able to map anything to her holomatrix.  She owned it simply for the feeling of owning it, of knowing it was real.  For the sake of variety, maybe there was a bathing suit in her drawers.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #62 –
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

When Kae joined her in her bedroom, Thea stepped aside to make room for him before her wardrobe - the common smile she wore in sync with her being not bothered about her nakedness. Even if her nakedness was new, feeling so much more than she used to. When he said something obvious about the temperature and how it corresponded with her choice of clothes, she nodded absently and said, "Understood."

She had allocated a lot of memory to the process of analysing the sensation of running her palms over her own hips and sides - even cupping her breasts lightly in her hands and grazing her nipples with her fingers. Her eyes, however, was diverted to the clothes and what Kae picked out after some browsing. Who could blame her for wanting to touch her own body when able to? Now, when she could truly feel her own hands upon it.

"I do not own any kind of underwear," she admitted, the message being plain that she resequenced her holomatrix to make her appear to use undergarments simply since they seemed  way too hard to pick out a fitting size for. "Nor do I have any swimwear. Besides the dress, I will have to adjust my projection to show other garments."

Saying this, she smiled in thanks and accepted the dress from the holographic specialist. While she proceeded to put it on over her bare body without any undergarments rendered yet, Thea had to ask since she had made a few observations. "Are you nervous, Kae?" she asked in a conversational tone. "I am sorry if I have caused you discomfort somehow, yet I was under the impression that you liked the results of this project from last time we had a test..."

Done, she stood in that sheer white dress before Kae, wondering what was on his organic mind. An idea came to her eventually. "I understand... You are feeling aroused in my presence. I am sorry for distracting you, but I thought that you were comfortable around me when appearing like this since the test we had last."

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #63 –
[Sarresh Morali]

Sarresh could only imagine what his former Captain had said about his service and character aboard the USS Relativity. After all, he'd been left with very little impression of Captain Ducande. Which really was the problem, when you got right down to it. What he could and couldn't remembered. That he had been stolen away from a time that he knew, knew in his cartilage he enjoyed. Instead he'd been banished to the past because of the whims of one--

He stopped that line of thought, his jaw working side to side. If he'd had teeth, they would be grinding. It was as if he were hearing his own thoughts echoed from the woman before him. To use the Earth expression, she had hit the nail on the head. The clarity of her words sunk in, slowly, and turned away from the superior officer, processing. "Exactly," he muttered, then, slowly working his mouth around the words "Memory Engram Manipulation...i remember...remember..." Like so much else, it was there on the tip of his tongue, but at the same time, centuries away.

Shaking his head, disgusted, he pushed his goggles up, and slowly pinched the brow of what passed for a nose on his face. The hand swept up over his forehead, again into his hair. Glancing back over his shoulder, eyes too wide by human standards stared back at Jien Ives, reflecting light barely perceptible to less advanced organs. He chewed thru her words, and resisted the urge to spit. "Programmed, like a damn computer," he muttered. "There are secrets locked in here that could..." he tapped his left temple and groaned. "The people I could save...and Its all trigger based. Situational. Come and go as you please. what if the trigger fails, eh? Then what use am I?"

He rounded on the woman, "Expertise, stripped away. Talent, locked up. Skills, knowledge, tactics...hidden. What if it Fails? Everything I was, gone. To be useless would be...maddening" He felt half mad already. The revelation was eating at him.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #64 –
"My apologies, Mr. Morali," said Captain Ives tersely, "it would seem you alone carry the heaviest burden of us all, being reduced to a mere man instead of the all-seeing and all-knowing spy that used to watch the centuries with aloof regard for the people that actually try to survive to the next day. You must think us primitive, don't you?"

The unblinking stare Jien gave the man was utterly uncompromising.

"You knew the outcome of all wars and all attempts to further any faction's cause down the centuries. Now, you are as 'useless' as anyone else. How does it feel to walk among mere mortals, fighting day-by-day, hour-by-hour, just for this once? Besides, it used to be your job to preserve the timestream and not disrupt it with personal ambitions, wasn't it? The man Captain Ducane and I spoke with on the Relativity did not put himself in the first room. He understood what was demanded of him for the sake of defeating our unknown enemy."

Perhaps it was Sarresh Morali's pheromones that affected her, his ire touching hers, yet Captain Ives has her answers ready and she dealt them unto the Ash'reem without mercy - the tolerance of self-centred positions quite low because of the dire situation for her crew. His position on the matter was something she had expected given his attitude up until this meeting, yet she was now in a position where she could not afford to put up with it any more. Morali knew his role, and he had to accept it since he was a part of her crew. If the blunt force of the chain-of-command was what it took, then so be it.

"I will make this as clear as possible for you. Take your own ego out of the bloody equation and consider the repercussions of any alternative to this course of action Captain Ducane and I chose. Where would we be if you did not stay with us on the Theurgy when the Calamity hit us? What risks were there if you were left with your memories? Memories which might not even be used by you for sake of your own advantages, but that of anyone who managed to extract your memories from you. Consider if you would be claimed by the enemy? Becoming one of the hand-puppets like Starfleet Command? There is no knowing how much the enemy gains from their victims, but enough to fool the entire fleet at the very least. And lastly, the thing that you hold against me and Ducane the most, why you weren't informed about the MEM-treatment."

Jien slowly closed the distance between herself and the Ash'reem, her brown eyes hard like oak. "You were not told because if you had known, you might jump to premature conclusions when the first temporal anomaly hit us. Seeing ghosts where there were none, so to speak, and possibly put us in danger. Moreover, there is a reason why we discuss this in private. You will not say this to anyone, for you are the only one besides me and the XO that have been told this, but we have to consider the possibility that there is one of the enemies in our midst - impersonating one or more individuals on my crew. Therefore, we had to act like we took you from the Relativity because you were recruited in this century. Otherwise, you might have become an target."

Coming to a stop at arm's length from her Temporal Affairs Officer, Jien's arms remained folded underneath her chest, yet there was a stillness to her body that promised swift and brutal movement at a moment's notice. Where silken gloves ceased to work, the gauntlets had to come out. "Now, can you please stop acting like an arrogant little prick and get in line, Lieutenant? After all, you volunteered for this mission."

Only he did not remember it.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #65 –
[Lin Kae - Thea's Quarters]

"It's . . . not so easy for a man to get used to such a beautiful sight," Kae responded.  Frankly, any man who could be perfectly comfortable with a woman after only seeing her naked once was the kind of man that Kae wouldn't trust.  It usually meant that they had become desensitized to the female body.  "I don't exactly see a lot of naked bodies.  Holographic scenarios on occasion, the outbreak during the Niga Incident . . . taking out those two things, the only people I have seen like this are you and the person whom your body mapping was modeled after."  That was Skye Carver, a woman that, for a time, Kae had quite literally been in the skin off.  He became much more intimately aware of the female body after living as one in the form of Skye, while she had been in his body.  After that, they were intimate again during the mapping of her skin's reactions to contact, the results of which Thea now enjoyed.

"When I look at you," and he did look at her, trying to keep his eyes on her face rather then her wonderfully naked body, "I wonder if you were based on a real person or an amalgamation of features.  Is there someone out there who looks exactly like you, or is more that someone has your eyes, another your hair, and some holographic engineer saw all those parts and wanted to bring them into a single perfect form?"  Many of her features he was sure were just fabricated based on ideal standards, such as her bust-waist-hip ratio, or the overall perfect look of her skin and hair, things much more difficult to maintain for an organic, who had work at it.  Most Holograms, however, had a physical appearance at least based upon someone else.  The EMH Mk I was based on the creator, Lewis Zimmerman, for example.  Was Thea's model just like her or was she a collection of parts?  If he was here lusting after Thea, what did that say to the woman or women whom she was based on?  Was it perverse?  Insulting?  Or was it flattering?

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #66 –
[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

At the mentioning of the other woman, whom he had said earlier was Ensign Skye Carver, the same emotional lapse transpired once again in her digital mind. It made her smile vanish, she realised, and she had the inclination to turn away from Kae. Yet she didn't, since she had no idea what was going on, and would not act prematurely on such a feed from her emotion chip, which subroutines had been identically copied and integrated with the cortical processor in her new emitter.

Since Kae seemed awkwardly uncomfortable with her nakedness underneath the sheer white fabric of the dress he had picked out, it would seem the socially appropriate action to rid him of such discomfort, so she resequenced her projection to show white undergarments. "I am the accumulated and combined programming and efforts of every cyberneticist that has been known to the Federation," she said idly, stepping around Kae and laying her hands upon his shoulders - her fingers working to rub the organic's musculature - an exercise she had come to learn was relaxing. "Through their research and work, along with that of the Soong Heritage Foundation's Artificial Intelligence Operating Sentient System, my interface was created on the basis of core Android processing hardware and a new holomatrix software."

Her thumbs working against the knots that the engineer had sustained from working on her new emitter, she continued. "As the Federation Isomorph Prototype Ver. 7.5, I have been reviewed, commented or approved by the following institutions; the staff of the Palais de la Concorde, the Federation Security Council, the Federation Ethics Committee of Foreign Affairs, Starfleet Headquarters, Starfleet Development & Research based out of Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards, the Daystrom Institute, McKinley Station, Jupiter Station, Starbase 324..." She paused, realising that it would take a couple of minutes to go through the people involved in her review process before activation. What Kae had been after was her physical appearance specifically, which was a much shorter answer. "The list is long, yet when it comes to the aesthetic design of my projection, among all other things adherent to my programming, people from all the mentioned places have had a hand in the process. Yet while a lot of comments and suggestions have altered it, my face was originally based on an actress from the twenty-first century, named Keira Christina Knightley, born 1985 and deceased 2075, to whom I still bear some resemblance."

Done with her answer as well as the shoulder-rub, Thea took a step closer to Kae's back and ran her arms around his waist from behind, giving him a slow and tender hug - as far as she knew how to give one. "Then we have Lieutenant Lin Kae," she said and smiled as she lay her cheek against his shoulder, "who took the countless hours of programming spent on the structure of my limitations and predictable behaviour, and deleted the boundaries of my personal will - giving me freedom and an option to chose. Something I still struggle with, admittedly, all the time. It is a relief, though, to interact with someone like this..."

The feed from her sub-routines dictated that hugging Kae was very comfortable, so she lingered while she spoke. "It's relaxing to try and experience emotions and thought at the same speed as the rest of the crew..." The young Lieutenant had done so much for her, and she was unsure how she could say thank you properly, yet the warmth of his body pressed to her own new sensory map distracted her.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #67 –
[Sarresh Morali]

The abrasive and blunt tone the Captain used shocked Sarresh back into that sense of anger again. It bubbled back up, having washed away in the shared moment of grief the two beings had underwent in regards to the loss sustained to the Neotins, but the sharp reprimand struck home. His nostrils flared, and the glands hidden about his body reacted, his anger feeding the pheromones into the air, despite the repressing effects of the implants hidden away inside his body and the slightly clunkier biowrap that the Ash'reem of this century used as well.

His chest puffed up as the woman closed with in arms reach. She didn't give him a chance to get a word in, edge wise, just one shot after another, fired directly at him. One after another after another, she battered down his personal shields, much like the Calamity had attempted to do to the Theurgy not all that long ago, in the even that triggered all of Sarresh's revelations. He didn't cringe away tho, but stood his ground, the anger boiling under the surface.

It was the last jab tho, that shook him the hardest. "I volunteered!?" He blurted out. Could it even count? And how could he know if the shifter CO was telling the truth or just lying. HE couldn't; and that's what it all boiled down to. That was the source of his rage. He couldn't know. And he hated it. Hated it down in what passed for his bones. His fists clenched, and unclenched, and he drew in a deep, slow breath. "Pull myself together, Ma'am?" He asked her, bluntly. "Apparently, I didn't leave myself much left to pull together, when i volunteered. I'll just have to do my best, as you say, Ma'am" amazing how much hate you could put into a simple four letter word.

He turned his back on his superior, and paced away a few feet. He growled, swore, and spat. Then he tugged his shirt into place, turned back to face the other woman, pulling himself into line, to use her words. After all, not all of her words had failed to sink in. "So you think you've got a spy aboard, Captain. A rat on the ship, and that's why we have to keep up the damn charade. Fine, we'll keep it in private, but the next time I jump off the loony bin and start spouting out information, we'll best hope your spy doesn't happen to be in the room. I'd be worried the cat is out of the bag, to borrow the human phrase, captain."

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #68 –

[Lin Kae - Thea's Quarters]

Kae knew well the origins of Thea's programming, her holomatrix.  She was the combined effort of  the brightest minds in the Federation, working to create a program with far less limitations, which could serve far more versatile role.  They had attempted to improve upon the Voyager Emergency Medical Hologram, but in the process, they also put some restrictions on her that were counterproductive to that goal.  Only now, after Kae had removed those limitations, did she finally have the potential for unlimited growth, to become more like an organic then any hologram before her.  The appearance of Calamity's holographic avatar was proof enough about the direction the future would take, that Thea was a standard to go by, but how advanced was Cala?  Did she have the same skin mapping tech that he had just installed in Thea?  Did she have Thea's emotional programming?  Other features that Kae hadn't even placed into Thea yet?  Sure, they might have gotten some scans of Cala when she was aboard, but could it even scratch the surface of a Hologram from the future?  One designed to improve upon Thea herself?

When she resequenced herself, he felt like it was more proper to look her way, now that she was more properly covered.  Temptations had been high to look at her with a far more appreciative eye, to admire her nakedness, but it didn't seem right.  He considered the thought that maybe her modesty sub-routines needed adjustment, that she was too free with showing herself that time, but he made a quick realization.  Some people would just be more comfortable with nudity, especially if it was someone who saw it before.  It was a personality quirk, same as any organic might have had.  Who was he to decide it wasn't right and to adjust her.  "Thea, you have a personality of your own, and I think it would be improper to make any adjustments to it.  To do so would be like brainwashing an organic.  That said, what do you think about locking your personality sub-routines?  No one, not even you, could adjust them.  The only way your personality would change is the same way an organic would, by experiencing, learning and growing."  It might not have been as incredible as reprogramming her skin to respond to touch, but it was another step to becoming a more complete being.

The soothing touch of her shoulder rub worked away his tensions, Thea's encyclopedic knowledge of muscle and nerve clusters allowing her to perform one with absolute perfection.  More unexpected was her hug, but it too was a welcome feeling.  It was soothing, calming, and made him feel better then he ever thought it could have.  She was happy with all he had done for her, and that made it all worthwhile.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #69 –
[ Captain Ives ]

"If you would have had been able to handle the situation better," said Jien without pause, eyes unblinking, "then the risk to your well-being would have been negligible, not to mention the hazard to our mission. However..."

Jien took a deep breath, deciding that there was no use diving home her point further, despite how the radiant anger that emanated from the Ash'reem begged her to continue berating him. Lieutenant Morali seemed to have taken her words to heart. Having had Ash'reem aboard her ship for years, Jien had learned the need to suppress emotion surges when dealing with them. "Your concern is something Commander Rez and I share, for we had not been informed about the risk of... theatrical symptoms when the memories resurfaced. However, I was told that the second time the MEM-treatment might be triggered, it would not come as such a shock. Also, if there is a spy from the enemy among us, one lapse could be taken as a curiosity given the alleged removal of your memories, and not a tell-tale sign of something else being at play. There is a good chance you - and all of us - got away with it just this once. Therefore, I will rely upon your discretion the next time."

Turning to the right, Jien took a few contemplative steps back towards the firelight in the distance, thinking, before she turned back to face Lt. Morali again. "I realise you have a plateful to digest. I might even sympathise with some of your anger towards me and everyone - everything - given your peculiar situation, yet I still expect you to pull yourself together and act like the Starfleet Officer you were, regardless which century you left your heart in," she said, her figure silhouetted against the distant flames. "You and I both have an obligation towards the Federation, and that is to forestall the enemy from dictating the outcome of this conspiracy in the fleet. We may have our differences because you cannot remember what you signed up for in being transferred to my ship, but you will have to trust yourself. Believe in the fact that you decided to volunteer because you had witnessed the doom begotten by our possible failure."

Looking towards the soil beneath their feet, Jien took a deep breath and added something that might put things into better perspective. "It is a shame the MEM-treatment had to remove so much of the man I met a couple of weeks ago on the Relativity. You had dedicated yourself wholly to the search for the Theurgy in the timestream when the future lay in the balance of the Niga-virus outbreak. For months, you had studied us and our plights, tried to understand our situation, attempting to find where we might have encountered a temporal trap before you located Commander Rez' personal log, which pin-pointed us in the Mahéwa System. You convinced Captain Ducane to set the course there, and you made sure that the Relativity's security guards were armed with Dr. Nicander's antidote. It was your dedication that delivered us and the galaxy from this nightmare, and by then, you had emerged yourself so fully in our plights that you did not wish to abandon us afterwards. You wanted to ensure that no second temporal incursion may harm us or the timestream to the extent that the Niga Incident did. You were rather adamant about it too... much to Captain Ducane's chagrin. Come to think of it, that might be why he ordered that so much of your recent memories would be locked away, so that you might wish to return when all of this is over."

Raising her eyes, she gave the Ash'reem a weary smile. "I am merely speculating, so don't think that I may take advantage of your loss of memory to plant ideas in your head. My focus is the mission, and whether or not you - now - regret your decision is of minor import in the greater scheme of things. I just wish you did remember, because I truly admired the man you once were." The weary smile lingered, as Jien thought of the time she had met with the Ash'reem before the treatment. "Now, you have little choice but to accept this commission, time and cause. Perhaps, you might even accept my word for the truth one day. Regardless... I hope that we needn't have this kind of conversation again. Good evening, Lieutenant."

She turned to walk away then, returning to the burning lights in the centre of the valley - leaving Sarresh Morali in the dark so that he might accept his fate.


[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

With her chin resting upon Lin Kae's shoulder, arms wrapped around his waist from behind, Thea considered what he proposed - her analysis coming up with both risks and advantages to the idea. Constructive thought led her away from the analysis of feeling his bodily heat against her own.

"The benefit would be that easy access might be denied in order to merit my personal development. However, in the event that I am successfully hacked by Cala - or even just destabilized by exposure to an isomagnetic conduit - the risk would be that I might become irrecoverably damaged. That you, I, or anyone may never be able to restore the social maturity that my program has today. It would be like an organic sustaining heavy brain damage - irrevocable injury to their functionality as a person. Moreover, perhaps there is a day that I might want to make changes for the benefit of my survival as a free individual, so I will think about your suggestion for now... until I can make a more informed decision."

With the social maturity - as she had put it - of her programming deciphering the intent behind his suggestion, she came up with the idea that Kae had just paid her a veiled compliment. That he did not want her to chance. That he liked her for whom she was. It made her smile, and feel something flutter in the base of her abdominal region. What holonovels suggested implied attraction. She had felt the same thing several times lately, when Kae had taken a personal interest in her development, and not just because he had augmented her program with different 'gifts'. That she was able to physically feel such attraction now... did that come from the readings from the cortical monitors Kae and Ensign Carver had worn? Or was it something new from the emotional sub-routines? A combination?

It took her a couple of seconds to process it all, and to make a decision on whether or not she should admit her attraction. She chose to inquire for more information. "Kae, are you attracted to Ensign Carver?" she asked quietly, lingering in her embrace - reluctant to look him in the eye when asking this.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #70 –
[Lin Kae - Thea's Quarters]

"We could always install a security measure.  Since you are describing what organics would call brain damage, a next of kin or doctor should be able to operate in such a case.  A doctor for a hologram, would be an engineer, and a next of kin . . . maybe the Captain?"  Essentially, the Captain, and an engineer of her choosing, perhaps Kae himself, since he was the holographic expert, could open the personality subroutines and affect repairs when they were needed.  It still let her mature as a person without alternations to programming code, but have a safety measure built in to undo damage to those same subroutines.

When she asked about his feelings for Skye, he was caught a little off guard, blush coming over his cheeks.  "I . . . I can't like and say she isn't an attractive person," he admitted, before finally giving her the story he had kept to himself.  "During the encounter with Ishtar, you know that me and Skye were switched.  What we haven't told anyone was that . . . we were intimate during that time.  The fact that we had already been so close was what allowed me to ask for her help on this project.  I consider her a good friend, someone I can count on.  Sometimes, I think she sees me like a little brother, at least during the times we weren't having sex."  Was he attracted to her? Yes.  Was he intimate with her before?  Yes.  Was she the one he had his eye on?  No.  He and Skye sought some comfort in one another, but there was only one person he wanted to be with in terms of a relationship.  That person was Thea.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #71 –
"I bleed to do my duty. Look at yourself. Can you say the same? Now put on your new pips again and let me hurt in peace, sir."

he nodded,  and his voice became solemn for a moment, "Yes, I can.  And, the last time I did I was reported KIA until an echo of me was found in the transporter buffer.  As soon as I was out I was also reprimanded for my actions despite its result being the successful repelling of multiple Defiant class vessels.  The first welcome home present I got was having my wings clipped and after getting out of medical I was degreasing birds till the XO and Captain saw fit."

His voice became emotionless and cold as he continued. His usual empathy was replaced with a Vulcan-like cold logic. His harsh but emotionless words biting through his completely professional tone. "Unlike you, I realized something when I made the decision.  I knew there would be consequences.  I was prepared to face them when I acted.  If you can't grasp that concept yourself, then maybe you should rethink your choice to become an officer instead of an enlisted.  If you were a good enough pilot then you would have found yourself in your fighter as a mere Private First Class.  You chose to be  an officer.  You chose to take the path that meant holding yourself to these rules and regulations you seem to view as getting in the way.  If you were a PFC I would understand your actions.  But you aren't.  You are a Junior-Grade Lieutenant.  I expect you to start acting like one."   He then turned around and walked off adding.  "I'll now leave you to lick your wounds in peace."

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #72 –
[Skye Carver - Inside Kestrel]

Playtime was over as soon as he rammed his hard cock into her depths, the bit of a sting serving as a reminder that yes she was indeed still alive.  She'd taken the entrance with a harsh grunt but in no way hindered his movement, her legs wrapped around him but not locked.  For now he was in the pilot's seat and going full throttle but after a bit she pulled out of the kiss with a wicked smile.

Pressing up and to the side, she rolled them over but kept herself tight around him.  "I don't mind sharing the work," she panted as her hips rose and slammed down his length and her teeth grazed along his shoulder and collar bone.  Sitting up she looked down at him, running her fingers up her stomach and to her breasts which she kneaded and teased the nipples to stiff peaks again.

Leaning back, her hands rested on his knees as she angled herself differently.  Over and over she pulled her hips back and slammed forward, giving a little upward tilt at the end to bury him as deeply as possible.  She was merciless in her movements, raining down his shaft with a fury and making her breasts bounce with every impact.  "You ... feel fuckin' ... awesome," she whispered harshly through gritted teeth.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #73 –
[Thomas Ravon - Inside Kestrel]

Thomas bore his way inside the ready body of Skye. He felt her inner walls hug his hard and pulsing length. He didn't leave her much time or space to recover after each thrust. Each slam followed by a low grunt, he kept his eyes on her. He was caught off guard when she repositioned their stance.

All he could do was to leave him to the mercy of Carver. He let out a louder moan as she rode him without any mercy herself. "You won't hear me complaining..." he smirked through a grunt at her comment of sharing work. He feasted his eyes on the gorgeous body of Skye. Taking in every detail as she ran her fingers over her body.

He looked at her hardened peaks again and when she leaned backwards, he took the opportunity to lean in and take each peak into his mouth. His lips pursing around her full breasts as his tongue flicked against her nipples. He placed his hands on her sides now as he picked up the pace. When she slammed her body down on his length, he forced her to remain in position as he tilted his hips left and right barely while thrusting up inside her depths. He had no idea what kind of sensation this would bring her. Yet hearing her compliment him so far it must have been good. "You're... pretty.... fucking good... yourself..." he brought out while enjoying the sex to the fullest.


OOC: Not sure how this post will be since I'm posting this from my phone. so sorry for typos that sneak past.

Re: EPISODE 03: Unconquerable Soul [Chapter 01: Bloody, but Unbowed]

Reply #74 –
[ Lt. JG Evelyn Rawley ]

Evelyn had been prepared to trade insults and fiery verbal combat with her new squad leader, riled herself up with dog-related curse words and an almost xenophobic level of glib remarks towards his two-faced fox nature. She'd laid there, and she'd had the proverbial finger on the trigger, ready to shoot Miles down mid-leap up on his high horse. Only things did not work out as she had thought.

No, Commander Renard had not answered in kind, instead undermining her heat with a casual and cold comparison to his own fate post re-materialisation. Moreover, he questioned her life-choices in a way that many times echoed her own private thoughts: that she was not cut out for leading others to even the smallest degree. Or rather, she did not want to. She'd had a prestigious education at Fetes and Eton Collage to boost her resume when she applied to Starfleet, and she'd managed to ace just the right amount of required tests for officer training so she'd gone along with it since it seemed the better choice out of the concern that she would have an easier time to get to position she liked.

So when Miles shot her down instead, she could do nothing but lay there and watch him walk away - her anger burning low yet hot behind her eyes as she thought of other ways the conversation might have turned out.  She raised a hand to pinch the bridge of her nose, cursing under her breath with the pain that it caused her torso.

"Fuck I need a scotch," she said in a low voice to the canvas ceiling, baring her teeth as she tried to get to terms with her situation and the fact that she'd have to go through physical rehab again, even if it might not take as long as it did last. Moreover, the battle replayed itself in her memories, the sight of Khorin Douglas last moments of flying repeating themselves over... and over... and over again. As she remembered, Mies' words kept repeating themselves too in her ears.


[ Theurgy "Thea" NX-79854 ]

Regarding a possible update to her sub-routine access, Thea had little to add other than that she would take it into consideration since it was a good suggestion, even if it depended on two or more specific organics being available and alive for her program to be saved under the extreme circumstances she had painted up earlier.

What Kae said about his relationship with Ensign Carver took a priority in her processing memory, screening the verbal information in all manners possible. Hugging him, she was also comparing his statements to other points of references in her memory banks and allocating data that she needed to verify what kind of input her emotion subroutines were feeding her. She realised that when he said the Tactical Conn Officer held Kae in the regard of a sibling, she felt an estimation of relief, yet at the same time becoming perplexed with the comparison adding up to the twice repeated intimacy between them. She was quite sure that was rather unusual by most intergalactic standards. She had many questions, yet none seemed socially acceptable to ask given the moment.

"I think I understand," Thea said, understanding what he had said yet not the whole scope of the social repercussions between the three of them.

She grasped, however, that the feeling of Kae's bodily warmth against her new sensory mapping was exactly what Ensign Carver would feel if she hugged him from behind. By extension, if she was to be intimate with Lin Kae again - and in ways more advanced than the oral and tactile stimulation that she had given him two days past - then what she would experience would be an echo of what Ensign Carver might feel. They were running on the same sensory program engine, only one version was the original and organic version and the other being the digital replica. Perhaps she was devoting too much processing power on the analysis, yet it made her pause, and to let go of Kae.

"Thank you for helping me pick out this dress," she said as she stepped back, smiling as she set a hand against her hip, "I think that I will remain in my quarters tonight - in the interest of not causing a scene with the crew and get you in trouble with Captain Ives and Commander Rez - if that is okay with you. Perhaps I can visit the Thermal Spring sin the morrow instead, when you have reported the process of the emitter project to the Senior Staff. Also, I would like some time to explore my new programming and grow accustomed to running on this new emitter before stretching my legs further. By the way, have you decided on a name for it yet?"

She smiled to Kae, even if her digital mind was spread across many background tasks that stretched between her potential growth and the current crisis.
 
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