Aberrant: Stargate Universe - Mental Jeopardy [FIN]

[Adrian Moss]

Damien's gut was in a knot. This was unknown territory in two ways. He had never felt so strongly for another person his entire life. He had saved up his attachments for the Service and the people he served with. The woman had twisted him up both mentally and physically. Even after their successful mission, he felt lucky that nothing had stressed his loyalties. He hated not being sure were things would fall out.

His choice of a desperate cure to save himself, to save himself from wanting her and putting pressure on her to want him, showed him how desperate he was. On the other hand, if this worked, it would open up new possibilities for the SGC. If he could get Kyria to see his need and to understand that this was the only way out for him - this or lose his family.

The Major was waiting for Kyria when she came back from her work out. He waited by the door, PDA in hand, trying to look official while inside he wanted to run. Part of him didn't want to let Olivia go, even as he knew that they had to be emotionally parted to save the Team. Of this one thing he was certain, Kyria held the answer.

[z028 Riley]

Kyria poked her head in door, her curiosity as to why the leader of another team needed to see her plain on her face. She was still the black jumpsuit from her workout, having forgotten to flow it into something else while she puzzled over the odd summons. Seeing Major Caine peering over his PDA about half a foot from her head, she stepped inside and waited for him to finish whatever he was doing. After all, as novas, they had time.

[Adrian Moss]

When the head popped out, Caine's head popped up. The man looked resplendant in his BDU's. He made the look so much more ... more. He had the look of someone who had it all, and was willing to share. For so many things, this was true - just not today.

"Specialist Donnighal, I need a few minutes of your time. May I come in?"

Inivited in, Damien couldn't help but fidget a little. Being so unsettled was alien to him. Not since junior high ...

"Specialist Donnighal, may I call you Kyria? I'm here on a personal matter."

He put his hands clasping his PDA behind his back and rocked once back and forth on his heels. He was visably stresses. There was the faintest sheen of sweat above his rich, full lips.

"I would like to talk to you about memory alteration."

<Deep Breath>

"I would like to talk to you about altering my memory."

The worse thing she can do is send me away. She might report me and then I can be thankful I have done nothing wrong. Wrong? Save for loving her.

[z028 Riley]

She blinked at him, completely caught off guard, then frowned. "What happened? I mean, I assume something happened. People don't usually ask someone to make swiss cheese of their head for no reason."

That came out at a little sharper than she intended, but she still had qualms about everything going on with Declan. Most especially with how much she might be responsible for his current dissociative disorder. And now here was his CO, making a rather bizarre request.

[Adrian Moss]

Yes, he looked hurt, but his gaze didn't linger on her. She wasn't the source of his pain. Caine didn't seem willing to open up about it, but what choice did he have?

"I need a certain mindframe to do my job at the highest level of proficiency. I ... feel a certain way about another team member," this is insane. She's not stupid,"- Olivia."

He was uncomfortble and embarrassed.

"I need you to make it so that I don't feel that way about her anymore. We talked about it, Livy and I, and it was decided that I was the one who had to make the change. We both love the Team and we don't want to break it apart. The Team needs her," he said, eyes pleading for understanding.

"She is the cornerstone, so I am the one who needs to find a way past this. My problem is that I've never felt this strongly about anything but the Service."

<Deep Breath>

"Can you help me? Will you help me?"

[z028 Riley]

She folded her arms and looked this man over for several minutes before she came to a decision.

"Yeah, I can do that." She let him stew in that for just a moment before she went on. "Of course, that's not just memories there. I'll have to make more changes than that. Otherwise you'll just become attracted to her all over again, and that's just more work for me."

Her tone was clipped and her eyes narrowed on him. "And hey, while we're at it, how about any other ex girlfriends or girls you wanted but never got. I mean, that's gotta hurt too, y'know? Surely you don't want to have to deal with those memories or anything either. Oh, and I can wipe out any time you got yelled at or a bad review. And anything else that was painful or complicated. I mean, I'll be completely rewiring your head on what you find attractive, so it won't be all that out of my way cross a few other wires. Make you love paperwork and-"

He'd crossed the line from embarrassed to confused to angry now, so it was time to stop. She dropped her arms and took a step towards him, speaking softly. "You're pissed at me. Good. Maybe a little adrenaline will clear your head enough to know how stupid that was to ask of me. I'm not anyone's one stop answer to dealing with complicated things. You like her. I'm pretty sure she likes you too. Either the two of you agree not to do anything about it, or you take a tumble against orders and see if there's anything behind it beyond hormones and the rush of being novas now. If there is, then you decide if that's enough to either lie to the general and be discreet about it, or not. I'm not trying to belittle the hurt or confusion or pain you're feeling, but you're asking me to go in and fiddle with a perfectly healthy mind just so you don't have to deal with the inconvenience of being attracted to someone. What would you have done if I wasn't here?"

[Adrian Moss]

She didn't understand, or maybe she did and she simple knew she wasn't the answer. The truth of the matter was also what scared him.

"What would I have done if you weren't here? If I can't beat this, I quit. I leave the Service. If I can't give my top performance to my job, I'm putting my Team in danger. I'm not going to do that."

"I don't know if I can get over her, especially working together on a team. I'm afraid, because my life has been the service since before I was a teenager. It's been all I've had."

"So I understand that I'm operating out of fear. That's not a healthy response and it's not something I'm used to not being able to deal with ... but ... I didn't come here all in a panic because I've got a boo-boo. I think I'm a good Team Leader. I think I've put together and got to gel the best team in the SGC. I don't want to lose any of that and that's exactly what I see myself doing."

"If you can't help, or won't, I understand, but don't mock me."

As he spoke those words, his whole countance changed. Suddenly he was menacing and dangerous. Suddenly his power as a nova was truly made evident and the thought of denegrating Caine was pushed to the farthest reaches of his mind. Suddenly he was like ... Dad?

Click to reveal..

Awe-Inspiring subconciously activated for the very first time.

[z028 Riley]

She took several steps back before she registered what was happening. She'd done this to most of her nannies and caretakers at one point or another when she hadn't liked what they were telling her to do. Her eyes narrowed, "Stop it. Intimidating me isn't going to solve this problem."

Click to reveal..

Two successes for The Voice on the 'stop it' command. Since he doesn't conciously know what he's doing, I'll leave it Adrian if it works or not. It's a Wits roll to resist, needing equal or more successes.

"If you're going to quit the SGC over something like this, then you probably should. You have a great team. Bravo. If you can't get over her or can't focus because of her, then you're not going to have the greatest team for very long no matter what you do. So either get some counseling, real counseling from someone who actually knows what they're doing, ignore the fraternization rules, or take yourself or her off the team. I mocked you because you tried to use me as your get-out-of-jail free card. Livy and Jaunt, I like them. They treat me like I'm a person and not a problem or a shortcut. You haven't even spoken more than a sentence at a time to me since the first day you got here, and then you come in and drop this on my lap. I'm not your tool."

The last came out in an angry hiss.

[Adrian Moss]

Click to reveal..

(22:35:47) ChatBot: (Adrian) rolls 6d10 and gets 6,10,9,2,2,2 = 2 successes on a Wits roll

Caine stopped figetting and his brow furrowed.

"Stop what?" he muttered, confused.

He was too occupied in sorting out his own conflicted emotions to fully grab the importance of what had just happened - for now.

"You are right. I've treated you as a tool - as a device to solve a problem. I'm wrong for doing that. You are the transplant here and I didn't even bother to see if you and Omar had any place to go on leave."

Damien shakes his head. He had done this badly in so many ways.

"Why won't you do this? No, I don't mean on me, but why the personal anger over it? In so many ways you look like a semi-normal teenager, its easy to forget you have been using your gifts for years. Tell me a little about that if you don't mind ... or send me on my way."

"Oh, and I've given up on asking you, I just want to know."

It was like he was a different man. Caine had tried an avenue of the attack and when it failed, he didn't dwell on it, but moved on. Now he was after something else.

[z028 Riley]

She sighed and dropped on to her bed, "Minds aren't like cars, Major Caine. If you take them apart you can't just put everything back where it was and be fine. We have bodies and brains, but we're more than that. And that more is far more fragile than most people ever suspect." Her hands drummed over her stomach, the lines of the muscles there translated through the fabric of her jumpsuit.

"And it doesn't matter how old I look. I was born a nova. I could read and write and walk and climb and do trig while baseline kids were still figuring out 'mama'. If this were my world, you would have known not to ask me, and if you had been foolish enough to seek out a telepsychologist for that sort of adjustment you'd have been sent to conventional therapy with a polite lecture on what a 'serious mental condition' constituted. I'm not trained for this sort of thing." She laid a hand on he forehead, trying to ward off the impending headache and muttered, "I was trained to rule, not heal."

[Adrian Moss]

"And you fled that role. You didn't want to take responsibility for others ... and here I asked you to take responsibility for me, or my mind."

Damien grimaces and shakes his head.

"Can I make you day any worse?"

"I have noticed you, by the way, in the way I notice people around me, not in some emotional sense. You don't see, to have any group you've really seemed to bond with. Am I wrong?"

"If you like, I would like it if you would hang out at our table. You've got a good head on your shoulders and our little group could always use another opinion on how we can get better. It would also be nice to hear about you and your life. We are good listeners."

"How about you grab a shower and we go get a bite to eat? If you are looking for someone to talk to, I can be that person. Remember when we first met you told me I had a very still mind. It might be nice."

[z028 Riley]

"I didn't flee. I just didn't want to be nothing more than my father's-" She let out a breath. "Y'know, it doesn't matter anymore. I left and now I get to figure it out on my own. That's what I wanted."

She sat up on the bed and ran a hand through her hair. "Thanks. For the offer. And yeah, I could come hang out when you guys eat. I usually don't, unless the cafeteria has a good dessert out for the day or something like that. I-I don't think I'm up for the company right now. Or for digging up my past. It usually finds a way to bite when I do that." She sounded tired and for a moment her comment about age and novas seemed true. Whatever age she was, this sort of weariness was usually reserved for the experienced and the old.

[Adrian Moss]

Damien snorts.

"I think we've both established I know my fair share about biting relationships. We both know its not something we can easily deal with, or want to deal with."

"You can bite. I can take it. Old people are good that way, the one's that care. I think you want to talk somebody and I can be that conduit. I'm good at it. We can share war stories. My Dad and I have a complicated relationship too. We can compare notes, though I get the feelings your's top mine."

He gets up making ready to leave.

"If you want to talk, my door is always open for you. I owe you."

Dealing with Olivia would have to be done the painful, old fashion way. He would either win or be finished. Now he also had to deal with the fact that he was now aware that Kyria had been somewhat abandoned as a stranger in a strange land. She had nobody, or at least no one she could open herself up to.

[z028 Riley]

"Complicated." She let out a bitter sound that might have been a laugh. "Yeah, I guess that's a good word for it."

"Thanks, again," she was looking up at him now, her voice sincere even if her eyes were still distant. She sounded lost. "I'll keep it in mind."

[Adrian Moss]

Caine is about to leave then turns to her,

"I'm curious. What do you think of us, here in the SGC? I would ask about our whole planet/nation/what have you, but you really haven't had a chance to get out there."

"I'm curious because you are risking your life out there for us, and you come from a very different upbringing. Even though I've heard you've traveled a bit with Captain - Omar, have you been to place like this."

"Also, if you had a chance to leave, would you?"

He stood there, curious.

[z028 Riley]

"I wouldn't have anywhere to go, and the SGC is kind of like being with the Paragons. They were the....the leaders and defenders of my world. Omar was one of them, and so was I very briefly. Until we left, anyways. They had their secrets, too, the things they didn't tell the rest of the world for whatever reason. So this is different, but similar in principle." She had pulled her knees up to her chest while she answered, her arms around her legs and her head resting on the tops of her knees.

"We were fighting aliens, too. They were trying to manipulate the world, throw it into to chaos so they could destroy us because they were afraid that we'd become so powerful we would be able to destroy them. It's weird what people will do when they're afraid something might happen.

[Adrian Moss]

"If it wasn't for our small number, I wonder if our world would come to fear us. As it is, several of us have world-bending capablities, I worry what might happen if they desire to push the issue of independence. As it is, several of you are virtual prisoners here."

Caine shakes his head.

"Of course, we have our share of Aliens, and worlds with humans to go to ... hmmm ... there are worlds we are friendly with. Have you thought about traveling to them? You could travel piggy back with another SG and it would get you off the base. There would be ruins of the Ancients to examine. It's an idea."

[z028 Riley]

"I don't think the general would be all that happy with that. He still really doesn't trust me or like my powers. He's worried I'm going to try to take over the base or the country or the world. And if I go gallivanting off with another SG team, I might take over some other civilization." Her tone was dry and somewhat annoyed.

She was softer when she spoke again, "They do fear us, most of them that know about us. We're different and powerful and unknown. They like the idea of new weapons against powerful enemies, but they're leery of those weapons having their own mind and wills. My father used to tell me stories that he heard from some of the Paragons that came from a different timeline than ours, of a world much like this one where novas started erupting about this time in large numbers. It was a mess, nearly a disaster. They had left their own timeline before anything drastic occured, but Lorean took them to timelines where the world had been destroyed by war between novas and novas, and novas and baselines."

She shook her head and sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm being pretty pessimistic right now. It's probably just cabin fever and some homesickness."

[Adrian Moss]

"I need to find a way to get you out of here. Maybe next time we have leave ... and SG-21 is off restricted duty, you should at least have the option of going with one of us to the outside world."

"Some of my people have no one on the outside and would be good company. You could come home with me, though I'm not sure how good an experience that would be. My Dad and I don't see things eye to eye and seeing me come home with a teenage girl, who has no history she can talk about, would be entertaining only in a perverse sense. Still the option is open to you. We can tour DC together."

"Or you and Declan can go places no one else goes, do some mountain climbing, or free climbing to get a good work out and see some beautiful countryside. You should have the options. I can talk to the General about you and Omar."

Damien seems genuine and it is something weird but comforting to not have to edit out what he is really thinking, his mind remains so still. Is that a comfort, or an extra worry?

[z028 Riley]

"They said I could go somewhere when we were all given leave, but really, where would I go? I couldn't talk to anyone outside of the SGC, most of what I know about history, politics, even popular culture and science is too different from what's common here. Look at me, I'm not exactly 'blend in' material. It'd probably be better if I wanted to go somewhere, to go somewhere off-world." She sighed, her head still on her knees. "And Declan....I like him, I guess, but he's not really a vacation for me to be around. I know I'm not completely responsible for his situation, but I certainly didn't help it."

She smiled up at him then, a small smile but a genuine one. "Thank you. It is nice to hear someone actually care about what happens to me."

[Adrian Moss]

"Come home with me. The two of us can hang out, see some museums, go to the theater and ballet. I can arrange that through my step-mother. We can go up the Shenandoah and rock climb, or hike. There is some wonderful terrain in West Virginia. Those are both only a few miles away, and I might teach you how to drive a car. You don't know how to drive, do you?"

"What have you got to lose? You'll have someone to talk to and you can see more of the world than just those tunnels and ... hey, did Hawke take you up top for hikes and training?"

Caine suddenly sounds a bit more concerned. How long had Kyria been trapped down here?

[z028 Riley]

"Not usually, we did most of our training here in the base." She shook her head, that smile still lingering there, "And no, I don't know how to drive a car. They were still around when I was born, the manual drive ones, but most of them autodrive by the time I was big enough to drive. That and if I went anywhere is was usually either with my father, which meant a chauffeur, or with the Paragon's which meant getting 'ported by Lorean."

[Adrian Moss]

Caine thinks for a second then grins.

"How about I talk Captain Wright into a little game of tag up top soon? You can get some sun from old Sol and feels some real soil of Terra beneath you feet. Think your team would be up for an operation?"

"I promise to shoot you first ... if I get the chance, Mind-sneak," he grins knowing just how much she wants to have people shooting at her.

"Once you feel that fresh mountain breeze on your face, I know you will want to come home with me. I love the mountain. Hell, I think all my team love my mountain excusions."

He grins at her,

"Worse comes to worse, try not to fall on your face. Trust me, being stunned with a face full of dirt and gravel is no fun."

The man is certainly sounding like he's talking from experience. A face full of dirt while you twitch doesn't sound fun anyway.

[z028 Riley]

She bites her lip and nods, her eyes bright at the idea of getting outside for a bit and having something to do. "I think he might go for that. Losers buy the winners dinner off-base? I hear the best way to get men involved is to bribe them with the thought of free food."

Her smile had become a full-fledge grin; she was loosening up some both emotionally and physically. "I've already been stunned a few times by the 'zats; it sucks, but at least it doesn't leave bullet holes in your clothes. And you'll only get to shoot me if you can find me; I don't need to read your mind to hide." The mischief in her eyes was nearly infectious.

[Adrian Moss]

"You are sooo on, Specialist Kyra D.", he says with a wide, brilliantly white smile. "Oh, and food is the secondbest way to get a guy to do what you want, but I suspect you already knew that."

Damien is nearly at the door, he looks over his shoulder,

"Don't get a nasty mind now, it's football. Men will do anything for football. When it's just me, or my team, you can call me Damien. You aren't in the military and you shouldn't have to play the protocal game."

[z028 Riley]

"Damien. Got it. And football. Men like football and food." She'd gotten up off the bed, seeing him out of her room like a proper host now that she was in a better mood. "Well, I can bring up our idea with the Captain, but I think it'd be better coming from you so you guys can figure out when and where right then."

He nodded and they said their farewells, the teenager slipping back into her room and picking up a random book to read. Her smile lingered and her thoughts were more on fresh air and new friends than ancient Mesopotamian languages.