Deeper In his rush to leave sickbay, he'd forgotten to change. Surveillance tracked him, and someone on the bridge spotted his assets. News of this got to the engineers along with most of the ship. Chief Jaenke's Betazoid telepathy had returned, after a few days in which he’d wondered if the ship’s silence was a permanent condition. It was not. The crew’s laughs, snickers, and Rear Admiral Jaenke digs were too much. It was his childhood all over again and he had enough. In a fit of rage he yelled at everyone. Ensign to Lieutenant Commander, every last engineer. He went on for a good three minutes, then, with a stare at the cruelest of thinkers, he stormed out. Erich marched out of main engineering. Away from all of the voices. In reality no escape while onboard was possible. After a bit of frantic running he decided to head to where only certain engineers go. A time and place before responsibility and leadership swallowed all his energy. Chirp. "Chief Jaenke, come in please." He tapped his chest. "What? Get Shelton to handle it." "O-Okay, but I am Shelton. How long are you going to be gone? Shall I run the diagnostic we spoke of earlier?" Feeling embarrassed, "Yes proceed. Make sure it can be broken on a moment's notice. Jaenke out." He closed the channel as he made his way to his only duty he had known upon arrival. Keying in his access code he entered Waste and Recycling Control, sealing the door behind him. He walked to the furthest corner and sat down next to the monitoring station. Stress flowed from head to toe like a giant wave crashing upon a rocky shore. All Erich could do was bow his head until the duress passed. Keb wanted to surprise Erich with a cupcake she’d picked up in the mess hall. She rang at his quarters, but he wasn’t there. She called Engineering, where she got a nervous Shelton explaining that the chief wasn’t in. Alarmed, she started for sick bay. Erich, you better be all right, she thought in a mix between panic and anger. He sat alone, but not for long. A singular voice stretched out among the masses. Twisted with emotion and thought, it was unlike any projection he heard before. "Hello," Erich asked the empty room. He had not heard a voice, but a thought, a desire. He shut his eyes. "I'm..fine...," he projected outwards. His eyes remained shut in waiting for a response. His voice filled Keb’s mind, and she felt her tense body relax in relief. She hadn’t heard his voice in her mind properly since he’d left the ship to go down to Titan. Where are you? she asked, trusting that now he could hear her again, too. "Aft," he shouted out with his ability. His breathing had become rougher as if stopping from a morning jog. He stopped and looked around frantically, then focused on the monitor, waiting. The way he shouted into her mind didn’t sound entirely like everything was all right, so Keb slipped into a turbolift. He’d told her once, in a quiet moment, that he had liked the waste and recycling area because it was so much quieter there. It took her a few minutes to get there, but she knew the inside of Manticore at least as well as the chief did. “Erich?” she called into the chamber as she opened the door, protecting the cupcake with her hand. Erich was perched in the corner next to the monitoring station, but got up as soon as the door hissed open. "Keb, was that you?" “Of course it was me,” she said. “Didn’t--didn’t you recognize my mind?” She stepped inside, concern filling every aspect of her being. "It was you." He stood there, disbelief melting. "You sounded different. I was not sure. So many voices over there," he gestured to the rest of the ship. He stood looking at her with his messed up hair and unshaven face. It had been a long day and the yelling at his staff did not help. "I needed to get away when the voices came." Keb retreated a step uncertainly. “Do...do you need me to go?” she asked, and he could feel the mixed worry and pain she felt. “I--I brought you a cupcake. I can leave it for you.” She held up the blue-frosted treat, holding it out as if she were afraid to get closer to him. "No, please stay. You ventured all this way..for me." He smiled through his stress. "I could use the company. We should talk...about us." She hovered near the door, still holding out the cupcake. “Is...is something wrong with...us?” she asked. She had thought that they were okay now--they loved each other. "No. I think we are more deeply connected than you realized or than I expected." He urged her to come over and sit. "Have you heard the term Imzadi?" She drifted beside him, setting the cupcake into his hand and licking a bit of the icing off her finger as she mulled over the term. She’d run across it somewhere in her reading. “It’s a Betazoid word, isn’t it?” she asked. "Yes, the most basic meaning is beloved, but it suggests a deeper intimacy, both physical and spiritual." He swallowed. "We seemed to have developed one of those, the spiritual." His face turned warm. "I wanted to know how you feel about it." Her cheeks reddened shyly, but he could feel the warmth of her emotions washing over him like a hot bath. She found his hand with her own, holding it tightly, and kept her gaze on their interlocked fingers. “I’m okay with that,” she said. “I told you...I love you.” Erich took a deep breath, leaning to reel from the sensation. He nodded. "One step at a time then."