In-toxic-ating

[Laehval tTemarr 0]

In-toxic-ating

A med-bay log of

El’Riov Laehval t’Temarr

 

- Rated “D” for Disturbing

(Any resemblance to known characters, living or dead, is probably intentional and most definitely the work of a delusional mind.)

 

 

 

Laehval imagined that she could feel her life draining away, bit by bit, but it was probably her over-active imagination at work. The poison in her system was real, but she wasn’t attuned enough to feel it as it crept through her body, attacking her internal organs. What she could feel was the pain.

 

The bite from the reptile had seemed innocuous enough at the time. She ignored the initial sting for as long as possible, more anxious to get the deceased creature to the Science department to be analyzed. The Talon, like any other ship, had had an infestation or two. Any time a ship physically docks with a station, lands on a planet, or has goods transported aboard, it is at risk for vermin. Many times Laehval had ordered exterminations to be conducted throughout the ship when evidence of such infestations was present. Why should this one reptile be any different?

 

Perhaps Laehval had made a fatal mistake in not associating the reptile with the recent attempts at assassination. After all, who would use a poisonous animal as a weapon? The idea was far-fetched. Unless the animal was specifically trained for a specific task, the probability that it would succeed was extremely low. Even if the animal had the training required, there still remained the possibility that it would deviate once it was no longer in a controlled environment.

 

She had plenty of time to think about the ridiculous state into which she’d been thrown. How humiliating it would be to die of one small reptile bite. She wasn’t important enough for such a thing to be considered an assassination. No, her death would probably be reported as accidental, due to her own carelessness.

 

Another wave of pain washed over her, seeming to radiate upward from her leg. She doubled over as the stabbing sensation drove through her gut, threatening to rip her in half. Panting through her clenched teeth, she tried to turn her mind inward, but concentrating was extremely difficult. As her intestines seemed to twist and turn, she curled into fetal position and waited for the pain to subside as it had before. This time, however, it did not go away. Instead, it started to grow. Laehval choked down the sob that threatened to escape, squeezing her eyes shut as tightly as she could as first her stomach, then her lungs, overflowed with the burning feeling of hot coals. She held out as long as she could until the pain finally overwhelmed her and threw her into unconsciousness.

 

 

When she awoke sometime later, she found that the stabbing sensation in her gut was still present. Looking down, she could see why. She was impaled with a wickedly curved sword which was pinning her to the floor. Her mouth opened in shock at the sight of seeing herself skewered. She was covered in her own blood and lying in a puddle of the dark green liquid. When she tried to move to free the sword from her body, the excruciating feeling of the metal carving through her flesh ripped a scream from her.

 

“Ooooooh. Not a good move. You really aren’t that bright, are you?” Someone whispered in her right ear.

 

Panting for breath, Laehval opened her eyes, searching for the source of the voice. She found Sar’vek next to her, only a few inches away. The Science officer was lying on her stomach, her chin propped up in one hand. She smiled sweetly as she was recognized, though the smile did not reach her glowing green eyes.

 

“t’Jhiin. What happened? Help me!”

 

“Oh, I could certainly help you. It would be nothing to painlessly yank the sword from your body. But, that wouldn’t be fun, now would it?” She pouted mockingly, then broke into a broad smile and laughed. “I only just put it there! Why would I remove it so soon?”

 

Laehval stared at her incredulously, mouth slightly agape. Then, the realization dawned on her. She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “This is a dream, isn’t it?”

 

“Perhaps. Or you could call it a delusion or a hallucination. Your inability to believe in things that you cannot see will be your undoing. This reality feels real, because you believe it will feel real. Observe!” Reaching up, Sar’vek smacked the blade of the sword with the back of her hand.

 

Laehval screamed as the movement caused the sword to slice through more of her tender flesh. Sar’vek’s maniacal laughter rang loud in her ears. When at last the metal had stilled and the reverberations had stopped, Laehval lay there gasping for air. She turned her head to the right, but Sar’vek was no longer there.

 

“You don’t look like you are having fun.” Said the voice from the left.

 

“No…” Laehval whispered as she turned her head in that direction.

 

tr’Pexil sat beside her now, cross-legged on the floor. He reached forward and brushed her hair away from her face, tilting his head to watch her. “Lerak… help me. Please, help me.”

 

He frowned and glanced to the sword as though he’d just realized it was there. “Ah. That.” He climbed to his feet and gingerly took hold of the hilt, slipping the blade free carefully to minimize the pain.

 

Laehval gasped as it was removed and she closed her eyes, relief flooding through her. When she opened them, Lerak was still standing over her, sword in hand. He smiled at her and with a wicked gleam in his eye, he plunged the blade downward, thrusting it again into her stomach.

 

“Is that better, Laehval?” He asked through her shrieking, flicking his wrist to give the sword a hard twist. He twisted again. “Your bitterness is going to kill you. Smile for me, Laehval! I never see you smile anymore.”

 

Her screams echoing in her head, she surrendered willingly to darkness, hoping for true oblivion.

 

When she awoke again, she sat in the center of a blazingly white room. Shielding her eyes from the glare, she squinted to make out her surroundings. A lone figure broke the monotonous color, standing placidly in front of the only exit of the room.

 

“Morgana,” she breathed, relieved that the doctor was not holding a sword or other sharp instrument. “Guardian of the insane?”

 

“You are hardly insane. Just delusional. I would help you if I could, but you did this to yourself. I cannot save everyone, Laehval.”

 

“A stasis chamber for me, then?”

 

“No, I have none to spare. Not for you. You’re going to die. There’s no hope for you. But have no fear – all who live will face death. You are not special.”

 

“Ah, Vorta’Vor at last,” she said, bemused, still pleased at the lack of pain.

 

t’Ksa laughed softly, her eyes dancing as she peered down at Laehval. “Vorta’Vor? No. There will be no Vorta’Vor for you. You will only see Areinnye. In fact, you are already there.” She smiled again and stepped to one side of the door. “I won’t harm you, but I can step aside for those who would. You’ve done as much for others. Your inaction will be the death of you… and others.”

 

Laehval rose slowly to her feet, scowling as she waited for the next round of torture. She backed away from the open door, only to find herself backing into the open door. Strong hands caught her arms in a crushing grip and she found herself pushed back to the center of the room. Spun around, she was caught once more in that strong grip and found herself face-to-face with Koga. He smiled down at her.

 

“Not hurting you, am I?” He asked, his concern anything but genuine.

 

“No, not at all,” she said sarcastically, struggling in his grip. She brought one knee up to strike him in the groin, but he was somehow able to avoid the blow.

 

“You are hardly a challenge,” was Koga’s response. “I’ve demolished strong males three times your size without breaking a sweat. My strength has no limit. Does this hurt?”

 

The force on her arms increased to such a level that she felt her knees buckle. She bit down on her lower lip to keep from screaming as she heard bones crack. As she continued to writhe in his grip, another hand grabbed her by the hair and wrenched her head back. She stared up at tr'Psichore. As usual, his face was an impassive mask, but his eyes shone a deep red. He released her hair long enough to slip a loop of metal rope over her head and around her neck.

 

“Your struggles are useless.” tr’Psichore murmured in her ear, tightening the metal rope slowly.

 

“Resistance is futile?” Laehval rasped, already finding it hard to breathe.

 

“Cliché, but true.”

 

Slack on the rope decreased as tr’Psichore tugged on the opposite end, hauling her into the air. Koga released his grip as she rose and she lifted desperate hands to her throat to give herself breathing room. Clawing, she managed to dig her fingers between the unforgiving metal and her tender flesh. Dangling in the air with only her toes touching the ground, she trembled with the effort of keeping herself from choking.

 

“Going to… watch me… die?” She gasped, eyes flitting between S’Bien and tr’Psichore.

 

“Don’t flatter yourself. You aren’t worth my time. I’ve assassinated important political figures and squashed uprising before they started. I’ve hunted down the most dangerous Imperial criminals and killed them all. You’re a non-entity in comparison.”

 

“We’ve something much better in store for you,” Koga grinned. “Hope you enjoy yourself.”

 

The two of them disappeared, only to be replaced by a very smug t’Ditsy. She began to talk, rambling on and on and on about her petty problems and difficulties on the ship. She outlined her grievances and whined about the demanding tasks Laehval had unfairly set for her to do. As she continued to drone, Laehval could feel the sharp pressure building inside her skull. Each word from J’stal’s mouth was like a dagger driving deeper and deeper into her brain. If she removed her hands from the rope about her neck, she would choke, but soon the pain was so blinding that she no longer cared. She clamped down on her ears to block out t’Ditsy’s voice just as she felt her legs collapse beneath her. The jerk on her neck sent her reeling into darkness again.

 

“Wake up, sleeping beauty.”

 

A hard slap to her face brought her to consciousness with a jolt. Dark spots danced before her eyes as she opened them, trying to focus on her surroundings. Another slap struck her on the opposite cheek, blurring the room for another few moments. She shook her head to clear her vision and blinked as she found the N’Dak brothers staring at her with malicious grins on their insipid little faces. She was strapped upright to some sort of table, secured at chest, arms, waist, and legs. Balling her hands into fists, she tugged at the straps pinning her wrists.

 

“Good of you to join us, Laehval. Issaha and I were beginning to worry you wouldn’t make it.”

 

“We’d hate for you to leave before we had a chance to show you this…” Issaha held up a green crystal, a little larger than his fist. It was covered with a fine layer of frost.

 

“And that is?” Laehval asked, despite herself. She had a feeling that she didn’t want to know.

 

“Your heart, Laehval. Don’t you recognize it? We checked and found that it is, indeed, made of ice.” Destorie smirked.

 

“It will thaw, eventually, but we have a use for it in the meanwhile.”

 

“We decided that since you weren’t going to make use of it, we might as well toy with it for our own amusement.”

 

“The distance you keep between yourself and others has slowly been killing you inside. Dear brother and I thought we would simply speed that process along.”

 

Issaha wrapped the heart in a large blue cloth as he moved to the nearby table. Holding the corners of the cloth to secure the object inside, he lifted a hammer and glanced over his shoulder at them, still smiling. Destorie nodded and turned to watch Laehval. In one quick strike, Issaha slammed the hammer down onto the covered heart and shattered it into dozens of pieces. Inside her chest, something exploded and Laehval screamed in agony. She continued to scream as Issaha brought the hammer down a second and third time, pulverizing the heart. When done, he carefully opened the cloth and scooped out two handfuls of the crushed ice, filling two glasses with the pale green crystals. He brought them back to Destorie who filled them with ale, then took one of the glasses in hand.

 

“To the Ice Queen,” Destorie said, lifting his glass.

 

“And her ice-cold heart,” replied Issaha, his own raised in reply.

 

The two tapped their glasses together in toast and sipped their frosty beverages. They were smiling wickedly at Laehval as they faded from sight.

 

As they left, the room darkened until only a bright spotlight remained, illuminating her and a small area around her. Exhausted from her ordeal and hoarse from screaming, she sagged against her bonds and lowered her gaze to the floor. Two sets of feet entered her vision a few moments later and she groaned as she looked up, wondering who was next in line to torture her. Arrenhe tr’Khev and Rhean t’Valae stood there, unsmiling.

 

“What do the two of you want?” She managed to bark out.

 

“Attitude. I told you she had a bad one.” Rhean turned to Arrenhe, the disgust evident in her expression.

 

“So I see.” Arrenhe’s cold gaze remained fixed on Laehval. “I had a hard time believing that a Senior Officer would act this way, but the evidence cannot be denied.”

 

“What are the two of you talking about? I don’t even know you that well. I’ve done nothing to you!”

 

“That’s the problem, Rekkhai.” Rhean said with a sneer. She approached the table to which Laehval was pinned and tightened one of the leg straps enough to cut off the circulation. “You don’t know us. You haven’t even made an attempt to get to know us.”

 

“You think that you are far more superior that you do not even realize we exist.” tr’Khev unmercifully tightened the strap on the opposite side. “But we do exist, and you do not even care.”

 

“Your attitude of superiority makes you no friends.” t’Valae said, pulling hard on the strap at her chest until Laehval gasped, her lungs constricted.

 

“We could have been your allies, but instead you ignore us.” Arrenhe tightened the strap at her waist, yanking so hard that she yelped. “Now we are your enemies, but you could have prevented this.”

 

The two of them continued to tighten all of the remaining straps until her entire body, from her neck down, was numb from lack of circulation. Ignoring her feeble gasps for air, they disengaged the locking mechanism on the table so that it swung free of its vertical position. They let go and it crashed down to lie flat so that Laehval was now looking up at the ceiling. Her head cracked against the unyielding surface as she landed, sending a wave of spots to dance in her vision once again. From this vantage, all she could see was the blinding light above her. The two officers disappeared, leaving her alone for a short while.

 

Sometime later, she heard movement.

 

“My how the mighty have fallen.” A figure blocked out a portion of the light, silhouetted against the glow. As it moved closer, it resolved into t’Rexan. She peered down at Laehval with mock sadness, her laser eye glowing but not active.

 

“I’ve had trouble with you ever since I first came aboard, Laehval. It does not surprise me that you are now in this position. You have deserved every bad thing that has happened to you. You hold the blame. You and you alone.”

 

She leaned forward until her face was inches away, her eyes searching for something. A few moments later, she shook her head, evidently not finding what she sought. “There is no help for you in this form. You are unacceptable.”

 

“What will you do, Rekkhai?” t’Aehjae moved out of the darkness to stand opposite t’Rexan. Her narrowed gaze studied Laehval’s face. “She does not deserve your attention.”

 

“Perhaps not, but I think she may still be useful to our cause.”

 

“A wise use of available resources,” t’Aehjae agreed, nodding. “I will assist you. We can rebuild her.”

 

“Yesssssssssss. We have the technology. We will make her stronger.”

 

“Where will you start?” A third figure emerged beside t’Rexan, materializing into t’Oo.

 

“The eye, I think. A good place to start. She’ll only need one.”

 

“A good idea!” t’Oo smiled, peering at Laehval’s face. “Let me assist you.”

 

Still smiling, she dumped a mug of steaming hot liquid on one side of Laehval’s face. “I told you that HOT tea was the best!” Yelling over the screams.

 

“Now the leg,” t’Rexan commented, turning her bionic gaze to the leg where Laehval had been bitten. “It cannot be saved. It has to be removed.”

 

Activating her laser eye, she sliced a clean cut through flesh and bone directly below the knee, ignoring Laehval as she writhed in pain. Her throat was so torn and raw that she could no longer scream. t’Aehjae moved to stand beside her, affixing a wooden disk to the cauterized stump of her leg, twisting on a tapered wooden peg that Laehval could use as a surrogate leg. At her head, t’Oo slid a strap about Laehval’s head and fixed the eye patch to cover the now-empty socket.

 

“There! Perfect!”

 

“Now she is worthy,” t’Aehjae nodded.

 

“Laehval t’Temarr!” t’Rexan raised her hooked hand into the air. “You are now one of my minions and cannot defy me. You will join me as a Pirate of Space and the Known Universe and we shall be the scourge to any that stand in our way! You will serve me for time and all eternity! Laehval? Do you hear me? Laehval t’Temarr!”

 

The dark oblivion had returned to reclaim her and she willingly surrendered to it, the last scene perhaps the worst torture of them all.

 

 

“Laehval? Laehval t’Temarr! Do you hear me?” tr’Paine bent over Laehval’s unconscious form, glancing up briefly to check her vitals. “We’re losing her…”

 

“Her heart is elevated, her breathing ragged. Her body temperature is a full five degrees higher than before. She is still fighting, but she isn’t winning.” Aife shook her head sadly, one of her hands resting on Laehval’s arm.

 

“If they do not find or create the antidote soon, she will not survive. I do not think she will be able to last much longer. Her leg is already beginning to turn septic and we may have to remove it to give her more time. The Daise’Maenak should be informed of her rapidly deteriorating condition.”

 

“I’ll go. You stay with her and see if you can get her to respond.” Aife gave Laehval’s arm a gentle squeeze and then left the biobed, hurrying to find t’Ksa.

 

“Laehval? Can you hear me?” tr’Paine studied her face, one of his hands smoothing her sweat-soaked hair away from her forehead. “Laehval… don’t give up…”

[Kansas_Jones 0]

Had to pop in and say way cool reading - Nice "Laevhal freaks out" log!

 

(Caught that retro reference to Six Million Dollar Man / Bionic Woman too) :-)