"A Rage in C-Sharp Minor"

[Guest Sar'vek t'Jhiin]

Sar'vek lifted a cup of herbal brew to her lips, placidly reading through the morning's reports. They were still a few days out from that odious wormhole, which left her feeling... moderately relaxed. For her, anyway. There hadn't been any recent attacks on the ship, nobody had attempted a mutiny, and t'Rexan hadn't flown into another furious rage aimed in Sar'vek's general direction. She was grateful for that, at least. She still wasn't entirely certain that auxiliary Science would ever seem clean again after the cloned-thrai had thrown the traitor's rotten flesh on it, but it was no matter. She doubted t'Rexan would be cutting out anyone else's tongue very soon... unless it was Sar'vek's, in which case she doubted she would be worrying about where the tongue eventually landed.

 

The cloak appeared to be functioning, for now, as did most of the essential systems (outside of her labs, of course, but it wasn't as if those were ever going to be considered "essential"), so it seemed they would na have to limp into the Lloanns'su port near the wormhole, nor run to any of their ally worlds close to it. On the bright side, if something did go wrong, Sar'vek knew that having Federation bases nearby would na necessarily be a bad thing -- after all, they were humanitarian and weak, disposed towards helping even Rihannsu when they were in trouble. And, well, Talon had found her share of trouble lately.

 

The rest of the status updates appeared benign enough. Unsurprisingly, Engineering had their hands full enough -- or claimed to, anyway -- that na thing was being done hrrau Science; Sar'vek had chosen na to press the issue since they were so close to being in a proper, ch'Rihan port that could repair the damage. There were a few notes from Operations - Koga doing a lovely job as always, as well as the announcements regarding...

 

She reread the next three notifications again.

 

Then the ISD slammed into the bulkhead of her wall, falling to the ground with a clatter that echoed in the otherwise-silence.

 

That... that Elements-damned thrai-clone. Sar'vek was going to y'ya her.

 

She was unstable. She was vengeful, and Sar'vek had had nearly enough of her. How dare she give commendations to every department except for Science. As if Science hadn't done everything she had ordered, in spite of the fact that she had turned into an illogical, irrational, raging fool hrrau her own Oira. As if Sar'vek had been the io to try to y'ya her the other day -- or had been the io to sink a knife into her gut. But na, it was her department that suffered.

 

Another thud sounded in her small room, and she grimaced, rubbing at the fist that she had just connected with the same, abused bulkhead. t'Rexan could hate her as she liked; Sar'vek had na particular problem with t'Rexan's hostility in the past, and she cared na about it h'nah. But she had na right to penalize the rest of her department in a petty show of disapproval. It was a low blow, and Sar'vek would na tolerate it.

 

Na that she could do a fvadting thing about it -- that was the worst part of this, and what frustrated her the most. t'Rexan did na listen to reason, na ever and especially na h'nah. Speaking her to her would do na good; the clone would probably end up just striking her down again -- literally -- as she had done before.

 

Her stomach churned with fury. After all, she had na doubt that this had na thing to do with the traitor hrrau her department and everything to do with some Elements-forsaken wrath that t'Rexan was directing towards her. And Sar'vek had a well-rooted suspicion that her bout of anger wasn't just because Sar'vek had been lukewarm towards her, oh na. Somebody planted those seeds of mistrust, and that somebody was named N'Dak.

 

That son of a thrai had to be responsible for this; yet more proof that t'Rexan held the man's leash. The fool would do anything to please her; drag anyio through the mud that he needed to in order to show his loyalty. And na just her -- even his own brother, for Issaha suffered right alongside her. He must have told t'Rexan about their little conversation, driven home the point that she couldn't be trusted. He probably even reinforced the link between her and her department's traitor, just to solidify the point. And h'nah she wasn't even getting the most minor of commendations as a result. Elements, she hated that man.

 

Wasn't it enough that she was stuck on this broken-down warbird, with na hopes of advancing? Was it na enough that her chances of advancement were stopped by the brick wall that was t'Temarr, t'Ksa... even t'Aehjae? She was already least among the senior officers in rank and tenure; she hoped he was enjoying his efforts to stifle any other chances she might have had to make something out of her career, because he was doing a menkha job of it.

 

Pacing the length of her quarters, she attempted to calm herself, to use reason instead of the wrath which was threatening to blind her. Io commendation -- or the lack thereof -- was na going to matter; her problems ran far deeper than this singular case of Destorie sowing another of t'Rexan's seeds of hatred for Sar'vek. Far deeper, indeed, and this was just a reminder.

 

Stalking out of her quarters, she silently fumed, heading to the ship's gymnasium. It wasn't going to help her solve any of her overwhelming number of problems that had to be solved, but getting out her frustrations in a way that didn't involve hitting officers that would get her sent her to the br'tehh couldn't be a bad idea.

 

Besides, murder could be such a messy business.

Edited July 28, 2010 by Sar'vek t'Jhiin

[STSF_BluRox 0]

Besides, murder could be such a messy business.

 

That last line....is worrysome! Awesome log!!