Brent didn't move for a moment. He was turning over in his mind just what she had said. It was actually what he had thought that she would say to him. That she was sorry that she had wronged him but that she did not regret doing it to him. He let out a breath in a sigh before he finally spoke again but not to Sakarra. "When was the last time the prisoners were fed," he asked those on duty. After receiving the reply that they were due for dinner in an hour Brent nodded. "Lower the forcefield," he said and turned around as the field did not drop immediately. "Lower it. She has not been formally charged with any crimes and any lawyer worth their salt could get her out of here. Lower the force field, I'll bring her back from Eris Deck after we have had our lunch," he said.
Apparently the security enlisted man weighed his options a few times before the forcefield dissipated in front of Sakarra and Brent motioned that she should go first.
She could feel the tension from the guards as something near tangible, and stood very still for another second. This was not only highly irregular, but unwise.
And she couldn't have cared less right now.
"You will simply insist on getting yourself into trouble until you succeed, yes?" But if she was perfectly honest with herself, the sudden, inappropriate urge to laugh and kiss him in front of everyone, no matter what they might think, was gaining speed and overtook sorrow and weariness.
"Very well then." Her thoughts manifested in little more than a glimmer in dark eyes, and she stepped out of the holding cell with swift elegance.
"Brent Warren, I am at your disposal."
"You sound like my father," he said with a half amused smirk as the two of them left security. Brent actually had no intentions of letting Sakarra go. For one he figured that she would simply return to the brig which would solve absolutely nothing and would only expose him to problems in the future. If she would agree to house arrest maybe that was something else all together, the brig was quite full and it was draining his manpower. He doubted that would happen either, Sakarra seemed insistent on punishing herself for revealing this conspiracy, even if it meant that she herself faced more punishment than would be handed out in the future.
The turbolift door shut behind him and Brent let out a sigh. He turned to face Sakarra and without a single word he held out two fingers to her like he had seen her do towards him several times before.
"Oh goodness, I certainly hope that is not a bad thing." She quirked a brow, glancing up at his smirk while she trailed behind Brent's tall frame out into the corridor and nearly echoed his sigh when they were alone in the turbolift at last.
Slowly and deliberately, Sakarra matched his gesture, reveling in the all too brief sensation of minds drawing together and the unseen but very much felt tender touch. And in that instant, she also knew he was not overly annoyed with her, causing such a wave of relief she nearly closed her eyes again.
Eris Deck suddenly seemed like a horrible place to be, and not only because of the inevitable stares.
"Do you think your ... troubles would increase unduly if we settled for replicated food … somewhere else?"
Brent considered the options. He knew very well what might happen if they went someplace else but. Having the two of them seen in Eris Deck would keep any notions away that he was attempting to play favorites of some kind. But he knew why she was reluctant to go to Eris deck and he nodded to her. "Of course," he said and changed the destination to Deck 10.
=/\= Deck 10 Quarters 02 =/\=
Brent changed the gravity, light and heat settings in his quarters before he opened the door and had Sakarra go in first before locking it behind him as the door closed. "What would you like," he asked her, and motioned that she should sit down on the couch, since he still did not have two chairs that were usable at his table. "Sorry I hadn't gotten around to getting another chair from the large replicators. But I'm fairly certain that the couch is more comfortable anyways."
She stopped in the middle of the quarters, breathing deeply. Wonderful, invigorating warmth, and Brent's familiar scent flooded her senses. Like a woman waking from a bad dream, she let the heavy coat slide off her shoulders and placed it carefully over the last intact chair.
The couch looked inviting enough and Sakarra sank into the fabric, for once not caring the least bit about maintaining a proper posture. Careless elegance in every move, the young Vulcan leaned back and exhaled.
"Only tea, please, for now."
And something else. But she did not quite dare to ask that yet.
Brent heard her request and ordered up some Vulcan Spice Tea and a glass of ice water for himself. He returned to where she had sat down on his couch and did the same sitting next to her and handing her the tea. "Here, I hope it will do," he said before he took a drink of his own water. He watched her as she drank her tea. He was still annoyed with her and how she had acted. How she had kept him out of something that could have very well meant disaster for her. When she was done drinking her tea he reached over and placed his hand on hers.
'You know that I am not mad at you, yes?' he asked her before he continued on. 'You felt that you were protecting me from what might come, and I can respect that. Truth be told in your situation I would be hard pressed not to do the exact same thing that you did. I still...' he had to stop again not sure how to continue. 'You would not risk me but you would risk that which I care for more day in and day out.'
Half expected, his touch still sent an electric current over her skin and Sakarra inhaled sharply. She forced herself to hold the serious gaze out of deep blue eyes without betraying too much of her own emotions which had resurfaced with a vengeance after she had already thought the worst was over.
But the terrible anger over what they had done was not gone, even after the first flare had spent itself, nor was the grief. It had merely settled into something deeper, perhaps more dangerous.
'Yes.'
What else was there to say? And still, she could not deny the moment her entire being had fallen into complete stillness at the tender confession his last words implied.
To her own surprise, her hand was steady when she reached for his face, stopping a mere centimeter from cool, smooth temples, fingers splayed in a meaningful gesture.
'Will you permit me? I owe you an explanation at least.'
And if with the explanation he learned things she would rather not share, not even with him, … then to hell with that, too. There was something to be said about having little left to lose after all.
'I will.' he replied as he closed his eyes and awaited what he assumed was the Mind Meld that he had heard a bit about during his time in Boot Camp and the various parts of alien cultures they studied back home. He cleared his mind as much as he could, not even sure if that would help the procedure or hinder it but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
As carefully as if she were navigating across broken glass, the young Vulcan moved closer, molding her small body against Brent's imposing frame and her fingertips unerringly found the meld points.
The already existing thread, no more than a gentle breeze to be summoned at will, became a flowing, unstoppable current. Dizzying in its intensity, disorienting when for long heartbeats none knew for certain which lungs were breathing deeply and whose skin felt hot enough to burn.
His thoughts, so readily cleared away and reaching out, she had not expected that … and almost laughed when she realized that once again, she should have.
"Kashkau," she murmured, "terethur."
Discipline ingrained since childhood is something not easily lost, and after the first wave of vertigo and the deeply lived joy of one mind finding another, being welcomed, allowed to share and see, Sakarra steadied herself and … focused.
Like gems picked from a chest, she selected memories and offered them - to be examined at leisure, turned over and judged. People said that a Vulcan cannot lie, which is at best an exaggeration. But in the willing merging of two minds, there truly cannot be deception because that, too, would be felt by the other the second it was conceived.
=/\= To be continued ... =/\=
Brevet 1st Lieutenant Brent Warren
Marine Commander
Lt Cmdr Sakarra Tyrax
Chief Helm
USS Charon
