[Wildstrike]
While they had managed to survive the horrors of ch'Vania and secured places for themselves as part of the Senator's crew, the news from home had not exactly been good for the boys. D'Tarik had locked himself away in his new quarters on board the Morrhae'Vnu , where he currently sat alone in the dark. Rylan had decided that the best course of action he could possibly take against the rather disheartening news from what used to be his home, was to wander the corridors of the ship to make himself acquainted with it and it's crew. Vynnd meanwhile, not yet knowing that trouble had overshadowed his friends once again, was also wandering the corridors of the Wildstrike.
During Rylan's travels through the hallways, he came across the door to D'Tarik's quarters, and paused a moment in debate. While he didn't necessarily want to talk about the problems that he had found waiting for him, he didn't necessarily want to be alone right now either, and D'Tarik was the closest thing he had to a brother...at least, he was now. With his mind made up, Rylan rang the chime to tr'Rekkohan's room, then caught the sight of Vynnd approaching, the Tal'Shair officer's eyes locked on the ISD in his hands.
Before Rylan could say anything to get the other boy's attention, Vynnd suddenly looked up, then at D'Tarik's door. With a humorous smirk on his face, tr'Khain banged on the door as loud as he could, then simply walked on. tr'Tuhmek tried to grab hold of his arm to slow his footsteps, intent on asking if the other boy would like to join in on a drink or two, but paused as he heard a rather un-D'Tarik like grumble from beyond the still-closed door. Frowning, Rylan stated quietly, "Etrehh , open door!"
"Yipe!" Vynnd yanks his arm out of Rylan's grasp and flashed another bantering smirk in the other boy's direction, "Rylan! We're not *that* good of friends yet..."
Rylan, not in the mood for banter at the moment, only glared at Vynnd with a slightly raised brow, "Whatever..." he directed at tr'Khaine before stepping inside D'Tarik's room as the door hissed open, cutting off any further words from Vynnd. The Tal'Shair officer shrugged slightly then continued on down the corridor, too intent on learning the layout and various functions of the ship to give Rylan's uncharacteristic attitude another thought.
Rylan paused just inside the room as the door hissed closed once more. At first, he thought he had been mistaken in his assumption that D'Tarik had been in his quarters as the room was pitch black. As Rylan's eyes became accustomed to the lack of light, he made out the faint illumination of a small glow rod that was steadily losing its power. The glow rod faintly defined the outline of a figure sitting hunched over on the floor on the far side of the room. "Etrehh..." Rylan demanded quietly, "...lights."
As the lights turned themselves on, the hunched over figure was confirmed as the smaller boy. D'Tarik was sitting on the floor dissecting some kind of bug. An empty wine bottle lay carelessly on the floor next to an outstretched foot. Rylan crossed the room and picked up the bottle to read the label.
"Rhennish?" his brow rose slightly as he looked back to the boy on the floor, "Au don't drink... what're au starting with Rhennish for?" He smirked with a humor he didn't feel, "This stuff's stronger than Ale, D'Tarik...."
Rylan's words trailed off, as the other boy didn't seem to notice the presence of another in the room. The way the boy was hunched over and silent like that had given Rylan the creeps. Something was not right.... "Any io at home?" he grinned and gently kicked D'Tarik's foot with a boot to get his attention. "Jolan'tru...?"
Almost immediately D'Tarik jumped to his feet, upsetting and revealing two more empty wine bottles on the floor identical to the one in Rylan's hand. "Ah! Rylan?" D'Tarik leaned a little closer, peering at tr'Tuhmek though the blur of his drunken vision. The boy didn't look well; besides swaying a little unsteadily on his feet, his face was pale, and he had huge dark bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. Worse, D'Tarik desperately needed a bath!
Rylan pushed the rather repugnant boy away from him a bit, and waved a hand through the air trying to clear it, "Elements, D'Tarik! Au smell like a brewery! What'd au do...pour it all over ninte-self?" He glanced at the other empty bottles on the floor, "Did au drink all this ninte-self?" he tossed the empty in his hand to the trash container then brought his eyes back to the medical officer.
D'Tarik didn't answer the other's questions. Instead, he lowered his eyes to the ground and mumbled "Rylan.....I just got bad news a few hours ago...." he trailed off.
"Ah." Rylan nodded his head once, and thought 'au and me both...' then shrugged and asked out loud, "What is it then?"
Hesitantly, D'Tarik answered, "My sister is dead.... She was killed on her first assignment...She just got out of the academy...." his mind wandered for a second, then he pointed back to what he had been doing, "I was just dissecting that insect I found to try and cheer up.... but then I found those bottles," he took a stumbling step towards the bed, "now I feel a lot better."
Rylan looked shocked, but recovered quickly, "I'm sorry for ninte loss, D'Tarik." he bowed his head slightly.
Suddenly D'Tarik tripped over to the ground, then quickly jumped back up, "I'm okay...." he mumbled to himself.
"Where's ninte medical supplies?"
"Ummm...." he halted his steps to think about it, "I think I gave it to Sprinkles to take to sick bay... yeah, thats it..." he nodded his head then looked in Rylan's general direction.
"Uh huh...." Rylan non-committically answered, then headed over to the closet anyway. He saw the lab coat right where he had suspected it to be, and cast a smirk back to D'Tarik as he rummaged around in the various pockets. Knowing just what would work from his own experiences with using the same cure, Rylan smiled to himself at having found the items he had been searching for. He loaded the canister into the hypospray, then injected the drunken boy with it before he could protest. The medicine had counter-acted the alcohol and brought D'Tarik back to sobriety.
As the cure took hold, D'Tarik looked at Rylan and frowned, "Oh hann'yyo Rylan..." he grumbled angrily, "Now I'm depressed again..."
"Yeah...well...too much of that will kill au." Rylan shrugged in indifference, "Besides, I hate to come late to a party." he explained, heading over to the replicator, "This gives me a chance to catch up." he directed his next words to the replicator, "Rhennish.... a whole fvadt bottle."
"Yeah...." D'Tarik answered in a grumble, then looked around the room quickly, "Where is Sprinkles?"
Rylan took the bottle from the replicator and opened it, answering with another shrug, "I don't know. He materialized with the rest of us on the Oria...." He trailed off momentarily to push the memory of those who didn't make it off the planet with them, then drank deeply from the bottle. When the arm holding the bottle finally lowered itself, he passed the half-filled bottle to D'Tarik. "So tell me 'bout ninte sister." Rylan said easily enough through the burning sensation of his throat, "Didn't even know au had a sister." he smirked again.
D'Tarik plopped himself down on his bed and sighed, "I think I need to do some work...." he interjected almost to himself, "Ie....work. That will keep my mind..." he suddenly looked over to Rylan, realizing the other held the bottle out to him, "Na, hann'yyo, I don't need to drink." he paused long enough to cast a frown in tr'Tuhmek's direction. "My sister...." he began, "we were very close...except when she was avoiding any and all contact with me...." a strangely odd, and very un-D'Tarik-like look filled the boy's otherwise kind eyes during his little speech, "But that almost never happened." he finished quietly.
Rylan shrugged off D'Tarik's strange behavior and took another, shorter drink from the bottle again. He headed towards the only chair in the room and sat down. "Well, which is it?" he leaned back in the seat, "Either she left au alone, or she always hung around...." again Rylan's words trailed off, lost in thought of his own younger brother who used to always be such a pest. He wouldn't be a pest anymore now that Rylan was cut off from the rest of his family.
"It's not important." D'Tarik insists, "I need to work...to keep busy! Maybe Sprinkles is in sickbay..." he stood suddenly and headed towards the door, apparently obsessed by that last thought, "...sickbay...."
Rylan set the bottle down at the desk and stood up to grab D'Tarik's arm to slow him down. "Na....I don't think au should be working in this frame of mind...." then immediately thought to himself, 'Elements only know what au would end up creating...' Rylan shrugged again, "If au rather na talk about ninte sister...that's fine. Talk about something else then."
"I'm in a good state of mind Rylan..." D'Tarik protested impatiently, "Everything seems pretty favdt clear to me now." that strangely odd look returned to his eyes, "Au have no idea," he continued in a low, angry tone, "how much killing your girlfriend and losing your sister will put a new...spin on things." a sarcastic half smile appeared on his face as he stood glaring at the taller boy.
Rylan's face clouded over then he looked away. He shrugged again in indifference as he turned to pick up the bottle, "Fine..." First he had lost Llunih...then his family had turned away from him...and now his best friend was doing the same. It was just too much. "Do what au like then." Without further words, Rylan sulked off towards his own quarters, leaving D'Tarik to head off by himself to his lab in sickbay.
[Meanwhile, off in a remote part of the ship]
"Okay...so that's where this leads." Vynnd looked around the small, dark room for a moment, then turned and walked out of the closet. "Fvadt....my ISD must have malfunctioned there." he shook his head and looked again at the ISD in his hands, before he continued walking "I could have sworn that was another corridor....ugh...."
[sick bay]
D'Tarik walked into his lab with an odd look in his eyes. It was apparent that all the stress form the past week or so had taken its toll on his sanity. D'Tarik looked around the room quickly "Sprinkles?" he looked around and saw the large green Tribble in a cage on a table "Ah! That's where I put you come here"
Sprinkles pushed open the door to the cage with his claw and hopped to D'Tarik, taking his place on his master's shoulder.
The short Romulan walked over to a worktable. He reached into his lab coat pocket and pulled out the bug he had been dissecting in his room, and placed it on the table. He thought he could not remember where he got it. He must have been too drunk at the time.
Sprinkles let out a soft "squeak" trying to figure out why his owner was acting a bit strange.
D'Tarik looked around the sick bay/lab and smiled "This place will do nicely�ie�I think I have settled in here already!" He held up a finger as if he had an idea and looked at the dead, cut-open bug. D'Tarik reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a large needle with a glowing red, almost watery looking substance in it, and looked at it curiously "I don't remember putting this here. I really need to label things�oh well this will be a good test for the lab� nothing like injecting a dead insect with something of unknown origin for that!"
He took the needle and squirted a bit of the stuff in the open chest cavity of the insect. For a few moments nothing happened the a odd snapping sound was heard then�the bug turned in to a pile of black goo. "Ah! So that's where I put this stuff." He then put it back in his pocket and walked over to another table and grabbed a test tube and pushed the goo into it "Now what
should I do with this stuff�" He held the test tube in front of his face. "Before we left the academy I was trying to figure out if this "goo" did anything�. hmm the only thing I have not tested this on yet is living matter�"
At the words testing and living matter Sprinkles loudly squeaked, jumped off D'Tarik's shoulder and ran back to his cage slamming the door behind him.
D'Tarik ignored his pet running away in fear, which was highly unusual. "Now where is live test subject when you need it�hey I just noticed this helping me with my stress�very well actually. But now I am never going to be happy until this is tested!"
He looked around, but found nothing suitable. He grabbed the test tube and walked out of his lab and started wondering the corridors of the ship "maybe I can find something if I look around�" then he stopped before he got to the door he put the test tube on a rack and started scurrying around the lab "I know! This place needs a D'Tarik touch. This is my part of the ship time to do a little decorating�."
D'Tarik had been working in his lab for a few hours, until he had it just the way he liked it. Now it was just a big lab with some medical equipment around the room. The most noticeable thing in the room was in the center. He had set up a pen in the middle of the room for Sprinkles. It was open-roofed and not very tall but sprinkles seemed content enough in it to not want to jump out.
"I think I spaced it out nicely.." he nodded proudly to himself looking around the room. There were many test tube racks with all kinds of unknown substances in them. And in the part dedicated to medical work had all kind of odd looking tools obviously of D'Tarik's own design laying around.
As the short Romulan looked around his lab, a young female Romulan walked in she looked rather nervous; and she had reason to be. She had heard many strange stories about her new boss. "Umm�sir I will be your lab and medical assistant." In the middle of her statement she had gotten a view of the place and saw the pen in the middle of the room. She thought she had seen something hoping around in it but she was not sure.
D'Tarik had his back turned to her and seemed to be doing some kind of testing on that black substance he had early "I really don't need au'rh help as of yet. But then again� would you mind having some of this injected into your bloodstream?" He turned around and saw the young woman walking towards sprinkles pen she looked inside and jumped at the sight of the green-furred little guy.
"W-what is that?" she turned to face D'Tarik and saw the crazy look in his eyes "please just help me out here�
"I have tested it, it is non-toxic� really."
She started to back away from him and ended up tripping and falling into Sprinkles pen landing right next to him with her face looking right at his laser. The apparently dexterous girl jumped up quickly and saw her new boss walking towards her with that same look in his eyes. She looked from him to the Tribble a few times before a short pause, then screaming at the top of her lungs she ran out of the room.
D'Tarik stood there with a shocked look on his face "Oh well I guess not everybody can understand true science!" Then he went back to the table and continued to work.
[Roaming the corridors of the Wildstrike]
Replicator Rhennish was a weak substitute for the real thing, but finally Rylan had started to get that familair, almost numb feeling, and things didn't bother him so much anymore. Alright....he lost a girlfriend...but there were other girls in the universe --Areinnye, there were girls right here on this ship! -- Llunih was sure not to be the last. And D'Tarik was acting all weirded out....but then, when wasn't D'Tarik acting weird. The mess with his family on the other hand...that was going to take some time getting used to.
[Earlier...]
At first, Rylan had thought his younger brother Kohal had been playing a trick of some sort on him when the had suddenly closed off the channel before Rylan had a chance to say 'jolan'tru'. So, Rylan had tried again to contact his family and tell them the news....and again, Kohal had shut off the com. Grumbling 'enough is enough, already....' out loud, Rylan again opened the channel for the third time. That last time it had been his mother who had answered. "Ri'nanov!" Rylan grinned, then hurriedly tried to explain everything that had gone on since his last communication. But his mother's severely cold expression hadn't changed to one of warm welcoming, nor had she given Rylan much chance to say much of anything else.
"Au are na my Faelirh ." she said flatly, instantly killing the grin on Rylan's face. "Rylan tr'Tuhmek dishonored this family by getting himself expelled from the Academy."
"But....that wasn't my fault. I didn't do anything!" he tried to explain, "And I'm on a ship now, and the Leih said that......"
"His name has been thrice stricken through and scattered to the Elements." his mother continued as if Rylan hadn't spoken at all. "Rylan tr'Tuhmek is without a House."
"Ri'nanov....?" but it was too late; his mother had cut the comline, leaving Rylan to stare in confused disbelief at the blank screen. "But it wasn't my fault...." he protested again, even though she couldn't hear him.
[Now...]
After that stint with D'Tarik, Rylan had quickly finished off what had been in the bottle -- not much had been left anyway -- and deposited it quickly, before anyone else could find him roaming the corridors with it in his hand. Wouldn't do to get caught drinking now, would it? Though.... what else could possibly happen to him to make the day any worse?
During his travels, he would stop to talk to someone or to peek into a department once in a while, but so far he hadn't found anything to distract his mind from his problems, until he was suddenly knocked down to the deck by a running girl who had suddenly popped out around from the corner.
"Au alright?" Rylan smirked at the girl as he regained his feet.
Before he had time to offer a hand out to assist her up, the girl leapt to her feet and grabbed Rylan by the front of his jacket uniform and pulled him closer. "There's a maniac on the ship!" she exclaimed wild-eyed, trying her best to violently shake the news into Rylan, and only succeeding in wrinkling his uniform. "He tried to kill me! And...and...he's got this....*thing* with him!!"
"A thing." Rylan tried to hide a smirk, already knowing who she was talking about. "Did this thing have green fur....lots of odd looking things all over it? Maybe squeaked or cooed once in a while?"
"Ie!" the girl's wide-eyed look slowly calmed down, "How'd au know?" she looked at him curiously.
"That's Sprink." Rylan answered with a nod, gently removing her hands from his jacket, "Sprink won't hurt au. He's rather harmless..."
"But that guy tried to kill me!" she protested, the look of fear still plastered to her face, "He was going to inject me with something!"
"Well...I didn't say D'Tarik was harmless," he shrugged, "only that Sprink was." the customary grin returned. "Look, I'll go try to talk to him. Umm...." he paused in thought for a moment, "Why don't au take the rest of the shift off or something?" he smiled again. "There's na much to do right now anyway...." he trailed off and started to head in the direction the girl had just ran from.
"Hann'yyo...." the girl nodded uncertainly for a moment, giving Rylan a critical eye, then hesitantly added, "rekkhai." on the end of that sentence. That wasn't something Rylan had been expecting, and it gave him another moment's pause. He turned and looked back over his shoulder, trying not to look as surprised as he felt by that last, and returned the girl's nod before he continued on his way.
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