Well souled.

Posted on Fri Jun 2nd, 2017 @ 7:02pm by Captain Elijah Michaels

Mission: The Trial of Cor Cordale
Location: Captain's Ready Room
Timeline: Current.

Kevin sat at his desk, sightlessly staring into the beyond.

In his minds eye, the reels played over and over again and he heard the same tortured screams and calls....no.....begs, for mercy, but they went unheeded. Sweat gathered in droplets on his brow and in some places ran in little rivulets only to be stopped by his uniform collar.

His knuckles grew ever whiter the harder he gripped the edge of his desk.

"Why can't they just stop....why can't they just stop...why can't they just stop..." he repeated over and over again. Suddenly he stood up and marched out of his office. A number of his Security staff were assembled in the outer office space and reacted with incredulity when they saw the state their Chief was in. Eye's red and bulging, hair wet and matted, facial features tormented and uniform dishevelled.

"Why can't they just stop...why can't they just stop..." he mumbled fearfully as he passed them and walked out into the corridor.

Minutes later he stepped out of the turbolift and made a beeline straight towards the Captain's Ready Room. He didn't even see the door was closed as he walked into it....

Elijah sat behind his desk as he read through the extensive letter he was preparing to inform Starfleet about the situation on Niron 5. He had quite the story to tell his superiors and it wasn't going to be easy.

Kevin felt no pain even though he'd blooded his nose walking into the closed door. As he stood there staring blankly at it, an Ensign from the Science station next to him stood up and asked him "Are you alright Sir?"

There was no reply from Kevin, he just stood there and whispered "Why don't they just stop..."

The Ensign was rather concerned at this, and knowing the CO was in his Ready Room, having witnessed him entering it earlier, pressed the COMM button and said "Captain, this is Ensign Maxwell, Sir, I think you should come to your Ready Room door, Lt Kilbane...well, perhaps you should see this for yourself."

"Thank you Ensign." Elijah said as he got up from his desk and walked over to the door. He pressed the key to manually open the door and stood before him was Kilbane. Or rather to a better extend the shell of Kilbane. "Bloody hell."

"Maybe we should take him inside Captain?" Maxwell said, indicating to the Ready Room "Out of the way of prying eyes Sir."

The Captain nodded. "Alright." He took Kilbane by the arm as Maxwell took the other. The two of them guided Kevin into the Ready Room and to the vacant seat opposite the Captains seat. "Thank you Ensign that'll be all."

Maxwell helped lower Kevin gently into the seat and then said "Aye Sir" as the CO bid him to go.

Sat down again, Kevin's hands automatically took hold of the edge of the CO's desk and he began to grip it tighter and tighter as he continued saying "Why don't they just stop...why don't they just stop..."

"Kevin it's Captain Michaels can you hear me?" Elijah asked as he crouched down to be eye level with the Lieutenant. "Who isn't stopping?"

Kevin's blood shot eye's moved back and forth as if he were unable to believe what he was seeing. At the sound of the Captains voice, he looked straight ahead and focused on the CO's eye's.

"The crew...they keep on screaming...why don't they just stop...minute after minute...hour after hour...WHY CAN'T THEY JUST STOP!!!" he yelled, staring wildly again and clapping his hands over his ears as he began to rock back and forth.

Elijah did not know what to make of this situation. "Ensign Maxwell, Chief Bates report to my Ready Room on the double." He said tapping his Commbadge.

In an instant, Maxwell was back in the Ready Room and a few moments later, he was joined by Chief Bates.

"Yes Captain, how can we help Sir?" Ensign Maxwell asked.

"I'd like you to take Lieutenant Kilbane to Sickbay." The Captain said with a nod.

Kevin gently took hold of Elijah's sleeve, saying "They came and took Commander Quonto and CWO Karadis about an hour ago. They'll have tried not to call out, but in the end, we all do, we all go over the edge. 'The Collective' are rather sadistic in their treatment of prisoners, they have no idea what mercy means."

Elijah looked at Kevin. "Don't worry Son, you're going to be alright and it'll all work out." He said reassuring the Lieutenant and signalling to Maxwell and Bates.

Just as Maxwell and Bates moved forward, the COMM link for the Captains Ready Room sounded "Forgive the interruption Captain Michaels, it's acting Ensign Karadis here Sir, I believe Lt Kilbane is with you, may I come in?"

"Yes come on in." Elijah said in response.

The doors opened allowing Shr'Nesh to enter. She immediately cam eover to where the other officers were and said to Elijah "Thank you for this Sir, I believe I can explain what's happened to Ke....I'm sorry, I meant, Lt Kilbane."

"Alright Ensign get to it." Elijah said not amused by this situation.

"I knew this day would come eventually, you see, we're approaching the anniversary of the incident with 'The Collective' and crew of the USS Frannery Sir" Karadis began "You'll have most likely read about the incident in Lt Kilbanes file, but there's parts of the report not in there. Like how more than half our Frannery crew that survived the crash landing were killed in the skirmishing on CX-136 with the collective. Even when Captain Zamos surrendered, those that were captured were tortured daily for information, or, just for the sheer hell of hearing us scream in pain and agony. When we were eventually rescued, there were only six of us left alive, well, clinging to life anyway. When we were returned to Medical, we didn't have the luxury of a long recuperative recovery period, or get a chance for a full psychological recovery, we were thrown back into the fight against 'The Collective' as soon as we could basically stand again because Starfleet were so short of experienced crew. The six of us from the USS Frannery were put back together again as part of a new crew on a new ship and told to get back into the fray. One by one, we began to have break downs, small things at first like mood swings, being obstinate and argumentative, but then it moved onto other emotions like unchecked outright rage and anger, wholesale blame of some things, almost to the point of being pious and like a zealot. Finally, remorse and uncontrolled inner blame and shame that we couldn't do anything to stop what had happened to our fellow officers and crew. Everyone except Lt Kilbane that, till now, he's managed to hold himself together, but the situations finally caught up with him. Only Captain Zamos, Commander Quonto, Ensigns Richards and Silverman and myself know what's happening inside his head Captain, because we've been there. I know what he's feeling, and I know how help get him through it. With all due respect Sir, this isn't a Sickbay issue, nor is it a psychology one, this is about helping bring Kevin back from the mental precipice where he finds himself standing just now, and that means surrounding him with members of 'this' crew who trust him, and as much as he's a pain a lot of the time, dare I say people who love him as a fellow officer. It would take to long to get the other five crew from the Frannery here, we need to do this with the crew we have, and he already knows I have his back, I just need more people who want to see him brought back, who do feel they want to see him get through this because they're his friends."

Elijah took note. "Alright thank you for telling me this Ensign Karadis, I'd like you to take him to his quarters and let him rest up."

"Certainly Sir" Karadis replied "If you could let the Senior Staff know that it would really aid his recovery if they can stop by his quarters to visit him anytime, that would be wonderful."

She couped down in front of Kevin and gently said "Kevin...Kevin, it's me, Shr'Nesh, can you hear me?"

Kevin's eye refocused at the sound of her voice, and swivelled round to meet hers.

"They've finally stopped Shr'Nesh..." he said in a whisper.

"I know" she replied, reaching forward to give him a hug. 'Officially', this kind of behaviour was forbidden, but for her, orders be damned at that precise moment in time, one of her own was hurting....badly, and she knew what it was like. All she could think of was to make his world better, and a hug from a familiar face was a start.

She sat back again and said "We need to get you to your quarters Kevin, do you think you can stand and walk there ok?"

He blinked a couple of times, then slowly nodded his head. He allowed Karadis to lead him up out of his seat, and they headed towards the door.