Posted by Ensign Luna (Security Officer) in The Heorot - the return of Kara Nakuto

Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Consultant, Former CO) in The Heorot - the return of Kara Nakuto

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Peter Sigmundsson (Chief Intelligence Officer) in The Heorot - the return of Kara Nakuto
Posted by… suppressed (9) by the Post Ghost! 👻
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Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

He was quiet for a good while, to be frank, he’d hoped something like this would happen. He could not… no would not put his family at risk dealing with something like this but Kara, she was probably already at risk, within their crosshairs. It also helped that he could trust her “Do you remember when we first met ten years ago?” he asked without waiting for an answer “I was a lieutenant just back to the Fleet after a decade out, you were a Commander and Acting Captain of the Curie, the first thing you asked me to do was set up a training operation to, and I quote ‘see firsthand what kind of warriors I have onboard my ship’” He said with a half-smile “That’s not a very common Starfleet way of thinking. I would be more than happy to share whatever it is I learn from them with you, I have as much experience out there in the real world as I have within the Fleet and I know what kind of people we’re dealing with, we’ll need allies to rid ourselves of them.

Peter

The memory returned almost instantly. Her first command. The innocence and hopefulness of those days seemed almost impossible to accept now. A trick to force her into believing that she did have the courage and the strength to lead a crew. Of course, her time in command of the Viking was sure to slay any such beliefs. Still, as she replayed the training operation in her mind, a wide grin spread across her face.

“Ha! I knew from that moment that you would be a worthy companion, Peter Sigmundsson! And it is an opinion that the years have not changed. We are similar, you and I. Determined to fulfill our duties and complete our missions, but willing to…seek out unorthodox methods to do so, if the situation demands it.”

She drained the remnants of her glass and sat forward in her seat, her elbows coming to rest on the table’s heavy, scarred surface.
“However, this crew has changed immensely since my last visit and, yourself, Lt Stone and Ensign Luna are the only ones I currently know and trust. I would…appreciate anything you can tell me on the others. Especially our Captain and First Officer. Might they have been placed here under similar circumstances to yourself?”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

Peter leaned forward on the table, he’d never spent much time here since his return, he had never been much of a social creature. The design did amuse him somewhat, he grew up around the stories of Vikings and their great halls, most of which had been in the Scandinavian countries but most of his ancestral knowledge came from his countrymen. “I don’t know the First officer that well, Atalanian son of an ambassador. He has a very tragic backstory, his family was murdered some time ago, don’t know any details but he seems clean, just the sort of Officer who’d end up here.” He leaned back a little, looking into his own cup and thought back on his own losses.

Nakuto snorted a laugh. ‘Clean’ and ‘the sort of officer who’d end up here’ seemed like a contradiction from her own personal experience. But the tragic backstory that Peter had also mentioned, now that was a much more powerful lure for whoever or whatever currently controlled this ship. She found herself wondering if the computer had tortured the unfortunate XO with equal malevolence to that which it had enjoyed unleashing on Nakuto herself, back in the day. One positive result of no longer being the commanding officer, at least, was that a large and indelible target had seemingly been removed from the half-Klingon’s own back. Not that she would ever wish the burden she had once carried on others.

“An Atalanian? I do not believe I have encountered one of his kind before,” was, however, the only public comment she offered.

“The Captain, on the other hand, well you should be at least a little familiar with her” He took a moment to finish his bloodwine, wiping his face with his sleeve “She was found by the USS Nova, its first officer a Commander Gloria Ravenfall eventually adopted her. She grew up around Starfleet and joined the academy at eighteen, this is just after the Dominion War. After that, it’s your standard Starfleet Security Career that culminates her promotion to Captain three years ago and transfer here to the Viking.” This was all information that Kara was probably aware of, he knew that, but a good storyteller builds tension. “But what you need to know is that she’s not a regular human, there’s something else there. I don’t know the details exactly but she requires a regular oral intake of blood, without which she apparently falls in some sort of coma, this is secondhand information from the medical staff. What I know for a fact is that she has Klingon level strength, I suspect some sort of genetic manipulation related to her blood levels. But I also know that I trust her with my life and I do vouch for her, she’s one of us”

Peter

Kara nodded. She had met with Ravenfall briefly a handful of times, first when their positions had been reversed and the now-commanding officer had been boarding as a medic. And then later once she had assumed her command in the wake of Nakuto’s own disappearance and eventual, unexpected return. The half-Klingon had also heard the rumours about Viktoryia’s blood consumption although, on a ship where shadows lurched from every corner and portals to other dimensions swallowed half of their crew, it had seemed, by comparison, a trivial and inconsequential matter to be concerned with. But now, following the benefit of temporary distance between herself and the entities on the Viking, Kara found herself considering the matter anew.
“Genetic manipulation?” she repeated, thoughtfully. “Just like Ensign Luna.”

Returning to the bar, Nakuto fished out a second bottle of bloodwine to replace the one now drained on their table, and refilled both of their glasses.
“Peter, I suspect that whoever or whatever is manipulating this ship might possibly also have had some involvement in these genetic experiments. In fact, I do not believe we are the first ship or crew to be used as a test subject in this manner. Nor will we be the last. Unless we can put a stop to it. But I fear that this might be bigger and more far-reaching than either of us have the ability to comprehend. Or to take on.”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

Peter nodded slowly. It took him a moment to consider what she said, it seemed every time she resurfaced in his life everything became grander and infinitely more complicated, it was worth it without a shadow of a doubt but still, a hell of a lot more complicated “I learned a long time ago that there is no opponent so grand that a small dedicated crew of talented people can’t overcome, it’s practically the entire idea behind Starfleet.” He took the first sip from his freshly filled glass of bloodwine, he was fortunate to be built the way he was, most humans couldn’t make it through one bottle let alone two “For now we have an enemy to discover. First, we identify our foe, then we locate them and finally, we eliminate them.” It wasn’t his first time fighting a shadow enemy, although he suspected this was more dangerous than infiltrating a criminal group with ties to the Orion Syndicate, even they didn’t have the influence over Starfleet like whoever or whatever was messing with them.

Peter

Peter’s words were formidable and did much to stir the warrior spirit that had been dampened within her. Raising her glass to toast her companion, she laughed, “Heghlu’DI’ mobbe’lu’chugh QaQpu’ Hegh wanI’, my friend!” (Death is an experience best shared).

Then, lapsing into silence, the half-Klingon surrendered momentarily to the maelstrom of her inner thoughts. Of every individual she had dared to grow close to on the Viking thus far, almost all of them had met an uncertain or untimely end. Majandra Guerin, the half-Cardassian security chief who had been Kara’s right arm and her strength, had never returned from their excursion into the portal and had now been declared missing, presumed dead. So too her former lover and chief engineer, Akirel Ros. Before his disappearance the curse of the Viking had changed this once brilliant and noble man almost beyond recognition. And then there was Ta’lahali Beveres, their longest serving counselor and Nakuto’s closest friend. She still had no clue as to where the young African had gone, or whether she would ever return.

But there was something different about Peter Sigmundsson. Her father would have called him ‘Teflon’, to use an ancient Terran term. Somehow, the CIO seemed almost immune to the curse of the Viking. Not once had Kara witnessed him cower from the shadows leaping out from dark corners. Not once had she seen him cover his ears to ward off the whispers and disembodied screams. Was he oblivious to those ethereal entities that tormented most others? Or was it by design that they spared him their wrath?

Her expression adopting a gravity as yet unseen on this particular night, the former captain leaned close and whispered, “Are you afraid, Peter?”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

Peter Stared at Kara for a moment after she whispered the question. Was he afraid, did he really feel fear anymore? Well, it was an interesting thought for sure “I…” He looked down into his drink “I don’t know” He smiled a sad smile “Frankly I’m not so sure what fear is any more” He returned his gaze to the half-Klingons face, she didn’t seem to be much older than when they first met but he could see that the last decade hadn’t been kind to her. She was now the same age he was when they first met, something he really hadn’t thought about “I don’t know if I ever told you but my father died just before the battle at Wolf 359, the Borg destroyed his trading vessel, I was in the Academy at the time. Then they were my first real opponent after graduating, I served on the Morton directly under Admiral Hayes. Never faced of a more daunting foe, a single cube decimating the entirety of the Earth fleet, if it hadn’t been for the Enterprise and Captain Picard everything would have been lost. Then straight after that, there was the war. I haven’t really been afraid of much since then and if I do ever feel afraid it’s usually overshadowed by my rage at whatever makes me afraid” He quickly took another sip

Peter

“I did not know that,” Kara replied gently, reaching out and placing a hand on top of Peter’s own. “I am sorry for your loss, my friend. But I am sure our ancestors now sing of his bravery in the great halls of Sto’vo’kor.”

She shared with him the loss of a father, although in her case the battle had been fought not against a physical enemy, but against disease. No warrior’s end had been granted to Isaake Nakuto, but rather an agonising erosion of a once-powerful life until what remained was not sufficient to maintain the crumbling body. She had not been present when he passed, as she had for her mother, a fact that weighed heavy now on her conscience, even if the Viking were more to blame than she. It was more than she had the strength to consider fully in that moment and, as she drowned the memory in another swallow of bloodwine, Peter might have felt her hand on his briefly grow tense.

“But I too have stared into the abyss and know that it holds a singular, unfathomable threat that diminishes all others. Although this ship seems determined to prove me wrong,” she snorted, dryly.
In her soul, she accepted his words without question. Theirs had both been a life beset by trials and tribulations that would push anyone to their limit. And yet, they had both survived. What could this ship possibly throw at them to equal the depths they had already reached? What torment did it hold that could possibly rival the agonies they had already endured?

But if that were truly so, then why did she constantly feel so afraid? Why did each dimmed corridor, each darkened room, each abandoned deck, invoke a reaction so primal in its intensity that she wanted nothing more desperately than to flee? Had she truly become the coward she had always feared?

“I wish I had your strength,” she whispered. “I wish I could recognise again the warrior I was, once upon a time.”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

Peter siled tensely at her comment “You won’t have to look deep, I know that warrior’s in there so…” His voice trailed of as he heard the voice of a child and turned around.

As if out of nowhere young Cerenity appeared in the door way. The child was I dead by herself. Ether Luna was working or she snuck away wail her mother was asleep. “ Kara?” She said. As if she had been looking for the familiar women. “ I-I can answer you now. Money gets upset when. I talk about the shadowed or ask about what we are. There are not any other humans on the ship that have wings and no one else can talk to the shadows that are trying to eat us” she said.

Cerenity

OOC: Kara mentioned in a post introducing Cerenity to Lieutenant Commander Sigmundsson. This would be the best case sinareo since Luna is ridiculously protective. If this is not the best timing then you can ignore this post.
Christina

Peter frowned, looked back at Kara with a questioning look. He recognized Cerenity, she was one of the few children ever to have lived on the Viking, he did not speak however, waiting for Kara to address the youngling.

Peter

OOC: You’re totally welcome to join in, Christina :)

IC: The soft, subdued lighting of the Heorot, the powerful yet reassuring voice of Peter Sigmundsson, the warmth of his hand beneath her own, not to mention the several consumed glasses of bloodwine, together they formed a heady concoction that had led Kara Nakuto to the brink of relaxation, a temporary escape from the perils of the Viking. But the familiar sound of the child’s voice in the doorway reached through the fog and clawed her brutally and startlingly back to reality.

Leaping from her seat, the half-Klingon cleared the length of the table with lightning speed and came to rest just before the young girl, her own hand outstretched.
“Crenity,” she spoke as softly as she was able to the child, “What are you doing awake at this time of night? Shall I get you a hot chocolate and then you can tell us what is bothering you?”

“ it’s the shadows they won’t let me sleep” Cerenity said.

As she led Crenity towards the replicator, she shot a glance in the direction of the CIO, her expression warning him to be ready for anything now.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

“ Kara there going to take eveyone on the ship they recaptured dad after him and mommy got into a fight” she said tears streaked her face. “ they won’t eveyone and tryed to take me. They said I’m not human? Why why would they say that?” she said bursting into tears.

Cerenity

Peter looked at Kara with concern in his eyes, he didn’t understand what this child was speaking of but the look on his friend’s face was warning enough. Shadows that captured Loki, he recalled Luna telling him about him once. A crying child was not his forte, he moved his jaw in a clear sign of discomfort “Kara?”

Peter

“I do not know, Crenity,” Kara soothed, pulling the child towards her and cradling her gently. “Sometimes, the things on this ship, they like to say things to hurt us or to upset us. They have a way of uncovering our deepest and most primal fears and then wielding them as a weapon to beat us into submission. But we must remain strong, Crenity. No matter what they say to us, we must close our ears and our hearts. No matter who they take from us, we must keep alive the hope that we will get them back. Do you understand?”

Leading the young girl over to Peter, the half-Klingon smiled. “Crenity, this is Peter. He is one of my dearest friends. And now he is your friend too. That means he will protect you, just as I will. They are not going to take you, Crenity. I promise.”

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)

“ Kara I know everyone on this ship. And hope won’t save daddy or the others. We have to do something” she said. She had seamed to calm down now.

Cerenity

Kara raised an eyebrow at the child. “Okay then, Crenity. What do you suggest that we do?” she asked, glancing at Peter. If the adults onboard were struggling to formulate solutions, then perhaps this child could.

• Kara Nakuto (Consultant)