Captain Talia
USS Adagio - NCC-99691-B
USS Adagio Captain
'Strength and Honor"
Posts: 1,752
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Post by Captain Talia on Aug 2, 2018 14:07:13 GMT -5
Talia walked along the vast ancient corridor deep in the temple complex, still with her heart deep in awe of her surroundings. She had stayed behind as most of ehr crew had wandered off, and had enjoyed watching the spectacle of the arena. So much of it had reminded her of the dueling arenas back home, the ones her Th'Father had taken her to when she was little. It was not so much about the battle but the honor and spirit behind such a struggle. A true display of dedication as much as it was to settle a debt of honor...of course it need not be bloodless but it also need not ever be lethal.
She had watched with some slight amusement, albeit laced with admiration at Lonah's attempt within the arena. She admired her Delta Ops Boss drive and determination, yet she also personally knew what the outcome was to be. Lonah had of course not disgraced the ship nor herself and made the best showing before their allies. The courage of her heart was openly displayed, yet the outcome was inevitable given the tools and training of this ancient culture. Still Talia thought to herself...the image of Lonah clinging to that warrior, her arms tightly locked around his neck like a stubborn glacial barnacle warmed her heart...She turned a corner, this image still bringing an amused smirk to her features when she felt it ...it..gripe her heart.
The overwhelming fear swept deeply inside of her like a deep dark ice cold tide, embracing and covering her, wrapping around her heart as a tight knot formed in her stomach. Her antennae curled inwardly despite her shock, yes she still felt fear, even despite all she had been through, yet nothing to this scale...this was deeply instinctual...primeval...
She turned her gaze forward and looked up slowly, and realized she had reached her destination. Before her was the magnificent entrance, adorned with the massively and elegant beauty of the golden icons of this temple's aspect.
She had arrived at last at the temple of courage. She forced herself to smile, she knew to expect some form of challenge, though this was beyond her expectations...but not unwelcome...
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DGM Cygnus
Game Master Group
Assistant Admin / DGM of the USS Adagio
Posts: 2,191
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Post by DGM Cygnus on Aug 3, 2018 12:55:03 GMT -5
Talia's perception shifted to the inner reflection of her mind. She heard music as she witnessed past decisions, each in turn, and the suffering they caused others.
The choices shifted from the past perspective to choices she was struggling with now. She turned and looked and tried, and tried again, to find the best way but all she could see was leading to more suffering. Then adding to the cacophony of experiences, possible choices she may come to face surround her. In panicked terror she turns to find a course through but no matter the direction or choice, others suffer by her hand.
The assault of the experiences of suffering grew to a frenzied pace and threatened to overwhelm Talia's sanity, when suddenly all goes dark and silent.
In the darkness, Talia heard a whisper that pierced her heart, just as when she heard it the first time on the bridge of Adagio..."She is dead..."
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Captain Talia
USS Adagio - NCC-99691-B
USS Adagio Captain
'Strength and Honor"
Posts: 1,752
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Post by Captain Talia on Aug 4, 2018 12:41:42 GMT -5
Talia struggled to steel herself, deep down she had expected this. Her people, her keth the ones she chooses to fight for have always been not only her source of strength but her compassion for them her greatest vulnerability. Guilt and the spectre of her insecurity of self doubt, of always trying to see each angle began to rise up from the shadows of her heart. The music, hauntingly familiar to a dark time...a truly dark time begins to embrace her as she fought desperately to justify each of the decisions as the floodgates began to open...
She felt the knot in her stomach tight as no matter how she tried to justify her actions, her choices from the earliest moments on Charon, fighting hand to hand almost to the last man under her command to her first missions in command of the Bolshoi and Giselle...blending with exquisite detail to the faces and names of those she lost about the first Adagio...the Pi Canis run...the ravages of the unsteady peace aboard her sister ship the Adagio-A and all cullmentanting to her most recent choices all through the Iconian War to the moment she pressed through the Titanic Storm covering the Black Ocean..
T'Sira, Kremin, Meelok, Tony, Yvonne, Stellan, Madeline, John, ... on and on went the names...faces staring at her with accusatory stares...the crew of the Eldridge, another Ada....and her sacrifice..names became piles of bodies at her feet...arms raise, fingers pointing at her....Teros....Shrell and Sharen...those lifeless eyes....
Now matter what she tired...no matter her call..the screams of their suffering ripped through her now agonized heart....
...she had to save them....she had too...it was why she was here....why she was spared over Vega..it had to be...it had to be why she was spared...
...there must be a way to end their suffering, to save them..to save them all...she was supposed to save them all...
Talia dropped to her knees, surrounded by the endless suffering forms piled around her, spirally out from her to the endless horizons...distant burning buildings from a score of worlds...ruined and scorched hulls of ships from every battle...the winds of suffering and madness battering her, the cries of their suffering reaching a horrifying crescendo a deafening cacophony of madness...
She clamped her hands over her ears,her antennae curling sharply inward as she cried out a soul wrenching scream, one last desperate defying cry from her soul against the dark tsunami of self doubt and guilt. She dove deeply into her last line of defense, to the only one that had always stood beside her, that had always been there for her in her most desperate moments...the name lost in a near feral cry of resistance a final howl against her fears..
..the silence following this scream was deafening...
That sentence...that one phrase took her mind back...to a smoke filled bridge...a battle in progress....a hunted turned huntress behind enemy lines...a chance to strike at an Orion Pirate pressed into service by a desperate Klingon High Command to root out this single Starfleet cruiser that was causing so much destruction, so much disruption and chaos behind their lines...that had thus far eluded every attempt to pin her down...a pirate queen send after this wrath of Pi Canis..
Talia relived the sight of the colonists used as human shields...the traps of the minefields...the attempts to hack into and turn the first Lady A against her...the mocking tone of every calling card as this Pirate tried to lure Talia out into the open...and the short lived joy on her face as she succeeded only by taking the colony's children hostage aboard her ship...
Talia recalled how that look changed when she drove the Adagio straight at her with a righteous vengeance, driven and determined to end this at all costs to retrieve the children.....at any cost...she felt her heart begin to crack...
She, even after the Pirate's bold claim of the danger of sending her unique Chief Science Officer at the time over and into the fleeing D7's computer systems, she gave the order nonetheless. Disrupt her systems long enough to board the ship with her Delta troops and rescue the children...and bring back this criminal..this warrior for hire alive to break the Klingon morale even more so...to see that this Orion killer faced justice for her crimes against the colonists...
She gave the order...she send over her Science officer...and even as her ploy succeeded ... as they watched their enemy's ship tumbled out of control before them, ending the maddening chase...her science officer's body dropped to the deck as if she were a puppet who's strings were cut...She opened her eyes...and watched as the scene from almost a dozen years ago played out before her...the sights and sounds, the voices and adrenaline as clear and as real to her as if it was it happening all over again...her heart froze as she recalls dropping to her knees immediately to check on her....until the need to finish what had been started pulled her away from her officer and friend's side..
"Stand by I need a full status report on the damn ship..now!' She barked as she rose from her knees from her fallen friend as Chase rushed to Xae's side.
Officers and crew still busy at their posts, still in battle with the D-7 holding the colonists returned with thier information crying out over the air of combat.
"Shield, Weapons and Power Systems down Captain" She heard from Mr. Shalabi.
"Captain" she barely heard the words from Chase as she turned to Scott as if to confirm Ansari's report.
"She is for all intents and purposes disabled Captain" Scott nodded.
"Captain" Chase tired once more, but Talia knew where her duty laid as she had once with John when he had been wounded.
"Very well" She nodded then calling out "Mr Asada! Ready your teams ...go in and shut down the power generators preventing the beam out of the colonists..."
Asada grinned "yes Captain...Task Force Delta Deploying"
"Talia"
It was not a yell, nor a demand yet something in the voice of the Bajoran Doctor struck a cord in her. A tone she was so very familiar with. She spun around and looked back down to her Chief Medical Officer and tried to keep her voice even as she asked...
"Report Doctor"
"She is dead"
Talia felt her heart seize as her antennae stiffen, around her the noise of the bridge and its crew carrying our her last orders dimmed. She felt numb, almost as if she had been punched in the stomach.
She found she had no voice as she was almost unconciously aware of the heads that turned to the direction of the doctor's pronouncement. Shocked gasps and looks of concern washed over the faces of her bridge crew, even the newest member of the bridge watch a Ferengi Ensign seemed not able to accept this as he tried to get Chase to move her towards the turbolift.
Talia's mind raced, where were her orders to reverse this? To undo this horrible thing done to her friend, the friend she had ordered in such a battle against the very witch who had all but challenged her to this.
Xae had cautioned her, warned her that such a sacrifice might someday come. She shuddered within, knowing that risk was a part of their life, knowing that this type of battle was Xae's speciality...she had ordered her to fight. To do her best to protect the ship.
She had sent her dearest friend into the fire...and just paid the ultimate price for her mission's success. One life for 600...that was the mathematics of warfare was it not? Inside the pain turned like a sharpened blade.
When she finally was able to bring herself to blink, and saw Chase still looking up at her, slowly becoming aware of all eyes on her now. All of her people waiting on her to speak or to act first. Her open hands slowly tightened into fists, and her antennae curled tightly inward. When she finally spoke her voice was devoid of emotion, her eyes fixed and cold.
"Understood Doctor...get her to sickbay"
With that simple declaration she returned back to the battle that still had to be won. The hollow feeling inside of her growing was isolated and pushed aside for now as she spoke...
"I want tactical updates as soon as Delta's boots hit the decks over there...lets finish this people!"
She fixed her eyes on the rolling and tumbling starship on the main viewscreen, as her officers moved about to carry out her orders. Not once permitting herself to look down again at Xae or Chase as she and Tlik prepared to remove her body from the bridge.
She could not, there was still a battle to be fought.
She closed her eyes just for a moment ..."Xae"
An agonized sob slipped from her lips as she closed her eyes tightly, the tears ran down her azure cheeks...her heart shattered as she relieved this moment's pain again, not just at having to have made such a choice...but at having to show no signs of her grief...no open signs of her sacrifice of how deeply she had felt the loss....her crew who had followed her for months behind enemy lines...the colonist's children held aboard that ship...they were all counting on her to be strong...to not show even a sliver of weakness or doubt. She had a battle to win...she had children to rescue...a murdering ruthless pirate to bring to justice for the suffering she had caused...
...she had no time for remorse...no time to give in then to the massive hole in her heart...
"Xae..." She whispered again...
..though even as she teetered on the edge of a full collapse, her mind nearly overwhelmed...a flicker of strength of courage remained growing by the moment. Yet...Xae had persevered...The Adagio had won the battle...the children had been recovered...and that murdering Orion witch was collecting dust in a rehab colony. Her heart pounded stronger in her chest...
...they had won that day...they had won...
A small smile began to turn at the corner of her mouth, as the series of decisions from that day began to lead her to see the choices that followed, how each successive victory during that run after that battle...had led her to even ally with her enemies to strike at and destroy the greater threat of the Undine...to uncover the Shapeshifter who had replaced Solia...all of her choices...that even led to the most unsual appearance and rescue of her crippled ship by the Melodians...the cosmozoans she and her crew had discovered long before in the Rolor Nebula...
Her heart grew stronger...yes there had been suffering...but there had also been salvation....hope...luck....Lady Luck...out of the chaos of war...out of the action of her crew ...from her choices...from her orders....there was kindled hope to those who still fought in the war...to those trapped behind the Klingon's lines....
One ship...one crew had suffered...and endured...but...they had made a difference...
...again and again...with Xae by her side...with her crew...with Ada her beloved ship...again and again...
She drew a deep breath and her heart now pounded strong...
...they had made a difference...and out of that grew her faith...from such faith...hope...
...they had made a difference....then as well and as much as they did now...whether it was the old Pi Canis Sector Block...or out here in the deepest dark of the Large Magellanic Cloud...
She slowly began to rise from her knees as the music within her heart began to fill her with renewed resolve. She would not yield...if she stopped....there would be no chance at making such a difference...to do nothing would only lead to more suffering...with Xae by her side...with Ada, Solia, Asiani, T'Ruri, Sevuk, Sinez, Eren, Skye, Lonah, Ankos, Carina, Tia, Konmal, Jessie... all of those aboard her beloved ship...her sword..her shield...her KETH!
She looked up, the tears now staining across her cheeks in bold defiance...
She would continue to fight for that one chance, Lady Luck favors the bold, not the meek...she would fight for that chance, that once chance to inspire hope...to allow others to have a chance to believe in something to find faith in themselves to do the same...to turn a single spark into an inferno of belief...of one of hope...her heart surged fully now...
She was forever fated to continue to do so with an undying love...
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DGM Cygnus
Game Master Group
Assistant Admin / DGM of the USS Adagio
Posts: 2,191
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Post by DGM Cygnus on Aug 4, 2018 19:20:44 GMT -5
As Talia started to stand she was suddenly blinded by a brilliant golden light and the music shifted once again...
She turned and covered her eyes, barely making out the silhouette of a winged angel descending in front of her. Talia felt something touch her free hand, a strong grip helping her to stand. There was flash of emotion and experience that jolted through her, at the touch, that she could not comprehend or even focus on, that soon gave way to familiar images of past heroic actions of herself and those she had witnessed and those she even imagined. The light started to dim and Talia uncovered her eyes to the image of standing face to face with a one winged angel, golden energy radiating from her. No words were exchanged, but there was shared understanding as they stared at each other for a moment. Talia blinked her eyes and the angel was gone, though a trace of golden light lingered behind. The light washed over her, embracing her with the familiar, uplifting feeling whenever she called upon her courage to rise to up the challenge.
Talia's senses returned to normal as she was still outside, facing the Temple of Courage. She took a moment to reflect and collect herself before ascending, knowing she was welcome to enter the Temple now.
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