I've had enough of today

Posted on Fri Nov 17th, 2023 @ 1:54pm by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Inara Senn

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: Lounge, Lt. Senn's Quarters

Inara watched as this Hela vanished and she thought for a moment. "Great, we are going to be the amusement for the Norse Goddess of the Dead. I'm guessing Helheim got boring. That's it, I've had it with today and my duty shift is over. I'm going back to my quarters."

Inara turned to leave for her quarters. She was not pleased with this development. This Q, or even this being, knew about her past. 'How does one kill a god.' Inara thought to herself as she walked. 'If they were made, then they could be unmade.' She just had to understand how gods bled.

She entered her quarters and walked into her shower to relax.

Hela was lurking invisibly. She perused Inara's quarters, and then entered the bathroom. She scoffed as she saw and heard the sonic shower active. "All this technology, it takes away from the simple pleasures" she said as she materialized.

Inara had a huge amount of book shelves, Her quarters were the domain of a true explorer. On her desk was the Laptop Computer from last mission on that planet with the apes and the handgun Jeremiah Singh used to kill himself with. Despite its ominous use, there were few examples remaining of a Glock G17 Handgun. She was planning on restoring it to be presented in a museum. There was also a well-used backpack in the quarters containing some very common things all explorers needed, including the very useful Duct Tape. She also had a shelf of curiosities from her travels after the war ended including a Japanese sword rack with a Katana, a Wakizashi, and a Tanto. The paintings she had were all done by her.

Suffice to say, she was a Renaissance Woman, an explorer, and even a warrior when she had to be. But there was a deep and penetrating darkness below her surface. She was no saint, but she was no sinner.

Inara heard the voice. "That is interesting, I am constantly wondering if you are here for simple pleasures. We both know it is not about the debt. You know you were interesting to me... before that display of yours in the lounge. I would think that a goddess would have more grace."

"How little you know about what it means to be an immortal. You are so concerned with keeping your secrets, the truths that you don't want others to know, yet you know so very little about reality." Hela walked around Inara's quarters, amused with the trinkets she kept. "You think the debt means nothing to me, but you are quite wrong. It is everything to me, and when you see what they repayment will be, you may understand why. You were an amusement, perhaps you still are, we shall see."

"I have no intention of giving anything to you." Inara noted. "I've already given everything I was to someone who betrayed me. Everything. Now I am hollow. I have nothing but pain to live for. I have nothing but rage." Inara mentioned. "You are a god, you cannot fathom how it is to lose everything, because you have everything. But nothing that truly matters. You have no idea, how I will watch her be born, grow up, how I will look at her and remind myself that I cannot have her. The same as Edward Dantes." She noted. "But like Edward Dantes, it will end the same way. But at least, I will save what deserves to be saved." She glared at her. "To understand me, you will have to become mortal, feel pain, and then feel the worst betrayal and heartbreak."

"I amuse you? You are nothing to me."

Hela laughed maniacally. "You have already given me so much, and you'll continue to give me exactly what I want because you have no choice in the matter. You are an empty vessel by your own admission, filled with pain and rage. I don't need to be mortal to understand how you became as you are, I know it quite well. You are like so many that surrender to me and become my slaves. You'll give in to me in time. The future you speak of isn't certain. I can change it in the blink of an eye." She laughed sinisterly as every picture in Inara's quarters began to bleed.

Inara grabbed her backpack and pulled out the phaser that was in it. She shot Hela. She didn't care if it would work. She simply wanted this thing dead.

The phaser blast hit Hela. She laughed, showing no signs of it doing anything to her. "So desperate already" Hela teased mockingly. "Oh, you will be great fun. You remind me of Thor, so easily goaded into rash action." Hela slowly dissolved away, leaving only a trio of loud squawking crows.

"You are not making me desperate... You are making me angry." Inara entered her quarters washroom and began to change back into her uniform. She was raging mad. She left her quarters and entered the science department. "Ladies and gentlemen. All scientific projects are now on hold. You have one job now. We are being toyed with by some kind of entity. I want all internal sensor sweeps of the forward officer's lounge and my quarters. And we're going to perform an analysis of everything. I want the carpet ripped out, the walls torn off, EM, spectrographic, subspace, any thought analysis you can think of, quantum, temporal, you name it. Ensign Lafferty, send a team to my quarters and retrieve the paintings inside, take them to the archeology lab, remove the blood stains, analyze them all thoroughly."

"Lieutenant, what's happening."

"I'm being tormented by a possible non-corporeal lifeform with vast abilities." Inara noted. "And I am tired of her. We are going to figure out how to throw her into a brig cell and lock it up in the deepest prison in the Federation." Inara noted.

"Ma'am, if it is Hela, we may not be able to..."

"I do not accept gods of any kind. Nor do I accept that these useless sprites have any control over us." Inara noted. "Hela said the word 'slaves'. A god can bleed, as if it was made, it exists, then it can be unmade. Get to work!"

"Ma'am, for your information, I am Catholic, and my God is not useless." Lt. Maria Santiago noted.

"You do not want to hear my answer to that, Santiago. Get. It. Done." Inara entered her office.

As Inara entered her office, disembodied maniacal laughter began to echo out throughout the Science Department. It seemed that Hela was far from done tormenting Inara and the others.

TBC