Ira de dios

Posted on Mon Nov 27th, 2023 @ 11:06am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Commander Jonathan Grayson & Lieutenant Inara Senn
Edited on on Wed Dec 6th, 2023 @ 4:22pm

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: USS Washington

Inara spoke back as she examined the holographic recreation where Loki, Hela's father, was found. "This is unacceptable." She noted. "We just can't let this thing.... torment us at will. Go through all the sensor scans, as what I see here is a prison to contain a 'god.' Inara noted. "I want to know how it works. All efforts are to be directed towards a method of containment."

"Lieutenant, perhaps it would be wise not to enrage this entity..."

"And give it what it wants. Have you ever felt how it is to be a slave, Ensign." Inara noted. "They torture you, Torture you until you would do anything... Anything... for the pain to end. You reach a point in your mind that compliance is preferable to pain. Did any god intervene to stop that?" Inara noted. "No... I had to feel it. And then it happened. I did everything they asked. Every single indignity made me shrink inside until I was barely anything." Inara mentioned. "I became what they wanted, Ensign, and it took years for me to pull myself back. Don't tell me to give in to that again because my tormentor is a god. I've fought too long. She struck the first blow. I will strike the last." Inara left the Holodeck. She had been working for hours with one goal. Make Hela pay.

One of the officers spoke. "I think we should talk to the Captain, Commander, and the Counselor. If she's back. She's done a number on her."

*Xeno-Archeology lab*

Inara used a device to remove the blood from her paintings. Hela vandalized them. For a Renaissance woman. This was not just an insult, it was a declaration of war, and war Inara would have against Hela. Little by little, she began to restore one of the paintings, that showed a young blonde woman. "What would you do, Josie?" Inara asked in a whispering tone. "She is amused by me... SHE IS AMUSED BY ME!!! I hate her so much. Oh, if I could find some weapon to destroy her with. I would."

A disembodied voice that sounded like Josie spoke, "You are allowing yourself to go to a dark place. It isn't wise. It would be wise not to allow it to consume you."

She looked at her, Josie could always succeed in calming her. She could always succeed in loving her until they took her and turned her into something... hideous. "I failed you... I should have fought harder. But I failed you... And you were turned into something else..."

"You did not fail me any more than I failed you. All I can do is try to save you now, save you from a fate you cannot fathom. Death in itself is only the beginning of something new, perhaps beautiful and pleasant or painful and miserable, and you have to decide which it will be for you, just as you choose which it will be in your life here and now" Josie spoke, her voice still disembodied from any physical form. "You do not wish this conflict you seem determined to engage upon. I beg of you, do not condemn yourself to my fate."

"Your fate? What has Hela done? And how does one talk through a painting from beyond death." Inara noted. "I swore when I began thus, both of them... Will die." She noted. "Edward Dantes could not go back to what he was... Hela... That is you, isn't it?"

"There are more things in heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy Inara" Josie said.

Hela laughed as she appeared. "I am always nearby, but it wasn't me you were speaking with. I simply attained her, allowed her a chance to redeem herself."

"Redeem herself, she abandoned me." Inara noted. "I didn't know her anymore after Starfleet left her for Bishop to destroy her, and when she came back, there was nothing left. And now you know why I am so hollow." Inara noted. "The only thing I have left is to keep my appointment in thirty years. Wait. Bide my time. And then when they are not expecting, time will bend to me, and Inara Senn will cease to exist." She noted. "I will live... as Arrianna Salannis an Vantar."

"I grow tired of you. Why are you here? Couldn't you go bother Gna for a while? I hear she has a very interesting chariot. Maybe you can ride around spreading more mixed truth and lies than FNN." She explained using her knowledge of Norse mythology.

Hela laughed. "So full of anger and hatred. So easy to mold. You know nothing of what awaits you. You plot and scheme like my father, assuming you will bend time as if you control it like Dagda or Chronus. You don't get to manipulate time in that way mortal. If you aren't careful, the bell will toll for thee far sooner than you expect and end your quest for vengeance, no matter what Morrigan might think. You are making this too easy for me. By all means, continue your quest for vengeance, see what it gains you. I'll have you under my domain quickly." Hela vanished once more as her laughing echoed until all that was left was the cackling of crows once more.

"Crow Cackling..... Lame... This entity is truly insane for tormenting us with the Norse God of Death. At least we are not being tormented by the Greek Pantheon or even the Egyptian Pantheon. Not to mention whatever the thing that the Philistines worshiped." Inara said to herself.

She moved onto the next painting when Jon entered, but still, many of her artistic works were soiled with blood. It was Hela's work to be sure.

Jon entered the archeology lab, saw the vandalized paintings. "Hela?" He questioned.

"Yes, through no fault but our own, and by the universes exasperating sense of humor. The Nordic Goddess of Death has chosen to grace us with her presence." Inara mentioned. "And she's been ranting and raving about some kind of debt owed to her by the ship's Assistant Chief of Medicine. Plus, she's taken an interest in vandalizing my works of art. Fortunately, it is just blood. And I developed a type of baryon sweep that target just the blood, since I use no blood in my artwork. And the lab's equipment is configured specifically to the restoration of cultural artifacts."

Suddenly over the speakers of the lab, a song began playing loudly but quite clearly, the lyrics actually floating in the air in a visible fashion. The music was operatic, but the words were being sung in Gregorian chant. The words floated before both Inara and Jon,
'O Fortuna,
velut luna
statu variabilis,
semper crescis
aut decrescis;
vita detestabilis
nunc obdurat
et tunc curat
ludo mentis aciem;
egestatem,
potestatem,
dissolvit ut glaciem.'

As the lyrics floated before them, the images in Inara's paintings began to slowly change until they were all showing new images, and the prominent figure in each of the paintings was now Hela.

"Hela! So help me, I will find a spike from hell, the worst weapon of war in this universe, and impale you with it!!!!!!!" Inara shouted. "That's it!! I'm going to kill you!!!!!"

Jon looked at Inara. "Lieutenant, while I understand your desire for revenge or vengeance, you need to get yourself under control. Just how involved with Hela are you?"

Inara pointed at her paintings as to answer the Commander's question. Hela was prominently displayed on them, mocking her.

"This is a grave insult to a woman of science and art, Commander. I paint because... it helps me. To preserve some things I don't want to lose more of, and I assure you, I have lost a great number of things. Hela mocks that." Inara noted. "She mocks everything I am."

"She can't mock you if you don't let her Lieutenant. I'm surprised you don't know that or if you do why you supply her with opportunities." Jon replied.

"What? I'm supposed to let her desecrate my belongings?" Inara noted. "Just because she's a god? This universe is a divine comedy. How did you get rid of her the first time?"

"Dr. T’ghann-Travis made some sort of a bargain with Hela in return for her daughter Shasta being brought back." Jon replied.

"Oh, this is just great. A debt to the Norse God of Death." Inara brought up some information on Hela. "Hela, also known as Hel, Daughter of Loki, is the Norse Goddess of Death. Her domain is known as Niffelheim. She's inherited her father's trickster nature alright, but I'm not certain if this entity, or whatever it is, is a real goddess. Historical and cultural files on Hela are vague as all mythology is. Read the Iliad and the Odyssey and you get the idea. It's like trying to figure out what twentieth century Earth was based on reading Marvel Comics." Inara noted. "I have my team researching everything Hela has been in contact with so we can understand what exactly she is. Which I am confident, we'll learn is just another non-corporeal sprite with a chip on her shoulder. Gods... Pfft." Inara noted. "Science is the ultimate truth of reality."

=^=Ensign Durst to Lt Senn. Lieutenant, we have a problem. Science lab 1 just turned into a frozen wasteland and all of the crew inside appear frozen solid. =^=

"This has just gotten much more serious and deadly." Jon observed. "You" He said looking at Inara, "need to keep your focus and cool. Hela is doing this to goad you."

Inara moved to the science lab and began to assist her team. "Careful, it's flash freeze. if we get them to sickbay in enough time, we'll be able to revive them without an issue." She spoke to Jon. "Now she's trying to kill my team. It's time we stopped pondering how to kowtow to her... and started coming up a way how to send her body back to Odin in a bag."

"You really want to bring Odin into this?" Hela's voice sounded out. I've already made overtures to another, not sure she would appreciate Odin, nor would I." She wasn't visible, but her voice was unmistakable.

"Hela, if you want to do things for my heresy, do it to me. Leave my team out of this." Inara moved her frozen crewmembers to the sickbay. "Just do it to me. I'm no one. I can at least save people I have to... people I care about. Just do it to me, no one else is in the crossfire of our war."

Jon looked at her. "Oh, very noble Lieutenant but don't be a freakin idiot. We're a crew a family if you will and we're in this together. United we stand."

"I cannot be broken again, Commander. I won't." She noted. "That last time I broke, I lost everything. Absolutely everything. Then they took away what was left." She noted. 'Those I thought were my friends.' She said in the darkest corner of a pained and tormented mind. "Help me."

"I'm your friend, so is Callie and the Captain, Shon and Sam, Kate and Phoenix. We all are if you'll let us be. You aren't alone Lieutenant."

Hela offered a ghostly laugh. "How little you understand. And your noble superior, trying so desperately to save you. He at least understands, for all it will help you" she said as she appeared as a transparent form hovering above them.

Jon didn't address Hela. He kept his attention focused on Inara. "Don't fall into her trap Inara." He said using her first name. We can defeat her if we stay united."

"Yes, of course you can. You can defeat me if you just put your mortal minds together and hold hands" Hela taunted. "Just ask Shoniara how easily it is to defeat me. In fact, I think I will."

"Will you shut up and go away." Inara noted.

Hela laughed as she faded away. "Give in to your anger, your desire for vengeance and retribution."