Cousins (Part One)
Posted on 07/01/2021 @ 11:52am by Captain Cara Letsul & Adira Toril-Harrington
3,439 words; about a 17 minute read
Mission:
The Mirror’s Edge
Location: Cara's Quarters
Timeline: Takes place after: Late Night Sessions
After drinks with Thorrin the hour was late, but Adira was too buzzed and excited to sleep. Tomorrow she would talk to Neil and plan a reunion with the children. With happiness spurred by the drink she headed for the promenade, intent on some shopping. On a station this large a good number of shops were always open.
She was fumbling though some stuffed animals, depictions of the animals that lived on the planet below, almost giddy when she heard a few people laughing over by the clothes rack.
“You know, maybe you do have a shot. You never know! He changes women like he changes socks.” one laughed.
“Yeah as hot as he is, I don't want to be the next pair of socks.”
“Oh come on, it could be fun though! And hey, getting in good with A Captain might be good for your career.`` The first said, elbowing her friend. “Especially since he clearly is a bit loose and fast with the rules, saving the woman from the other universe.”
Adira peered through the shelves, her attention caught. A tightness formed in her throat, she was about ready to burst through the shelf and give these women a piece of her mind.
The second shrugged as she picked up a dress, “You think he likes blue? Dress in this sexy little number and make sure I’m where he can see me. I swear I’ll get asked for coffee or something. This trick never fails. I’ll have to make sure I’m up early tomorrow so I can catch him on his way to his office.” she asked. “Lets just hope the new girl friend isn’t hanging around. I may have to make sure I’m outside her quarters when he leaves there in the morning.” she said.
“Oohhhh really?” The first said waggling her brows, “Competition. FUN! Just because he’s got a sleep over it doesn’t mean you can’t put yourself out there and get his attention… So who is the girlfriend?”
Adira froze, anger flaring. He already had a girl friend? Was Thorrin and the DTi right about him? What about him saying he loved her with in the last few days? Clearly people had designs on him, these women were actively talking about trying to get Neils attention.
“Oh you didn’t know about this? Ok so there is this dark haired chick on Deck 15, section 8, room 311. Super pretty, like really pretty, like I’d have to really show off ‘the girls’ to get his eye, level pretty, you know what I mean?” the woman said, poking at her own chest. “I saw him on a security camera sneaking off with her a few weeks ago… I saw the DTI pull that feed too.” she said with a whisper, “So they’re interested.” she said.
“Oooh Juicy, how do you know he’s there now?” she asked.
“I live 5 doors down, I was heading here to meet up with you when I spotted him heading in to her room. And she was in the real nice silky robe.” she grinned.
“A silk robe…. Oh damn.” the first reacted with a gasp. “Never met a man who doesn't like to get his hands on a silk robe.”
“I prefer their hands under…” the second laughed. “Any way… I mean who can blame the man for needing a sleep over? I kind of just wish I’d gotten in his way first.” she said.
“Don’t give up. You’re his type.”
“What? Female?”
The first laughed loudly at that, “Yeah I guess so. THat being said, maybe I have a shot too! Hey lets make a bet. First one of us to get a date with him buys the other a new dress for the date.” she grinned.
“Oh you are on!” the woman said, “You’re gonna have to get up real early to beat me at this.”
“I’ve got a my tricks, I’ll get his attention.” the first grinned, “We just got to get his mind off the new girl. Its pretty easy to distract a lonely man.” she said picking a dress of her own and holding it against her. She turned to look for a mirror and locked eyes with Adira on the other side of the shelf.
Adira burned with anger as she glared at the two, stunned in anger at them being so brazen as to be planning on going after Neil. Did people really think she didn’t exist?
“Hey is that… Oh… God… run.” the two scrambled to leave the store before Adira could shake herself free.
They were idiots, but this other woman… THis other woman was the same he had snuck off with? She was the real threat, and Adira WAS going to give her a peice of her mind. Between her anger and the drink she abandoned her shopping and headed for deck 15 with out hesitation.
Adira squared her shoulders and stomped up to the door or the woman, the trollop, the witch that was after her man. She didn't know who she was, but Adira had enough. She needed to talk to Neil too, but first she needed to make sure the other woman knew, without a shadow of a doubt that Adira was not giving up on her family. This distraction had to end, and then she'd figure out how to confront Neil…
She presses the chime, took a breath and pressed it again, then again.
Cara wasn't expecting Neil back so soon but he must have had something else he needed to say.
"Back so soon?" Cara fully expecting to see Neil there.
That has been the wrong thing to say, and Adira was in a blind rage. "You wish" she growled before her fist went for the woman's face.
The unexpected punch coming for her, Cara barely leaned back but still got clipped by the punch to the jaw sending her staggering back. This equally angered Cara, "Who do you think you are?!"
"You want a piece of me? Bring it!" motioning towards Adira. With having several drinks before Neil left, her normal calm control was slipping, and this woman dared to attack her in her quarters?
“I’ll teach you a lesson you’ll not forget.” Cara growled.
“Not if I teach you one first you bloody trollop!” Adira growled as she stalked forward towards the home wrecker, her fists balled up. She was in fight mode now and didn’t really see anything else. “Don’t come at my family!” she growled.
"Trollop?" Cara's eyes narrowed, staring at this upstart and invader of her current home. In a swift movement she plucked a small pillow from her sofa and flung it towards Adira, it spinning through the air towards the strange woman, and as it drew near the other, Cara was also moving. Distraction then attack, was what she had learned. Cara ducked down low her hands upon the floor as she kicked towards the other woman's stomach.
Adira didn't perceive the pillow a threat as she knocked it aside just in time to see the attack coming. She jumped back, the kick clipping the front of her stomach. She growled and grabbed the woman's foot and yanked her off balance, tossing her towards the floor. "Yes trollop!" She growled as she jumped at the woman to gain control of her on the floor, even it meant laying on her and using her body weight.
Cara twisted out of the way from the woman's pounce, rose to a crouched position and leaped at her, Cara was going to go for a nerve strike to make the other woman's arm go numb and temporarily making it paralyzed. To disrupt its chi.
It was a move Adira knew, it had been used on her before in training, and sparring with the woman who taught her much of what she knew. The problem was she noticed it too late and the strike landed. Her arm went dead fast, but her dead arm was still an instrument of battle. She swung it from her core and knocked the woman's head, following the movement to tackle the woman to the ground. She pressed her knee into one arm, and held the other with her good hand. She glared down at the woman and blinked in shock, stunned.
"Get off of me.. who are you!" Cara twisting to get away, then she felt the emotions from the woman who had her pinned. This stopped her from moving from her position on the floor. "Are you okay?" waiting for an answer. "Wait, I know you, you're Adira!" remembering the image from Neil's memory. She was breathing heavily at the moment from their small fight.
Adira was panting from the fight herself, "and you… you're Cara…" she said with clear confusion in her voice. She held the woman firm, "Were you born here?" She demanded.
"Yes, I was born here. What's going on? And get off of me and I'll take care of your arm." not feeling like fighting now. Cara stared up at the younger woman. "Please, I am not going to attack you any further but I think we need to talk." giving her a bit of a smile then winced at the movement of her jaw.
Adira almost flinched as she realized what she had done. She swore and let the woman go. She backed up and rocked back to her knees as she stared at the woman's face,. "Cara…" she whispered her voice full of shame and confusion. "oh heavens and hells what am I doing?"
Cara raised herself from the floor and moved towards Adira. With a gentle touch, she undid her nerve strike. "Look, we are being played here." she knelt beside Adira then said. "Come on, come sit on the sofa." rising up and offering Adira a hand up. Then heading over to the couch where she and Neil had sat previously. "Neil has told me about what's been going on, and I am not really happy about it. And we are not sleeping together. We're.. I don't know what you could call it. Maybe Acquaintance/Friends? We've not even kissed."
Adira looked at the woman with untrusting eyes. Like hell she hadn’t done anything with Neil, she’d always had the hots for him. At least… she thought she did. And who wouldn’t? She was so much prettier. “Don’t lie to me Cara... They showed me videos of you and Neil sneaking off while I was starving in a dark hole… hell he was here not even a few hours ago, and the whole damn station knows it! Why would you do such a thing! Heaven there is more evil in this universe than my own!” she cried in distress. “You never lied to me… I mean…” she let out a noise of frustration. She was a mess, and she’d had a drink, which is likely what had spurred her lack of control and flash of anger. She had just had a win, a massive win, and it felt like a homewrecker was trying to steal it from her already.
Cara could feel the storm of emotions tearing into her, her dark eyes getting the glaze of burning coals. "I was told what happened to you and they played you like a well tuned violin, Adira. The only contact I had with him was.. this." taking Adira's hand. "I was helping him work out his pain. And I am telling you the truth." then it dawned on her what Adira just said. "Wait there is another me in the Mirror Universe? And I am not happy about what they did to you, Adira. Neil told me, they had you, I didn't know they tortured you. And they used a video to torture you as well..." Cara let go of Adira's hand and rose from the couch. "Oh.... I knew they were pulling strings and they are using the children to make you work for them."
Cara paced back and forth, as she thought things over. "I can't ask you to trust me, Adira. And I... we are related in the MU?" her mind going back to that. She turned to go look at Adira closely now. "Please tell me." her thoughts were all jumbled together. .
Adiras' head was spinning with all the questions and confusion. “Y… Yes.” she said furrowing her brows. “Cara is my cousin.” she said. “You didn’t know that? How could you not know that?” she asked, feeling distressed. “Did the other one not know you?” she asked as she ran her hand through her hair trying to calm down and think straight. The bruises were helping.
"The other... Adira? I am afraid I never met her, well you..." Cara went back to the couch and sat down to get a better view of Adira, placing her head in her hands. "Much has happened to me, so much." Then a flash came to her, of a little girl about 3 years old, she knew. Cute with dark curly hair, laughing giving her hugs as they played tea party. That was before she went to academy, before things went to hell. "Last I knew of an Adira here was a really cute three year old, whom I adored. I'd lost track of her and then..." Cara looked at Adira. "I forgot about her. I am sorry. That is all I remember. I...I don't know what happened to her, the one here. I- never got to know her."
“Forgot about her?” Adira asked. She saw the woman with her head in her hands, and for a moment compassion was stirred, but it was tampered by the suspicion that this woman was playing her as much as the other powers in the universe. She scoffed, “From what I know of her you weren’t missing much.” she said bitterly. Part of her was relieved that she didn’t have to pretend to be that woman any more. She wasn’t as sweet and nice as people seemed to think she was. “So in your… ‘relationship’ with my husband , you didn’t know you were related to me, and yet now… you think you remember her as a baby?” she demanded with a suspicious tone.
"Vague memories of a tea party, a little girl with dark curly hair. Laughter, hugs and that is all." Cara raised her head up to look at Adira, tears shimmering in her eyes. "I know you don't believe me. I don't blame you, not one bit. I wouldn't believe myself either." she shrugged. "It may have been right before the Battle of Wolf 359, when everything shattered and the Federation was almost destroyed. I joined StarFleet then, at the age of sixteen."
Adira frowned, “Battle of Wolf 359?” She glanced down trying to remember her studies of federation history, “Oh the Borg?” she asked before she nodded. “Well in my universe we were cousins, close ones actually. Only real family I had left.” she said, She glanced down, of course Adam didn’t like Cara’s aligences and pulled Adira away. She lost contact with her a long time ago. “So why are you and Neil sneaking around? Coming to visit you at night when you’re clearly… dressed for something other than innocent social visits?” she demanded.
"Because he is being watched and this? Well he just dropped by to talk about what's been happening with you, with him and with the kids. I was about to go to bed when he came. He needed to talk to someone who wasn't involved with the mess. A neutral party probably?" Cara leaned back and tucked one leg up under the other.
"I am currently not in a starfleet position. I took a sabbatical from being a Rear Admiral as I am trying to figure out what to do with my life." Cara replied. "There is that question: do I want to leave StarFleet? Do I want to punch someone to drop me from my rank to maybe just a captain?" giving a slight laugh to it having some bitterness to it. "And also to get away from the eyes that have been watching me where I used to serve. I was just trying to help Neil gain some perspective. Offer my take on things and also make suggestions as to how to deal with the ever watching eyes." Cara stated motioning around outside of her quarters. "It does boil down to this, the children need to be protected. The rest of this mess can be sorted out later."
Adira bristled at that comment. Everyone had been spouting off that the children needed to be protected, even Neil kept saying it. While she agreed, whole heartedly, the problem was people seemed to be of the opinion that the protection was from her. “The children are safest with both parents.” she said tightly as she eyed the woman. “And I will be a part of their lives, and no blond little witch is going to stop me any more.” she said smugly. “And I don’t need any one else getting in the way.” she said eyeing Cara, “Neil wasn’t here to be with you?” she asked. She felt like she still needed to hear it from Neil, and she would, when she could confront him about all this. “If you’re trying to hide from spying eyes you are doing a terrible job. I was walking around the shops and heard the rumors that he was here… tonight. Word spreads fast.” she bit out. She was still so confused, was this woman, Adiras older cousin just a friend of Neils? Was she a lover, or potential lover? Was she a distraction? She was very much used to people using relationships to manipulate her. Hell even Adam did so with the Cara she had been close to. He had made it clear that if Adira continued to associate with her Cara that he’d ensure she could not poorly influence their son Jonus… Adira chose her child, as any good mother would. Then Jonus and Adam died...
Cara raised an eyebrow at this, rumors? Who could have been spreading them? She will have to find out, and also will have to up her game then, wait, no she didn't need to. Best for her to play like she knew nothing, to bring in the hunter.
"Thank you for the information, Adira, just don't let anyone know you told me this. Also once again, let me tell you this. Neil and I, we are not sleeping together, we haven't kissed. " she placed a hand on her chin tapping her fingertips on her lips. "I figured that someone was watching. Who told you that he had been here? Let me guess, the DTI?"
Cara rose from the couch once more and paced. "I wonder who else will come this way." Cara mused "And the blonde witch you are speaking of, who is she?"
“Not the DTI this time. They told me the first time.” Adira said. “It was just some random people at a store I was walking around in, I overheard them.” she said. “No one intentionally told me.” The woman's mention of the DTI and Thorrins warnings to her, if this woman reported her showing up and striking her, Adira might lose it all. She let out a swear, but then remembered the woman asked her not to tell anyone about her. “I wont tell any one about talking to you, if you dont tell any one about me showing up here pissed and doing something stupid.” She didn’t think she could trust this woman, yet, but maybe she needed to try like she was trying with Thorrin.
"I don't intend on telling anyone about our meeting, this is just between us and no one else." Cara stopped her pacing. "With my being familiar with being watched I suggested to Neil to get his nanny hologram scanned for a bug, as in being watched through her programming and also check for cameras. Speaking of Neil, are you going to tell him about our meeting? It might be a good idea for him to know we've met. Plus maybe, I need to find out what happened to this Universe Adira. Unless you know something. And I'd like to know about MU Cara, your cousin. Was she nice to you?"
TBC
Cara Letsul
Bar Tender
Adira Toril Harrington
NPC- Junipyr Danae
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