moon phase

[warpfairy]

Isabella's videos (and their transcriptions, and their translations) are not instantly the topic of conversation in every household in the Federation over breakfast or its local equivalent, but they gain traction, and the Federation is still scrupulous enough not to send Starfleet to get her in the middle of the night for recording her opinions.

(Her opinions are limited here to the subject of her "repatriation" and to the Prime Directive. Her thoughts on genetic engineering are confined to the "polarbear" handle on long-dormant accounts on old, in some cases defunct, fora.)

It is a few months before she's invited to a speaking engagement by an activist club at a university on Viarat, a moon inhabited by predominantly human colonists but some Vulcans.

She accepts the honorarium, writes a speech, and (in the recovered Prometheus, which Renée has been holding for her) goes to Viarat, accompanied by her husband.

They get a hotel room; a liaison from the activist club shows her to where she's giving her speech, she gets as far as thanking them for inviting her and beginning to outline her planned topic before someone in the back row pulls a phaser pistol and squeezes off a burst that hits her in the sternum.

She collapses, exhaling all her air voicelessly. Someone next to the shooter tackles her and gets the phaser away.

Comments

[warpfairy]

"Even falsely claiming it means that I'm not being openly and violently hunted by the entirety of Starfleet, though of course truly claiming it is better still."

[dream_me_up]

"Yes, I suppose that would be a bit of a problem."

[warpfairy]

Isabella manages to drink her beverage through its straw, but still can't move her shoulders enough to convey the solids. "You may have to feed me," she says.

[dream_me_up]

"I suspected as much. Just a minute," he says, pushing a wheeled cabinet out of the way so he can bring his chair up closer to Isabella's head. "Oof, that's heavy. There."

He moves the chair, sits down, and commences helping Isabella eat her breakfast.

[warpfairy]

Om nom nom. "Your selection is of course impeccable. Is it weird that I miss priv? I could barely choke it down when we first landed but I'd like a bowl of it now. Pity about the Unfriendliness."

[dream_me_up]

"No, I miss it a little too. But I'm used to missing foods I liked once and can't get anymore."

[warpfairy]

"Surely there are recipes to be had in some old archive."

[dream_me_up]

"Only if it was popular enough, and wasn't anybody's trade secret, and even then there are some things it's hard to make without infrastructure I don't usually have. Not to mention that making it myself still means I can't have it nearly as often as I could when it was sold in grocery stores. And sometimes I spend a while on the wrong planet to get anything familiar. Like Davlia."

[warpfairy]

"Fair enough. I was very glad to eat bread again. I didn't expect that would be the thing I'd miss most as a political refugee."

[dream_me_up]

"What did you expect?"

[warpfairy]

"Oh, if you'd asked me ahead of time I probably would have expected to miss something like peanut butter or cheese, but instead it was bread."

[dream_me_up]

Lalita smiles fondly.

[or_the_broken]

It is at this point that the door opens and Dr. Hall walks in. He gives them a distracted smile.

"I need that cabinet," he says, nodding to the one that Lalita moved earlier and is now sitting in front of.

[warpfairy]

Isabella gives a wave that involves only her hand, not her arm.

[dream_me_up]

"Oh, sure," says Lalita, standing up to get out of the way. "Do you want me to...?" He reaches for the stationary handle on the side of the cabinet, provided for the purpose of moving it from place to place.

[or_the_broken]

Dr. Hall shakes his head. "No thanks, I got it."

[dream_me_up]

"All right."

If the doctor wants to haul the cabinet around by himself, that's his business. Lalita goes to the other side of the room, past the end of Isabella's bed, to give him a clear path to it.

[warpfairy]

Isabella's feet are undamaged. She stretches one out playfully in her husband's direction.

[dream_me_up]

He giggles and pats it on his way past.

[or_the_broken]

His way now clear, Dr. Hall walks to the cabinet, grabs the handle, and pulls. The cabinet comes away from the wall easily, turning to face outward into the room.

[dream_me_up]

[or_the_broken]

A look of surprise and slight concern crosses Dr. Hall's face.

He lets go of the handle, looks back at Lalita—

—and crosses the space between them so fast he nearly blurs.

[dream_me_up]

Violence ensues. It's hard to make out the details, because both of them are moving at full speed and their full speed is very, very fast. They're against the wall opposite Isabella's bed - then they're on the floor - then they're up again - then they're against the wall next to the door - then Lalita is thrown clear across the room and into the other cabinet, and the doctor follows him a fraction of a second later. All of this without a word, or even an audible breath, just the various noises of things hitting other things.

[warpfairy]

"What are you doing?"

[or_the_broken]

Whatever it is, it doesn't include answering that question.