Steel and Deal

Posted on Wed Sep 11th, 2024 @ 10:54pm by Captain Björn Kodak & Lieutenant Xex Wang

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Gymnasium
Timeline: Mission Day 4 at 0911

[Gymnasium]
[MD 4]
[0911]

The gymnasium's doors opened to admit a figure that did not often tread its hallowed halls, and looked out of place even now. Xex was clad in his normal uniform, the teal a pleasant contrast to his silvery skin. Although his step was confident and determined, he did not appear to be ready to work out, use the pool, or avail himself of any of the other equipment the gym had to offer.

No, on this day, Xex was not interested in his own health, but that of someone else who, it turned out, had been somewhat difficult to track down. Spending as much time as she did in her quarters-- where Xex was not inclined to approach her, unless absolutely necessary-- meant he'd had to choose his moment with care. And it seemed he'd chosen correctly.

His expression, which had been mostly determined, cleared somewhat into pleased relief as he spied Kaldri at a punching bag station in the corner. The Kazon held a dagger -- the one she'd refused to hand over to Security when coming aboard the Sojo -- in a horizontal plane, swishing the blade in crisscrossing motions across the bag's skin. He made his way toward her.

“Kaldri,” he greeted brightly, as though they were old friends. “You're looking...” Xex paused, really looking her up and down, and settling on, “gaunt.”

There was truth in the Doctor's assessment of her. As she practiced against the bag, Kaldri's body was a testament to years of relentless training. Muscles rippled under her taut skin as she pushed herself through a grueling routine, each movement precise and controlled. Her lithe frame was built for power and speed, every inch of it sculpted for combat. But it was her face that drew the most attention. Sunken and hollow, her sharp features gave her a look of perpetual hunger, a predatory edge that set her apart from the rest. Her eyes flickered with a dangerous light, as if she were a caged razor beast just waiting to escape and strike at her captors. Each breath she took was measured and each movement deliberate.

As Xex approached and spoke her name, Kaldri turned away from eviscerating the bag with her dagger and looked at the silvery doctor with disdain. "I figured this was coming. The Xex Talk, hmm?" the Kazon half-sneered, eyes narrowing at Wang. Thus far Kaldri had avoided Xex but contact, it seemed, was inevitable. And here they were...Xex and Kaldri, in the gymnasium with a dagger between them. As sweat dripped down her cranial ridges, the woman made no move to sheathe her blade; in fact, the would-be concubine turned back to the bag and stabbed it with an upper motion from below, as if gutting a First Maje whose hands were unwelcome on her person at any time.

"Speak quickly, Doctor. As you can see," Kaldri violently removed the knife, bits of stuffing fluttering out in response, "I am busy."

Xex stopped a respectful distance from the Kazon and her knife, but otherwise seemed unperturbed by the weapon. He leaned casually on the wall, folding his arms over his uniformed chest. His lips quirked to the side as he agreed, "I can see that," eyes tracking the stuffing that fell gently to the deck. Almost guilty, he jerked his gaze back up to her, his expression as politely interested as he could make it-- he was quite good at it, actually-- his brows arched with interest. "The Xex Talk?" he repeated, "Which consists of what, do you imagine?"

"I betrayed you. Or so you would see it, I imagine," Kaldri replied cooly, eyes narrowing under a furrowed brow. "Taking your badge and running off. Leaving that damned moon and all of you behind. But had I not," the Kazon sheathed her dagger, apparently done with her workout now that Xex had intruded, "you and this ship would have been destroyed by Subrek and his warship. And I," she stressed, thumping her sternum with the fingers of her right hand, "would once again be a prisoner and the forced concubine of a monster. So while I can...understand," Kaldri's mouth stretched thinly, "your put upon feelings, perhaps they are just a bit selfish, hmm?" She crossed her arms then, eyebrows so close together they almost looked like a unibrow. The strong ridges of her forehead cast a striking facade of defiance at the Doctor.

Xex listened with the same polite interest, his expression flickering not a whit. Even in the baleful light of her glare, he merely arched his brows, his demeanor calm despite her accusation. His words were conversational as he asked, "And given this feeling of betrayal I apparently have, what do you imagine I wish from you? Some kind of recompense?" At this, his lips twitched with suppressed amusement. "I do not know you well, but I feel I can confidently say asking for any such restitution from you would be a fool's errand."

At last, his expression of interest broke, challenge in his silvery features. "Am I wrong?"

"A fool's errand indeed," Kaldri confirmed, some surprise flowing into her cheeks at Xex's assertion. The doctor's response did not seem to be the one the Kazon had expected. She regarded the doctor for several long moments, eyes tracing his form even as her thoughts coalesced into a question. "If not recompense, then what is it that brings you to me now? And here, no less," she half-snarled, gesturing with open hands at the gymnasium around them. "Mei told me these places were for honing skills and conditioning the body and mind, not," a slight growl infused her words, "talking." The last was said with a visible shudder. Whatever the woman had against conversing in a gym went further unsaid, however.

Xex dropped all pretense at verbal sparring, his expression earnest. "I came to you because I am concerned, Kaldri," he said, trying to infuse genuine care into his tone. "It is the same concern that drove me to give you my commbadge in the first place, concern for your wellbeing. I do not care about the loss of an object, I do not even care that you fled, save that I know you were gravely injured and I was worried about your health. That," he said, lifting a finger to forestall any interruption, "and nothing else, is what brings me here today. As for why here," and now, though he tried to suppress his smile, it still surfaced, turning his silvery features into a smirk, "you are a difficult woman to find. This seemed the least... intrusive place to look in on you. In that, I suppose I was mistaken. And I apologize," he added, taking a half-step back and affecting an apologetic half bow. "Now," abruptly, Xex was all business, "I understand Hukatuse Tugamik was not kind to you. What can I say, or offer, to convince you to allow me to examine and treat you?"

As Xex spoke, Kaldri's face became at first impassive. Then her expression shifted again, this time to something akin to the face one would make when trying to figure out a complicated math problem in their head. When the silver-skinned man had reached the conclusion of his assertions and ask, the Kazon regarded him with irritation-limned curiosity -- like a cat who'd been intent on pouncing on a mouse only to be distracted from its prey by a sudden noise nearby. Kaldri seemed to be putting the pieces of Xex's truth together in her mind and trying to make it add up against her own worldviews of the universe and the people in it.

"I do not understand," she began with low growl, "why you would care so much." The steam was all but evaporating from the Kazon's features now, severe cheekbones softening as the skin of her face relaxed. Kaldri shook her head slowly and said, "In my culture, to need help is to be weak. To crawl across the desert and its hardships on your own is to learn who you really are. And," she stressed with a throaty glot, "she who knows herself can take care of herself. And I am keenly aware of who I am," Kaldri asserted, clinching the notion that she did not typically resort to leaning on others.

Xex made a noise at the back of his throat, difficult to parse. Was it disapproval? Surprise? Understanding? His features, at least, remained pleasant and solicitous.

"My body is whole, though weary and bruised," the warrior said. "My belly is full, though those pop-sick-ulls made it queasy." Kaldri did not think to clarify this statement for Xex. These people seemed so aware of everything that happened on their ship, she just assumed the Doctor would have heard of the popsicle-tasting excursion to Debbie's with Mei. "I do not know what use it would be to examine me. You would only see the scars of powerful men who took their position too far," came a low, dark admission.

Something in Xex softened at this confession, an empathy that seemed wholly out of place for his outward gender. Did he carry such scars himself? He did not speak on it if he did, saying instead, "You are not a physician." It was gently stated, but firm nonetheless, the preface to his explanation, "I am, and although I know it is unlikely you will trust my word on this, I nevertheless will say that there are some things invisible to the naked eye, some things even within ourselves that we cannot sense, but that will do us great physical injury, if left untreated."

"I am not speaking of scars," he added hastily, "although I would posit that however painful, scars make us who we are, be it soft Starfleet doctor or hardened woman capable of crawling the desert on her own. No, I am speaking of physiological problems brought on either by old injury, or by exposure to harmful substances-- of which I am certain that space station was a prolific repository. It would ease my mind considerably to know you did not harbor such an affliction." A thought occurred to him then, and he canted his head to the side like a curious bird. "How does your culture feel about providing help? Say, to one such soft Starfleet doctor who is troubled in mind?"

Kaldri stared at Wang as if she did not know what, exactly, to make of his assertion that examining her was more to set his mind at ease than her's. As she worked through the mental calculus of that, she reviewed her experiences with the Doctor so far and matched them up against his current behavior. Treating her in the woods of Shaddam, throwing her his combadge so the Waverider's anti-personnel weapons wouldn't fire on her, tracking her down (though Wang wasn't alone in this particular act) on Hukatuse to make sure she was alright. Had helping her somehow become this man's personal mission rather than an attempt to control her body and mind through medicine, as the warlords had done? She wondered.

"Help," the Kazon spoke up finally, licking her lips to wet them, "is a foreign word for the Kazon-Relora. We do not help the weak. We cull them." This was stated as simply as one might observe the sky being blue or rain being wet. "For my people," Kaldri replied with quiet darkness, "if you cannot provide for yourself, then you are a drain on resources. And drains must be plugged." Harsh words for a harsh woman but, in the scarcity of the Delta Quadrant's Nacene Reach, such an outlook made sense. To a Federation of plenty, however, the Kazon could see how the thinking might seem extreme beyond measure -- might even be inconceivable. She eyed the doctor up and down then, sizing him up once again before making a decision.

Xex barely managed to avoid a flinch at the Kazon's harsh words. Her world was not his; he was in no place to judge her values. Instead, he presented himself for judgement, bearing her scrutiny as placidly as he could until she spoke again.

"If all this," Kaldri waved her hands around the gymnasium, "is for you, then I will allow your scans and ministrations. But I did not ask for them and in no way," she held up an emphatic finger, "put myself forth to drain your time or resources. That is not who I am. It is not who I will ever be," the Kazon stressed.

It was only with an immense effort of will that Xex kept all vestiges of triumph from his mobile expression. He kept his features grave as he gave her a respectful half-bow. "I would not dream of asking you to change yourself in such a manner," he assured her, voice and posture practically screaming sincerity. There was no guile in the doctor, only earnestness tempered by just the touch of a wry smile quirking at the corner of his lips. "I consider myself in your debt for this kindness to a simple physician. But please," he took a step back now, gesturing toward the much-abused punching bag, "there is no need to interrupt you further just now. I will see you in sickbay when you finish?" Somehow, Xex was able to infuse this half-invitation half-stern-reminder with the perfect combination of question and steel. She'd made her deal, and he was going to hold her to it.

"Very well. I will head there once I've concluded here," Kaldri replied softly, wiping at her brow with the right arm sleeve of her tunic. For two heartbeats she regarded the silver-skinned physician with what could only be the Kazon equivalent of a curious look. Then she turned from him, raising her knife again, and began to slash at the training dummy once more. As Xex made his way out of the gymnasium, grunts and half-yells of aggression -- paired with the whistling sound of her klon-thek dagger -- followed him until the doors had groaned closed, leaving Kaldri -- once again -- alone and to her own agenda. But as she continued to dance around her stationary opponent, the Kazon found that her mind and body had fallen out of the rhythm she'd earlier established.

What she really needed, Kaldri surmised, was an adversary who could fight back. Perhaps that Cardassian who'd saved the ship's Captain back on the station? To defeat Subrek's bounty hunters -- though the Captain himself had played some role, she'd heard -- this Drol must be formidable indeed. Perhaps she would seek the security officer out and invite her to train. Certainly sparring with the Cardassian would be more productive than the training dummy or the holo-programs others had suggested.

"Computer," Kaldri said, invoking the ship's ever-listening AI, "locate the one known as Drol..."


=/\= Joint post by... =/\=

Kaldri
Guest Passenger

and

Lieutenant Xex Wang
Chief Medical Officer