nexus_sages | (no subject)

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Jim Kirk enters the Nexus in a mild daze, still a little stunned at the news he's just received from Command. He doesn't look like he's shaved for a few weeks, but his black Starfleet Academy instructor's uniform is clean and his hair is neatly combed, so it's not like he's been letting himself go or anything.

He gets a cup of coffee on autopilot, before finding a seat to really think over what the hell just happened, a look of hopeful disbelief on his face, like he's been told something that's too good to be true.

"Have you ever had a dream job you never expected to get?" he asks after several minutes, looking up. "For those that haven't, if you knew you wouldn't be home for a couple years, what would you not leave without?"

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"I have had some little bit of that experience," a robed lizard-man offers. "Congratulations upon your achievement!" His smile is bright and encouraging, before it turns to inquiry: "what have you achieved?"

Ah, Jim knows this Saxhleel! Have a genuine, bright smile, Shade-Seeker. "Thanks!"

"Command gave me the five-year exploration mission that they've been planning. There's never been a mission that long in the history of Starfleet, and we'll be headed into completely uncharted territory." Jim's pretty excited about it, although he still can barely believe that he got chosen to lead the mission.

"Ah, congratulations indeed!" That smile only brightens (which, given the color of his scales, is saying something). "To reach into the unknown and draw back knowledge is the highest of callings!"

"There's no telling what we'll find out there," he agrees, raising his coffee cup in a wordless kind of toast. "I've got about six months to get my affairs in order and then we're shipping out."

"Six months? It seems a long time," the young scholar muses, "although I imagine it shall feel far shorter as it passes. Will you be away from your entry to the Nexus for the span of your mission?"

"It is, but the ship still has to finish repairs and inspections before she's spaceworthy," Jim admits. "And if we're gonna be gone for five years, we want to make sure the Enterprise is in peak condition and fully stocked with everything we might need."

The mention of being out of contact does give him pause. "I hope not. I've got a PINpoint, and I've never tested it at that kind of range, but I wouldn't think it'd matter. I'd hate to be out of touch with this place for that long."

"You would be missed," Shade-Seeker declares with certainty, "but with hope, that shall not be necessary."

"I think, for such a long journey, that I would gather many books I had not yet read. Even the most diligent of explorers must rest, and when resting, why not take pleasure in reading? Then is the spirit renewed, along with the body."

Jim nods in agreement, smiling over the rim of his coffee cup. "Man, I hear you. Five years with no reading material would be a hell of a long trip. Speaking of which, I owe you a book or two, don't I?"

"I would not call it a debt," Shade-Seeker hedges with a laugh, "but I would certainly welcome a new book!"

Jim smiles back at him, and pulls out his PINpoint-enhanced communicator. "Hang on a sec, I'll beam it over. I would've gotten it to you sooner, but my life got... unexpectedly busy." He'd actually forgotten about it, until today.

He only has to fiddle around with the device for a minute or two before a swirl of white light deposits three stacked books on a nearby table. There's a college-level introductory chemistry textbook, a book on Earth's history of space travel up 'til the twenty-third century, and a xenobiology book with basic information on the major species in the Federation.

"Hope you don't mind, I picked out a few more I thought might interest you."

He turns his head a little, regarding Jim more with one eye than the other over a sardonic smile. "Yess, I am terribly offended at the gift of more books," he laughs, "we shall meet at dawn on the field of honor!"

But he can't keep up his teasing long, there are new books within his grasp--and such books they are! He crosses to them, running the blunted tips of his claws over them with care before lifting the topmost. "Oh! Such heft!" Opening the book he chose, he takes a moment to flip through the pages admiringly. "Such fine paper! Such clear ink, and tidy handwriting. Ah! And these illuminations are so vivid, so lifelike!" More soberly, he glances to Jim. "Are you certain you wish to part with such fine tomes?"

Jim laughs a little in reply, having expected as much. Oh no, more books to read. What a terrible fate.

The books are so pristine and new, their spines are completely intact, unread by anyone else. The captain smiles at Shade-Seeker's obvious enjoyment of the books themselves, never mind the contents. "Yeah, I'm sure. They're yours to keep."

Shade-Seeker flashes Jim another bright grin. "Thank you! This is a kindness that I will remember, and I see that I will be reading these for some time." Even as he's tucking the books into his pack, he sounds pleased at the prospect.

"You are looking well, since last I saw you. I think it is not happy news alone that lifts you up, eh?"

All right, you've got his attention, Shade-Seeker. Jim gives him a politely puzzled look, uncertain what he's referring to. "A lot's happened in the last few months." Not all of it's been good, either. But it's true that he's getting more... settled, one might say. More comfortable with who he is, and who he's becoming.

"Perhaps it is only that you were weary," he speculates, "when last we spoke, and now are rested. In any case, it is well to see."

"It could be," Jim agrees, thinking back. It seems like a lifetime already. Though he himself hasn't noticed, he's traded some of his youthful exuberance for a growing maturity, thanks to the events of a few months ago. "It's good to hear I don't look like a wreck anymore, either way. I had to spend some time in a hospital not that long ago and getting back to normal's been a trip and a half."

"The path to wellness can be a difficult journey," Shade-Seeker intones soberly, "and I am pleased that you have made it. I am anxious to hear of what you find in your travels--even crossing from one province to another brought so many changes to my life, it is exciting to consider what awaits in yours."

"I'm eager to see what we find too," Jim agrees, smiling. "What's the most interesting thing you've discovered so far?"

"So far?" Shade-Seeker gives a thoughtful rumble, scratching under his chin. "It is difficult to say. I have interfered with divine politics, confronted one who sought to transgress the boundary between life and death... but I think perhaps the implications of the Oblivion Gates and the sigil keeps beyond intrigue me most. If they were not such an imminent threat to the world, I would be quite excited to study the means by which they are created."

Uh-oh. Oblivion Gates are all interesting and stuff, but it's the one before that that catches Jim's attention, and his gaze sharpens a little. "Back up a sec... the boundary between life and death? Like raising the dead?"

"Indeed," Shade-Seeker sighs. "The self-styled 'King of Worms' gathered a cabal of necromancers for that very purpose--although he was also fairly adept at enslaving the living."

"Is it safe to assume that anyone he brought back wasn't... whole?" He's not sure how else to phrase that, but he sure hopes that was the case, rather than there being some kind of... taboo against interfering with completely resurrected beings.

Edited 2017-08-10 02:02 (UTC)

"He was not interested in whole people," Shade-Seeker replies grimly, "only puppets of meat or shade. But he also bound the souls of the people he slew, and used them in the crafting of his tools. The gods permit the souls of animals and daedra to be used in this manner, but forbid so entrapping the mortal races."

"That's messed up," Jim says, frowning deeply. Inwardly, he's a little relieved, though. Not that he was planning to mention that he spent a little time on the other side, but should that ever come to light, he hopes that won't threaten the friendliness between the two of them.

"I can see why you'd wanna stop him."

"Indeed it was," Shade-Seeker agrees, nodding soberly. "Thankfully, his overconfidence was his undoing. Well, that and a little alchemy on my part." He gives a low chuckle.