"Lieutenant. Good." Collins greets Delaney. "Maybe you can figure out how to access this space behind the wall, here" she puts her hand on the wall and shows Delaney her tricorder readings.
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"Lieutenant. Good." Collins greets Delaney. "Maybe you can figure out how to access this space behind the wall, here" she puts her hand on the wall and shows Delaney her tricorder readings.
If his tricorder readings show no threats, Graham stows his tricorder, draws his phaser. and asks Thuvas to open the door
Graham's scan shows no life signs or weapons within. Thuvas opens the door. This house is decorated like some kind of royal palace from ancient times - very ornate and expensive. Graham is reminded of pictures he's seen of pre-World War III Venetian mansions.
Delaney scans the compartment with his tricorder and rubs his chin. "I've never seen one like this before," he says. "Do you have any ideas?"
Kylah enters, puts on her plastic gloves, and begins to search all the same areas as before. Though her movements are more tenative due to her sore knee and hands, she does her best to find something that might be indicative of Wilson's presence--or anything unusual at all. Climbing up the stairs is a difficult task since she prefers to keep her left leg straight--bending pulls at the scraped flesh--but she manages with a modicum of wincing.
"Well," Collins says impishly, looking over at Mr. Hsu "we could always phaser it open."
Graham notice Kylah limping up the stairs. He stops his tricorder scans, pauses for a moment wondering what to do, and then moves to catch up with her. Clearing his throat two or three times, he mumbles "Do you need a hand? Just up and down the stairs, because of your knee."
Graham's voice from below her startles Kylah. She grips the railing more tightly to maintain her balance. "No, thank you. it is not necessary." Despite the pain, she forces herself to move more quickly up the stairs until she successfully reaches the upper landing. She lifts her chin in satisfaction and hobbles her way toward the bedrooms and bathrooms.
Rangin with an amused smile chips in with, "Well, I'll admit I was thinking of using mining charges, same effect, bigger bang." He looks round the room at the others, realising that once again Lt. Delaney needed to be told what to do instead of showing a little initiative. Of course, once pointed in the right direction, his skills would undoubtedly come to the fore.
Rangin continues "But somehow, I don't think WR&R would appreciate us demolishing the entire wall just to get at whatever is there. Of course, we are assuming its a space for hiding something and not just a cavity in the wall, although its not mentioned anywhere in any of the records for this apartment and the odds of a near perfect cubic cavity sat right behind a painting on a wall are a bit miniscule."
"Ok, here's some suggestions. First: we should check to see if there is actually a safe there, at least a shell of some description around the cavity and not just a cavity in the wall. Also lets check the age of the wall around it. Is it something newly hidden behind a facade and not meant to be opened or has it been there since the wall was put up. Also, can we detect anything within the cavity or is it just that; a cavity."
Rangin stares at the wall a bit further as if trying to see through to what is beyond it. "If it is a cavity and there's something inside it, we carefully take down the wall around it to get into it. If it is a safe, we should be able to find any mechanism it might have for activating it and making it available to us or we take down the wall carefully around it and move it out." Rangin then looks across at Mr Hsu, "and if that is the case, I might suggest contacting your superiors to see if they have any knowledge or possibly your wife in case Mr Wilson took her into his confidence as his deputy and showed her how to open it. Otherwise, we're back to phasers again."
"Of course, we could have missed the obvious and the painting contains a mechanism for getting to it. Something else worth checking."
Rangin looks across at Collins. "Sir, what would you like us to do?"
"Since the tricorder can show us the outline of the cavity," Collins looks pensively at the wall, "We only need to phaser the outline, and that piece of wall should fall right out." She turns to the others "Unless you," she looks directly at Hsu, "can think of another way in?"
Graham and Kylah find that the rest of the house is as opulent and richly-decorated as the front hall. The basic room layout is the same as in the earlier house, but another two bedrooms and a bathroom are on the third floor. Everything is clean and well-kept; there are no indications of recent habitation.
A scan and visual inspection of the painting in Wilson's room reveals that it is just that - a painting in a frame.
Hsu calls his wife, who also sounds surprised to learn of the safe. She says, "If you can open it without using phasers, that would be best. But if there's really no other alternative, you may open it that way. Please do the minimum possible damage."
Collins resets and carries out a more intensive scan with her security tricorder and finds that the compartment is indeed a safe of some kind. M-ray scattering indicates that something is in it, but because of the material from which the safe is made - an alloy her tricorder can't identify, but which seems to reflect scans to a degree - she can't tell what it is. The lock mechanism is also behind the wall and appears to include a transtator assembly and subspace antenna. The safe is of roughly the same age as the wall and the rest of the building's structure, but might have been installed after basic construction was complete.
Rangin looks slightly amazed. "Did I misunderstand that, or is that the safest safe on this and probably several other planets. You know, the only way in and out is to transport your bits and pieces into and out of the safe. Wow."
He looks at the wall with a smile, "I bet its triggered off Mr Wilson's communicator and I would hazard a guess it would account for the transport signal Mr Delaney picked up as occurring in the area of Mr Wilson's death this morning."
Rangin turns to Collins, "Sir, I think it may be very useful if I go and get Mr Wilson's communicator, the one we found on him this morning. It may contain the details of how that safe really works."
"Good idea. Delaney, go with him." Collins says, and plops down in one of the chairs. "Have a seat, Mr Hsu. No need to stand while you wait."
Hsu and Collins sit down and Hsu looks at her. "So...." he says.
Rangin and Delaney retrieve Wilson's gadget from the safe in the investigation command post (CP). Delaney uploads the thorough scan which Kylah earlier did in order to crack the late resort manager's password and access his messages. "There are several dozen subroutines on it," Delaney explains, "any one of which might send the signal which would - or might - open the safe." He says to Rangin, "To pick up on what you said earlier, I don't think transporting is the only way to get things into or out of the safe. It ought to be possible to open it; we just don't know how yet. Ready to go back?"
The extra flight of stairs onto the third floor does not help Kylah's knee scab over; she can feel the blood trickling down her leg. When she gets downstairs, Kylah is about to tell Graham that she needs to get to the lab infirmary--a visit she hopes to utilize for more than just the scraped knee--but then realizes that her original problem still exists: a Starfleet infirmary visit will go on her record. And she most certainly does not want an after-the-fact contraception injection and tests for sexually transmitted diseases to be available to any medical personnel, especially T'Var.
Downstairs again, Kylah looks briefly at Graham. "I am afraid I must clean myself up and see to my knee before we go to interview Ms. Aubrey. I apologize for the inconvenience. I promise will not be long. I understand if you prefer to go alone but I hope you do not. Or at least, perhaps you could try one of the other houses--Mrs. Belinda Webb in #3 refused to allow us inside earlier; perhaps she will be more responsive to you. If not, there is also a family of Aurelians in #4, the Ettoo-Oms. But I will be back as soon as possible."
She limps out the door, hoping to find the public restroom Thuvas spoke about. If he is near, she will ask to be directed to it.
"Not so fast, Sir", says Rangin to Delaney before they leave the CP. "I don't think you considered that Lt. Collins asked the pair of us to go, perhaps to give her a chance to talk privately with Mr Hsu before we come back. Given what we know, she may decide that now is as good a time as any to broach certain subjects, one security officer to another. Of course, they just be chatting about the weather instead."
Rangin considers what Delaney says "True, it should be possible to open the safe somehow, but that will probably involve removing it from the wall and you might find its local door is already open. Regardless, its still buried in the wall, with no other means of access. That's why excavating it from the wall is the next step."
Stretching, he considers how much has occurred today and how much of the day is left to go and suddenly thinks of something and pulls out his communicator and calls Dr T'Var.
"Excuse me Sir, Rangin here. We were meant to be going hiking at 10am with the Gunnarssons but given the circumstances, I believe it would be wise to cancel it. If so, I can let reception know to pass on a message before breakfast as agreed."
"So, person to person," Collins smiles, "How well did you know Wilson outside of work? There must be something about him, something someone didn't like, else why would he have been murdered?"
Hsu looks uneasy. "He was a pretty good boss, but he was the boss, after all, and sometimes he made decisions people didn't like. He had to fire people now and then, just as any boss does, but none of them are still on OC3. I really don't know of anyone who disliked him enough to kill him. Nothing worth a murder, as far as I can tell. He was smart and capable, wanted to see this resort well-run, and he always did right by me."
How's your knee?
Sorry about your mother.
I actually don't know what's up between you and Collins, but is there anything I can do to help?
These are all reasonable and probably appropriate things to say that come to Graham's mind as Kylah starts to leave, but he says none of them. He tells himself it's an entirely rational decision, since given his track record whatever he says will probably make things worse. But he's not entirely convinced: you haven't had the guts to have the talk you should have had with Elizabeth, and now you're punking out of finding out what's really going on with Kylah.
"Don't worry about it," he mumbles. "Do what you need to do. While you're at it I'll try my charming personality on Webb," he says.
He asks the resort security officer outside which house is occupied by Webb, and if she knows anything about her.
Thuvas directs Kylah to a public restroom a short walk away. There is a first aid kit on the wall. She is able to stop the bleeding and clean herself up, mostly.
Officer Adams has a small pocket datapad, and shows Graham the same list of guest houses which Kylah had earlier seen:
1 - currently vacant
2 - Fellim Palver, Rhaandaran
3 - Mrs. Webb, Luna
4 - The Ettoo-Oms, a family of Aurelians (perhaps those seen last night in the lobby), Pacifica
5 - Lord Fastolfe, Proxima Centauri
6 - Samuel and Bella Gold, both businesspeople, Earth
7 - currently vacant
8 - Prolun Jaxo, a top Hwuen government official
9 - Rosemary Calvin, author
10 - currently vacant
11 - Terrance and Claire Hutchinson, retirees, Earth
12 - Sylvia Aubrey, an actress, Cochrane V
Both houses #8 and 12 are large and yellow.
Adams says, "I haven't dealt with Mrs. Webb myself. I don't know anything about her except I hear she's rich and has a strong personality."
Graham grunts and chuckles. "Great, a woman with a strong personality. I have such an awesome track record with that scenario..." he says, shaking his head. He thanks her, goes to the door, and rings the chime. "Mrs. Webb? Ensign Graham, Starfleet Security. Sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but I need you to answer a few questions," he says, forcing a big smile on his face and making his normal professional voice as chipper as possible.
Kylah looks in the restroom mirror. With her sunken and red eyes, lifeless expression, still slightly-dirty uniform, ripped hose and an unsightly bandage on her knee, she has the bleakly dry thought that if she met him today instead of yesterday, he would never have asked her on a date.
She examines the holes in her stockings. I cannot interview anyone looking like this. With some difficulty--her hands are still raw--she pulls off her boots and removes the pair of hose altogether, dropping it in the wastebasket. Another look in the mirror and she realizes her bare legs aren't much improvement, with a growing ugly bruise on her right knee and the bandage on the left.
I must go to a gift shop and get another pair of dark stockings. Nervous and reluctant to enter the resort's main area at all, since she wants to avoid exposure to too many spore-treated guests, Kylah hobbles her way to the entrance.
"Do you know anything about his social life?" Collins asks Hsu.
Graham has to wait a loooong time for Mrs. Webb to come to the door. When she does, she looks tired and frazzled. She almost shouts, "I told the other lady I have nothing to say. Leave me the hell alone, or the resort will be hearing from me! This is outrageous." She shuts and locks the door again. Graham can just barely hear her stomping back upstairs.
Kylah realizes she could have a clean uniform and hosiery beamed down from the Yorktown, too.
Hsu tells Collins, "He socialized a bit with the senior resort staff, but generally kept to himself. I know he was in regular touch with his wife and family, and he had some offworld friends, too, who occasionally visited. He seemed at his happiest when they were here."
Kylah takes out her communicator--gingerly, wary of her sore palm--and flips it open to contact the ship.
...But on second thought, she rejects the idea. The hem of her current uniform is wet from her cleaning efforts but will dry soon enough, and the dirt is hardly noticeable. Well, not very noticeable, anyway.
And she is certainly not about to request another crewmate take such trouble all for a single pair of stockings. Kylah knows she is seen as a 'princess' or spoiled brat by at least two members of the staff, and having someone sending such a small item to her--especially if Ferguson is on duty at the transporter--will not improve her reputation.
She enters the resort building near the staff area and heads down the corridor toward the lobby. The thought now occurs to her: will any shop be open at this hour? There must be something available around-the-clock; the resort seems to have thought of everything for the convenience of its guests.
I will ask at reception, she decides, and slowly makes her way there.
Graham, if anything, widens his smile and whistles a happy little tune in his heart. He presses the chime. "Mrs. Webb? Ensign Graham, Starfleet Security. Sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but I need you to answer a few questions."
He starts counting down from about half the time it took her to get to the door last time. If he reaches that mark before she appears, he repeats ringing the chime and the same statement.
It is now 0810.
The man at the front desk very apologetically tells Kylah, "All the stores are closed at the moment, ma'am. Is there something I can get for you? Or the concierge will surely be able to persuade one of the shop staff to come in early, if it's an emergency."
Mrs. Webb does not appear. After a minute or so, Thuvas walks up beside Graham with a wry grin. He says, "She just called the Security Office to complain. They told her it was an authorized inquiry; she swore and hung up."
Kylah's spirits cannot take much more disappointment; even such a mild one like this adds yet another weight to her weary shoulders. She shakes her head. "No... no, it is not a great emergency, I just... When do the stores open?"
"At nine, miss," the man says to Ens. Kylah. "Please let me make a call for you."
Dr. T'Var responds to Ens. Rangin's query. "I agree with you as to our planned hike with the Gunnarssons, and will contact the front desk to leave a message for them."
T'Var next calls Lt. JG Collins. "I am here in the resort Infirmary with Dr. Halsey. Is there someplace else you would prefer me to continue my work?"
"Do you know, when was the last time his friends visited?" Colls asks. They're the beard, obviously.
"About a month ago," Hsu said. "Three college buddies of his."
"Don't worry Sir, I said I'd do it and it's fine. Besides I need a bit of thinking time on my feet for a couple of things. Rangin out." Rangin folds away the communicator.
Following the response from Dr T'Var, Rangin looks across at Lt. Delaney. "Sir, I'm just going to swing by the lobby to drop this note off and think a bit on my own. I'll see you back up at Mr Wilson's room shortly, we should have given the Lieutenant enough time by now, although walking slowly back may help."
He heads for the door and wanders down to the lobby. With his head filled with thoughts of the safe in the wall and what it could mean, his eyes are focused on the ground. His mind elsewhere he finds himself constantly having to stop and avoid the guests in the hallways as they head for breakfast. His luck runs out at the entrance to the reception when he collides with a couple, his mind wondering how on OC3 did Wilson manage to install such a safe without anyone noticing. "I'm terribly sorry, I didn't see you,", he says contritely while checking that the two are ok.
Delaney nods. "See you soon."
The couple, two elderly Latinos, are in exercise gear, with small duffel bags in hand. The man says, "No problem. No harm done." They walk off at once.
"Excuse me a moment." Collins says to Hsu as she pulls out her communicator "Collins here, Doctor. We were all going to reconvene shortly. Why don't you make your way to the conference room we're using. Here are the coordinates." She taps at the communicator a bit. "See you shortly. Collins out."
"Mr Hsu, have you met these college friends before?
"Are any of them redheaded?
"Could you please tell me again where you and your wife were last night?"
When the man at the front desk repeats the offer to have one of the stores open early, Kylah swallows back her automatic refusal and thanks the him. "I just need stockings," she says. "If it really is not too much trouble..." She suddenly finds herself wondering if the man knows that his boss has been killed. If so, he seems remarkably poised; chances are the staff haven't been told yet--
Her thoughts are cut off by the sound of a familiar voice in the distance. Muscles tensing, she turns and, sure enough, sees Velir Rangin talking to a couple of guests several yards down the corridor leading to the staff area.
Fully conscious of how horrible she must look, and of the embarrassing situation that caused it, she whips her head around and, with a murmured "I will wait near the store area" to the receptionist, she moves as quickly as her throbbing knee allows her. Which, sadly, is not more than a slow shuffle; she suspects she's actually injured the knee rather than merely scraped the flesh.
Kylah grits her teeth and ignores the pain as she tries to put more weight on her left leg. Less of a limp will cause less of a distraction, and thus perhaps Velir might not notice her at all. Wishful thinking: her knee is not cooperating. She is now in the area near the shops. Perhaps she can hide successfully after all.
Having made sure they are fine, he heads straight for the desk, his mind back to wondering why no-one else knew about the safe given all the people around, especially if it had been installed after the hotel had been built and is once again lost in his thoughts.
As he arrives there he meanders up to the receptionist at the desk, eager to pass the message on before getting back to work to unravel the mystery. "Hi, sorry to be a bother, ahh yes, could you leave a message with the Gunnarssons, two of your guests, an Icelandic couple and inform them that, due to other circumstances, Dr T'Var and Ensign Rangin will be unable to go hiking with them with today at 10am. Thanks."
While the receptionist takes the note, Rangin looks round and notices a familiar uniform, a familiar uniform hobbling away, one knee not supporting its weight, legs that this morning had been covered as part of her uniform and are now no longer. Rangin forgets the message and the safe and strides across quickly. He has almost caught up with her before he calls to her. "Kylah, you're limping, are you alright, what happened? Here let me give you a hand." and he reaches out to offer assistance.
Graham smiles (his normal, equally wry smile) back at Thuvas and shrugs his shoulders. "Just seems to be my special day to bring joy to the lives of people around me." He shakes his head. "It never ceases to amaze me why people want to do things the hard way."
He programs his tricorder to alert him every 45 seconds. "You might want to hang back. She seems like the sort who'll file complaints from here to the Starfleet Chief of Staff just to be a jerk." He pauses and chuckles. "Although if this goes on for more than an hour, I might appreciate some water."
Then he turns back toward the door, puts on a big smile, rings the chime, and ebulliently repeats "Mrs. Webb? Ensign Graham, Starfleet Security. Sorry to disturb you, ma'am, but I need you to answer a few questions."
He does this every 45 seconds until interrupted.
Kylah is startled when she hears Velir call her name so near to her. She shakes her head and is about to speak, but when she turns in his direction her left knee chooses that moment to buckle completely. She twists to prevent yet another clumsy collapse and manages to grab and lean against the wall for support, rather than Velir. The pressure on her still-sore hands makes her suck in her breath.
Perspiration dampens her forehead and she can almost feel the blood draining from her face. Turning just her head to Velir in a vain effort to hide her injuries, Kylah sees that he is still ready to offer help and she quickly holds up her free hand to prevent him. "No, please--I am fine, it is nothing serious!"
Rangin sees Kylah raise her hand and notices the scrapes across it before looking down and noticing the rest of the damage included a plaster across one knee and a bruise on the other. He cannot think what Kylah might have been through this time, whether something simple or something serious, he just wishes he could help her. But from the look on her face, Rangin can guess Kylah just wants to soldier on and not accept help and be her own person. Well tough, not this time, he didn't want to be, but sometimes being cruel to be kind was the only way.
Rangin's face darkens as he looks back at her and the tone in his voice drops to be audible to her alone, "No. No you are not fine, its not nothing, not this time. You need assistance and you are going to accept it just for once. You're hobbling around, you have scratches on your hands, who knows what's happened to your knees. You need to go to the infirmary now and get it seen to. I'm not asking you this as a friend, I'm telling you this as your colleague, and as someone with more than enough first aid to notice when some needs some prompt medical attention."
His face softens again as he continues to hold out his hands to help Kylah, "Please."
When Velir begins to speak, his tone is so hard that Kylah feels like a chastized child, and she casts her gaze downward at the stern voice and cold words. She cannot blame him for aiming such frustration and annoyance at her; they are well-deserved. I have lost any chance with him, she thinks in dismay.
But then she finally looks up--and her breath catches in her throat. His warm hazel eyes are filled with concern, not anger. If only she could drink in his gaze for as long as she wished... she might feel whole again, instead of utterly broken.
As soon as he mentions the infirmary, Kylah's mouth parts in alarm and she barely hears his almost tender request. She leans forward in desperation. "Yes, I--I will go with you, I will do whatever you say, but not there, Velir. Please do not take me to the infirmary. T'Var will be there. I do not want her to see me like this. She will ask questions about everything, and will have to make a report and... I could not bear it." She grasps his hand as lightly as possible, wincing but still keeping her pleading stare on him. "Please?"
Slightly taken aback by the response, Rangin pauses for a moment and then nods. "Ok, not the infirmary for now, but I think you will need to go at some point. I know, the Command Room should be empty, we're not due to meet for a while yet and Lt. Delaney should have left it to go to Mr Wilson's room by now. I was there earlier picking up something before I came down here. There should be a first aid kit there and I'll see what I can do to patch you up slightly better than you have done. Perhaps see if there is anything more serious than a few scrapes and bruises."
Rangin reaches across to take Kylah gently by the arm and support her away from the wall. "Ready when you are."
Collins continues to ask Mr. Hsu question about Wilson. "Did your wife and Wilson have a good working relationship?
"How was Wilson regarded by WR&R?
"Do you think he liked working here?
"Did Wilson ever do anything that you thought was wrong or improper?"
After a relieved exhale at Velir's agreeing to her request, Kylah lets him coax her from the wall, shifting her so that most of her weight rests on him. Slowly they make their way back toward the lobby, where Kylah must apologize to the receptionist and explain that she will be a little delayed after all--if the staff person opening the store could wait fifteen or twenty minutes she would be extremely grateful.
They continue in silence down the corridor, Kylah letting Velir guide her. From his respectful but determined demeanor he appears patently aware of how fractious she is; she cannot help noticing the care he is taking to avoid crowding her. Still, at times, when she stumbles due to her possibly sprained knee, she is thrown off-balance and Velir's lean body makes sure she is well-supported, his arm tightening around her back for just a moment until she has straightened again.
She does her best not to show the warring emotions within her. She is grateful to Velir for his attentiveness, and more than that--attracted to and fond of him, as well. But her torn reaction to this physical connection is a confused combination of comfort and alarm.
There have only been two men who have held her this closely. One of them was her uncle Aldaan. The other...
She bites her lip and simultaneously clamps down on the memories that gnaw at her. She knows must not think of last night, not now. Not when Velir Rangin is near. Kylah tries to keep from connecting his touch with anything that happened in that hotel room. But her mind is just as uncooperative as her knee was earlier.
At last they are only a meter or so from the conference room that has been taken over by the mission crew. Velir stops walking and Kylah follows suit, surprised. "I'll just make sure Delaney has left, okay?" he tells her. When she nods, he gently leans her against the wall out of sight of the closed door and moves forward to look inside the room.
While he does, Kylah takes the opportunity to contact Graham. "Kylah to Graham," she says into her communicator. "I am sorry I have not returned yet," she says softly. "My knee is more injured than I thought. Mr. Rangin found me and is insisting I get better first aid than I applied myself. I should only be fifteen minutes or so. I hope that is all right?" As she speaks she watches Velir, hoping the room will indeed be unoccupied.
Dr. T'Var replies, "Acknowledged. On my way."
Mr. Hsu says, "No, I'd never met those college friends before - well, not two of them, that is. The other, a guy named Corrigan, I had met maybe a year ago. He was a redhead; the others weren't. My wife and Mr. Wilson did have a good working relationship, I'd say. We both respected him. He was careful never to put her in a spot where she'd have to side with him against me on some issue concerning the Security Department. I think he was very well-regarded by WR&R; being director of this resort is a pretty good job to have. I think he liked working here, all in all, although I know he missed his family now and then. I can't think of anything he ever did that was wrong or improper - I didn't always agree with him, of course, but he didn't flat-out make a mistake, as such. No big ones, anyway. Nobody's perfect."
The front desk clerk acknowledges Kylah's request about getting stockings, and Rangin's as to calling off the hike with the Gunnarssons.
"So what, in your opinion," Collins grabs the thread "were some of the small mistakes?"
From looking round the room, Rangin can see that Delaney has left; the tricorder he was carrying was absent and there was no sound of him in the bathroom. Looking round on the side and clearly marked was the First Aid kit that is kept in all Conference rooms.
Moving into the room, Rangin picks up a chair and moves it nearer to the door for Kylah to sit in, while still giving access to the table. He then heads back out to see her putting a communicator away. He wonders who she was talking to, but it would be easy enough to ask later. A slight shrug and he moves to assist her again.
"Okay, the room's empty, let's get you in and sat down. There's a chair opposite the front door next to the table you can sit straight in."
He offers an arm again to Kylah. "When you're ready."
Kylah leans forward and feels his arm circle her waist once more. Again she is grateful for Rangin's patience as he walks and she slowly limps--it's more like a hop, really--into the conference room.
Once he helps her into the chair and she's finally off her feet, she swallows and looks at her bruised and patched-up legs, self-consciously hiding her hands by resting her palms on her lap. "I hate to cause you such trouble. You are very necessary to Lt. Collins, I am sure, and I... I have already made Mr. Graham wait long enough. I am sorry."
Rangin hears Kylah's comment and it makes him smile for the first time in a few minutes. "Kylah, It's no trouble at all, and I'm quite capable of being important to lots of people at the same time. I'm sure if Mr Graham knew the state you were in, he would probably have sent you to the infirmary himself."
As he is speaking, he moves to get the First Aid kit, puts it on the table and nods as he takes note of what is in it and then fetches a bowl of warm water from the replicator. "Okay, lets start with the easy ones first, lets take a look at your hands," he says to Kylah as he opens the kit.
Pulling up a chair, Rangin sits opposite Kylah before gently reaching across and taking the left hand to turn it over.
His touch is both reassuringly competent--he is clearly experienced at First Aid--and extraordinarily gentle. Kylah winces only slightly while he dabs at her hands with a sterile cloth he's moistened in the basin. Of course she already cleaned them herself once, but she does not care. When he started, at first she was afraid that she would react just as she did last night when he took her hand; afraid that her mind would again be sent back to the restaurant, the garden path, the hotel corridor and suite and bed--where every contact of Jan's hands with her flesh was heated and certain and hungry for more. And to Kylah's shame, she could not stop herself from grabbing at him with the same fervid demand.
Yet rather than reminding her of last night, the warmth of Velir's skin against hers is so soothing and protective that she is far less tense than she expected. She watches his movements while he takes care of first one hand, then the next. Then slowly, shyly, her focus shifts up to his face.
Velir's concentration is aimed at his work, a small frown lowering his brow. There is no judgment in his expression... no anger on his kind, handsome face that has become almost impossibly dear to her in the brief period she's known him.
But there is no affection there, either. He is in work-mode, professional as always. She has never been more tempted to gauge his feelings, but she does not dare. She would never forgive herself. And, admittedly, she is too afraid to learn what she already suspects.
She feels pinpricks of tears in her eyes and she quickly blinks them away as she lifts her gaze to the blank wall opposite her. Her hands are now trembling and she does her best to still them. I must accept whatever he gives me, she thinks. There can be nothing more now that he knows of her behavior. A friend's tender care has to be enough. It is, indeed, more tenderness than anyone has shown her in many, many years.
After carefully cleaning the scrapes in her hands, soothing them with some ointment and bandaging her palms, Rangin is happier than he was a few minutes ago. Kylah obviously did her best, but with injuries on both hands, it must have been painful. They were shallow and should fade without scarring, as long as she didn't pick at them. No, he was putting off asking what happened, thinking just about her state in front of him. Was it something small, a simple accident? Had something worse happened, perhaps a run-in with Jan again, or perhaps something unexpected, something unknown? By nature as a scientist he was curious and now he can feel that familiar itch on the back of his neck.
Looking up at Kylah, Rangin can see her gazing away and he carefully lays both of her hands neatly on her lap. "All done with those, they should be fine. Do you mind if I take a look at your knees as well, see if there is anything else wrong?"
Rangin pushes the chair back and drops to one knee to better look at Kylah's knees in front of him. One coming out in a bruise and the other with a bandage across it. He concentrates hard on them and tries not to be distracted by the smooth legs in front of him--and trying especially hard not to follow the curves of her thighs upwards. Under other circumstances... he thinks. Well it was unlikely those circumstances would ever happen. Kylah has made that clear enough and in some ways it made this easier. It was just one colleague helping another. Yes, best concentrate on it just being one colleague helping another.
He is nearly done wrapping an elastic bandage firmly around her left knee, which seems to have been sprained, when he looks back up at her. "Almost through. If you don't mind, it may also help distract you... do you want to tell me what happened?" Rangin asks while waiting for her acknowledgement, his curiousity finally getting the better of him.
"I fell." The words are spoken in a soft monotone, and Kylah hears them as if someone else is speaking them. "It was my fault. I was careless. I was moving too fast, I hardly knew where I was going or what I was doing, and I fell." She realizes she is no longer speaking of this morning, and her eyes close. "I knew it was wrong and I tried to explain, I wanted to escape, but I could not, I did not control myself, I must not have tried hard enough. And so I fell and I ache and now I--I feel filthy." Her hands, the hands he tended to, fly up to her face to cover herself as she begins to cry.
Rangin is stunned into silence by Kylah's tears in front of him. Looking at her and seeing her face buried into her hands, he's unsure at that moment what to do. But she's a friend, a colleague, someone in distress, it doesn't matter what she may or may not feel. Nervously, he reaches out and puts a hand on her shoulder unsure if it would make it better or if she would react badly given what had happened to her last night. Rangin's shoulder was hers to cry on, but he did not know if she would.
"I'm here for you..." he says as friendly and as firmly as he can. Hoping it doesn't kick off another unpleasant memory from some other time. Hoping he can help.
Kylah does her best to stop crying, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. "I know you are. You are strong and supportive and always there for everyone. But I wanted more... I still--but it is too late, and I should have known I would ruin such a chance. Even our friendship has changed, much less the possibility of..." She shakes her head. Through blurred eyes, she can see he is still looking concerned and somewhat dazed.
"I am sorry. I will not bother you with this anymore," she says. "I know it must be wearying to be near such a troublesome person. It is even more wearying to be one." She tries to make the words light but she realizes even as she's speaking that she has made a decision. And it is painful to accept but, she thinks, it is the only one she can contemplate. "Velir," she says softly. "I believe I have destroyed my future on the ship. Collins despises me, T'Var believes me unstable--correctly, as I am sure you agree--and I dread returning to learn what further lies Lieutenant Ferguson has told others by now. Of course, now if the truth of last night comes out, he will not have to lie."
Swallowing, Kylah makes sure her hands are dry before gingerly taking hold of his hand where it rests on her shoulder. Removing it, she looks down at his fingers. "After the mission is over, I will make the request for a transfer. But I want to tell you now..." She is nearly crying again and she forces herself to stop. "Even though we have known each other for a short time, you have meant more to me than you can know. I finally had someone I looked forward to seeing, to talk with, to listen to. Just to be near. And for once I could imagine letting myself..." She flushes, unable to continue, realizing she must seem like a hypocrite considering her behavior with Jan.
Rather than continue, she lifts his hand to her lips and kisses it, then lowers it onto her lap, holding it as tightly as the pain will allow, and finally she cannot help but start weeping again. "Thank you," she whispers. "Thank you for everything."
If Rangin was stunned before, he is now dumbstruck by Kylah's words. Listening to her, to what she thinks of herself and the others, he can see how much it must affect her and it breaks his heart that someone should be in that much pain. At the mention of Ferguson, Rangin's eyes dart across her face trying to work out what had happened. Then she mentions a transfer request and his heart freezes, knowing just how much Kylah has come to mean to him even over the short time together, they just seem to fit... and now she kisses his hand and begins to sob again.
"Kylah, please don't cry, I'm right here, with you, together. When I said last night, I wanted to know more, I meant it. When I said I didn't matter what you did, that I would be there for you, I meant it. I already value our friendship, our time spent together, our understanding. Kylah, I value you, you already mean a lot to me. Last night, I thought you never wanted to see me again and it hurt, more than I wanted to admit. If, if you were to transfer, I don't know what I would do, other than follow you. I don't want that feeling of being apart, of not being near you, of not being someone you care for and if...if you would give me another chance, for something more, something closer, I will not let it go."
He takes a deep breath as if realising what he had said, how much further than before he has perhaps gone. Rangin gently takes the hand holding his and raises it to his lips, kissing the delicate fingers before putting back in Kylah's lap.
Hsu frowns and exhales. "Oh, I don't know. He didn't always schmooze with the guests as well as he might have. He wasn't always as fast in responding to interoffice memos as I would've liked. He denied my request for hiring two more security officers a few months ago. Just stuff like that."
While Rangin speaks and starts uttering such... remarkable things to her, Kylah lifts her head and stares at him in genuine, growing astonishment. Velir Rangin values her. Her lungs freeze during the rest of his words: she fears that moving a muscle will cruelly wrest her from this dream-like moment. He would--he would leave the Yorktown for her? Her?
And then he returns her gesture by kissing her hand, and Kylah feels herself melting tentatively from the initial shock. She exhales raggedly. "You truly mean this?" Kylah whispers, still afraid to shatter what almost must be an illusion. "You... care for me that much?"
She looks down at their entwined hands and shakes her head in wonder. "You have not accidentally become affected by my Elasian Tears, have you?" she adds with a nervous laugh. "I know I made sure to dry my hands before touching you, but... Oh please, Velir. Please tell me I am not misunderstanding you!"
"Really?" Collins finds Wilson's denial of extra security very interesting. "Was the resort in need of more security? I got the impression that you and your staff had everything under control. Until last night, that is."
Hsu says, "Ordinarily we do. This is a safe place, or has been, and we do our best to keep it that way. But there are times, especially when the resort's at full capacity, that a few more officers would be useful. I put in a request and he turned it down. It was nothing personal. I understood his reasoning - there would be times when ten officers would be more than we needed, and of course budgeting is always a hassle - but I just thought it would be better to have the extra capacity."