<USS Avalon> "Two Sides to Paradise"

From: "Brad Ruder" <groundzero@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 16:57:13 -0700

“Two Sides to Paradise”
by Commander Javan Sierra
& Senior Lieutenant Caine Reilly McKinsely

It was a good feeling knowing that the places around you were from your own time. Ships were from configurations that you could recognize, people had familiar faces, and the stars had a gleam that you knew to be specific to this time and place. It was an odd sensation being back in your time knowing you'd just left five hundred years in the future. However, the elements of the past - future - were still lingering.

Javan had a predicament on his hands. He had a PADD with the entire database of the ship from the future. Thankfully the information was retained even after the transport back into the twenty-fourth century. His girlfriend's information about who he really was had also been held onto and that was a danger to him. It was something he had to fight through. Sighing heavily he walked up to her door and tapped the chime.

Running from the bedroom into the living room, Caine called for the person ringing her door chime to enter. She had a strange feeling and looked up at the door as Javan walked through. A huge smile spread across her features at the sight of him and dropping the PADDs that were in her hands to the nearest table, Caine moved towards him. "Hey there," she said, stopping just short of touching him. "I'm glad to see you, I've missed you since we got back." Caine smiled at him and gave him a quick hug, trying to hide the small feelings of trepidation that were in her heart due to the knowledge she had about his life. "What brings you to my quarters?"

"I need a reason?"

"Oh, of course not. I was just surprised to see you," Caine moved into her living room some, giving Javan the space he needed to come in. "Please, make yourself at home here."

Javan smiled a bit and didn't sit, "I was actually wondering if you wanted to go somewhere. I know this perfect little spot on Earth that we can go to. It won't have candles and dinner, but it'll have a view of the water and a full moon. I was hoping that maybe we could get a chance to talk?" Javan knew that she knew what he was implying, but he let it linger nonetheless. This needed to be addressed - fast.

The smile faded from her face slightly at the mention of talking. She hadn't been sure that Javan knew that she knew the truth, but she had assumed he would know. Nodding slowly before smiling again. "Yeah, actually, that sounds really perfect." Turning, she headed towards her room to grab her shoes and a sweater. "Where exactly is this island?" she asked as she walked out of her room, ready to go.

"Middle of the Pacific Ocean. Barely a speck on the map at Starfleet Command. I found it during a training scenario some years ago; it's a nice place." Javan stood there and stared at her with an awkward smile on his face. His blue silk shirt was loosely button and he was wearing khaki pants. It was a tradition ensemble that he always managed to where no matter the occasion. "Shall we?"

"I'm ready." Caine moved up next to Javan and held her hand out slightly, offer it to Javan, a smile still on her face.

Javan, in his customary way, extended his arm out to his girl. After she had laced her arm through his, albeit somewhat timidly, they proceeded down the corridor. He could feel her unease, but what struck him more was the courage that she was facing. If someone else were in her shoes the situation could, and would, be a lot different. They stepped into the transporter room and Javan gave him the coordinates.

The pair materialized on a beach bathed in moonlight. Javan could see her outline on the glowing sand and he traced her face with his forefinger before placing a kiss on her lips. He grabbed her hand and began walking down the beach as the tumbling surf melted into oblivion as it contacted the shore. There was an eerie silence, but the constant roar of the tides shattered it. Even in the tumultuous affair, there was an alluring sensation and aura to the whole scene. "So."

"So," Caine repeated to Javan, not sure what to say or where to start. The island seemed perfect and the dark gave her some comfort. It allowed her to feel more comfortable and courage, she felt like it would be easier to talk in the dark. "What do you want me to say?" she asked him, slipping her hand from his arm to his hand, letting their fingers intertwine.

"Knowing what you know not only puts you me in danger, but it puts you in danger as well. The Section and its existence are something that are always kept in check - there's nothing they don't know." Javan let his hand leave hers and he walked down into the surf barefoot. "They work in a way that even I can't comprehend. All I know is that now that I've lost cover with you it won't be long before they come for me."

Caine stopped walking and stood there, feeling somewhat dumb founded. She watched the outline of Javan's body as it moved away from her. "How dangerous?" she asked, her voice shaking slightly as the worry and fear began to rise in her body. "Javan, how can this be stopped? I mean, they can't know that I know can they? They aren't that powerful are they?" A million questions ran through her mind, they all wanted to pour out of her mouth at once but she fought to hold them in and process everything in her mind. So Caine just stood there for a moment before sinking to the sand and staring out into the water as the moonlight reflected on the waves.

He threw up his arms as if in the defeat, "I don't know, Caine, all right? They know. They have the ability to know things about people that no one could possibly know and they have the means to get wherever they want whenever they want. They're not all powerful, but they're about as close as you can get before becoming a Q." Javan's troubled eyes searched the fading horizon again before his hands dropped back to his sides. "It's too dangerous for you to know. That's why we have regulations just for this type of situation."

"Regulations? What type of regulations?" Caine asked, the fear beginning to dominate her body. "What's going to happen to you? To me? To us?"

"Caine, I need you to be calm for me. Rules that govern the way we work. If we're discovered we do one of two things: we either dispose of ourselves or we dispose of the person with the knowledge. That's the way it works, that's the way that," he paused and looked again to the waters, "that's the way it's always worked. I've been in this situation before - almost exactly. It was the same type of relationship and the same type of complications." His mind didn't want to relive what had happened.

The tattered body mangled by the pains of time. The look on her face when she said her final words. The soft aroma of flowers before the pungent smell of burnt flesh. The taste of her lips on his before she slipped from this world to the next. It was all a mess of emotions he'd fought for so long to get passed and here he was getting ready to go through it again.

Her jaw dropped a bit more. "You were in this situation before? Javan, you've been in love before? And you had to kill her?" Caine felt like her heart was breaking slightly. The thought of Javan having been in love with someone before her and having to get rid of his first love. Caine sat on the beach trying to process all that Javan had told her and all that was happening. "Javan, I won't let you get rid of me and I refuse to let you get rid of your self, not that I think you would – " Caine just stopped talking.

"I didn't kill her." Javan looked down, letting himself be vulnerable to anyone other than his Section peers for the first time ever. It was a momentous step, Javan thought inwardly to himself as if the thought had any bearing or importance on the situation, but he just shook his head. "It's a long story. Suffice it to say that I told her I was a Section 31 operative. I loved her that much. And, things got messy. She ended up dead and I ended up demoted. That's in the past - I refuse to do it again."

The idea of Javan loving someone enough to tell them the truth was powerful but it still hurt Caine because she almost felt that Javan didn't love her enough to tell her the truth, Caine had to find it out for herself. "Javan, I understand it's in the past and I will let you leave it there if you don't want to talk about it, I won't push you into telling me anything." She stood and walked towards him, wanting to touch him but scared to do it.

He shook his head, only hoping she saw it, "it's not about leaving it there. I promised myself that there would be another way to deal with it if the time ever came again. That's why I didn't tell you, I feared for your safety. Had I known that there would've been some information on you and I in the future, I would've taken the precaution of hiding it." Javan felt his words flowing out of his mouth in a hollow and lifeless manner, "it wasn't supposed to turn out like this."

"Of course it wasn't," Caine mumbled under her breath. Shaking her head she turned her back to him and crossed her arms over her chest, staring out into the ocean. "So, what do we do? I don't want to die and I don't want you to die or disappear or whatever. What can we do, what can I do?"

"If I knew that I would've told you already that I was an agent," Javan shot a word of sarcasm at her, but he visibly apologized with his shrug and a sigh. He honestly didn't know how to proceed - he hadn't thought of this situation happening to him quite yet. It was here, however, and it wasn't going to go away. "I haven't got the slightest, but we need to think of something to do quick."

"Well what idea am I supposed to think of? I mean, can't you brain wash me or something? Take this knowledge away from me so that Section 31 doesn't find out and I won't remember and freaking hell, can't we do something?" Caine asked, her fear starting to take form in frustration towards Javan.

"Caine, I would never let anything or anyone hurt you." It hit him. "Brainwashing. That's it. Not exactly a modern way of handling with the situation, but it'll work nonetheless. It will require some medical compounds and the interrogation chair that is in storage in engineering. Once that's acquired it should be about half an hour procedure to remove the engrams in your brain." Javan was hoping that as easy as the plan sounded it would pay off in the end.

"Brainwashing? Do you think it would really work? Do you think we could get away with it?" Caine asked, moving closer to him again, hope beginning to build up inside some.

"I'm Section 31, remember?" Javan smiled.

"If it works, I won't," she said, trying to make a joke and lighten the mood a bit. Caine moved up next to him and linked her arm through his. "I'm sorry that I'm putting you through this honey," she said softly, before lightly kissing him on the cheek, "but thank you for not getting rid of me."

Javan looked down into her eyes that were a mass of sparkling crystals in the moonlight, "I don't think I could ever muster the strength or courage for that." He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. No matter what they said, she'd know somehow. Eventually he'd tell her and this feeling of helplessness would fade away. Someday there would be no secrets.

<USS Avalon> "Two Sides to Paradise"

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