[AU] The Hermit

Posted on Mon Jun 22nd, 2020 @ 11:18pm by Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Kalin Brennan-Griffin PhD
Edited on on Fri Jul 10th, 2020 @ 5:08pm

Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge/Jefferies Tubes
Timeline: Eighteen years into the Bubble

A Mission Post by Lieutenant Cailus Griffin & Lieutenant Kalin 'Shae' Brennan-Griffin PhD
Mission: Divided We Fall
Location: Bridge/Jefferies Tubes
Timeline: Eighteen years into the Bubble
Sat Sep 1st, 2018 @ 12:04am

How little Zachary had managed to escape from his parents and make it into the Jefferies tubes was nothing short of a mystery. Perhaps it was because a certain feral Chameloid had left a hatch open when she escaped the tubes to use the latrine; even animals knew not to defecate where they slept, so in her current state Shae still had enough sense to leave the tubes for nature’s call, though until now no one had ever caught her doing so. Quickly bolting back to her hatch and sealing it behind her, Shae immediately knew something was amiss, the scent of a stranger was in her tunnels! She followed this scent until she found a small boy, maybe two or three years of age. Tilting her head curiously, Shae continued to follow him.

The boy didn’t seem to notice he was being followed, though his parents would surely be grateful because the boy soon came up to a drop; it was not a deep drop, just enough within a junction that anyone crawling through could stand straight for a moment before continuing on. But such a drop could prove to be harmful to a child of this size, so when Shae noticed that the boy wasn’t paying attention to where he was going, she was quick to dart down the tube and catch the boy before he could hit the ground.

Holding the crying child by his leg, Shae lifted the boy before her to get a proper glimpse of him. He was a little bit of a chubster, and with quite a charming little face! Zachary didn’t know what to make of the wild woman holding him like this, so he cried even harder. Taken aback by the increased wailing, Shae gently set the boy down on the tube floor grating and helped him get him upright, then she put an arm around him and pulled him close, a gentle chuff rumbling through them. This curious sound and the accompanying vibrations got the child’s attention and his crying began to calm, and the gentle stroke of his hair helped to calm him further. Then, gentle as can be, Shae put her arm under his bottom and held him close so she could continue crawling through the tubes, taking him deeper to her den where he would be safe.


“Lieutenant Griffin!” Melody Anderson called out in a frenzied state as she ran to the Bridge. “Cail- Griffin, please, I need your help!” the panicked woman pleaded when she came upon her target. “Please please please, I can’t find him anywhere!”

Having been lying down, working on the exposed circuity of one of the aft consoles, Cailus looked up at Melody with alarm. Swiftly getting to his feet, he put his firm hands of Melody’s shoulders. “Slow down Melody, slow down,” he urged her, keeping his words deliberately slow but commanding. “Explain. Who is missing?”

“Zachary, we can’t find him anywhere!” Melody said in an outpouring of tears. “I got him ready for bed and then there was a knock at the door, I told Paul to get him into a bed while I helped my neighbor with something, but he didn’t hear me, and when I came back I couldn’t find my little Zachy!”

By now, the other three people on the Bridge were watching with concern, and not wanting to waste time, Cailus snapped his fingers at them. “Yugrid, assemble a search party from your team and start a counterclockwise search from the Anderson place. Rochester, start knocking on doors and spread the word. We need every inch of this ship searched as quickly as possible; send any volunteers down to Deck 3. Asimov, stay here with Melody and man the Bridge. I’ll handle the tunnels.”

As they all hurried to work, Cailus fixed Melody with an intense look. “Don’t worry, Melody. We’ll find him quickly, I promise you.”

“Thank you, Cailus, thank you!” Melody said, forgetting the usual formalities for a moment. “Paul already started knocking on doors,” she then let him know as she eased herself into a chair at a console, too agitated to remain standing. With a shaky hand, she tried to wipe her tears away. Dear God, there were only so many places her little Zach could get to, how had he disappeared to so completely?!


Despite the initial panic as the entire community scrambled to find the wayward child, it turned out that he was quite safe indeed. Cailus’ initial instinct to search the tunnels proved correct, having immediately surmised that they were only possible place where Zachary could get lost without being quickly found. Moreover, Cailus knew that they were Shae’s domain, and however far his beloved might have fallen, she would never hesitate to protect the innocent.

As such, he headed directly for the small intersection where Shae had made her den, and was soon rewarded by a curious sound that he had very nearly forgotten. It was like a reverberating soft coo, a singularly relaxing and comforting sound that Cailus hadn’t heard in fourteen years.

It was the sound that Shae had once made to Aoife, oh so very long ago.

Intensely relieved, Cailus paused in the tunnel and tapped his combadge to inform everyone else that Zachary was safe. Use of the communication devices was strictly rationed given how few functioning devices were left, but knowing full well how terrified Paul and Melody had to be, he did it anyway. With that, Cailus continued on down towards Shae’s den, not bothering to announce himself. She’d hear and smell him coming long before he arrived.

Shae was well aware of Cailus as he drew near, but made no attempt to move from where she was. Zachary sat in her lap as she carefully let him sip from her bowl of soup that her mate had brought her for dinner earlier; this charming little fellow seemed like quite the bottomless pit! But her heart ached as she nuzzled against the child’s mop of unruly hair, the act reminding her of her own little ones missing; she knew she couldn’t keep the boy, he was not hers and no doubt there was a mother in agony for missing her child, but she would hold onto this moment for as long as she could. After all, her mate would be here soon to take the child away.

Soon enough Cailus did indeed arrive, quietly entering Shae’s den and sitting down next to her while Zachary sipped the soup. The boy seemed well enough, and curiously comfortable with a complete stranger. He didn’t talk to Shae, not feeling the need. She knew.

“Hello Zachary,” Cailus instead said to the boy, smiling kindly. “Do you remember me? I’m a friend of your mommy and daddy. My name is Cailus.”

“Hi!” the young boy said energetically. He of course knew who Cailus was, it was such a small community, everyone knew everyone else, and his parents had told him who to trust if he was ever hurt or lost. “Can go Mommy?” he asked.

At this, Shae sighed sadly. She nuzzled into the boy’s hair one more time, a tear slipping down her cheek, then she set the bowl of soup aside and released her hold of Zachary, allowing him to get up and walk towards Cailus.

“Yes Zachary, we’re going to Mommy,” Cailus said to the boy, although his smile faltered at seeing the tear run down Shae’s cheek. Reinforcing his smile as he looked back at the boy and wrapped an arm around the boy’s small frame, Cailus said jauntily, “Okay, Zach, up we go,” as he lifted the boy back into the tunnel that would lead back to the Bridge. Before he climbed in himself, however, Cailus moved over to Shae, wiping the tear from her cheek with his thumb.

“Thank you, love,” he said softly, kissing her on the cheek, “I’ll be back later, I promise.”

As usual, Shae said nothing, her dead stare gazing into nothingness without any hint of reaction to his affection.

On the Bridge, Melody was pacing frantically. Paul had come to the Bridge as well and tried to calm his wife, but too many worst-case scenarios were running through her head, like what if Zachary had found his way to one of the shields and tumbled through! She had heard Cailus' call that Zach was safe, but she wouldn't stop worrying until she saw with her own eyes that her son was indeed safe. Needless to say, when Cailus returned with little Zach in his arm, Melody’s relief was palpable as she took her son and began to kiss his adorable face.

“Thank you so much, Cailus!” Melody said as she hugged her boy, overjoyed that he was safe and sound. “Wherever did you find him?” she asked.

Cailus didn’t smile as he watched the reunion, instead back to his usual stern self. “It appears that Zachary found his way into the tunnels,” he explained simply. “Shae found him and kept him safe until he could be retrieved.”

“Found him, or took him?” Melody retorted with a hint of anger. Paul didn’t have the same opinion of Shae, and yet he didn’t try to defend the feral Chameloid because there was one point he couldn’t ignore: the tunnels were sealed, Zachary shouldn’t have been able to get in on his own without some sort of help!

At that, Cailus couldn’t help but scowl in anger of his own, holding himself from a blistering rebuke only through sheer force of will. He looked at the lift shaft where Yugrid was frozen as she climbed in, plainly seeing the brewing tension and not wanting to interrupt an argument. Tense, Cailus gestured at the other door to the side of the Bridge.

“Ready room,” he ordered Melody and Paul curtly.

Melody rose with a huff, then lifted Zach into her arms and walked to the Ready Room where Paul opened the door for her. Paul glanced back at Cailus, his gaze apologetic, then he entered the room and waited for Cailus to give them the talking-to they no doubt deserved for Melody’s harsh retort.

Following them inside, Cailus walked past them to behind the desk that had once been Captain Temple’s, although he didn’t sit. The room doubled as Cailus’ quarters now, with a bunk bed in the corner and some minor accoutrements, but it was still quite plainly the Ready Room, the place where authority rested.

“I want one thing absolutely plain,” Cailus said coldly to the two parents, glaring at them. “Shae did not and would never kidnap a child. She instead kept your son safe so that he wouldn’t fall down a hole or accidentally touch a power conduit. Am I clear?”

“Then how did he get into the tunnels?” Melody insisted, though Paul put a hand on her shoulder to stop to any further harsh responses.

“Someone probably left a hatch open, it happens,” Paul said to his wife. “Zach is safe, let’s just be grateful.”

“But-”

“No, grateful,” Paul said sternly. Melody glared at her husband, upset that her husband was not taking her side. But, these kinds of things do happen…

“I’m sorry, Cailus, and thank you for finding my son,” Melody finally relented. “May I be excused? I’d like to get Zach into bed.”

Softening his glare, Cailus nodded. “Of course. Have a good night, both of you. I’ll see you tomorrow morning at breakfast.”


Melody’s words lingered in Cailus’ mind in the weeks following the minor drama. He’d drilled himself relentlessly for a lifetime to think logically, to consider all avenues, and no matter how he tried to work the problem, he couldn’t deny that at least in part, Melody was right. Zach could only get into the tunnels because someone opened the hatch, and that someone could only be Shae. Nobody else had motivation or cause to do so. Oh, Cailus knew that Shae occasionally left the tunnels, even if nobody ever saw her. There was no waste disposal in the tunnels, after all. It was only an accident that she’d left the hatch open.

But an accident one day could become a catastrophe the next. Since Krysia’s reactor had started functioning, the community had achieved a balance of resource consumption and generation that allowed for expansion. Various couples were having children, and with Shae in the tunnels, there was a small but very real danger to those children’s safety. She’d never hurt them on purpose, but every night before he went into a dreamless sleep, Cailus imagined endless scenarios like Zach’s, except without the ending. All because of his wife, who feral as she was, couldn’t be trusted in the tunnels anymore with her compromised judgement.

Something had to change.

Thus, on one of his daily visits to Shae, Cailus had a different purpose in mind than usual. He had asked Chief Anderson to make a simple lock for his quarters, and he’d adjusted the furniture to accommodate another resident. It was necessary, Cailus told himself, knowing that the children’s safety might very well depend on this painful and unpleasant task to ensure that their community was safe. It had to be done. It had to done.

It had to be done.

Crawling through the tunnels that morning, that reluctant mantra kept running through Cailus’ mind, accompanied by his fervent nightmares of children falling to harm in the tunnels, although in his nightmares, those children had always, inevitably, turned into Aoife. For all his conviction, though, Cailus moved slower than usual towards Shae’s den, his heart hammering away. Adrenaline burned in his blood, the phaser on his hip feeling horribly heavy.

It was a betrayal. There was no avoiding it. It was a betrayal for all the right reasons, but it was a betrayal that would inevitably hurt Shae when she was already hurting so damned much. That agonising thought echoed in his mind, warring with the thoughts of the children, slowing each movement that Cailus made towards Shae’s den. The trip, normally no more than twenty minutes, felt like it lasted far longer, but even so, he finally arrived.

Shae didn’t even acknowledge Cailus as he drew closer, which was definitely unusual; if she didn’t acknowledge him directly through her odd chirps and growls, Cailus would usually see some inclination that she was aware of him, often through her expressive ears, but today they gave no indication that she’d heard him. She was, however, keenly aware that she was no longer alone, but she was so fixated on the scribbles on the walls as she ran a thumb claw over the bulkhead walls to carve out more scribbles. It wasn’t unusual for her to be making markings throughout the tunnels, sometimes she did it simply to shave down her claws, and there were quite a few identifiable symbols littered throughout the tunnels, seemingly indicating either directions or identifying locations, but no one had yet figured out the patterns of these particular markings. Although today she seemed intent on getting a mathematics formula out of her head and onto the walls.

Approaching, Cailus frowned in unease when Shae made no sign of knowing he was there. The scribbles were nothing new. In previous years he had often spent hours pouring over Shae’s unidentifiable writing, had even asked for help from some of the more linguistically gifted in the community, but all agreed. The language didn’t fit any known Federation civilisation that any of them knew. It was just nonsense written down by a diseased mind.

Now, Cailus simply ignored it, focusing instead on Shae as he sat down next to her. “Hello, Shae,” he said in quiet, tortured voice that sounded nothing like his usual self. “We need to do something. Together.”

Shae’s fervid scratching at the walls halted for a moment and her gaze lifted, but she didn’t look at him. Instead she seemed more dazed than anything, only to resume the insistent carving of letters and numbers. She was exhausted, the strange figures in her head just kept coming and coming, they wouldn’t let her sleep, she had to get them out of her head so she could finally rest!

It was only then that Cailus realised that something was off. His frown deepened; in all these years, Shae never ignored him like this. Could she somehow know what he was about to do? Confused and hating himself, he grasped Shae’s shoulder, squeezing lightly.

“Shae,” he said more insistently, “we need to go home. We need to leave the tunnels. Do you understand me?”

Shae ignored his words, shrugging off the hand on her shoulder. Okay, this goes in parenthesis, and then the line for division, equals… No no no, it was coming too fast, she couldn’t write it all down fast enough!!! She moved over slightly to find another bare patch of the wall to continue with the next series of figures pouring out of her head.

“What the hell?” Cailus said, flummoxed and despising himself even more. Damn it, why did Shae have to make it so difficult? Any other day, she would’ve come with him with just a little coaxing, but now she was being obtuse! His hand fell to his phaser holster, that horrible last resort that might actually become necessary…

And then he noticed something.

“Shae, is that a Endar function?” he said in baffled amazement, staring at the equation that Shae had just finished scratching in the metal. “And that...if that’s energy and that’s mass...what is this?”

Shae paused as she looked at the variables Cailus was looking at. She ran her fingers over the gouged surface of the metal, retracing the symbols as if to remind herself what it meant, then on a blank spot she began to trace a circle, tracing over and over as she leaned against the wall in her fatigue, continuing to make that same circular clockwise motion.

“A circle?” Cailus muttered, looking over his shoulder between the crude drawing and Shae. Feeling his creaky old knees start to protest, he shifted around so he could face the equations properly while sitting on the other side. “But that has to be the Bubble. And these equations...if they’re applicable to interdimensional physics...Shae, this means something, doesn’t it? The math? The numbers?”

Bubble? Something about this word seemed to resonate with Shae and she pulled away from the wall to look at her work, her fingers twitching frantically as she searched for something. She found one of her earlier equations, and above one section she began to scratch out a distorted circular shape, almost like a donut, and in the center was… something… Shae’s breathing started to come in shallow, rapid pants as she frantically scratched harder into the bulkhead, circling a section of the formula, then finding the same sequence of figures again and again in other equations, circling them for Cailus to see. But then she returned to the first equation Cailus had pointed out and once again retraced those symbols, then returned to drawing a circle, almost hypnotized by the clockwise motion of her finger.

He read the numbers and followed Shae’s logic, but the mathematics were far beyond Cailus’ ability to comprehend. Even so, the more he read, the more excited Cailus got. He briefly remembered his original purpose in coming to the tunnels, but he then banished that insistent little thought immediately and with considerable relief. Shae wouldn’t have to leave today. She might have just found something critical and unknowingly averted a horrible ordeal.

Tapping his combadge, not caring about the rationing, Cailus said curtly, =/\=Griffin to Bridge. Have someone grab a PADD from storage and bring it to me as soon as possible in the tunnels, in Shae’s den.=/\=

=/\=Uh...sir?=/\= came the flummoxed response of Yugrid, the one-time eager young Tellarite ensign who was now older than Cailus had been when they’d entered the Bubble. =/\=Are you sure?=/\=

=/\=Now, Yugrid,=/\= Cailus barked back at the woman, using a harsh tone of command that he hadn’t used in years. =/\=On the double.=/\=

While Yugrid gave her hurried affirmation, Cailus reached forward with a grunt of exertion, covering Shae’s hyperactive hands with his own to still them. The contrast between the hands was huge. Cailus’ hands were mismatched, with the right hand still being bizarrely smooth and healthy while his left hand was heavily wrinkled and stiff, but they were still as strong as ever as they clutched Shae’s still-youthful fingers.

“It’s okay, Shae, I understand,” he assured her, trying to catch her eye. “Do you hear me, love? I understand. I know what you’re doing.”

Shae’s hand stilled under the warmth of his touch, and for the briefest of moments her gaze finally met his, and in her eyes was a tiring agony as more equations bubbled up in her mind. When the moment passed, Shae moved on to the latest of her equations, scratching out a section that she had gotten wrong, then continued ‘writing’; the number wouldn’t stop, she just wanted them to stop!

Cailus’ excitement dimmed, becoming despondent as Shae ignored him in favour of the equations. Still, as he had for many years, he buried that sadness deep down, reminding himself that Shae might’ve just done something wonderful, something that might even get them out of the Bubble. That was worth far more than his selfish wish to have his wife back.

As Shae continued to scratch out symbols onto the the walls, another figure came climbing through the tubes. Paul was wary of entering this section of tunnels, knowing that they had become Shae’s domain, and while he didn’t think Shae would actually harm anyone passing through, he still proceeded with caution.

“Lieutenant?” Paul announced himself as he neared the junction that contained Shae’s den. “I’ve got that PADD you requested,” he said, offering the device to Cailus once he was close enough. Both men were growing old now; Cailus’ hair was entirely silver, his face heavily wrinkled and aged, while Paul wasn’t doing much better, although they were still flexible enough to be comfortable in the confines of the tunnel.

“Thank you,” Cailus said gruffly, still watching as Shae obsessively continued writing. He glanced at Paul, considering for a moment. Melody often told the story to everyone of how she and Paul had met through a mutual and obscure love of the Standard Model, an antiquated and clumsy set of physics equations that had been supposed to define the universe. Perhaps…

“Chief,” he said, pointing a wrinkled finger at Shae’s work as she scratched feverishly. “What do you make of this?”

“Holy hell…” Paul said with a hint of awe as he finally noticed all the writing. He entered the junction fully to get a better look. “When did this happen?” he asked as he drank in the sight.

Activating the PADD’s camera to begin recording the equations, Cailus sighed. “I don’t know. She could’ve been doing this for weeks, but I only just noticed all of this today.”

“Shit…” Paul mused aloud as he studied the formulas. “This is… high end maths, way above my head. I mean, I can follow some of it, but it might take me a year or two to figure out what it all means,” he said in assessment.

“So this means something?” Cailus said in mixed disbelief and relief. “It isn’t just nonsense?”

“Oh no, this definitely means something, I just don’t know what. Yet,” Paul clarified. He stepped closer to one of the equations, being careful not to get too close to Shae, not wanting to disrupt whatever she was currently writing. “This one…” he started, pointing out the Endar function that Cailus noticed earlier. “This is temporal mechanics. Um, it’s describing something to do with time dilation; basically, how time can be out of sync.” Then he sighed. “But there’s too many variables I don’t recognize, I can’t say with any certainty what temporal event Shae is describing.”

And then suddenly Cailus froze, his mouth dropping open in stunned realisation. “I saw another equation earlier that might have indicated something to do with dimensional physics. I don’t know a damned thing about it, but could time in this universe and our native universe be out of sync? Could they run at different rates?”

“It’s possible,” Paul replied ambiguously, but he stepped back to get a better look at the web of equations scrawled out on the walls. “Actually, I’d say it’s more than possible. We should really get all this up to the Bridge, let the resident brainiacs take a crack at this. If Mel and I help, it might speed things along, but this is definitely going to take time to figure out.”

“This is your new top priority,” Cailus said sternly, giving the PADD back to Paul as he too stood up while Shae continued her feverish scratching into the metal below. “We’ll work out the particulars of this project tomorrow afternoon after our group lunch. For now, record all of this then get out of here. Assemble all the mathematicians and physicists, anyone that you think can help with this, and get some preliminary work done. Don’t worry about the inventory management for now. Sasha can handle that in the short term.”

“Yes sir,” Paul answered, then took the PADD. He was about to start crawling through the tubes again when he paused. “Uh, if you don’t mind me asking, is she alright?” Paul asked, looking over to Shae.

For just the tiniest, briefest moment, Cailus winced, his own harsh loneliness and despair rising to the fore before he pushed it back down behind a wall of cold disdain as he looked back at Paul. “No, she isn’t,” he said quietly. “But she’s doing everything she can to help us anyway.”

Then, after Paul left, Cailus crouched down behind Shae as she continued her work, stroking her ears and hair comfortingly. “Thank you, Shae,” he whispered, even knowing that she likely wouldn’t understand. “I love you. Thank you.”

Shae paused and even tilted her head to lean into his hand, but otherwise her etching continued unabated. She was hungry and her arms ached, but mostly she was tired, and she longed for these strange numbers to stop so she could finally rest, something she had received precious little of since that boy had wandered into her tunnels.

END