There are far deeper places, darker revelations.

Stage 13

There are far deeper places, darker revelations.

Miranda woke up with a start. She could smell the hellish fire and feel the heat on her skin. With a shaky hand she brushed her hair back and swallowed.

She needed something to drink.

As she pulled back the sheets and blanket, she noticed that her covers where wet to the touch. There was a small sigh as she walked over to bathroom and unceremoniously started to drink straight from the tap. The coolness of the water was refreshing. The heat she had felt started to fade along with that repulsive smell of burning… what? Flesh?

She drank more water and dried her face with a nearby towel. When she noticed that even her t-shirt and shorts were damp, she sighed and decided she had to shower. She had just started to remove her shirt when she heard a knock on her door.

She blushed when she found Zechariah standing on the other side. Instinctively, she wrapped her arms around her nearly naked self, allowing him a shy smile,

"Oh…" she cleared her throat, "Good morning, Zechariah."

"Good morning, Miranda!" Reaching over he gripped her shoulder with a warm squeeze. Miranda tensed up at the touch.

He looked her up and down and once again she blushed. When he spoke again, there was a note of concern in his voice.

"Did I wake you from a bad dream, my dear?"

As odd as it would have sounded coming from any other man, when Zechariah said those two words it made a certain amount of sense. He spoke that way to everyone. One could almost tell the level of happiness (or irritation) he had with a person just by the inflection given to those two words at the end of a sentence.

Miranda swallowed and shrugged her free shoulder.

"Nothing serious, just a rather vivid dream."

Zechariah gave her a piercing look, but didn't press further. Instead, he offered a smile of reassurance.

"As you wish, then. I came to tell you that breakfast will be served in my office. Join me as soon as you've completed your morning rituals. We have much to discuss."

Miranda looked up at him with genuine appreciation. She had been remarkably impatient about getting a full debrief so that she could finally fill the gaps in her knowledge about her paradoxical Gift.

"Thank you, Zechariah! I've been… a bit anxious to know more about what's going on."

Zechariah nodded.

"It would have been more helpful six days ago, but it would seem that even the head of Branch Cell has to respect the wishes of his science director."

He looked a bit thoughtful for a moment then smiled.

"Sometimes I think she's the one wearing the pants in this family."

Zechariah rolled his eyes and made a playful sour face. Miranda tried to conceal her small giggle with a demure cough.

"Anyway! I'll let you get about your business. I'll see you in two hours?"

Miranda gave him a nod. Smiling as brightly as ever, he released her shoulder and did an about-face, humming as he walked away from her door.

Miranda closed the door behind him.

She could feel her heart beating rather heavy in her chest, their situation was still unchanged, even though he felt some level of comfort touching her shoulder, and not immediately releasing it when she tensed up. She even felt their connection renew itself when he made contact with her.

Miranda took only thirty minutes to get herself presentable, and spent the remaining hour and half meditating. But even then she still found herself anxious. The conflict of emotions within her didn't do much to improve her mood or erase the lingering sense of dread her dream had planted within her.

As she approached Zechariah's door she started to feel the connection they shared from the hallway. Even though the connection was still closed to her as it had been before, that didn't keep her from feeling the warmth of his presence.

She wondered if Zechariah had offered that small comfort on purpose, but whatever the explanation, she appreciated the welcoming warmth.

She took a deep breath and started to knock on the door. It opened before her knuckles touched the wood.

"Ah! Excellent timing," said Zechariah, eyes still bright as ever. "Come on in and have a seat. You're a coffee drinker from what I've observed so I hope you don't mind a bit of a treat."

Miranda was caught off guard by this timing. He took her by the elbow and, with an air of confidence that put him in control, led her over to her seat. There had never been an issue with compliance, as she would have without question followed his request, but the regal tenor in his voice sometimes unnerved her. As she sat down she registered the delicious smell of freshly-ground coffee.

Zechariah started to prepare the coffee using an ancient form of preparation and using what was once known as a Turkish coffee set. On impulse she picked up her copper-framed demitasse, admiring the intricate metalwork. Zechariah deftly poured some water into the copper cezve and used his lighter to ignite a small burner. With careful cadence, he set the cezve over the flame, bringing the water to a boil, and then pulling it back away from the heat.

He looked up at her and smiled.

"Are you familiar with this ancient Turkish way? The coffee is ground to a fine powder. After bringing the coffee to a boil, we repeat the step two more times and, voila, it's done. Do you take sugar?"

Miranda shook her head as she set down the small porcelain cup. The rich scent of the coffee took to the air, infusing her senses with its heady aroma and a surprising smoothness that made her mouth water. Zechariah set the pot on a small dish she suspected was also made of copper.

"It's nearly ready. First, we let the heavier elements of the coffee settle."

A few minutes later he started pouring the coffee into her porcelain demitasse.

Miranda inhaled the aroma, which brought yet another smile to Zechariah's lips. The ever-valiant host, he produced a small porcelain saucer with several pieces of sweet Turkish confections.

Bemused by all these grand gestures, she couldn't refuse the offered sweets. She decided upon one of the larger squares. Before taking a bite, she cautiously took a sip of her coffee.

The explosion of the sweet confection and the bitterness of the coffee had a blissfully positive effect upon her mood. The coffee was not only deliciously strong, but so flavorful that it complemented the confection. She couldn't help but exhale lustfully at the sensations that were playing games within her mouth.

Zechariah watched her with a bliss all his own.

After a moment of pure happiness, Miranda returned to reality and blushed.

"This is some amazingly good coffee."

Zechariah took a sip of his brew.

"Consider this a ceremony, Miranda. Today is the day that your questions will be answered to the best of my ability." As he took another sip he continued, "Lian told me that she brought you up to speed on most of what happened in our past, but there are a few things we need to clear up before we continue. First, I want you to know that I closed the vinculum between us because I was hurt by your violent reaction. The beautiful and cruel nature of the vinculum is that not only can you recycle feelings of euphoria and happiness, but also feelings of abject terror and discontent."

He set his demitasse down for the moment and weaved his fingers together.

"In our case, we would have triggered a state of vinculum-induced depression. Since you are not accustomed to what we call a Level 2 vinculum connection, I couldn't allow you to suffer. I didn't wish for you to suffer a relapse."

Miranda knew immediately what he was up to and raised a hand.

"You have suffered from the lack of it since then haven't you?" she said. Her eyes didn't leave his.

Zechariah hesitated for a split second, then nodded.

"Yes, but coming into close contact with you has helped ease that pain. I know tha-"

Miranda cut him off.

"Listen, first and foremost, we are who we are regardless of what we feel comfortable doing. I want you to re-open the vinculum and I won't hear any objections."

Zechariah watched her for a long moment, before finally nodding. Like a door opening to the morning sun, Miranda could feel their connection being restored. The first thing she felt was a deep relief within Zechariah. Other feelings and impressions flowed to her like an insistent river.

She was keenly aware of the impact her reaction to the coffee had made on him. From the details from her first sip, to the rather colorful thoughts that arose in his mind. A sudden flush of emotions from such a simple action made her feel like laughing. She was breathless by such a rich and nuanced emotion.

Other emotions started to filter through the vinculum. She discovered as they arrived that she could target specific points in time to consider, and that strange new ability both frightened and empowered her.

Zechariah smiled and closed his eyes.

"Forgive me for making you worry, Miranda. I just couldn't handle the thought of you in more pain after what happened that day."

Miranda let all of these emotions and feelings wash over her. To discover that she had always been tied to Zechariah so intimately didn't seem so far fetched as she had once thought. He had always been there. Lian was right. He was that refined gut feeling she could call upon in a pinch.

"How often did you give me the right nudge? Which role did you play the most? Was it the little angel on the right, or the devil on the left?"

Zechariah laughed.

"Often enough, more times than I should have honestly." Smiling at her sheepishly he continued. "Though, believe me when I say that your most heroic and character-defining moments were all yours."

Miranda nodded.

Did he know that was one of her worries?

Was it due to the vinculum?

Or was it something else perhaps?

Whatever the case, she took comfort in his reassurance and more importantly believed him.

Zechariah took another drink of his coffee.

"I don't wish to rush anything, but I've been at my wits end about the PSSX."

Miranda stood next to Zechariah. In the same motion he also stood. He knew that Miranda had always been a woman of ceremony and she expected him to understand, not because of the vinculum, but as a fellow soldier.

Zechariah faced her and extended his left hand.

"Zechariah Fairchild," said Miranda. "I was tasked by my handler, recently deceased Lieutenant Richard De'Raegon, to deliver this PSSX to you, contingent of further orders, sir."

Zechariah took the PSSX and looked it over in a moment of puzzlement.

"And rather unfortunately mislabeled."

Miranda stared at Zechariah.

"Huh?"

Zechariah looked up at her and noted the blank expression upon her features and her rather halfhearted attempt at sound. This amused him greatly, but he continued his train of thought.

"What I mean is that this isn't a PSSX, my dear. I would wager that if you tried to input this device into a typical PSSX slot, you would trigger the magical smoke that is the bane of hardware technicians Entente wide."

The sheer amusement of this comment hummed between them as the vinculum relayed to her just how clever he thought he was.

An epiphany struck her like a bag of bricks.

"A double bluff?!" She said this with a mixture of realization and annoyance as Zechariah walked over to his desk and pulled open a drawer. He pulled out a small MPD or Music Playing Device that was attached to a pair of earphones.

Miranda watched as he took his seat again and inserted the pseudo PSSX into his MPD. Using the MPD standard universal connection, he completed the connection, by using one of the many user friendly peripherals located on the side of his monitor screen.

Zechariah keyed up an application that recognized his music player. He smiled as he used a unique pattern of keys on the keyboard to bring up a sub-display, which started a familiar decryption process.

"You mean to tell me it's nothing more than a memory card?" said Miranda. "What about the whole 'build your own PSSX' training? Do you realize how many of us toiled away under that assumption? More importantly how in the nine hells did you know it wasn't a PSSX?"

Zechariah cleared his throat, and started speaking as if he was addressing an auditorium full of students.

"In the world of electronic peripherals the two galactic standards are the PSS and PSSX. Through the years many variations of connections have come and gone, from standard physical connections to wireless back to physical. For a time, the physical connections were solely fiber optic in nature. But then the preferred standard reverted back to conductive metal components. Each connection has its own standards, and though the PSSX connection is able to be plugged into a PSS connection, the converse is not true. Due to this purposeful engineering design, a coloring code was implemented. Red for the PSS, yellow for the PSSX. A helpful rhyme soon followed, 'Red on yellow, kill a fellow. Yellow, red not soon regret'."

Zechariah gave her a cheeky look, even as Miranda narrowed her eyes threateningly.

"Now, now…just because you and your class didn't have the genius I possessed when I built mine doesn't mean you should get mad at me for it. As for your next question, it's the weight. Next time you pick up your PSSX, test the weight of it. Moving on, my idea was simple; make your enemies believe it's something that it isn't. Those who have had the unpleasant surprise of accidentally plugging a PSS into a PSSX port understand that there is a most definite engineering design difference."

Miranda shook her head. The concept was so simple, yet damnably effective.

"Exactly right, Miranda: 'keep it simple, stupid.'"

She had seen that saying etched underneath the lid of a desk she had used during her tenure as a PTC student. Now she knew exactly who had etched it.

"Words to live by, huh?"

Zechariah nodded as he watched his monitor.

"Those words have kept me alive and sane over the years. That's not to say I follow it all the time. My father always said that there is no better teacher than experience."

Miranda gently laid a hand on his shoulder. Through the vinculum, she was able to soothe his mind of that painful memory. To her pleasure, he responded by not dwelling on the past.

When the decryption process ended, the application started to compile something from the decrypted data. Miranda had fully intended to stand behind him, but at this cue, Zechariah took Miranda's hand and guided her in front of him. She took the clue and sat on his lap. The look she gave him and the smile he returned conspired to form a perfect moment.

"Can't have something this important played over the speakers now can we?" As he offered her one of the wired earphones.

Miranda laughed.

Zechariah wrapped an arm around her waist, with his free hand he pressed a button on a small dashboard on his desk. The room dimmed and the windows took on an opaque cast that would impede anyone from looking in.

Zechariah then started the video.