Just Forget It

Posted on 26 Feb 2016 @ 4:56pm by Lieutenant Oren Idris Ph.D. & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius

2,320 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 13 - 1430 hrs

[ON]

Life sucked for Lamar. At least, for the moment. His maintenance schedule was fully booked over the next five days and there was a lot of extra work he wasn't sure he'd be able to accomplish in that timeframe. Between the lack of personnel to regularly maintenance all of the ship's support craft and the lack of pilots who actually cared about their space frames, Lamar had found himself to be a tool of sorts.

And so, resigning himself to his rudimentary role aboard Galileo, he maneuvered himself beneath Marina on his rolling dolly and began to inspect her undercarriage to determine the most prudent repair jobs.

It had taken Oren three night of medication induced sleep and almost seventeen showers, both sonic and water, for him to feel relatively normal. But still, he couldn't shake the feeling of something unresolved and there was only one thing to be done for it.

Finding the shuttle bay was easy enough but going through the doors knowing Lamar was on the other side, was something else entirely. Eventually, another crewman passed him on the way inside and Oren snapped out of his overactive mind to follow. A few steps in, he took in his surroundings to aclimate himself before his eyes finally fell on the pair of legs sticking out from below the shuttle. Awkwardly, Oren stood there.

Over a minute passed while Lamar began to work on decoupling the secondary thruster assembly from its main housing. Dark mechanical lubricants now covered his hands and chest while he performed the labor-intensive task, grunting a few times with his tools while he worked to dislodge the large component from its position.

It was only after wiping his sweat-covered brow with the back of his hand that he paused to look around, and noticed a pair of feet standing near the craft. He couldn't tell who it was from the boots alone, and automatically assumed it was Wintrow here to help.

"Grab a kit and help me with this, kid," he said out loud.

Startled by the voice, Oren instinctively scrambled to do as he was told. Walking over to the wall where the toolkits seem to be but faltered when he saw the different colours of kits. "Uh... Which one?" he asked finally.

Hmm...that sounded like a strange voice. Not really like the cadet's. And Wintrow should already know which kit to use. Curious and pausing for a brief moment, Lamar put his tools down on the landing pad and pushed himself forward from underneath the craft.

"Oh. Uhh..." Lamar straightened when he looked at the blue collared officer he had been talking to, and quickly got to his feet to stand at attention. "Sorry, sir. Thought you were someone else," he admitted a bit sheepishly. "Not many people outside of flight ops usually come down here this time of day."

"Sir?" Oren asked, shocked at the change in Darius as he stood in front of him. Oren had almost forgotten how much bigger he was. "There's no need for that," he said, resting his hands delicately in front of him.

"I... I'm not sure why I came down here myself... " Watching Lamar curiously, trying to find some similarity or difference between him and his alternate self, Oren wondered what explanation he could give that wouldn't make him look insane.

Lamar continued to stay at attention for a few very awkward moments. He listened to the man's vague explanation for his visit, but couldn't make much sense of it.

"Okay, sir," he finally responded, and went into the default protocol mode. "Well, as you can see, we have our runabout, USS Marina currently undergoing a few minor repairs. She should be operational by the end of today if I can finish up the diagnostic and get these propulsion matrices properly aligned. Virginia is below decks right now and I'll work on her next. She has only a couple minor hull microfractures that need repairing."

"Right, "Oren said absently, trying to think of an actual valid reason for his visit. One that wouldn't make him look insane. Finally, with a long sigh, he took the plunge. " Listen, I'm sorry I just barged in on you like this but... I met your mirror counterpart in the last mission," he explained. "I guess I wanted to come down and see you, to see for myself if you're alike."

Lamar frowned then did a quick double-take while he processed Oren's words. Mirror counterpart...entirely possible yet very strange and uncomfortable for the chief warrant officer to think about.

"You did?" An awkward pause then ensued. "Well...what was he like? I mean, what was I like?" He shook his head, "I mean, what was my version of myself like?"

Oren sighed, wrapping his arms around himself, hands gently gripping his skirted uniform. He eyed Lamar for a moment, noticing that he didn't seem so different, if a lot less volatile when compared to his mirror counterpart.

"He was angry, and violent," he explained, using as few words as possible so as to not offend the man.

Angry and violent...interesting. And a bit disturbing as well. Lamar was a former Marine and -- while trained to be the perfect Human soldier -- had also learned discipline and restraint during his time in the SFMC. It seemed that his MU counterpart had not.

"Do you, um..." Lamar scratched his head, "want to talk about it?"

"We dated..." Oren suddenly said, then caught himself. Blushing, he continued in a rush. "I mean, they dated, the other Oren and Lamar." Clearing his throat, Oren decided the toolkit on the floor suddenly looked incredibly interesting and stared at it while he waited for Lamar's reaction.

"What?" came the warrant officer's reply in all its incredulousness. "Like, dated dated, or just hung out together?" He feigned a bit of ignorance as to what the science officer was implying, because he couldn't very well rationalize it for himself.

"Dated dated," Oren said, his awkwardness replaced with a look of confusion directed at Lamar. His tone was softer now, as if speaking slowly so the man could comprehend what he was saying. Suddenly, he realised he still hadn't handed over the paDD he'd requisitioned from the mirror universe. "I have proof, if you want it."

He wasn't sure if he wanted to know more. However, he also couldn't deny the chance to see for himself what his alternate had been up to in his personal life. Nodding slowly a couple of times, he reached out with his hand and waited for the lieutenant to show him said 'evidence'.

Sheepish, Oren reached into the bag he was carrying and pulled out the clunky-looking device. After powering it up, he scrolled through the business folders before finally pulling up the gallery and the images within. A lot of them were of Oren herself, taking in different places and mostly without her knowledge, he imagined judging by the fact that she only looked at the lens once or twice. One of those times was in a picture of herself and Lamar, who was pressing a loving kiss on her jaw as she smiled. The two were in bed, sealing the idea that there was nothing merely platonic between them.

Lamar took the PADD and began to flip through the pictures. He looked at each one and stopped to frown, then turned the PADD to the side to adjust the view angle. "Wait. This is...you?" he asked, not quite understanding what he was looking at. "But it's a woman in this picture..."

Oren sighed as quietly as possible and resisted the urge to rub his temples. He felt a headache coming on as the conversation he'd been dreading seemed to be rearing it's ugly, human head.

"Take my word for it, it's me," he said simply, running his hand through his hair to push him bangs back; a nervous habit.

"I...don't get it," Lamar mumbled while still flipping through the photos and finally coming to rest on the intimate bedroom scene. He looked back up at Oren and cocked his head to the side, curiously. "So...you're a woman? Posing as a man?" he wondered out loud. That could be the only plausible explanation, of course.

"Excuse you, I'm not posing as anything but myself," Oren said defensively. He hated talking about these issue with humans; their views were oddly limited for a species that prided itself on openness.

"I don't see how my gender is even relevant here."

The chief's head began to spin while he attempted to comprehend the situation. "Wait, wait." He held a large hand up and tried to collect his thoughts. "So...you are a man, but your Mirror alternate is a woman? How is that possible? I thought we were only mirrors of our current selves..." Unless...they really hadn't gone into the MU....

"We are, and I'm not a man," Oren said, realising this was definitely going down the path of no return. Clearly, Lamar's mental capacity for certain things was similar to his MU counterparts. "Or a woman. Okay?" he asked hopefully.

He blinked a few times while staring at Oren. "...What do you mean?" How could someone not be a man or a woman? Was he a clone? The plot thickened...

"Okay..." Oren sighed, trying to think of a way to put it as simply as possible.

"I don't consider myself as belonging to the gender binary. I'm not male or female," Rolling his eyes in exasperation, Oren felt at a loss. I don't know how to explain it to you. I mean, I assume you consider yourself male, correct?"

"Yeah?" That was somewhat obvious to Lamar. "I mean, I have a penis just like you." ...Or did Oren?

"Excuse me?" Oren said, scandalised by the invasion of privacy. "What I have or don't have in my pants is none of your business," he said, clearly offended. Who was Lamar to speculate about such a thing?!

"Your penis doesn't make you a male...You believing you're male makes it so. Gender is a gut feeling, something you feel in your bones, not your...you know," he glanced down at Lamar's fly, blushing furiously. This conversation was derailing....fast.

Lamar quickly realized he had probably upset Oren, and quickly apologized to the senior officer. "I'm sorry, sir...I don't mean to offend you, I just...don't understand what you're saying..." He looked to the side awkwardly.

"And indirectly speculating about my genitalia seemed like a good way to clear that up?" Oren snapped, crossing his arms and looking defiantly at Lamar.

"I don't need you to understand this. Just understand that, in the mirror universe, you and I dated." Watching Lamar now, Oren wasn't sure why he'd been so afraid to come see him in the first place.

"Yes, sir," said Lamar who straightened up and now stood at attention. Apparently this MU-gender-whatever revelation had been the reason for Oren's visit, and now since that had gone South, Lamar wasn't sure what to do. Instead, he just stood there.

Oren stood there as well, awkwardly playing around with the belt of his uniform. "I don't even know why I came down here now," he admitted, deflating and looking every bit as small as he naturally was. "I'm sorry," he added, looking up at Lamar.

Lamar nodded as if to convey his acceptance for Oren's visit. He would have been lying if he said he could empathize, but he could at least relate to the strange nature of the MU and some of the things he had head about. And, he wouldn't be doing his due diligence without expressing any concern for the young lieutenant in front of him.

"Sir...did something happen to you over there? In the Mirror realm? Like, did you see anything?"

"Besides being sexually harassed with my own blessing, no, nothing," Oren muttered, but Lamar was close enough to hear.

He frowned, not quite sure if he had head that correctly. "You were sexually harassed? Like, you you, or the other you?"

"Me me," Oren said, shaking his head. "By the other you. Except it wasn't actually sexual harassment, I think. I initiated it, but I just didn't want to get hurt."

"Uhhhh....." Lamar's eyes darted around very awkwardly. "..So the other me sexually harassed you, but you wanted it?" Had he heard that correctly? This was probably one of the most awkward conversations he'd ever had in his life."

Suddenly, Oren seemed to be overcome with a strange calm. He looked up at Lamar. "You know what, Lamar? You seem like a really nice guy, even though you're too Human for your own good. I'm sorry I'm putting you through this." In reality, Oren had felt the fact that the larger man was getting uncomfortable with him and he suddenly realised how far removed from his Mirror Universe he was.

"Yeah, um, don't worry about it, sir." The chief was at a loss for words at this point and didn't know what else he should say for fear of learning even more tantalizing Mirror Universe revelations. "So I guess I should get back to fixing the runabout?" Or so he hoped.

Oren nodded, maybe a bit too eagerly. "Definitely," he said, trying not to sound too happy about this conversation being over. "And if we could just pretend this conversation never too place, that would be amazing."

"Yep," Lamar agreed as he gave Oren a mock salute and headed off back to his previous work for a bit of tranquility to clear his mind.

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Chief Support Craft Pilot
USS Galileo
[PNPC Saalm]

Lieutenant Oren Idris
Chief Research Officer
USS Galileo

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