Everything is Fine

Posted on 25 Jun 2024 @ 3:23pm by Lieutenant JG Montgomery Vala & Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius

3,692 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 4, Corridor
Timeline: MD 06, 0910 hrs

[ON]

Life aboard USS Galileo-A currently sucked. As in, unpleasant, grody and - as the Vulcans would say - disagreeable. The environmental systems were running at barely half-capacity which meant temperatures hovered around the upper 40s and produced visual condensation with every breath. All food replicators had been shut down so the only source for meals were Starfleet ration packs...which weren't the epitome of fine dining. And the turbolift system had been restricted to essential-use only meaning transiting between decks was a physical chore which demanded navigating the ship's maze of tight and unwieldy Jefferies tube corridors.

And so, when Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius finally made his way up to Deck 4 to conduct routing shuttlecraft maintenance, he wasn't in the best of emotional states. Combined with the ever-lingering memories Ensign Sera had inadvertently planted into his brain several hours ago, it was shaping up to be a bad day. Fortunately the corridors had been relatively quiet since Orange Alert had been initiated. Crew movements had decreased which meant the worry of inadvertently bumping into someone was negligible. Well, almost.

As Lamar rounded the corner of Deck 4's main corridor with his head down, he swung wide with complacence. If he were at the conn he'd have received a 'collision alert' warning, but no such thing existed for his currently-occupied mind.

To say Vala's mind was also preoccupied would be an understatement. It was disorderly, chaotic. Threatening to collapse in on itself and form a supernova of fragmented thought.

The searing injection of hours prior was holding things in perspective, but it hardly helped one focus when traversing the corridors of the Galileo. The destination was what was important, the in-between much less so. Why waste valuable sense and rationality on the simple instinctive traversal between rooms. It should be automatic. Why pay attention to the mundane when so much was at stake?

Well, an answer came as Vala rounded a corner and smashed into something quite hard. Something...? Someone! An organic thing. An... individual. He staggered back from the force of impact, inhaling sharply through his nose. The figure came into focus. Another officer. A... human. He cocked his head and gave the human a curious look.

"My... apologies," Human, "... Officer..." Had he met this one? He shook his head. He could not recall, so he allowed this voice to trail off.

Lamar's temple had suddenly impacted the side of another taller humanoid possessing a greater physical build which caused him to bounce off the man and stagger backwards to regain his balance. An initial bout of anger filled him as he instinctively touched the point of contact while his eyes narrowed with displeasure. Then he observed the fellow occupant - a blue-collared officer with two JG pips on his neck and distinctively Romulan-esque features. What was the man's name? 'Vela?' 'Velan?'

Darius' dark brown eyes settled a bit before reciprocating the apology from the science officer. Yet only half-heartedly. "L-T," he acknowledged with a mock salute. "Watch the corridors. Some of us are still working." Real work, was what he was about to add.

Working? Did he mean... walking? They had been doing that for certain. He continued to scrutinise the human creature. A... red collar. It wasn't a female so... not the captain... no he'd already seen the rank. Not blue. So then... they had to be a, oh yes, a pilot. But... well that raised other questions.

"W-Working?" He repeated the word. "Is that so..." He paused for an odd moment, "But..." He peered at the small human with a piercing gaze, "The ship is immobile. Are you intending to take us somewhere?"

Darius tightened his brow. An insult? No. A casual affront? Probably. He hadn't fought against the Jem'Hadar for two years to accept back-talk from a fellow Starfleet egghead, commissioned officer or otherwise. "Yeah, I might take you into the nearest shuttle and--" he paused as he studied the man's foreign features before finally recognizing him as the one from the mess hall who had often been sighted with the Vulcan engineer. He suddenly softened his contentious tone toward the man then shook his head to reset his emotions. "Sorry. You're Velar, right? Ensign Sera's colleague?"

Vala, who had up until this point been hunched over in a somewhat furtive state, slowly stretched out his spine. Residual pain from earlier flashed through his body, but he did not allow it to creep onto his face. After a few seconds he stood at his full height.

"Lieutenant Vala, yes..." His eyes narrowed slightly, somewhat curious at him being defined by his association to the Chief Engineer. "A friend of Sera indeed. A colleague, yes-yes, in the sense that... we all are." He nodded.

This was an odd specimen of his kind. They... maybe had met? Some mention of kali'fal came to mind. And what was the other thing he said? "What would you wish to take me to a shuttle for, Officer...?"

"Vala, right," the red-collared chief warrant officer replied before extending his dark-skinned hand for a formal introduction. "Lamar Darius, conn. I've seen you at the briefings and the funeral service but don't think we've officially been introduced. I know Ullswater pretty well but...haven't seen her around much recently. You're the number two in Science?" He casually sidestepped the query into his undisciplined shuttlecraft fight provocation and hoped to change the subject.

"Hmm... Yes. I am. Just lately aboard, six days and twenty five years ago," Vala blinked then beared his teeth in an unnatural smile, "So short a time and yet such a vast period..." He shifted his head to the side and laughed.

After a few moments of this he stopped suddenly and refocused his eyes on Darius. "How goes the world of flying in such times as these? Bereft of our warp core... and a destination I suppose?" He smiled strangely again.

There was something very uncanny about the way in which the Romulan was attempting facial pleasantries, but at least he was trying. Vulcans never smiled in his limited appearance; something something 'the needs of the many' to be as impersonal and stoic as possible at all times. Or maybe that was just Darius' anecdotal interpretation. "We still have helm control, just no warp drive. Reminds me of the impulse theory courses I took at the Academy during re-training," he started to answer. "Cap'n wants us to sit tight for now so that's what we'll do. All shuttle ops have been canceled but doesn't mean we can ignore maintenance checks."

Daruis then motioned for the two of them to move to a nearby and isolated alcove adjacent to the main corridor for an impromptu and more private talk. "So, about Sera. The engineer..." he started, his voice suddenly lowered in tone and trailing off while his dark brown eyes casually skirted the Romulan's features.

Vala peered at him in a somewhat ravenesque fashion, then followed him over to the more secluded spot. In other circumstances he perhaps would have been irritated at the delay this strange interaction was causing, but he had already forgotten what his original intent and destination had been before knocking into this pilot.

"Sera?" His tone was slightly clipped, but he could not deny curiousity at why this individual kept bringing up. "What of her?"

"I-" Darius started with the intent to be openly honest with the science man, but quickly reversed course to a more conservative approach. "Is she okay? As in...mentally? For a Vulcan? I know you're not one," he shook his head to try and not offend the junior lieutenant, "but your people have a shared history, right? And you told me the two of you talk, so...."

Vala's lip curled minutely as he listened to Darius awkwardly navigating normal speech. Was he suffering from the Sien'temehludet too? It was rare amongst humans, but this one seemed to be struggling with verbiage...

And the interest in Sera. That was curious. What did this one want with her? He couldn't imagine she would be very interested in helping him maintain shuttles given the circumstances. It was very... suspicious.

He narrowed his eyes a little, "What i-is it to you, Darius, hm?" He took a step closer, "She is not someone who I intend to m-make the subject of idle gossip."

Lamar didn't want to reveal the details of he and Sera's recent copulations. Those were private matters which this science man couldn't possibly comprehend. Or...could he? The way in which Vala briefly stuttered incited subtle scrutiny. "Not trying to gossip," he held his hands up in a faux defensive manner, "I just asked a question and you're her friend. I'm a friend of hers, too, and wondering if she doing okay?" He repeated then subtly gestured to Vala, "Are...you doing okay? With all that's happened recently..." He left the table open to all forms of interpretation, but in his Human mind, his nuanced query was obvious.

"Hmm," Vala narrowed his eyes, attempting to take the measure of the man in front of him, "S-Sera did not mention you..." He cocked his head to the side. "But she is a compelling individual who I am sure courts more than a single friend."

He ignored the more personal question, deciding to answer his overall query in a more... indirect fashion. "The v-vulcanoid brain is a thing of contradictions, Darius." He made a vague gesture to his head. "It has intense and wide ranging emotional capacity, the potential for great psychic prowess and, of course, keen intellect and ingenuity."

His tone fell quickly into that of a teacher in front of his student. "For Vulcans this means the tendancy towards... how can I put this..." He paused for a moment, "...damaging outbursts... if things are not kept under control. The conceit of logic is used to create a system within which the mind can be calmed. Even then though..." He shifted a little on the spot. "They must deal with various psychic and physiological phenomena, particularly an infrequent and deadly compulsion to mate every seven or so years."

He blinked, a sudden memory of Sera attempting to seduce him hours earlier flashing across his mind. Her strange smile, teeth bared, particularly lingered. That had been the Sien'temehludet, though, not Pon Farr.

He shook his head dispelling the scene, then cleared his throat. "The Rihannsu brain diverged when my people left Vulcan after... philosophical disagreements." He gave a knowing look. "Through various means we altered the phisiology of our brains to enable us to act in a more... consistent manner, without resorting to the wholesale repression of emotion that our Vulcan cousins adhere to. It had many benefits but it came at the cost of our psychic powers becoming... latent."

He locked eyes with Darius, finally coming to his point. "Time travel has a ruinous effect on the brain. Particularly going forward, beyond one's lifespan." He reached a hand up and tapped his temple. "For psychically sensitive species: Vulcans, Rihannsu, Betazoids and the like... It can cause quite severe problems. A form of psychosis that strips one's mind of the ability to do anything but live entirely in the moment. It makes one feel that they are imposters in a time that is not theirs and even when they return... it becomes difficult to believe that they have returned to their authentic timeline."

He moved fractionally closer. "It causes great chaos and suffering in one's mind. There are crew who are already afflicted," he gave a pointed look, "and if we remain much longer even the simple, psychically dull minds of humans will begin to deteriorate."

Darius' eyelids had slowly widened with each passing sentence the Romulan scientist spoke of Sera and the Vulcan 'mind'. "...a thing of contradictions... damaging outbursts... deadly compulsion to mate..." And then there was the mention of time travel. Psychosis? Temporal imposters? He reached up and nervously scratched the back of his head while apprehensively glancing around the small and empty corridor. "So, uhh...are you saying she could be experiencing this? Slowly going crazy?"

Vala narrowed his eyes. "Many amongst the crew are experiencing this, Darius." His tone was quite terse - what business was it of his if Sera was going crazy? 'Craziness was in the eye of the beholder', humans said that... didn't they? Or something similar. Yes. No one was crazy here. In fact maybe this one was - he certainly seemed crazy obsessed with other people's mental states... Perhaps he needed some 'treatment'?

He cocked his head to the side, "Why do you ask? Have you noticed any erratic behaviour from her? Or... within yourself?"

"Erratic? Oh, no, nothing like that," Darius faux-chuckled while glancing down to the deck's carpet then up to the ceiling. Vivid memories of his encounter with Sera in the shuttlebay flooded his conscious thoughts. Her long hair, perfect nude form and fiery growls of passion and biting... "Nope, haven't noticed a thing. Same for me. I'm fine too, I mean." He's made a mutual promise with her to keep their activities private which he fully intended to keep, but that didn't mean he couldn't use some good 'ol Human canny to dig for a bit more information.

"I have another question too. About Vulcans," Darius then continued. "Do you know anything about mind melds? How they work and all that jazz?"

"Not a thing, hmm." He gave the human a sceptical look. It felt like he was hiding something - a Rihanssu could always tell. He was about to ask more but Darius' next question was equally curious.

"Mind melds? An... i-interesting thing to bring up," he peered at Darius, still taking a measure of him, "I am no expert - my people shed the need for such... invasive rituals long ago." He paused, a shred of uneasy tingling down his spine. There was little more uncomfortable than the thought of exposing all of ones self to anyone short of a mate.

"I-It is a form of telepathic connection that Vulcan's are capable of administering. It merges the mind, the thoughts, memories and more. Emotions even," he nodded, "They do have them, you know, they just hide them with s-semantics." He let out a peal of humourless laughter before continuing.

"If untrained you expose all of yourself to them, and in theory they expose all of themselves to you but..." he continued to look at Darius with scrutiny, "Well... most Vulcans are t-trained to control the m-meld so they may not reveal all."

He frowned a little, "As I understand it requires i-immense trust between the individuals. And a-a healthy mind. Otherwise, well, d-disaster. There are a lot of e-ethics around it. As I understand." He cocked his head again, "What is your interest in it, hm, Darius?"

A healthy mind. Otherwise...disaster?! Great. Just great, Lamar. Especially in the wake of the scientist's diagnosis of widespread crew affliction resulting from this temporal change. He ignored the egghead's prying question and asked another followup of his own. "Right, okay. So let's say - hypothetically - that someone didn't have a healthy mind, and they did a mind meld with someone else. Let's say...a Human. Hypothetically. So would that make both of their minds get worse? Like the psychosis you described?"

"I am not an expert, D-Darius," Vala's tone was a little erratic, his own mental state still not particularly stable even after the morning's 'treatment'. "Humans are f-fragile. An unstable vulcanoid could severely harm, m-maim or kill one easily."

He gave a blank stare. "Rihannsu certainly. Vulcans... they are stronger still. Could tear a human apart before they realised what they had done. Mentally... physically... If in the wrong s-state of mind you know, ha!" He beared his teeth in a grin. It was an oddly amusing thought.

His eyes continued to inspect the pilot, "So... you wish to meld with S-Sera?" That was even more amusing, but also concerning. The moral part of his brain attempted to assert some control. "She is in a... vulnerable s-state, Darius. I w-would not imagine in normal times she would wish to expose her mind in s-such a way." He blinked, teeth still beared in an odd smile, "Plus the aforemention t-tearing apart. I-Inadvisable."

The more Vala spoke of the perils involving mind melds with unstable individuals, the more the conn officer was beginning to realize he'd probably dodged a disruptor blast straight to his temple. All things considered, the few select memories and experiences he now possessed of Sera's life didn't seem so bad by comparison. He spoke up again to correct the verbal record after a brief moment of pause. "Meld with her? No, definitely not," he chuckled semi-nervously. "I'm not trying to get destroyed just yet. Not until we're done taking care of the Klingons.

Darius returned his focus to the Romulan Starfleet officer in front of him. Something felt off about the way he was speaking and emoting with uncanny facial expressions. "So...I know it's not my business but are you alright, L-T?" he asked the man with a slightly-concerned frown. "Is this temporal stuff affecting you? Because I can escort you to sickbay if you want."

"I am as well as it is possible to be. The v-very picture of health." Vala frowned at the impudent young human. Who was he to assume anyone was not 'alright', the fragile human entertaining ideas of mind melds with Vulcans.

He took a step forward, entering very deliberately into the mans personal space. "Be careful weaving your designs, D-Darius. All this talk of mind melds and curiousity about Vulcans... I w-wouldn't wish to imagine you intended to take advantage of anyone in a c-compromised state."

An annoyed smirk tugged at the side of Darius' lip following the egghead's misguided inference. Something was definitely off about this man, and if it was as he'd described earlier, maybe the temporal lunacy was beginning to take its hold. "I wouldn't know a needle from a thread. You know, you Romulans really need to stop being so paranoid. Yeah we might die today but the enemy's out there," he gestured with a flick of his chin to the bulkhead, "not in the walls of the ship."

Vala beared his teeth, "I do not appreciate your assumptions about my kind, Darius," Hevam! "It is clear you know as much of Rihannsu as you do of V-Vulcans, patently little."

He stepped closer still, "So let me share s-some wisdom of my kin: enemies are just individuals with malignant intent." He leered at the officer, "Out there, in here. I-It matters not." There was a strange glint in his eyes, "Have honour."

The conn officer possessed a rather affable demeanor during most occasions and wasn't easily rattled. Years of indoctrination and combat sorties within the SFMC had made him appreciate the more tranquil nature of ship life and the long-standing edicts of discovery and exploration - of the cosmos and of the self. Yet here he stood with this science officer mere inches away from him displaying what he could interpret as nothing less than outright hostility. Teeth bared in too-close of a proximity to his personal space and now...questioning his honor?

Darius narrowed his eyes then stared into the fellow officer's alien green irises. A light surge of adrenaline began to course through his veins, for he knew where this would lead 99% of the time. "...You uh, got a problem with me L-T?" he replied with a slight tilt of his head to the side. "Because we can settle it right here and right now. Or you can step the hell out of my personal space."

Vala blinked a couple of times. Humans had many deficiencies, but passion and bravery were not amongst them. Did Darius seriously believe he could best him in a duel? Even given this morning's treatment, or despite it, or maybe because of it? He had a terrible urge to meet the challenge.

Pain was so... cleansing. So good at keeping one's mind clear in the circumstances. Perhaps he could even opt to lose - there was something invigorating about the idea of being beaten bloody when one's mind was tangling with the temporal.

His bared teeth formed into a wide grin, his gaze becoming distant. "A-Ah-ha ha ha!" He laughed, taking a small step backwards. "H-Humans have a word for this, hmm, yes aha..." He continued to laugh for a moment. "'Cute'. Or 'a-adorable', i-is it?" The dim lights managed to flash in his eyes. "To 'settle things' with you..." He shook his head chuckling.

Darius' brow furrowed and his dark eyes steeled at the Romulan. This man is definitely insane, he tried to reason to himself above the growing anger from the mocking infantilizing he'd just been subjected to. 'Let it go, Lamar,' he said to himself while discreetly clenching then unclenching one of his hands into a fist. "Yeah, keep laughing," he said in reply as he walked past the man out into the main corridor with a firm shouldering. "You better get your green-blooded butt to sickbay before you become your own worst enemy." Crazy-eyed lab rat...

Vala grasped where the human's shoulder had struck him. Pain. Small pain. The precious moments of clarity that came with it. He span to keep his eyes on Darius. "I-I told you I am as well as I can be," he called after him, followed by a nervous laugh.

He wasn't sick. He was the lucid one. He wasn't the one suicidally chasing after a mind meld with a temporally displaced Vulcan. He leaned back on the bulkhead and compulsively rubbed his upper arm, allowing the last residue of pain to dissapate into his core. Yes, he nodded, everything was fine.

[OFF]

--

CWO3 Lamar Darius
Conn Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Tarin]

&

LTJG Montgomery Vala
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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