One Moment in Time (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 21 Jun 2024 @ 10:19am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor

3,087 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 4, Sera's Quarters
Timeline: MD 05, 0820 hrs

[ON]

Sera stayed in her position against the warmth of Lamar's body for long enough that she felt the imperceptible relaxing of the human's body as he entered into his sleep cycle. She slowly raised her head off his chest pulled away from him. He moved from being disturbed but didn't awaken.

She pushed herself off of the sleeping platform and ensured that the blankets were adequately secured about his form to help maintain his warmth. She considered what to do with her time, and for a moment considered returning to engineering to continue with the mountain of work still left to be accomplished, but disregarded it as viable. It didn't seem very...hospitable to leave a guest alone without informing them of one's absence. So instead she took a seat on edge of the sleeping platform and stared out at nebula for a time...

~~

The darkness and sterile quietness within the Vulcan engineer's quarters had provided a deep yet momentary escape from the harsh realities of Galileo's current peril. The surrounding atmosphere was cold and dry yet beneath Sera's warm covers, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius lay sound asleep tucked into the bed's duvet. His body had been predominately motionless for the past few hours but now turned to roll on its side as his already-shut eyes began to tighten. He rolled back over again several short moments later and involuntarily kicked his legs beneath the covers.

Inside his mind - within his unconscious musings - an influx of foreign Vulcan memories invaded and dominated the private space. Fragmented memories of the species and its culture - and mostly Sera - inundated his mind with no rhyme or reason his resting brain could interpret. Within his sleeping head, he began to recall snippets of memories inadvertently shared by Sera during her rather ill-thought-through meld.

It was ungodly hot. His mouth immediately parched from the lack of humidity in the air. Looking about at the desert landscape he saw he was under the shade of an outcropping of rocks standing next to...her. Well, a younger version of her. She crouched behind a particularly large cluster of wickedly sharp looking succulents. Off in the distance...there appeared to be a group of people, riding strange-looking animals that appeared to be roughly the same size a horse. Sera darted out into the open and extended her arms in a neutral manner to show she was unarmed.

"T'Kahr Shi'yah..." The words came from somewhere...it was the name of the desert travelers on migration through Lyr'Zor lands. They represented an honest freedom. Her world, meanwhile was a prison of secrets.

"Child. You are far from home. Are you lost?" one of the robed males asked as they pulled up to her. All that was visible was his dark eyes as the rest of him was covered with a hood and facial wrapping to keep out the elements.

Another voice, a female's chimed in, "Look at her. She's Lyr'Zor, most likely on kahs'wan. Leave her be."

"Take me with you." Sera's voice--higher pitched in the memory--echoed in his mind.

The male dismounted and walked over and knelt down so he could look the young girl in the eye. "We do not take children, and you must complete your task you started here. Find your strength. You must be strong and cold to survive your world."

The scene shifted and melted and suddenly he was somewhere else, surrounded by the green and blues of San Francisco...the parade grounds of the academy. It was cold in a very weird way in the memory although it was a lovely day in the high 60s Fahrenheit.

Sera stood on the freshly mowed lawn and looked around. She exhibited far more typical control than currently and looked cooler somehow, less approachable. She began walking towards her destination, the Library. This was the meeting point for cadets assigned to a team for the group project.

"Oh great. A Vulcan." One of group said softly as Sera approached, but her acute hearing picked up every word. "Well, at least we'll get a good grade with her in the group assignment." Another responded.

Confusion swirled. This was the third such bizarre interaction Sera had experienced with humans since the start of classes. Their way of speaking was so alien, and coupled with their inexplicable emotional additives? The culture shock was exhausting, and yet - fascinating. If this was to be her home for the next four years it would be logical to learn more about this planet's cultures...

Everything shifted again in a stomach dropping manner.

Sera paced a small living space, her arms bent at the elbows and clasped behind her back (ala Spock).

"How could he have done this?! Am I not acceptable? I am still the chosen heir! That...that he would associate with a komihn? They are so soft and weak. How could a human female survive his attentions let alone desire more it???"

She would have to be strong now. Per Viruk's woman, Sera was already cold. Strength was needed to in order to survive this world.

Things shifted again, but this scene was different somehow. It was threadbare and smudged, in the manner paper gets when one tries to get off pencil lines with a stiff eraser. The feeling here was oppressive and bizarre - jerking from mundane to adrenaline dumping intensity from breath to breath.

The flooring was a generic metal often found in deep space stations. Heavy, panicked breathing sounded out from the shadows, and rapid footfalls slapped out from someone obviously exerting themselves to get away, and a sense of heart pounding terror surged. A skittering sound echoed in a hair-raising manner. Then an alien screech rang out and a male's scream rolled down the blacked corridor before it was cut off. "S'Ers-a!"

Everything went black in a panic-inducing manner - and the sense of being somehow, physically torn apart invaded the senses. Then everything went black as the sound of a woman's agonizing scream came from everywhere slowly trailing off until her voice cracked and a despairing sob was heard.

The extremities of Lamar's sleeping body began to violently twitch and occasionally lash out as if to protest some manifestation of invisible entity. His head periodically snapped from side to side with his eyelids tightly compressed and a deeply furrowed brow which revealed the rising discomfort and visceral emotions he was experiencing. "...T'Kahr Shi'yah..." he muttered in perfect Vulcan accompanied by other words of the foreign language which should have been impossible for him to know. His respiration rate increased and a soft sheen of sweat began to form across his face and neck. Suddenly, he weakly exclaimed her name in a manner similar to the man's scream: "...S'Ers-a...!" It was becoming a full-blown nightmare.

Lamar's movements under the covers became more frequent and Sera looked over her shoulder to the man currently sleeping in her bed. He was muttering...no...she raised a brow. "...T'Kahr Shi'yah..." She raised a brow. How would he know such a word?

Sera launched herself off the bed and wrapped her arms about her. His brows furrowed, and the meager light in the room began to glisten off the sheen of sweat on his brow. Taking a hesitant step forward, she slowly padded to the the side of the bed and sat down next to Lamar's sleeping form.

She placed her hand on his chest. Suddenly--

suffocating, tearing pain, Gods, let me die! No, you shouldn't feel this...not your pain, not your pain--Lamar, wake up, this is not meant for you!

His spastic twitches became more frequent and he let out a moan of distress. It was all too much for his brain to process and his deep REM sleep magnified the totality of the adventitious emotional recallings. Then a voice began to sear through the destructive thoughts; a familiar and comforting one. Lamar...wake up. There was a pause. This is not meant for you! A warning? A lifeline? ...Sera? His dark brown dilated eyes snapped open and he gasped, sucking in air as his chest heaved and he raised his chin to observe the new surroundings. It was dark and he was still discombobulated but the flood of terrible vehemence had suddenly ceased. He painfully swallowed a dry lump in his throat before his shaky voice spoke. "...What...where...?" he tried to form a coherent question but failed.

She quickly removed her hand from his chest once he woke up making it seem like her touch was just part of whatever phantasm he was still fighting off. "...You were having a nightmare. You are currently in my quarters, Lamar." Sera replied. She was not sure what was going on but knew that the meld had something to do with it given the contents of his dream that experienced just with brief contact with his skin.

"Would you like some water?" It was the polite thing to offer. He was a guest and it was her responsibility to see to his needs.

He blinked several times then squinted while his heart rate began to lower and the cold air within the room grounded him back to reality. With every second that passed, his vision adjusted to the darkness until he could make out the silhouette of woman sitting next to her with a long hair braid descending down to her waist. The same voice she possessed was the same as the one in his thoughts which had just awakened him. "Sera..." he finally recognized as memories of their recent time together flooded back into his head. "Water," he weakly nodded before struggling to sit upright.

Sera stood and walked over to a small carafe that held water and with a cup that was flipped and set on the neck of the container. She poured a cupful of the chilly water and brought it over to him and placed it on the table next to him before helping him sit up. "I have placed it on the table next to you."

"Thanks." With her assistance, Lamar slowly leaned forward then placed his elbows on his knees and head into his hands in order to wipe his face and massage his forehead with his thumbs. "...What happened to me? What...was that?" he whispered before reaching out to cautiously take the cup of fluid and bring it to his lips with a shaky hand.

"I must apologize for your ongoing discomfort. I have never..." Sera looked away from Lamar, which showed just how uncomfortable she was with the current topic of conversation. "I have never engaged in a mind-meld with a human, and under less-than-judicious circumstances. I believe your mind may be trying to...integrate the experience? It should dissipate."

Cold water had never tasted so good to him. Within a matter of seconds, he'd tilted the cup back and swallowed its contents through his parched throat leaving liquid tendrils of its remains dripping down his chin and into his lap. He could still taste the desert sands of Vulcan, however, which he wasn't sure was real or a deception his mind was playing on him. Sera's explanation - lingering traces of the mind-meld - was plausible in his uninformed opinion. "How soon are we talking? Until it dissipates?" The thought of enduring that through another sleep cycle was daunting. "And does integration mean...I'll have your thoughts forever?"

Sera stood and poured more water from the carafe, using the act as an excuse for silence while she considered her answer. "I do not know for certain. I would have to perform research to provide you with a more definitive answer...but my people use mind-melds to exchange information, yes, but also to create...connections with one another. This is a nuanced biological and sociological act - however, I do not think your sleep cycles will continue to be so...disturbed."

I hope.

"Would you like to...share what you experienced?"

Lamar wiped his mouth clean with a swipe of his palm then slowly began to drink more following Sera's prudent refill. His thoughts were still a mess. Jumbled, incoherent and fragmented, but his dream was still fresh in his waking memory banks. For now. "I..." he started to answer, "was in a desert. On a different planet. Vulcan? There was a young girl who...looked like you. And a group of nomads. The girl ran to the nomads and asked to join them. I think?" He shook his head. "I don't speak Vulcan but somehow I could understand the words. They told the girl they wouldn't take her. They rejected her."

But there was more. There'd been a subsequent dream/memory sequence he vividly recalled. "...And then I was in a different place, back at the Academy - the officer Academy. I think I saw you as a cadet on the way to the library. A couple other young cadets met you and...I guess something about Vulcan reputations? And then..." he took a deep breath, "it was you again. Older but not by much. You were mad...upset because of a man...your husband? His infidelity with a Human woman. I felt self-doubt, anger and resolve."

Finally he started to recall the last memory - the terrifying one which elicited visible goosebumps across his dark skin accompanied by an involuntary shudder. "Last thing I remember after that was some sort of starship...or a station. It was dark and everything felt...panicked, like a retreat. It felt terrible. There was some sort of scream but not from you. An alien scream. Then someone called out your name and..." he set the cup down again on the nightstand and buried his head into his hands.

Sera bowed her head. He explained some of the most disagreeable experiences of her life from a human perspective. How...unfortunate.

"I have wronged you, Lamar. I can but only extend my humblest of apologies. Those were some of the most...distressing memories within my mind. I have spent many hours in meditation to effectively understand and manage them. That these would be shared with you before so many other acceptable ones..."

Sera knelt in front of him in a rather formal seiza-like position. "No one knows of these regrettable experiences except for you." He knew...through the Gods' cursed meld, Lamar had the misfortune to experience some of the worst things that had ever happened to her.

He placed his hands on his thighs then exhaled a deep breath which crystallized in the air as it exited his nostrils. Looking down to Sera who was now on her knees in front of him, he listened to her apology and finally understood the significance of what had transpired between them. His night vision had fully adapted and now observed her beautiful face shadowed by the starlight from the window. His large hand reached out to gently cup the side of her cheek before grazing his thumb across her lips in an intimate gesture of forgiveness. "Sometimes we do things we don't intend...but that doesn't always make them the wrong things," he tried to console. "I'll be fine. I just need some time. Like you said." Like he hoped.

A second hand reached to her and settled atop her shoulder. "I don't blame you for this. I-" he frowned then smirked to himself as reminder to not say anything stupid again, "I didn't want these memories. But now that I have them...I feel closer to you. I can feel your struggles in life. Like one partner would with another. And that's all I ever really wanted," he confessed with in another whisper. Whatever wouldn't kill him, he considered a blessing.

It took everything within her to keep from leaning her cheek into the warmth of his palm against her face. The removal of his hand was a loss as his thumb trailed down over her lips. She shivered in response but wasn't sure what was the impetus for such an involuntary response...his touch or the cold?

Sera felt the honesty in his words. He had bared himself to her, and she was unsure what to say in response.

Finally, she ventured with, "Did your Vulcan comrades-in-arms tell you about any of this?"

A confused frown momentarily graced his forehead before he reached to take another sip of water. "Tell me about mind-melds?" Lamar tried to clarify. "No...never. We all asked. I guess it was a Level 10 classified secret to them." He wished he'd known more and had been briefed before this recent happening. Maybe that basic knowledge would have allowed him to prepare himself. Or maybe not.

Lamar softened his eyes to her kneeling form in front of him. It was unnecessary and so he leaned forward to help coax her back to her feet and closer to him. "Get up, ensign," he ordered with a subdued grin and a hint of forceful former-Marine authority in his voice.

Sera leaned her head back to continue to look at Lamar's face as he changed his position. "Aye, Chief." The response was immediate, but her tone was...playful? Or was it imagined?

She gracefully rose from her position on her knees. "I am willing to explain the memories...for context, however it is late in the night. Your sleep cycle has been interrupted."

He took her lightly-scarred in one of his own then pulled her to sit next to him on the side of the bed. "I'm awake now. Not sure if it's a good idea for me to go back to sleep, all things considered," was Lamar's honest reply to her subtle caution. A twinge of anxiety filled his stomach at the prospect of re-living the nightmare he'd just escaped from. "You don't have to explain if you don't want to...but I'm curious. I want to know more about you."

"Very well..." It wasn't preferable to bear herself like this, but as he already experienced the distressing memories it was only logical to give context.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

Ensign S'Ers-a M'Lyr'Zor
Acting Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A

&

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

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