The Fallen (Part 2 of 3)

Posted on 31 Mar 2025 @ 1:13pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater

2,960 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 21 - Helix
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 4, Darius' Quarters
Timeline: MD 04, 1555 hrs

Previously, on The Fallen (Part 1)...

"I'm almost done," he replied with a shake of his head to himself. Stop getting yourself into trouble, Lamar, his brain chastised. The conn officer retrieved a gray Starfleet t-shirt from his dresser then tugged it over his head to complete his return to modesty. Darkness fleetingly consumed his vision beneath the cloth, and in the absence of light, his eyes turned black. To the other side. "I think you should stay, Sofie. You want to stay. With me." His muffled voice masked the inflection of the dark entity and his shirt remained half-covered across his torso with its collar stretched around his forehead while his arms slowed mid-motion.

And Now, the Continuation...

[ON]

The ice began to crack and a numbness came over Sofie. Of course she wanted to stay, of course she was going to stay. Her brain scrambled to rationalise these thoughts into something her conscious mind would find acceptable. "You're right, I do. We can have a drink here as much as anywhere else." And they would escape any judgemental glances here, avoid any suspicion. It played into her rational impulse for privacy, made it feel like it wasn't just a terrible idea.

Lamar's arms slowly resumed their motions and he tugged his shirt down to his waist. His irises returned to their natural dark brown essence before he blinked then turned to face her. Socks and shoes weren't required, now. "My place is yours," he gestured for her to sit on the large couch in his living room. What was the phrase in Spanish? A roll of his shoulders then neck produced a series of soft pops in his musculature after which he wandered across her position to the nearby replicator in the kitchen area. "What's your poison?"

It had already been a long day and the couch did look so inviting. Sofie collapsed into its embrace with a sigh. Starship quarters were not always what she would consider cosy but with a warm drink and a friend they could be. That was what she wanted: something warm, a mug of hot water... "Dealer's choice, Lamar. I'll leave it up to you." Once again she started rationalising the apparent contradiction: she wanted to be a good guest, give him the chance to show off as a host. It would be more interesting to see what he wanted to give her than just ask for what she wanted. She managed to make it make sense. The feeling of numbness didn't abate. "Do you keep it slightly colder than normal in here?"

He moseyed across the room where the soft whirr of the replicator signaled his momentary accomplishment. With two short highball glasses in hand half-full of amber fluid, he returned to her position then took a seat next to her on the sofa; not too far or close, but within their mutual spheres of aligning auras. He handed one of the glasses to her. "Saurian brandy." He tilted it in her direction for cheers before taking a sip.

It was colder in here. The drink too felt colder than it should in her hands. Everything felt cold. She looked down into the pleasantly coloured liquid before taking her own sip. She'd never liked Saurian brandy. She found it almost too light, it danced down your throat like quicksilver and its aftertaste had a quality that reminded her of age and mortality. She didn't find herself thinking any differently with the first sip this time, only this time it also tasted like the cold. "Wonderful. An excellent choice." She said to Lamar with a grin. She didn't even try to rationalise it this time, she just raised her glass in a mirror of his gesture and then brought it to her lips once again.

The harmonic clink of their glasses' light collision reverberated across the walls of his quarters. He revealed a private and pearly smile to her accompanied by a nod of gratitude. "We used to drink this by the gallon during the war. Brings back old memories. Good ones." He took a healthy sip of his own drink then smacked his lips together while savoring the momentary synthehol burn. A shiver rippled through his body from head to toe and he glanced over to his friend. Specifically, into her expressive and colorful facial features. And her striking stormy-hued eyes.

"So tell me about this Nekomi search project." He placed his glass down then scooted closer to the science officer, lured by her presence.

"It's boring, really boring. I am not exaggerating, it is the most bored I have been in a long time." Of course during a war they had drank something that tasted so potently of death. She drank some more, more of the death and the cold. Where was that fire that had lingered in her so long? Where was it's warmth? Lamar was moving up next to her, he wanted to be next to her. She was fine with that, maybe having someone next to her would help warm her up. She shivered and then moved herself closer so they were shoulder to shoulder. He felt cold too, cold as a corpse. She took another drink. "That said it only began when Father Hovar threw himself off a cliff in Tarin's mountain experience. Did you hear about that?"

The research was boring? Or the ensign herself? There was talk of the new chaplain, the Klingon, and while Lamar listened to her, he couldn't help but identify a visceral shiver in her body and one which he discreetly shared. "No...I haven't. The new Klingon chaplain, you mean?" He scooted even closer to her and his hand extended toward her upper thigh before resting lightly upon it with a twinge of abominable lightening coursing through his nervous system. "...Tell me about it. Them."

To have Lamar's hand resting on her should have been causing anxiety, Sofie should have been moving away, but the numbness had taken hold and it seemed almost pleasant. She could be content there next to him for a while. She leaned into him further.

"Mimi and the chaplain have an issue, the whole genocide thing. The captain was trying to make a point so she took the two of them up the hill..." She started talking, relaying the whole story as Mimi had to her from the initial ascent to the incident with the phaser and the eventual jumping off the cliff. The words fell out of her mouth automatically, her mind was somewhere else completely. She was thinking of that first time she had visited her father's family, she was thinking of England, full of its absurd oddities and rolling hills. She wasn't sure what that meant.

"...And so Tarin tells her to report to me." Sofie smiled and shook her head upon reaching the end of the absurd tale. Sometimes it was nice to be reminded that she and Lamar weren't the only people on this ship who seemed to be insane. "Which is where the interesting part of the story ends and the part where myself, Mimi and Illialhlae spend countless hours trawling through the most banal trade reports begins. Neither of them have any hope left that there is anything interesting to find here. But Tarin has ordered the search and I will ensure that it is diligently performed."

"Sounds like a good cause. For Ensign Mimi, I mean. Maybe the chaplain, too," he tried to reassure with a soft rub across her leg. The story she'd just told him had been wild in nature but he didn't discount its authenticity. The new captain was a force of nature and those with whom he inhabited the ship? Equally strange. Such was the way of deep space assignments, he was starting to learn.

Meanwhile, their shoulders were mashed together and their heads rested mere inches from each other. Lamar again brought his glass to his lips then set it down precariously atop his knee. He turned his head and looked at her, taking in her intimate features before his eyes drifted down to focus on her mouth. Sofie was a beautiful woman, especially in this moment. A valued friend...and more. Do it, the voice in his head suddenly commanded. It's what you both want...and need.

"Sofie," he started to whisper before his voice trailed off and he turned his torso to face her. His off hand reached out to caress the side of her face and the drink on his knee fell to the floor with a soft clatter. His eyes passionately locked onto hers. And without much delay, he leaned forward into her position and pressed his mouth firmly against hers. The electric sensation of their soft and sensitive lips meeting for the first time rippled through his body and helped bring his extra-dimensional occupant to life...in conjunction with his own hidden private desires.

The touch of his lips was like a poison, stilling Sofie's heart. The venom spreading throughout her turned her blood into an icy sludge. With all warmth and resistance extinguished she felt nothing, not happiness nor shock or surprise. Inside, her reaction to Lamar's actions were completely dispassionate and emotionless but Sofie had built a life on hiding her emotions, on projecting a different Sofie. She knew she needed to show joy and enthusiasm, as a wife would. It was what would please him.

She was out of practice, or rather she'd never really been in practice to begin with. Romance was not one of her strong suits. She hadn't been kissed like this in several years and wasn't entirely sure what the best course of action would be. She pulled away for a moment, giving herself time to think and time to place down her glass without it suffering a fate similar to Lamar's. She had a free hand now, but still no idea what to do with it. Should she touch his face as he had hers? Dancing was something she understood so she used that metaphor. She needed him to understand he was the lead and she would follow so she went for the shoulder as in a closed position, placing her hand on it and pulling the two of them closer.

Lamar's heart fluttered with trepidation when she momentarily retreated. Had he crossed a sacred line? He witnessed her carefully manipulate her drink out of the way then return her focus on him. She wasn't his Vulcan wife - that was Sera. But he still wanted to do this with Sofie. Their friendship had been well-kindled over the past months and they shared mutual and intensely private platonic experiences no one else on the ship could understand...or even know about. She is yours, as well, the occupying voice of his thoughts rationalized. She desires you. It's only natural.

His internal conundrum didn't have time to metastasize and fizzled from existence when he watched her reach back toward him then pull him back into her presence. His anxiety faded and was replaced by a renewed desire to consummate their relationship. Lamar closed his eyes, then relaxed his large frame into hers when their lips retouched. A tilt of his head allowed him better access when he kissed her again, this time deeply and with increasing passion. His tongue slipped into her mouth before provocatively playing against hers while one of his hands slid up her ribs to her blue collar. Some expert fumbling managed to unzip her uniform jacket and pull the fabric down to expose more of her neck line. His other hand transitioned from her cheek to the base of her bun-styled hair and pushed up into the tight strands to hold her close. "...Take off your clothes," he breathlessly whispered in between kisses which started to trail down from her mouth and across her chin.

"Alright," She couldn't muster any other words in response to his command, what time was there now for words? Each touch of their skin was like being plunged into icy water eliciting waves of sensation, little gasps, and an ever deepening capitulation to the situation. The feeling of his hand behind her head cemented the notion that she was his, in an ownership of her entire being. She let him continue to focus his attention above, let his lips play across her neck and his hands to hold her head and fumble with her jacket. It gave her space to start from the bottom: first the footwear, the socks and then sliding down then sliding down those uniform bottoms to reveal her legs.

~~~~

The Voice of the Fire was surrounded by ice. The halls of Sofie's mind which she inhabited were freezing over and a glistening black tar was seeping in from the corners. This space was all metaphor, the voice knew that, but as she ran down the corridors she dodged the spreading tar and patches of ice while going as fast as she could. Though the physicality of the situation was imagined, the danger was real and Sofie was lost somewhere in here. She needed to find Sofie or it would be too late.

At points along the corridors of Sofie's mind there were doors, doors to rooms that each contained something of Sofie's essence. The other Sofie peered through the glass inserts in each one, taking as short a time as she could to identify whether Sofie was in a given chamber before rushing on to the next. It felt like she had searched hundreds of them by now, so many forgotten corners of the mind, but so far no Sofie. She kept running, kept up the frantic search. More and more of her world turned to ice.

She spotted it, a short way ahead: One of the doors was open. The tar was oozing out of it. This had to be what she was looking for. With a burst of desperate energy she raced to the door and looked inside.

She'd never been in this room before, it looked like it had been a memory: it had been a wood panelled room with a large fireplace and paintings of austere looking figures. It was impossible to make out the details as ice had shattered its features and the tar had bubbled up and was slowly filling the space. The voice couldn't see Sofie but instinct told her that she must be here, hidden somewhere under the sticky black ooze. She waded in, she could sense the danger it posed to her but the danger to Sofie was surely so much greater...

The opalescent tar had a horrible bitter smell and a cloying taste that made the process of even finding Sofie amidst the sludge even more unpleasant. More so than the general unpleasantness of the substance though, the thing about it that troubled the other Sofie most was its familiarity. It was the smell of where she had come from, her dark home between the dimensions. It reminded her of what she used to be. She'd grown above it, transcended it, but here it was again spreading through Sofie's consciousness, trying to take control of her beloved Sofie.

After what felt like an hour of desperate searching in the inky black substance she found Sofie. How long had she been trapped under the ooze? How much damage had already been done? She pulled Sofie up above the surface. Holding her beloved charge in her arms she tried to wipe the substance from Sofie's face but the tar clung to them both with unyielding viscidity.

"Sof, can you hear me?" There was desperation in her voice. It felt like she was too late, she hadn't been able to save her. Seconds passed with no response and for the first time in her brief existence the other Sofie felt something of the terror that she inflicted on others. "Please be okay Sof." Now she begged.

Sofie's eyes flickered open. Her eyes stood out as the only things not covered by the tar, white and grey and beautiful and alive. The two Sofies, waist deep in darkness, the one cradling the other, stared into one another's eyes.

"I didn't want this. I can't stop it."

"I know Sof." The other Sofie could feel that the woman in her arms had no strength left to fight. She wanted to offer up some reassurance, some explanation but what could she say? The situation was dire and they both knew it.

Sofie's voice was so quiet that it could hardly be heard even in the icy silence. The other Sofie could make out what was being said though as well as the commanding tone with which it was said "Take over. You can do that right?"

"I..." Could she? She'd never tried, she'd never wanted to try. "I don't know."

"Do it. Don't hurt him."

Pain was the only thing she felt like she had any artistry in. It was the tool she was most comfortable with by far, but she understood that they were talking about Sofie's best friend. "I'll try." She whispered. She pulled Sofie close into a tight embrace, as much to reassure herself as to comfort Sofie. Then she reached out with her thoughts into all the corners of all the rooms of this place and found all the rooms full of all levers and dials and all the things she needed to become Sofie.

To Be Continued...

[OFF]

--

LTJG Sofie Ullswater
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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

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