round 2 PNPC Lt Kinan Venroe, "A story."

[Sedrin Belasi]

((Dreamscape/hullucination/they're not sure yet))

::It was a counselling suite.::

::Kinan had been one of them before, many times, for psych evals. She had felt that they wasted her time, but she answered the questions, explained her feelings, passed the evaluations with positive colours.::

::She wasn't aware if this was reality, or if this was some form of dream. The woman in front of her had a teal uniform, the look you normally got from an expectant counsellor, waiting for your response, silently determining the mental stability of you. Kinan raised an eyebrow.::

Ari: Hello.

Akyra: Hello. You must be Ari Kinan.

::Lieutenant JG Counsellor had apparently heard of her. Kinan looked the other female Trill up and down, taking as much of her appearance in as possible. Light brown hair falling just above her shoulders, black eyes and a tanned complexion, featuring darker Trill spots. She seemed . . . mature. Experienced. And safe.::

Ari: I am. ::Kinan nodded.:: I just go by my last name.

Akyra: Not a fan of your first?

Ari:::she shrugged:: I just prefer my last name.

::The woman nodded.::

Ari: I didn't catch your name?

Akyra: Akyra Sentoss. I'm the second host of the Venroe symbiont.

::So that's what was going on. This wasn't real at all - just some weird dream her mind had cooked up to probably help with all the memories that had just been dumped into her system. Previous host personalities talking to current hosts were a surprisingly common thing.::

Ari: Oh. ::She nodded slowly.:: You're the one before me - the one-

Akyra: Dying well before her time? Yeah. I was worse than Ethan, actually. If we keep this up, someone might turn around and say that the symbiont is cursed. ::She laughed once.::

Ethan: Don't scare the newbie, Akyra.

::The male pretty much appeared out of nowhere, also in a Starfleet uniform (was this what this symbiont was? Starfleet exclusive?) with a gold collar. He smiled and stuck his hand out to Kinan.::

Ethan: Nice to meet you - I'm Ethan Ocal.

::It was only logical to assume that Ethan was the very first Venroe host. Kinan shook his hand.::

Ari: Ari Kinan. ::pause:: She said that she was "worse" than you?

Ethan: Death by pirate attack, age 43.

Ari: *Pirate attack*?

Ethan: Long story short; Security officer aboard a severely damaged Sovereign class ship, were attacked by pirates, shot in the back, lights out.

::Kinan frowned.::

Ari: A bit silly to be a host and a Starfleet Security officer, don't you think?

Ethan: You have no idea how many times I was told that when I was alive . . .

Ari: Why didn't you just avoid Security?

Ethan: Because I'm a protector. I defend. I can problem solve, sure, but my strong point isn't sitting down and staring at people - no offense, Akyra - nor is it administrative duties. I don't have the patience for anything Engineering, nor do I have the mindset. And . . . my piloting skills are pretty bad. So I did what I did best - protect my crew.

Ari: And you did that until the day you died.

Ethan:::with a sigh.:: We've got a lot to talk about.

::Kinan didn't know how much time had passed, if there was time at all. She'd learnt a lot, though, just by talking to both these people.::

::Ethan had been somewhat of a rebellious Trill in his childhood. Somehow and somewhere along the line of his life, he'd been given a "brand new" symbiont, having shown promise in the eyes of those in charge of them. And then he turned around, left Trill and joined Starfleet, despite the outrage of those he'd left behind - including that of his parents. He trained as a Security officer, graduated and was then posted to a ship, as per usual. At some point, he'd gotten an extreme distaste for Marines, and involved himself in various romantic flings. But he eventually married an El-Aurian woman, and to this day, still doesn't know how old she actually is. He was constantly contacted by the commission about his symbiont and how he had been reckless and that he (and his captain) were "required" to allow a potential host aboard his ship in case of an emergency. This hadn't happened.

::What *did* happen, however, was the agreement that he would find a replacement host (in case of this emergency), but it would be on his terms and the host wouldn't be placed aboard the ship. Out of a class of potential hosts, he'd picked Akyra - mainly due to her unenthusiastic response to counsellors, course work, and overall anything uninteresting whatsoever (and yet somehow, she'd been accepted into the program. Weird.). She was an aspiring technician, and though she was very capable at what she did, she acknowledged that she wasn't the best of the best - not even close, apparently. Her mother worked full time as an administration manager for a company on Trill, while her father took care of her brother Meeka, of whom had a severe case of anterograde amnesia after a severe brain injury, a condition still untreatable on Trill::

::Ethan had spent two weeks talking up Starfleet and the Venroe symbiont to Akyra, and though she was somewhat skeptical of him, she agreed to take the symbiont when required to. This had happened two years after they met - in the pirate incident Ethan had mentioned earlier. The symbiont was transferred to Akyra the next day.::

::With a newfound patience and experience from Ethan, Akyra abandond her career entirely and chose to explore the counselling position. She claimed that the main reason behind this was due to the significant decline of mental health in the Security department whilst Ethan was still alive. By the time she'd graduated and was posted to the USS Avandar, she'd found that Security officers were normally not at all open people and struggled to assist. Akyra had spent barely a day on the Avandar before it had "crashed" into a planet by the name of Eden - she then lived a further "ten years" on Eden with her partner Alleran Tan and had two children before a supposed symbiont rejection. It later turned out that the entire thing wasn't real and was just a dream - Akyra hadn't remembered the specific details.

::Regardless, a rejection like that in the dream could occur in real life as well. When she was transferred to a different ship, her first trip to medical revealed that her isoboramine levels had indeed dropped, but only minorly. This would continue for a long time, and though she had a handle on it for a few months, it just kept happening.

::This, now, was the result of that.::

::It was strange to meet two hosts that had had a high amount of contact between them - actually, it was strange to meet a host of whom had been hand picked by the symbionts previous. She felt as if she were imposing, that Kira should have been allowed the same choice as Ethan had.::

Akyra: So what about you? What's your story?

Ari: Me? I'm an aide-de-camp. I've been a personal assistant, a diplomat, a liaison and a Personnel officer. I've been in Starfleet for ten years, not including the Academy.

Ethan: The hostage situation on the USS Fox with the Iotians - that was you?

::She nodded.::

Ari: Yes, sir, 2383.

Akyra:::with a slight laugh:: Care to share for the rest of the class?

Ari: Fox was called to a recently colonized planet a couple of years back. We got there, did what we had to do, and then when we return to the ship, the coloney is attacked by a rogue group of Iotians, and the colony's "leaders" had been taken hostage. The Iotians demanded a shuttle off the planet, supplies and weapons in exchange for the safety of the civilians, but obviously, weapons and a ships shuttle wasn't something my Captain was willing to provide.

Akyra: So what'd you do?

Ari: They had one of their group talk to me. I found out that these guys weren't from their home planet - they were from a nearby planet that was suffering from a supply shortage. They'd been requesting help from the Federation for months without results, so they'd resorted to more violent means, believing they could take some of the supplies from this newest colony. So, we were able to come to the agreement that they would release the hostages on the terms that we would arrange transport and fresh supplies for them to take back to their planet. A small ship with supplies finally showed up, the hostages were released without casualties, and we escorted them back to their planet.

Ethan: Were they charged?

Ari: Those terms were also negotiated. Instead of the group of eight being taken into custody, the leader put himself forward to us, stating that he and he alone was responsible for the actions that had been taken. He was arrested and charged, the rest of his group remained on their planet.

Akyra: I'm sure that must have been quite the achievement.

Ari: It was. I'm still struggling with understanding how it'd gone so smoothly.

::There was a pause of silence between them, and Kinan looked down at her knees.::

Ari: So how does this go? I wake up, you two in my head, no idea who I really am anymore? Watch as I struggle to continue doing my job until I give into your memories and experiences and change my career at a moments notice?

::She glanced back up at the two Trill in front of her. Ethan crossed his arms, actually sitting down for the first time on Akyra's armrest.::

Akyra: It'll be disorientating at times, sure. But you're strong minded.

Ari: That's supposed to mean anything when it comes to a joining?

Ethan: It means that we think you can handle it.

::Her vision flickered without warning, and Kinan sat up straight.::

Ari: Is this it?

Akyra: Seems like it. ::She paused.:: You're going to wake up. You're going to be fine. Medical is going to clear you in a day or two, order you to take counselling appointments to adjust to the new memories. It'll be a shock at first, sure, but you'll work through it. We have faith in you.

::And just like that, after Akyra's words, Kinan's vision faded.::

::She awoke in the bright Sick Bay.::


Tbc . . .

PNPC Lt Ari (Kinan) Venroe
Aide-de-camp
Deep Space 10

Simmed by LtCmdr Tristam Core

USS Garuda