Lt. Alieth - Friends on the Other Side

[Karrod Niac]

I want to thank @Alieth, along with @Roshanara Rahman & @Quen Deena, for making this entire arc absolutely incredible to explore.  

I've said this on Discord, but I'll reiterate it here because I think it's important - generally speaking I find it difficult to explore my own character, or to make them the 'center' of a narrative arc.  I'm always concerned it's self-indulgent or exclusionary so I rarely go to these stories, excepting with the help of the writers I've most come to respect and trust.  I'm glad I did, because what @Alieth did in this last sim is an incredible reflection on my own character, and my 'history' with our fleet.  Thank you, Troublemaker.  

 

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Falling from the ((Bridge, Deck 1, USS Veritas))

 

Reality collapsed at Alieth's feet, in a cascade of memory fragments into darkness. Glimpses for the past rained down around her, disjointed and senseless as she tumbled hastily into the abyss.

The red light in the teetering corridors of the USS Artemis.

A well-endowed front end of a version of Captain Rahman  riding a Veritas through the space, with spots ALL the way down.

Teller:  Alieth!  

For some reason, a violent impact to the chest followed by a more than audible “FALLHHHASLLPPPPPPPP!”.

Someone speaking in a strangely flowery manner. For some reason the words "Silas" and "Saga" echoed over and over in the void.

Neither made sense to the Vulcan.

The texture of the Uss Diligent's captain's chair, firm under her fingers, though she had never been there. The woodlands of Til'ahn, the gurgling sound of his chest after a runabout fell on his head.

Mackenzie, working on a mechanical arm for a reluctant G'var. A robotic leg for a Betazoid officer, Adea. While Alieth knew the former CMO, she didn't know either of the other two, but she recognised their faces.

Somehow. A little girl, playing with a yellow-robed muppet, who looked suspiciously like a certain red-haired fellow. For some reason, she knew there was a degree of mischief involved.

Teller:  Alieth!  We have to go!  Now!

A white wake that, for some mysterious reason, left a trail of bamboo and coconuts behind it hurried towards her amidst memories of a crazy party with someone called Ukinix and a snooty-looking black-eyed woman in the chase of a bellhop.

Somehow, there, when everything was crumbling around her, smelt like coffee.

Amidst the maelstrom of memories and shadowy images, she intuited a familiar form.

Alieth stretched out her hands in search of the faint figure she could not fully see.

Alieth:  We cannot Sern is still...

Teller:  It won't matter if we don't get out of here.  You have to break the meld!  

A firm hand grasped her wrist. She clung onto him as they both spun on the trajectory that had resulted from their collision.

Alieth:  Alright!

Alieth closed her eyes and concentrated on her hands.

Not on those, clinging to the skinny pale wrist, but on another, far, far away, resting on the profile of a face just over the qui'lari.

She felt the electric tingle under her fingertips, the vibrant connection between her minds.

With one last effort of her will, Alieth flexed her fingers...

... And pushed.

And when she opened her eyes, she was still in her office chair, as a very large dog performed the duty her kind had been performing for millennia and was saving a human's life.

Licking him.

((CMO's Office, Main Sickbay, USS Thor))

 

The light in the office was too white, too bright after her plunge into darkness.

Alieth closed her eyes and breathed in, the emotions of the meld still lingering in her mind.

Some were not her own.

Most of them were just hers.

And she didn't want to deal with them, not there, not at that moment.

She just could not.

She breathed out deeply and inhaled once more.

When she exhaled again, it was herself all over again, what had happened pushed away and tucked away in a place deep in her mind, shelved for... for later.

Yet there was... a certain tension in her face, a certain frown in her slanted eyebrows, a subtle dull gleam in her dark eyes.

Teller:  Doc...Alieth...are you...

Alieth:  I’m fine. ::She frowned deeply and reworded the statement:: I am fine.

Fine was a non-descript and imprecise term, and yet she could find nothing better to convey the truth.

Teller:  But...what about Sern?  What the hell was all that?  

Alieth:  That is rather more complicated, I…

She tilted her head to one side and, quickly, she regretted it, the throbbing pain piercing through her temples. She leaned back for a moment, eyes closed, before she stood back on her feet.

For a moment she held herself upright, as if she questioned her own stability, just before she moved the scant two steps that separated her from the officer sprawled on the floor and the solicitous canid.

She patted the animal's head a couple of times and pushed the dog aside from him before she offered a hand to the human.

With one efficient motion, she assisted him back to his feet.

That brief contact ceased quickly, however, with Alieth pulling her hands away just as soon as he regained his verticality. She folded her hands behind her back, hiding them in the sleeves of her lab coat.

Alieth:  Sern needs help, expert guidance. Assistance that I can only find in Vulcan.

Teller: ?

Alieth:  I cannot answer that, Geoff, not now, but whatever it takes, I will sort it out, he can count on me :: She gazed into his eyes earnestly, her concern well hidden behind her impassive mask :: And so will you.

Teller: ?

She allowed herself for a moment to relax her firm grip on her features, and one corner of her mouth curved up slightly, barely a shadow of what she had been in his mind.

Alieth:  We shall see, but for the time being I think you should have some rest. And in the next few weeks just... make sure you stay out of trouble. And for once play it safe, troublemaker.

Teller: ?

[[Tag! & TBC]]

OOC:

qui'lari -> the Vulcan name for a focal point in the bioelectric field in foramen magnums of a humanoid
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Lt. Alieth
Chief Medical Officer
USS Thor NCC-82607
E239702A10  
Image Collective Facilitator /Art Director
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Edited March 27, 2021 by Geoffrey Teller
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