Chief Engineering Officer’s Quarters, U.S.S. Atlas
Stardate: 38381.1
Siraak bolted upright in bed, unable to breath, a pained cry caught in her throat as it felt like a thousand needles were plunged into her skull. Using every microgram of discipline and control her father had instilled in her since she was a child, she managed to remain conscious and draw air into her lungs as sweat soaked her sleepwear and bedsheets. She couldn’t form any coherent thoughts; it took whatever brain power she could muster to keep her autonomous functions going.
As suddenly as it had struck, the agony vanished, leaving her sitting in the dark panting and trembling, with tears of anguish dripping from her chin.
“Lights,” she rasped, running her hands through her dark brown hair and looking at her palms expecting to see them covered in blood, but there was nothing.
“Wh…what?”
The computer gave an annoyed chirp. “Please restate inquiry.”
“Never mind,” she muttered rubbing her temples, trying to regain her composure.
She had never experienced any sensation or pain like that, even the time she’d been captured by Cardassian mercenaries felt less arduous than whatever she had just endured. For a moment, she debated whether she should just try to shake it off or head to sickbay. Ultimately she decided it was better to be safe than sorry, after all it could be a symptom of something more severe and as a senior officer she needed to set an example for the crew, and being hit be a debilitating migraine from hell was definitely something that should be checked out.
Swinging her legs out of bed, she gingerly put her weight onto them, not quite sure they would hold her up. After a minute of just standing beside her bed, she felt a little more confident of her limbs, so grabbed her robe and wrapped it around her—hiding the lingering dampness of hear sweat-soaked pyjamas.
From her quarters, she headed down to deck four. As the largest deck in the primary hull it housed a number of different facilities, including several science labs, the transporter rooms, impulse engines, gymnasium, and sickbay, making it one of the busiest levels on the ship. Though at oh-three-hundred as they travelled through open space it was quieter than usual, she just passed Chief Phillips coming out of the gym who she nodded at. She was relieved things seemed so quiet; she wasn’t sure she was up for much socialising at that moment.
Stepping into sickbay she was surprised to see two of the biobeds already occupied, with corpsman Dragos running a scanner over Ensign Uldan’s head as Petty Officer Jharash looked white as snow on the bed next to him, a surprising feat for the dark-skinned Kazarite. The human medic looked up at her as she entered, a concerned look on the younger woman’s face.
“An intense headache you can’t explain?”
“How did you…” she trailed off as her eyebrow rose, looking at the two other patients then back at the corpsman.
“Once is an accident, twice a coincidence.”
“Third time is a pattern,” Siraak finished. “What’s happening?”
Dragos shook her head. “I’m not sure, Lieutenant. Scans look normal, elevated levels of neurological activity and adrenaline, though that’s not surprising going by what’s been reported. I’ve paged Doctor Yuen.
The doors opened once more, but instead of the chief medical officer Ensign Axlan entered looking as rough as Siraak felt. She helped the young operations officer to a bed and then looked along the row, including herself four different species had been affected by whatever had happened. None of them shared a common ancestry or biology, the only thing each of them shared was the fact they were all telepathic to some degree. For all they knew they were under some kind of psionic attack from somewhere.
She stepped over to the companel. “Siraak to bridge.”
“Go ahead, sir,” watch officer Gruber replied promptly.
“Lieutenant, are you picking up anything strange on sensors?”
“What do you mean ‘strange’?”
“Anything that might indicate some sort of telepathic presence?” she asked, knowing how much of a long shot it would be.
After a moment of silence, Gruber reported, “We’re not picking up anything out of the ordinary.”
Doctor Yuen entered the ward and after one quick glance at the occupied beds, grabbed a medical tricorder from an equipment tray and headed to the corpsman for a status report.
“Run a full spectral scan. Siraak out.”
As soon as the channel closed, the doors parted and Petty Officers Rellon and Nalia entered leaning on one another. This was starting to feel more and more as though they were under siege, with those on the frontlines hobbling in to be patched up.
* * * * *
Briefing Room, U.S.S. Atlas
Captain Bruce Keller didn’t like it when a medical emergency or mystery gripped his crew, he always felt so useless in those situations—he was a rated emergency medical technician, though all that really meant was he knew how to activate a dermal regenerator, for anything more complex he was at a loss.
Around the table were Commander Celan, Lieutenants Xan Na-Gharii, Siraak, and Yuen, and Ensign Tathar. Celan and Siraak looked worse than he’d ever seen either of them, which wasn’t helped by the medical monitoring sensor they both wore just behind their ears. Seeing his strong-willed and ever-feisty friend looking so defeated was not something he ever wanted to see again, whilst his Vulcan chief engineer just seemed haunted, plagued by a nightmare she couldn’t quite remember.
“So, what are we dealing with here, Doctor?”
“I’m not sure, Captain,” the young physician admitted. “All thirteen telepathic crewmembers onboard, from five different species have reported the exact same symptoms, but after I examined each of them I couldn’t find anything—except the indications they’d all experienced a great shock and strain on their systems.” She paused and nodded at the devices on the two telepaths’ necks. “They’ve all agreed to wear the monitors, so if it happens again I can collect data in real time and will be alerted to the emergency.”
“Could it be some kind of attack?” he asked.
“That is a possibility. It could also be some sort of illness we unknowingly picked up somewhere, something that attacks the telepathic centres of the brain which is why the rest of us are fine. I just don’t have enough information to make a call, sir.”
He gave her a supportive smile. Though Yuen was young, fresh out of her training at Starfleet Medical Academy, she was brilliant by anyone’s standard and so far she’d never given him reason to doubt her abilities or his decision to have her as his first ever CMO.
“If there’s a solution to this, Doctor, I’m sure you’ll find it.” She responded with a faint blush and a determined nod.
Turning to Na-Gharii and Tathar he continued. “Do we have anything on sensors?”
There was a moment of silence as neither of them spoke. The Rigellian ops manager was clearly waiting to take his cue from the science officer, but Na-Gharii was staring intently across the table at Siraak who, despite how rough she looked, held his gaze unblinkingly.
“Lieutenant?” he prompted.
The Efrosian tore his eyes away and looked at Keller. “Sorry, sir. There was nothing on sensors, both at the time the incident occurred or in the aftermath after Lieutenant Siraak ordered a full scan.”
“I’ve checked all communications frequencies, to see if maybe something came in over subspace that may have caused it, but there was nothing, sir,” Tathar added.
“Nice thinking, Ensign.”
He looked away from the left side of the table and focused on the other two officers who had been the victims of this mental assault. “What can you tell me about what happened?”
Celan and Siraak looked at one another, both of them seeming uncomfortable. Ultimately, his first officer shrugged and turned back to him.
“It was the worse pain I’ve ever felt in my life, even getting my shoulder replaced the other week didn’t even come close to this—the ship’s bio-cleaner had its work cut out for it in my quarters,” she confessed, looking a little green around the gills.
Siraak gave a single nod. “Had it not been for my training on Vulcan, I may have also had a regurgitate response to the stimuli.”
“It reminded me of stories I heard growing up about the acid ants on the Southern Islands,” the Deltan continued. “There were tales of Deltans going insane from hundreds of bites if they accidentally disturbed a hive.”
Keller frowned. “Didn’t you get me to eat acid ants when we visited Delta four?”
“If properly prepared they’re quite delicious.”
“And if they’re not properly prepared?”
“The poison sack will kill you in a matter of minutes, but you’re still here alive and kicking, so you had nothing to worry about.”
“Moving on,” he said quickly, not wanting to dwell on the topic of his own mortality. “How’re you both feeling, though?”
“Tired, but otherwise fine.”
“Agreed, Captain, I believe I am able to perform my duties as required.”
“Doctor?”
“They’re both fit and healthy, sir. I wouldn’t recommend any working from heights or operating any heavy machinery, just in case they have another episode, but otherwise I’m happy to have all of those affected return to duty.”
“Very well, but if anything changes you alert sickbay at once.”
“Aye sir,” Celan and Siraak replied in unison.
“Htennak is interviewing the others, to see if he can determine any sort of pattern and offer a professional pair of ears should anyone need them—make sure to avail yourself of his services if you need them.” They both nodded, though he did notice a twinkle of something in his XO’s eyes, but she remained quiet.
He looked from one side of the table to the next. “How are things looking for our next system?”
“We’re getting more sensor data as we approach, sir,” began Tathar, stepping in for Na-Gharii who was once again staring at Siraak. “It is just a single super gas giant orbiting an F-type star, with eighty-four moons that we can detect so far. Just before I joined the meeting I did detect the presence of ships in orbit.”
“What sort of ships?”
Tathar flashed a triumphant toothy smile. “Unknown configuration, sir. Looks like another native species.”
“We’re still a couple hours out, so gather all the data you can on them and the planet. If there’s nothing more?” he looked around the table and the officers all stayed quiet. “Doctor, I’d like a preliminary report before we reach the system. Dismissed.”
Everyone but Celan pushed themselves clear of the table and headed for the exit. Seeing her remain still, Keller paused and watched the other four depart. Tathar pulled his tail through in the last second before the door closed, leaving them alone in the briefing room.
“Something on your mind, Celan?”
A tired grin curled her lips. “I was just wondering when the Counsellor became ‘Htennak’?”
He felt his cheeks flush, which only made her grin widen. “Why shouldn’t I speak about my officers by their names?”
“Because you’ve only ever done that with those you’re close to, hell it took you two years to stop using my rank, but the Lieutenant Commander has been given that honour in just two months? What gives?”
“I’ve just gotten to know him better recently, we’ve got a lot in common, he’s an interesting man and I enjoy spending time with him. Besides, you know what they say, ‘it’s lonely at the top’. Most of the crew will see me as their Captain first and a person in need of friendship second.”
Celan paused and nodded slowly. He hoped he’d managed to throw her off the scent, but once she got her teeth into something she never let go.
“Yeah, no. I’m not buying it. Spill.”
He let out a groan and perched himself on the edge of the table, his shoulders slumped. He knew when he was defeated, and she always got the upper hand on him. “What do you want me to say, Celan?”
She leant closer and rested her hand on his. “That you’re happy.”
Keller felt his eyes moisten as he cupped her hand in his and smiled.
* * * * *
Main Engineering, U.S.S. Atlas
Like so many other facilities on the Mark-II Oberth-Class ship, every centimetre of the engine room was put to good use, from consoles to pipes and conduits to equipment lockers, everything had a function and was organised to Siraak’s fastidious instruction. Even with her eyes closed she would be able to navigate the room with pinpoint accuracy. But in that moment, she felt somehow lost in her own domain. Memories of the pain kept clouding her thoughts.
She stood in front of the reactor core, its chamber was a stack of blue rings, pulsing with energy as the matter and antimatter inside were directed to the dilithium matrix, where the energy released from the two elements annihilating one another generated the tremendous energy the ship needed to achieve warp speed. When she had entered the Academy, she had believed herself to be on a path towards the sciences, but after her first class on warp engineering one-oh-one she knew that was where her heart lay. There was comfort in the precision of it all, that order could be brought to the chaos and something truly amazing was the outcome—it was what she had always strived for.
From behind her she heard the doors open and a pair of boots stomped across the deck directly towards her. She remained focused on the diagnostic she was running on the deuterium injector assembly, though did acknowledge the new arrival.
“Is there something I can do for you, Lieutenant Na-Gharii?”
The Efrosian came around her console to stand right in front of her. “Siraak, are you sure you’re alright?”
“As both myself and Doctor Yuen said in the briefing earlier, I am fit to return to duty.”
“Don’t come with that Vulcan cliché, Siraak, I know you better than that.”
She paused and slowly looked up at him, admiring how he filled out his blue uniform and recalling with a pang of loss just what his body had looked like when she’d awoken in his quarters. He did know her better than anyone else onboard, though he would never know just how intimately—that would be for her alone to remember.
“It feels like you’ve been avoiding me for weeks! Have I done something to upset you?”
Raising an eyebrow, she looked at him levelly. “You cannot upset me, Lieutenant. I have just been very busy recently.”
“I don’t believe that Siraak. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She looked at him in that moment, staring at her with such earnestness and concern, leaning in that little bit closer so she could smell the mixture of his cologne and natural musk, the same scent that had wrapped around her like a blanket when she’d woken up in his bed. In the back of her mind the little voice that she kept locked away and tried so hard to forget about, the one that was like her mothers, screamed out to grab him and kiss him, to cast off the shackles of her Vulcan training and embrace the passions that ran deep within her.
Hidden behind the console, she clenched her fist into a tight ball, her short nails digging into her palm as she fought to maintain the tiring visage of logic and discipline.
“We will be arriving at the new system in a few minutes, you had best return to your station.”
He opened his mouth, gobsmacked, and just stared at her. She could see the hurt in his eyes and hated that she was the cause, he didn’t deserve that, he was a good man, but she wasn’t who he thought she was—no matter how much he proclaimed he knew her—and she had to keep him safe from that.
Na-Gharii threw his hands up in the air. “Fine!” he exclaimed, drawing looks for the engineers on duty. “Have it your way Lieutenant. If you need me for anything, which doesn’t look likely, I’ll be on the bridge.”
She gave him a nod. They stared at one another for a moment longer, and she had to will her chest not to heave as his pale blue eyes bore into her very katra. Neither of them wanted to look away first, but in the end she did, forcing her attention back to the console and trying to return to whatever it was she had been doing mere minutes earlier.
The science officer huffed and headed back out the way he came in, the doors whispering closed behind him. The tension in the room made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, the throb of the warp core being all that she could hear. She paused and looked up to see her staff all looking between themselves and her, before noticing they’d been caught and quickly resuming their duties. When no one was looking she wiped at her right eye and quickly dried her finger on her uniform before returning to the diagnostic she’d been performing.
* * * * *
Stardate: 38381.1
Siraak bolted upright in bed, unable to breath, a pained cry caught in her throat as it felt like a thousand needles were plunged into her skull. Using every microgram of discipline and control her father had instilled in her since she was a child, she managed to remain conscious and draw air into her lungs as sweat soaked her sleepwear and bedsheets. She couldn’t form any coherent thoughts; it took whatever brain power she could muster to keep her autonomous functions going.
As suddenly as it had struck, the agony vanished, leaving her sitting in the dark panting and trembling, with tears of anguish dripping from her chin.
“Lights,” she rasped, running her hands through her dark brown hair and looking at her palms expecting to see them covered in blood, but there was nothing.
“Wh…what?”
The computer gave an annoyed chirp. “Please restate inquiry.”
“Never mind,” she muttered rubbing her temples, trying to regain her composure.
She had never experienced any sensation or pain like that, even the time she’d been captured by Cardassian mercenaries felt less arduous than whatever she had just endured. For a moment, she debated whether she should just try to shake it off or head to sickbay. Ultimately she decided it was better to be safe than sorry, after all it could be a symptom of something more severe and as a senior officer she needed to set an example for the crew, and being hit be a debilitating migraine from hell was definitely something that should be checked out.
Swinging her legs out of bed, she gingerly put her weight onto them, not quite sure they would hold her up. After a minute of just standing beside her bed, she felt a little more confident of her limbs, so grabbed her robe and wrapped it around her—hiding the lingering dampness of hear sweat-soaked pyjamas.
From her quarters, she headed down to deck four. As the largest deck in the primary hull it housed a number of different facilities, including several science labs, the transporter rooms, impulse engines, gymnasium, and sickbay, making it one of the busiest levels on the ship. Though at oh-three-hundred as they travelled through open space it was quieter than usual, she just passed Chief Phillips coming out of the gym who she nodded at. She was relieved things seemed so quiet; she wasn’t sure she was up for much socialising at that moment.
Stepping into sickbay she was surprised to see two of the biobeds already occupied, with corpsman Dragos running a scanner over Ensign Uldan’s head as Petty Officer Jharash looked white as snow on the bed next to him, a surprising feat for the dark-skinned Kazarite. The human medic looked up at her as she entered, a concerned look on the younger woman’s face.
“An intense headache you can’t explain?”
“How did you…” she trailed off as her eyebrow rose, looking at the two other patients then back at the corpsman.
“Once is an accident, twice a coincidence.”
“Third time is a pattern,” Siraak finished. “What’s happening?”
Dragos shook her head. “I’m not sure, Lieutenant. Scans look normal, elevated levels of neurological activity and adrenaline, though that’s not surprising going by what’s been reported. I’ve paged Doctor Yuen.
The doors opened once more, but instead of the chief medical officer Ensign Axlan entered looking as rough as Siraak felt. She helped the young operations officer to a bed and then looked along the row, including herself four different species had been affected by whatever had happened. None of them shared a common ancestry or biology, the only thing each of them shared was the fact they were all telepathic to some degree. For all they knew they were under some kind of psionic attack from somewhere.
She stepped over to the companel. “Siraak to bridge.”
“Go ahead, sir,” watch officer Gruber replied promptly.
“Lieutenant, are you picking up anything strange on sensors?”
“What do you mean ‘strange’?”
“Anything that might indicate some sort of telepathic presence?” she asked, knowing how much of a long shot it would be.
After a moment of silence, Gruber reported, “We’re not picking up anything out of the ordinary.”
Doctor Yuen entered the ward and after one quick glance at the occupied beds, grabbed a medical tricorder from an equipment tray and headed to the corpsman for a status report.
“Run a full spectral scan. Siraak out.”
As soon as the channel closed, the doors parted and Petty Officers Rellon and Nalia entered leaning on one another. This was starting to feel more and more as though they were under siege, with those on the frontlines hobbling in to be patched up.
* * * * *
Briefing Room, U.S.S. Atlas
Captain Bruce Keller didn’t like it when a medical emergency or mystery gripped his crew, he always felt so useless in those situations—he was a rated emergency medical technician, though all that really meant was he knew how to activate a dermal regenerator, for anything more complex he was at a loss.
Around the table were Commander Celan, Lieutenants Xan Na-Gharii, Siraak, and Yuen, and Ensign Tathar. Celan and Siraak looked worse than he’d ever seen either of them, which wasn’t helped by the medical monitoring sensor they both wore just behind their ears. Seeing his strong-willed and ever-feisty friend looking so defeated was not something he ever wanted to see again, whilst his Vulcan chief engineer just seemed haunted, plagued by a nightmare she couldn’t quite remember.
“So, what are we dealing with here, Doctor?”
“I’m not sure, Captain,” the young physician admitted. “All thirteen telepathic crewmembers onboard, from five different species have reported the exact same symptoms, but after I examined each of them I couldn’t find anything—except the indications they’d all experienced a great shock and strain on their systems.” She paused and nodded at the devices on the two telepaths’ necks. “They’ve all agreed to wear the monitors, so if it happens again I can collect data in real time and will be alerted to the emergency.”
“Could it be some kind of attack?” he asked.
“That is a possibility. It could also be some sort of illness we unknowingly picked up somewhere, something that attacks the telepathic centres of the brain which is why the rest of us are fine. I just don’t have enough information to make a call, sir.”
He gave her a supportive smile. Though Yuen was young, fresh out of her training at Starfleet Medical Academy, she was brilliant by anyone’s standard and so far she’d never given him reason to doubt her abilities or his decision to have her as his first ever CMO.
“If there’s a solution to this, Doctor, I’m sure you’ll find it.” She responded with a faint blush and a determined nod.
Turning to Na-Gharii and Tathar he continued. “Do we have anything on sensors?”
There was a moment of silence as neither of them spoke. The Rigellian ops manager was clearly waiting to take his cue from the science officer, but Na-Gharii was staring intently across the table at Siraak who, despite how rough she looked, held his gaze unblinkingly.
“Lieutenant?” he prompted.
The Efrosian tore his eyes away and looked at Keller. “Sorry, sir. There was nothing on sensors, both at the time the incident occurred or in the aftermath after Lieutenant Siraak ordered a full scan.”
“I’ve checked all communications frequencies, to see if maybe something came in over subspace that may have caused it, but there was nothing, sir,” Tathar added.
“Nice thinking, Ensign.”
He looked away from the left side of the table and focused on the other two officers who had been the victims of this mental assault. “What can you tell me about what happened?”
Celan and Siraak looked at one another, both of them seeming uncomfortable. Ultimately, his first officer shrugged and turned back to him.
“It was the worse pain I’ve ever felt in my life, even getting my shoulder replaced the other week didn’t even come close to this—the ship’s bio-cleaner had its work cut out for it in my quarters,” she confessed, looking a little green around the gills.
Siraak gave a single nod. “Had it not been for my training on Vulcan, I may have also had a regurgitate response to the stimuli.”
“It reminded me of stories I heard growing up about the acid ants on the Southern Islands,” the Deltan continued. “There were tales of Deltans going insane from hundreds of bites if they accidentally disturbed a hive.”
Keller frowned. “Didn’t you get me to eat acid ants when we visited Delta four?”
“If properly prepared they’re quite delicious.”
“And if they’re not properly prepared?”
“The poison sack will kill you in a matter of minutes, but you’re still here alive and kicking, so you had nothing to worry about.”
“Moving on,” he said quickly, not wanting to dwell on the topic of his own mortality. “How’re you both feeling, though?”
“Tired, but otherwise fine.”
“Agreed, Captain, I believe I am able to perform my duties as required.”
“Doctor?”
“They’re both fit and healthy, sir. I wouldn’t recommend any working from heights or operating any heavy machinery, just in case they have another episode, but otherwise I’m happy to have all of those affected return to duty.”
“Very well, but if anything changes you alert sickbay at once.”
“Aye sir,” Celan and Siraak replied in unison.
“Htennak is interviewing the others, to see if he can determine any sort of pattern and offer a professional pair of ears should anyone need them—make sure to avail yourself of his services if you need them.” They both nodded, though he did notice a twinkle of something in his XO’s eyes, but she remained quiet.
He looked from one side of the table to the next. “How are things looking for our next system?”
“We’re getting more sensor data as we approach, sir,” began Tathar, stepping in for Na-Gharii who was once again staring at Siraak. “It is just a single super gas giant orbiting an F-type star, with eighty-four moons that we can detect so far. Just before I joined the meeting I did detect the presence of ships in orbit.”
“What sort of ships?”
Tathar flashed a triumphant toothy smile. “Unknown configuration, sir. Looks like another native species.”
“We’re still a couple hours out, so gather all the data you can on them and the planet. If there’s nothing more?” he looked around the table and the officers all stayed quiet. “Doctor, I’d like a preliminary report before we reach the system. Dismissed.”
Everyone but Celan pushed themselves clear of the table and headed for the exit. Seeing her remain still, Keller paused and watched the other four depart. Tathar pulled his tail through in the last second before the door closed, leaving them alone in the briefing room.
“Something on your mind, Celan?”
A tired grin curled her lips. “I was just wondering when the Counsellor became ‘Htennak’?”
He felt his cheeks flush, which only made her grin widen. “Why shouldn’t I speak about my officers by their names?”
“Because you’ve only ever done that with those you’re close to, hell it took you two years to stop using my rank, but the Lieutenant Commander has been given that honour in just two months? What gives?”
“I’ve just gotten to know him better recently, we’ve got a lot in common, he’s an interesting man and I enjoy spending time with him. Besides, you know what they say, ‘it’s lonely at the top’. Most of the crew will see me as their Captain first and a person in need of friendship second.”
Celan paused and nodded slowly. He hoped he’d managed to throw her off the scent, but once she got her teeth into something she never let go.
“Yeah, no. I’m not buying it. Spill.”
He let out a groan and perched himself on the edge of the table, his shoulders slumped. He knew when he was defeated, and she always got the upper hand on him. “What do you want me to say, Celan?”
She leant closer and rested her hand on his. “That you’re happy.”
Keller felt his eyes moisten as he cupped her hand in his and smiled.
* * * * *
Main Engineering, U.S.S. Atlas
Like so many other facilities on the Mark-II Oberth-Class ship, every centimetre of the engine room was put to good use, from consoles to pipes and conduits to equipment lockers, everything had a function and was organised to Siraak’s fastidious instruction. Even with her eyes closed she would be able to navigate the room with pinpoint accuracy. But in that moment, she felt somehow lost in her own domain. Memories of the pain kept clouding her thoughts.
She stood in front of the reactor core, its chamber was a stack of blue rings, pulsing with energy as the matter and antimatter inside were directed to the dilithium matrix, where the energy released from the two elements annihilating one another generated the tremendous energy the ship needed to achieve warp speed. When she had entered the Academy, she had believed herself to be on a path towards the sciences, but after her first class on warp engineering one-oh-one she knew that was where her heart lay. There was comfort in the precision of it all, that order could be brought to the chaos and something truly amazing was the outcome—it was what she had always strived for.
From behind her she heard the doors open and a pair of boots stomped across the deck directly towards her. She remained focused on the diagnostic she was running on the deuterium injector assembly, though did acknowledge the new arrival.
“Is there something I can do for you, Lieutenant Na-Gharii?”
The Efrosian came around her console to stand right in front of her. “Siraak, are you sure you’re alright?”
“As both myself and Doctor Yuen said in the briefing earlier, I am fit to return to duty.”
“Don’t come with that Vulcan cliché, Siraak, I know you better than that.”
She paused and slowly looked up at him, admiring how he filled out his blue uniform and recalling with a pang of loss just what his body had looked like when she’d awoken in his quarters. He did know her better than anyone else onboard, though he would never know just how intimately—that would be for her alone to remember.
“It feels like you’ve been avoiding me for weeks! Have I done something to upset you?”
Raising an eyebrow, she looked at him levelly. “You cannot upset me, Lieutenant. I have just been very busy recently.”
“I don’t believe that Siraak. Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She looked at him in that moment, staring at her with such earnestness and concern, leaning in that little bit closer so she could smell the mixture of his cologne and natural musk, the same scent that had wrapped around her like a blanket when she’d woken up in his bed. In the back of her mind the little voice that she kept locked away and tried so hard to forget about, the one that was like her mothers, screamed out to grab him and kiss him, to cast off the shackles of her Vulcan training and embrace the passions that ran deep within her.
Hidden behind the console, she clenched her fist into a tight ball, her short nails digging into her palm as she fought to maintain the tiring visage of logic and discipline.
“We will be arriving at the new system in a few minutes, you had best return to your station.”
He opened his mouth, gobsmacked, and just stared at her. She could see the hurt in his eyes and hated that she was the cause, he didn’t deserve that, he was a good man, but she wasn’t who he thought she was—no matter how much he proclaimed he knew her—and she had to keep him safe from that.
Na-Gharii threw his hands up in the air. “Fine!” he exclaimed, drawing looks for the engineers on duty. “Have it your way Lieutenant. If you need me for anything, which doesn’t look likely, I’ll be on the bridge.”
She gave him a nod. They stared at one another for a moment longer, and she had to will her chest not to heave as his pale blue eyes bore into her very katra. Neither of them wanted to look away first, but in the end she did, forcing her attention back to the console and trying to return to whatever it was she had been doing mere minutes earlier.
The science officer huffed and headed back out the way he came in, the doors whispering closed behind him. The tension in the room made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, the throb of the warp core being all that she could hear. She paused and looked up to see her staff all looking between themselves and her, before noticing they’d been caught and quickly resuming their duties. When no one was looking she wiped at her right eye and quickly dried her finger on her uniform before returning to the diagnostic she’d been performing.
* * * * *
