JL | RAdm's. Indi Hawk & Cintia Sha'mer | "A Kind Of Magic"

Posted on 241708.21 @ 4:41pm by Rear Admiral Cintia Sha'mer

Mission: Reconciliation & Reconstruction [Fleet Plot]
Timeline: SD 241708.21

It was a while later. What was it? Half an hour? An hour? Two hours? Indi walked back into her quarters under the assumption she'd find them empty. The door hadn't even closed yet however when she noticed the curled up form in one corner. With a sigh, she dropped down on the bed and stared at the sleeping form. Cin's chest was gently rising and falling. She seemed more at peace that way than Indi could remember having seen in a long time. Deciding against waking her, she grabbed a leftover coke from breakfast, pulled the cap and sank back down on the bed with a padd in hand.

The deeply buried timer in Sha'mers head went off and she sat up with a jerk, looked around for a control panel which wasn't there, sighed when she realised she was no longer on the ship and lay down again. Good floor, nice floor, nice carpet.

…wrong carpet. More memories returned and she wanted to sit up again. This was a fight fatigue won, though, she was already sinking back. Not in a restful sleep, this time. Outwardly, nothing much had changed, only the very faint smile had faded, but occasionally dark thoughts rose from the depths and left ripples across their faint link.

Indi kept a close eye on her, but didn't wake her up. At least not any more than her own body would ask of her. She'd finished reading quite a few briefing reports that Sabine had forwarded to her, and she'd now spent the last hour looking outside again. They'd briefly brushed the glass shards together to clean up, but otherwise the cold evening air streamed into her quarters. She didn't mind. Life on the street had started to fade, only to be replaced by a different kind of activity. Lights popped up, other people came out of the woodwork. Indi watched it all from a careful distance.

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" Sha'mer had slid from sleeping to awakening, a very gradual transition this time. She still felt as if she was half asleep, as if all of this was a dream. Maybe just a very very realistic attempt at psychic reality changing. Thus far, she had caught all the others, recognised them when they became too unrealistic. Rationally, Sha'mer knew this wasn't a dream, but a deeply buried suspicion kept whispering in her ear that this was too good to be true. Sitting here, staring out through the window at the lights of the high rises around them, seeing the familiar silhouette outlined against the faint illumination. Even with all the rest, it felt too good to be true.
Which meant it probably was. Time and past time to leave. Take it slow. Take it more than slow. Just get up and go.

She began to scramble around for the crutches.

Indi wasn't aware of Cin's figure sitting up at first. It took her a few moments to realise that somebody had spoken to her, and a few moments more to realise who it was. It didn't fit. It didn't fit with the reality she'd come to a know. It belonged to a past long gone. A past that wouldn't come again. "Yes, they are. Quiet," she replied softly. She liked it quiet. No overload in noise or voices. Just the quiet. Closing her eyes, even the lights couldn't get into that quiet. She didn't realise she hadn't been at peace like this in years.

Sha'mer nodded. Quiet. Yes. Quiet was good. She didn't even want to break it by saying those words aloud.

And who was she to disturb the quiet, to disturb that peace? Maybe coming here had been a mistake to begin with. She pulled the crutches over and began to haul herself up, as quietly (hah…) as she could.

"Don't go," Indi near whispered before Cin had reached the door. The quiet was shattered by the plea, but that was alright. A small sigh restored the silence as she desperately closed her eyes. Quiet. Nothing else.

Sha'mer stopped, turned around. Remained where she was. Go forward? Go back? Safest to stay and wait.

Indi sensed the reluctance more than she could see it. "Please," she added just as quietly. It sounded like a strike of thunder to her ears. A final plea that wouldn't be repeated.

"Come, then." It seemed that someone else spoke those words, Sha'mer certainly hadn't planned to say them. They rose up from deep down and far away. "If you want me to stay… then come."

Wordlessly, Indi got to her feet and followed the voice. She opened her eyes, but didn't bother to look. The voice was enough. The voice was encompassing her entire world. Only the voice punctured the quiet.

They came closer, not like two ships on a collision course, but like two ships about to dock: manouvring gently, delicately closer, a centuries old ritual dance, often repeated but ever new. They closed, they touched, and that single touch was a lightning bolt, striking them both. In that single moment when they first connected, less than a heartbeat, the years which kept them apart were erased, they were once more what they always had been, each other's rock and strength and love, united by an unbreakable bond.

And when the touch fell away, the bond remained. Transmuted, perhaps, by the intervening years, but unbreakable, unbroken, all the same.

Time was suspended. Time didn't exist. The bond was all that mattered. In its previous form. In its current form.

Slowly, wordlessly, Indi's hands reached to gently bring up Cin's so their palms could touch. A tingle spread from the very tips of her fingers, down the length of their touching palms, straight to her heart. Her eyes closed once more, she allowed herself to focus on that feeling, wherever it would lead her.

Palms touching and the connection coming back to life, burning brightly in the dark, visible even to the naked eye, however briefly. It drew them inward, the outside world was fading, they each could feel the touch of flesh on flesh from both sides, echoing each other.

Not only outside awareness dimmed, but past and future also ceased to matter, there was only now, an eternally enduring now, and
they were floating, or falling, their minds entwined. Sha'mer touched Indi's face with her free hand, felt both her hand caress the face and a hand caress hers, for now, during this now, they were one mind sharing two bodies.

Thoughts. Images. Sensations. All were exchanged through the link that had bonded them for years. "I've missed you.. us.." Both sent. Both received. Both concurred. Both could stay in this moment forever.

Sha'mer had many talents, rusty though some of those were. Influencing time was not one of them. To live a decade in a single moment wasn't them either. Time caught up and moved on, and took them with it. Still linked, and as time began to move again, so did they, slowly sinking towards the ground, landing on the soft carpet, still touching, still connected in body and mind.

Peace floated over them, through them, enveloped them. Their touch soothing them both, starting to heal wounds, stirring old memories, making new ones. The scarring on their soul fading to the background. It would come back with a vengeance, but not just yet.

Laying on the floor, they drew closer. Their bodies merged into one. One body. One mind. One soul.

And now they could have been anywhere: in the bedroom of their shared house on Trilista. On the Imperial Star, a private ship Sha'mer had owned, with the gravity turned off, making clumsy love in zero G. On Starbase Raven, with the nearby planet hanging in space like a giant jewel, the only source of light in the room. On the beach, near the water, alternately dry and wet, warm and cool, the starlight reflecting on their skin. Or in her office, one memorable night, in the dark, with the lights of the Colony spread out below them in odd constellations, almost forming a mirror for those above… Or on the carpet of an anonymous room in a building on Earth. They could have been anywhere, but it didn't matter. They were here. They were together. At last.


RAdm Indi Hawk
Commander,
Alpha Quadrant Security

RAdm. Cintia Sha'mer
As of yet unassigned