JL | RAdm's Hawk & Sha'mer, VAdm. Scholtz-Archer | "Ghostbusters"

Posted on 241708.26 @ 10:57pm by Rear Admiral Indi Hawk & Admiral Sabine Scholtz-Archer & Rear Admiral Cintia Sha'mer

Mission: Reconciliation & Reconstruction [Fleet Plot]

They had fallen asleep afterwards, a sleep which completed much of the healing between them. The intensity of the link had diminished, they were now two separate entities again, but thoughts and feelings still flowed with relative ease between them. Thoughts and feelings… and dreams.

There was little coherence about Sha'mers dreams. She had had her share of bad experiences in the past. There had been captures before, and tortures, and she had been in the borderlands between life and death so often that she could draw a road map there. All those occurrances had left their marks, but they were old marks, settled now, she knew how to navigate around those and live with them, and they had, by and large, lost their power over her.

This, however, this was different. This was no willfull forgetting of Sha'mers own doing, this was not a mind protecting itself. This was done from outside, a crude and cruel form of psychic surgery, blocking out random memories and occurrances so that only fragments were left. And it was in those fragments that Indi suddenly noticed something odd.

Well, 'suddenly' was perhaps an overstatement. She'd slept, a bit. Not as much as she'd hoped or liked, but somewhat at least. For the past hour, she'd settled with her back against the head of the bed and resumed her overwatch of the bay. It's something that had always helped her calm her mind, and some things hadn't changed. Most, but not all.

With the morning light rising over the furthest hill, her frown deepened as the link opened to an intensity she hadn't known in a long time. It was very different from the one before. There was something.. evil.. about it. She felt sick to her stomach at the images, thoughts and flashes that made its way to her mind. Forcing herself to breathe, she closed her eyes and concentrated on silencing the link. She was no telepath, not by a long shot, and it would never work.

Bile rising in her throat, Indi reached up to grab her head as more and more violent images entered her mind, ripped through her and shredded the raw wounds that had only just begun to heal. "Cin, you've got to wake up," she said weakly.

Sha'mer's form didn't so much as stir. She was trashing more than usual, but nothing indicated the turmoil of thoughts that went through her mind at that time.

"Please," Indi pleaded as she curled up to protect herself from an onslaught she couldn't stop. "CIN! Wake up!" she forced the words out as loud as she could.

The words themselves did not penetrate, Sha'mer slept too deep for that. But she felt the jerk through the link, a hollow echo, and it yanked her out of sleep like a fish on a hook might be dragged out of the water. She woke up, blinked against the light, peered at Indi's silhouette. "Indi? What's wrong?" she asked, her voice still stick with sleep. The fragments had returned to the dark holes from which they came, buried once again. She looked and scanned around, unable for now to understand that what threathened or hurt Indi was not an outside threat.

As Cin returned to the waking world, Indi managed to take a few breaths. And then a few more. She wanted to get rid of these horrible thoughts, feelings, patterns, memories. Closing her eyes wasn't an option. Damn! They needed to get out of her mind! As moments passed, most thoughts slowly receeded to the background.

"You have some water?" she managed to get out - only one knowing her truly well would realise how odd her request was. Running her hand through her short hair, she couldn't stifle the gasp that escaped her lips. One image clearly stood out in her mind. An image of a man. A handsome Romulan. Almost too handsome for a Romulan. One with long hair - very unusual, olive skin and emerald eyes.

"No...." Indi breathed as she nearly jumped to her feet. "We've got to go see Scholtz. Right now."

"Um." Sha'mer looked down, and up again. Though at some point they had managed to retreat to a bed, most of their clothes were still strewn around the ground. "I hope you want to dress first." She sat up and got a clear look at Indi's face for the first time. "What's wrong?" she repeated, more forcefully this time. Something had spooked Indi – and the old Indi, the one she had known in the past, was not easily spooked. Sha'mer was fairly certain that it had not changed.

Indi closed her eyes. She both wanted to get rid of the image stuck in her head, and hang onto it until she could brief Sabine. Damn it all. Steadying herself with another deep breath, she slipped in the first uniform she could lay her hands on, probably the one from the day before. At the same time, she tapped her combadge once she had fished it from her shirt. "Hawk to Admiral Scholtz. I have to see you right away," she spoke. It didn't even register that it was barely 5am.

Sha'mer had already rolled over and was picking clothes from the floor. No uniform, as she was still in limbo – brought to an Admiral's attention, but not officially reinstated in any way. "You said 'we'," she said to Indi's back before she could say anything else, or before a reply could be heard. "Something triggered it. You said 'we'." It had something to do with the mine field in her mind. It was important, important enough to have scared Indi so. She began to dress as quickly as she could, muttering curses as her pants snagged around her crooked and useless leg.

---

It was a short time later that Sabine all but stumbled into her office, turning on lights and throwing her jacket over the back of the chair behind her desk. San Francisco was unseasonably cool for that time of year - winter would be harsh... Well... As harsh as could be with modern conveniences and the fact the region rarely ever saw snow and even if it did, the dusting couldn't be considered much of anything so long as the city was able to keep the hills from becoming too terribly slippery.

Impending winter aside, she was hustling to prepare for Admiral Hawk's arrival. The woman had called before hours, and she would be the first person Sabine received. It was urgent. Something in the Admiral's voice had been off... Had been... Wrong.

Indi had basically ran out of her quarters to get to the nearest transporter hub. It was on the first floor of the housing quarters where they were staying. She didn't think of Sha'mers ability to get them to Sabine's office herself. She didn't think of making sure Sha'mer would keep up. A bonus was that she wouldn't. The image that was forcing all other thoughts from her mind, well, suffice it to say she didn't want to confront Cin with it. It couldn't be good. It wouldn't be good.

Striding the final steps through the door and inside the Admiral's office, she was just polite enough to pause and say, "Admiral, I'm sorry for this early hour, but this couldn't wait."

She glanced over her shoulder and saw Cin walking, hobbling, stumbling in. A feeling she couldn't identify crashed over her. Was it pity? Was it regret? Was it fear? Focusing her attention back on Sabine, she added. "I need to talk to you. Alone."

"About something Indi picked up from me," Sha'mer pointed out, in between gasps. Two nights of sleep had restored her depleted reserves somewhat, but she had burned through them quickly in order to keep up with Indi. The rest she had managed, somehow, through sheer willpower, by keeping Indi's back in sight and vowing that she wouldn't let her slip away. It was a miracle that she hadn't tripped over anything or fallen on the way. Now she was hot and exhausted, her body was no longer used to physical extertions. She did her best not to let it show. Never show them you're weak…

Sabine hiked a brow at the pair of them as they drug themselves into the office, and found herself glancing from one to the other - confused to say the least. "Coffee?" She offered, gesturing to the group of couches that both had occupied, albeit at separate times, not long before. It was the best she could do given that not even her aide had made it in yet, and the situation was odd at best. "You look like you've seen a ghost," Sabine continued, making her way to the replicator, "Should I be expecting another relic to come waltzing in behind you?"

Indi didn't like the situation it had become. She swallowed hard, trying to be more officer like than she was feeling. "Just about," she spoke in reply to Sabine's question. "Admiral, respectfully, I request that I speak to you in private," she added. She didn't want to speak about the image that was stuck in her mind when Cin was there. When she could hear it.

Relics, eh? Sha'mer thought wryly. She didn't know about Indi, but she sure felt like one. She decided not to settle down into the couch just yet. Sitting down was one thing, but getting up again would be a struggle. And if the Admiral decided to honour Indi's request, she would need to do that right away. On the other hand, sitting down would make a different point.

Argh! Making decisions was not her strong point right now. "If it came out of my head, don't you think there is more like that?" Sha'mer asked. Her voice was mild, but her hands clenched around the bars of the crutches. Part of her was terrified, Sha'mer realised. It was odd, since she had no idea why.

"Admiral Sha'mer makes a point. However, if the request for private audience holds..." Sabine shrugged, "I'll honor it."

Oddly enough, that was another shock, hearing the words 'Admiral' and 'Sha'mer' strung together like that. Sha'mer pushed that thought out of the way as well, together with the stash of other things to contemplate later. She looked at Indi. "What do you seek to prevent by shutting me out?" There was no accusation in her voice, but genuine curiosity.

"Because.." Indi started. Reconsidered. Shut her mouth. Yes, what was she trying? How was she ever going to explain this? What exactly had happened? Did she really want to keep it from Cin? Her head hurt. It hurt enough to damn protocol, head to the replicator and get a coke.

With the coke half empty, she looked from one woman to the other and back. In essence, they were all of pretty much the same rank. And yet, she felt oddly out of place. As if she didn't belong here. Then again, she really didn't. And suddenly, all she wanted to do, was head back to her assigned quarters. She glanced around like a caged animal, looking for a way out, finding itself trapped.

Weird, that Sha'mer felt her own thoughts echoed back at her… Indi was in uniform, at first glance that was little difference between her and the Vice Admiral, but only at first glance… She touched the link, not enough to intrude in Indi's mind (tempting, to find out what Indi had seen to set her off/not tempting at all), but enough to send and receive. We're both out of our depths here. But whatever it was, you deemed it important enough to kick her out of her bed and into her office. It freaked you out. So it's important. So tell her, whatever it is. Then- Then you can go back to your rooms/hide/rest/whatever you wish…

The link! More of that link! Indi winced as she set down the bottle of coke with more force than she had intended. She didn't want this link! Couldn't deal with it! Her thoughts were her own! GET OUT OF MY HEAD, she shouted the words in her mind. There was no way Cin could avoid the blast they caused as they were directed straight at her.

Sha'mer visibly recoiled, would have fallen, even, if it weren't for the fact that she was still standing near the door. Instead, she staggered, leaning against the wall. Her first instinct, primal instinct, was to strike back, and from all the wells in her mind dark energy rose and gathered, boiled together and built up into a tsunami which, if she returned it through the link, would burn out Indi's mind and blow her head off. (-She had seen that done that before-)

With the last remaining bit of control she stopped herself from releasing it through the link. But there was no way she could reabsorb this amount of darkness safely, it had to be released elsewhere-

She looked around for another target, hurryhurrybeforeitburnsyou, saw the trees outside.

One of the trees exploded in what looked for all the world like a random lightning strike, at the same time the link between Indi and Sha'mer rammed shut. Sha'mer didn't quite faint, but she felt, no, she was completely spent, drained- Nice wall. Lovely wall.

Indi felt the build up, braced, no way to stop it, no way to- and then the tree exploded. Her eyes that had been squeezed shut, flew open and her vocal cords let out a high pitched screech she couldn't control. Almost throwing up for the second time within the hour, she did everything she could to swallow it down. Instead, she sank down in the first chair she could find.

And on the other end of the room was Sha'mer, draped against the wall like a life-size ornament, with dead eyes and whispering without sound: "As if I would ever do that to you… never… never…" over and over again.

It was the damnedest thing Sabine had ever seen, the damnedest thing indeed. The tree outside her window exploded, rattling the windows with concussive force - splinters hit it, spangling and clattering against the glass like hail stones. Her eyes narrowed and she winced back and away from the cacophony and light - two things she'd never expected that early late summer morning. The sound of her coffee mug shattering against the floor brought her back from her own thoughts and shock, reminding her of the hear and now as she felt the splash of hot liquid against the fabric of her uniform slacks. "Sweet Jesus God Almighty." She swore, bringing her eyes away from the burning tree and back to the scene in her office, "Before security comes running in here... Who wants to tell me what the hell just happened?!"

Indi was the first to somewhat recover at the mere mention of security. "When security comes running in here, I'll redirect them outside and brief them later. Nothing happened that concerns them," she said, smoothing over her features and plastering her face in the most officer like position she had managed since her return. Perhaps, just perhaps, some of it was returning to her. "But I still need to talk to you alone, Admiral. Immediately."

"Now." Sabine agreed, looking towards Admiral Sha'mer with no small amount of concern. The fact the pair could have been a threat to her safety wasn't at all lost upon her, but the need for answers outweighed that worry ten fold.

Sha'mer, too, had pulled herself together. One moment of weakness was all she could allow herself. She looked at Sabine, then at Indi, back at the Admiral again. "I will leave you two to it. My apologies for the intrusion." She pushed herself away from the wall and turned to leave.

As soon as Sha'mer had hobbled far enough out of the room, Indi physically went over to shut the door and seal it with her Security clearance. This was a nice perk. She tried not to use it too often. Using one's clearance to further a situation usually meant that you hadn't tried hard enough to do it the normal way. She sighed, carefully to herself, hidden in her mind, in frustration and defeat.

Looking back towards the Admiral, she gestured randomly around. "I'm sorry for all this mess, Admiral. I truly am," she spoke. And she was. She really was. But this whole situation was turning into one big mess and she had to try to figure it out. Making some sense out of it. Clear up the mess. Heading back towards the chair, she sat down into it, and rubbed her face to compose her thoughts. How was she going to explain this to an Admiral who already freaked when two people had a wordless experience? Perhaps she could use this experience to help her explain..

"Admiral Sha'mer and I share a special bond. It's not a secret. It's an old defense mechanism that was forged between us at a time of peril, and it's still there," she started, trying to be as vague as possible while still convincing Sabine she wasn't bullshitting. "Usually, it lays pretty much dormant so both of us can continue to live our lives. Since our return however, things have been.. different."

Indi paused, giving Sabine a chance to catch up with her story. "The link has been unusually active. There's not much we can do about that, but I think that this time Sha'mer isn't even aware of it. It makes things even more difficult than they should be. A while ago, she was having a dream," she continued, realising that she was about to dump a pile of shit into the conversation, but having no clue how to avoid it or how to bring it gently. "The link was pretty active and I saw memories that I don't think even she is aware of. Admiral, I saw Tr'Bak in those memories. He's the one responsible for this. One of those responsible anyway."

Out of all the things Indi could have said, out of everything about links and defense mechanisms, and bad dreams, and and and... The name Tr'Bak stuck out as the most alarming. Sabine looked up from where she had taken a knee to retrieve the broken pieces of her coffee mug, her eyes wide as she searched the other Admiral's face for a hint of something that said that this was all a joke and that she should be laughing at a punch line any moment. It wasn't there. "V'rith Tr'Bak?" She asked, immediately brought back to how Sha'mer had reacted when she brought the name up during their initial meeting.

"The one and only," Indi confirmed. She was keeping a close eye on Sabine's actions and reactions. Both women in this room obviously understood the implication of what she had just said. And she begged for Sabine to understand why she wanted to discuss this without her wife present. "I don't know what it means. I don't know where he is. I don't know much of anything, but I thought you had to know."

"No one knows where the jackal is." Sabine replied, hissing as she shook her hand. A misplaced finger had caught itself on the sharp edge of a ceramic shard. "That's the problem. He's widely pulled a disappearing act since the destruction of the Vindicator-E... Uncanny," She continued, carefully getting to her feet to carry the bits of broken mug to be recycled, "considering he seems to have an obsession with its crew. Whatever information you could give us towards neutralizing that threat would be greatly appreciated, I assure you."

"I can," Indi paused, trying to consider the implications of what she was about to say. "keep an eye on Cintia. Keep an eye on things. Brief you on anything I learn. I'm not sure how much it will be though."

The redhead nodded, replicating a bandaid for her still bleeding finger. "Anything you can learn so long as you don't..." Delicacy... There was always a need for delicacy, and she kept that in mind as she wrapped the bandage around her injured digit, "compromise Admiral Sha'mer in any capacity. She seems delicate enough as is."

Indi would use many words to describe Sha'mer. 'Delicate' would never be one of them. She could see where Sabine was coming from though. She was in a difficult state of mind indeed. "She's not going to be happy I excluded her from this conversation, but I hope you can understand why I asked for a private meeting."

"Oh I get it... Completely." Sabine nodded, finally satisfied that her finger was well tended to, "This has to be handled correctly, and I trust that you'll know how to do that."

Since the beginning of the conversation, Indi had had the idea that Sabine wasn't quite in this meeting with her head. It was fine. It was still early. Then again, she couldn't afford to lose any more time talking to somebody who was clearly more interested in tending to her finger. Slowly, she got to her feet and looked over at the Admiral. "I'll make sure you get regular reports, sir."

"Thank you, Admiral." Sabine nodded, dismissing the woman with her quiet, gentle grace.

No sooner did Indi unlock and disappear through her door than Sabine began to shake. It was almost uncontrollable how the adrenaline took over her body and set her hands to trembling. Outside her window, the tree still smoldered, a clear reminder of the power and instability that had been sitting there in a battle of wits... Or something. "Jesus..." She breathed, trying to settle herself. Then there was Tr'Bak... Marauding Tr'Bak who had seemed to have gone deeper and further than simply harassing the Vindicator. How... Why... What end... It all remained to be seen. It was a bigger problem than she'd anticipated, and now he wasn't just an issue with the Beta Quadrant, he was an issue with the Federation as a whole. Making it back to her desk on weakened knees, Sabine said a silent prayer to whatever God happened to be listening. In it she begged them to give Hawk the clarity and ability to solve the jagged puzzle that lay before them before it could consume Sha'mer... Before it could consume the entire Federation... Soon.

--

Vice Admiral Sabine Archer-Scholtz
Commander
Alpha Quadrant
Starfleet

RAdm Cintia Sha'mer
as of yet unassigned

RAdm Indi Hawk
Senior Security Advisor
Alpha Quadrant