JL | RAdm's Hawk & Sha'mer, VAdm. Scholtz-Archer | "Ghostbusters" Pt1

Posted on 241708.26 @ 11:07pm by Rear Admiral Indi Hawk

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.

(to be continued)

--

Vice Admiral Sabine Archer-Scholtz
Commander
Alpha Quadrant
Starfleet

&

Rear Admiral Cintia Sha'mer
As of yet unassigned

&

Rear Admiral Indi Hawk
Commander
Alpha Quadrant Security