ILLUMINARRPG: (4-0240) FO Cmdr Sienna Williams-Verin & CTO Ensign T’Mur

[Al Muir]

Mission: Death in the Shadows

Day 4

Stardate: 2446.02.04


(USS Illuminar -Personal Quarters -  FO Cmdr Sienna Williams-Verin & CTO Ensign T’Mur - 0240)


The two had only been asleep for about half an hour before something woke Sienna out of the deep, exhausted almost dreamless sleep that she had been in.  She blinked quickly, trying to generate moisture in her dry hurting eyes.  That same sense of something being off caused her to squirm a bit, feeling like she needed to get up and go figure out whatever it was.  She looked down at T’Mur’s beautiful body and sighed, wanting nothing more than to go back to sleep and forget about whatever the shadow of that premonition was that woke her up.


“Damn you Q.” She grumbled. She was not allowed to leave their Quarters without T’Mur and really did not want to wake her lovely up. If Sienna needed her sleep to make clear decisions, T’Mur needed it more to make the correct tactical ones.


T’Mur could feel the separation before she actually woke up.  Instinctively she reached out to pull Sienna back to her physically, but the mental separation was still evident.  She opened one eye and then the other.


She sat up and looked sleepily at her mate.  “What troubles you my love?”


Sienna laughed as she tumbled back  against T’Mur. “I don’t know. Something feels...wrong…”  She made a gesture with her hand, “About the ship.  Can you feel it?” She tried to remember the feeling so T’Mur could experience it. “I feel like I need to get up and walk around. Check on things. Like, if I left it until the morning something bad will happen.”


T’Mur reached into Sienna’s feelings, and nodded.  She could sense the urgent need to tour the ship.  She pulled the covers off the bed and rolled out of bed landing lightly on her feet.  “Then apparently we need to see what lays beyond the boundary of our door.  Get dressed.”


T’Mur walked to her closet, then turned to look over her shoulder, knowing full well that Sienna was still sitting there.  She gave her an enticing look, and said sternly, “Do I really need to repeat myself?”


She pulled out a uniform and shimmied her way into it, seeing how the image affected her mate's state of mind.


Sienna made a soft sound deep in her throat at the tone and T’Mur’s mannerisms.  Her mate knew well that Sy wanted to go back to sleep and not on a walkabout. But something about that prescient feeling told her that she really needed to get moving or things were going to be Very Bad Indeed.  Sy shook her head as she stood and moved to get a clean uniform, sliding into it bonelessly in her tiredness. One of her past girlfriends had joked that if she didn’t know Sy’s family, they’d think she was a Founder.


Sienna moved over to her vanity and brushed her long, dark hair out.  Other than her dark betazoid eyes, she looked european spaniard or italian with her olive skin tone and dark brown hair.  She looked more like Duke than she did Sophie of her parents.  “Can you imagine how gorgeous our daughter is going to be? Your elfin ears and amazing hair, my eyes and curves, your height. Oh. She’s gonna break hearts.”  Sienna grinned as she fantasized for a moment.


T’Mur stood behind Sienna and took the brush and gave Sy’s hair a few more long strokes.  It was the first time she had ever mentioned having children.  The prospect did not concern her, but it was certainly a new concept.  She had not grown up with the fantasy of children, but with the reality that having children was an inevitability of being in a committed relationship.


“I love your hair,” she said seriously.  “It is full and has bounce.  My hair, well, it just sits there.  She took a brush through own hair quickly, then wrapped it around in a bun.  It wasn’t elegant, like Sienna’s but functional.  “But I will admit if she has your eyes even Sekal might melt a little.”


Sienna stopped putting pins in her  hair and turned towards T’Mur for a moment then gave her mate a soft kiss on the lips.  Normally Sienna would wear her long hair in  a crown braid while on duty, but she didn’t feel like she had the time to bother with it.  She grabbed her PADD off the table, zipped on her boots and headed for the door, pulling up the repair schematics as she did so. It was like she had flipped the switch in her head, changed roles from Mate to First Officer.


T’Mur could sense the change in Sienna and also made a similar mental adjustment.  She wondered if this was how it was to have a multiple personality disorder.  She moved to the door and picked up her own PADD and phaser.


“Commander,” she said officiously, “the ship awaits.”  And the door to their quarters opened, inviting them to leave.

Sy giggled at the tone but as the door opened even the amusement in her eyes faded.  She looked down at her PADD and tried to think about the best place to go.  As she had done in a previous situation, she closed her eyes and pointed to something randomly on her PADD.


“Transporter Room 3 it is.”  Sienna looked back down at her PADD and turned towards the nearest operational turbolift, which certainly were not all of them.


T’Mur followed closely.  She knew that there was a movement on the ship that had rose to the occasion in their attempt to assassinate Sekal.  Which meant that Sienna was clearly next in line, IF their purpose was to rid the ship of its entire hierarchy or leadership.  But eliminating them one at a time in such a manner was not only illogical, but extremely inefficient.  It would have been much easier, using less resources, effort and opportunity to be caught, to eliminate the command staff in a single strike during a command meeting.  So T’Mur wasn’t truly concerned for Sienna’s safety.  However, any crewman that was out and about on Gamma shift was going to get  a thorough scrutinization.


Once the doors to the turbolift closed she could sense Sienna start to relax and fall into her role as first officer.  It was a role that she was getting increasingly more confident in every day.  It was gratifying to see her grow.


(ISS Illuminar-Transporter Room 3- FO Cmdr Sienna Williams-Verin & CTO Ensign T’Mur - 0255)


Sienna stopped outside the room and tried not to laugh. The doors were propped open, panels were off the walls and there were cables running across the deck to get power into the transporter room. Two of their engineering cadets were laying half into the wall, patching and repairing with a senior operations ensign helping and supervising. She stepped carefully over the cadets and their cables, and entered the transporter room.


It was chaos.  And as Sienna entered, she felt an almost physical pain in her side. She reached down, whimpering. Nothing physical had happened, but her side hurt, it felt like it was burning.  At that moment, a crackly voice came over the comms from the security crew on the Viper.


“What are they wanting to bring back?” Sienna gasped out, the pain in her side causing her to miss several of the words.  As the Petty Officer spoke, that pain spiked again and she found herself hanging onto the control. “N-no. Send a shuttle to bring the missiles back.”  The Petty Officer looked like he was going to argue, and Sy snapped, “No! Don’t argue just do it. Send Montero.”  She tried to breathe through her pain, which was beginning to get better.

Sy looked at T’Mur in desperation.


T’Mur could feel the distress Sy was feeling.  She instinctively reached for her own side, even though she did not actually feel the pain.  Sienna was feeling someone else’s pain.  But who’s.  Everyone was standing around looking at the FO uncertain of what she was talking about.


She tapped her comm badge, “T’Mur to Montero, status?”


VIc’s comm badge chirped.  Commander Verin .. What was his status?   “Uh, Commander… just in the middle of some rack ops, Ma’am.  Is this an emergency?”


“There is a missile that you need to retrieve, immediately.  I believe it is a live ordnance, but has not exploded.  Use extreme caution.”


Vic rolled his eyes.  Retrieve a missile.  Great.  “Uh, yes Ma’am.  I will get right on that.”


T’Mur looked at Sienna and reached to support her, then stopped.  Sienna needed to show the crew that she could stand on her own two feet.  She turned to face the First Officer, so that the others could not observe her actions and she looked with concern, “Are you all right?”


“I’m all right. I …” She knew the crew whispered about her and the strange things she did, “I felt something when we walked into the room and when the voice spoke to beam aboard, I knew that was the problem as the pain got much worse and continued to grow then it got better.  Now it barely hurts. I guess I moved wrong and  pulled something.”  That weird feeling had  completely passed. Chief, how long until the repairs here are completed?” The Chief dittered a moment and Sienna nodded, “I understand, you can’t really continue until the repairs to the power conduits below and above us are completed.”  She patted the PO on the arm before leaving, heading back to the turbolift, wanting to get away from this room that she could still smell a hint of acrid burning plastics in the air.


As they stepped away from the transporter room T’Mur sent telepathic encouragement to Sienna.  She looked down at her own PADD and knew where they needed to go next, while Sy had the strength for it.


“We should probably go to the main cargo bay,” she suggested.  “Dr. Solice had set up a triage unit there.”


“Then we shall head there. And then, we should go meet Montero when he gets back and see what he found.”


T’Mur nodded, “Agreed.  Hopefully he will be able to get it into the bay without any issues.”


The turbolift began to move and the two headed towards the main cargo bay.


(USS Illuminar- Main Cargo Bay, Triage Area- FO Cmdr Sienna Williams-Verin & CTO Ensign T’Mur - 0310)


Sienna stepped out of the way of the crew who were still triaging as crew continued to come in with minor injuries from the repairs, and occasionally they came across  a worse injury.


“Commander Verin, how can we assist you?”  Sienna’s eyes focused on the other nurse with a grin. “I had something happen when I was in the transporter room a few minutes ago. I had to turn and there was a pain in my side, right here.” She indicated where. “I just want to make sure that I don’t have an injury that I was not aware of.”


Sienna gave T a very pointed glance. T’Mur was sure to have something to say about this.


T’Mur watched as the nurse scanned her side. She could still sense the dull memory of the shooting pain. It was inexplicable since there had been no opportunity for her to have gotten an injury. However she hovered over the nurse making her a little nervous.


When the nurse had finished she put the tricorder away.  “I’m sorry Commander, I don’t see any evidence of the injury. May I have a look at the site?”


Sienna nodded and slid her uniform jacket off. She then lifted her tank top from the bottom. On her side where she indicated, the skin was red as if it had been sunburned.


T’Mur’s eyes narrowed as she saw the injury.  She looked from mark to Sienna’s face and back to the mark.  Although her eyes blazed her voice was calm and steady.


“I do not understand, “ the Vulcan said. “How is that possible. There has been no possible cause of that injury.”


Sienna shrugged, “It still hurts a bit but nothing like it did in the transporter room.  I’m sure it will heal fine on it’s own.” She thought she knew what caused it, but didn’t want to say anything out loud.


Inside she could feel her protective instincts boil. She was angry with herself. She had allowed Sienna to be injured. There was no way around that single certainty. Where had she made an error?  What did she miss?


::I think something Q told me once happened in the transporter room. I think for a moment I was in another choice, another reality. For a microsecond and took the explosion on that side of my body. The moment I decided to not have it beamed aboard, stopped it, that possible event was no longer possible. ::  She frowned as the nurse was prodding it and whimpered as the woman spread a soft white cream over the burn, “This doesn’t look like a sunburn.” The nurse spoke, “Not really. More like a radiation flash burn but we didn’t pick up that on the tricorder, so we are going to be safe and treat it like it was a burn.” The Nurse knew enough about Sienna, and her past history to know that the First Officer had not only bad luck but was odd as well.


::So this is a wound from a possible alternate reality? How is that possible?  I have read theories that precognition is the ability to read your thoughts in the future. You are not really knowing something but telling yourself that something has happened and sending that message into the past. Is it like that?::


::I can’t figure it out. Mostly these feelings have been less helpful and very vague. Not like this, so pointed and … I never felt pain from one before. I had the ability to see the past too from the Q. But I paid for it all, I was covered in scars from being knifed by a crazed woman in the past and nothing anyone could do, including cutting off my skin, got rid of them. ::  She sighed as the nurse eased the tank top back over her burn.


T’Mur stepped over and put a protective hand on Sienna’s shoulder.  ::I do not like this. I cannot protect you from this.::


“Thanks Nurse. Is it safe for me to see the other patients? I just want to reassure myself that everyone is ok.” Sy reached up and patted T’s hand gently.  The nurse nodded, distracted. ::You’ll share the feelings with me, that’s protection enough. It’s never happened before that I was injured from one. It may never happen again.:: She hated those vestiges of precognition.


T’Mur was not convinced by Sienna’s assurances. But she had to accept her inability to do anything about it. And in her mind, it sounded as though the situation was getting worse.   Her hand held onto Sienna a little harder for a moment and then she let her go. This was not the time to discuss the matter.


Sy quietly moved around the room, speaking encouragingly to each patient and then having a quiet word with the staff.  She was beginning to get tired again and wanted her bed. ::I’m getting really tired, T. Think we can head back to our Quarters and bed?:: Sienna could tell that something was bothering her mate, but she didn’t want to argue.  What she wished was to have T and Q in one place and let T duke it out. While she watched and defended her mate.


As if out of thin air T’Mur appeared behind Sienna as she had been speaking with an engineering crewman who was recanting the tale of his injury.   She put a hand on Sienna’s back and looked down at the crewman.


“I apologize Mr. Burton but Commander Verin is required to be elsewhere. It is necessary for me to, I believe the phrase is “drag her away from you.””  It was neither an exaggeration nor a lie. She was required to rest, and to be hugged, which would not be appropriate in their current location.


“Come along, Commander,” she said, supporting Sienna’s weight.  “It is time for our meeting.”


Sienna smiled up at T’Mur and headed out. The two women headed back to their quarters.  She was particularly pleased when Montero contacted her to let her know that the missiles were aboard safely and contained. She would deal with  figuring out who authorized those missiles to be beamed aboard, which would have been a disaster.  She covered a yawn and looked up at T’Mur, ::Are you unhappy?:: She was so insecure.


::I am not displeased with you, love.:: T’Mur phrased her next thoughts carefully. :: It is unacceptable that I cannot protect you from this form of harm. And being a moral support is inadequate. However, I am uncertain how to proceed. How to protect you from an attack within. And I cannot accept the rational that it may never happen again. Logic dictates that it will.  I am displeased with my own inability to do what I want. What I promised.::


Sienna twined her fingers with T’Mur’s and laid her tired head on the other woman’s shoulder, ::But we’ll face it all together?:: She asked hopefully. The lift let them off at their deck and Sienna stumbled down the hall towards their quarters. She was looking forward to their bed.


T’Mur watched Sienna struggle down the hall. Noticing that there was nobody else in the hall she came up behind her and scooped her into her strong arms, and carried her to the door. The door opened and she stepped through she answered.


::Together beloved, forever.::


Sienna lay her head on T’Mur’s shoulder and barely noticed being put to bed. She needed sleep, badly. Now that she could indeed sleep.  She didn’t register T’Mur’s body against her own until her own body relaxed.


(reply none)

(posted by Al Muir and Mel G)



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