Romantic Paperwork

Posted on Tue Apr 16th, 2019 @ 7:55am by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie

Mission: Detours
Location: Deck 8, Crew Quarters
Timeline: 2396

Sitting on the floor of the quarter she shared with her partner, Mona Gonadie, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox had her legs crossed. Across from her in the dimly lit room was a small Vulcan brazier, given to her by the ships science Officer, lieutenant Sonak, to aid in her meditation. The Vulcan Kolinahr master had been helping the young Romulan woman to train and discipline her mind in the Vulcan way for months now. But for the young and frustrated woman, she felt like she was starting over.

In some respects, she was. Her mind had been artificially opened to increase her psychic potential, but that door had since been closed by the cosmic Titan, Gaia. And as such, Dox was just a normal Romulan again. But since Romulans had the same basic physiology as Vulcan's, Dox was redoubling her efforts to retrain her mind. It was extremely important to her to so, not only for herself but for Mona Gonadie.

The Miradonian ensign had become what she calls a bond-mate to Mnhei'sahe. Mona explained that her species chose a single mate In their lifetime and bonded biologically and empathically with that mate for the rest of their lives. And Mona chose Mnhei'sahe. But as Mnhei'sahe was not Miradonian, that bond was likely only to ever be one way, except for the one opened gate in the Romulan's mind.

That open gate amplified her minds psychic ability for a time and enabled Mnhei'sahe to meet Mona more than halfway. The empathic link became a telepathic one when they touched. Dox could perceive, in her mind's eye, a glowing red orb of light within that represented herself. Her own life energy. And when Dox and Mona touched, she could see Mona's energy as a brilliant blue glow. And as they practiced, those light began to merge to become a dazzling purple that filled the young Romulan with a sense of warmth and completion that she had never known before.

But now, since the door to her mind had been closed, that link was extremely weakened. Weakened almost to the point of being gone. And that absence left a void in the two women that Mnhei'sahe was determined to overcome.

So they anxious Romulan sat, cross-legged, concentrating on the small flame before her. Working to quiet her mind. Desperately hoping that with time, she could restore that telepathic bond to its former strength. She closed her eyes, trying to maintain the image of the flame within her. Focusing on its warmth and steadiness. Trying to block out everything else that served only to distract her mind.

After what felt like hours, she felt her mind calm itself. The sounds of the ship faded to a hum in the distance. All she could perceive was the yellow glow of the flame as it pulsed. Pulsed to the rapid beating of her Romulan heart.

As she relaxed, the pulsing slowed to match her breaths and the light shifted in her mind's eye. Shifted from it's yellow flicker to a warm, red glow. She had found it again.

Focusing on nothing but the glow, she had drowned out all other stimuli. There were no longer legs crossed on a carpeted deck plate. The was no rhythmic hum of a warp engine. There was only the pulsing red glow, growing stronger. All other thoughts fell away. All concerns vanished as if they had never existed. And as the red glow grew larger, she saw something else.

Swirling within the red glow, wisps of something else. Flowing within that universe of red was more. Veins of brilliant, cool blues became visible. Mona's blue.

Outside of her mind, a smile crept along her chubby cheeks as the realization overtook her. Mona's energy was still there. Still within her. Unbroken and strong, simply waiting to be rediscovered. Slowly, Mnhei'sahe opened her eyes. She had found Mona’s energy, still within her. The connection was still there. It could be restored.

She sat, quietly for a moment, leaning back on her hands thinking about the events of the last few weeks. Of everything that had happened since she admitted her feelings to the brilliantly plumed Miradonian pilot. And of everything almost lost.

After a few minutes, she got up off the ground, extinguished the flame on the brazier and returned it to its shelf across the room where it sat, surrounded by photographs of Mnhei’sahe’s newfound family onboard the U.S.S. Hera. Taking another moment to look at the collection of images and memories on the shelves, she smiled lightly and walked over to the small glass dining table near the windows out into space.

In the center of the table was a simple data PaDD that she picked up and read over as she sat. The young Lieutenant was off duty and relaxing in a loose-fitting, black t-shirt with the word ‘HERA’ printed on it in gold with a pair of crimson sweat pants. She read through the documents that she had been preparing on that PaDD. Documents that she was going to give to Mona once she got home from her shift on the bridge.

Clearing her throat, Mnhei’sahe looked nervously at the empty seat across from her at the table as she began to speak. “Uh… Mona. I need to talk to you.”

Shaking her head, Dox sighed. “No, she’ll think somethings wrong right from the beginning.”

Taking a light breath, the anxious young Romulan woman started over. “Mona, I’d like to talk to you about… something that I feel is… important. Something I’ve been thinking about for a little while now.”

Stopping herself again, Mnhei’sahe groaned. “Okay, that sounds TOO important, now! She’s going to think you’re ready for kids if you start like that, Hhakh!” She insulted herself in her native Rihan.

“Okay…” She took a few more breaths. “She’s not even HERE yet! Calm down and start over!? Okay… Mona, our relationship has, I think, been going really well. And I’ve… I’ve been thinking about what almost just happened. About the Gaia mission. And about Ila Dedjoy.”

Though the conversation was imaginary, Mnhei’sahe’s tone shifted to a more somber one as she spoke. “We almost lost her completely. Rita, Thex, and Sonak saved a part of her, but when I think about what escaping Gaia cost us, it makes me think. It makes me think about how it could have gone. We… I… I was… lucky. I opened my mind up to an angry god and I’m still here. All of me. But It could have been over if we’d failed to get through to her. She could have just burned my mind away like it was nothing. And that would have been it. And… I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m not… I’m still not ready to have kids yet. I’m not. You’ve not yet met my Mother, but maybe once you have you’ll understand a little bit of why I’m… afraid to take that step. Of passing along that legacy to a child and failing them. It terrifies me.” The emotional woman continued talking to the imaginary Miradonian in the seat across from them.

“But… there’s something more I do want to do. I know we talked about some kind of… ceremony… at Thex and Tathaa’s bonding. But it’s not something either of us really has a big history with. I didn’t grow up dreaming of walking down the proverbial aisle in some poofy white dress of anything. But we’re… we’re bond-matted. And that means everything to me.”

Holding up the PaDD, Mnhei’sahe placed it down in front of the empty seat. “So… this is everything else. This is all the documents I could compile to make what we are… I guess… legal. It gives you legal power to make decisions for me in an emergency. It makes you my next of kin in the event that something… anything happens to me. It also makes everything that’s mine, yours too. I know it’s not much. But that means all my crap here. The Khallianen, my little pirate ship down in shuttle bay 2. Everything”.

“I guess this is essentially a… I don’t know… proposal. I’m… not good at this kind of stuff. And I’ve never been one for pomp and circumstance. But you’re the most important person in my life and I wanted to make that… I don’t know… official. I want you to be a part of my everything, Mona. I need you and I know... I know that there’s nothing romantic about paperwork, but…” Mnnhei’sahe groaned out loud and dropped her head on the desk.

“Ugh… that’s terrible.” She mumbled, trying to rethink her words and come up with a better way of presenting the information when the door to the quarters wooshed open as Mona Gonadie stepped in.

"I'm home. I think I like those two we have working on the Cyclones and Thunderchicken. I might have to claim them and start my own R&D team. Do you think the Captain would approve that?" Mona was already taking off her uniform top and staring at a PaDD before she noticed the look on Dox's face. As soon as she saw it though, she moved across the room and sat down in the chair in front of her bond-mate. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"

Looking across at Mona's concerned face, Mnhei'sahe chuckled slightly. She didn't even have to say a word for Mona to notice, which was as usual. The anxious young Romulan took the PaDD in her hands, took a deep breath and set it down in front of her love.

"Mona..." Mnhei'sahe repeated her practiced words, "Our relationship has, I think, been going really well..."

Mona ignored the PaDD for the moment and took Dox's hands in her own. "And... You're very anxious about something so I'm guessing it's either marriage related a ring, or kids. Just take a deep breath and say it, ok Minay?"

Letting her head flump back down on the table, Dox groaned again, her voice muffled slightly. "I am extremely bad at this, Mona. Ugh!"

Picking her head back up slowly, she had a nervous smile. "I guess, technically, it's kind of the first..." Then, the red-headed young woman stuttered her way through the speech that she had been rehearsing, doing her best to not just freak out as she spoke. And after a few long moments of talking, there was silence between the two.

"So... that's what's on that PaDD. All the legal paperwork, just waiting for a signature. I figure... whatever other trappings we choose to do can come as they come. I don't know what kind of ceremony you would want and so much of this kind of came up on me quickly after everything happened with Gaia, that I didn't want to wait another day to figure out details. But I wanted to put this all down on paper. Us." Dox cricked her head with an awkward, half-smile, not knowing what to expect.

"Is that all?" Mona leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lover's lips. "You should have just said so. I did all this like a week ago for you." She then took the PaDD and added her thumbprint to it, signing it. "All done."

Blinking for a moment, Mnhei'sahe let out a short laugh. "Ha... of course you did. I'll spend a week worrying about something that you figured out and solved the week before. I should really just learn to see this coming, shouldn't I?" The red-headed Romulan smiled longingly across the table.

"Well, to be fair, as an engineer I tend to plan ahead like this a lot..." Mona blushed a bit, the yellowish tinge flushing through the finer feathers of her cheeks.

"Hey..." Mnhei'sahe put her hands over Mona's and chuckled, "Once I figure this out, it will make my life a lot easier. I can just defer to you and maybe figure out how to stress less."

"Also... I've been meditating... And I think I'm getting better." The young Romulan closed her eyes and recalled the image of the glowing orb in her mind. This time, the image returned quickly and she could feel it's warmth as she visualized sharing it through her touch. She could feel Mona's own energy touching her own, stronger again.

The brightly plumed Miradonian didn't need any prompting and started thrumming softly, already feeling the energy flowing between them.

They were not yet to the level they once were at, but more than it had been the last few days.