A Moments Happiness

Posted on Sun May 3rd, 2020 @ 1:13pm by Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Death & Hera & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Petty Officer 2nd Class 'Big Ethel' Jablonski & Jaeih Dox-t'Aan
Edited on on Tue May 19th, 2020 @ 12:36pm

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: Miradon
Timeline: 2397

Meanwhile... Back on Miradon...

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On April tenth, 2397. Tala, Amihan and Hlai’vana GoDox were born on the planet Miradon. By that planet’s calendar, it was the 40th day of Low-Winter of the year 485. On the Romulan calendar, it was the 10th day of the second week of the first month of air, low Eisn, the year 1824 After Shipfall. But for their mothers, the Miradonian Mona Gonadie and the Romulan Mnhei’sahe Dox, all that mattered was that they were there, safe and healthy.

The day after their birth, the doctors at the Aerie had released the children and their birth mother, Mona, from their care, having declared them well and healthy and the new family and their rather large entourage of women from the Starship Hera made their way back to the hotel where they had reserved an entire floor for the visit.

Settling in for what was scheduled as another week and a half on Mona’s homeworld, the children seemed to receive no end of attention. Of the three, it was Amihan with her golden plumage over most of her tiny body that seemed to lap it up the most, preening, singing, and smiling. It was clear very early on that the tiny, half-avian, half-Romulan girl loved attention and did her best to hog it from her sisters.

Not that Hlai’vana was a slouch at getting attention, she just seemed to go about it in a decidedly different way, trying to climb as high and crawl as fast as her tiny body could take her as soon as she wasn’t being actively held in place. She was also the first of the three girls to learn that their innate instincts as half-Miradonian chicks were somewhat at conflict with the denser bones they inherited from their Romulan side. Almost straight out of the womb, Miradonian chicks were usually capable of short bursts of flight, flapping about like chickens trying to soar. But Vana was quick to discover that even on Miradon’s reduced gravity, that their dense bones and overall builds were too heavy to do anything more than pull off the slightest of glides for any more than a meter at the most.

The blueish-green feathered Tala was the quietest of the three. She would often just sit and watch her sisters and her parents. When their friends would come in to play, she soaked in all of them. She would examine Ethel Jablonski’s bronze bracers and her Grandmother’s pointed ears, which were just like their own. She would stare in awe at the goddess Hera, their copper-colored eyes capable of seeing the woman’s aura. She had an amazing curiosity and loved to take everything in.

As Miradonian chicks were telepathically bonded with their parents while in the womb, and still could connect with both parents empathically through touch, they were capable of the most rudimentary speech on their first day out. ‘Nona’, or ‘Mother’ in Miradonian was their first word, though little Vana was the most talkative of the three and was the first to call Mnhei’sahe ‘Ri’anov’. ‘Mother’ in Romulan.

In what was something of a surprise to Mnhei’sahe, her mother Jaeih was hard to keep out of the room, even when they were all exhausted from the day. The woman who had been working extremely hard to be the mother she had failed to be when Mnhei’sahe was a child seemed almost obsessed with turning that around, and when the children called her ‘Nonala’, or ‘Grandmother’ in Miradonian, Mnhei’sahe was shocked to see something that was almost alien on her mother’s face: tears of happiness.

For the first few days immediately after their birth, everything had gone remarkably well. The children were healthy and the extended family was enjoying the time to bond and to relax, free from their respective duties for a few uneventful days.

Six days after the birth of the triplets, however, something had changed. The aura of the goddess Hera had changed in a way that was visible to both the children and even to Mona, and the goddess of Women and Families recused herself to meditation in her own room. Something was wrong, and Mnhei’sahe was curious.

At the door to her chamber, Petty Officers Jablonski and Liu also seemed worried when, on that sixth day, while Mona was putting the triplets down for a nap, the Romulan flight chief came to check on Hera. “Have you talked to her at all, Ethel?” Dox asked at the door.

“Just a little. She insists that she’s fine, but somethin’ is bothering her.” The mountain of muscle who was intensely devoted to the Goddess said, clearly worried about her charge.

“I won’t press if it’s too much, I promise. But I want to see if I can talk to her, if that’s alright?” Dox asked, looking up at the giantess with a warm smile on her face. She could have made it an order, but she knew better and defaulted to asking.

Looking at the door with concern, Jablonski nodded. “Uh… yeah. Just… like you said… don’t stress her out and… and could you… uh…”

Nodding, the much shorter, red-headed Romulan put her hand of Ethel’s arm and smiled. “I will let you know whatever I’ve found out. Don’t worry.”

After a moment, Dox stepped into the expansively large, curve-walled hotel suite the goddess was staying in and waited in the foyer. “Hera. It’s Mnhei’sahe. I was hoping I could talk to you for a moment.”

The matronly goddess had been kneeling on the floor staring out the open window for what felt like centuries, when in reality it had only been a few hours. Her people had a way of compressing their consciousness during meditation though, so that when they searched the planes and cosmos, they had all the time they needed. Still, no matter how hard she tried or how long she looked, she could find no trace of who she searched for now.

Sensing that another searched for her, she returned to her senses and leaned forward, her legs now numb from kneeling for so long. “Ah… Yes… If you could help me up…”

Rushing over to Hera’s side, Dox knelt down and put an arm under the clearly distressed goddess to slowly help her to her feet. And while Dox didn’t know Hera near as well as she should have, she had an idea of what she had just watched. The young Romulan mother was also friends with the woman named Masato Rei. The embodiment of Death. And she regularly meditated in such a fashion, and it usually meant that she was not entirely there.

“Are you okay? You looked like you were… somewhere else just now.” Dox asked softly, keeping her arm under Hera’s until the goddess indicated where she wanted to go.

“Thank you… I…” Hera paused a moment, motioning towards one of the plush Miradonian couches in the large apartment. “Yes, I’ve not been able to sense Rita through our bond so I’ve been searching for her. I fear for what this means.”

Immediately, Dox’s stomach tightened at Hera’s words as she walked her slowly to the couch and gently lowered her to a seated position. She knew the Hera would be out of communication as an Intel ship on a mission. And worse, she knew the Hera was chasing a lead on the whereabouts of the Romulan renegade, Riov Dalia Rendal, and had been working to not think about the poor timing of her being off-ship, but now those fears were boiling back to the surface.

She knew that Hera and Rita shared a unique bond, but little more about that. But it was now clear that bond was a literal one as she sat next to Hera, still holding her arm. Whatever strength the goddess that had once saved her life could take from her, she would give. “Rita’s gone? You can’t sense her? What does that mean?”

The questions were a little more rapid-fire than she should have let them out, but Dox’s natural anxiety was showing on her proverbial sleeve at the moment. “I am sorry. Please. Take your time.”

“Ah, no… It’s ok,” Hera replied with a soft smile, doing her best not to let her own worry and anxiety show. “I suppose I should explain a little better. Similar to the bond you share with your wife, I have a bond with Rita. She spared me and my life became hers and through a… Let’s just call it a life debt boon… She’s essentially become like a daughter to me and I can sense her presence no matter what realm, dimension, state of being, location…”

“And yet right now, I can not…” The elderly Ambrosian closed her eyes a moment before continuing. “I can sense that the bond is there, but not Rita.”

Nodding, Dox pursed her lips and thought for a moment, trying to think rationally. “I can try to send a message to Admiral Meowlith, but she couldn’t tell me anything useful over subspace. Fvadt… I don’t even know if she would tell me if she knew if something was wrong. I’ve only talked to her twice now, after all.”

“So. You can feel that your bond to her is still intact, you just can’t feel where she is?” Dox asked, hoping the clarification would help her think out the issue.

Hera nodded solemnly. "Yes, I can tell she exists and I worry that something dark and terrible is near her... But otherwise, I am unable to locate her in any way. And I remind you I was able to watch over her struggles in the dimension of Kathoom as if I were invisibly there, even if I could not aid her."

Listening, Dox simply nodded. She wasn't a scientist, she was a pilot. But she had been called on to ba a lot of things she hadn't been of late, and this would be no different. While she was wearing a simple pair of black workout pants and a loose-fitting green top, her Starfleet commbadge was still on her chest as usual, and she was inexplicably the highest-ranking officer on the trip, so choosing to act in whatever fashion she could, she tapped that badge. 

"Dox to Doctor t'Liun. Please make preparations for our early departure." the anxious but focused woman called to the Commander of the Artan Bird of Prey that was under her aegis, not as a Starfleet Officer, but as an Artan Baroness.

"Is... there a problem, Commander?" The Romulan doctor replied over the comm with a touch of concern in her voice.

"I'll tell you once I know, thank you. Dox out." She said, somewhat tersely before turning her attention back to Hera. "So... does this mean that she's... somewhere outside of reality as we know it? And what about you? It looks like trying to find her has taken a toll on you? What do you need?"

"I suppose that is what it means, yes," Hera replied, nodding solemnly, gazing up at Dox wistfully. "I could use a moment of rest and a bite to eat, I suppose. Everything here is so full of energy, anything is fine. As much as I want to search reality for her forever, I know it will do little good as I am now."

"Then rest." Dox said, knowing that Hera's powers were limited and that she likely strained herself far more than she was willing to admit to try and find Rita. And her mind wandered for a moment to someone else. Another friend that might be able to help. But she put that thought away for a moment and smiled at the matronly goddess warmly. "Let me order up something. I'll be right back."

Stepping across the room, Dox called up the room's computer library on the wall near the door. Searching through it a moment, she found the record of Hera's past meal orders and found what she seemed to favor in the week they had been there. A large plate of egg pasta smothered with local vegetables and a bottle of Miradonian cava wine. It had been ordered four times, so it seemed a safe bet.

The food was cooked fresh, and beamed to the room so Dox put the order in, along with one other item in specific. And while she waited, she kept busy opening up the windows to let the fresh, midday air in and prepared a small table in front of Hera. A few minutes later, there was a chime and a flutter of energy as the ordered meal appeared in a sparkle of energy in the dining table.

Stepping over, Dox picked up a small item of food off the tray and put it in her blouse pocket and then carried the rest over. Setting it down, she poured Hera a glass. "Let me know if this helps, Hera. I'll let you eat, but I won't be far. I'll just... be on the balcony for a bit so you can rest."

"Thank you, my dear. I'm sure everything will be fine and we're just worrying for nothing. Rita and that captain of yours have a knack for getting out of mortal situations, don't they?" With what she hoped was her best smile, Hera did her best to project the confidence she didn't feel at the time as she prepared to eat the pasta and vegetable dish she had come to love since coming to this world. It had almost become a comfort to her, with all the various flavors of energy they had lovingly cooked into it.

And then there was the wine. One could become addicted to wine of this caliber. It was no wonder there were deities still roaming this world with wine this delectable.

With a warm smile, Dox nodded assent to the freshly feasting goddess who looked a little better with the meal. "You're probably right, Hera. Enjoy your meal, I'll be back shortly."

Stepping out onto the balcony and walking across to the far end, out of Hera's sight, Dox didn't want to bother her, not that she had any idea if what she was trying to do was even possible. Overlooking the beautiful city of Quen'quen on her wife's homeworld, she pulled the small item out of her pocket and began fiddling with it as she leaned over the balcony.

Looking out, the city was built all on curves and circles within circles. On the streets walked a rainbow of different colored Miradonian citizens, all going about their days, unaware of the goddess in the hotel room above them. Or who the strange Romulan woman was hoping would hear her. Looking at the piece of Miradonian Nepara fruit in her hand, Dox spoke.

"Months ago, you told me someone was always listening. You were there when Rendal took my father from me on that ship. And... I know that the rules of your station forbade you from helping me then. But... back then I didn't know." The young Romulan spoke softly, but up towards space. "I didn't know what I know now. And, if you are listening, Rei, I need your help."

Several long, tense seconds passed as Dox stared at the teal sky. Clouds lazily floated past as the twin moons almost seemed to hang motionless as the wind died down and went silent. Then suddenly there was a crunching sound from the nepara fruit. On her other side, Rei was staring up at the sky with her as Taxes munched on the Miradonian fruit with the white flesh that resembled a cross between an Earth apple and nectarine.

"Do you need help staring at this beautiful sky?" Rei asked a hint of a nervous grin on her face. "Or is it related to..."

Looking over at her unusual friend in black, Dox rubbed the ethereal equine on the side of his head while he chewed on the strange fruit. "I guess that answers Tova's question from the bachelorette party about whether of not I can call you."

There was an awkward chuckle as Dox tried to calm her nerves at the situation. "It is truly beautiful here, but no. I'm afraid there's more. It's the ship. Hera... she has a bond of some sort with Commander Paris... with Rita. And she has been struggling to locate her. She says the bond is still in tact meaning Rita's alive. But she reached out and couldn't find her in the entire universe. In ANY universe she can sense."

Turning towards the pale woman who, in life had been a Japanese human before accepting her role in the cosmic balance, Dox continued. "I know Rita herself isn't in your books. That she somehow exists outside of fate. But the ship. The others. I do not mean to ask anything of you that would task you beyond the rules I know you are beholden to, but is the Hera... Do you know anything?"

The pale woman continued staring up at the sky, her grin turning into a bit of a frown as she concentrated. Still further, her brows furrowed, cracking her dry skin as her eyes moved about, silently searching for... something...

Then finally, she relaxed, closed her eyes, and let out a sigh. There was much she could say, but little she was allowed to say since her friend would act on any words she now uttered. She'd have to choose her words carefully so that the others didn't get pissed at her.

"I believe my bedroom is missing. The clothes I left there vanished into a hole that I believe leads to where many higher beings toss dead and slumbering ancients called Undrheim." Rei sighed again, this time a bit more softly. "But you've already seen one of these holes before, haven't you? That's how I can get away with even mentioning it, even though I can't see there. No one can."

"No one sees in, no one sees out."

"Holes?" Dox muttered her response, her mind working to interpret what she knew Rei had to tell her in pieces. "Where higher beings toss... Slumbering..."

In her mind, the young officer was juggling everything that she knew. She knew the Hera was going after Rendal at Glaonrdan Core. She remembered that that was where they had first encountered the Regal Romulan at the former Starbase she was a commander on. The joint Romulan/Starfleet operation where it turned out that the Romulans were secretly experimenting on a sleeping godlike being called a Titan.

"The Titans." Dox said, working through her memory. "At Starbase 336, Odin pulled the station and the sleeping Titan away into a spatial rift, out of our universe. Then, Gaia opened up one when we... Hnaev!"

Cursing in her native tongue, the young woman began making connections in her mind. "We got clear before Odin took the station away, but we were almost pulled in when Gaia opened her portal. Imirrhlhhse."

Thinking, Dox ran a finger over her ear nervously. She knew that the Hera was chasing a lead that Dalia Rendal was going back to Galorndan Core... Where Starbase 336, HER former station, was taken from her. Then, another, darker thought occurred to her.

"No... Oh no. Dhat, dhat, dhat. " The Romulan woman muttered, looking at her friend with fear in her eyes as she bounced back and forth between Federation Standard and Romulan, repeating 'no' a few times in her native tongue. "Rendal. When she had me. When I was her prisoner, she tried to rewrite my mind in that machine. I resisted it, but she... she got something that Gaia had buried in my mind. The White Rabbit, she called it... a map to find Gaia. If Rendal has that information. If she used it..."

Hanging her head slightly, the spectral steed, Taxes, leaned in and put his head softly against Dox's face. With a slightly strained smile, the anxious Romulan woman rubbed the side of the horse's face. After a moment, she spoke again. "Thank you, Rei. I know you told me more than you probably should have, and I greatly appreciate it."

Rei nodded solemnly, once more staring into the teal Miradonian sky. "Dōshi..." She uttered the word to Dox as she would a confidant, a comrade, a kindred spirit - for to her, that's what it meant. "If you act upon this... And I know you will... The others will likely exact a penance upon us both. I do not know when or what it will be. I only pray that they return to where I am able to one day guide them to the afterlife."

"If it's any consolation, I don't know if there's anything I can do with this. I... I have no idea how to get what Gaia left in my head out. The last time, it took being hooked up to that horrible machine and fighting back so strongly that it almost broke me. Plus... the actual shard of Gaia... I gave that up... I think. That memory is... a little hazy, admittedly. So, the information might not even still be up here." Dox said, starting to pace a little on the balcony, prompting Taxes to walk alongside her as she did.

As she spoke, she stopped next to Rei and put her arm on her friend's shoulder, trying not to think about what kind of penance might be called down upon either of them or what kind of door she may have opened in asking Rei for help.

"But, at least I have an idea of what happened. And, really, all you did was confirm what Hera told me, so in that regard, all you really did was give me a name to something I had already seen." Working through it, Dox chuckled and shook her head. "Heh. I'm getting too good at this kind of thinking, working with my Grandmother in the Senate."

Rei puffed out her cheeks in consternation like an upset child. "Well, what did you call me for then if you just wanted to confirm what you already knew? Just so I could jog your memory into remembering it? That sounds like something they would do, you know... Always using me to remember what living was like since I'm almost the youngest..."

Biting her bottom lip, Dox didn't realize that her comment was as thoughtless as it was. "No, no. I'm sorry, no. That... that was just my foolish way of trying to be clever. I'm sorry, Rei."

"No, I called you because... because I didn't know. Because I needed to know if they were really... just gone. Somewhere else." Dox said, her voice cracking slightly. "Because... I'm frightened. But... I shouldn't have asked you. I... I am sorry. I just... didn't know what else to do. I'm sorry. I... I didn't think about the consequences. And I didn't think about how my asking would affect you, and that was... thoughtless. Selfish. Wrong."

Speaking, Dox tightened up and her stomach twisted itself into a knot of guilt as she realized just how Romulan she could be and she felt disgusted for it.

The pale woman wrapped her arms around her friend and buried her face in the cloth of the top she was wearing in as tight of a hug as she dared. "I'm just tired is all. I just... I'm sorry too... This job, it wears on a person. The White Rabbit was human but I think she's gone nuts. The rest are so removed from whatever they were... Cleverness doesn't work with them - it's absolutes and black and white and I just want to relax and with you I feel like I can."

Taken aback, this was the most human Rei had allowed herself to be with Dox and the young, conflicted Romulan returned the hug. "Yes. Yes, you can. You can always relax with me, Rei. And I'm sorry for putting this on you. But again, I do thank you. Whatever happens because of this, I... I don't know how, but we will deal with it together. I promise."

Tilting her head down slightly, Dox looked Rei in the eyes. "You have shared so much with me. Given me so much. And above all, you've been my friend, often when I've often needed one the most, so I promise to be a better one to you."

"You are my Dōshi... my comrade... my kindred spirit..." Rei's shoulders shook slightly as if she were crying, but as she looked up at Dox, there were no tears - perhaps a bit of dust around the corners of her eyes and that was it, but the emotions were definitely there. "I will always be there for you and soon you'll need to be there for your friends aboard your ship. I know little about Undrheim, but that it is where beings older than us go to die and slumber for eternity."

"Then, I'll do what I can to make sure I'm where I'll need to be." Dox said as she nodded and offered her friend a warm smile, keeping her hands on Rei's arm. While they couldn't touch skin to skin without it being somewhat fatal to the vert mortal Romulan pilot, but as Rei was clothed, it was safe. And more importantly, that basic touch was clearly what she needed at the moment.

Then Dox's tone shifted slightly, with a touch of concern in her voice as she knitted her brow slightly. "This... Undrheim. Would that be where... you would eventually go? Or, would you be freed to move on once this station wasn't yours anymore?" It was a remarkably difficult topic to bring up, considering the primary way that the woman known as death would leave the job would be if another claimed it. And the person currently being considered for that position was, in fact, Dox herself.

Stepping back and wiping the dust from her eyes, Rei smiled softly. "If I were to stay in this position for too long, it's a possibility but realistically, once you reap my soul, it's up to you what happens to me. I would no longer have a say in the matter and you... Or whomever takes over... Is free to decide my place in the afterlife."

"Well... that's a bridge we would have my lifetime to worry about." Dox said, smiling lightly in spite of the fear she felt at that prospect, doing her best to turn the moment towards the positive as best as the generally negative woman could. "But until then, I'll do what I can as a friend to remind you who you are."

"And I'll be here to remind you that I enjoy a good meal with a friend as much as anyone else," replied the pale woman, starting to return to her usually calm self. She then turned back to the teal Miradonian sky, her smile fading. "For now though, I hope we can eventually share a meal under a beautiful sky like this."

In truth, Dox's friendship with Rei was important to her. In some respects, she saw her own issues reflected in the woman who, while looking like a Japanese human teenager, was almost 2 millennia old. WHO Masato Rei was as an individual was regularly overshadowed by WHAT she was: the embodiment of Death itself. The reaper. It was a job that defined her to the rare few that could even see her and she was judged by how people interpreted that job. 

As a Romulan in Starfleet, there was something familiar about that. The scope and scale of it might have been cosmically different, but the flavor was there and Dox wanted Rei to feel as much like a normal woman as possible, and she went out of her way to do that for her unlikely friend. 

Finally, after a long moment, Dox nodded with a wry smirk. "When this is all over, we will. But for now, I need to get everyone moving, for which I thank you again. I'll do what I can to not piss off the others by doing anything foolish." 

"Thank you, Dōshi," Rei replied with a smile that for a moment lit up her face so much that she glowed a healthy pink and radiated the warmth and life that she must have had when she was a fifteen-year-old newlywed woman back on Earth, so long ago. Then as silently as she and Taxes had arrived, they were once more gone.

Standing, now alone, on the balcony, Dox smiled and looked back up at the beautiful teal sky. She thought of Rei, who had been alone for hundreds of years, judged for what she was rather than the compassionate individual she was. She thought of her unexpectedly sweet, spectral equine Taxes who all but forced Mnhei'sahe to get over her fear of horses. Then she thought of her new family. Of her bond-mate Mona and their three new children who have quickly become so much of her heart, mind, and soul. Looking up to sky, she then thought of Rita, Enalia and the Hera. Her family and her home, and she stepped back inside.

Walking over to where the goddess of women, marriage and family was taking another sip of her wine. "Are you feeling any better, Hera?"

"I am, thank you my dear," With a soft smile, Hera nodded softly and set aside her now almost empty plate. "I will have to see if we may take a supply of this wine with us when we leave. Was your conversation on the balcony fruitful?"

Smirking ever so slightly, Dox nodded. Clearly, Hera was aware of what had just happened, though her only real reason in stepping outside was to not tax the weakened goddess. "Well, I used to smuggle Kali-Fal as a girl, so legitimately purchasing a few crates should be easy enough. I'll take care of that before we head out, but we will be heading out as soon as we can."

"I called Rei.. which I didn't know I could do... but she told me that the ship is in a place she called the Undrheim."

The matronly goddess scowled a bit before recomposing herself and finishing her glass of wine. "I vaguely remember my husband mentioning a place like that a time or two. I'm sorry, my memories of those days are not what they used to be. I'm not sure if I'll be of help, but if you think I can be, please... do not hesitate."

"You've done more than enough, so far, Hera." Dox said, looking over and smiling gently. "You put yourself out here for my family, which you didn't have to do. You've regularly given of yourself to us on the ship when it would knowingly take energy from you. I thank you for everything you've done and your offer of assistance, Great Hera."

While she spoke, Dox picked up some of the empty dishes and carried them over to be reclaimed from the small kitchenette. "In truth, even with what we know, there may be... little any of us can do. I know Rei is concerned that any actions I take will anger the other cosmic forces, so I will do my best to... tread lightly. But, I'll be getting us packed up. We know where the Hera WAS and we will be heading there ourselves as soon as possible."

While Dox was trying to be what she, in fact was at the moment: the highest-ranking officer there and essentially in charge, she was also clearly working hard to contain her own tremendously conflicted emotions at the situation as she politely took her leave of the weary goddess.

One by one, she explained the basics of the situation to the rest of the crewmembers that had taken of themselves to come with her and her wife for this event and did her best to be what they needed her to be: calm and in control. But as she returned to her own room to prepare to leave her wife's homeworld and take them all off to see if they could help find their missing ship and family, Dox didn't feel like a woman in control.

She felt like a woman afraid that the universe may have already punished her for her moment of happiness. In the back on her mind, she was terrified that, for the crime of having a happy family of her own, she may have just lost the rest of the family she had found on the Hera.