Minds Together

Posted on Fri Mar 23rd, 2018 @ 1:50am by Aewia Larani & Lieutenant Commander Eneas Clio

Mission: Curing the Black Blood
Location: Intel Lounge

"Clio, come have ice cream with me..." came Aewia's thoughts, drifting into Clio's mind from wherever Aewia was as clear as if she was standing right there in her office. Aewia was in the Intel lounge though - with a triple fudge banana split in front of her.

Having drifted off at her desk, Clio suddenly jolted awake with such force that she nearly fell out of her chair. She just barely caught herself on the edge of the desk, looking around as she righted herself. Confusion drifted in to replace the brief anxiety of being startled awake. No one else was there. She thought for a moment she'd imagined it... and then there was a flood of voices. All the background chatter she usually ignored, but louder.

And above it all, another crystal-clear invitation to eat ice cream with Aewia. "How..." Clio trailed off, remembering that Aewia wasn't in the room with her. "Aewia? Why can I hear you?"

Aewia chuckled through the mind link. "The black blood boosts our innate powers in various ways. We seem to have gotten a boost to our telepathy. Now wake up and come have ice cream with me. My sister got other gifts it seems. I estimate that T'Pral will likely have a boost to her already amazing combat skills. As for Cato and Daytona, I can only guess."

So Mal had been right and she wasn't crazy. That didn't make Clio feel any better about it. "Um, okay." Somehow, she knew that Aewia was in the lounge, so she left her office and headed that direction. She found Aewia easily enough, seeing as how they were the only two people in the lounge at the moment. "So... this blood. It's not exactly an infection, is it?" She wasn't sure if she was really expecting an answer, but it gave her a minute to skim through the replicator menu and find a small-ish sundae that didn't contain chocolate but still looked like it would taste decent. After a moment of perusal, she settled on strawberry with whipped cream and coconut flakes.

"No... It's... I think it's more of an invasive DNA system that boosts the host based on the DNA you already have." Aewia took a few bites before continuing. "And I think the missing parts of my brain were replaced with parts from one of those clones."

"Um... ew?" Even Clio found that disturbing, having parts of one's brain replaced by demon clone tissue. Picking up her ice cream, she joined Aewia at the table and sat down. "I thought maybe I was imagining it all. Or losing my mind again."

"Yeah it's not the most comforting thing in the world. I have all my memories and more, not to mention all my faculties returned... But at what cost?" Aewia stared into her banana split for a few seconds before taking another bite.

"And Nexi's immortal. With two freaky weird dogs that follow her around all the time." Clio wasn't sure if that was always the end result of the black blood phenomenon, but it wasn't all that appealing. That was for sure.

Aewia went over the data she had in her head as she spoke, filtering it over to Clio's mind as well. Unfortunately, that had the side effect of sending the emotional side of the memories as well and a couple of them weren't as pleasant. "Not to mention her static powers are super powered. I've been on the receiving end on that trying to calm her down. It wasn't pretty. No, I think the black blood is intended to turn what the Iconians called servitor races into Iconians. Then take in servitor race DNA to improve themselves. That's just a guess though. As for the Master and the current state of the blood... Well, you lose a lot over the course of two hundred thousand years. Plus who knows if he was a proper Iconian or a demonic Iconian... There's just so much we don't know."

"...so Nexi's an Iconian. Greaaaaaat." Clio brushed aside the emotional bits of what Aewia was 'sending' her. And while she knew that Nexi wasn't really an Iconian now, it wasn't a lot of difference between what Iconians were and what Nexi was now. "I just find it confusing that T'Pral seems to be semi-immune to it but the Master was not. And I'm not. I mean, we share some common ancestry."

"I'm sure we're all going to be affected differently." Aewia took another bite of her triple fudge banana split, savoring the flavor of the triple fudge and sending the full flavor of the fudge to Clio mentally.

Clio poked at her own ice cream, swirling some of the strawberry together with the whipped cream before eating a few bites. "It's already been different for me than for Nexi. Our exposures were different... that probably has something to do with it."

"Indeed. The Commodore, Nexi, you, and I were all infected in different ways. As for Cato, T'Pral, and Daytona, they all seem to have been infected effectively in a similar way you were from the way the medical staff were talking." Aewia waved her spoon in the air a bit in an effort to explain. "They're used to treating me like a child so they tend to let things slip now and then. Not that it would matter. I can hear all of them all the time now. Speaking of which... Why is it that I seem to be a major source of exposition for this ship?"

Aewia turned and stared at the wall behind her for a moment before shrugging and going back to her ice cream.

"Well... it probably has a lot to do with how this ship rescued you and how... odd you were before your brain was reconstructed." Clio knew how it could be, being the center of attention like that. But she also couldn't blame those who chattered about such things. "I don't know about Cato or T'Pral and their initial exposures. But Daytona was attacked by one of the hounds."

"One of Nexi's hounds, no less. His exposure levels may be higher and different because of it. Whatever happened in that lab while we were unconscious..." Aewia swirled her ice cream a bit before fishing out a bit of banana and cream and nibbling on it, her worry about that missing time almost palpable.

"I don't think we'll ever know what happened there." Clio was curious, but with everyone in the lab having been unconscious... well, finding any information would have been difficult. "Honestly, I'm not sure what happened in the prison camp either, or how long any of us were unconscious."

"Only Akira could account for all the time that elapsed and she doesn't know when everyone woke up." Aewia nodded and ate a bit more of her ice cream. "For all we know, every single crewmember is secretly infected with a delayed version and we're all screwed. Or we're all slowly being cured now that the Master is dead. Either way, we still have the same goal."

"Yeah. Cure this junk and fix Enalia. We're going to need a bigger medical staff for that." Clio shook her head slightly, pushing her half-eaten ice cream to the side. "There's maybe five people working in sickbay. I'm not sure Lieutenant Ulfred has slept since everyone started coming back to the ship."

"Technically the department has nearly one hundred people in it. The downside is that many of them are dual assigned crew between other departments. They work a couple shifts in medical and a couple shifts in their other department. Right now we're just in a position where they're all working in their other departments making repairs. The Chief Medical Officer or Captain would normally mobilize the augmentees as needed, but as the Acting CMO doesn't seem to know or have that authority..." Aewia finished her own ice cream and pushed her empty dish aside. "...we're in a bit of a cucumber, as the humans would say."

"Pickle. Bit of a pickle." Clio smiled a little. "As for mobilizing the augmentees... the acting CMO is the EMH. He can't give orders like that, I guess. And Ulfred doesn't have the authority. Enalia's off duty until Ulfred or the EMH releases her. And Mal's too busy to think of it."

"And the other three surgeons don't have the authority. That's how things stand." Aewia leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, listening to all the voices on the ship. "And all these voices are enough to drive anyone crazy if they weren't already."

"Tell me about it. Mal told me I wasn't going crazy... I wish I knew how to explain it to him." Telepaths often didn't understand such complaints. Clio knew that, but she still wanted him to understand. No, she needed him to understand, and she didn't have the right words to express it.

"I think that with just a little more power, I could show him. Let him hear all these voices. I could link all the minds on the ship, if I wanted..." Aewia was fading out for a moment before shaking her head to clear it. "It's almost mesmerizing in a way. And I think I can hear more than just the crew. I think I can hear the ship itself."

"Well if we're going down that road, I have the means to show him. But it would require weaning off a medication that prevents the telepathic bonding Cervan women are capable of forming with potential mates. I haven't told him I can do that." Clio wasn't sure why she was so hesitant to share such a detail, unless it was because some previous significant others had been so appalled by it. "As for hearing the ship, I hear her all the time. But not in my head... with my ears. Different decks sound different."

Aewia nodded and recomposed herself. "I can hear Hera with my mind now. She's taken some damage and is crying in pain, but it's subtle. More of an undertone to the gentle thrum of strength and motherhood. The pain is centered around the starboard nacelle and along the bow of the saucer where we took a few direct hits against the Master's ship."

"She should feel better once the refit is done." Some people would find this turn of conversation odd, but Clio understood it well enough. While the Hera wasn't a bioship, there was a life to her. "If we were on a Gekli or a Leviathan, I could tell you everything about how it was feeling. So it's not so farfetched for you to hear Hera the way you do."

"Yeah, while the ship may not be programmed with feelings specifically, there is research and data to support the theory that matter does feel pain and pleasure at least with the flow of energy to and from the points of contact. There's also beings like Akira. I can feel her emotions as clearly as yours." Aewia stood and returned their dishes to the replicator. "Well this is waxing more philosophical than I expected."

"I think you're entitled to be philosophical after what we've been through in the past few weeks." Clio almost couldn't believe it had been that short a time. So much had happened that it almost felt like years.

"Few weeks... Yeah..." Aewia knew it had only been a few weeks but she too thought of it more as a lifetime ago that they were arriving at Artan Orbital Fortress. "So... Is there anything else we need to do to wrap this case up for Intel Command? I think we've written all the reports we can in triplicate by now."

"Hell, I hope they haven't found anything else for me to write about. If I write one more report, my brain is going to implode." Clio was being a touch dramatic, but she knew Aewia would understand. "You know they asked me six times how exactly I killed the man? Who was there, what weapons were used, why did we use swords and not phasers... it went on for hours."

"They of all people should know that unconventional enemies mean we needed to use unconventional methods. At least we didn't need to deal with Temporal Investigations as well. Enalia is glad for that little favor as well." Aewia sighed heavily and rubbed the back of her neck as she rocked back and forth. "And that's not a thought I needed to hear, Maica..."

"Nope, you can keep that one. I don't wanna know." Clio snickered, knowing what sortof thought it likely was despite not hearing it herself. "And, yeah. You'd think they'd realize that. But they frown on an officer cutting a man's throat. Something about unbecoming conduct..."

"And yet Vulcans can go kill each other with barbaric gladiator weapons every seven years when they go into heat and want to fuck the same woman. Go figure." Aewia waved her hand in the air like it didn't even matter.

"And no one bats an eye. Because it's tradition. It's older than the Federation itself." But what Clio didn't say was that combat - and killing - were traditions for her people. The difference was that Vulcan was a member of the Federation.

"And Cervan, Klingon, Ferasan, and other traditional violence is frowned upon," Aewia replied. "So is Betazoid nudity."

"Exactly. It's a double standard, and it's not fair. It also conveniently ignores that it was Starfleet who taught me to kill and gave me license to do so." Clio shrugged slightly. None of it had ever made sense to her, how Starfleet Intelligence had extensively groomed her to do such unsavory things and then later wanted to reprimand her. "Anyway, we're getting political. Let's not."

"The mission is done and over and that's what matters. We followed orders and now it's Enalia that has to justify our methods in the end." Aewia started heading towards the door but stopped. "If there's nothing left that needs to be done today, I'm going to head out and get a shower."

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm sure there's something I've forgotten to do, but there are too many voices for me to deal with so I'm going home anyway." Clio wasn't normally the type to duck out early - or even to leave on time - but whatever this black blood had done to her brain was making work rather impossible.