What Friends Do

Posted on Sat Jan 12th, 2019 @ 1:01am by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: Deck 11, Holodeck
Timeline: 2395

Standing outside of the doors to the holodeck, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe "Melanie" Dox was nervous. It had only been a few days since she had been trapped within the walls of this room along with Commander Rita Paris and Doctor Asa Dael. Trapped within a recreation of the 23rd century Starship Exeter. by what they believed to be a fragment of a cosmic Titan.

Before Dox had been assigned to the Hera, the ship had been trapped in an dark matter Ion storm that was, in reality, the body of one of these ancient cosmic entities. It had at that point used the ship's holographic systems to test the crew in a variety of strange ways. They now believed that a piece of that titan may have become trapped in the ship's holodeck, and had begun using the programs to try to call attention to it's plight- to call for help.

The trio of officers promised to help, and offered the being their friendship. As for Dox, she knew she needed to prove that with more than just words. Still, it was a frightening concept to contemplate, having once before barely survived a god-being rifling through her mind. She felt herself frozen for what felt like an eternity at the door.

The anxious part-Romulan pilot straightened the crimson tunic of her uniform, took a long, slow breath and walked up to the control panel.

"Computer. Ten-Forward lounge of the U.S.S Hera. Empty of personnel. Begin." With a chirp, the doors opened and Dox stepped into a perfect holographic replica of the HERA's own recreational lounge.

When they had become trapped before, they began with an empty replica of the Exeter that the entity took over, filling with characters that it tried using to communicate with. Dox walked over to a seat near the windows, thinking that if the entity wanted to talk, this might be the way to instigate that.

"Hello. It's me, Mnhei'sahe." In the original scenario, Rita Paris introduced Dox with her true, Romulan first name. It was a leap of faith that she felt best to go with, and one that felt more and more right to her. "I thought I'd come and see if you wanted to talk."

The room was silent, so Dox sat down and waited. "This... This room is called 'Ten-Forward'. The real version isn't actually that far from here. We come here to relax and talk with our friends when our duties have been done for the day. And since I'm now off duty... it seemed... appropriate."

The simulated lounge was calm and peaceful. All Dox could hear was the ever present hum of the ships engines. As she sat, wondering if she was talking to an empty room, she heard a hiss as a young Romulan woman stepped out from the back of the bar area. She was dressed in a servers uniform, with a Starfleet badge on her chest and walked over with a PaDD to take an order, smiling pleasantly.

"Good evening, Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe. Would you care for something to drink?" The woman seemed somehow familiar to Dox, thought she couldn't place the face. But it was clear that the entity was making it's presence known and, like in the Exeter similation, creating characters to interact through.

"Just a water, please. And whatever you'd like. Thank you." Dox replied, gesturing to the seat opposite her.

Tapping at the PaDD in her hand, the server smiled absently. A glass of water beamed into being in front of the puzzled pilot, as the young civilian server looked curiously at the Starfleet officer. Then a squarish tumbler of hand blown clear glass materialized opposite her, a quarter filled with pale blue liquid, which was apparently not very watered down if at all. The tumbler looked like the one she'd seen her mother use to test ale when they ran it, which was often in her teen years. It was where she had learned her own knowledge of the finer vintages of Kali-Fal, what the rest of the galaxy called Romulan Ale.

Sliding into the seat opposite the redhead, the young woman with the dark pointy bangs, asymmetrical bob haircut whose almond eyes were not that dissimilar to Melanie's own sat down. Picking up the tumbler, she swirled it under her nose, and Dox realized why she looked familiar.

This was her cousin, the Kali-Fal smuggler, Lhi. Her name meant 'a game of wits and riddles', and her mother had been remarkably cautious when dealing with her. But this was part of the smuggler's ritual- each shared a taste of the same drink, to insure quality and forestall treachery. She had only met the distant relative once, and they had not even spoken directly. But this was her, from her memories, taking a sip from her mother's cup, before placing it deliberately before the young officer so far removed from the girl she'd been then.

It was a trust exercise, Dox felt. The entity could pull all of this from her mind, and likely felt her anxiety. But the young officer was committed to overcoming her fears and helping however she could. Without hesitation, she picked up the glass and took a drink.

The ale was strong and clearly not a syntholic creation. Although her skilled palate could tell it was a replication. A good one, however.

"It's good, thank you Lhi." Dox replied with a smile, speaking now in fluent Rihan, the Romulan dialect she knew the real Lhi spoke as well. It made her feel slightly more comfortable to do so and she hoped the entity would sense that.

"I'm glad you came, it's good to see you." Dox spoke, in truth, to both the Entity and the image of a long lost relation. "How have you been?"

"Good," the hologram replied, seemingly pleased at the shared drink, the accepted offer. "I'm going back home soon, looking forward to being back where I belong," the server who wore her cousin's face said. "What about you? Are you going home soon?"

Relaxing slightly, Dox looked out the simulated window into the streaking images of stars. "I feel like... this is home, for me. I think... I hope I belong here. On the Hera."

Turning back, Dox was momentarily startled at the sight of an empty chair where the image of Lhi had just been. All around her, the simulation of Ten-Forward had begun to bustle with activity.

Some were crewmembers that she half-recognized from about the ship, some were faces she remembered from past postings on Starbases. Others still were familiar in ways that she couldn't place. But regardless of if the images presented at Starfleet or civilian, they all wore Starfleet comm badges.

Feeling nothing particularly wrong, Dox nevertheless knew the entity was in her mind pulling faces from her memory and the thought of it caused a ball of anxiety in her stomach to begin to twist slightly.

The guy who had turned her down junior year when she had asked him to prom walked by, looking at her nervously. Which, oddly enough, didn't increase the tension in her innards, her soul not tying itself into a tighter knot as her anxiety was wont to do. Instead, she felt- exactly, precisely as much tension as that memory caused. No more. No less. Which was so rare for her, that the realization of that fact eased her tension slightly.

Thinking on the feelings, they felt like a reflection. The memory of pain only, preserved in Amber. The first, a memory of family not seen in years was positive. This, of unrequited affection, negative. "Is this what you're feeling, too?" She asked to nobody in particular in English again, standing up as the room seemed to ignore her.

"Unrequited..." She muttered out loud. "Do you need us... want us to feel differently?" Then a thought occurred to her.

"Not us... me. You can feel what I'm feeling. And you feel my anxiety, don't you? You feel that I'm... afraid and... friends shouldn't be afraid." The thought made Dox feel shameful.

From behind, she heard the voice of her Mother, speaking in Rihan. "Are you even your own friend, Mnhei'sahe?"

As she turned around, the room shimmered as the image of Ten-Forward was replaced bay a small, sun-lit room. Her dorm room in San Francisco at Starfleet academy. Standing in the middle of the room was Jaeih Dox, Melanie's mother. Standing next to her, was an image of Melanie herself as she appeared when she attended the academy.

Looking at the image of her younger self, the young part-Romulan pilot was taken aback. Her hair was longer and pulled back into a large, messy bun. Her skin was a paler shade of pink and her ears were rounded at the top as the restorative work that Doctor Dael had completed to restore her Romilan appearance was years away.

"Why don't you like her?" Her mother asked, gesturing to the image of the younger Dox.

Stepping slightly back, Dox was confused but tried to form an answer. "I don't... I don't... I didn't know who I was then. Who I wanted to be. I... don't know if I do now."

Then, she thought she might at least in part understand. "I was broken. I still am, at least partially. I wasn't complete. But I'm trying to be. You're broken, too. In pieces, right?"

"I don't... I don't... I didn't know who I was then. Who I wanted to be. I... don't know if I do now," her earlier self replied, explaining through the experiences of another.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'." Melanie sighed lightly, starting to at least thing she understood. "This me... This is Melanie, I guess. She was a part of me that I learned to hate. I'm trying not to do that anymore. It's... okay to not know who you are sometimes. You can rediscover it every day. That's what I'm trying to do. My friends are helping me. Rita and Asa."

Dox looked at the image of her mother. "Even her. And I guess I'm scared to find out if I can like myself. It got... comfortable... to hate who I was. Easy."

"Maybe we can help each other... figure out who we are today." She looked up towards the room in general, not at the figures before her.

Standing in the still room, Dox waited for some kind of a reply in silence. It seemed as if the entity didn't know how to communicate directly and Dox hoped she was interpreting it correctly.

After a long moment, the images shimmered, leaving Dox standing in the plain black and yellow grid of the holodeck. Standing before was just the image of her former self.

"But I'm trying to be." It said, mimicking Dox's words from earlier before vanishing itself.

Standing alone, Dox didn't know what to think. Did she help the entity or hurt it more? She hoped it was the better of the two.

"I'll come back... maybe tomorrow." She turned towards the door and stepped forward, but the door didn't open.

Turning over her shoulder, Dox looked around and said softly, "I promise."

After a few silent seconds, the door wooshed open. With a slight smile on her face, the young Officer stepped into the corridor as the doors closed behind her.


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