Fade
By Elizabeth Carter
Part 2
Sickbay was as the trio expected, sterile and utilitarian with the scent of antiseptic in the air. Miral didn't have any expectations of Sickbay. In fact she didn't like it at all considering every few months she had to get inoculations from the funny-no smell man. He always made her nervous because he carried no scent. They were like 'No-mee's funny blue and green friends in the garden place, they didn't carry smells either. Things are supposed to smell, this was a constant in the eighteen month old's world.
The adults studied the room spotting the six bio bed and a fish tank like octagonal office where the physician could keep an eye on their patients and if needs be order the windows dark for private consultations.
"Where's the Doc?" PetaQ asked.
"Perhaps the physician is making emergency rounds. B'Elanna and myself woke on the floor, whatever it was that caused this amnesia and the unconscious state could have placed others in grave danger." Seven answered.
"Okay. I'll buy that. But this is a starship and all starships have Mark three EMH's." PetaQ pointed out. "We could call it up."
Seven rose her ocular implant the EMH should seem familiar but yet it did not. She tried to work out what exactly an EMH was. Or what the letters stood for. Again she was drawing a blank.
"Emm'H go bye-bye." Miral said.
"Emm'H?" B'Elanna asked. "Who's Emm'H?"
"Bad." Miral pouted and pointed to her arm. "Emm'H bad."
"She's a bit young." PetaQ offered, "She still has to get her baby shots."
"How do you know?" the Klingon mother demanded.
He shrugged." Commonsense. Kiddos need their shots until they are like two or something. This place is way familiar to me."
"From your breath I would imagine you've been her several times for a certain cure consisting of vitamin B-12." Seven was very candid.
PetaQ waved his hand in front of his face and wrinkled his nose as he took in the scent of his own breath. "Oops! Sorry ladies." He shrugged sheepishly. "I'll see if I can't dig up some mints." He would change the subject as he turned his attention and hopefully theirs elsewhere. "Computer where is the doctor?"
*The EMH is offline.* came a sterile reply.
"Emm'H." B'Elanna understood now, why her daughter said what she had said.
"Wait, the EMH is off line, okay Computer who is the doctor of this ship?" PetaQ said.
*Unable to comply, link to the database is off line.*
"That's just great!" B'Elanna growled. "Kah'less knows how many people are afflicted with this amnesia bit and the computer's data base is down. Computer, how many people are on this ship. Contact the bridge?"
* Unable to comply internal sensors are offline. Internal communications are offline. *
B'Elanna growled low in her throat, and as all children are want to do, Miral mimicked her mother's growl albeit a tiny sound that it was.
"Seven, I need you go to the science stations and get the computer on line and watch Miral. I need to find engineering and see what damage we incurred, I can't bring a child down there. I also want to see what attacked us out there." B'Elanna looked at the blonde man and his boyish charm. She didn't know why her child called him PetaQ but she certainly couldn't keep calling him that. She'd have to find out his name or a more suitable one, for now however B'Elanna would improvise "You." she pointed to the male. "I need you to take a census of how many people are hurt. Find the Bridge, see if you can find the Captain. I also need you to see to first aid to any who might need it. And enlist help if you can. We need to know how this happened, how to repair it."
"How do you know you're not the Captain?" PetaQ asked. "You seemed to take charge easily."
"Because I know I am a lieutenant." the Klingon said evenly.
"How do you know I am not the Captain?" He rocked back and forth on his feet his boyish face still grinning widely.
"Because .... you're just not." B'Elanna replied. "I don't know how I know, I just know."
The human seemed to take her words for truth. "Okay boss. Should we meet some place?" PetaQ asked.
"There must be a briefing room, I think before we split up fully we should head there, they might have more intel. Bridges are usually heavily shielded they might not have been afflicted. But we need the computer back online, ASAP." B'Elanna answered.
"That will be my first priority." Seven responded.
The male wandered over to the blonde, truth be told, the Klingon woman scared him, the lanky human girl however, he thought was more his speed. He liked them 'tamer' ladies not the aggressive sort. He wanted to be the hero not the other way around. With the Klingon he figured he'd always be at odds with her powerful personality, and she never needed rescuing. He wouldn't even try but the blonde ...now that was different. She even looked the part of a damsel in distress.
"How can you fix a computer, do you know how?" he asked her.
"Yes." she answered simply. "I know I have such knowledge. I am efficient." her voice dropped to a chilled monotone, that surprised even her. "The computer's resistance to being repaired is futile."
'The blonde not such an easy mark after all.....' Was the first thing that popped into the man's head. He figured that getting close to her as he wanted could be dangerous to his health. He looked at the child that was now in her arms. Dusky blonde and blue eyed....was this Seven a mother to the girl as well? It was just as well, he didn't even know if he was married or had a girl, best not think of such things until he found out who he was. He did know one thing, his name wasn't PetaQ despite what the munchkin said.
B'Elanna stepped up to the tall blonde, again her mind was flooded with familiarity and a heady scent. Smell was the most powerful trigger to memory. The first clear memory she had was of this nordic goddess proclaiming her strength, her prowess in Engineering just before she bit her. She recalled the flood of passion and desire taking her. 'She is my mate.... I recall her claiming me hers. She bit me...' for a moment B'Elanna was caught up in the memory, as she touched her cheek, hoping to feel a faint scar left by the ritual bite. ' Kah'less her scent burns within me, stirs the fires... ' shaking her head to clear the haze of want, B'Elanna touched the arm of the woman, before she stroked the soft hair of her child. "You'll be okay with her?"
"Of course." Seven smiled. The smile faded as the vision in her eye shifted once more. She could pick up the accelerated heart rate of her mate, the increased respiration, there was more, it seemed that B'Elanna's temperature fluctuated as did Miral's. "You are not well." Seven said.
"Of course I am not well Blondie, amnesia check.... lost memories?" there was an almost hostile edge to her voice, but she calmed it in seeing the deep concern reflected in the blue eyes.
"You're cold." Seven said bluntly.
"These ships are always cold." B'Elanna shrugged, "I never feel warm on ships," she frowned. "At least I think I never do."
Seven edged closer to the woman she was becoming more and more convinced was her mate. "They are set to human standards, not Klingon. I suspect the light is far too bright for you as well."
B'Elanna shrugged once more "I've learned to adapt, I must have right? I am in a military of some sort, I've had to adapt. Besides 'if' Miral and I are the only Klingons, I doubt the humans would want to adjust the thermostats to Klingon norms."
Seven had to admit she found her body adapting to the chill in the air as well somehow she thought shed feel more at home with a bit more humidity. And the ambient light was far brighter than what she might consider comfortable but they did fall into acceptable parameters. Besides. There was something within her that told her discomfort was irrelevant, she would adapt.
"Lieutenant, I think I should check and see if there are any emergencies." PetaQ commented, well more like he asked permission. Though he found the smaller woman beautiful, she still frightened him. She seemed far too aversive and too aggressive and he had some vague notion the Klingons were very volatile. Besides the kid growled at him, he did not want to get on this woman's bad side.
"Good idea, go ahead." B'Elanna nodded her consent. She watched the human male collect an emergency field kit then depart the Sickbay. Once he was gone she turned her attention back to Seven.
"How...how did you know I was cold?"
All the blonde did was touch her left eye, it was explanation enough for the displaced engineer. She would find herself smiling and on impulse she reached up to take the full lips into a kiss. In that taste she felt her hearts hammer hard against her sternum, her breath catch her whole being flooded with pure wanton desire. If not for the presence of her daughter, B'Elanna knew she would have slammed the blonde against the bulk head with her rampant want.
Seven moaned her need, her want, her lust for this small warrior. She felt herself giving into all the power before her. If not for the child in her arms she would have clutched the Klingon to her and reenacted the faded memory in her mind of her claim.
"Kah'less on a crutch!" B'Elanna breathed. "If I forgot that, damn me to Grethor!"
Seven or rather now that they were alone Soch grinned widely. "Then I'm with you, BangwI." the word fell so easily from her lips that it was purely natural. As if it was something she had always wanted to say, longed to say and now could. Her breath was still rapid and deep. How could she ever forget something as powerful as one of B'Elanna's kisses. "I am sorry." Seven said.
"What for?" Dread fear was something a Klingon never accepted. It now filled B'Elanna to the core. She despised this feeling and she could feel her defensive anger ready to pounce.
"I can't recall you ever kissing me. I want to ...."Seven lamented, she lay her forehead against B'Elanna's. "I'm sorry for me...for you.. I can't remember." hot tears fell from her right eye.
"Oh...Ben'el. It's okay. Really. It's okay.. It kinda felt like a first kiss for me too. Okay?"
Seven nodded meekly, it was not an emotion she was at all familiar with. "I want to remember."
"So do I. But hey we figured out we belong together right? And what the hell new first times are rare. So we can explore all the new first times for a second time. Hell we might have been in a Lesbian bed-death and this is a way to totally rekindle all that passion."
This made Seven laugh. A light lyrical sound that delighted B'Elanna to no end.
Seven's voice called out commanding the turbolift to remain closed and holding. "B'Elanna if we were attacked, the culprit might attempt to hide themselves amongst the crew posing as one of us and further tamper with the computer records."
"Clever thinking Sev, I would if I was infiltrating an enemy cell. Slip my personal data into the crew manifest, assimilate myself into their crew to carry out whatever act I was there to do."
"Command staff personnel would be a logical role to assume, one with influence." Seven added.
"So not exactly the captain. But first or second officer or better yet security chief." B'Elanna thought aloud. "Chief Engineer and Chief Science Officer as well should be suspect."
Seven only nodded. "When we saw the blueprints of the ship I saw a large Astrometrics lab, we need to investigate this area as well as some of the computers are independent from the ship's mainframe, instead of going to the bridge we may wish to start there. There were aspects of the ships schematics that did not seem to be of original design."
"Yeah I noted that." B'Elanna said. Then tapped her head, " For some reason despite their superior components, there are some elements to my ship I find almost annoying. Something to do with green and black."
"'Your ship'?" Seven quirked a smile as she adjusted the child in her arms.
"Astrometrics." the blonde ordered the lift to a new destination.
"It's just a saying." B'Elanna shrugged. "Isn't it?"
"Your ship? You knew if the warpcore is misaligned by a fraction.... perhaps YOU are the Chief Engineer." Seven suggested.
The turbolift stopped, swooshed open its doors giving all three occupants a free and clear shot to the lab.
"If I am how could allow something like this to happen to this old girl?" the Klingon patted the bulkhead of the ship as they were walking now towards Astrometrics.
"Perhaps you were otherwise occupied." Seven hinted.
"Now see 'that's' something I would never want to forget.'" A possessive hand went around the waist of the blonde. The girl in Seven's arms smiled a wide baby-toothed smile and clapped her little hands. She liked this closeness between her SoS'Oy and Sosh. Things just felt right.
Seven stepped closer the heady musk of the Klingon filling her nostrils. She was all too aware of the other woman's arousal. The increased heart rate, dilated eyes and increase in body temperature aside. "We can arrange a rekindling of memories later." the blonde smiled once more.
B'Elanna had to concentrate on something else, every time the blonde was in her vicinity all she wanted to do was embrace her feral side slam the woman up against a bulk head and claim her. Stov-o-kor forbid they would work in the same area for long. B'Elanna may not recall everything, but she knew her instinct, either she'd follow her desire and claim the blonde as her own or she would fight with her. Of course the fight was a preamble to proclaiming her intentions, her aggressive side might be seen to the outside eye as pure hostility, what it was, was a challenge for her potential mate to mock fight back. It would forever fuel the energy of the Klingon heart.
"Here let me take her for a while, I know she can be an armful, can't you wa'Hom?" she opened her arms and Miral all put leapt into her mother's embrace . She snuggled into her neck and smiled as her mother's scent filled her. It was the first scent Miral recognized after her birth. The second was her Sosh. Both became immediately imprinted upon the baby's mind, there after anyone who was NOT these two woman had a difficult time getting to the infant without some sort of growling tearful protest.
Klingon babies never cried as they were born, an instinctual genetic trait of a race of warriors for a crying child could give away their mother's location on the battlefield. Another survival instinct was scent imprinting. The mother was always first, but should she die on the battlefield , out of survival the one who helped birth the child was also imprinted.
A doctor to be present during birth wasn't always practical and even when it was a Klingon woman preferred to give birth with a member of her House if not her mate as the delivery partner, someone she trusted without question to help protect her young. In Miral's case it had been Seven of Nine to help B'Elanna give birth on a shuttlecraft. Seven who had helped bring Miral into the world. With her mother's scent so heady in the babe's nostrils it was the very first thing that became imprinted as was the sound of her voice.
The second scent that was powerful and strong was that of another female. To a Klingon infant her mind, her very instinctual core imprinted this second scent, this second sound as safe, as protection. This scent protected SoS and so Miral bonded with it. It was weeks before anyone else other than B'Elanna or Seven could even hold the babe without her protesting. The second scent that was safe and no threat was another child. Later to be called, No-me. A few males had tried but each time Miral let them know under no uncertain terms would not she allow it. Her cries of protest were stilled once the males handed the girl back to SoS or Sosh.
It was difficult to hang onto a baby when they screamed, growled and waved their arms and try to kick with their feet. Everyone soon gave up wanting to hold her and just touched her cheek or smiled making cute noises. Miral however would soon allow others to hold her but only when she felt secure in the world around her. Even now there were a few people she avoided and moved away from out of instinct. She was very brave when hiding behind her mother's or her Sosh's legs. Here she could posture and growl because Miral knew she was safe. One of her favorite males was of course, Nee. He had fur on his spotted face she loved to nuzzle against because it was like the fur of Toby the Targ. Plus he made her giggle and had yummy things to eat. Nee, Miral thought was a good scent, and good scents she tended to trust. She liked staying with Nee when SoS had to work.
At the same moment Seven and B'Elanna woke in the lieutenant's quarters somewhere on several decks above others woke:
"The Prophets eyes be damned." the young Bajoran cursed as she sat up in the king-sized bed she had been sprawled. "One hell of a party, too much grog." she moaned holding her pounding head. It was only then that she realized she wasn't the only occupant in this plush setting. A soft smoky voice moaned from somewhere beneath the layers of blankets.
"Damn, I get laid and I don't even remember her name." Of course the sensation wasn't altogether unfamiliar there had been the woman knew a few one night stands, it was common in the Resistance.....in that ....Maquis ...........what in the Prophets was the Maquis? Needing and wanting a night's fuck seemed familiar... so did this bed in a vague half recalled dream sort of way. The woman felt as if her brain was slamming against the hull of her skull and any given moment it would explode. "Yeah there's a happy thought."
The woman turned back the covers from the other occupant in her bed well she was claiming it her's since she woke in it, and found a red headed woman with regal if not handsome features.
And very human. She seemed to be in her forties though there wasn't a true harsh line on her face nor graying hairs, well not many. The younger woman grinned thinking she had snagged herself one hell of a dame. Even in sleep this one had fire in her blood. Perhaps not as blatant as a Klingon female, but close enough to a Bajoran revolutionary that brunette found herself smirking. She cold of course bed anyone weak blooded and without backbone. She liked her woman with ovaries of titanium.
"A doll, but I still don't know who she is." the woman frowned. "Fuck who the hell am I? Okay note to who ever the hell I am drinking Romulan wine served by a Ferengi bartender NOT A GOOD THING! Rots the brain cells......shit I must have done something more than Romulan ale if I lost my memory."
Of course there might be an answer as to who she was, from the Sleeping Beauty. "Hey." The woman jostled the sleeping red head.
There was unintelligible mutter.
"Hey beautiful." the Bajoran tried once more.
Again a mutter. And the brunette huffed in barely contained patience.
"RED ALERT!"
That got the older woman's attention she bounded off the bed, tripped over the coverlet and landed on her nude backside on the floor. Her steel blue eyes glowering as she took in the dark chocolate of the naked woman in the large bed with a force ten glare.
The Bajoran chuckled. "Sorry Red, but I couldn't wake you up."
"Headache." were Red's next words.
"Nail through the skull type?"
"Yeah." Red groaned. A moment later she would find her way to the bed, her blue-gray eyes resting on the vibrant naked woman before her and it then hit her two things. One she too was naked, and second she had no idea who her apparent lover was. Okay make that four things. 'apparently I'm gay, and I have no idea who that is.'
"Um not to sound like a complete bitch and cunt user but who are you?" the Bajoran asked bluntly. "I hate the 'C' word by the way, but....."
Red smiled. "I was about to ask you the same question, but I don't think I was going to phrase it quite so..."
"Lewdly."
"Yes that's the word." Red was still smiling
The Bajoran simply shrugged, but didn't excuse herself. As she had in her ears already done that.
"Red, I hate to say it but I don't know who you are more than I know who I am."
The already pale features whitened to a ghastly shade of blue. "Neither do I." it was a whisper.
"Okay that's not normal." the Bajoran said. "I think we better find out what is going on. Who the hell we are and in the Prophets voices where the hell we are."
"I concur." Red nodded. "Priority one, I suggest we find clothing."
"Good point, Red." The younger woman rose from the bed, not concerned for the nakedness of her lithe and toned body. Red wasn't so free she clutched the sheet to her chest but watched as her for lack of a better term room mate picked up what looked like wine red leather pants, a soft silk shirt she had found on her side of the bed and started to put them on. They fit snugly but comfortably, Red admired the view. Only after the Bajoran had dressed did red take note of her own garments. White denim jeans a dark blue linen button down blouse that seemed to pick up the blue highlights in her grey eyes. From the way they were carelessly tossed about the room she gathered whatever had happened between them last night was of wild abandon, something she didn't want to have lost memory of.
Damn but she wanted her memory back. But of course it might be fun trying to remember all over again, if her young lover was game. From the lecherous grin on the brunette's face that was all too possible.
"Come on Red, lets go see who we are." Bajoran commanded. "I say we drop by Sickbay."
"Sickbay?" Red looked around her and it was the first time she noticed she was on a starship, apparently in warp from the white light trails out side the porthole windows. Given the poshness and still utilitarianism of the quarters, apparently they were in an officer's quarters.
But who was the officer? Or were they both? Perhaps her young rouge was of the command staff she certainly carried herself as if she was in command. Given the circumstances it was likely that Red herself was on a position of a high office and the facade she saw on her Rogue was a command mask for the uncertainty of the situation.
"I need coffee first." Red commented.
"Ratajino." Rouge as Red had nicknamed her said, "Klingon coffee tastes better and it's stronger."
"So you like Klingons?" there was a curious look to Red's eyes.
"I don't know." Rogue shrugged. "I just know I like ratajino."
"Good enough for me." Red went into the kitchen ensuite and ordered two cups of ratajino from the replicator. Rogue was right, Red discovered after her first sip, ratajino was strong. Just the way she liked it, just the way she liked her women.