Cerulean Stars - Chapter 71

Cerulean Stars - Chapter 71

Stardate 48221.4 - March 22, 2371 - 19:27:00

There were a number of things Raine was dreading now that she had melded with the Great Link. 

The days worth of paperwork where she would have to spell out in exacting detail everything she experienced, which was a lot harder than someone who has never experienced psychic contact would likely think, since it involved putting words to things that in some cases just straight up didn't have words capable of describing them was probably the biggest of course.

Slightly less was the fact she was going to have to try and contact one of her old academy instructors and ask them to come down and give her head a proper outside perspective look over. Which would likely involve a several hours lecture over subspace about how she wasn't, and shouldn't try to be, Spock.

While least of all was being temporarily relieved from duty till she could get a medical workup done, the medical workup she was putting off out of embarrassment, and a number of other minor petty annoyances that she just knew were going to result from this once word got around, case in point.

“A cupcake.” Raine said, staring at the pink frosted confectionery Jadzia was presenting to her from across the small mess hall table.

“I would have done a cake.” Jadzia returned with an innocent 'what can you do’ shrug. “But the Defiant's replicators didn't have any on file.”

“It has little frosting tentacles.” Raine deadpanned, knowing with absolute certainty what the Trill woman was implying.

“It's to celebrate your momentous First Contact.” Jadzia confessed, biting her bottom lip to keep from giggling.

“This is for the comment about your hair isn't it?” Raine inquired as she accepted the frosted treat with a sigh, taking her friend's good natured ribbing for what it was.

“I have no idea what you're talking about.” Jadzia shot back innocently as she brushed her ponytail back with a hand. 

“Suuuure.” Raine singsonged before going back to staring at her half empty cup of tea with a sigh. “So how’s it going? The Jem’Hadar still following us.”

“Last I was on the bridge.” Jadiza confirmed with a nod as she started eating her dinner. “Benjamin seems to think they’re going to do so all the way back to the wormhole.”

That was probably a safe bet, Iris hadn't seemed too happy about letting them go, but Raine knew it hadn't exactly been up for debate once Odo had made his choice. After all, the only other option at that point had been killing them all and holding Odo prisoner.

“Still probably would have been better to return under cloak.” Raine said, staring at the cupcake and mentally debating if it would be worth the additional ribbing to eat.

“It's blue chocolate.” Jadzia innocently informed her, hiding a very obvious smile behind a bite of salad.

“That's cheating.” Raine muttered sulkily, picking up her fork and scooping out a bite.

“So what are you still doing here?” Jadzia inquired once they both finished. “I figured you'd be jumping to be cleared so you could get back to work.

“I'm waiting till Doctor Bashir gets off shift.” Raine confessed with a grimace, having done her level best to avoid the man when it came to a specific parts of the workup she was going to ask be done.

“What's wrong with Julian?” Jadzia inquired with a pout.

“Nothing.” Raine told her with a wince. “He's one of the best Doctors I know, I just don't want him doing my gynecological scans.”

“Ahhh.” Jadzia murmured, her eyes glinting in sudden understanding. “You want to make sure Saya's not getting a surprise little sister.”

“Yup.” Raine confirmed. “Starfleet medical recalibrated my birth control after I had her, and I didn't do the thing. But that's no reason to take chances when dealing with a questionably corporeal race.”

“The thing?” Jadzia asked her in interest.

“The thing.” Raine repeated once more with a solemn nod.

Jadzia shot her an unamused glare, and Raine all but immediately broke into giggles.

“It's like a mental switch.” Raine explained once she stopped, a close enough analogy given the actual feeling of it. “I've never purposefully flipped it, but every time I meld with someone there's the mental equivalent of a little light on it drawing my attention to tell me I could if I wanted too.”

“Have I mentioned how unfair your species is lately?” Jadzia said as she crossed her arms under her breasts and shot Raine a pout. 

“Yes, well, it comes with downsides.” Raine returned, leaning back in her chair and shooting the Trill woman an impish look. “For example, I assume we had to invent dicks from scratch.”

Jadzia broke completely at that.

“Oh you're awful.” She got out in between laughs. 

“Mind.” Raine continued once Jadzia had calmed down, wondering how what she was about to say would translate into the Trill language. “There was also the occasional vampire.”

“Vampire?” Jadzia inquired, shooting the Asari an odd look.

“It’s a rare genetic condition.” Raine informed her, having warned Starfleet medical about the condition just in case an Ardat-Yakshi ever showed up. “I couldn’t tell you any of the science behind it since I was a kid when I learned about the subject. But basically Asari with the condition would kill the people they melded with and then become slightly stronger psychically each time they did.”

“How would that even work?” Jadzia asked, tilting her head slightly as she no doubt tried to put scientific logic to something that had been created for video game narrative reasons.

“Space magic.” Raine offered with an amused shrug.

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“Please state the nature of the medical emergency.” 

“Hi Robert!” Raine greeted the EMH with a jaunty wave.

“Commander Brooks.” Robert returned with a sigh as he looked over the empty medical bay. “Is there an emergency? Or is this just another of your 'someone to talk to’ attempts.”

“I need a full medical check done.” Raine informed him in a somewhat apologetic tone. “Up to and including a full gynecological workup.”

“And the reason for that?” Robert prodded her as he walked over to pull a medical tricorder out of its charging station. 

“Possible reproductive contact during a first contact situation.” Raine confessed with an embarrassed flush of her cheeks.

“Yes, I suppose that would do it.” Robert mused as he motioned for her to lay down on one of the biobeds. 

“Suffice it to say.” He continued as she hopped up on the biobed and laid down. “Such contact is very much against Starfleet recommended inter-species protocol.”

“Perils of being a mono-gendered species that reproduces through psychic contact.” Raine offered as Robert began running through the biobeds scanning protocol.

“I wouldn't know.” Robert returned dryly. “Did we receive any medical files from the species you were in contact with?”

“No.” Raine told him, twitching slightly as the biobeds sensors cycled through the graviton spectrum. “But they were the same species as Security Chief Odo, so you should be able to reference his species files if anything odd comes up.”

“Did this Odo also have contact with them?” Robert inquired as he opened up the tricorder and began typing something into it.

“Yes.” Raine told him, frowning slightly at the sudden realization that the only way the EMH wouldn't know that was if Odo had yet to get himself checked out. “I'll make sure to remind him to get a workup done.”

“Please do.” Robert said.

“You know.” Raine mused half to herself as the EMH continued to work. “I'll never understand why so many officers object to keeping their medical records up to date.”

“A true mystery of the ages.” Robert added in drolly. “Though if you ever figure it out, make sure to enter it into the Federation medical database so the rest of us Doctors will be able to stop asking.”

“Well, it seems congratulations are in order Commander.” He continued as Raine's heart started racing and her stomach dropped out from under her. “Because if you were any other corporeal species you'd likely be dead right now.”

Raine clutched her chest in sudden relief, shooting the Hologram a glare for what had to have been purposeful phrasing just to mess with her. At which point she realized she should probably pay attention to the more important part of what he had just told her.

“I'd likely be dead!?” She demanded as she sat up and shot the EMH a glare that all but directly said he better explain.

“Your neural pathways are showing signs of subcellular degradation of a type that's most often observed in psychics who've just been through some sort of extreme stressor event.” Robert explained. “Given the high level of Asari neural plasticity, I'd say if a Vulcan had tried what you did it's likely I'd be performing an autopsy right now instead of suggesting you stay overnight for a full neuro-regenerative treatment course.”

“All right.” Raine agreed, laying back down on the biobed as she gave a mental fist pump at Asari biology once more, handing her a win. “And the other thing?”

“I'm ninety percent certain you are not in fact pregnant.” Robert told her with a smile as he began pulling out bits of equipment from the medbay's storage lockers.

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Stardate 48221.6 - March 22, 2371 - 21:12:00

Somehow things had ended up worse than Benjamin Sisko had hoped, yet still better than he had feared. Though he rather suspected Starfleet command would feel differently given the knowledge that the Founders were shapeshifters.

The door to his ready room chimed.

“Come in.”

It swished open at his words, revealing Sub-commander T'Rul who walked through the doorway to take a position in front of this desk.

“Sub-commander.” He greeted the woman a he clasped his hands in front of himself and leaned back slightly in this chair. “What can I help you with?”

“Commander Sisko.” T'Rul returned with an acknowledging tilt of her head. “I wished to know how long it will be till my people can expect copies of your crew's reports on the Founders?”

Of course it was that Sisko thought to himself, wondering just how it was that Brooks seemed to get on so well with the Romulan woman.

“The Major will probably have hers done by tomorrow.” He told her, the Bajoran woman, having already told him that she was going to spend the night writing it up. “Commander Brooks however is being treated in medical for after effects of her mind-meld, so expect a couple days for hers.”

That had been a surprising message to get from the ship's holographic doctor, though he was relieved to hear Brooks hadn't just tried to plow through like a lot of officers he knew.

“And Security Chief Odo's?” T'Rul inquired.

“Probably by the end of the week.” Sisko admitted with a sigh, really wishing, and not for the first time, that Odo was better about following Starfleet procedures. 

“In that case.” T’Rul went on. “If you don't mind me asking Commander, what was your personal opinion of the Founders?”

Sisko held back a grimace at that as he tried to figure out just how diplomatic he wanted to be.

“I got the feeling that they didn’t like us very much.” He finally told her. “And I don’t mean the Federation, or the Bajorans, but other species in general.”

He began drumming his fingers on his knee, mentally weighing whether Starfleet would object to what he was about to share, before deciding it was unlikely they’d want that particular observation kept secret.

“To be honest, I’m not even sure they see us as people.”

“Oh, not in the Borg sense.” He quickly corrected so there wouldn’t be any misunderstanding on that front. “More in the sense that to them I was just Commander, Kira was just Major, while with Odo and Raine they actually referred to the two by name.”

“So you suspect it was only those capable of mental contact with them that they were willing to consider on an equal level?” T’Rul floated as her brow furrowed in thought.

“That was the sense I got.” Sisko confirmed tiredly, hoping Brooks or Odo’s eventual reports might prove him wrong. “Which doesn’t paint a very rosy picture for future diplomatic efforts.”

“I believe you humans have a saying that would apply here.” T’Rul returned with a smirk. “Speak softly but carry a big stick.”

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Author’s Notes: Jadzia really is the most dangerous kind of friend to have.