Miranda, Part 1
Posted on Wed Nov 28, 2018 @ 9:57am by Commander Caleb Ryan
Edited on on Tue Dec 11, 2018 @ 10:06am
1,430 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
Doors of Perception
Location: USS Nemesis/Ash’s quarters
Timeline: MD01 0700
Ash stood in his darkened quarters, staring out the window. Wearing only black Starfleet issue boxer briefs, his body was bathed in the light from the Theta Tau nebula that the Nemesis was approaching. “Not long now,” Ash murmured quietly.
A stirring in the back of his brain caught his attention. He pressed his hand to the window, as if reaching out to someone, and closed his eyes.
Morning, Selina.
She wouldn’t hear his words, of course, not at this distance from Earth, but she would feel him, feel his thoughts for her. He felt her back and sighed. He couldn’t help but miss his girlfriend, but also was aware of his own sense of...relief at having escaped the bonds of fatherhood and relationship by returning to the Nemesis and his undercover work. The relationship was...complicated, and had been from the start. There was undeniable chemistry between he and Selina, but they had both been in relationships at the time. When they had finally given into their passion, her boyfriend dumped her, and Ash’s girlfriend had been killed. And then came Salonia. Kidnapped and tortured by the Salonian Inquisitor Thall Bos, Ash had used his gifts to take Selina’s pain into his own body, keeping her from breaking. His torture at the hands of Enrily Graeca had given him a much higher tolerance for the pain, though hers added to his own had nearly broken him. What it had also done was bond him and Selina on a fundamental, empathic and telepathic level, thanks to that damn rogue Vulcan gene in his DNA. And then they discovered that Bos had done more than just torture. He had used Ash to impregnate Selina with twins, twins of his and Selina’s, but with Salonian DNA from Bos as well, a twisted effort to create a “new Salonian” and jumpstart the species’ radiation-neutered genome. Selina had left Starfleet to return to Earth to have the babies, and Ash had run clear to the other side of the quadrant to avoid the responsibilities. He hadn’t even been back to Earth to see the twins, though he and Selina called occasionally.
Face it, Ash. You wouldn’t want you as a father… he thought to himself. You would just make things worse. Or are you just pants-shitting terrified? Ash couldn’t think of his own father without intense hatred. He had nearly killed the man when he was thirteen for drunkenly trying to bed his sister. Selina was better off on Earth. She didn’t have family or friends there, but Ransom and Fenna would keep an eye on her, and he knew Rina was ecstatic to have baby cousins. Analeigh would help, too.
Strong arms slid around Ash’s bare torso, and Ash rested his hands on the soft synth-skin, idly tracing a finger around one of the mini holo-projector ports built into the arm. If he closed his eyes, he could possibly ignore the translucent synthskin and the duranium bones showing through and pretend they were real. But then he would realize he couldn’t get a psychic reading through touching them and be jolted into reality at just what the woman holding her was.
His greatest regret.
“You are thinking about Markham,” came the Romulan accented voice of the woman behind him, Romulan, but also, if one listened close, something slightly...artificial.
“I try and connect with her everyday,” Ash said, turning in Rilasa’s arms, gazing into her green eyes. Her hair was red, cut in a short, spiky pixie cut, and she wore only black panties and tank top, her legs the same translucent synthskin, holo-ports, and duranium bones and synthetic muscles as her arms. “I miss your long hair,” he said, running his hands into it.
“Then maybe you shouldn’t have killed me.”
Ash’s heart hurt, but she kissed him, deeply and passionately, as only the mix of love and resentment could bring. Rilasa had been the first woman he’d loved deeply and sincerely, but it had all been a lie. He had been undercover and used her to get access to her father, Enrily Graeca, a Romulan warlord. And that had gotten her killed by him. And then brought back as this...hybrid resurrected with reverse engineered Borg nanites and cybernetics, who until a couple years ago wanted nothing more than him dead until he had broken through her brainwashing and programming. Part of Ash wondered if she was playing the long game, seducing him as he had seduced her, and she would finally exact her revenge. Part of him didn’t care. He deserved it.
“Today is the big day,” Ash said when they came up for air.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen her?” Rilasa asked, moving to find some clothes, her artificial eyes not having any problem in the dark quarters lit only by the dim light of the nebula.
Ash cocked his head. “Five years?” he estimated. “Computer: Lights,” he ordered.
“So she’s been five years without any contact?”
“That is the point of keeping someone on ice.”
“How does she not go insane?”
“Cardassians have strong minds,” Ash said.
“So do Romulans, and even we don’t put someone in solitary for five years.”
Ash gave her a hard look.
“You weren’t in my father’s hospitality for even a year,” Rilasa countered. “Don’t look at me like that. And you had sentient contact.”
“Yes, more than I wanted,” Ash said dryly, touching the very small, white, centimeter scars that covered his body over where his body’s nerve bundles were located.
Rilasa shook her head. “I should get back to my quarters before--”
The chime on the door rang.
“--that,” Rilasa said.
Ash rubbed his eyes tiredly. “Enter,” he said.
The doors slid open and another young woman stepped inside, a petite Human brunette with brown eyes wearing Command red. She glanced at the two half-dressed occupants and her eyes narrowed.
And there was Ash’s third problem. Eve Three. Chief Tactical Officer. Secretly one of the last Human Augments. Their relationship had been mostly physical until Ash had left the Nemesis a few months after the disastrous mission that had ended with Rilasa dead at his feet and him enjoying the “hospitality” of Enrily Graeca. When he was gone, then Eve started to realize what she was now missing. Needless to say, Eve didn’t deal well with...emotions.
“So you cut our date early for this?” Eve asked.
“It wasn’t a date, just drinks, Eve,” Ash said.
“I thought you were going to call Markham.”
“I did, and then Rilasa came over to discuss the mission today, and--”
Rilasa smirked at Eve. Eve’s eyes narrowed.And she punched Ash in the nose.
“Ow! Fuck, Eve!” Ash sputtered, blood on his face. He knew she’d pulled that punch, of course. Eve could take out five armed Klingons barehanded if she had to.
Rilasa grabbed Eve’s arm before she could punch him again, the two locked in the interminable standoff, Borg-derived cybernetics versus mad genius genetic augmentation. The two women glared at each other before Eve finally pushed Rilasa a way and nonchalantly wiped the blood off her knuckles with one of Ash’s shirts.
“Might want to have Sickbay fix that. Three hours before mission take off,” Eve said.
“Yes, I will,” Ash said dryly, catching the bloody shirt she tossed to him and pressing it to his nose.
“Tomorrow night, you’re mine,” Eve said, pointing at him, and then turning to leave.
Rilasa crossed her arms over her chest and looked at Ash, arching one of those pencil thin Romulan eyebrows. “You just going to let her order you to her bed like that?”
Ash lowered the shirt and pointed to his blood nose.
Rilasa punched him in the nose.
“Ah! Mother fuck, Ril!” he gasped.
“Go to Sickbay. See you at the mission,” Rilasa said, pulling on the rest of her clothes and leaving.
“Well, fuck,” Ash said, going to the bathroom mirror to check the damage. “At least Selina isn’t here to punch me, too.”
And then he cried out as Selina slammed a migraine down their link at him.
OFF
Ltcdr. Ash Danrisa
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Nemesis
NPC Caleb Ryan
Rilasa Graeca
Intelligence asset/Former Romulan agent
USS Nemesis
NPC Caleb Ryan
Ltcdr. Eve Three
Chief Tactical Officer
USS Nemesis
NPC Caleb Ryan
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