Treatment, Part 2

Posted on Thu Feb 19, 2015 @ 9:57am by Lieutenant Saria Rex

1,363 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: The Caves of Mak'ala, Trillius Prime

ON:

Saria stepped down carefully from the carved stairs that lead down further into the cavern. She gently reached for the steel guardrails mounted onto the wall. The sound of the wind blowing innto the cavern faded away, slowly. Her steps resonated troughout the cavern leading down. While the light from outside began to fade as well, candles placed in carved alcoves in the wall, illuminated the rest of her trip. The sounds of dripping water and splashing pools became clearer.

The trip down reminded Saria of the past hosts that had entered the Caves of Mak'ala. They came here for various reasons: treatment, consulting, communication with the symbionts, or just to relax in the pools. They said that bathing in the pools rejuvenated the skin, and gave a host fresh new energy. The latter half was certainly true, but Saria and alot of her past hosts never really tried to treat their skin. In fact, one of Rex' past hosts, Tygyl, had a certain kind of aversion for the murky pools.

While she was thinking about the past hosts that entered before her, she reached the end of the staircase. With a small jump, she landed on a slippery, carved platform, nearly making her fall over. She looked around hastily, to see if nobody caught her gaffe.
~A thousand years of experience, and I still manage to slip out in the Caves of Mak'ala~ She thought, as she carefully stepped down toward the lower levels. The splashing of the murky substance in the pools became clearer than ever, and not much later, after traversing a few more steps, she saw the famous pools for herself.
~Feels like home, again~ She thought. Taking the last step, she was footed on a plain ground that seemed to stretch all over the place, with the edge of the pools just sticking a little above the surface. It had always amazed her that the plain ground was paved with cobblestones, because the ground itself was one big rock.

She walked slowly to the nearest pool, holding the utility belt around her middle with both hands, as if it were a casual belt. Her boots squeeked a little from the moist surface under it, which resonated throughout the cavern. It looked like as if she was the only person in the Caves.
She stopped just in front of one of the pools. She saw the damp rising up from the heated pools, going up until it reached the ceiling, where it condensed. She slowly bent over a little, to get a better look of the pool. The only thing present seemed to be the white, murky water that bubbled up once in a while.
~How come there are no symbionts here? They used to gather alot in this pool~


"...can I help you, madame?" A gentle voice from behind Saria spoke.

She was startled by the sudden prescense of another person, and almost jumped into the pool itself. Instead, she turned around in a side-stepping motion, coming face to face with a humble Guardian, unjoined Trill who devoted the lives to care for the symbionts.

"Oh! I'm sorry if I startled you, madame. I should have been more careful..." The Guardian replied with a worried tone in his voice.

"O-oh, no! It's completely fine, I should have thought about keeping a distance from the pools, Mister..."

"You can call me Jerin. I'm, as you already have guessed, a Guardian to the symbionts. And you are..." Jerin replied. "...Wait! Don't tell!" He snapped his fingers a few times, trying to come up with the name.

He then looked up to Saria with widened eyes. "Y-you are... Rex, aren't you?" He asked with great disbelief.

Saria was rather surprise with Jorin's response. "Yes... I'm Lieutenant Saria Rex, thirty-second host to the Rex symbiont."

"My goodness! A mere twelvehundred years old, and still going strong! Remarkable!" Jorin said, as if Saria was a certain kind of threatened species. "Forgive my exorbitant reaction, but it is not everyday that a humble Guardian comes face to face with a symbiont this old. I must say, it is quite an honor amongst the Guardians to meet such old symbionts. And believe me, there aren't many."

"Welll, I am flattered." Saria smiled nervously, not sure what to say in return. "...I-it is not frequent to meet such a humble Guardian everyday, either."

Jerin gleamed with happiness upon hearing Saria's words. "I am very grateful for your kind words, Rex." He bowed a little out of respect. "Now then, if I may be so bold, is there a reason that you came down here? If you need help, I would like to help you as quickly as I can."

Saria hesitated a little, but explained her problem gradually. "Well, there is something with Rex. Something... causes memory losses, or I lose control of myself so other could take over." I have visited several Federation doctors, but they couldn't help me any further with the problem. I then opted to visit Trillius Prime to undergo treatment, and then... here I am..."

Jorin nodded agreeingly, as he listened, and scratched his chin. "I see, I see... what did the Symbiosis Commission have to say about it?"

"They are analyzing the problem as we speak, but advised to visit a Guardian in the meantime, which is how I ended up here in the Caves of Mak'ala." Saria explained.

"Hmmm-hmmm..." Jorin mumbled. "Then, I guess I should find out what the problem is. May I?" He asked, gesturing toward the spotted temples of her head.
Saria nodded, and Jorin reached out one of his hands, and touch her temple with his fingers.


It was quiet for a moment, until Jorin began to speak again.
"Yes, yes... very bad. Very bad indeed." He continued holding his finger against her temple, eyes closed.

"Anything useful so far?" Saria asked. She felt the Isoboramine levels in her body rising due to Jorin's mind-bridge, as the spotted sides of het body began to tingle.

"Nothing definite, I'm afraid. But you seem to have alot of... how shall I put it... blockades, in Rex' mind. Almost as if... something were missing..."

"Something missing?" She asked.

Jorin opened his eyes and retracted his hand. "I'm afraid so. Rex' mind has put up blockades to prevent triggers from reaching the missing pieces of memory, in order to guarantee you retain your other memories and keep in control. The thing that worries me even more, is that Rex never had gotten the time to reroute around these missing memories, which means that they were ripped out violently. And the blockades are beginning to detoriate now..."

Saria was silent for a little while. She had never quite understood what was going on, but now it seemed to be very serious. "...but, do you know what exactly is missing from me? Maybe then I can find back those memories?"

But Jorin shook his head. "I'm afraid I don't know any more than you do, about which memories are missing." He said with a disappointed tone in his voice. "All we can do now, is to remove the blockades and reroute around the missing memories. That will be the best option for recovery. As for the missing memories, I'm afraid you will have to live with that." He paused. "But my hopes are high for you, Rex. You are old and wise enough to deal with it."

Saria nodded understandlingly. "What will I do now?"

"Go to the Symbiosis commission, and tell them what I told you. I'm sure they can make something out of it." Jorin nodded. "As for now, go do what you must do, and I'm sure you will recover well."

"Then, I shall do that." She answered. "Thank you very much for your help, Guardian Jorin. It has been a pleasure." She bowed a little.

"The pleasure was all mine, Rex. I hope to meet you again." Jorin replied, bowing as well. After that, he swiftly turned around, and disappeared around the first corner.


OFF:

Lieutenant
Saria Rex
Chief of Science

Jorin
Guardian
Played by Shan

 

RSS Feed