Searching

Posted on Wed Dec 23rd, 2020 @ 2:36pm by Ensign Aenardha Sh'vastarth & Mauricio Arnaldo

Mission: The Gauntlet
Location: Carnwennan Station

It was with heavy nerves that Mauricio Arnaldo walked down the long, rounded corridors of Carnwennan Station, as he looked for his intended destination. Ever since he'd met Ensign Sh'vastarth on the Promenade earlier, where he almost spilled some pretty top secret information about the Pandora to her, he'd been wondering if he should be saying anything at all. The messages from the Captain to Commander Nash had seemed highly confidential and deeply disturbing, showing a possible conspiracy happening right under Starfleet's nose. But if Aenardha was going to be part of the ship herself, she deserved to know what was happening; and they still had no confirmation from Starfleet that the Pandora's mission had been successful. He needed to find a way to help his old ship, and this was his only option. The only thing that he had to trust at the moment was that Ensign Sh'vastarth was a powerful Aenar, and he had implicit hope that she could assist the Pandora somehow.

Realising he was now standing in front of her guest quarters, Mauricio pressed the door chime.

"Enter," came a muffled voice from behind the closed door.

The door slid open and Mauricio was hit in the face by a blast of cold air to a degree that was almost painful on the eyes.

"Mierda!" Mauricio gasped as he was hit with the freezing temperature. Holding his arms close to his chest, he squinted into the darkened room. He began wondering if he hadn't accidentally stumbled into a cold-storage locker. Or perhaps the Ensign had a penchant for curing meats? That thought didn't go down well with Arnaldo, as he then immediately started to wonder what kind of meat she'd be storing. With worry in his tone and without taking a single step forward, Mauricio called out, "Hello? Anyone there?"

"Oh, that's right. Lights," she said and the room lit up. Aenardha was in her Starfleet issued sports bra and compression shorts. It was clear that she had just finished an exercise routine or very recently returned from the gym.

"Oh!" He replied, feeling a little foolish. "There you are. I was worried I had the wrong location."

"No, you are right where you need to be. I tend to do that," Aenardha said, "make people worry. Not intentional at all. Just," she motioned for him to enter further and have a seat, "people worry that I may run into a wall or something. Others worry that I may be a bit too...what is the word? Emu, is it? Because I like it the cold and the dark." She thought about her wardrobe which was all black. That did not help matters much.

"To each their own," Mauricio replied with a small, awkward laugh. He took the offered seat as he looked around, still feeling the room's low temperature. "I get the dark, but why the cold?"

Aenardha did not need to borrow his vision to know her quarters. Still, she used it enough to ensure she took a chair across the small coffee table, facing him. "Two reasons," she said as she sat. She did not flinch at all upon making contact with the cold surface. "This is as close to my natural habitat that Carwennan Station policy will allow. In truth, I prefer it colder. This," she felt the air a brief second, "this is almost a warm spring day. The Aenar reside on Andor's polar regions. I am from the Andorian South Pole. Andorians can tell it by my accent."

She did pick up a strong thought from him. It was almost impossible for any telepath to not notice. It was merely a sense of dreadful cold. Almost enough to make her want to shiver, based on the thought alone.

"The second reason is interference," she finished and left it at that for the moment.

Mauricio nodded, making a mental note to bring a jacket next time. "So is it safe to speak openly here?" He asked tentatively, unsure if there was anyone else around. "I want to tell you everything about the Pandora but I also need to watch my own back. I've felt that Starfleet Security has been watching me."

"No jacket please." She could then see a level of concern in his expression. "My apologies. That thought was just too strong. You see, it being cold in here to you is what is dominating your thoughts. If there was another telepath, say, outside my door, that is all they would be picking up. Regardless of what you say out loud to me. What you say and what dominates your thoughts would overlap. Think of your communicator picking up static. You can hear a few words here and there but it is mostly garbled."

Before proceeding, Aenardha felt a need to expand. "My...uh...my first choice for the Academy was Security. I studied Theory of Security with an emphasis on telepathic security. Starfleet wants officers who can actually see, so..." She let Mauricio conclude that thought. Aenardha was looking in him the eye, but was more looking at herself through telepathic vision. "I then chose Intelligence, which was not my second choice either."

Aenardha sat back in her chair, crossed her legs and let her hands fall loosely into her lap. Her antenna fidgeted and turned toward her guest. "I know I cannot simply tell you to trust me and for you to do just that. My allegiance is to Starfleet and the Federation, but I have a deeper allegiance to my ship, her captain and crew." Despite she had not even been aboard the ship yet. "As you are or were a member of the Pandora, that allegiance falls to you as well. You do not need to watch your own back. I can help. And I can access eyes everywhere." She smiled sardonically.

"I've learnt to make decisions quickly." Mauricio replied, "I've chosen to trust you too, Aenardha. I wonder, given you can see everything, if it would be alright if I shared my memories of the Pandora? To help you find her?"

"Are you saying the Pandora is lost?" she asked immediately. "In the Expanse?" She took a breath and thought shortly. Regardless of his answer, "I am unable to find a ship. But a person...that may be possible. The Aenar are able to project themselves before others and can also create a telepathic link across great distances. It does take discipline and meditation and it has always been easier for me when I know the subject." Aenardha grew a little concerned at the prospects of what lied next. "It will not be as simple as you sharing memories with me. If I am to find someone, someone aboard the Pandora, I will need to know this person. The closer the relationship you have or had with the subject the better." She almost did not want to say it, but "intimate even."

Seeing him about to speak, she broke in. "And I will require access to your mind. Not what memories you share, but your permission to...go on walk-about...freely. To the point that your memories feel almost as though they are my memories. That will be the only way I have a chance at knowing someone well enough to find them." There was more but she wanted to see Mauricio's response to what she had already laid out.

Mauricio smiled somewhat, "The Pandora itself may not be lost, but we are lost to her at the moment. I want to show you what's happened recently and if possible, reach someone on the ship so we know they're okay? I think Commander Nash would be a good source for me, as we developed a stronger friendship while on an away mission together. You have my permission to do as necessary."

Aenardha gave a nod. "Very well." She stood and moved around her chair, struggling a bit in moving her chair to position it right beside him. "Please turn your chair toward me." She reclaimed her seat.

He did as he was asked, turning his seat to face Aenardha and giving a nod when he was ready.

"Now, for this bond to work," and her voice took on a most serious tone, "I will require a more physical connection to you than just telepathically. This is something we Aenar rarely do and though I have not been ordered not to do this, it has been recommended that I refrain from this procedure. I suppose if you are going to trust me, then I should also trust you. Please do not tell anyone outside of the Pandora what happens here."

"Of course." Mauricio nodded. A small perk from no longer being a crew member of Starfleet was that he was no longer beholden to their rules. He knew the Captain was a man of resourcefulness, and Arnaldo was just following his lead.

"The physical connection I spoke of is a melding of my mind to your mind, my thoughts to your thoughts, my antenna to your antenna."

Mauricio blinked as he blushed a little, "But I don't have an antenna. I mean, not one that I can... link?"

"I like to call it a mind-meld. But you are correct. You do not have antenna. At least not any that you recognize or are of any use to you. For my purposes..." she raised a hand and tapped him on his right temple. "That gets me close enough to your optic nerves allowing full access to your mind. And you will not have to worry about other telepaths. On that note...Computer, raise the temperature 15 degrees over the next five minutes." The computer bleeped in confirmation. "We don't want it snowing in there," she pointed to his head. "Shall we proceed?"

Mauricio took in a breath. "Yes."

“I must inform you…not everyone reacts to this the same way.” She started thinking of Khrap, trapped in his own thoughts and inside a padded cell at a sanitarium on Andoria. “The ill-prepared can even emerge…changed. I believe you are well-prepared enough however. I must also warn you that I may appear as someone in your memories. I may not. You may turn to someone you were intimate with and may see me instead. You may not. You will find yourself in something of a lucid dream state. You are in control but may lose control if you deviate. I will be right beside you, guiding you should you need.”

Aenardha leaned closer to him and lowered her face, tilting the top of her head towards him. Her antenna began to flitter and move about. She could feel Mauricio’s eyes dance back and forth as the cups of her antenna moved to the sides of his head and feel about, making their ways to his temples.

With each movement, both could feel an expanding void being filled with their respective consciences.

And suddenly, there was black. They stood upon nothing at all. There was nothing to see but each other, illuminated by a sourceless light. They were holding hands.

“We are not really holding hands,” she said. Aenardha’s voice echoed through the void off of nothing at all. “This is merely the physical yet telepathic connection between us. You cannot let go if you tried.”

There came a low rumbling growl from behind them. A slamming of a large heavy foot followed. The growling continued.

“Do not look at that,” Aenardha said immediately. We are about to leave that behind. “This void is the bridge between our minds. See that speck of dust?” She pointed ahead. Aenardha could actually see. Her eyes were a peridot shade. “That is your mind. Let’s go.”

The speck of dust exploded into many and those many specks took on the shapes of galaxies. They zoomed away except for one which grew and filled the void. The galaxy became speckled with stars and the two looked about as even those spread about. Stars and planets and nebulae and expanses filled the space around them, making them feel as large as the imagination would allow.

Then it stopped. A color-filled spiral galaxy stood before them and all around them.

“OK Mauricio,” she said. Aenardha looked about as the stars began to dance and form constellations. Those constellation turned into peoples in his memories. Waves of space dust seemed to begin forming the recollections of much remembered scenes. “Show me what we came to see.”

Intuitively, Arnaldo closed his eyes. He wanted to focus his mind on what had occurred, not his surroundings. He breathed deeply once more and started to think back to his last encounter with the Pandora; hoping this information would help Aenardha to find his old ship and crew again...

A wave of space dust congealed and took on color and substance. There came a desk, a set of walls, an array of displays. Some were a chaotic mess; not something Mauricio was particularly attending to. Others played out old memories.

It was a regular day on Paradise Outpost; he was manning the Security room where the station's many cameras were constantly watching the various activities onboard. He suddenly received a data alert that one of the Federation cultural files that the Pandora had gifted to Paradise just then received an unexpected update. That was definitely not supposed to happen. Opening the file, he saw an encrypted message from Captain Temple to him directly, with a request for help. It asked him to rendezvous with Commander Nash in a specific location at a specific date, revealing that the XO will be on his own without the Pandora. Mauricio was torn - he wanted to help his old ship but he had a deep responsibility to Paradise now. It was only after a chat with Katya, who encouraged him to assist Temple, that Mauricio decided to go.

In addition to seeing Mauricio sitting there reading the data file, the two could see scenarios play out in a mist above the head of his memory.

From there, Mauricio remembered what happened once he met Nash at the designated time. The two opened up a video message from Temple who revealed that the Pandora was responding to a distress call from a secret science facility called Pithos in the Hesiod Region of the Expanse. However, Nyx had grave misgivings about Admiral Thac who ordered the mission and Pithos itself, given there was so little information about the facility, its purpose, and its activities. Thac had been deliberately obtuse about giving the Pandora any details, which caused the Captain to be suspicious. Nyx instructed them to investigate a region known as the Delavi System, where it is likely that anyone who worked on Pithos would need to visit for supplies. They were looking for information on a Gordon Francis, who was suspected to be in charge of the facility.

The surroundings continually became dust again and remolded itself into coherent surroundings each time the scene changed. Aenardha’s eyes danced about, her conscience saw all and the mental picture became more complete. The pieces were fitting together.

Delavi was an eye-opening experience. Assuming fake identities, Nash and Arnaldo made it to a popular tourist destination, only to find out it was a "love hotel", where visitors could enact their deepest desires. Nash quickly adapted their cover story to match the new surroundings, but Mauricio had been a little perturbed to say the least. Especially when he saw the Klingon bar. However, their mission was a success as they came across a human who claimed to know Francis. After a brief chase and interrogation, they discovered the man was actually Francis himself. The Admiral explained that he had been brought to Delavi to meet with Thac, only to be attacked and left for dead. Francis found himself stranded in Delavi with no money, no way of contacting Starfleet, and no way out. He had survived thanks to making friends with a bartender and laying low. He was wary of Nash and Mauricio at first, believing they had come to finish him off, but they were able to gain his trust.

Aenardha stepped around the in the forming scenes as they each play out. Her and Mauricio were still, of course, holding hands. She took in every detail that Mauricio was showing her.

With Francis rescued, the trio quickly departed from Delavi and were thankfully not followed by any other vessels. Francis was keen to get to Pithos and find out what had happened; especially as it had appeared to Starfleet that he had been on Pithos this entire time. It is likely therefore that someone was pretending to be him. However, Mauricio had some misgivings about returning to the Pandora after abandoning his Starfleet service, so he requested to Nash and Francis if he could leave the mission. Nash understood that Mauricio felt uneasy about seeing the Pandora again, and agreed to part ways before they entered the Hesiod Region.

The scene dusted away and that dust formed a star speckled scene once again. The Inconnu Expanse surrounded them in the space all around. Lines formed, stretched this way and that, illustrating the paths Mauricio had travelled. Waves of dust within the Expanse still played out scenes of memories trying to surface and take hold.

"So there it is." Mauricio spoke, his eyes still shut close. His voice echoing in space. "I left Nash and Francis so I could return to Paradise, while they continued onto Hesiod. I haven't heard from them or the Pandora since. Neither has Starfleet, or at least not publicly."

“This is a good basis,” said Aenardha. “I have an adequate mental map of the Expanse.”

A swirling mist of dust formed a little girl skipping about and humming some tune out of space. Aenardha waved her hand, dispersing the dust. The image went away.

“I have a better understanding of your mental organization and how you remember things. You are and I are now more connected.”

She turned to him and looked into his eyes. “This is where I may start to show up as others in your memories. Please do not hold it against me should I take on the semblance of an adversary…or a loved one. I need you to call forth a memory of someone aboard the Pandora. Someone you were close to. Intimate even. And please do not try to hold back. Your secrets are safe with me. Withholding something can only create gaps that your imagination will try to fill on its own to make sense. That is where you may lose control. I require a mental pattern of someone to attach to. A hint of one is all I need. I can then suggest that person to go to a private place, where we can converse openly. Without this, without a complete and honest picture, I cannot find the subject of your thoughts. I cannot find the Pandora.”

Mauricio felt calmed by Aenardha's advice, and comfortable that she was here guiding through all the confusion visions. His head was feeling dizzy and a little numb, like he'd stood up too quickly, as his mind tried to comprehend the swirling images and constant changes. He could feel how deeply he was breathing in real life - but wasn't sure if that was just a memory or not.

At the mention of someone "intimate", Mauricio's mind immediately moved to Fick. It was a memory of the two of them sitting in an empty corridor, staring out into the open abyss of space in front of them. One of their many picnics they had while stuck in the bubble universe. It felt like it was just the two of them on the Pandora; they were alone but together. Mauricio had felt so isolated since the Bridge had been trapped into this world, but these moments with Fick gave him something to live towards.

The scene was cool and comforting. All there was to be heard was the constant low rumble of the ship. The two sat there, together and silent. Enjoying each other’s company. There was always a connection between two people when they enjoyed being near each other such as this. Perhaps there was enough of a mental sniff that Aenardha could attach to an ‘find’ this Fick. She stepped up behind the memory of Fick and reached out her hand hoping to find something there.

Fick's face flickered and Mauricio momentarily saw Aenardha sitting next to him, before it changed back to Fick. Aenardha had warned him this might happen, but it was disorientating to say the least. Like when they remake old holo-novels with new actors; the same but unsettlingly different. In this memory, Fick and Mauricio were talking about K'Laus, who remained in the real world while they were trapped in the bubble.

Aenardha felt something tug at her conscience; a possible link to the real Fick. “He’s not here,” she only mouthed the words as they came to her.
"He's not here..." Fick said, softly. "He may never be here again. I'm not going to just sit here and be miserable when there's a gorgeous marine that wants me. I don't think K'Laus would want me to be miserable either. So shut up and come here..."

There came a tighter connection to Fick. It almost appeared as though she could reach out a grab it as if it was a rope sticking out of his head, ready to pull her to him. Aenardha relinquished some of her control of the telepathic link with Mauricio in an attempt to reach Fick.

Mauricio closed his eyes and leaned in. At that exact moment, the ship started to rumble and shake...

"NO!" Mauricio cried out loud, not wanting the memory to go any further. "Not that!"

The whole of existence shook. “Mauricio,” Aenardha called out but realized her voice sounded a lot like Fick’s. Her appearance was probably his as well.

Fick, the corridor, the hull of the ship, the space around them even, all burst like a bubble. Aenardha stepped back in a gasp and looked about trying to reacquire her bearings and what control she had. The remnants of the memories all swirled around them. She and Mauricio were encompassed in a vortex of wild memories.

“How could they do that!?!” There came a crash of broken glass. Somehow, Aenardha knew the voice belonged to Mauricio’s mother. She flashed into existence. “It’s all Starfleet’s fault!” The tumultuous winds of Mauricio’s mind blew his mother away. Blowing in, was a young Mauricio returning home. Stepping through the door, he walked into a cemetery and up to a pair of graves. A sudden wave of dread, loss and hopelessness came over Aenardha.

Looking, she saw she only had a hold of Mauricio’s fingers and they were slipping from her hand fast. She suddenly though on tightening her grip but threw it away immediately upon recalling that they were in a telepathic link. No amount of wanting to hold onto his hand harder would bring success.

She felt the telepathic link begin to break down, but, in a last ditch effort, “Mauricio!” She called out to him and thrust her own conscience forward dispersing and throwing these memories back into chaos. Using what control and strength she had remaining, she turned around and pulled him along. They were thrust back into the telepathic bridge between their minds but facing toward her end of the realm of the void.

“Time to reset the board.”

The vision was not really what she had anticipated but it was what appeared. She showed Mauricio a frozen villa settled under a shining Aurora Australis. But the villa was burning and the flames reached high into the sky. A half-formed half-burning dragon stomped about the debris of the villa. But the villa was not burning down or falling apart. Loud thundering stomps echoed through the void. The dragon roared loudly and, from out the wall of flames came a little girl skipping along and humming her incomprehensible tune. She did not even care that she was on fire. The tune grew louder to both Aenardha and Mauricio. The melody from out of space was nearly ear piercing and mind blowing.

“Go away!” Aenardha yelled and threw her hand forward. The scene fell apart into a flurry of specks of dust and swirled as though a vortex with her palm forming the end of the cone. The whole of the universe seemed to flow into her hand leaving the pair inside another abyss of utter pitch for only a second before she threw it out again, thus reforming a calm and comforting scene of an array of galaxies slowing making their trek through the abyss of space.

Looking, Aenardha could see she had a full grip of Mauricio’s hand once again. She hoped that showing him a bit of her mind would act as a counter-agent; an equal and opposite force to his troubling memories thus bringing him back into control.

“Mauricio?” She turned to him. Her peridot eyes danced back and forth between his. “We are back on the bridge between minds.”

Mauricio had been squeezing his eyes tightly as everything swirled around him. He felt Aenardha's hand in his, or at least his mind did, and felt reassured. Looking around at the calmly floating galaxies again, and realising he wasn't dying, gave him a moment to relax. "I think I'm going to hurl." He declared, taking in several deliberately slow breaths. "What was that? The dragon?"

“Not an actual memory of course, but…” she had better control of her own thoughts now and was doing what she could to help him relax. “It was a means to remind you that this is all telepathic. These are only memories and thoughts. Nothing more. Besides, my thoughts are another topic for another time. Now is not the time for you to be dwelling on my thoughts and memories.” She decided it was best to get him into more of a militaristic mindset. “We are on an away mission. Our mission is to find the Pandora. Right now, you are the only person,” she waved a hand out at the void of the mind bridge between them, “in our universe right now that can do so. Everyone is counting on you.” She tapped into his thoughts and called forth an array of templated humanoid figures. To her, they were just dark blurs surrounding them. She tickled the part of his mind allowing him to fill in the gaps and to juxtapose actual figures from the Pandora over the templated humanoids.

Seeing the figures, Mauricio nodded, setting his mind to focus on the task at hand as per Aenardha's instructions. The faceless shapes started to form into real people. One by one the blurriness began to clear up and their features became more obvious. First it was their uniform colours - the most obvious consistency between his former crew mates being their coloured shoulders. Yellow. Red. Blue. He was grouping them together by their department, making it easier to identify. He imagined the crew standing in a line down a corridor and he was walking past each one, studying their features until they became pronounced. He tried to work on the detail of a select few, hoping his mind would focus on the ones that gave him a strong emotional reaction.

The passive, cold stare of Lieutenant Commander Griffin. The warmth and grace of Lieutenant Kaleri's smile. The way that Fick's lip curled when he laughed. The long single braid that Temple tucked behind his ear. Nash's confident tone when taking action or talking to the crew. Strange details that Mauricio had forgotten were in his subconscious but the more he focused on them, the more connected he felt.

“They are all counting on you Mauricio. No matter how uncomfortable it gets, no matter the cost, we must succeed in this mission. You must find an intimate or profound memory and a mind for me to reach out to.”

"I will." Mauricio nodded firmly, as he concentrated again. He just had three people in front of him now. Fick, Temple, and Nash. He looked over to the Fick figure and smiled warmly, remembering their good times together. Their long chats and their flirting. However, he feared that opening the door to this memory would also open the flood gates to the Bubble Universe events; a path he did not want to walk down once more. He looked then to Nash and considered him, given the Commander was the most recent Pandora crew member that he had interacted with. Nash was the one he had originally intended to find during this session, but having recounted the story to Aenardha, he realised he had no idea if Nash and Francis had made it back to the Pandora. They could find him, only for him to be somewhere else in the Expanse entirely. It felt too risky.

That left the Captain. Mauricio's interactions with him had been few but memorable. They first met on the Bridge of the Carnage, after the Pandora had successfully overtaken the Ravager vessel and captured its captain. Temple had gone in alone with Balek The Butcher and only Nyx had emerged alive. Then, they were pulled into the Bubble Universe together and Mauricio had stayed loyal to Temple when half the crew split off into their own faction. Following the events on Paradise, Mauricio told Temple that he intended to leave the Pandora and help the Outpost instead, also hinting that he knew what had happened between Balek and Nyx. While the Captain didn't overtly allow him to leave, he ordered Mauricio to work in a location where he could easily slip away. It was Temple's way of granting him the release he sought without breaking any rules.

His decision made, Mauricio looked over the Aenardha again, "The Captain." He said firmly. "I want to reach out to Nyx."

And Aenardha looked into his eyes. This was now the longest bridging of the minds she had ever had with anyone. She could sense the soft and gentle side of Mauricio and the care he wanted to provide not only to his crew but to this mission. The very instant Aenardha could feel her heart begin to reach out to him, she refocused her mind back to the mission at hand. So soon after she had informed him of their mission, she was beginning to falter. She did warn him that a connection like this could leave people changed. Aenardha never thought it could change her too.

It was the instant he finished speaking that she refocused, before what had sparked in her heart formed itself into a thought. Her peridot eyes flickered a few various colors out of space and everything around them fell apart into dust, save for the captain. He stood there, motionless, just waiting for a memory to tell him what to do.

The space dust encircled them in another vortex.

“We are back in your mind now,” she said to Mauricio. “Take us where we need to go. Show me a hint of the captain’s mind.”

Automatically and without knowing why, Mauricio clapped his hands together. That was always what Temple would do when he had made a decision or was about to give a speech. One single, loud 'clap'! It was like flicking on a switch as Mauricio dug deep and tried to remember the Captain addressing the crew. At first the words were jumbles, random phrases coming out of a dense fog. Eventually, the fog cleared and he could now clearly hear Nyx, as if he was speaking directly to them.

"We must first get home safely and we must deliver the truth about corruption in Starfleet to the Federation. I don't imagine for a moment that this will be easy." Temple was saying. He was standing by the command chair on the Bridge. The crew were attentively watching him, their feelings were tense and there was a sense of dread in the air, though they were being calmed by the Captain's words. He continued, "But if I have learned anything from our years together, I know we can do it... I believe in us."

Mauricio's eyes snapped open, "There!"

Green patches of tarnish faded into existence along the walls and bits of mold speckled here and there as the captain spoke of corruption in Starfleet. Aenardha almost could not believe what was being said. She was trained to find adverse intelligence and if corruption existed among her crewmates. Never did she imagine there would be corruption in Starfleet itself. The tense feelings and the dread in the air penetrated even her. Aenardha could smell it as she inhaled. But she did not want the dread to overtake her. Mauricio did his part in this away mission and now it was her turn to perform toward success. The tarnish and the mold faded away.

All eyes were on the captain. All attention was on the captain. The words he spoke rang true and clearly displayed his level of dedication and trust. The attentive nature of the crew before him showed the admiration and the will to follow this man. All trust was with him and in him.

Of the crew before him, specks of dust emerged from the eyes and drifted toward Captain Temple. Temple absorbed those specks of dust as the reached him. Faces slowly drifted apart and eventually, entire bodies had become dust. The entire room even separated and congealed upon him until there was nothing left but only Aenardha, Mauricio and the profound memory of Captain Temple. He started to lose color and the molecules holding him together drifted about and seemed to reform into another substance. Captain Temple himself was transforming into another object. His shape squared and flattened and his body seemed to become wooden. The memory of the man himself turned into a door. There was no frame nor hinge nor knob. It was simply a self-standing wooden door standing stationary in the void of space.

“Very good Mauricio.” Aenardha stepped up to the door. “I will take it from here.”

Arriving upon the door, Aenardha lightly knocked upon it. “You want to make sure you are alone,” she whispered to the door. “You want to make sure you are alone.”

It only took a second for Aenardha to realize, “Something’s wrong.” Regardless if the subject was willing or not, there would always be a response; a minute rattle to the door. It usually manifested itself as more of a reaction. Someone pricked with a needle would still flinch. Aenardha was seeing no reaction in the least.

“Mauricio,” she said, “the door is here so there is something of a connection. But he is not responding. Do you know anything about this?”

"He always did like his secrets." Mauricio murmured to himself as he stared at the door. "Maybe it's there for a reason?"

It did not matter what he was saying. Aenardha found herself simply enjoying the sound of Mauricio’s voice. She could receive the news that she would die in five minutes as long as he was the one telling her and she would be fine with it. The pressure was forming for her to unleash the thoughts that were forming and the feelings that were growing for him. She was trained in Intelligence and mental infiltration, not against her own feelings and desires to…

“No,” she nearly yelled. She set her eyes and her focus back upon the door and the mission at hand. “We’ve come this far. We cannot go back. I may not be able to read his mind but can perhaps still tap into his vision, his visual cortex, in real time, before it becomes a memory.”

In the middle of the door came a peephole. Aenardha moved to peer through it. “Cross your fingers that he is not asleep.” She stopped before looking through. “And cross your fingers that he is looking at a navigation panel or something we can use to triangulate his position.”

Aenardha pressed herself against the door. Closing one eye, she concentrated hard and peered through the peephole.

Only disappointment would greet Aenardha as through the peephole she could see... another door. Exactly the same door in size, shape, and colour, but this time without a peephole in it. There was a deep sense that this door would only lead to another door, and that door to another. And so on it would go until the visitor relented and gave up. Whatever was in the Captain's mind, it could not be accessed this way. He had barriers upon barriers already established, indicating he did not like to be visited telepathically at all.

But a link has been established all the same. Perhaps Captain Temple, out there somewhere, really felt an itch behind his ear, a knocking at his conscience even. Finding him was still doable but losing this opportunity to find the Pandora was too great a risk. Aenardha realized she would need to improvise a bit.

Meanwhile Mauricio felt a strong sensation of being pulled, like someone had grabbed the collar of his jacket and was dragging him backwards. He saw Aenardha and the door getting further away. He tried to hold onto her hand with all of his strength but the sudden jerking motion pulling him was too strong; he was helpless to prevent what was happening. He tried swatting his hands behind him but there was nothing actually there. It was like an invisible and unstoppable force had grabbed hold and it had him firmly in its grasp.

"Out!" Came a deep, booming voice. They were being rejected from the connection with brutal strength.

It was not through will alone that Aenardha was chasing after Mauricio. She had lost a hold of his hand, which meant any number of wild imaginings could be called forth, from either of them. She would need to concentrate to keep her own thoughts at bay and to control the situation. She continued to fall in Mauricio’s direction but he was falling faster, in whatever direction he was headed. Aenardha could see him begin to fade into darkness. That sourceless light was going out.

“I am sorry Mauricio!” she called after him. It was time for a last ditch effort. The risk was great as she could find herself dwelling on thoughts for him for the rest of her life whilst he would grow to hate her for the rest of his. There was also the chance of both of them ending up spending their days in a padded room. Hopefully it was not hubris that told Aenardha she could handle this.

Darkness enveloped Mauricio until he could see nothing else around him anymore, and the dragging sensation changed into a free fall. Down and down into the darkness he went, unable to scream or stop himself from plunging into the nothingness. He started to panic, knowing there had to be an end at some point - eventually he would hit the bottom and this filled him absolute terror. The faster he fell, the deeper his fear grew. As if thinking the thought made it reality, not a moment later, Mauricio felt himself come crashing into the ground and with a scream, he opened his eyes.

Gasping for air, Mauricio looked around and saw he was back in Aenardha's quarters, sitting comfortably on her couch. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest like he'd woken from a terrible dream. He had to take a few moments to fully comprehend what had happened before he could speak.

"Whoa." He wheezed. Looking around, he saw there was no one else in the room.

“Yeah, that was some kind of dream alright,” said Fick. The voice came from the rest room. He walked into the room, stepped in front of Mauricio and sat down beside him getting comfortable. “At first you mumbled something about it being cold, then there was a bubble universe. And you mentioned my name. I admit, I was intrigued.” Fick put a hand on Mauricio’s leg to help calm him more. “Then you said, shouted really, ‘No! Not that!’ Then you were calmly asleep again. You mumbled something about a dragon, wanting to hurl, and something about a peephole.” Fick laughed. “Sounded a little trippy in there. Like you were really trying to avoid whatever dream of me and the bubble universe you were having.” Fick looked at Mauricio. Looked into his eyes. “Want to talk about it? It was only a dream. It cannot hurt you. And you could feel a lot better if you do.”

Fick held out his hand, wanting Mauricio to take it.

"You're not him." Mauricio said flatly. His time within this experience may have been short, but he was learning quick. There was no way Fick was in this room right now, he was seeing a familiar face to help calm his nerves. But it was working; he felt able to breathe normally again in the Faux-Fick's presence, and his heart beat slowed down once more. When he was thinking clearly, Mauricio smiled to Fick's apparition and nodded. "Let's try this again." He declared as he reached for Fick's hand.

Aenardha’s idea failed but the end result was still favorable thusfar. The telepathic link did not come crashing down. Not yet.

Concentrating as hard as he could, Mauricio tried to find the Captain. "Temple. Temple. Temple." He kept saying to himself, willing his mind to search and find the Captain once more. Maybe if they were able to reach the protective doors within Nyx's mind, they could speak to him at least? He had to believe it would work. "Temple!" He called out.

After a few moments of nothing, Mauricio started to see a console in front of him. It was a ship's station, showing an active LCARS screen. There were hands in front of it, tapping away at some buttons.

Aenardha did not say anything. She wanted to help Mauricio along but felt saying anything, either as herself or the faux-Fick, would only have an adverse effect.

"I think I have... someone." He murmured. As Mauricio looked down, he realised he was viewing a secondary Ops Console at the rear of the Pandora's Bridge. The person they were inhabiting looked over briefly, and Mauricio caught a quick glance of the whole Bridge, confirming it was the Pandora. Whoever this was, they were sitting directly behind the Captain. Mauricio didn't recognise this person at all; he'd been trying to find Nyx but somehow reached a junior officer in his proximity instead. Not wanting to waste any time, he called out, "Where are you?"

Unaware of the presence in his mind, the officer started speaking, "Ship identified in sector one-eight-zero, sixteen light-years distance," said Ensign Ian Milkovich.

Ian looked down again at his console, giving Mauricio a clear view of their current location. Excited, Mauricio called out to Aenardha, "We found them!"

The bridge and the console broke apart into dust. The room Mauricio and faux-Fick likewise melted away. The universe fell apart into specks of dust and zoomed away in all directions. The Expanse sped away and all the galaxies ventured forth leaving the duo in a vast void of darkness, illuminated only by the sourceless light.

Aenardha and Mauricio were looking at each other. Her peridot eyes flickered and returned to their natural white in white complexion. She began to fade as did Mauricio.

Aenardha let go of Mauricio’s hands and managed to remove her antenna from his temples. They ached and flittered about like sore appendages. Mauricio had reddened spots on his temples with little slits at the top, as though someone gave him matching artistic and complicated hickies. Aenardha sat back in her seat and slouched, exhausted from the ordeal. The link was finally broken. That was the longest connection of that degree that she had ever dared, though only barely more than a minute and passed.

Taking on the likeness of Fick brought, along with it, the feelings Fick had for Mauricio. Aenardha knew the thoughts and the feelings were not her own but they felt as such regardless. It would certainly take time and meditation to move beyond.

Mauricio likewise collapsed back into the couch cushion, feeling absolutely drained. It took him a few moments of deep breathing before he could accept that the experience was finally over.

Aenardha looked at herself through Mauricio’s vision. She did look how she felt; a wreck. “We did it. Now what is the plan?”

With a nod, Mauricio gave a half-smile, "Now we have to get into the Expanse. Lucky for you, we have a way to do it. Unfortunately, it's going to take some... covert methods."

Aenardha forced herself to think on other things not Mauricio. That level of telepathic connection (almost a physical one) had taken a toll and she found herself dwelling on thoughts of him more than she should. She would have to dedicate herself to meditation sessions to straighten her thoughts out. She really should not have attempted that type of link with someone not Aenar without a highly practiced elder present.

"Covert or no. Whatever means gets me off this station and closer to my ship is decidedly not unfortunate," she said. "If you will excuse me," she managed to sit up in her chair, "I must meditate. I am certain you have much planning to do."

Feeling like he had just ridden a roller coaster about twenty times, Mauricio took a tired breath. “I need to sleep. I’ll message you soon with the details for the rendezvous.”

Without saying much else, not that anything needed to be said, Mauricio walked zombified out of Aenardha’s quarters and back to his own.

And Aenardha, after telling the Computer to return the temperature of her quarters back to her normal and freezing preference, lit a candle and knelt before her makeshift meditation altar, needlessly closed her eyes and dove deep into thought where the mesmerizing yet incomprehensible tune the little girl was humming earlier was again echoing in the furthest corners of Aenardha's conscience all the while she sought after resolution to the end result of the recent telepathic link; the recurring thoughts and the growing feelings for Mauricio.