Iki’planahan-vre’atha
Posted on Thu Jul 20th, 2023 @ 11:28pm by Daniel Martinez & Fleet Captain Maxwell Culver & Rear Admiral T'Val Retd & Lieutenant Commander Frasier Greene & Lieutenant Commander Ukram Gocx
3,739 words; about a 19 minute read
Mission:
Good Will Tour: Mountain Home [Part Two]
Location: Triton Seabase: Sickbay
Timeline: MD26: 2200 hours through MD27: 0600 hours
Max had made history - the first Starfleet captain to meet with the Senate of the Romulan Star Empire - overseen the first day of the investigation of the downed fighter and finished his duty shift. Since then, Max had waited by Dani’s bedside, holding his hand.
Retired Admiral T’Val was inbound and due to arrive at any moment to perform a Vulcan ritual, which Max wouldn’t even pretend to pronounce. Ancient Vulcan mysticism that translates to return-thinking to the direct experience of the soul. A means of separating what Max had accidentally done to Dani the night before.
Ukram was the on-duty doctor currently, though Greene was due in any time. He kept careful watch over the now-sleeping man in the biobed nearby, in between his regular tasks. He smiled tiredly at the Captain. "How's he looking?" The Klingon asked Max, his eyes scanning the data. "His vitals are normal. Will you want Counselor Campbell to sit in when the Admiral arrives, just in case?" He asked, as gently as he could. "I have her on light duty for the next few hours, but I think she could handle SITTING here, in case the Admiral needs assistance or we do," he said, but he'd let Culver make that call as CO.
“You can pose that question to the counselor, but she’s been through a lot in the last day and a half. It might be better to let her rest, but we can offer her the option.” Max was exhausted, loss of sleep, psychogenic shock, the meeting with the Senate, the initial investigation, the drain of attachment to Dani, the anticipation of waiting for T’Val and watching over Dani. It was all he could do to stay awake.
The large Klingon simply nodded. "I will send her a note, Captain," he said. "I wouldn't count on it, though I wish she would. I worry about her-she takes things too personally at times. Your man here...he's doing ok, according to the data," Ukram said, trying to keep his tone less Klingon and more "warm." He hoped he was succeeding.
T'Val walked into sickbay, his hands behind his back in the usual Vulcan pose. It had been a long journey to get to Triton Seabase but one he was willing to do to help a Starfleet Captain.
Max looked up as the double doors opened. He recognized the retired Admiral. Standing to his feet, Max moved and raised his hand in the Vulcan salute. “Good evening, Admiral. Peace and Long Life.”
"Good morning, Captain." The retired Admiral replied with a smirk, the Vulcan's body clock was still working to Earth standard time rather than Triton Seabase. "Please, call me T'Val. I'm retired, I don't expect any special treatment."
“If I had known your were here, I would have met you in the transporter room,” Max responded apologetically. “I am happy it’s the start of your day because I think it might be a bit of a long one.
"Don't be silly, Captain. You have more than enough on your plate than to greet a relic like me." The greying Vulcan replied.
Max nodded tiredly, thankfully before setting back down in his seat and laying his head on Dani’s muscular arm and shoulder. Tapping his combadge, he alerted the bridge he would be medically unavailable until morning, at least.
Ukram was at attention when the Admiral entered. He, as a Klingon, knew of the honor and value that came with such a high military position, and he simply nodded in reverence. "Sir," he said. "Nice to meet you. Assistant Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Ukram, house of Gocx," he said, by way of introduction. "Please tell me what you will need from me. Dr. Greene should be around soon!"
A Klingon medical officer was different but not a surprise. A few had found their way into the ranks of Starfleet in recent years. T'Val had always encouraged opening Starfleets doors to allied species. "The honour is mine, Doctor Ukram. A quiet place for us to do the ritual. No doubt you'll want to monitor our life signs and brain patterns so whatever monitoring device you need which wont impede a mind meld."
Ukram nodded. "You can have a private suite; the surgical recovery room would be perfect. I've already had it set up, and I can have our Chief Counselor, Lt. Rena Campbell, on standby if you think it'd be helpful. She's Betazed and has her own empathetic abilities," he explained. "I will step out a moment so you can speak with the Captain and make a plan. Also find Dr. Greene."
“To be fair, T’Val, this is the first time in El-Aurian history - at least that which survived the Borg invasion of a century and a half ago. This may be a new power that we are acquiring through evolution. Either way, the goal is to restore Mr. Martinez back to his previous life and nature.” Max was trying to be as direct and to the point as possible.
Beyond them, Greene watched on as the two greeted each other under strange circumstances. It was gracious for T'Val to attend so quickly to aid in their situation.
"The whole situation is fascinating, I look forward to being able to help and and learn more it." T'Val replied with a nod. "Where is Mr. Martinez now?"
Spotting Doctor Greene hovering in the background, Max summoned him to join them. “Dani is just in this double wide private room with a single nurse,” Max explained.
“I’m sure Doctor Greene can give you a sense of the medical side of things, so I’ll be quiet now and sit with Dani until you’re done talking about his findings. We can then talk about how I think I’ve managed to do this and screw it up.”
Frasier stepped closer and offered the Captain some reassurances: "Nothing that we cannot address. Sit with Dani we're be through shortly."
Max was exhausted, he was essentially going on forty eight hours without sleep. Whatever bond he had with Dani, closing your eyes for eight hours did NOT equate to sleep. Max had worked more than bothered to try to sleep. In many cases, people said it was because you worried about the person you loved in the hospital, but that was within walking distance.
With the Captain moving away Frasier addressed the recent arrival: "Good evening Admiral, thank you for coming so quickly to our request. "
"Not at all, you need my help and I'm happy to give it." The Vulcan replied with a smile. "Shall we get started?"
"Let's give allow Captain Culver a moment to prepare himself first," the Doctor replied. "During this...journey," he paused trying to find the appropriate words. "How can we assist? Or intervene if there appears to be a complication?"
"I suggest the three of us all wearing brain pattern monitors. You'll see that things are progressing when all three patterns are exactly the same." The Vulcan explained. "As for intervening, I'm not sure when would be an appropriate time should the need arise. With all of our minds merging for the ritual, it will be very dangerous to all of us if one is removed incorrectly. That being said, I'm aware of your need to preserve life so I'll leave that call to you, however, please leave it to the last possible moment before medical intervention is required."
"I understand," Frasier smiled softly though showing the strain of the situation. "I hope it won't come to that."
Max separated from the doctor and the Admiral, entering the private room. T’Val had left simple instructions, wear something comfortable then lie in the deprivation tank. Max thought it was strange but he had to be in the same mental state as Dani.
Laying down in water that was body temperature, he laid back and touched the interactive display that set the program in motion. The water was neither warm nor cold, there was no taste or smell. There was no sound, no sight. It was supposed to calm his mind. Max typically meditated when he was able, but he hadn’t had time since Triton. His mind bounced from one task to the other until a gentle rhythm began to play. One of his own, Indian ritual rhythms. Before long, his mind calmed to near silence.
With the Captain settled in the tank and relaxed Doctor Greene turned to the Admiral as he made himself comfortable to prepare for whatever he required.
"Ready when you are," he nodded to T'Val satisfied all three persons monitoring equipment was running soundly.
T'Val gave a silent nod as he approached both men lying in tanks. He stood in between the tanks and carefully place his thumb and forefinger on each mans forehead. He closed his eyes and bowed his head. "My mind, to your minds. My thoughts, to your thoughts," he said quietly.
For Max the transition was very easy. Likely because he was prepared for the Admiral’s mind meld throughout the day. He wasn’t sure whose mind he was in or if they were, all three off a single mind. He was still wearing his clothes from entering the tank, except dry. T’Val appeared as himself. Despite knowing he was somehow connected to Dani Martinez, their third mind seemed to need an invite.
Max looked at T’Val. “How does this work? Should I even be asking questions? My mother used to tell me to shut up all the time. Jeez. Now you know my El-Aurian name, Maxa.” He smacked himself in the forehead.
"We need to wait for Mister Martinez to find his way here, then we can begin." T'Val replied, as he placed his hands behind his back.
“I believe I know where he might be. Would it be rude to ask him to join us? As I understand, there is no sense of time here in the mindscape. We could be here for three days before you need rest. Sometimes longer I have heard.”
“The answer is yes, Maxa,” Dani’s Spanish pronunciation added some flair to the drab ‘Maxa’ as his people pronounced it. “It would be very rude to come looking for me, also quite unnecessary, as you can see.” There was a bite to Dani’s words.
“That is, after all, how we are in this problem, now the three of us.” Dani turned to the Admiral and saw him in his Starfleet uniform, Max in his grandmother’s hand sewn clothes from Kaitos. Now Dani could see the attraction of Ihhuein ei'krih for Maxa. It was very much like his hometown of Lua Thalenas.
Dani chose to arrive in a simple black shirt and slacks. “Thank you, Admiral T’Val for coming to help. You made it easier to find this place, I think. I felt very much like I did as a child in here.”
Now Max was receiving flashes of Dani’s life. He couldn’t have been much older than five, playing with his toys too loudly for daddy’s work call.
“Excuse me, I’ll clear the room so we can get back to business.” Gustavo kicked the transport against the wall, the toy shattered and the people popped out all over the office. Gustavo slapped his son across the face. “Isa, come get this little brat out of my office.”
His mother ran in and swiftly picked him up, checking the red slap mark on his cheek. “Get him out now or you’ll have a mark to match.”
Isa sneered at her husband. “Look at him. What you make him. Too mad and too proud to cry for you. If I had the time for a fight, I would spit in your face, piece of shit.”
Max knew now where Dani actually went and he was wrong. Dani was out with his mother, five years old and too mad to make words for it. She sung to him as she placed a cold cloth to his red cheek. And Max noticed he shared the same hatred for Gustavo as his mother in those blue eyes.
That danger lay there now between he and Max.
The Vulcan looked at both men. "Do you both know why we are here?" He asked, his tone even and calm. "This maybe a basic question but we all need to know the journey we are about to undertake."
Max swallowed hard. He could see the fire virtually burning behind those blue eyes he once thought he understood. "I thought I was here to separate myself from Dani. first. So he could return to his own mind and body, but also to apologize," Max started and he could see that gire start to well up.
"Now I realize, I'm here for an apology first and the rest can follow...I had no idea I reminded him enough of his father that he would descend there first. In my mind, I've been working from a place his mother worked from. A place of love and protection," Max admitted, his big, brown eyes in a place of sadness.
"An apology is always the first step to healing." T'Val stated. "Without an apology, you'll both be stuck in Pandemonium."
“Stuck is Pandemonium?” The pair questioned at the same time. Then they shared a glance at each other, recognizing how quickly and exactly their responses came out.
Dani’s look softened a little. “We can’t be stuck in Pandemonium forever. I have things to do.”
Max smiled warmly. “We have things to do,” he reminded his boyfriend, except that wasn’t the feeling he was receiving back. “Daniel, I didn’t mean to insert myself so directly into you to act through you. I don’t understand these powers that are coursing through me because there is no history of El-Aurians with powers beyond that of empathy.
“As for you blaming me for being like your father. Well, you have as much freedom as you have earned.”
Dani’s eyes narrowed suspiciously. “So you would allow me to return to my father? To admit I made a mistake and throw myself upon the mercy of my family?” Dani’s voice started low, but it grew to not yet shouting.
“I would prefer you didn’t go that way, Dani, but I have no business stopping you from going home to your family.” Max shrugged and looked at his feet. “Especially when the other option is to stand here and look at our memories forever while our bodies whiter out there.”
“I have put too much effort in at the gym to ruin my body in the real world. There are some really good memories worth repeating in here though. It’s nice to see my mother again. We haven’t seen her since she disappeared long ago.”
"Mister Martinez, why would you have to throw yourself at the mercy of you family? What happened in the past? Would you care to revisit and analyse it?" The Vulcan Admiral asked, seeing if they could wade through the tension.
“There’s nothing to revisit, nothing to analyze. My father sent me to this planet because he considers me a disgrace. Being gay and living in his house is an insult to his manliness. Humanity is supposed to have moved beyond such things, but he hasn’t.
“He sent me here to fail at the family business, at being a great hotelier. The problem is, I am doing exactly that. Max has shown me more ways my father has been deceptive; tracking me and my brother, having my workplace bugged, paying Romulans to abduct me if I fall off task and criminals after me for what purpose…I don’t know.
“And now I’m mad at Max for using me one time - to be fair, it is a BIG use. It’s set off a lot of emotions. Emotions that I should put away now that I have someone who does care about me…” Dani turned red rimmed eyes at Max. The kind that weren’t hidden by his anger.
Max crossed the mindscape and hugged Dani. “I am sorry. I didn’t know what I was doing to you or through you,” Max admitted. “I didn’t know I made you feel like your father makes you feel. I want you to feel loved and safe…and if you need it, free.”
"Perhaps in some deep subconscious of your mind, you needed to explore these feelings and speak freely about them. There is no judgement here, your father is unable to reach you here." T'Val replied calmly. "It sounds like he has done everything in his power to make you fail. Speaking as a father, my advise would be, be the better man and become greater than he."
Dani accepted Max’s hug and returned it. He looked from one man to the other before he rested his head on Max’s shoulder. It was the same advice from men with more years, and to be honest, more wisdom, than he held himself. “Max has told me the same thing. To be a better man than my father. To build a better business. You share Max’s wisdom with me again, but it does mean that I can’t hide here on Triton Seabase anymore.”
Max smiled wistfully. “I knew there would be a day when you needed to jump ship,” he admitted. He had a fleeting thought, but as they were all connected, the mindscape shifted to the place.
Dani looked at the small house and the stables, the old man standing in the door with a cigarette in his hand and he immediately understood what Max was proposing without saying anything or even trying to think it.
“I would have to talk to him first, make sure he doesn’t feel invaded,” Dani said cautiously.
Max soured a bit more. “I don’t think he has much time left, Dani. He’d be happy for the company and to know his place would be in your hands, I think…”
The Klingon ACMO watched carefully both mens' vital signs, as well as the Admiral's face for signs of fatigue. Everything seemed ok so far, so he ducked back out, silently and as unobstruviely as possible.
Greene too had been watching the silent progression with a critical eye in the hopes neither himself or Gocx would need to step in. Until something changed they were simply guardsmen. "Have you much experience with Vulcan mind melding or bridging Gocx?" he asked the Klingon once he'd retreated from the unconscious party.
The Klingon doctor shook his head and offered a shrug of his massive shoulders while they both stood mesmerized by the trio of brainwaves that all appeared the same on the computer display.
“I think we know where we’re meant to be and where we’re meant to be going,” Max said to the serene Vulcan.
"Then perhaps it is time to return to your own bodies and become whole once more," the Vulcan replied with a slow nod.
Max stood and offered his hand to Dani. It didn’t need being said that Max would arrange the security needed for Dani and for Daniel Hart as well, subtle though it would be. The sunset behind the old Hart house flashed as a memory of it from Earth. It no longer sat on that angle, catching the full sun in its new home would cause it to overheat too much.
Dani stood and looked at the memory, his own realized new home overtaking it. It stood now as he remembered it. The old man on the porch, sat in his chair and smoking a cigarette. He tipped his hat and offered a nod.
Dani smiled and walked ‘home’, his hand lingered only briefly with Max’s as he returned to himself. To the problems of his life and his own memories, without Maxwell to help push those old triggers and tragedies.
Once their hands separated, Max turned and saw Triton Seabase. His home and his duty. He walked back there.
Max woke up and looked over to see Dani already fully awake. The Vulcan, T’Val, stood between them. The bond between the trio would be unbreakable by anything less than death now. Max knew that the Vulcan concept of a katra would link them at what the humans would call a soul.
Max would be the last of them to carry the memories and a part of each man’s soul with him for the rest of his life.
"Welcome back," the voice of Doctor Green floated through the Captain's distant thoughts. "I'm pleased to say the ritual worked and Mister Martinez is recovering well."
Max could feel the weight of the world lift from his shoulders. He looked to the Vulcan and nodded. The former Starfleet Admiral almost appeared to offer the slightest of smiles, barely noticeable except that Max could feel even the least of emotions with his empathy. Seeming embarrassed, the Vulcan bowed slightly and disappeared as doctors and nurses swarmed their patients.
“Doctor Greene, what is the time?”
Greene's brow crinkled slightly at the odd question: "It's just coming up to 0600. Why ask? Not planning to return to duty I hope?" he continued.
Max wiped his face with one of the hot cloths brought over by the nurse. He could feel the exhaustion wiping away with them, but it wouldn’t last long. “Yes Doctor, and I am pulling captain’s prerogative under these circumstances. We’re putting the lives of the Romulans and our own crew at risk this morning.
Max pulled on a black t-shirt and looked for the Vulcan who had disappeared into nothing. “I’ll have enough time for some heavy caffeination and then we’ll be off from there…”
Max didn’t wait for the CMO to call him out on his lack of sleep or the taxing days he’d had. He needed to spearhead these missions, first on the mountain and an attempt to capture a spider creature and another to shore up Mountain Home against more spiders breaking and entering.
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