Nightmare's Collage be Lyda Mae Dameron
Part One: Cave and Crucible
June 2417 Triscalia System:
Ensign Sarrow Riix took a moment and stretched his well toned muscles allowing them to ripple beneath his tanned skin and ran his fingers through his sand colored hair. It was now kept short and neat though much of his 94 years he had kept it long. He stood in his room in the residential Condo on the Starfleet ground base on planet Argonia. The hour was late and he was preparing to preform his nightly ritual before retiring for bed. He wore the shorts and tank top he customarily wore to bed and stood facing the symbol of the Holy Rings of Betazed upon his wall.
He moved to the mat on the floor beside his bed and began the first pose of the yoga like meditations that his Grand Aunt Morianna had taught him as a child. He held the pose flexing and closed his eyes thinking of the star Mandalas that Morianna had painted in the time he had spent in isolation with her learning to control the abilities of his half Betazoid half El-Aurain mind. His body had been so small then. Eight years old and mentally aware of the minds around him in way a typical Betazoid child was not.
The fear of awakening his telepathy while trapped beneath the rubble of a cave in had remained with him for many years. But in Morianna's care he had learned to quite the world around him and clear his mind. He shifted his stance allowing his body to take on another shape and the image in his mind to shift in color and complexity. He continued this for half a standard hour with the image shifting in his mind as he changed each position. Then at the end of thirty minutes he sat in a lotus position his mind absolutely blank. The stars now gone from the meditation and he concentrated only on breathing. There in the moment of clear mental silence he found peace that he was denied by the stresses of the day. After a sufficient time breathing in silence he grew tired and stood slowly to climb beneath the sheets of his bunk.
In the condo around him his roommates went about their business. Nurse Duv Jaxa clipped the short Bajoran earning to her right ear completing her uniform and hurried out the Condo door to take her shift in Sickbay and the twins Bug and JBear sat at a table quietly playing a game while two Terran cats played with a stuffed toy. All this went on but faded from Sarrow's awareness as he drifted into a deep sleep.
It is said often that life is like a tapestry or a mosaic with many pieces put together to make up the whole that is the sum of a life. While he slept Sarrow dreamed dreams that were part of the collage that had been and would be. Being Half El-Aurain he aged slower than those around him and possessed a sense of time that permitted a certain level of precognition. It did not allow him to see details but some times he could sense things were coming that others would have simply dismissed.
He did not always remember what he dreamed at night. He had suffered some truly horrible things in his life and if he dwelt on them while he was a awake it might have driven lesser men mad. As he lay there in a deep slumber memories that he would not let himself dwell on played out with clarity. At certain times while he slept if he was unwell or stressed he had been know to unintentionally project his dreams on those near by with such strength that some considered it dangerous. Most of the time thanks to meditation and regular treatment from a qualified physician this had become a rare occurrence. It was however why he had chosen the Top Gun Handle Nightmare when he had qualified to be a Starfleet Fighter Pilot. Seeking to turn a weakness into a strength...
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December 2330 Betazed:
Sarrow Abris ran along the hills on the back quarter of the Bel estate on his Home World of Betazed. The Bel family was the Fourth of the noble houses of Betazed and his paternal grandmother Zilandra Bel was the First Daughter of the Fourth House. He was only eight years old and the children in his class at school could be cruel at times. He could not help that his mother was not a Betazoid. They teased him saying that Delmore Abris was a homeless gold digger for marrying into the Nobel Fourth House when she was just a Refuge. They also constantly told him that as a half-Breed with such green eyes instead of the Betazoid black eyes he would likely be mentally blind. That they would one day know the joys of Telepathy and Empathy and he would not. He had never bothered to try explaining that his eyes had green irises like his mother because doctors had determined in-utero that if they did not act to correct certain issues caused by his mixed heritage that he would not have survived. For he was certain this would cause them to tease him even more.
On days when the cruelty was too much to handle after school Sarrow would come here to the back quarter and run till all his frustration was run out. Today had been particularly bad as Tam Gisle had steadfastly refused to be partnered with him for a project the teacher had assigned. Tam always looked down on Sarrow who was smaller and younger looking than the children in his class. Some people that did not know his parentage often asked if he had been skipped ahead two grades from nursery school.
"Vocal speak is for babies and half-breed brats like you." Tam would say. Tam never believed that Sarrow could hear the mental instructions of the teacher and after being forced to partner with Sarrow he had insisted on repeating them to Sarrow in a condescending vocal tone. The fact that Sarrow had already completed his half of the assignment while Tam droned on had lead Tam to insist that Sarrow had gotten it wrong and he seized the paper tearing it up and telling him to start over. This of course meant that Sarrow had to start over and he had been forced to stay after class to finish by the teacher while Tam had been taken home by his Father who projected in a disapproving tone the he would not have his son punished for the incompetence of a child that clearly belonged in a less advanced class.
After Tam had left and Sarrow had completed the assignment on his own he had salvaged the paper from the trash and pieced it back together showing the teacher that he had in fact understood the instructions. She had been too busy grading the other students papers to look and had told him to wash his hand thoroughly after rummaging in the trash. He had walked home refusing to be seen crying but once he hit the back quarter of the family estate he had cried hard and began to run.
As he ran blinded by tears he had not noticed the hole opening up in the ground and he slid into the sink hole. He slid for many meters into the darkness only half aware of what was going on and at some point he must have been knocked out. When he came too some time later in darkness there was only pain. His left arm and leg were pinned beneath rocks. Not crushed because he could still move them a little though it hurt and he was not certain how badly the limbs were injured. Many other rocks had covered him creating a very small pocket. He tried to scream to cry out but knew there was no point. He was still some ways from the main house and he knew his small voice would not carry that far. He began to panic and screamed even though it was no use and eventually he passed out again from the pain.
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Axion Bel Abris Son of the First Daughter of the Fourth House stood in the home of his mother and stared at the chronometer. He had been commed by Sarrow's teacher that he had been held after class to finish an assignment, but it had been far to long for such a punishment and for Sarrow to walk home from the school. It was not that far from the school to the Bel estate and Sarrow always seemed to run home.
Axion had a tight feeling in his chest. His son meant so much to him. He had married Delmore Abris for love spurning an arranged union to marry the lovely blond El-Aurian with eyes so green that they were like Emeralds. Just now Delmore was off planet for a symposium on Earth. Delomore was a cultural anthropologist and had been since long before Axion had been born and long before her home world of El-Auria had been destroyed making those of her people that survived Refugees.
Something was terribly wrong and Axion knew it. He grabbed his jacket and put a few supplies in a knapsack that he kept by the door. Simple things food rations a first aide kit and a thermal blanket. He left a note on the house computer that he had stepped out to look for Sarrow and then headed for the section of the estate that his son would cross to get home from school.
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June 2417 Triscalia System:
The days on Argonia were quite fulfilling for Sarrow. After petting his cats and eating a breakfast of Uttaberry glazed Groat Cakes with a cup of Bajoran Kava he had showered and dressed in his standard duty uniform with the blue undershirt of Science. He made sure the Ensign first class pip and his comm badge were straight and smoothed the black fabric of his jacket and trousers then stepped out of the condo by the bay and walked toward the recreation center and the Botanical gardens.
As a botanist he had helped to gather the plants and place them in the Gardens. There were some fabulous specimens. Several of them had been genetically engineered by the Caitian Scientist named Punkie. Punkie was a very smart woman and was the local veterinarian as well as a geneticist and a lover of botany. There were plants from Vulcan and from Betazed as well as from Bajor. He inspected the Fleloran Bromeliads that were planted on risers in the fountain making sure the spray of water had not cause narcotization of the leaves of the large epephytes. Satisfied there was none he transported up to New Point Station and clocked in for his shift.
He worked his way up the labyrinth of laboratories that had only recently been updated with the latest equipment. As he went on he checked on tanks of filter feeders in Oceanography and rare plants in Botany stopping to see to it the living things in the labs were given their regularly scheduled food even taking a maggot from storage and feeding it to the D'malla, which was a carnivorous plant from Vulcan. He checked the station life support systems, stopping to change the filter on the station air scrubbers. The procedures had become easy and the announcements over the comm as certain ones were carried out had become second nature.
These tasks though simple were very rewarding and working under Commander Sa'awek was agreeable to Sarrow. The Vulcan Commander may have lived by logic but he was a patient teacher that sought to bring out the best in the officers left in his charge.
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December 2330 Earth:
Delmore Abris smoothed down the front of her dress as she looked over the notes on her padd and continued her lecture on ceremonies to banish evil. "Every culture has it's legends of creatures of the night. Those that are undead or who have gained immortality by feeding on those younger in order to retain their youth. In many cases such individuals a Countess Elizabeth Bathory followed these legends to their extreme. The legends she followed to find her forbidden recipe for eternal youth go back to a time before written word had been invented on Earth. The fact is that dealing with the fears of racial memory have lead to some strange customs to ward off attacks by such creatures..."
She trailed off mid thought and found herself nervously clutching her padd as if life depended on it. She had not felt this kind of sudden dread in some time but she had learned not to dismiss it long ago. Even before her encounter with the Nexus as the refugee ships filled with so many of her kind had neared Earth 37 years before. She knew in that moment she had to call home to Betazed.
"Please forgive me fellow sentients. I will not be able to finish this lecture. Something urgent has come up and I must call home..."
Professor Myiazaki arose from the front row of the lecture hall. "Are you Alright Dr. Abris? You look extremely pale."
"I need to call home and return to Betazed without delay." She said shoving her padd into a satchel and practically running out the door.
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December 2330 Betazed:
Beneath the rubble pile Sarrow began to stir though his left side was still pinned to the floor of the cave. He had other problems at the moment. He was feeling cold and his stomach growled, but also he was painfully aware that he needed to use the bathroom. He was not quite sure how he was going to manage. He really did not want to be found smelling like he had wet himself. It was bad enough that people thought he was in nursery school but wetting his pants was unacceptable.
His right arm was free but there were other rocks that kept him from shifting position. He tested the rocks in his reach some were easily shifted away though others by the way they were wedged were not so easy and he had to be careful not to cause other rocks from collapsing further down. Eventually he managed to free enough of his upper body that he could shift if he was careful. He could not begin to unpin his left arm and leg and he was certain they were broken from how they hurt. Though he could still feel and move his fingers and toes even if it hurt like words his grandmother would have set him nose first in a corner for saying.
With a little more effort he managed to undo the fly of his pants with his right hand and then roll toward the side that was pinned. Once he was certain he would not get any on himself he relived the problem but the effort had tired him out so much that he passed out again with his pants only half fastened.
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