In an instant, the morning silence was replaced with the terrible shriek of shearing metal, followed by a jarring explosion. She tried to open her eyes, the stinging smoke nearly suffocating her.
The first sensory stimulus her brain processed was the intense, painful ringing in her ears. As it began to lessen, she heard Skeyan coughing - but there was more – the odd gurgling that accompanied it.
As she tried to sit up and orient to determine exactly what had taken place, she fell back under the excruciating pain in her right shoulder. Rolling onto her left side, she was finally able to bring herself upright. Stunned and confused, she tried to wipe the strange water out of her eyes, only to realize that it was bright, green blood.
Carefully, she checked her internal body systems, and realized that she was not the one injured - it was him. In spite of the pain, she pulled him into her arms as best she could, and worked carefully to isolate and staunch the bleeding.
He began coughing violently, and blood spattered carelessly from his mouth, his breathing jagged and shallow. She realized that his final moments were upon them, and initiated the most valuable meld they would ever share.
Their connection surged immediately, its strength beyond any she had ever encountered, pulling her into a swirling vortex that consumed his mental processes, skewing them. Colors bled into one another, stained with flashes of light fading back into darkness – a deafening chaos representative of what he was feeling.
…pain…confusion… fear…
Using the skills she had cultivated as a healer, she deftly navigated through the distortion to a partitioned place, a safe respite from the maelstrom consuming his mind as his body systems failed, one by one. She went to it and observed synaptic signaling feebly attempting to assert bio-control to the injuries he had sustained.
There was logic and peace in this place… such an odd contrast to the void consuming him. She could hear him meditate upon the axioms of Surak and T'Plana Hath, enveloped in the comfort they brought him.
…logic is the cement of my civilization… I must cast out fear – there is nothing until it is gone from me…
Ashalik carefully created her esper-manifestation, appearing in his mind just as she was before the accident in her sage morning robes, her hair down in loose curls just as he liked it.
This was a skill she learned very early in her training that allowed her to help a patient with an insulting brain injury to feel comfortable with her in their mind.
She called to him gently.
/Skeyan.../
A brief moment passed, and then she heard the soft, quiet voice of a child in response.
/Asha?/
/Yes, My Love. I will speak with Thee now,/ she answered gently.
His own esper-manifestation materialized into view: himself at age seven, just as he appeared the day of their Telan t'Kanlar, when they were bound to one another as children. She felt a surge of renewal as he approached her and paired his fingers to hers. She knelt to meet him at eye level.
/Parted from me and never parted, K'diwa,/ he said gently, with that sweet smile he shared only with her.
/Never and always touching, and touched, Adun./
/Ashalik, my time has come./
/I know – but, I do not wish it./
/Non sequitir, my beloved wife. It is thus for all living things. I thank Thee for a most fulfilling life together,/ he paused, turning to look at the flashing storm that was fast approaching them.
/Aduna, return my katra to my family – this is the last I ask of you./
She nodded, not wanting to hear this, knowing his end was upon him. In a brilliant flash of light, his mental projection dissolved into a brightly glowing ball, hovering momentarily in front of her.
/Tuluk tu vokau,/ he said, and then burst forth into her mind.
The sudden insertion of his soul was esper-blinding, stunning her.
The abyssal storm began to envelope her, a muted blast gyrating around her, an impenetrable sound-wall - and then it suddenly stopped, all sound, sight, touch - as his body physically died.
She was trapped within the barest autonomic functions of his primitive brain as it struggled to live despite the inevitable outcome of approaching death.
The tearing away of his calming, logical presence ignited every nerve in her body with immeasurable pain- forty years of gentle, soothing soul stripped away from her very essence. She felt him surrender to the end of all that he was.
Realizing that her life would soon to be required of her as well, she created a safe, warm place of calm and logic. She thought of her father, Eskan Faer'o, the Betazed ambassador to Vulcan during the time that preceded its admission to the Federation. She immersed herself in a memory of exploring their garden together…
…she was three, and he held her close in his arms, kissed her forehead and declared her his Treasure, his precious gift… searching through leaves and under rocks for all manner of delicate life that lived therein…investigating it, and then gently returning it from whence it had come…
Her mind then went to her mother, T'Sayerin aduna Eskan, who chose to incorporate the very best of both worlds into the marriage they shared…
…she taught Ashalik the art of healing others suffering in esper-related emergencies, preparing her to become the youngest graduate of the healing arts at the University of Betazed…
As her own body began to sympathetically cease function, she realized her own death was drawing near.