USS Avalon

Avenger Class Battlecruiser NCC 20616

Captain's Cabin

In Orbit Above Bath'lor

─•~:~•─

Rain opened her eyes, and while still in a good deal of pain, her senses went to work right away.

She bolted up from the bed and looked around.

She was in Zelina's Cabin. Rain recognized the poster of Black Swan, the play she took Zelina to in London as their first real date.

And beside it was the red ball gown Zelina had worn when they had gone dancing later that night.

Rain herself had worn a lovely faux latex cocktail dress she salvaged from Tranbir Nine, and the two had danced a waltz to Wagner for many long hours.

Rain looked to her right at the nightstand table and saw the first "family picture" that Zelina had taken with her last weekend before they shipped out for Operation Soul's Edge.

Rain and Zelina were standing embraced on the large front steps of Kayla's house.

Kayla was on her knees, throwing a pile of white snow in the air, while Comrose had jumped over Kayla to chase the flying snow.

Rain's genetically enhanced brain power let her remember every aspect of that moment, how the snow felt on her hair, the modulation of Comrose's barking, and most importantly, just how happy Rain was that day.

And next to the frame was her protector, Mr. Pingu, or PFC Mr. Pingu as the Squirrels and Ninjas had started calling him around Camp Nath.

The little stuffed penguin was badly scorched and one of his plastic eyes had fallen out of it's socket, but otherwise he wasn't looking any worse than Rain did now.

"I'm sorry, my friend," she said sadly to the toy, "I'll be more quiet next time when the monsters are around."

Suddenly, Rain's right clavicle scorched out in pain, and she quickly laid back down in the bed to relieve the pressure.

Even with her healing abilities, the deep incision would sting for a couple of weeks. With her right arm still feeling stiff, Rain instead reached up with her left and gently rubbed the surgical incision scar.

She was surprised to note she wasn't wearing her MDU, but instead simple medical robes.

I hope the damned doctors got their money's worth with that show.

To her left, the door to the cabin opened, and Zelina came in and sat down on the bed next to Rain.

She was still looking as beautiful as ever to Rain's eyes, and her nearly painted on Starfleet uniform still looked amazing.

But her eyes were looking sad, for some reason.

"I'd kiss you, my love, but I'm not feeling so great at this exact moment. And It seems the doctors in your sickbay beat you to stripping me naked, sorry," Rain said, more weakly than she expected.

Zelina smiled weakly and gently grasped Rain's hand through the blanket.

It was surprising to Rain. She was expecting at least a hug.

And when she spoke, Rain was even more surprised by her lover's tone, sounding concerned and angry, "I'm just glad you are awake, Rain. We need to talk about something."

Rain sighed, "Zelina, my darling. Please, no lectures on my combat decisions. It was a stupid mistake. I was overconfident and not following the standards I set for my own special ops units. I've learned my lesson, trust me. I won't go to any planet again without full armour, and I'll even shut up so I can hear PFC Mr. Pingu."

Zelina scoffed in disgust and rose from the bed, going over to her desk and picking up a PADD. Something was wrong here.

Rain painfully raised herself up in bed, grasping the blanket with her one good arm to keep herself decent.

"Zelina, what's wrong? I told you, I'm fine—" Rain said, before being cut off.

Zelina turned to look at her lover, and her lovely blue eyes were crying harsh tears, and her voice was filled with anger.

She held up the PADD and shouted, "Were you planning on telling me about this, Rain?!"

Confused, Rain simply replied, "Telling you about what?"

Zelina angrily read off the PADD, "Post Op Report, Dr Symco, CMO Avalon. Subject, Major Rain Kaimeao FMC. Personal Observations. My patient displays clear and irrefutable signs of extensive genetic augmentation to enhance her abilities and senses, particularly her intelligence, cognitive abilities, and immune responses."

"Further, according to quantum scan, my patient's age is seventeen, not twenty-eight as claimed in her records with FMC. Both revelations are clear violations of Federation Law and Starfleet Medical Code. It is beyond my scope as CMO to speculate on such matters, but I require your attention on this issue immediately, Captain Bakay."

Rain simply gasped, "I'm seventeen?!…that can't be right."

She had over a decade's worth of memories, as clear to her as the conversation she was having with Zelina right this moment.

If Rain really was only seventeen, none of those timelines matched up.

"This is no mistake, Rain. I had Symco run the test three times to be sure, and I watched him do it each time. You're an Augment. And you're 17 years old. When were you going to tell me?!" Zelina asked harshly.

Rain tucked her legs into her chest, just as Kayla had when she found her in that closet on Tranbir Nine.

Rain was scared too, "In truth? I wasn't planning on telling you. Ever."

Zelina threw the PADD hard into the wall and all but screamed at Rain, "Damn you! How could lie to me?! Was it all lies to you?! I loved you!"

Rain let her own tears start now, and spoke softly, "I've never lied to you. And I love you. I just…couldn't tell you."

"Why?! You should be in jail right now! That boshtet Nurse Chen was about call Earth and have you taken from here in irons. Your Corpsman nearly shot her! I confined her to quarters. Maybe I should let her make that call, eh? The law might give me a reprieve for sleeping with a child!" Zelina said in anger.

Rain cried hard for a long moment, "I'm sorry. I…I never wanted you to get hurt."

Zelina took an effort to calm herself. She instead walked and knelt at the end of the bed, facing Rain head on.

"Tell me the truth Rain, all of it, right now. Or I'll take you to the brig myself!" Zelina said, softer this time but still full of anger.

Rain looked up, her own eyes full of tears, "The people that made me this way, if they knew I had told you the truth, they'd come for you or Kayla just to get me. That's why I wasn't ever going to tell you. If something happened, to either of you…It would kill me as sure as any sword."

"What people? Who did this?" Zelina asked.

Rain buried her face in her knees, sobbing, "I don't know. They…they never told me their names, and I never saw their faces. And they did things that…god, I, please don't make me say what they did to me, Zelina."

"It's…something that no one should experience. I was just a child, no older than Kayla. I…I don't know where I was born, who my parents were, or even exactly hold I am, until now…I'm not even sure my name actually is Rain Kaimeao, but that's what they always called me."

She continued, still sobbing, "When they weren't…. when they weren't hurting me…they made me train, and eat, and sleep. For…I don't even know how long really, I was just in that cage. And that's all I did. Train, eat, sleep…and get hurt."

Zelina, herself in tears, asked in a softer tone, "How did you escape?"

Rain still didn't dare to look at her, "I don't know! I just woke up one day, and the door to my cage was open. I walked through, and no one was around. And so I ran…and I kept running, for as long as I could until I couldn't run anymore."

"My whole life, I've been running. But then, people came and tried to hurt me again. But I discovered that I could fight. And I killed anyone who tried to take me back to that cage."

"And I can't forget any of it. I remember every moment of my life, in perfect detail, as clear to me as this moment is right now. I've killed 12 468 people. That's my curse, Zelina. I can hear your heart pounding in your chest. I can smell your tears and mine in the air. I can feel this cut in my clavicle to a level other people can't," Rain sobbed.

Finally daring to look at Zelina, Rain tried to smile, but found it harder than anything she had ever done in her life, "I can remember the first time we made love. You wrapped your arms around me in the lover's suite of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beaufort. I told you that I'd still look nice in a uniform, and you whispered in my left ear, 'you'd look magnificent, Rain'."

"And anytime I want, I can go back to that moment in my mind, and relieve every part of that night in perfect detail, as though it were happening right now."

Zelina looked blank. And she replied blankly, "Who else knows about this?"

Rain sighed deeply, and returned to crying, "Virnas, Mark and Mor know that I am an Augment. Virnas scanned me with his Borg implants and figured it out instantly. And on my first mission with Black Star, I saved Mark and Mor from a horde of Vulcan selah beasts. When they asked me how I was able to shoot that well, Virnas told them, and I allowed him to do it. It was that… or be shot in turn."

Still not daring to look at Zelina a second time, Rain continued, "But no one knows what I've just told you, which is the whole truth. Kayla doesn't know either. She can't know. She's too innocent. I won't let what was done to me be done to her."

It was a lie of omission.

Rain hadn't mentioned the red-haired woman that threatened Mark with sending Rain back to her 'proper handlers' if Mark didn't stay in line.

But she had been honest with Zelina about everything else.

Zelina rose and walked to Rain's side.

She looked down on Rain and asked, much more softly this time, "What will you do now Rain? Will you run again?"

Painfully, Rain reached over to the nightstand table and picked up the picture frame and PFC Mr. Pingu.

She held the toy and the picture in front of her, still not wanting to look Zelina in the face, "I'm tired of running, Zelina. I ran for so long. But it's not the life I want anymore. I have Kayla now. Even if I'm only a child myself, I want to protect her. And I still want to share this life with you. But If you can't…then…well."

Rain cried for a moment before she spoke again, "Kayla will be sad she can't visit Avalon anymore. And Comrose will miss you on her walks. And…I'll miss you too. But I won't make you stay. It would be a cage, and no one deserves a cage."

Finally finding her courage, Rain looked up with her tear-filled eyes at Zelina, and held the picture between the two women, "Can I only ask for one thing? If not for me, then for Kayla? Let me stay with her?"

Zelina stared at the picture for a long moment.

She didn't have Rain's genetically enhanced memory, but she still remembered that day in the picture too.

And she remembered how happy she was as well.

Suddenly, Zelina erupted in tears and embraced Rain tightly.

It hurt her clavicle, but Rain didn't care about the pain for the moment.

She simply held on to Zelina for as long as she could.

It felt like forever, but by Rain's internal clock, it was only thirty seconds.

Zelina looked Rain in the eyes and said, "Why couldn't you just wear your armour, you stubborn fucking Kohkna child?!"

It hurt to laugh, but Rain did anyway and hugged Zelina again for the forever of thirty seconds.

She thought about kissing her but didn't try her luck. She'd taken enough risks today.

Instead, Rain asked simply, "So what happens now? Will you stay with me? With us?"

Zelina held Rain's undamaged left hand, interlocking her fingers with Rain's the same way they did when they made love a year ago in Beaufort, "I don't know about us…I'm still trying to wrap my ahead around the fact you're only ten years older than Kayla. But I'll be there for her…I just…I need time."

Rain, painfully, smiled and squeezed her hand, "I understand. It's all I can ask. For what it's worth…I do love you. I've never lied about that."

Zelina released her hand and gently brushed a piece of Rain's hair, "Kochania tse dwoje. You remember what it means?"

Rain nodded, "Love is two people. You said it to me after our dance in London, when I asked what made you such a fine dancer. I can't ever forget you saying it, or forget what it means."

Zelina sighed, "And I won't forget it either. But love is not enough. This report…. I lied to you. I was…angry with you. I let Nurse Chen file it. We haven't received any response yet. But I don't know what waits for you when we return to Earth."

"There will be questions, at the least. You can't run either. That wouldn't end well, for me, or Kayla, or you."

Rain sighed in turn.

She was hurt, physically and emotionally. But she wasn't angry either.

Instead, she simply held up PFC Mr. Pingu and placed the toy on top of her knees.

She waved one of his wings at Zelina and said, "You had every right to be angry at me. But I made him a promise, and I'll make you the same promise. I won't run away. I'll face whatever waits for me. And I won't kill anyone either. I'll…it's funny, I'm seventeen for god's sake."

"I'll be a grown up and take responsibility for my actions. Just look after Kayla and help her with her studies. Hopefully, by the time they let me out of prison, I can salute her as Major Kaimeao."

Zelina again brushed the same lock of hair on Rain's face, "Then I promise too. I will look after Kayla and help her with her studies. You…should rest now. I must return to the bridge, and Symco said you need rest even with your abilities. I…I will let you know when we get home."

The Captain rose from the bed and left the cabin quickly without another word.

Rain sat in bed and stared at PFC Mr. Pingu for a long time.

Rain loved Zelina. Truly, with her whole heart.

But there was only one thought on Rain's mind. Zelina didn't say, "Ya tebe kahayu, Rain" before she left.

I love you, Rain.

Four simple words. And they were words now unspoken.

Rain held PFC Mr. Pingu tightly.

And she cried. For the eternity of thirty seconds.