Author's note: First Drom story...go easy on me! Still figuring out which frigging way is up :P Takes place during "So Burn the Untamed Lands". Thanks to Rhade knocking insane Harper out, it left this door open for my muse.
Legal B.S.: Tribune owns Drom, Gene created it. This story and the mystery woman (whom some of you might recognize, heh) belong to me, however.
Dedication: All hail the beta goddesses! Much thanks to (in no particular order) Chica, Psy, LRH, Areth, Paris, WW, Jips, Shell, and Ani-and extra kudos to Chica for the title.
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by Cheile
"Dreams are the Prophets' way of hinting at what lies ahead."
- Vedek Senha Darinian, 2212
"A dream always has more meaning to it than ever can be understood."
- Shrinari Tifa, CY 5989
Rhade looked down at the now unconscious Harper and shook his head in exasperation. If he wasn't driving someone crazy, he was going crazy.
Sweet dreams, kludge. But Rhade had no idea of how true his sarcastic thought would be.
The darkness was infinite, like a black hole. Harper knew it was pointless to squint but he did so. Amazingly that action spawned a faint, far-off glow. He moved towards it.
After an eternity, it began to grow and he knew he was getting closer. It had a golden tint to it. It reminded him of the stories his mother had told him about Heaven.
Well this is it...after all the crap I've been through, I've been taken down by some weird crystal and that damned uber. So much for a glorious death.
But what happened next was nothing like the tale Moira Harper had described for her youngest son. The faint glow ahead suddenly enveloped him in a blinding rush that made him dizzy. And it didn't stay still even after surrounding him. Threads of light flickered, flashed and darted through the glow. Then came the feeling that told him he wasn't alone.
"Who's there?" His own voice sounded hollow. He was about to demand again when, out of the glow, a shape began to form. It couldn't really be called humanoid, but it had the vaguest shape of another person. For a moment he thought of Trance, with all the golden light flying about, but this didn't have her touch. It was-if one could even put feelings to whatever this was-much fiercer.
As that thought crossed his mind, the glowing form took on solidity. He strained to make out a face. But when he did, all that could be seen were the eyes. And that erased all thoughts of this being Trance or having anything to do with her. They were not her warm brown, but a molten gold like a sun's corona.
"Seamus..." The voice was a seductive whisper. It sent a chill down his back.
"Who are you?"
He never got an answer because the glow changed, brightening before beginning to swirl around him. It was as if he were caught in a centrifuge of light. And with that swirling came flashes of images, sensations.
Himself looking into those eyes countless times...as they reflected back a myriad of emotions...uncertainty, trust, pain, love...warmth suffusing his very being...chasing each other down the corridors of Andromeda...Trance smiling down at a tiny bundle in her arms...symbols that looked like an alien language, strange yet beautiful...a child that vaguely resembled his mother, but it had those unusual eyes...
Then he was floating, but he could feel arms around him. It was almost like dancing, but it had the ethereal feeling of what flying must be like. A shriek very much like a falcon's or hawk's echoed through his mind as if to lend proof to that feeling. And for an instant, he saw her face: the golden eyes, the exotic cheekbones, hair a few shades darker than his, and a strange marking across the bridge of her nose...before everything went dark again...
After recovering from the effects of the crystal and everything was back to normal, or what could pass for normal anyway, Harper had little memory of the strange vision—or as he thought of it, hallucinations. Once in awhile he would see a vague flash, but he always wrote it off as running on too little sleep, or too much stress.
It would be almost three years before he would come to know the meaning of it.
The end...for now.