Like a game of pickup sticks, played by fcking lunatics.

Reminiscence

Stryker was exhausted as he staggered into town, barely able to stand as he returned to his apartment in the late afternoon.

Even the elevator trip felt like it was going to last forever. He opened the door and went straight to his couch, where he practically passed out.

He managed about twenty minutes of sleep before the door chime sounded. He tried to ignore it, but the person on the other side was very persistant. He groaned and got up to open the door. "Hey, " Alice said, before walking in.

"I don't believe I said you could come in." he joked, closing the door behind him.

She smiled. "Nice place."

"Thanks." he said as they sat down on the couch in the middle of the room.

Alice looked at Stryker. "You look tired."

"No kidding." he groaned as they sat down on the couch.

"What have you been up to with Ray ?" she asked. He paused for a second.

"Yesterday we went to the Cayman Islands. I surfed with Ray. He is pretty good. That night we had a lot of drinks, did the night festival thing. At first light, the next day we beamed over to Grenada and Barbados and did the same thing there."

"Did you get any sleep ?"

"Ha, sleep ?" he retorted, rubbing his tired eyes. "No. No sleep at all. At least Ray is a little friendlier towards me now that we found something in common.

"Alice, what is going on between Deanne and Mouse ?"

"Oh, that. You noticed." she paused. "Its a long story."

"They grew up on the same ship. Deanne and Mouse both competed for Ray's attention since kindergarden. Five years ago, Ray started going out with Deanne but he broke it up after a year. Mouse refused to speak to either of them for another three years. She still hates Deanne for stealing Ray from her."

"That explains alot."

"Why does Mouse call Ray, Island boy ?"

Alice shrugged. "She is my best friend, but no one can figure her out. I do not know anyone who is as wild and unpredictable as her. And somehow I think she prefers that."

She paused, "Just remember to never call him by that nickname. Mouse is the only one who can get away with it."

"I noticed she enjoys assigning nicknames to everyone."

"Yes Mouse does ... "

"What is your nickname ?"

Alice tried to quickly change the subject when she noticed a black stain on his trunks. "Hey, what happened to your pants ?"

"Ray had a little accident with my aenomk tea."

"Accident ?" she suspiciously asked.

"I was carrying some tea with me. Ray asked for some. So I gave him a bit. But after tasting it, he said it tastes too strong and added sugar. But the tea had a strange violent reaction and shattered the glass that Ray was holding."

Alice and Stryker both collapsed with laughter. Alice looked at him, "See, I told you it wouldn't hurt you to relax once in a while."

He smirked. "I'm not sure I would call two days without sleep as relaxation, in fact. I need a vacation to recover from the one I just had," he murmured.

After sitting in silence for a few minutes, Alice looked around the apartment when her attention landed on the various items hanging on the wall. "What are those ?" she asked and pointed to the stellar cartography map displayed on the monitor in the living room. "That displays the planets in my home system."

"What are they called ?" she inquired.

"The star is called Veya." Stryker said, his pointing to the planet closest to the sun and working outwards. "Fal, Mieu, Nei, Cyra, De Aan, Azur, Edenia Prime, Za oar, Toneo, Edenia Minor, Stellat Niya, Ippo, Myau, Thahil, Sega, the dilitium moon Sudwana and finally, Mesedda."

Alice looked closer at Edenia Prime. "Two moons ?"

"Three actually. The silver one is called, Lover's moon. The green one is called, Hunter's moon. The other one is small, about the same size as a Galaxy class starship, and its called the Black moon."

"And that ?" Alice inquired, pointing to a metallic object on the wall. He stood up and Alice followed. He picked up the object with one hand. "Mind if I try ?"

He handed it to her. She noticed Stryker backing off.

Alice slowly played with the weapon, testing its weight and balance. It was a little heavy, but nothing she could not manage. Short silver handle, about forty centimeters in length, decorated with intricate coral-blue spots, three elaborate blades, each ending with a sharp point. It was sturdy and has an unique blue-silvery hue that demonstrated it to be made of the highest grade of Laconia, the rarest and strongest metal in the Gamma Quadrant.

It reminded Alice of the japanese Sai. "What is this button on the handle for ?"

"Telescopic handle. If you apply some pressure to the handle or press the button, it would expand in size."

Alice held it level and squeezed the button. She released a soft gasp of surprise as it expanded to length of nearly two meters, in an instant, making a metallic scraping sound. It is a beautifully crafted trident but despite its elegance, a very powerful and deadly weapon.

She pressed the center of the rod again. The trident responded by retracting to its former size. "Neat! " Alice exclaimed as she returned it to its display on the wall.

Alice's attention fell on a large exotic rifle, a blade attached to it. "What is that ?"

He was saddened by the memories this item held. "That's a Jem'Hadar weapon. Its called a Shockblade. One part shortsword used in melee combat and its a crude short range plasma weapon. The latter kills slowly, very painfully, survival rate after getting hit by its plasma output is very low. It literally burns out the central nervous system."

"Why do you have that ?" she asked, buffled. He paused. The very same weapon that nearly killed me two and half years ago.

They sat down on the couch again. She was puzzled by the sad look in his eyes. "Painful reminder, I guess," he answered.

She looked sad. "No kidding."

He hesitated before asking, "Alice, did you lose someone to the Dominion ?"

"We used to live on SR Four near the border. It was a simple colony on an unimportant planet, no shields, no ships. My friend Jimmy was killed during a Cardassian raid, he was only 10." Alice said quietly.

His eyes went wide in shock. A look of hurt simply filled her eyes. "My parents quit Starfleet after that when the Federation did nothing and joined the Maquis. We lived on Karissa's Moon, when the Dominion took over Cardassia, Jem'Hadar strike ships entered the Badlands, bombing every planetoid with lifesigns."

She was crying now. "I lost my sisters that day."

As soon as he heard this, he knew it had been the wrong thing to ask. Stryker felt an inmeasurable flood of regret. "I am so sorry, " he said as hot tears streamed down her face.

She gravitited towards him, and he wrapped his arms around her. There was nothing futher he could say that would undo or lessen her pain, he'd just make things worse. He knew how she felt. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have asked."

He felt the same sadness wash over him as memories returned forcefully. Depressing sadness and anger. He thought of his friends fallen in war. Murdered by a bastard race called the Jem'Hadar.

Stryker, Stryker

Alice and Stryker walked along a beach just north of Montego Bay, Jamaica; picking sea shells. He thought she looked stunning in a jade coloured swimsuit. He opted to wear simple black trunks.

Trees bent lazily in the breeze, a group of dolphins played in the surf. A sudden warm gust of wind blew a few strands of Alice's hair from her clip and sand slithered between their toes as they walked barefoot.

The crystal clear water of the Caribbean Sea gently lapped at the beach. They heard a noise of some kind becoming louder and louder. Looking up, Stryker saw a shuttlecraft rapidly descenting. It disappeared behind a small hill just ahead but he was sure it crashed. They made a mad dash in the shuttle's direction, his legs moved quicker than they ever had. He still had at least eight hunderd meters to go. Alice was not far behind, but he reached it first.

The shuttle leveled out at the very last second, leaving a small, long scar of sand that slowed it down which eventually brought it to a stop. He heard a someone kicking a panel of metal. "Dammit, " said the voice.

His head popped round what had been the shuttle's hatch door. He took one look at the owner of the voice and almost choked. It was like looking into a mirror. Her face was definitely a woman's, wearing a dark brown suit and accented with tiny glimmering sapphire crystals, but she was as close to a feminine version of himself as one could get.

"Do I know you ?" she asked, her face furrowing in possible recognition. "You look familiar."

His jaw was practically on the ground. Recomposing himself a bit, he managed to do a very good goldfish impression. His doppelganger looked mildly amused. "Don't say much, do you ?"

Stryker nodded and looked at the small identification insignia on her dress. It has a black diamond on a round golden disk as a background. The background was evenly divided in half, the top was gold while the bottom was black. The black diamond too was evenly divided in half, its bottom half was white. And bordered by an orakio to indicate Diplomatic service.

She sighed. He looked at his double in confusion. That was how Alice found the two of them. "Stryker ?"

Both turned and replied simultaneously. "What ?"

Alice's jaw dropped, she blinked a couple of times. "Stryker ?" she asked again, looking from one to the other.

"What ?" they both replied again; then turned and frowned at each other. "That's your name too ?" they each asked of the other.

Alice stared in utter confusion at the two. "Who ... what ... oh."

The woman held up a hand. "Nice to meet you too, " the second Stryker said, then redirected her attention to Stryker. "Um. So. Your name's Stryker ?"

"Yes " he replied.

"Hmm. That is weird. Well, that makes life interesting, I suppose." she shrugged, then addressed the human girl. "Don't tell me your name's Stryker as well, or I will have to start labelling people."

Alice stepped towards the woman. "My name is Alice."

"Any idea why your shuttle nearly crashed ?" Stryker asked.

She shrugged. "I think there was a malfunction of some kind in the engines. I am an ambassador, not an engineer."

"We did you take a shuttle instead of beaming down ambassador ?"

"I hate transporters." she muttered sullenly as four beings materialized nearby. A Ktarian and three humans in Starfleet uniforms approached the female Stryker. "Are you injuried ambassador ?" the Ktarian asked, slightly confused at seeing two Edenians who looked remarkably similar.

"I am fine." she replied. "Please dispatch another shuttle for me."

"Right away madam Ambassador." one of the humans replied.

Alice tugged on Stryker's arm. "Lets get going."

"I will definitely see you later." the female Edenian told Stryker.

Mastery

Early the next morning, Alice entered his apartment. He found him, with his back turned to the door, he was sitting in the center the living room, his eyes closed. She figured he was either sleeping or meditating as she moved quietly towards him.

"Hi Alice."

"What are you doing ?"

"Listening."

She was baffled by his answer. "What ?"

"Edenian auditory senses is lesser developed than most species. I do this exerise often to learn to be more sensitive to sounds."

"Why ?"

"More input. Useful in many situations." he paused. "We tend as relay on sight but I was taught to rely on other means as well."

"Such as ?"

"Subconscious decisions to guide thoughts and actions. By doing this, I become better adept at my surroundings."

She was slightly confused. "How can you rely on your subconscious ?"

He opened his eyes and turned to Alice, studying her abit while trying to explain his Guardian training. "Conscious thought is slow. Your subconscious is far better than you could ever believe, but it is difficult to trust it, to let go and put your life in the hands of something you do not control."

She remained silent. He formulated another explaination. "As a child, you have nothing but your subconscious. That is why they learn so quickly. Language, balance, all these things are learnt quickly by the subconscious. What you think of as learning is merely your conscious mind learning to trust the subconscious."

She looked at him, intrigued. "Can you teach me ?"

Next chapter
A new day dawns

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