Baby Steps

Posted on Thu Mar 31st, 2022 @ 12:31am by Commander Raiden Kosugi & Commander Liala Ziyal

Mission: The Goddess
Location: XO's Office, USS Arcadia
Timeline: Before the boarding of the Gladiator
2370 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Raiden needed to talk to someone about his nightmare. It was still there in his mind and the fact that the woman had been in his quarters. It troubled his sleep and at times his waking moments. He tapped on his comm badge. "Commander Ziyal would you have the time for me to talk to you?"

The trip towards the Gladiator was dragging on, she just wanted to be there and find out what had happened to her. It was unusual to see Colonel Hayter as emotional as he was, but not surprising given what she had taken from other encounters with him.

She had just sat down at her desk and spun her chair around to look at the stars, get lost for a moment, when her comms came to life and the voice of Raiden spoke. He sounded a little shaken, Liala's ears were tuned to that sort of thing. She tapped her badge, "Sure, Lieutenant. I am in my office if you want to come by?" she asked.

"Yes please." Raiden's voice sounding rather relieved. He arrived and he had quite the harried expression in his eyes. "Thank you for allowing me to see you." the helmsman taking a seat almost plopping in the chair. His eyes seemed to be slightly bloodshot as if he'd not had much sleep.

His call was short and his entry swift as Liala thought he must have been hanging out in the corridor outside. He was definitely there in a flash. "Are you alright, Raiden?" she asked using his first name. It was always a good relaxing way of welcoming someone. Formalities tended to stiffen people up. That, and he almost went through her chair. "Do you want a warm drink? You look exhausted..."

"Yes, tea would be lovely. Green tea please." Raiden rubbing his hair causing it to go more awry. "I am not sleeping too well." he replied. "I have been having a reoccurring nightmare. And it haunts me when I close my eyes." Raiden stated. He dry washed his face as if to keep himself awake. "Have you ever heard of Osol twists?"

Liala couldn't help but think of Doctor Makaio, their newest counselling addition and that he would be better suited to talk to crew about their issues, but Liala still liked that people came to her. It still gave her a sense of pride that people wanted to confide in her.

She brought him his tea and pulled her chair to sit in front of him. "Computer, dim the lights by 40%." she said knowing that when one is sleep deprived it can make lights seem brighter to tired eyes. "No? I can't say I am familiar with that? Is it a condition? A place?" she asked with genuine interest.

"It is some sort of Romulan snack. I don't think I can ever look at one not even eat one ever again." he gratefully accepted the green tea cradling it in his hands, enjoying the warmth. "Some say it is sour some say it is sweet, some say it is both." his voice a light shade of a snarl. "I can't believe I even said that." giving a bit of a shudder. He blew in to his cup in order to get the liquid to cool off just slightly then he took an exploratory sip. "This is good."

He looked up from the tea to Liala, "Those cursed items are in my nightmare, and I just can't seem to shake it."

Liala gave a little frown for a moment as she went back through what he had said to her. It was a little confusing. "So, these snacks, are they the focal point of your nightmares, or just like 'playing a supporting role'?" She asked as she tried to understand why something like this would make him lose sleep. "And good, I am glad you like the tea. It is something new I picked up recently." she added taking a sip of her own.

"They are a supporting role, connected to a nightmare I had. And the evidence of one in my quarters. You see, I had a nightmare of a former crew member who had changed into a nightmarish creature from my people's fables. A kitsune, which is a werefox spirit. Said crewmember in my dream, tried to kill me. And she was eating osol twists in the dream and offered one to me. Which in my dream I had one and ate it. And it was the wrong thing to do." Raiden took a sip of his tea, his hand shaking a bit.

"In the dream she changed and was after me, and she was trying to kill me." he continued, lowering his cup. "In the final moments of the dream, I did quell her and I dragged her to the airlock and spaced her." Raiden looked at Liala, "It may sound crazy for me to have done that. When I woke up and got out of bed, I stepped on an osol twist. Liala, I don't have anything of that nature in my quarters so, how did that thing get into my room?"

"That is quite a nightmare." Liala said as she finally blinked, she was that engrossed by what Raiden was telling her she had almost stopped breathing too. "Dreams, or nightmares, can have significant meaning and insight into the mind." She began. "We can break it down in parts and try and see what your mind could be telling you... as for this osol twist in your quarters, did you do a security check on your door? See if maybe someone entered without permission? A scan of the twist for DNA? Who was the member of the crew that changed?" she asked.

"There was a blood smear on the door frame of my quarters. The osol twist had the DNA of the former intelligence officer Lieutenant Verelan. And it was her that was in my dream that changed into a Kitsune." he drew in a shuddering breath. "And the security check was that she had gone in my quarters. I did check to see if Verelan was still alive, due to that dream being so real. I found that she had left the ship 15 minutes after I had gotten cleaned up from well... being ill. That dream was so vivid and I was worried that I would die in my dream. And if that happened, no one would have been the wiser as to how I died. It could have been explained as possibly my having a stroke or even a heart attack. Battling in a mindscape is not fun, it is not fun at all."

"Let's strip this back a bit." Liala suggested. "The blood on the door frame, did you have it analysed? Did you inform ships security?" Liala asked now more concerned that this 'nightmare' may not have been within the realms of Raidens mind.

"The blood was analyzed, and I did let security know. And the results of the analyzation was, the blood smear on the wall near my door was that of Lieutenant ****lan, who is not on the ship anymore." Raiden stated, rubbing his temple, he was feeling a headache coming on.

Liala had began to take notes. "Computer, lower the lights another 20% please." she ordered as she noticed the slight change in Raiden's demeanour. "Forgive me, can I ask what species Lt. ****lan is?" she asked. There were a lot of people on the ship and she tried to know them all, but sadly some slipped through the cracks.

"Lt. ****lan was a Romulan Vulcan mix. With red hair and she was beautiful. Well when I first met her I thought that. Now though, to me its more of a cold strange beauty that reeks of an underlying I can't quite say evil but in truth that is what I want to say." The lowering of the lights seemed to help out Raiden's headache. "Thank you."

He continued, "Her features were sharp, almost to me like a Kitsune, a fox woman. A fox spirit of legend from my people's tales. Most of those who hear of a kitsune, they deemed them a fox spirit, a trickster, evil being."

Once again Raiden rubbed a particular spot on his temple then he stopped abruptly, his eyes widening. He shuddered slightly, "I.. I think she touched me here." gesturing to where he had been rubbing. Then moved his hand to another point between his eyebrows. "And here." then moved his hand to a point above his upper lip and below his nose. Raiden seemed to have gone into a state of reverie as he was needing to remember what happened.

Perhaps it was due to Liala's nature, her calmness. He trusted Liala that he went into a meditative state as he was trying to recall what happened and what his subconscious mind may have picked up.

"I don't mean to alarm you, Raiden." Liala spoke softly. "But that sounds very much like a mind meld." she made a note of the positioning of where he was pointing on his face. "Much like Vulcans, Romulans do have that ability with variation on finger placement. I think what you are subconsciously feeling might be the residual come down from a Romulan mind meld, possibly done from an inexperienced practitioner."

"What?" he slowly looked up towards Liala. "A mind meld? I've not experienced anything of that nature at all. And it hadn't occurred to me that was taking place, all I know is that she was in my dream and we were fighting. I could feel her claws cutting into me. It was barely a scratch but it was painful." he shuddered once more.

"When a Vulcan, or in this instance a Romulan, initiates a mind meld the two minds of the individuals work as one. They join together in ways that we still do not fully understand." Liala explained. "It is very possible that Lt. ****lan was in your quarters physically and in your mind mentally. This might explain the blood on the door frame, maybe you subconsciously fought back and hurt them?" Liala thought out loud. "It does beg the question though why they would target you..."

"That I do not know unless, it was to gather information on different crew members. Or maybe even... I don't know, plant a suggestion in my mind? As for the blood that I found, I have read in some old fantasy books that if there is a battle in the mind, that the one who started it and is struggling in the battle, the loser takes a bit of damage to their psyche and they bleed from the nose. I don't think that ****lan was prepared for the battle that was waged. Martial Artists not only work on their physical skills, they also work on their mental skills as in being prepared mentally strong."

"I cannot say what their intentions were." Liala said with a slight disappointment. "A mind meld is a deep connection. If the wielder of such wanted to find information, or plant something, then I'd say they would be able to unless the mind gave resistance. You said yourself that you fought inside the meld, and won. To me it looks like, much like a real fight, you rejected the advances of Lt. ****lan and broke the meld. It is possible, as you have said, that due to this Lt. ****lan bled and left your quarters in a panic." Liala theorised.

"She may have been sifting through my mind though, she made the mistake of threatening my family, planned on killing them. That didn't set well with me at all." Raiden paused as he tried to recall things that may not have been clear to him while in his nightmare, closing his eyes.

"I do recall some images of those I've met, here on the ship. They were in the messhall or in the corridor when I ran to escape. I wanted to draw her away from the others, to where they wouldn't get hurt, when I went to battle her. I felt and feel rather protective over those on the Arcadia." His eyes flashed open. "I am glad she is gone now, I just feel uneasy at the moment. But talking to you about this, it is easing my mind."

"I am glad I am helping to ease your mind, Raiden. Some of us are quite protective of you here as well." Liala said placing her hand on his shoulder and giving it a small squeeze. "Attacks such as this are jarring, and can remain for a while. There is no quick fix, no easy solution for getting past this. The only thing we can do is continue to talk about it, express yourself as you see fit and get back the feeling of safety and security that you have potentially lost from this. Sometimes the road is long, sometimes there are short cuts. It depends on the mind. I do believe you have a strong willed one, and that has worked in your favour here."

Raiden gave a nod and reached up to give Ziyal's hand an return squeeze. He shook his head slightly, "I thank you." he shook his head, then took a deep breath. "I probably should set up an appointment with who ever the Counselor here is. They just seem to be changing all to frequently. The last one that was here, I had one discussion with her, and then poof she was gone. Am I bad luck to counselors?" giving a chuckle, and also a wink. "Just you don't disappear at all okay?"

"That is probably a good idea." Liala said, she knew she wouldn't be able to commit to a full time recovery such as this but still she would be there as a friend and confidant when Raiden needed it. "I don't think you are bad luck and I will not disappear on you. That I can promise you."

Raiden nodded once again, one last gentle squeeze of his hand to hers. "Thank you." It did his heart good that he knew he had a few people who had is back.