Shadows of the Past -- Part 1

Posted on Mon Apr 29th, 2019 @ 6:41pm by Splendora Sage

936 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 98 - A Raid on Peace
Location: Splendora Sage, Quarters
Timeline: MD 01 1300 hours

ON:

“Just breathe.”

It was easy for him to say. The room wasn’t spinning around at odd angles. She closed her eyes as another wave of nausea hit her. She felt him holding her hair back as her lunch and breakfast and last night’s dinner came up. In between being sick she tried to gulp in air.

Feeling as if she’d emptied her entire stomach she fell back.

Nivar caught her as she fell back. Gently lifting her he helped her to the sink and held her glass for her. “Rinse.”

She did as he told her and then allowed him to lift her and carry her to the sofa where he laid her down and brought a soft blanket for her. “Why? Why am I sick?”

He sighed, “As your cells adapt to the genetic sequencing that was done, your body rebels. Think of it this way; your cells were programed for something and then that programing was dormant. Now you’re forcing the programed cells to wake up to their true purpose.”

She groaned, “Remind me why we’re doing that?”

He smiled, “Because we need you to be strong when the sequencing activates fully. We talked about all this and we'll talk more about it later.”

She sighed, “I thought I was taking a few days off to rest.”

“You are not.” Truth be told he was glad that he had a week before her boyfriend was out of the brig. In that time he hoped to have a full assessment done, the report was due.

“You hide yourself well.” She said.

He looked at her. “You can’t read me.”

She shook her head slightly and then moaned as it tilted the room again. “I sense you’re a good person and you try to hide it. I can sense your feelings.”

He lifted an eyebrow. “Fascinating.” Her senses should not be able to penetrate the device that made him impossible to read nor his own defenses. He’d make a note of that.

“I am a Section 31 agent. We deal in grey matters. We can say we are neither good nor bad.”

She sighed, “Listen if I’m going to trust you, you are going to have to trust me.”

He smiled a little at that. “Alright. I sense you have a question.”

She studied him. It was funny how a simple thing like a smile could change someone’s whole face. She sighed and then said, “Why is this so important to you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean why is my getting through this so important?”

He sighed. “Because you are one of my people. Someone who had no choice in what genetic manipulation was done to you and now you are viewed as a freak.” He was angry when he thought of it all. “Khan Noonien Singh was a maniac. He was a bad apple to begin with and he was bread for war because of his insanity. We were not. We were defective in the eyes of those around us and we had these genetic enhancements forced on us just like Doctor Bashir.”

She had read about Bashir. “I know but they still fear us I guess.”

He stood and paced, “You guess? Let me tell you something. Florence and his cronies have made it their life work to catch, cage, and destroy their subjects. There were 300 who were a part of that experiment and do you know how many of us are left? Including you and me 75.” He sighed, “If the sequencing transition didn’t do them in Florence did.”

She looked up at him feeling a bit better after her lay down. “So you took it on yourself to join Section 31, find us, save us. That is a big burden for anyone’s shoulders.”

He sighed and sat down. “Armand and I decided it was the only thing to do. Everyone else tossed us away we had only one another. We could only trust one another.”

She sat up slowly. “You’ve mention Armand a few times. Who is he?”

Nivar stood and walked over to the window looking out. Splendora could tell that he was going to place he didn’t like. It was almost painful for him to think about this Armand.

“He was my best friend when we were at the institute. He was already there when I was brought in. He took care of all of us after the treatment. He was quite attached to you. He named himself your big brother when you came in...in fact...he named you. When you came in you had no name.”

She didn’t remember any of it.

After a brief pause he continued. “He would always go around saying I’ll take care of you. Just rest. He was mute when he came in, almost catatonic and the sequencing…well it worked right away. It gave him abilities to speak and to walk and to just be alive. He loved that life he was determined to stop Florence and the other scientists but he was so small. He didn’t know how. He was about eight years old when you came in.”

“Sounds like you both took on a great burden.” She was a counselor and the person before her was in obvious pain. She needed to do something she was familiar with, counsel.

He shrugged. “Armand’s burden was bigger. He rescued us, you know.”

“You said he was eight. How?” She could tell this was a heavy story….

To be continued....

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