Dreams
Chapter Six
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Enterprise
Captain's Quarters
USS Enterprise?
Nash ka'Sharren had come back to her
Enterprise that first happy day- and then woke troubled after that first night, fearing a possibility she hadn't even imagined. Not since the first moment she left the chair at the end of her joyous decade as captain, to the instant she came back to the ship as a flag officer. The thought had never once crossed her mind, until she awoke from her first night back aboard the starship.
What if the dreams didn't come back?
At first, they didn't. Then they did. The rhythms of shipboard Starfleet life, subtly different from those aboard
Riala a few years earlier, wrapped themselves around her and whispered "Welcome." As they did, and as the strains of war settled in on Nash's heart, the visitations returned to her- a vision in Starfleet red and golden tresses, with Cherenkov-blue eyes and a song that could have brought back the dead for one last dance with her.
A vision that now leaned, seeming only
close to happy, against the bulkhead by the door to her bedroom.
"At least the worlds have a better reason to wonder, this time." She wasn't sure, but she thought she sensed satisfaction on the face of her dream, as though one haunted by an old ghost had been set free.
Nash shuffled a toe on the covers, still uncertain. "I don't know if it's for the best. Hope so, but... I think we accidentally broke the Arcadian Empire. I was
not expecting their emperor to be with this fleet."
"Definitely a surprise. But I don't think even Bones could put him back together now, so now what do we do?"
"I don't know. Maybe I should talk to that warlord we captured, the one from the cruiser with the torpedoes."
"Those were... a thing." Her dream flexed her jaw. "
Nasty right cross, she had with those. When can I have some?"
"Get in line, angel; I'm sure the Torpedo Fairy will deliver one of these days." Nash winked.
"I suppose. So, you'll talk to him? Keep your radar up around him. He's the good kind of captain too, and he's beaten but not broken."
"Mhm." Nash nodded. There was a long silence.
Nash beckoned, and her dream sat down at the foot of the bed. The commodore tilted her head, looking at the expression on the adventuresome spirit's face. Not so adventuresome, today; her features had slumped second by second. Something was wrong.
"Why so glum?"
"I don't know for sure.
Something's coming. It's big, and it worries me. I... I almost know what, but I can't get a line on it. But I know a few things." She smiled. "You're one of the best things that's ever happened to me, and you deserve all the best. It's been wonderful having you back. And I know..." A more serious expression unfolded around faintly shining blue eyes. "I know that so help me, I will
not break your heart like I broke Jim's. Promise me you'll find someone to stick with. Someone that
doesn't have a warp core."
Nash couldn't bring herself to say anything, but in these moments of dream, her ship- or her flagship- knew her as well as she knew the
Excelsior. A promise that she couldn't bear to speak, passed wordlessly to the dream of her ship, or the ship of her dreams.
The vision in Starfleet red smiled at Nash- sadly, this time, but a smile. "Thanks."
She wanted to stay with her ship. She wanted to chase the stars. Those weren't the
only things she wanted out of life, but they were so much of what she knew. What could she ever find, that would ever be a fair trade for giving that up?
And now, the spirit of her one true ship called on her- called lovingly, but did so all the same- called on her to look for the answer to that question.
She sighed, "I can't say you're welcome..."
Her dream stepped close. "I understand. Just... make sure to be a happy woman whether you're aboard me or not. I'm not saying 'never sail.' I'd
never say that. Not to you."
Nash's eternal refuge, banter, came to her rescue. "You know you couldn't keep me away. I'll keep turning up like a bad penny, right in the middle of your next five-year mission. It'll be fun!"
The spirit of Enterprise smiled sadly. "Mm. I hope so. But... this war isn't over. Just remember that whatever happens to either of us, I love you."
There was another long silence, rather warmer. Then blonde tresses swayed as the Earthly spirit tilted her head. She sounded- abstracted, with a strange echo to her voice for a moment. "Nash? Something's happening. Something big."
That thing you were worried about?"
"Um. Not
that big. But plenty big enough. And Leaniss is caught in it, and she needs your help."
Nash felt fear gripping her. Unfamiliar fear. Most of the closest friends of her life were in safe places during this war, or still right here aboard the
Enterprise where she could keep an eye on them. That wasn't so frightening. She'd always found a way to save everyone, eventually, whatever it cost her. She could do it again.
But the thought of danger to the other ships her old team had moved on to, to
Renaissance and
Torbriel and others, that hit her where she lived. How could she save her- her friends, she thought firmly, suppressing one or two images... How could she save them, if they weren't on the same ship with her where she could keep an eye on them?
Swallowing a lump of alarm and getting control of herself, Nash asked the obvious question. "Wait- what's happening to Leaniss?"
"Remember what we said to each other, nine years ago, about hewing our way to Valhalla? Something like that."
Control cracked. Ice spiked in Nash's belly. "Wait. You said Valhalla was an old Earth afterlife. You don't mean-"
"Nonono!" Her vision waved hands, realizing what poor choice of words had done to her onetime captain. "Not
exactly like that. Just... um, it's complicated. Anyway. She needs your help. And... hm. tell me. To save her life, would you hijack me and run off to the far corners of the galaxy with me and a few true and loyal friends?"
Nash flushed, though on an Andorian that just meant turning a deeper shade of blue. "Um. Erm." She was
pretty sure she knew why her cherished dream was asking the question.
"You
so would." She was smiling broadly, wickedly, at Nash now. "
Perfect. Let's get you ready. First, you'll need a favor."
"A... favor? Wait, what are you talking about?"
"You be the kickass spaceship captain, I'll handle the witchy mystery stuff. Trust me. It's for your own good, and hers." The smile was still there.
"Okaaay, but what do you mean 'a favor?' "
The tall blonde tilted her head, smiling as the light in her eyes ebbed and rose. "Don't you remember your lessons? An old Earth fashion. And an Amarki one. You'll be in for a fight, and I'm not letting you into that mess without my favor on your arm." And she reached up, pressing something to Nash's upper arm with an almost electric sensation. She looked down as her dream's hand pulled away from her sleeve.
It was her- no, it was
Sam's patch. But if Sam's it was, then for now, that didn't matter. The NX-01 patch adhered to her uniform jacket like it had been woven into the fabric at the factory.
"This isn't mine, anymore." Nash felt obliged to force the words out.
"For tonight, it is. And something else of mine, besides. We've got a couple more things to take care of, before you can help her fight her battle. But they'll have to happen on our bridge-" her dream grinned at her once again- "not in your bedroom."
Main Bridge
USS Enterprise?
"If this is a battle, what kind of fighting is it going to be?" Nash frowned. She did not, in her usual dreams, carry weapons- but her lady of the stars gestured grandly as the door to the bridge slid open. They passed through, carried on a few paces.
Then the spirit answered. "I've got just the thing!" She turned, took two steps back to the turbolift door, which opened for her. She reached to the floor, picking up-
"A sword?" Nash tilted her head quizzically.
"Trust me. This is
exactly what you need, captain mine." The blonde came back, to belt the scabbarded weapon around Nash's waist.
Lightly her fingers brushed the hilt, and strangeness flared up her arm. She looked curiously at her love. "Let me take a look." Smiling, the vision with the glowing eyes stepped back, and Nash drew the blade.
It was an Earth weapon, with subtle differences from any Andorian sword. And yet the balance shifted a bit in her hand, and a bit more, until it felt
just like her favorite practice ushaan-tor from home, the one that had gotten lost when she packed for Starfleet Academy. And an ushaan-tor wasn't even vaguely
shaped like an Earth sword. She should probably have found that more suspicious, but it just made the whole thing seem more right, somehow.
"Do you like it?" Her dream looked almost eager. "I got it off a Klingon back in '85."
"But it looks Terran. Don't Klingons usually make their swords... curlier? Spikier?"
"I miiiight have spent a lot of time pounding on it to get it into shape." She smiled oddly. "I keep it for special occasions."
Nash let the blade sway a little, experimentally. She'd practiced in gym as a girl, of course. Kept up with some of the basics of swordswomanship- with long blades as well as the shorter ones Andorians favored. She'd moved on to more than the basics, after Leaniss came aboard in '01. She knew the rules.
One of the rules was, swords don't
care. They don't want to swing themselves. They're just appropriately shaped hunks of metal.
That rule had just changed.
That old, plain-looking sailor's cutlass
sang in her hand and mind, all
joyous fire and ferocity and devotion. Almost before she could complete the thought, the blade was up in guard position. She turned away, looking across the width of the bridge, and tried a traditional exercise-
knowing she was out of shape for it, and that didn't matter as she flowed through the rhythm of steel with a fluidity that was more than natural.
She turned back, looking at her love. "Is it-
real?" Nash asked, wonderingly.
"As real as me." Spirits could blush, Nash had concluded years ago. This one did.
"It's real, then." She smiled, feeling that old tilt creep into the set of her lips as she saw the blush widen.
"Sure. And that means that now, you're ready."
"Ready for
what? What am I supposed to do?"
"Help Leaniss. Be who you are, and kick ass. Just like old times- or new ones." The spirit's smile was an enigma, this time.
Abruptly she walked over to the communications console. There was a shimmer at her dream's ear, a signals earpiece like the ones they'd still used in the older corners of the fleet when she was a fresh young ensign. The blonde vision twisted a finger against the earpiece, frowning, then nodded and spoke.
"Enterprise to Renaissance.
Oo's an adorable little cruiser, 'oo are, yes 'oo are,. Ahem. One ready for transport. Request permission...? Copy that,
d'aww..."
There was no shimmer of transporter motes from a site-to-site beamout. Something much stranger happened. Her love of the stars stepped away from the control board, picked Nash up bodily and kissed her lightly on the cheek. She then slung the Andorian around like a discus thrower, and hurled the squawking commodore
away, through some unfathomable, incalculable dimension.
The universe swirled into blackness, then into redness.
