The start of something new...

Posted on Saturday, 25 April 2020 - 10:53am by Lieutenant Raith Kolani & Lieutenant T'Lanna Vali

Mission: Operation: Overdrive
Location: USS Fontana Shuttle Bay
Timeline: Upon Return from the Dark Nebula Away Mission

With the shuttle back aboard ship T’Lanna had stepped off in somewhat of a daydream, the whole situation had seemed somewhat surreal. If the Borg was her mother what was she doing in the nebula? Why hadn’t they found more Borg? or a cube for that matter!

She almost walked straight into Raith as she followed him, giving him an apologetic look. “Lieutenant, I’m sorry! I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”

Raith looked up as he saw T’Lanna come out our the craft and crash into him. As they got up, he could see that she was a little confused. The whole Shuttle mission had been somewhat of a mystery, to begin with, and now it was a mystery that posed more questions than answers, especially after the dream he had encountered...

"Hey, that's ok," he said as he helped her up. "Are you ok? Do you need a minute? I know that was pretty...weird out there in the Nebula during the mission." Admitting that he felt a little overwhelmed by the discoveries they made, ever Raith knew when it was time to take a few moments out of the norm to gather his thought.

"Do you need a hand? Do you need some space to try and figure this out?" he offered as the others made their way off the shuttle.

"What I need...is answers!" T'Lanna shook her head. "This is all so surreal. So many questions are going round in my head and there are no answers at the moment." She took a deep breath and offered Raith a warm smile. "Thank you for caring."

"Hey, its no problem, we're all out here on our first mission aboard a brand new starship," he explained. "Weird is part of the job for Starfleet and I'd say that this was definitely on the weird side of things."

He looked at T'Lanna for a moment and smiled. "Besides, a bit of caring here and there was never lost on anyone and its good to watch out for each other," he admitted to her.

Again, Raith got that nervous feeling in his gut and also at the same time, what felt like a warming sensation. He started to wonder as he stared at T'Lanna, how he'd ended up serving with such an attractive officer. For once, he was stuck for something to say and he felt a sudden shift of embarrassment come over him.

"Are you okay?" T'Lanna offered a warm smile as she noticed Raith's change of demeanour.

"Me, yeah, I'll be fine," he said, trying not to let his sudden shyness take over. He'd never intended to come aboard a new assignment to meet someone romantically, however, he could tell he was starting to develop a fondness for her. What worried him was his dream that he had experienced onboard the Shuttle and the very real images he still had in his head.

"Shall we get out of here? The data will be downloading for a while so I won't be able to do too much with it currently," he offered.

T'Lanna nodded. "I'd like that" She had to admit she liked Raith. He seemed genuinely interested in how she was and she liked that a lot.

As the two of them left the Shuttlebay, Raith led the way, heading towards the turbolift. As he got into the turbolift with T'Lanna, the doors closed behind them. With the two of them in the lift, Raith turned to her. "Halt turbolift," he said. Looking at T'Lanna, he was a little uncertain as to the best way to approach this next step.

"Listen, I'm not entirely sure I want to be around others at the moment, but I have questions that need answers after the mission and I feel that we should talk in private. Where would be best for us to talk together?" he asked.

T’Lanna looked at Raith. “We can talk in my Quarters if you like? I would suggest my office but there’s more of a chance of being interrupted there.”

"Ok, that sounds like a plan," Raith nodded in agreement and instructed the turbolift to its new destination. Once they arrived on the deck, the two of them walked to T'Lanna's quarters and waited for the doors to close. Once he was sure they had privacy Raith turned to speak to T'Lanna.

"Ok, so apart from all the weirdness out there, I have a few questions to ask because theres some stuff I really need to get my head straight on," he said before noticing how T'Lanna was looking at him. "So... The Borg...?"

T’Lanna looked at Raith wide-eyed. “You...saw the Borg? In a dream? Well....more like a nightmare!”

"Yeah, I'd say more like a nightmare," he agreed. he took a breath before carrying on. "I saw thousands of Borg, surrounding a lake whilst I was being assimilated on a rowing boat by my sister, who is lightyears away on assignment and by someone who looks a lot like the Borg Drone we brought aboard...except she looked like a Borg Queen..."

He stopped to take another breath before looking at T'Lanna with a scared look in his eyes. "I mean, what the hell? What does this mean? I think I saw you shouting my name at the lake...well someone who looked like you," he added.

“It...was me!” She gave Raith a serious look. “I dreamt that I was back aboard a cube. My mother was the Queen and she took me to see you being assimilated!!” T’Lanna gazed at Raith wide-eyed. “She said that you liked me and that you would service the collective and me.” She sat down on the sofa. “How can we have the same nightmare?!”

Raith stood dumbstruck as he realized that they had shared the same dream. He wasn't sure what the odds on this happened were, but he was pretty sure that it was fairly remote. Then a moment later, he also realised that she'd also picked up on his interest in her.

"So, it was you, you were there as well! Oh wow, that's..." he started and then stopped as his brain caught up with the rapid pace of events.
"Well, I do like you... I will admit that... I liked you from the moment I was working in your office that day," he said.

Trying to figure through everything, Raith sat down on the sofa next to her and sighed. "This is heavy...I mean, I've never shared a dream with someone before...and the Borg...I mean they are scary enough as it is... They were assimilating me under your mother's orders..." he then looked to T'Lanna.

"To service you and the Collective?"

T’Lanna offered a small smile. “I think my mother was trying to tell me that she thinks we’d be good together.”

Raith saw her smile and tried to see the funny side of things. "Well. I've never had a partner's parents tell me that I'd be good to service them...It's a very different way to be told you'd be good with them," he admitted. "Do you think we would be good together? I mean apart from the dream we just shared which was an utter nightmare."

He stopped for a second. "And I have questions about the Borg part..."

“I...err...” T’Lanna paused. “I’ve never had a man ask if I think I’d be good with him before!” She paused again. “I guess...we could find out if you want to? What questions do you have?”

Raith looked her square in the eyes to make sure that T'Lanna picked up he was serious as he asked his next question. "So, about The Borg, can you tell me about that? I'm really scared of them, in case that wasn't clear... I mean you can't turn me into one can you, a Drone?" He felt silly asking the question that he did but he felt that with the nightmare being so real, he needed to know.

T’Lanna looked at Raith in surprise. “Heavens no! I do have nanites but they can’t harm you. They simply keep my internal implants in working order. I have no way to assimilate you Raith and I wouldn’t!” She paused. “In my nightmare, my mother said that the collective let me go, that they wanted me to become unique.” She paused again. “What if that’s true? What if they’re just letting me think I’m free? I don’t want to be part of the collective, never ever again!!”

Raith moved a little closer to comfort her as he could see that the dream had left a big effect on her. It was obvious that her previous experience as a Borg Drone was very harrowing and that she valued her time now as a unique individual being away from the Collective. He put his arm around her to offer a friendly hug to try and show that he cared.

"I haven't known you long, but from what I do know, you are already a unique individual and its very clear that you have no desire to return back to a life where you weren't able to be unique individual," he said trying to be comforting. "If it means anything, I promise that I won't let anything happen to you... I won't let the Borg try and reclaim you. I believe that your mother is and was wrong and that this was just a horrible nightmare that held no truth."

As he explained how he felt and what he felt, Raith's mind strayed for a moment. Despite all of being a nightmare, he had come away with his fathers pocket watch...an item that was supposed to be with his sister lightyears away on the USS Charon...

T’Lanna noticed Raith’s sudden silence. She gazed up at him “What is it?”

Raith held her gently before he sat back again. As he looked at T'Lanna, he reached into his pocket and pulled out his fathers pocket watch. he held it in his hand, not breaking his view as he explained to her what was troubling about this item with him here and now.

"This...belonged to my Father..." he began. "He was serving on Utopia Planitia when the Rogue Synth attack took place. Before she left for duty on the Charon, My Father gave this item for safekeeping to my sister, Aria," he paused for a moment.

"Aria..gave this to me in the dream, telling me that it held secrets..information relating to that attack. She gave me this right before she turned into a Borg Drone and stood beside your mother...The Queen..." he paused again before getting up and walking over to T'Lanna's computer panel.

He typed in a few override commands and brought up a galactic map, highlighting two positions. Once the screen focused on the two locations, Raith also pulled up a distance calculation. "The Charon is currently on the other side of the Beta quadrant on explorative duties...nowhere near to the location in my dream, the planet Baku. this watch shouldn't be in my hands and yet...it somehow is and I don't understand it."

He finally put the watch down on the desk and gave in to the mounting fear within him, breaking down in tears upon the computer desk, sobbing. It was becoming too much of a painful issue for him, involving his family in what was a horrific nightmare to endure.

“Hey...” T’Lanna walked over to Raith’s side. She paused for a moment before doing the only thing she could think of doing and wrapping her arms around him, giving him a gentle cuddle and a shoulder to cry on. “Please don’t cry, it’s okay. I promise you I will never let any harm come to you, I’ll chase away your nightmares that I promise you!” She crouched down beside him looking into his eyes. “We’ll get to the bottom of this...together.”

Raith just stared into her eyes, seeing compassion and warmth. He leant into her arms as she hugged him and stayed there for a few minutes. "Thank you," he whispered as he began to start to relax a little and relax his breathing from the sobbing.

“My pleasure” T’Lanna was surprised how much she enjoyed being in an embrace with Raith. Before she even knew what she was doing her lips met his in a romantic kiss.

As her lips met his in a romantic kiss, Raith didn't try to stop her. In fact, as they made contact with each other, he pulled T'Lanna a little closer to him until he felt comfortable as they kissed slowly. He pulled back for a moment as he realized what they had just done and he stopped only for a second.

"Does this mean that you're happy for me to...service you?" he whispered to her, hoping that she saw the lighthearted side of the question, despite the previous context that it held. He waited, hoping that she understood.

T’Lanna grinned and nodded. “Oh I am more than happy for you to...service me.” She pulled him closer. “I don’t want this to end.”

"Neither do I," replied Raith as he leaned in closer to her. He no longer felt the worry or nervousness he had during their previous encounters as he kissed her with more passion. Standing up together, Raith pulled himself away from T'Lanna for a moment and looked her up and down.

"Yeah, I nesd to get you out of those clothes... Bedroom?" He asked as he looked around whilst unzipping her duty tunic, making his intentions clear.

“Right over there..” T’Lanna looked towards the bedroom door as she helped Raith out of his tunic as well. She took his hand and started to lead him where she wanted them to be. Raith to her habd after she'd removed his tunic and followed T'Lanna into the bedroom.

Once inside, he continued to undress her, making his intentions clear by continuing to kiss her passionately inbetween the removal of the various parts of her uniform. As they stood infront of each other, completely naked, Raith took her hand as T'Lanna guided him into the bed with her. As he joined her there, he paused for a moment.

"This is what you want? You're sure of this?" He asked, wanting to be completely sure before they committed to each other.

“I’m sure Raith” T’Lanna nodded as she looked up into his eyes. “I want this, I want you.”

He smiled as he pulled her close, feeling her body come into contact with his body. The sudden new touch excited him and he looked deeply into her eyes. "Well, now that we're clear on that," he whispered as he kissed her deeply and passionately, allowing his hands to explore her body and begin to learn all about what excited her.

{Fade to Black}