Commodore Kalianna Nicholotti - Lost to the Scar

[Marissa Jeffrey]

((Captain's Ready Room, Deck 1))

Finally, the doctor seemed to relax enough to sit down and allow the questions to overcome the fear. In space, it was always the curiosity that drove them to continue the explorations; fear was a crippling force for most sentient beings, but the drive for answers could overcome its effects. Here and now that seemed to be just what was happening.

Letek: Lieutenant Drex, Ensign Lim and I just sat together in the SOS Lab and tried to find out what happened to us in that nebula. We gathered all the data we could find, ran simulations and theorized, but we didn't really get any closer to an answer.

His words reflected most of what she'd read in the reports. At least there was that, but like her being a source for his question, he too was a source for hers. Some of her brightest were sitting below, talking through whatever the mess was that they had experienced in that nebula. They had to have some thoughts on what caused the chaos.

Nicholotti: But I'm sure you came up with some interesting theories.

Was it really all that long ago that she was one of those minds in a lab somewhere with other bright minds trying to figure things out? Thinking back, Kali couldn't put her finger on the last time she'd done so. Damn, she was getting old.

Letek: Oh, one theory is wilder than the other, even if we can't rule any of them out. They range from simple physical causes like infrasound to living nebulas to Romulan conspiracies. But with the answer to one question, you could take us a long way forward.

The raven-haired Commodore raised an eyebrow.

Nicholotti: I guess I'm just curious as to what is taking you so long to ask, if it has the potential to lead you to the answers we all seek.

That seemed to spur things into motion and the words spilled out in the space between the two of them.

Letek: When we were on the Ifir... you suddenly spoke Romulan. We asked ourselves: do YOU speak the Romulan language or was it the nebula? Because if you don't speak this language, then it can't have been an infrasound or a primitive life form that influenced us. Then it would have to be something bigger.

The other eyebrow rose upwards. Questions indeed.

Nicholotti: Well, I'm afraid that isn't as clearcut as you think. I do, and I don't. 

Kali smirked. That old Romulan senator she once knew would likely be raising that upswept eyebrow at her and shaking her head right about now.

Letek: Response?

Nicholotti: I know some. I spent a good bit of time as an Ambassador for the Federation, and I brokered the creation of the Thracian Alliance protectorate. My contact with some of the Romulans during those times made it prudent to learn.

That past seemed like an entire lifetime ago, and in some manner of speaking, it was. The memories were there, but they played through her mind more like holovids from family gatherings long ago than of memories she was actually there for.

Letek: Response?

Sitting back, Kali sighed.

Nicholotti: If you were able to read the full report covering my medical history, there might be a piece you'd find more interesting than the rest...my return from what is now known as Kali's Scar. The now-sealed tear in space-time leads to a plane of existence, or a universe maybe, where everything and everyone exist within a thought stream. Humans, as it turns out, can't survive there.

Letek: Response?

This was the part that was so incredulous that she even had a hard time believing it, and yet the reports from Starfleet, the Erscyne Trade Alliance, and from her own close friend Colt Daniels all said the same thing.

Nicholotti: The creatures, beings, whatever they were tried to preserve what is me by rebuilding my corporeal self, atom by atom, on the other side of the Scar as it was sealing itself, using only the medical knowledge they had incorporated into their essence when I joined them. I was found adrift, encapsulated in something Command is still asking questions about, without any of my memories and with these...eyes.

She blinked the vivid crystalline blues as if to accentuate that thought before adding one last thing.

Nicholotti: Since then, I've been slowly recouping memories, and I think I've got most of them, but this wouldn't be the first time something popped up that I wasn't previously explicitly aware of.

Letek: Response?

TAG/TBC

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Commodore Kalianna Nicholotti

Commanding Officer

USS Eagle

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