The Semaras - No Fate But What We Make

[Max]

(( Sickbay, Deck 6, USS Khitomer - In Orbit of Alpha Trionus II ))

Amelia had been so intently focused on her daughter, she had entirely missed the normally obvious-as-a-brick-to-the-face aura of Nurse Othin on the other side of the door.  So, when she entered the tiny private space, she nearly got a faceful of muscle.  Instinct took over, and she lightly curtsied her apologies.

Amelia: Beggin' your pardon, Nurse Othin.

Othin: :: A low growl :: You are weak to beg anything, most of all pardon.  You have much to learn from your daughter, who takes what is hers.  :: An appreciative snarl ::  Like her mate.

Amelia's eyebrows lazily arced upwards.  If the Klingon had expected offense, none was taken.  Her eyes skittered over to meet Tori's gaze.  Neither could have expected that to be the way their second conversation started.  Amelia broke first, slipping into a little low, tittering giggle.  Tori couldn't resist the magnetic warmth of the amusement in her own mom, and started laughing herself - which of course only got Amelia laughing harder.  So it went, the joke of it all only getting funnier when Othin started to wonder hard enough about the two strange Betazoid women that she felt she had to straighten out and take a baby step back away.

Othin: What!

Amelia: :: Still chuckling. :: Nothin'.  :: A grinning beat. :: How are you, Tori?

A look asked the tricorder-wielding Klingon to answer.

Othin: :: A grunt :: The treatment was successful.  Further recovery will not be hindered by an hour or two outside of sickbay.  After - return for another scan, or I WILL find you.

Tori: Thanks.

The tricorder snapped shut, and Othin hot-stepped her way out of the room the quickest Amelia had ever seen the Klingon move, leaving the two women alone for another fit of purposeless giggles that wafted out into the main sickbay behind the nurse until the doors shut.

The moment they did, Tori all but tossed herself into Amelia's arms and squeezed.  Her mother had always given the best hugs.  Warmth wrapped around her body and mind exactly the way it always had, laden with the weariness of trying to untangle the insanity of their situation, yet not weakened by it.  Tori pressed in hard, tucking her nose into the tough uniform fabric.  Tears were not far behind.

Amelia held Tori tight in one arm, and lightly cradled the woman's head, inviting her to stay there as long as she needed.  For a long while, no words passed because they weren't needed.  The slow mingling of raw emotion communicated in their embrace and in their minds were enough on their own.  An occasional flicker of Tori's memory told the rest of the story.  This was the way Amelia held her as a girl.  The way Amelia held her after a bad breakup.  The way Tori wished they could have embraced after a fight far in the future, but couldn't because it was already too late...

Amelia: ~ I'm sorry, Tori. ~

Tori: ~ I'm sorry, too. ~

It wasn't particularly clear what either of them was apologizing for.  For the way they'd needled at each other in the conference room, perhaps.  Or for a fight that, strictly speaking, was now impossible.  Or maybe it was for squandering some of the precious time they did have.  Or it had nothing to do with any of that, and simply wished for the terrible things that happened to Tori to disappear without Tori going along with them.  So why not all of it?

The knot of arms loosened.

Amelia: ~ We really are family, ain't we? :: A little grin. :: ~

Tori: ~ Sure are. ~

Amelia held onto Tori by the shoulders a long time, just beaming.  It had been so long since she'd shared someone's thoughts like this, and to have it be her daughter of all people... Even if it was only for a moment, still...

Amelia: ~ Food? ~

Tori: ~ :: A chuckle :: After everything you left for me this morning? ~

Amelia: ~ Seemed like you needed it. :: An appraising squeeze of the arms, and a teasing little grin :: ~

Tori scoffed out loud and rolled her eyes.

Tori: ~ I'm not a teenager anymore. ~

Amelia: ~ I'm still older than you. ~

Tori: ~ :: A little chuckle :: True.  And I could eat.  I need to stretch my legs. ~

Amelia finally let go, and signaled Tori through the door back into the main sickbay.

Amelia: ~ What about Kael?  Wouldn't want to steal you from your mate. :: A grin :: ~

Tori: ~ Othin is finishing up with him.  We have some time for just us. ~

Amelia: ~ 'Least we know she won't try to steal him away from you. ~

The pair stepped into the corridor.

(( Corridor, Deck 6, USS Khitomer - In Orbit of Alpha Trionus II ))

Tori: ~ I'm more worried she'll try stealing me from him... ~

The sudden burst of laughter between them without any apparent conversation to be heard startled the pair of guards standing beside the doors.

Amelia: :: Still grinning :: At ease crewmen.  Your orders?

The last thing Amelia wanted was to step on Ezra's toes.  Besides, she knew protocol when it came to anyone uncleared - even if one of the visitors was her daughter.

Kelana: :: Shifting :: We're to keep the guests under guard at all times.

Amelia: Well, I ain't gonna keep you from that. Wynters, you're with me and Tori.  We're just headed to the mess.  Kelana, would you be so good as to bring Kael to the mess when Othin is done with him?

The two conferred with each other over a single look.

Wynters: Yes, ma'am!

Kelana: Sure thing, ma'am.

Amelia: :: A gracious nod. :: Thank you kindly, crewmen.

With that, the now-trio started down the hall towards the lift.

Tori: ~ Heavens, it's weird watching you give out orders again... ~

Amelia cast a curious eye sideways towards Tori.

Amelia: ~ That somethin' I did a lot of when you were a kid? ~

Tori: ~ :: Eyes creasing :: You really want to know the answer to that? ~

A bit of something leaked through underneath the thought, some kind of hint at a future yet unlived.  Amelia let it slip by unexamined.

Amelia: ~ Fair enough. I s'pose it's best I discover my life in good time.  :: A pause :: Sorry if I can't help just smilin' with you here.  It's strange to think just a week ago I was talkin' with my momma, tryin' to tell her I'll settle down and have a family someday.  I guess I wasn't so sure 'bout that myself until you.  Knowin' somethin' of the future can be mighty encourgin'. ~

A wind blew over Tori's confused emotions, at once cool and refreshing while carrying a painfully sandy grit with it.  Amelia's smile dropped a little as she looked over to catch the downward cast of Tori's eyes.

Tori: ~ I never thought of it like that.  :: A long beat. :: But you should know...  I'm the last Semara. ~

The truth of the matter was relayed back and forth in a flash of feeling and memory between the two.  Everything from the moment Tori first found out through finally talking it through with Talia and summoning the courage to tell Kael.  It was already the limit of her bravery to share it, so Amelia let the matter be.

Amelia: ~ :: A tiny shrug :: Who's to say you won't have a little sister or brother? ~

Tori looked up and shot her mom a withering smirk.

Tori: ~ How about you marry first before you start making promises? ~

Amelia: ~ :: A chuckle :: Now you sound like my momma! ~

The two giggled again as they got into the turbolift, not bothering to clue the profoundly weirded-out Wynters into the joke.  Some things just couldn't be explained out loud.

Tori sighed, letting the smile stay as she ran her fingers over the smooth grab bar.  It had been a long time since she'd been aboard a ship so whole.  Even longer since she herself felt whole.

Tori: ~ I'd have liked to see her.  :: Looking up ::  My grandmother, that is. ~

Amelia: ~ How do you know you won't? ~

Tori: ~ Causally, it's impossible. ~

Somewhere in the recesses of Amelia's mind, something Lera had said at some point meshed with something Ras said.  How certain were they really that Tori and Kael's timeline was the same one they existed in at this moment?  What way was there to tell?  The Ouachita was so damaged they'd never know from the shuttle's construction, and simple genetics wasn't precise enough to see the tiny little differences that might reveal proof of two nearly identical timelines interacting.

Amelia reached out and squeezed Tori's arm.

Amelia: ~ So is this. ~

But there was a way that might say for certain.  They both knew what it was, and that common knowledge shimmered between them.  Amelia hesitated to say it, wondering if it might upset this newfound relationship.  Tori held back, too, but for another reason.  The pair stepped out of the lift in silence, Wynters in tow, and passed the few strides to the emptied-out mess.

(( Crew Mess, Deck 4, USS Khitomer - In Orbit of Alpha Trionus II ))

With the Khitomer dropped to low orbit, the planet below filled all but a sliver of the panoramic windows.  Veins of magma rivers lit up the dark face, the glow bright enough to almost make out the contour of the valleys they ran through before they joined great lakes of boiling rock where landmasses melted like glaciers, calving great floating islands.  Tori felt herself float closer to the window.  The distance disappeared until her hand was on the exterior bulkhead.

Tori: ~ I've thought about what this planet might look like so many times... ~

Amelia softly conferred with Wynters before leaving the woman at the door.  Not like the crewman could perceive any of the conversation anyway.  Then she joined Tori on the single step up to the window, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness hanging outside for a long moment.  Little details resolved the longer she looked: the undersides of smokey clouds were lit up by the brilliance of the lava flows underneath.  A huge basalt flow, possibly hundreds of kilometers wide and a thousand long, ran down from cool highlands in the northern hemisphere, looking like some sort of armored millipede marching south to wage war on its liquid lava brethren.

The planet wouldn't cool for maybe hundreds of millions of years.  Geological dynamism would completely consume all traces of the facility below in a mere few thousand years even if it were left intact. The planet had a drama all its own on a timescale completely to itself, a story unfolding unaware and uncaring of the fleeting machinations of the little spacefaring gnats above.

Amelia: ~ It's quite breathtakin' from up here. ~

Tori: ~ :: A long breath. :: I didn't think of it like this.  I only ever pictured the prisoners - and what they'd do to the place on their way out.  :: Beat :: I missed feeling the universe the way you do. ~

Amelia: ~ A daughter oughta be a different woman from her mother.  :: Beat :: I think I'll be wishin' I had your clarity, soon enough. ~

Feelings churned between them like in the viscous, bubbling lakes of pure metal below.  Tori was all too aware of her mother's career as an officer, and could feel things taking shape sooner than she remembered because of her interference.  A few rocks at the top of a mountain, tumbling downard...

Tori: ~ It feels unfair, asking you to fix what we couldn't.  If this works...  I don't know what path events will take. ~

Amelia: ~ :: A sideways look :: How is that different from any other day? ~

Tori: ~ I suppose it isn't.  Except that I lived one of those paths, and I decided to go upstream and change the course.  I can't help feeling responsible for what happens to you now. ~

Amelia smiled, then lightly leaned against Tori, bumping her shoulder.

Amelia: ~ Well if this timeline is miserable too, you'll just have to do it again. ~

The reflection of Tori in the glass looked at her grinning mother and laughed.

Tori: ~ Heavens!  I hope this isn't some kind of generational time loop...  :: Looking at Amelia. ::  If it is, you forgot to pass me some appropriately cryptic message like how sacred the number three is... ~

The pair of them chuckled before they both looked back out the window again, simply settling into quiet, pleasant connection.

Amelia: ~ Don't count your old lady out.  I can make my choices, same as you.  We all can.  And we did, by listenin' to you.  The facility is bein' evacuated right now.  We'll figure out the next crisis when it comes.  In Starfleet, there's always another one somewhere... ~

Tori: ~ Blowing it up after all? ~

Amelia: ~ :: A little snort and a shrug :: Guess so. ~

After all the angst, the crew of the Khitomer was doing almost exactly what Tori and the Admiral asked for in the first place.  Perhaps time travel came with a twist of ironic zest.

Tori: ~ You guess so?  I thought you knew everything that happens on this ship. ~

Amelia's thoughts curled against Tori's for a moment, realizing that Tori knew full well the color her collar would be soon enough - even before almost anyone else.  Then her fingers quested into Tori's hand and squeezed.  She'd spent a long time worrying about who she'd become if she left behind the science labs.  With Tori next to her, she realized she was leaving nothing behind.  Even after a war dragging out decades turned another Amelia into a woman she'd become in a grim timeline, Tori recognized Amelia as she was now instantly.  It was comforting, in a strange way, knowing she'd go on defining herself as she always did.

Amelia: ~ Not today.  I'm done diggin' into messages, PADDs, cells, or dead bodies... ~

Tori: ~ Sheliak bodies get everywhere.  And the smell... ~

They both groaned, then chuckled again at the strangeness of their synchrony.  There was no questioning the way Tori knew more than Amelia on the subject.  The words carried a septic telepathic whiff of repeat experience with the subject matter gained with blood of her own.

Amelia: ~ You've seen so much, precious one.  Fought so much.  Would it really be so bad if you could finally live for something else?  Or just live, for that matter? ~

Tori: ~ Not sure I know how to stop fighting. ~

Amelia: ~ Then fight.  Fight for your own peace.  Fight for Kael.  You've changed what some might call the fate of billions.  Why not change the fate of one or two more? ~

Tori: ~ That's the hardest one to change. ~

Amelia: ~ I s'pose that's true.  But that doesn't mean you can't do it.  And you have help. ~

Tori's head fell, thoughts sneaking away somewhere far far away.  Only this time she left the door open for Amelia to follow...

(( Deep in Tori's Thoughts: Main Street, Nivatara, Nantahala Valley - Casperia Prime ))

There she sat, atop her mountain throne.  Tavakiev: the high sun spirit of the valley, crowned in sapphire by the planet's rings above, wearing a majestic cloak of gold grasses and purple summer flowers and a scarf of pure white snow. In the distance, the icon of the valley was as it always was. Immense. Beautiful. Unassailable, except to a very few who knew her secrets.

It was the vision they'd shared. The mighty wall of mountains in the distance, an embrace of touristy village life on the street crowded with all manner of visitors. The river pranced over rocks somewhere in the distance, passing by the untamed architecture of the temple to the four deities. Sun streamed through the rings of pale jewels above, painting colorful, weak shadows that passed like clouds.

In the dream, Tori always sat on a bench next to the white standing stones arranged around a pond encircling a mighty Casperian cherry-aspen. She sat there now, fingers on the names engraved into their surface, feeling their shapes in a silent prayer.

Tori: ~ I've spent so much time here. ~

Amelia sat down next to her, properly taking in the object of Tori's fixation for the first time. The stones were a product of the future. A memory of a shape the main street would now never take, yet one etched into Tori's mind as indelibly as the names were carved into that stone.

Amelia: ~ It's a good place to remember everyone you've lost. There ain't nothin' wrong with grief. But you gotta look up and see where you are. ~

For the first time since Tori started having this dream, her fingers lifted off the stone, and her eyes left its lettering. She met her mother's gaze and the almost-painful love lancing into the shared telepathic painting.

Amelia smiled, her eyes shifting off into the distance with a little nod.

Amelia: ~ :: A whisper. :: Look. The old homestead is just beyond the shoulder of that high green ridge. The one sittin' below the mouth to the upper veil. ~

Tori looked, feeling the strength of Amelia's memory of the valley coming up underneath her own, filling in details with memories of where the best trails led up through forest and into high meadows under polished crystal pools caressed by the wind.  Her eyes traced along a line of serrated peaks, seeing the routes up their faces through her mother's eyes.

A new dawn thawed the valley in one big sweep as the sun emerged from behind the band of the planet's rings.  Direct light chased the line of shadows away, and Tori let her vision sweep away with it, replaced by Amelia's memories of the same place.  The edge swept over the pair, and the standing stones crumbled away, leaving only the pink-and-gold tree blossoming in glory to shade them in the new warmth.

Amelia's hand went to Tori's shoulder even as they shuddered with a trembling gasp.

Amelia: ~ Didn't I ever take you back here? ~

Tori: ~ :: Shaking her head. :: I only visited after you died.  I put your name on those stones. ~

Amelia: ~ Oh, Tori... ~

Tears were already wrenching free of their ducts when they pulled each other back into another tight embrace.  They stayed there for what felt like a long time, finally letting every feeling finally just flow undamed and unfiltered, until the flood washed everything away but the two of them standing there.

At last they let go once more and simply imagined gazing on the valley together, the way it should have been.  The image lingered there, Amelia remembering the way she'd sit like this with her own mother, memorizing every contour of the valley from every vantage.

Tori: ~ I always felt safe here, but... It's so much more vivid and stirring in your memory.  I wish I could have seen Nantahala like this. ~

Amelia: ~ Then go.  See it.  But my Nantahala ain't so different from yours. ~

A heavy breath lifted Tori's shoulders, then let them relax down the farthest they'd gone in years.  She nodded, grasping what was being said.

Tori: ~ Maybe I should try.  See it with fresh eyes. ~

Amelia: ~ :: Grinning :: See it with Kael.  That'll be even better. ~

Tori chuckled, blinking away a fresh threat of tears.

Tori: ~ If we run the test...  If we find some little flicker of a difference between our timelines... I don't think I care. :: Beat :: This has meant the world to me. ~

Amelia: ~ Me too... ~

Amelia hugged Tori again, neither bothering to hide the mess they were making of each other's clothes.

(( Crew Mess, Deck 4, USS Khitomer - In Orbit of Alpha Trionus II ))

When they released again, they both let go of the shared blending of memory, imagination, and telepathic feeling and returned to their other senses.  Amelia smiled, chuckling a little at the salty tear stains they'd left behind on each other.  A heavy sigh later, they both looked out the window to the pivot point of history below one last time.

Tori: ~ I never thought I'd help write a new future. ~

Amelia: ~ That's what we're all doing all the time, Tori. ~

Amelia's hand squeezed her daughter's shoulder.

Amelia: ~ So let's make it a good future. ~

NT / END

------- λ ψ Ω ω Ω ψ λ -------

Aleatoranna “Tori” Violet Semara

Former Science Officer

Daughter of the Stars

Heiress to the Golden Leaf of Semizad

and

---------- ○● ----------

Lieutenant Junior Grade Amelia Magnolia Semara

Science Officer - Special Projects

USS Khitomer - NCC-62400

A239710MA0