Touching a Mind

Posted on Wed Nov 4th, 2020 @ 8:08am by Vice-Consul Josephine Carlyle-Cragen & Commander Arrianna Salannis an Vantar

Mission: Season 4: Episode 2: Rest And Relaxation
Location: Pacifica. Private Beach House
1065 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Arrianna sat down across from Josie. "Josie. I believe it is time for you to experience my mind. On Alindar, couples usually undertake a type of mind meld with each other. Through it, we learn things about each other. Our pasts. Memories that shape us. Would you like to do this?"

"Are you sure?" Josie asked as she sat there crossed legged. "Isn't it an invasion of privacy?"

"We don't view it as an invasion. We view it as sharing who we are. Like, looking through memories of our lives." Arri noted. "From this, we gain strength to face the present."

"Okay, so how do we do this?" Josie asked raking Arri's hand in hers.

Arri suddenly picked her hand up and brought her towards a door at the end of the house's hallway. She opened it and stepped into a corridor of a massive ship walking towards a young girl that was very familiar to Josie in what appeared to be a huge arboretum on the lifeship. Young Arri was maintaining some blue roses. Pruning them.

"Wow" muttered Josie. "That was quick" she gave Arri a smile. "Is that you?"

Arrianna smiled. "Yes, My parents and grandparents spent two centuries on this fleet since the Searing. It was never easy. We made the best of things before we found the new homeworld. Even though it was hard living in a fleet of exiles. We still remembered what we were. When we took possession of a new ship, we repaired it to the best of our resources." Arri noted as she showed Josie around the Vantar. "Corridors were decorated with murals and art that showed the glory of Old Alindar. We remained unbroken by the Borg. She showed her to her old room. Young Arri spoke and threw what appeared to be a metal cube against the wall.

"I want a planet... a home!! I'll find some way to defeat them." Young Arrianna noted.

"Inside, we never forgot the shame of losing our homeworld Josie. We dreamed we'd find some way, some how, to defeat them." Arrianna mentioned. "Rebuild the glory of the Imperium of old in all of its splendor, and once again become a force for good in the galaxy."

"Two Centuries? Your race is long lived then?"

Arri nodded. "Mmm. I never saw the homeworld, but my grandparents did... including the horror of that day. Bad memories we always remember Josephine, and my grandparents were the lucky ones that managed to escape the Borg. I don't want to show you such memories. What they did to the glorious Old Imperium was a true tragedy. They took one of the greatest achievements of the Galaxy and turned it into drones."

"But your people have rebuilt correct?"

Arrianna took Josie's hand and brought her towards another doorway. They stepped into a house. "Welcome home." She stated with a smile as she took her outside to show her home on New Alindari. It was a small transport hull that had it's engines removed and was converted into a house, though Arrianna had decorated it so well, it might have been a house.

New Alindar was spectacular. Josie walked into a beautiful mountain-meadow with spectacular snow-capped mountains around them. The air was pure and crisp. "We've build a great capital city on Sena Alindar but many of the smaller cities are still built around old transports that have landed here and are being repurposed into homes. It's never ever been easy, colonizing a world with four hundred thousand refugees. Sena Alindar is a six week journey from Federation Space in the Typhon Expanse. We're a bastion for the Federation out here. A member world in a distant sector. But we're strong. We have to be, and even the Borg couldn't assimilate all of us.

"And for that I am glad, or I would never have met you." Josie said kissing her cheek. "Its beautiful out here."

Arri smiled. "You know. I could talk Phoenix into dropping us off on Sena Alindar using the QSD." Arri mentioned. "She's become some used to using that thing, and it would make a six week journey into a few days journey."

"Are you sure the fleet would allow us to use the vessel for personal reasons like that?"

"I'm sure one day I can convince her to drop us off on the way to anywhere the Elysium is going to, and pick us up when they're done. Otherwise. it's six weeks travel from Earth." Arri cuddled Josie. "In a small runabout. With me suddenly kissing you."

"Hmm tough choice." Josie grinned. "show me more?"

Arri spoke. "Josie... What I'm going to show you next is very personal to all Alindari. We carry this memory with us, so we never ever forget where my people came from. We have memories of Old Alindar."

Arrianna lead Josie through another door and they arrived in a beautiful field of flowers and mountains before a gigantic city. The glory of two millennia of peace. In the sky above was a ringworld that circled the planet. "This is our final destination, Welcome to Mother Alindar, or the memory of a once incredible world. We hold this painful memory so we'd never forget."

"Oh Arri, its beautiful" Josie said softly giving Arri's hand a squeeze. She looked around.

"Brace yourself Josie."

In a moment they were standing an a charred and blackened plane. A crater existing where the city used to be and the broken Halo of Althir falling out of orbit. The Borg were relentless, taking Alindari for assimilation and glassing everything that remained. Suddenly they found themselves back in the beach house.

"You had to know Josie. That was the Searing of Alindar."

"You didn't see that did you. It happened before you were born."

"Memories are shared, Josie. Those were the memories of my grandparents who escaped the devastation, who passed them down to their children. I recieved them when I came of age. So we could remember." Arri mentioned. "There's some things that never should be forgotten."

Josie nodded. "And when you have children they will be passed on."

"One day we will defeat the Borg, Josie... One day we will stop them... One day... sentients will never have their minds hollowed out, and be reduced to drones." Arri mentioned.

"That is a wonderful goal." She leaned into Arri's side and smile.