<USS Banshee> "Deeper"
- From: "Sarah Stewart" <cyanahkaelyre@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ussbanshee@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 9 Jan 2003 16:32:05 -0800
"Deeper"
by Lieutenant Sara Crusher
and Lieutenant JG Cyanah Kaelyre
The lights in Sara's office were turned off and the door was closed and
locked as Sara sat on her couch trying to keep the shielding she had on
Heather up. She could barely keep her head up; the energy it was taking
to hold so many shields in place was making Sara physically weak. Not
only was she holding on to Heather's, but several of her own, one of
which was keeping Cyanah unaware of the risk she was taking.
Sara's commbadge chirped and the sound seemed to rip though her head
like a warp core breach. "I'm in my quarters, Sara. You can let go now."
Sara nodded her head as if Heather could see her. "And thanks again,
Sara. Heather out."
Just as the commlink was cut, so was the telepathic one she had been
fighting to maintain. As the shielding fell Sara felt one last surge of
pain before slumping over on her couch. She was out cold.
Cyanah clasped the golden chain that held a delicate emerald pendant and
let her hair fall onto her shoulders. Sara's Christmas gift sparkled
merrily against the background of her fair skin as she looked herself
over in the mirror. Satisfied with the final addition to her ensemble,
she stepped out into her living room and immediately felt that something
was very different. She could suddenly only feel weak remnants of Sara's
presence in her mind, like the smell of a lover's hair left on a pillow
from the night before. She tapped her commbadge, trying to remain calm.
"Kaelyre to Crusher."
Silence was the only reply to her hopeful effort to placate her worries.
"Computer, location of Lieutenant Crusher."
"Lieutenant Crusher is in the CMO's office," the computer offered, with
no attempt to be reassuring.
Cyanah ran out the door to the turbolift and directed it to sickbay. She
took her shoes off as she waited for the lift to reach sickbay, since
the heels were an annoyance when attempting to move quickly. As the
doors opened, with shoes in hand, she dashed down the corridor and
through sickbay to Sara's office. The door opened and she entered as
sickbay's evening staff looked on with puzzled expressions.
She dropped her shoes when she saw Sara unconscious on the couch in her
office. Cyanah knelt by her and touched Sara's cheek with her hand.
"Sara?" she asked, her voice slightly raised. When no answer came, she
concentrated and extended her consciousness over their link, trying to
feel Sara's state of mind and offer any help that she could.
Sara lay motionless on the couch as her body and mind grasped at every
ounce of energy it could produce. Her breathing was shallow and her
heart seemed only work as hard as it needed to keep her alive. In her
mind it was dark and still for a long time as the levels of hormones and
alpha-waves that had risen during her encounter with Heather started to
level off. At first the sensation seemed to be a dream. It was no
surprise that she would be dreaming of Cyanah as her mind began to open
and relax, but was it a dream? She tried to call out to it but she still
was not quite strong enough.
Cyanah could feel something from Sara, a weak call for help from deep
within Sara's consciousness. She closed her eyes and concentrated harder
to delve deeper to into Sara's mind, using the techniques that Sara had
taught her not so long ago. Her body slumped a bit as her mind no longer
bothered to keep her body balanced, focusing more on pushing down into
the inner layers of Sara's mind.
Her head finally fell to rest on her chest as her consciousness was
mostly in Sara's mind instead of her own, and she tipped forward onto
the floor next to the couch, her hand still resting on Sara's cheek.
This wasn't a dream and Sara knew it now. She could feel Cyanah close to
her. Too close. She fought to regain control of her mind since Cyanah
was here in her mind with her. "Cy?" Where was she? Sara could feel
herself start to panic which wasn't good. She needed to get them both
out carefully. "Cy... What are you doing?"
Cyanah knew she had gone too far when she felt Sara's panic as her own
panic and realized the lack of distinction between their emotions. Had
she been more experienced at this, she could have prevented herself from
overextending her mind's reach, but her only thoughts were of helping
her love. "Sara, my love. I felt that you were in trouble, so I came to
help. What do I do?"
"Just relax." Having Cyanah in her mind deeper then they had ever gone
before forced Sara to relax. She wasn't sure what she was doing; her
mind seemed to act on instinct. Alone she would have remained in her
unconscious state for heaven only knows how long. It could have lasted
minutes, hours, or even days. She could have stayed in her own mind far
too long which could have been dangerous, but she wasn't alone any more.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered in her mind as she carefully took them
both back to a more familiar level of communication. She could feel
Cyanah's emotions apart from her own now. She had truly scared the hell
out of her love.
Cyanah felt more comfortable as they retreated upward through the layers
of Sara's thoughts, but her concern was overwhelming. "Are you alright,
love? What happened?"
Sara could feel herself starting to come around slowly. It was almost
like she had been in a deep sleep after pulling a double shift and not
mentally and physically shutting down from telepathic exhaustion. "I'm
fine. I just over did it. That's all." She could feel Cyanah's hand on
her cheek and smiled. "Are you alright?" She asked as she opened her
eyes are started to look around.
Cyanah opened her eyes and blinked at finding herself on the floor, one
hand still raised to touch Sara's cheek. She slowly raised her head and
noticed the headache that was growing. "Ugh..." was her simple answer.
Sitting up slowly Sara shook her head in a futile attempt to shake off
the rest of the fogginess. The slight noise that Cyanah had made caused
Sara to look down at her. She sat on the floor next to the couch rubbing
her temples. Sara quickly reached over to her desk for a hypo that would
help with Cy's headache. "Are you OK?" she asked again as she loaded the
hypo. She then recalled the flash of fear she had gotten just before
they came to. "I scared you."
"Yes," Cyanah replied as the hypo entered her bloodstream. "But out of
concern, mainly. I suddenly could only barely feel you in my mind... and
it was too similar to being on Cardassia..." She pulled herself onto the
couch and looked Sara over. "But you're OK... and so am I, now that I
know you are."
"I'm sorry." Sara said as she looked down at the floor. "I didn't think
I would react like that. The last thing I wanted to do was scare you
like that." Sara smiled and looked up when she felt Cyanah take her
hand. She smiled even more when she noticed that Cy was wearing her cute
little black mini dress and the necklace she had given her for
Christmas. She wanted nothing more then to lean in and kiss her but she
hesitated for a moment as her mind cleared more. "Sweetie, I know you
wanted to help, but what were you thinking! Something could have gone
wrong; we've never gone that far before."
"You know what I was thinking," Cyanah calmly replied.
Sara nodded. "You panicked and acted on instinct. I know." Sara sighed a
bit. This is why she never used her abilities at their full potential,
and now more then ever she knew it wasn't a good idea. She was no longer
the only one who could be hurt. "I should have been more careful. I'm
sorry."
"So am I. You're right, I panicked. It wasn't long ago that the link
with you was so foreign to me, but now, I'm afraid to be without it."
She leaned back into the cushions of the couch, glad to notice that her
headache was gone. "No harm done, right?"
Sara scooted closer to Cyanah and smiled before kissing her. "No harm
done," she said as she pulled away. "As long as you don't mind being a
little late for dinner." Sara stood and then helped Cy to her feet. "I
would hate to waste the time you put into getting ready."
Cyanah wrapped her arms around Sara and gave her a soft kiss on the
lips. "I don't mind at all, love... in fact, I'm amazingly hungry. Side
effect of what just happened, perhaps?" she asked, retrieving her shoes
and putting them back on.
"Perhaps," Sara said with a giggle. "Or perhaps you just know that we'll
both need the energy later."
"No doubt!" Cyanah agreed with a mischievous, knowing smile as they left
Sara's office for their evening together.
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