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Posted on Wed Dec 31st, 2025 @ 7:41pm by Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren & Rear Admiral Cintia Sha'mer

1,212 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Dreamdust
Location: SB 369

Finally an area of blank space twisted, turned, seemed to fold in upon itself and the small Vo'Sh'un vessel appeared abruptly. The dimensional shift was a lot more gentle perceived from inside – the ship itself didn't move, it just sort of rearranged dimensions outside it. Still, in order not to make anyone nervous, Sha'mer had chosen to end up well away from the station, outside of the solar system. It would take her a few hours longer to reach the station this way, but she didn't mind, there was plenty she could do now she was finally here.

Plenty of things she couldn't do before. Such as scanning the link which existed between Indi and herself now that she was close. It should open, it should give both of them a sense of nearness of the other – in Indi's case a more subconscious one, whereas Sha'mer would be more aware of it.

Should be. For it didn't open, it barely grew stronger, and that was odd. Very odd. Very worrisome, as well. She was still pondering the situation when she landed on the station and made her way to Sidra's office.

Sidra rose from behind her desk as the doors opened, the motion unhurried but immediate. The yeoman’s announcement was almost unnecessary. The Vo’Sh’un vessel’s arrival had been on her board minutes earlier, flagged the moment it cleared approach control. She had been aware of Sha’mer’s presence long before she crossed the threshold — the way one becomes aware of a long-anticipated variable finally locking into place. It had been years. Trilista, the biodome project, a different kind of crisis entirely. Seeing her now brought a quiet, unmistakable relief that Sidra did not try to hide.

“I’m glad you made it,” she said simply. Not welcome. Not thank you for coming. Just the truth, offered without ceremony. Guilt sat close behind it, unwelcome but familiar. She should have been at Indi’s side more. Should have pushed harder to carve out the time. Command always gave her reasons; it rarely gave absolution. Sidra stepped out from behind the desk, closing the distance enough to make the room feel less like an office and more like a place where hard conversations happened. “Indi’s been…” A pause. She wanted to say lost, but that would add nothing of value. “You’ll see.”

She gestured toward the seating area, not as an order, but an option.

Walking through a Starfleet station, wearing the uniform again, seeing sights which could have become unfamiliar during her absence but which, actually, felt more 'home' than the place she'd so recently left, didn't alleviate her worry about Indi at all. The feelings existed next to each other, of equal weight.

That shifted the closer she came to Sidra's office, though, the more it shifted, and by the time she stepped in and saw Sidra face to face for the first time, that worry had consumed nearly everything else.

Sha'mer managed to hold back the first words she wanted to blurt out, Can I see her? Instead, she sat down. Conversation first. No, information first. "As am I." There, pleasantries done with. "Any change in her condition?"

Sidra’s brow creased before she could stop it. For half a second, command dropped away and something more personal took its place.

“Can you not feel her?” The question came quietly, but with unmistakable worry behind it. She held Sha’mer’s gaze, then added, more carefully, “I assumed you would know before we did.”

Sha'mer ran a hand through her short hair, trying to put into words what she could feel. Or rather, and more crucially, what she couldn't feel. "Not the way I should be able to. It feels like she's really far away… The way someone might feel if they're unconscious." Or dying. Or, actually, really far away. That last thought was odd. And ridiculous. The thought before that… Well, it wasn't as if it hadn't crossed her mind before. A nagging worry, too real to be dismissed.

Sidra nodded slowly, absorbing the words and the space around them. “She’s under care,” she said, quietly. “Sedated, most of the time. That could be part of what you’re feeling. Or not.” She didn’t pretend certainty where there wasn’t any.

She hesitated, then added, more personally, “I know I hadn’t seen her in years, but… Indi hasn’t been the Indi I know.” The admission cost her something, and it showed in the brief tightening of her jaw. “Not just tired. Not just hurt. Something’s been off, and I’ve been telling myself it was stress, or circumstance, or anything that let me keep moving.” Her gaze returned to Sha’mer, steady but unguarded. “If she feels far to you, then I don’t think that’s nothing.”

That… opened a whole new realm of possibilities, none of them pleasant. Stars knew Sha'mer had seen her share of those. Brainwashed? Tortured or traumatised? She glanced at herself, at her skin which no longer had the greyish/green undertones of her Vo'Sh'un appearance, but looked completely human now. There were more species who were able to do what she did, with far greater efficiency and range, too, so it wouldn't be an impossible conclusion to think she could be replaced. Suliban, Chameloids for the extreme forms, Changelings for the even more extreme variety, Devidians if you wanted to add phase-shifting abilities… Unlikely, these possibilities, but not impossible.

Or, yes, already heavily into using drugs by the time she returned here. Masking for as long as she could, radiating that subtle sense that something was off, falling apart when masking was no longer an option. "I don't think so, either. Still gives a lot of options," she replied at last.

Sidra inclined her head slightly, acknowledging the weight of the words without trying to lighten them. “It does,” she agreed. “And sitting with them won’t make them any kinder.” Her gaze held Sha’mer’s, steady and intent. “What I know is this: Indi is under care, and she isn’t alone. Whatever’s happening, it hasn’t taken her away from us.”

She pushed back from her chair and rose, the decision settling into her posture as much as her voice. “I don’t think the answers you’re looking for are going to come from here.” There was no accusation in it, no dismissal, just quiet certainty. “If something about her feels distant, then the place to start is with her, not with theories.”

Sidra stepped toward the door, pausing just long enough to make the invitation clear. “Let’s go see her.”

"Yes, let's." Sha'mer got up as well and followed Sidra out.

As they walked through the long corridors of the station – and to Sha'mer, they felt like there were miles and miles of them, entering a turbolift and more corridors to follow – she couldn't help wonder what she would find. Part of her wanted to run forward.

Part of her wanted to run back.

But the first part far outweighed the second.

Rear Admiral Cintia Sha'mer

Vice Admiral Sidra MacLaren
Fleet Commander
Epsilon Fleet

 

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