What You Make Of It

Posted on Tue Jan 5th, 2021 @ 7:34am by Laurier Cami & Dixoho Saa (*)

Mission: Mission 12 - Railway
Location: Dixoho's Quarters
1054 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

Dixoho moaned a bit as she sat up from where she was sprawled on her sofa and glanced at herself still sound asleep. They had been rather drunk last night, and proceeded to get only drunker still until they collapsed into a heap on her sofa passing out. It was not how she thought this was going to go at all and it was certainly not a dream as she hoped. Well wasn’t that certainly something to wake up to staring at yourself? It was certainly sobering, to say the least. “Oyi… Cami.” She said poking her companion's arm to wake her.

"Wh...it's too early. Whatever time it is." Cami pulled the makeshift cushion over her head, shutting out the world. "I don't normally feel this bad after a...oh...yeah." She slowly peeked out, recalling their current predicament. "Well, getting drunk and going to sleep didn't work," she said dryly.

“Not at all. I was really hopeful that it might work or maybe that it had been a dream. This is silly that we have no idea how it happened.” Dixoho could not hold back the frustration she was feeling and kicked the pair of boots that were close to her feet. It had been a hopeful thought she had remembered thinking when they had fallen asleep. Being asleep had started this so maybe it could have fixed it but it seemed whatever it was, was not changing at all. Dixoho stood up and went to retrieve something that would help both their heads.

Rolling so that she remained laid-out but on her back this time, Cami sighed and stared at the ceiling. Was this her life now? Was she destined to be trapped like this? Dixoho wasn't that much older. And things could be a lot worse - she could have been an old woman. Or a man. Three or four years was a small price. Worse, though, was the thought of seeing her parents again someday. If she ever did. "Dix?" she called through to the other room. "Do you think people will mind if we don't show up for shift today?"

The red-headed trill did not have any of that answer if she was honest. She wanted nothing other than to climb into bed and hide from the world but she knew that they would need her there to navigate stuff and that somehow meant passing Cami off as her. “I think they will expect me there at the least as I am the navigator and course checker.” She admitted with a bit of a giggle. The one time she was needed for a very important job and this happened which meant someone else had to be passed off as her. The irony of it all was not lost on her.

"Oh Prophets. I need to fly the ship and not hit anything." Cami sank back again, her face pained. "Tell me it's all labeled and clear. I don't want to be sitting there having to poke at random buttons and hoping I don't turn the grav plating off or flying us into a sun or something."

"You won't." No one in her opinion was crazy enough to let anyone not trained near the flight controls. There were many other options that they would have to consider before that happened.

"That's easy for you to say. I never had any Starfleet training or whatever. I grew up on old haulers that were barely able to reach Warp speed." Cami shrugged.

"So did I. How I ended up so ill from birth." Dixoho snorted. She was not going to go into her whole life story but it was seeming like they were both from the same background at the very least. Maybe after all of this, they could compare notes and discuss old haulers.

"It was from your childhood?" Cami asked. She'd assumed birth defect for some reason.

“From birth. I was born three months early in a ship that was far too far away from anywhere. The crew of the ship did everything that they could to keep me alive but it would have long lasting damage. It is not something that can be fixed now.” Dixoho shrugged as she anwsered the logical question. As long as she could keep the medication ongoing she could keep herself alive or could until the last shady doctor had not reordered it for their previous port of call.

Cami nodded glumly. That was her body now. The ailment she had inherited thanks to whatever this horrible experience had done. "I remember those types of ships well. Healers were rarer than a decent plasma injector," she acknowledged. At least their past did seem to align in some ways. "I can count the number I'd have trusted to patch me up properly on one hand."

"They tried there best but it was just how things rolled," Dixoho said sadly wishing she could take it all from the woman and bring it back to her. The other universe experience had kept her alive a lot longer than she thought but not even war-torn shattered universe could cure the dying. "I used to trust the Chief Engineer." She snorted.

For a moment Cami wasn't sure whether Dix was talking about Burnie or someone else. "What changed your mind?" she asked.

Dixoho shook her head as she tried to flesh out her thoughts versus her words. “He betrayed me and led me to be out here.” She said simply. No one knew her story and she did not go out of her way to tell it but here and now she felt comfortable enough staring at herself to talk about it.

"I'm sorry." It felt like Cami was saying that a lot. The last few days had been exhausting emotionally as much as physically. "But on the bright side you're out here with us. I'd say we're safe but..." she motioned to their bodies to indicate their predicament. "Well, at least it's not boring."

Dixoho nodded. Not boring was certainly a good word to cover the never ending trouble that seem to follow them across the universe... universes, she corrected mentally as she remembered the shattered universe. Maybe it was the figurehead or maybe it was the curse of the collector but definitely wasn’t boring.