Echoes Of Before

Posted on Thu Oct 27th, 2022 @ 9:08pm by Commodore Keiben Haistro & Lieutenant Commander Melanie D’BrooNi- Haistro

1,779 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 5 - Objects In Motion
Location: Haistro Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 5 @ 0330 Hours

ON

The broad Betazoid sat bolt up right in bed, a cold sheer of perspiration clinging to his skin as he shook off the haze of the same nightmare he had been having for a year now. The broken form of Moya, the Benzite assistant he had had back when he was Chief Science Officer of the Copernicus, dead eyes staring back at him, a chilling scream ripping from her lips... The forth time this week he had woken from it. The previous times he had managed to slip out of bed without disturbing Mel but tonight... Tonight was different. He could already sense before his hand found her side of the bed empty that she was not with him.

He reached out telepathically and could sense that she was in the living area, could almost taste the Mopa fruit juice she was drinking.

'Imzadi, are you coming back to bed?' he sent to her.

“I was planning on it when the baby’s had enough sugar,” she said back. She walked back in, nightgown starting to pull round her waist and sat down on the bed. “So... bad dream again?”

"The same one!" he gently lifted the glass from her hands and took a sip of the liquid and he had to admit, he could fully understand Mel's love of the fruit. "I just can't seem to shake this... I don't even know what to call it. Fear, dread... disgust perhaps, that I made poor choices which caused so many people to die... The burden of command I suppose!"

He passed the glass back to her as he started to rise from the bed, the chill air helping to dry the perspiration that was clinging to his exposed body. "Little one keeping you awake?" he asked as he approached, cupping her stomach with his hands and kissing her gently with nothing but the starlight from the window illuminating them both.

There was a small muffled noise from under the covers, the side that Keiben had not been on. The light was not something that he liked to use often when he made an appearance, gave away the surprise. "Honey, come back to bed. I miss your tossing and turning over past mistakes." Q said as he threw the covers from his top half.

The baritone voice caught Keiben by surprise, compounded by the fact that he had not sensed the person invading his Mel's personal space. It took only a second to realise who or in fact what it was in the room with them.

"Q!"

"The one and only..." there was a small fanfare and confetti burst into the room before the sound faded into a sad kind of realisation of something. "Well, the only one in your bed." he mused before a thought came to mind. "I can dress up if you like?" he asked rhetorically as he took the form of Mel. "I'm the slimmer model." he winked in reference to her upcoming pregnancy.

"Yup but I have better boobs. No amount of omnipotent power on your behalf will beat that I'm afraid. The bond between a husband and wife transcends. Is this a proper social call or are you hoping for a 3 way?" Mel asked simply.

"Please honey, you only have the two of them. There are some species in the wide cosmos that have many more and other appealing attributes." Q said but still admired the sight. "As much as a sexual encounter with more than 2 participants is appealing..." he looked at her once more and then Keiben. "and it is. I was wondering how our little Keiby would look and feel, like this."

There was a small flash and the baby bump disappeared from Mel and appeared on the once toned abs of Keiben.

"Now that is an interesting experiment," Mel nodded. "Do I have time to take some scans how you fixed the betaziod male biology to carry a child and drink some coffee. I have so missed caffeine and that would make for such a mind-blowing paper."

"I have all the time in the world." Q replied as he sat up in bed. "Hey, you have two cups of coffee. Putting up with him and carrying a baby must be exhausting."

"Hes really not that bad. Complete beefcake. Has quite the following with my hosts," Mel said whipping out her medical tricorder and scanning him. The scientist in her could not miss this opportunity. "Very sexy husband actually. Funny, caring, charming to boot. You should see him in a tux .... I'm a very lucky woman, and well he's just made Commodore so hes really taken to command and Im so proud of him. A strong leader. Balanced leader, respected leader" she smiled at Keiben as she kept talking knowing Q would get bored soon and her time was limited.

"You doing, okay? Need me to give you anything for the nausea and tiredness while Q gets to telling us why he's really here?" she said over her shoulder heading to the replicator,

"And either of you want a beverage? Im sure a replicated one is nothing compared to what's out there in the wide cosmos or what you can manifest clicking your fingers, but I can't be rude and not offer you something Q."

Q yawned at the description laid bare in front of him about Keiben. He knew all there was to know about everything and still mortals still felt the need to justify things to each other.

He waved in the negative on the beverage, he didn't drink. "Can I not just be here to see the people I love?" he asked holding his chest. "My friends?!"

"Friends!" Keiben spat as she started to lower himself into a chair... or a more appropriate term would be hoisting himself down into a chair. His back was instantly hurting, several rib shots from the in fact not helping the situation, it obviously not enjoying the temporary relocation... or at least he hoped it was temporary. How was he expected to give birth to the baby given his own original plumbing was still in situe.
"Enough games Q... What do you want?"

Finally in the chair, the Commodore started to pull the blanket draped over the back around his waist covering his man hood.

"Just want to play some games. Do you not like games?" Q asked the two. "Play a little game of swapsies. You bear the boulder there for a while, help you better understand your partner. Our beloved Mel here, well isn't she going through enough without having to spawn a life?" he asked half rhetorically. "Who knows, you might find a greater appreciation of the mortal condition." he shrugged.

"What do you mean she's going through enough... Do you know something about what happened to her in that T'Kon device?" Keiben went to stand, momentarily forgetting he was laden with a new life growing in his new womb... How was he going to put this in his log to Starfleet?

Mel stiffened returning back to hear Keiben ask that. "I think perhaps there's another game of swopsies going on there. My DNA does seem to have slowed down altering. Am I some sort of hybrid Trill/TKon now?" she asked Q. And the baby? Its DNA is more Tkon from my scans of the ones who came back. It's as if my body is converting it. It's a more complicated hybrid isn't it? 50% Betaziod, 40% T'Kon and 10% Trill. I estimate.

Hal speculated the Trill were an offshoot race, seeded by them - enough DNA still left for that machine to recognise me as TKon but a sick one and then it started a programme to fix me. Am I close Q?"

"Well..." Q scoffed. "Nice to see someone on this station with some brain cells." he winked but did become a little more serious with her. "You are almost there pet. Quite close but not quite there." he went back to a wide grin.

Keiben was no medical expert, and the talk was losing him entirely. Only one thing seemed to be clear to him at this moment. "Our baby is partially T'Kon?" his hands sitting on the baby bump, feeling the baby kick at his hand, still finding the relocation less than appealing.

"Offspring are often the mix of many species. Some more mystical and magical than others." Q spoke in the same even tone. "Depends if someone has been dipping their toes in other waters." he smirked at Keibens discomfort.

"A T'Kon devise on a planet hell bent on killing us all did something to Mel that we are still trying to figure out... Please Q, if you know anything please tell us!"

Keibens words verging on pleading, could this be the information they had been missing, would Q allow he and Mel into the secret?

"It fixed or kick started dormient T'Kon DNA. Hals right," Mel said her eyes sparkling. "There's been theories the symbionts were the original inhabitants of Trill and we came from elsewhere a very long time ago. We had .... as your humans say ..... periods of lost knowledge. Like your famous Library at Alexandra, legends of Atlantis .... Perhaps it was manipulated that way by the T'Kon themselves."

The Betazoid took in Mel's words, it was a fascinating thought and plausible as well. Millennia have passed so genetic divergence could easily have taken place. He also had to admit that the T'kon they had met also had a passing resemblance to the Trill.

"If nothing else Q... please tell me that Mel and our baby is safe?"

"Your baby will be fine, for now." Q remarked. "Who knows what the future holds?" he asked rhetorically then made a surprised face, opened his mouth in shock and then pointed back at himself. "Oh wait! I do!" he giggled to himself.

"I'm curious," Mel said despite herself. "If you know everything. The future, the past, all of it. Don't you ever get bored? Don't the Q like surprises in any form?"

Q grinned. "That is why I like my games." he nodded at Keiben. "It was not natures plan for his to bear a child... but my desire to be amused. It has worked a treat. Thank you." Q bowed rather sarcastically. "Bon chance." With a flash of light, he was gone.

Keiben blinked the white after glow burned into his retina away as he looked at Mel expecting to see his wife back to her previous condition. It took a moment for him to realise that she was slender, trim meaning he was the one still carrying their baby.

 

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