Chapter Text
Immediately you turn around to Data.
“I know this is hard, but I’m going to leave your lap now and let you cool off. We really can’t be doing this now. We need to work.” You cup his face, kiss him once, and leave the cockpit to get everything you’ll need on Hyperra.
For your goodbye with Perry.
You only go back to the cockpit later, when you know the Helix has arrived in the orbit of Hyperra. Breathing mask already secured on your face. No kissing with this thing on. And today you won’t make any exceptions.
Data looks at you, frowning, when you stand alone on the transporter point.
You sigh. “I think it’s best when I go alone. We can’t risk… we just can’t risk it.”
He nods and turns to his console again. “Energizing.”
Down on Hyperra, sitting in front of your favorite girl, you feel the tears wetting your eyelids. You already miss her. You haven’t known her for too long, but you just know that Perry is special.
“I need you to be a strong, independent plant now. You don’t need my help anymore. You will be fine here, alright?”
You touch one of the blooming flowers—only to find that they sting. Surprised, you look at your fingers and see a rash forming.
A rash, like from the blue grass.
“You little minx,” you mumble and shake your head. “I see you’ve already adapted.”
You water her one last time, scan her and her surroundings, and snap a few pictures with your PADD—especially pictures of the river and the underwater plant life.
When you’re back on the Helix, you keep ignoring Data and his glances at you the best you can.
You both know what you would like to do, but in the end you’re both Starfleet officers, and there are some things you can’t do when you have a mission to complete.
So you spend the way to Melvion in your seat, scrolling through the pictures. The sting on your finger is dealt with quickly, and you do it yourself. You don’t need Data touching you in any way; that would send you both back to a place your head must not be right now.
The finger is still a bit red, but it stops puckering after a few minutes. You really should stop touching every plant you see.
After about an hour in low warp you reach Melvion. You’re glad that for once you don’t need a suit or mask to survive on a planet. And you’re looking forward to seeing Vrena again. At least a little.
You again walk to the transporter point and stand beside Data—purposefully not looking at him.
Then you feel a hand graze your fingers.
“We need to—” You cut yourself off, because when you glance at him, you see the way he’s looking at you now.
“I know. I just wanted to make sure you know I have not forgotten you. And that I still want to touch you. Even if it is just brief.”
You swallow and nod. You feel the heat rising to your face. For a second you grab his hand and squeeze it tightly with yours.
But before you beam down, you let go.
You recombine at the campsite. Vrena and Carlos are already packing everything together. Vrena is yelling something at Carlos when you appear in the glowing transporter’s hum.
“Commander!” Vrena greets Data.
Then she looks at you. “Hi.”
It’s flat, and her face looks almost as neutral as a Vulcan’s. More than odd for an Andorian.
“Hi,” you whisper back and look at the ground.
“I see that you are almost ready for departure,” Data addresses the still-working and somewhat annoyed-looking Carlos.
“Yes, sir. We just have one question about the array we showed you yesterday. Would you be able to take a look at it?” Carlos points to a pile of equipment.
Data nods. “Of course I can. Explain what happened, please.”
Suddenly you feel a hand grab your arm. “Do you have the filters?” Vrena whispers.
“The filters?” You frown—until it clicks. After showing you the sleeping plant, you and Vrena made plans to look at it again, this time with filters on your faces to block out its “calming” effects.
“I think I brought them,” you mumble and rummage in the small bag you packed.
“Great. Then let us go to the plant. I want to show you what I found.”
She drags you off in one direction and yells at Carlos that you’ll be at the plants and that he knows which one.
You smile a bit. Vrena certainly has taken to plants, it seems.
You walk a couple of meters before Vrena turns around and eyes Carlos and Data.
“Okay, I think the two can’t hear us anymore.”
You still walk into the nearby forest. Somewhere here, you muse, must be Melvia’s home.
“So what the hell is going on with you?” she hisses. Her antennae angled sharply.
You feel panic rise up your back, to your neck, into your face—a familiar feeling you haven’t felt for a long time. You almost forgot it existed.
But feeling it again brings you right back to your normal struggles. The normal world.
“What do you mean?” you try to lie. Badly.
“Oh gods,” Vrena sighs. “You can’t lie. So don’t lie to me!”
She grabs your arm with force and pulls you deeper into the forest.
“I am not…” You trail off.
“You’re so lying. I don’t know if it’s sad or cute. But probably more sad because it’s so bad. Did something embarrassing happen? Did you fart?” She snorts and chuckles.
You try to protest, but Vrena keeps going.
“Do you snore? Was he weird? Did he ask a thousand annoying questions? Was he all android and no fun? Did he not understand jokes? Was he overbearing and rigidly following protocol?”
“Stop it!” you snap, turning toward her and stopping in your tracks.
Vrena smirks. “I knew it.”
“Stop talking like this about Data! He’s a kind and wonderful person and—”
It dawns on you. “Oh.”
“So knew it,” Vrena says, shaking her head and laughing.
You walk deeper into the woods until you reach a clearing. There are many small plants and flowers everywhere. You give Vrena one of the filters and put the other on yourself. You assume this is where her little favorite plant grows—and you’re right.
But while you’re in awe of the alien plant life around you, Vrena isn’t done.
“So what exactly were you thinking? Were you thinking at all?”
“What?”
“So no. Of course you didn’t think about this. I mean, I knew you were in love with him. That much was obvious from the start, but I never thought you would cross that line…”
Through your excitement about the plants and the still-residing panic, you finally catch the words she just said.
“In love with him?” you look at her with big eyes.
“Don’t play innocent. It was obvious. But Kelly and I thought it’s cute that an ensign crushes on a lieutenant commander. And the only one that could never love anyone.” She shrugs.
“I am not…” You stop yourself. Words fail again.
“But apparently the rumors are true,” Vrena continues, sitting down in front of a small plant with a blue flower atop a thin stem. “That’s her,” she adds lovingly.
You sit next to her. “What rumors?”
Vrena shrugs. “That he has a sex drive.”
A stone sinks deep in your belly. It weighs you down like Brontus would without a gravity suit.
“What?”
“One time there was this virus aboard and everyone went crazy. That was when I was in the academy. And there was this rumor that Data banged the tactical officer. Yar, I think her name was.”
The stone now has company.
“Some say they were even dating afterward. Others that he ended it because he doesn’t feel and she caught on.”
You take out your tricorder and start scanning—because if you don’t, you might break down.
“So this is the only plant you like? Or are you into plants now?”
Vrena frowns at you. She seems close to continuing, but even Andorians must recognize a tear about to fall.
“I think I like plants now—but especially her.” She points to the little plant, smiling.
“Did you name her yet?” you ask, shaking.
Vrena scoots closer. She sighs. “No.”
It’s silent.
Then you feel an arm around you. “I’m sorry. Sometimes I talk without realizing what I’m saying.”
“It’s okay,” you try to smile, but when you blink, the first tear rolls down your cheek.
Vrena still holds you from the side. “Why don’t you name her? You’re better with those things.”
You sniffle. You’d love to take off the filter, but you don’t. You wipe your tears with your sleeve.
“She looks like an Arabella,” you whisper.
“Ensign. Ensign.”
You open your eyes and see golden ones looking down at you.
“What?” You try to sit up, but your whole body feels numb. You can’t move.
You do what little you can: you turn your head.
You’re at the campsite. On Melvion.
“We found you near the small plant Ensign zh’Rhotar discovered a few days ago. You were both unconscious,” Data explains, scanning you.
“We had on filters,” you mumble and try to move your hand, but it’s numb.
“I fear the filters might have been broken,” Data continues. “My theory is that you suffered from the same deep-sleep phenomenon the ensign described.”
You try to nod. You’re not only numb but sleepy.
“My plan is to scan Melvia and her surroundings for you, as you are in no condition to do this yourself.” He stands.
Just now you notice you’re lying in the grass. You feel the little stems tickling your cheeks and ears.
“Pictures,” you mutter.
“I will also take pictures, yes. May I take your PADD?”
You nod. “But I need to unlock it. Where is it?”
Data crouches down and retrieves your PADD from your bag.
“May I touch your hand, ensign?” he asks softly, already reaching for it.
“You may,” you sigh, letting him guide your hand. He unlocks the PADD and places your hand gently back into the grass.
Then he leaves.
You hear someone snort beside you.
Vrena. She’s also lying on the grass. Carlos is somewhere nearby.
“That was hardcore,” she mumbles. Her mouth also sounds numb, her voice thick.
“What now?” you sigh. The conversation in the forest comes back to you. The crying.
“‘May I touch your hand?’ Oh my holy Andorian gods!”
“What? It’s common to ask someone before touching.”
“Yes, but not like this!”
“He talks like this!” you protest.
“No, he doesn’t talk like this. He talks like this with you!”
“So what—first I’m just another number in the line of conquests and now he talks to me like to no one else?”
Vrena shifts. You only hear it; you’re still staring at the blue sky above.
“All I’m saying is that I might have been a little bit wrong about him.”
You stay silent, shaking again.
“Like maybe there is a small chance that—”
“Shut up, Vrena,” you hiss.
And for once, Vrena shuts up.
You take the position you had when you first flew to the Thelmar system. Back in the corner. No plants beside you now, only an apologetic Andorian.
Vrena looks over from time to time—pursing her lips, fluttering her eyelids, moving her antennae to lighten the mood. One time she even crosses her eyes.
You just glare.
The equipment around you makes it impossible to see the cockpit. And for you, that’s probably best.
Because while the stones in your stomach dissolved thanks to Data’s words and Vrena’s interpretations, another feeling has settled deep and refuses to leave.
Dread.
It grows with every light-year you leave behind. It comes with shaking. With sweating.
Noticing you’re still sore while in the bathroom only makes everything worse.
What have you done?
What did you think would happen now?
Why does your heart hurt so much?
All these thoughts spin through your head as you leave the bathroom and return to your corner, looking at Vrena silently.
“The Enterprise is ready to receive you,” someone says through the comm.
You look at Vrena with wide eyes.
“I think I’m in trouble.”