The Joining

Posted on 04 Sep 2015 @ 7:12pm by Lieutenant Commander Temerant Bast

1,941 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Rude Awakening
Location: Trill Homeworld
Timeline: 2387 (Backpost)

Trill Homeworld
17 November 2387 (Earth Calendar)
1456 Hours
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The sun was reflecting off the ice as Wilem Bast found a new foothold, and hauled himself up another meter up the face of Jökull B'tang, one of the Northern province's most daunting glaciers. It was a beautiful morning, the sun was shining, the temperature was only slightly below freezing, and the wind was light – ideal conditions for ice climbing.

His arms and legs were taut with the effort required to haul himself up the ice cliff, but the burning sensation in his muscles felt good. Now in his late fifties, he found it only slightly more difficult to climb this particular glacier than in his younger days, but he welcomed the challenge. It allowed him to put his concerns to rest, and oftentimes allowed him to approach a particular problem from a totally different perspective, which often led to finding a solution.

He placed an ice screw, and slid his rope through the loop. He dug his left foot's crampons in the ice, and prepared to shift his weight to the new anchor. The ice creaked under his gloves. The noise echoed off the ice cliffs, and startled a great white harfang. The majestic bird flew out of its nest, hidden inside a crevice in the ice. Caught by surprise, Wilem's arms flailed, and he lost his grasp on the rope, and his foothold slipped.

He fell five meters before the rope caught on the previous screw. The pendulum motion swung him hard against the ice, and his head hit the ice cliff at an odd angle, shattering his cervical vertebrae. His helmet split open, and fell the rest of the hundred and fifty meters to the bottom of the glacier, where another group of climbers was preparing to ascend.

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Trill Symbiosis Commission Headquarters
1608 Hours
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Doctor Renhol walked into her office, carrying a fresh cup of green tea. It was something she had barely been able to stomach before being joined, but the symbiont inside her couldn’t get enough of it. The host had acquired the taste, and she had to admit that it did help with digestion. She sat down to continue her work on the stack of files on her desk, but soon turned around to adjust the blinds at her window. At this time of day, the sun was beginning its descent, and was directly hitting her desk, its glare reflecting off her computer monitor. It was at that moment that her alarm went off, triggered by the nurses at the Symbiosis Commission’s hospital ward.

She set the cup of tea down, not noticing that half its content spilled over on her desktop, and ran out of her office, jumping in the nearest turbolift to the ward.

"Who is it?" she asked, coming out of the lift and running up to the nurses' station.

"It's the Bast symbiont," reported the head nurse. The man looked at the computer monitor, and read the notice that had been sent by the emergency medical team. “Some sort of ice climbing accident. Massive cranial trauma. He's being flown in by shuttle now. The family's been notified."

Renhol nodded. This was a sad day. "Good. I'll get the Initiate ready."

She accessed the Symbiosis Commision's database. Based on the Initiate Program’s interviews of potential candidates, the most appropriate host for the Bast symbiont had been identified and ranked, based on their personalities, interests, and an order of succession had been generated. The candidate for the Bast symbiont was a Starfleet engineer named Temerant Lochees.

The name was familiar. She’d seen him mentioned on several reports. He had reported in a few weeks prior, as his number was approaching, and was waiting in the Initiates’ compound. But he had a tendency to slip out, once in a while.

"Now where is he?" she asked aloud, to no one in particular.

Initiates were asked to wear a locator device at all times, so they could be located quickly in the event of an emergency. Renhol sent a priority one message to the Commission's collection officers, who were then summoned to collect Temerant from wherever he was, and bring him to the hospital as quickly as possible.

=======
Starhill Night Club
Mak'ala City
Trill Homeworld
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The girl was astoundingly beautiful. Her deep blue eyes had a tinge of purple to them, reminiscent of the open sea. Her lips were voluptuous, sensual, and had a slight upwards twist that made her seem as if she were constantly smiling. And Temerant Lochees had charmed her just about enough that he could hope that those lips might soon be touching his own. It hadn’t been easy - he was a shy guy, but she was so beautiful that he had gathered up his courage and bought her a drink.

Her strawberry blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders, barely covering the spots that descended from her forehead, down the sides of her neck, and tantalizingly disappeared into her cleavage.

He placed another drink in front of her. A Samarian sunset, which he'd learned was her favorite. He tapped the rim of the glass, and together they watched the swirl of luminescent colors running through the liquid, finally coalescing into a gold color. She smiled, and took a sip.

The music was thankfully loud enough that she had to lean forward to talk directly into his ear, which gave him an opportunity to look down her cleavage. At first he’d been very discreet about it, but she’d been very brazen about it, going so far as to put her hand on the back of his neck to make sure he knew where to look, so by this time he’d given up on being discreet. She placed her hand on the back of his neck again and leaned forward, pulling him closer to whisper in his ear.

A pair of strong hands grabbed Temerant by the shoulders, and pulled him away from the girl, who was almost shoved aside by another pair of equally strong hands.

"Symbiosis Commission," said one of the burly men by way of apology. Temerant looked at the two men, startled, and a bit too light-headed from the alcohol he'd imbibed that night to fully understand what was going on. He looked at his companion, raised his eyebrows.

"Sorry," he said simply, as he and the two men were beamed away.

The filled nightclub around him vanished in a curtain of light, replaced by the stark interior of the Symbiosis Commission's hospital ward. He remembered being here a few years ago, back when he first signed up to the Initiate program. Not much had changed since then.

A woman approached. "Mister Lochees, I'm Doctor Renhol," she introduced herself. "I'm sorry we had to drag you away from your current activities, but there is a medical emergency. The Bast symbiont will be in need of a new host, and you are next in the order of succession."

The sudden surge of adrenaline finished clearing Temerant's head. "Oh," was all he found to say.

In one corner of the room, he saw a woman in tears. In her early fifties, she was proudly dressed. Two other people, roughly Temerant's own age, were close to her. Also in tears, they were holding her by the shoulders comfortingly.

"If you'll come this way," said Doctor Renhol.

=======

Temerant was now lying on a gurney in one of the operating rooms of the Symbiosis Commission building. Next to him, they had wheeled in a man with salt and pepper hair. Strongly built, the man's face was bloodied, and he was unconscious. Medical equipment was strapped to his gurney, and monitors beeped along with his heartbeat. The sound was irregular, and it was clear that death was close.

Someone attached similar monitors to Temerant's chest and forehead – monitors for his heart rate, cerebral activity, and other life signs that Temerant couldn't even begin to guess. He was feeling overwhelmed by the experience and tried to focus on a thousand things at once.

Someone pressed a hypospray to his neck. "This will speed up your liver’s metabolism, and clear up the alcohol in your system," they explained.

One of the nurses positioned herself next to his head, and talked to him in a soothing voice. She explained what the surgical team was doing, as they opened up the previous hosts' ventral pouch, located the symbiont, and gently severed the link. The symbiont was lifted out of Wilem Bast's body, and placed in a cleaning bath filled with the nourishing milky liquid that filled the Caves of Mak'ala, to be washed off. The surgical team, meanwhile, cauterized the blood vessels in Wilem's abdomen. The nurse explained that the previous host would be placed on life support. His head injuries were too severe for him to ever regain consciousness, but at least this way, his family could say goodbye before life support was disengaged.

The second team finished bathing the symbiont. One of the doctors pulled open Temerant's ventral pouch. The symbiont was placed at the lip of the pouch, from where it crawled its way inside. Temerant gasped at the unusual sensations as it found its place, lodged between his liver and his stomach.

A whirlwind of sensations and emotions played out in his head, as the symbiont attached its tendrils to his spinal column, and tethered itself to his main nervous system. He knew that within the next ninety hours or so, the link would be permanent - the symbiont would be dependent on Temerant’s blood flow to survive, and if the symbiont was removed, the blood loss would cause the host body to die within hours.

The nurse described how the host and the symbiont's brain waves were now merging, but Temerant wasn't listening. The sensations were overwhelming. Memories flooded his mind, sometimes coming into conflict with one another. The memories of the host and the symbiont were sometimes at odds with one another, and odd memories crept to the surface.

He remembered being in two places at once – he'd woken up in his bed at the Lochees house that morning, but also next to his wife in a different province altogether. He remembered eating scrambled eggs for breakfast, but one part of his mind – he was no longer sure which part - shouted that he hated scrambled eggs.

But the eggs had been lovingly prepared by the woman he’d seen crying in the hospital earlier - not a stranger after all. She had been his wife, and he had loved her dearly.

And the two younger people he’d seen comforting her. Kylar, and Daydra. Good lads - those were his children. Or rather, Wilem’s children.

Wilem. That was his name. Wilem Bast. Or rather, his previous self’s name.

Now he was Temerant Bast.

He turned his head, and looked at the nurse seated next to him. She had a knowing smile on her face, as if she knew exactly what he was going through. From somewhere deep inside, he suddenly realized that he knew her. She had aged since the last time he'd seen her, but she'd been there when the Bast symbiont had been joined to Wilem. Now the hair was streaked with grey, and fine lines had appeared around her eyes and mouth, but the eyes themselves were the same.

He smiled, and opened his mouth. "Hell--" he started to say, before a strange sensation spring to mind.

He ran his tongue around the inside of his mouth. It wasn't as he last remembered it.

"New teeth, that's weird," he muttered.

 

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