Walking the Line:
~~~ indicate reflection or time shift. Please keep in mind this is a pretty raw copy and subject to change.
Tentative title, will be NC-17. If you would like to see more, please let us know.
Crew Graphic by Dee and Kat
Prologue:
Blood… there was blood everywhere. It covered her hands and her face. The thick sweet scent of it coated her tongue and clogged her nostrils. Coughing she tried to breath but couldn’t. As she stood, shaking, she wiped her hands on her tunic, but the blood didn’t come off. It stained her hands a deep red mixed with dark green. The haze of it swirled around her like a freaky dream. Mists of red and green blocked her sight. She panted, hoping to pull in enough air for life. Battle cries sounded through the mist. Voices she recognized but couldn’t place. Fighting her way forward, she moved through the fog, wincing as the viscous particles coated her even more. She swiped at her face as the liquid began dribbling down her face. The blood was blending, coalescing forming into something else, but she couldn’t make it out. She tripped over something and as she glanced down, she noticed a child. It was one from a half-forgotten memory. It was broken, cat-like yellow eyes staring sightlessly at her. Shivering, she moved on. Suddenly the sounds of battle stopped, and the fog was gone. Her sight was clear, clearer than she liked, but the blood was still everywhere. Shattered bodies surrounded her, Human, Vulcan, and Satorian. Tears began to fall as she recognized her and crew. The bodies began to glow, shifting and changing until she was surrounded by mirrors. Each one reflected a scene of her life, but the images of herself were not covered in blood as she was. Some of those scenes she barely remembered. She turned, taking in each one. The first was of a child talking to a Vulcan male. The girl was trying to make a new friend, offering to let him put ribbons in her hair. A smile flickered across the watcher’s face as a beautiful Vulcan woman entered the room, but as the male noticed the woman something in him changed and the child recognized it for what it was, even though she could not name it. All attempts at friendship were halted in the need to protect. Shaking her head, she turned to the next scene playing out. This was one in which the child, a little older, was looking through a nursery window at a newly born baby brother. This one made her smile too. She glanced up as an equally bloody hand clasped hers. In the gory face, she saw remnants of the baby in the nursery. She spoke with her mind, knowing that to actually speak would shatter the spell. *I promised to protect you.*
The hand tightened on hers. *I know.*
The next scene showed both them as children. Together they ran the length of a cargo bay, screaming like Klingons. Three little girls with silky black hair and almond eyes chased them. The fun was halted as a man with silver starting at his temples entered the room. He pulled the two oldest children into his arms, hugged them tightly, and told them he was sending them away. Betrayal echoed through the girl, and the blood stained woman. The man beside her shuddered at the image and the memory as well. They turned to the next and it showed the boy standing over the girl, she unconscious at his feet, staring down a Satorian and a Vulcan. The man pulled the woman close and hugged her. *I swore to protect you.*
She nodded. *Yes. We are a team, you and I.* The image shifted to show that same girl crouched next to the body of a dead Satorian, blood on her hands. This time the boy was on the floor, where he had been thrown.
The woman shivered as the blood coating her turned cold. *I swore to be strong, to survive… Why are we seeing this?*
The next image showed the two of them holding an infant, marveling that she was theirs. *T’Mir… the baby.* The woman smiled.
*Another promise.*
*I’m afraid Zack. I don’t want to be here.*
*I know, but there is a reason for all things, Pix, even this.*
*Yes…* The next mirror showed the boy and girl together saying their goodbyes. The girl stood proud, for she was going to join Starfleet, the boy was going to Vulcan. They had never been apart and it was killing them both. The adult versions held more tightly to one another as they remembered. With that memory the mirror twinned, showing each as an individual. The scenes were similar though. The girl stood naked in a gym shower. It was late, but she was elated that her classes were nearly done. One more week and she would graduate the academy with honors, head of her class. The older version, watching the scene, called out a warning, but it was too late. The girl had been too complacent, had felt too secure and had let down her guard. Her body shuddered as she was hit over the head with a rock. As she fell, her blood mingled with the water flowing down the drain. Stunned, hurt, she offered little resistance as she was tied and beaten. Eyes closed, she tried to block out the pain, hardly daring to believe these were her classmates. The images that flashed through her mind at their contact hurt worse than the physical. The violence stopped near rape and death, for a teacher had noticed the lights and noise, and had come to check.
For Zack the images were just as powerful. His experiences on Vulcan, similar. His memory show two boys, one human, one half-vulcan, fighting against several Vulcan males. It wasn’t a training image. Like his sister’s, the image was one of intolerance for those with differences. It was also one of defeat.
A sob echoed from T’Lin, Zack became more stoic. He hugged his sister tighter as the images flew by. They shifted, changing and morphing, each scene of their lives, some shared, some not, all depicting choices and changes. There was so much pulled forth, drawn out to be studied and waded through, and the two watching could barely comprehend the meaning. Both had joined Starfleet, full of dreams, and both had joined with the Vulcans, full of determination, and both had moved on, disillusioned. One had become a cargo captain, and the other joined her several years later, finally finding a contentment they had only ever had together on a starship.
As the last mirror played out the present, including this dream of blood and time, the mist began to thicken once more. One mirror remained standing, though it too showed foggy shadow images. A shadow approached them in the mirror and split in two. The shadow then wrapped around them, pulling them apart, and they felt it tugging on them and realized it wasn’t just in the mirror. As the misty forms forcibly separated them, T’Lin cried out. Her fingers held tightly to Zack’s and his to hers, but it was no use. At the lost connection the mirror disappeared and the screams of the dying and sounds of battle returned. Once more she was alone, and covered in blood.
Her eyes snapped open with sudden awareness, and with fluid grace, T’Lin Archer rolled herself from her bed. She barely acknowledged the cold deck plating beneath her feet as she scrambled into a pair of trousers. Her shirt was settling over her head as she hit the door running, pausing only to grab her boots on the way out. Her mind was already turning over the images of her dream and she called out with her thoughts. *Zack! Something’s coming!*
*I know. I’m on my way.*
She skidded to a stop at the turbolift, as the doors opened she hit the comm. beside them. “Senior staff report to my ready room.” She held the doors as a tall, broad shoulder man entered the lift. He was everything she was not, calm, collected, Vulcan. “Did you dream?”
“Yea.”
They had been raised together and experienced so many things, and yet it had tempered them both differently. T’Lin embraced all in her that was human, and Zack denied it. “We were showed the moments that shaped us, changed us into who we are. I figure it’s a premonition. Something is coming and its going to change things.”
One brow rose. T’Lin’s premonitions were rare, but often came true if they read them right. It was even more rare that he shared them with her, but he didn’t question it. They had been connected since his birth. It simply was. Though not always logical, he trusted his sister’s judgement. There was a lot about T’Lin that neither of them understood, for it didn’t fit into their genetic profiles. “Is that good or bad?”
She glanced up at him, an odd look in her eyes. “I don’t know, its change. But seeing as how we were covered with blood, I can’t be real positive about it.”
“Then we had best be prepared.”
She punched him in the arm as the lift doors opened. “Ya think?” Shaking her head, she moved to her ready room, muttering about Vulcans and stating the obvious.