When Two Worlds Collide... - Part 1

Posted on Sunday March 10th, 2019 @ 13:15 hours by Ares Onasis & Colt McCormick & Mayterial Droz

Mission: Pixie Dust
Location: Infirmary
Timeline: MD02 - 0515 hours
2976 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure

The melody echoed through Colt’s foggy mind. He sat shirtless on the ground next to Ares’s biobed, figuring his wet t-shirt may be better suited if wrapped around his head like a bandana. Though nothing seemed to be coming close to even cooling off the sweat-drenched man. Yet he still could only focus on the erotic singing that Ares was serenading Adam with in her mind.

Adam…

She had told him she was unmarried, but that was still a fairly open-ended answer. A woman like that, a strong and beautiful and intelligent and cunning woman like Ares, would be impossible to not want to secure. And judging by the way Ares had kissed Colt thinking that he was this Adam guy, he was someone she didn’t want to let go either.

Wait… why was he even thinking about that at a time like this?!

Slowly Colt crawled up to his feet and looked down at the dazed Ares still strapped to the bed. He ran his clammy hand through her thick curly dark hair and kissed her warm forehead gently with his dry lips. There was something incredibly wrong going on and he couldn’t let her just lay back and get pushed further down into a rabbit hole.

May shuffled into the medical bay and looked around, she was almost relieved when she didn't spot the doctor immediately. She tried to ignore the ringing in her head but it seemed to get stronger as she stepped into this room. She saw a shirtless guy hovering over Ares, who was strapped to a bed. She stopped in her tracks and did a bit of a double take and rubbed her eyes. They were still there, "What the hell is going on?"

Colt spun around, his eyes widening in excitement from seeing the Captain finally. "Look, something is wrong with Ares. I mean," he looked back at her distant face and then back to May, "she's in this, like, dream state. She keeps talking about her parents, who I thought were dead, and this guy named Adam..." He stopped to look at May with pleading eyes. "The doctor strapped her down on the bed but I think it's making it worse. She hasn't even tried to figure out what's wrong. And I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a desert and can't for the life of me cool myself down. And I really need to know if this Adam person is who I think he is." He finally let out his breath after spilling as much as he could think of at that moment.

This night was never going to end. Mayterial suppressed a sigh and stepped forward, she put a hand on Colt's shoulder and pushed him aside a bit to get to Ares. She immediately felt the heat rising and sighed, probably environmental controls on the fritz due to the jolt of dropping out of warp, she breathed heavily trying to get some fresh air in her lungs but it was stale and warm, "Can you please put a shirt on?" It wasn't that she found it distracting but she just wanted to have something to say as she approached Ares. Looking down she saw Ares mumble in her sleep. She reached out and opened her windows, trying to find out what was going on with her very limited medical knowledge.

Ares eyes never left Adam. It was a miracle. Her wish had finally come true. He was here. Living. Breathing. Touching her with his soft and gentle fingertips, running them up and down her exposed thigh. He always liked to try and tease her to break the concentration of her own fingers against the guitar strings. He wanted to see how long she’d be able to resist before she tossed herself on top of him to free herself from the pressure he built up below. For the first time that was actually on the backburner. It had been a whole year, the longest and darkest year of her life, since she had been able to smell his smell and run her hands through his short brown hair and listen to his strong yet gentle Scottish tongue.

She continued to strum the chords to “I Remember You” by Skid Row and hummed along as she watched every single muscle movement in her man’s face. She could see the subtle squint of his eyes and the creases next to his mouth tense up. He was keeping something from her. Or at least he wanted to tell her something. It caused her fingers to tense up and miss the D string and produce an awkward twang sound. This was it. Maybe this was the moment where she had to give up something in order to continue to live in this new reality.

Adam’s own fingers stopped as his eyebrows scrunched together at her sudden miss. “What? Did I do something?”

Ares attempted to be as smooth as possible but was failing miserably. Her mind and body were all over the place and trying to make sense of everything without ruining the magic that was happening right before her eyes. She forced herself to break the eye contact and look down at her nervous fingers. “You’ve got news for me, don’t you?”

Adam’s grin widened into a bright smile as he let out a chuckle. “I just can’t seem to keep anything from you Miss Onasis.”

Ares let out a nervous chuckle as she rested her hand on top of the guitar strings and placed the guitar on the blanket next to her. “Might as well tell me now. Whatever time you had set aside for this would be considered too late at this point.”

Adam laughed a hearty laugh as he brushed his lips against hers, tasting the hint of wine from their dinner. He placed his hand on her cheek and pulled back to lock eyes with hers. He was taking his sweet time and Ares knew he found immense pleasure in teasing her to no end. But before she could tell him to get on with it he spit it out.

“Ares, I quit the force.”

Her eyes widening in shock and confusion, Ares’s body felt numb all over. Adam?! Quitting?! Adam and quitting were never used in the same sentence. Her mouth gaped open, trying to figure out the right words to express her utter surprise.”But… why? I mean… but how?” She shook her head from side to side. “Adam, you love being a cop. And you’re amazing…”

Adam placed his other hand against the other side of her jaw, cupping her face to make sure she was able to focus her attention. She had a tendency to get a little scatter-brained when big changes occurred. “Look, we almost died last year. I’m lucky to even be here right now. And you’re the reason why I made it and that piece of shit didn’t. While I was lying down in the Hospital I couldn’t help but think if I really wanted to go through that again.”

Ares’s eyes began watering again. It was as if the year she had lived through didn’t exist anymore. It had been completely replaced by one she had dreamed of ever since Adam’s funeral: the one where she and Adam would grow old together. “But… what… what are you going to do?” Her face had softened from the warmth of his hands and the happiness that his words were bringing her.

Adam kissed Ares again, this time with a bit more fervent and force. “I’m going to start that Private Investigation firm. And I want you to come with me. Leave the police department. Have my children. Be my partner in an environment where we don’t have to hide the truth anymore.”

And all of her questions stopped for the moment. How could she say no? If she said no, she would deserve all of the bad things that would come to her. She had lost him once; she was never going to lose him again. “There’s no fuckin’ question, Adam. Of course I’ll come with you!” She suddenly wrapped her arms around his warm body and pushed him down onto the blanket and kissed him with all of her might as if it was the last time she would ever meet his lips with hers.

Mayterial shortly cleared her throat, she didn't know what happened or how she was in this situation but she stood there, looking over at the people on the beach. She recognised Ares and started walking towards her. She felt a joy, a relief, in her. It didn't suit the woman that was in her room earlier that night. She wondered if this was the reason she was so touchy about her promiscuous habits back on the station. From the conversation she had eavesdropped it had to be, "Miss Onasis." She spoke up, trying to get her attention. Whatever was going on on her ship it was clear that it was affecting the crew in a big way and somehow she couldn't stop intruding on their thoughts. None of them had it as bad as Ares though, she wondered how that was possible.

Ares was knee-deep in her passions with Adam, making up for a long lost year and unable to risk missing out on desperately sought-out reunion. His arms were wrapped tight against her, protecting her and promising her a new and better tomorrow. The familiar voice, at first hollow background noise, became increasingly clearer in her mind bringing back the wave of confusion throughout her body. What the hell was May doing here?! Ares peeled her lips off of Adam’s and look over at May with tightened and perplexed eyebrows. “Droz… what are…?” She shook her head quickly to see if she was imagining the woman.

“Everything alright, babe?” Adam asked Ares hesitantly as he looked at his now tensed up fiancé and back at the mysterious woman.

Ares kept her eyes on Mayterial and nodded slowly. She then looked back down at Adam and gave him a reassuring kiss. “Something from work, give me a sec.” It was a weak lie. She and Adam were partners both at work and outside of work and he knew everything that went on in her life. But until she had figured out what was going on (maybe this was the monkey wrench in the alternate timeline she had been unregrettably thrown into) it would have to do. Ares climbed to her feet and headed towards the restaurant and away from Adam’s eavesdropping ears. When she determined they were a safe distance from him she turned to Mayterial with slightly annoyed eyes. “Okay this is just getting too weird,” she stated under her breath. “What are you doing here? How did you know I was here? And, more importantly, how do we know each other?” To anyone outside of Ares’s mind these questions would make absolutely no sense. But if Mayterial was the same Mayterial as before (maybe the entire vessel got caught up in the alternate universe) and not some alternate Mayterial she would understand.

"You're in the medical bay. You hurt your head." Mayterial looked over at the man she was getting familliar with a bit earlier, a carbon copy of Colt. She realized that must be Adam with perhaps a little wishful thinking thrown in to make up for the differences in the two men. Memories were a funny thing like that, "Did this already happen or is this something you wish happened?"

Ares’ eyebrows scrunched together. What was she talking about? She wasn’t in the medical bay. She was in Greece with Adam. “I didn’t hit my head. I mean, I rolled around a bit after we hit the turbulence but I…” She looked back down at Adam who was sitting up on the blanket trying not to look like he was staring in curiosity at them. “The shooting happened but here Adam made it. We both did…” Turning back to May, Ares felt a chill run up her spine that wasn’t caused by the brush of ocean wind. This had to be an alternate reality. All of the pieces fit together and it made sense, at least to her. And it made her happy. “I don’t know how you ended up here but at this point I really don’t care.” She kind of let off a chuckle at the absurdity of the situation. But it was happening. “Adam and I are starting our own business…”

"Adam passed away, Ares." Mayterial said softly, she didn't really know how to handle this but she knew that Ares had to snap out of it. "We got kicked out of subspace and something is affecting the crew." She looked over at Adam and wondered how she could make it apparent that this was all in Ares' head. She didn't even know how she herself was projecting herself inside her head in the first place. The effects of whatever it was that had a grip on the crew was hitting Ares hard, "We're inside your head, this isn't an alternate universe. This isn't real."

Ares shook her head sternly. “No, May. Adam died where we came from. Here,” she pointed to the warm white sand at their feet, “he made it. And we’re getting married.” She felt the heated words against her chest. “The turbulence must’ve been caused by something that knocked us into a wormhole or whatever.” She was becoming angrier with May trying to take this from her and erase it. “You’ve gotten into my head before to try to fill it with bullshit and use whatever information you can to get something out of me. I’m not letting you take this away from me!” She quickly turned away from May to head back to Adam before the tears overflowed down her cheeks.

Colt, who was watching in awe with his jaw slightly gaped, was feeling his inside twist up and his skin continue to burn. He could see Ares's face squint up in anger and her eyes begin to fill with tears. "Captain," he hated seeing her like this. He barely knew her but knew he absolutely hated seeing her in pain, both physical and emotional. "What's going on?"

May stepped back from the bio bed and looked at Colt, breathing heavily and the headache being more intense now then when she walked into the medical bay. "She's stuck in some sort of delusion. She thinks she's in an alternate universe where her husband is still alive." She walked towards the medical cabinets and found them locked. She cussed herself a bit under her breath, the Doctor was thorough. "I need to snap her out of it or she might slip so far into it that we'll never get her out." She went through cabinets that would open for her but only revealed bandages and other useless items that would do nothing to help her in this situation. "Where the hell is the doctor anyway?"

“Husband?!” Colt’s questioning thought unintentionally turned into an audible explanation. “But… she told me she wasn’t married…” He looked down at Ares as May’s words finally clicked. “She’s a widow…" He then realized May had asked him a direct question. "Oh, the doctor got called off to Engineering..."

"Figures" Reaching into one of her pockets Mayterial pulled out a swiss army knife, she extended the blad and jammed it between the doors of the medicine cabinet. With a fierce blow to the back of it the lock gave away and she got access to the hyposprays and medicine capsules. She quickly sorted through them and pulled out a small vial, putting it in the hypo and applying it to her neck. She sighed in relief as the ringing and pounding in her head seemed to dissipate momentarily. Walking back towards the bio bed she looked at Colt. "Keep an eye on us, if either of us start to bleed from any orifice, pull me away from her. Do you understand?

Colt looked at the Captain and shook his head vigorously. No wonder Ares was crying. She was crying tears of joy. She missed her husband deeply and it was obvious. She even thought that he was her husband. But if he was actually dead and she thought he was still alive, that would set the young girl up for a long life of pain and suffering. After hearing about her current life he could tell she was still in the thick of her sadness and had been there for a while. It changed everything, even his hope of having something with her but he still felt an astounding urge to want to help. He didn’t want to see her suffer anymore. “Just be careful, Captain, ok? Don’t let anything happen to her.”

"Trust me, I know what I'm doing." She didn't have a clue. All Mayterial knew was that she had to get back in there and snap Ares out of it. She reached forward with both hands this time and focused on the thoughts that came from Ares into her own so easily. It didn't feel right that she was able to do this, she was never a great telepath, she managed but she was never this good. It didn't matter right now, all that mattered was that Ares woke up and realised the truth.

To be continued...


Mayterial Droz
Captain

&

Ares Onasis
Quartermaster

&

Colt McCormick
Passenger

S.S. Fawkes