Resistance Is Futile - Pt 30

In the privacy of her quarters, Virginia pulled out her carry all satchel. The way technology had advanced, and how materialism had dwindled, there wasn't much a traveler had to carry anymore. But old habits die hard. Especially the longer lived a person is. The more memories they had.

She rifled through her undergarments and the sundry momentos that she couldn't part with even for a short trip: pictures of Marcus and her children when they'd been young, especially the one of Sarah, the daughter who had died while still a child...along with a lock of Sarah's hair from when she'd been a baby; letters Marcus had written her; bits of jewelry that her father had given her, not her real father, but the man who had raised her as his own even though he had known all along that she wasn't; the string of firepearls that Ian had given her when she'd been a teenager. She dug past these items to a carefully wrapped and hidden glass bottle.

Khan had been a wine drinker...specifically red wine. Governor Pretek had drank whiskey. Artimes preferred rum and soda, for all that she had been Klingon. General Zoar - champagne. Kirk had coveted his Saurian Brandy; Doctor McCoy his mint julipes. As for herself, once she had discovered Romulan Ale, Virginia prefered it above all other drinks...except maybe Saurian Brandy, but that was not a drink to be had alone. Saurian Brandy was meant to be savored, Romulan Ale worked quickly and was meant for forgetting. Which was why she always hid it beneath the momentos she carried with her, beneath the memories.

After unwrapping the bottle, Virginia requested a chilled glass of crushed ice from the replicator and settled down on the floor. Seated in front of the windows, she poured herself half a glass and sipped it slowly, watching the stars go by. She didn't want to get drunk...she just needed to keep a constant stream of alcohol in her system so that when they met the Borg, she wouldn't be tempted to use her powers to destroy them. And it was also easier to think about the Borg than why the stars sang.

At first, she had been afraid of the decision she'd reached. Everybody had heard stories of what it was like to be assimilated. How the Borg enforced their will over yours. Stole your identity. Mutilated your body. And then she had felt Picard's memories...which had scared her even more...seeing that all of it was true, and that the reality of it was worse than the stories, but it had only reinforced her determination to keep anyone else from having to experience it.

Maybe she did have a hero complex after all.

The stars slid by the window. Slowly. Quietly. All too soon the ship would have to go to Warp. For now, Virginia was content to just watch their slow slide and somewhat unwillingly remember the first time she'd heard the stars sing to her.

She had just turned seventeen. It was summer and she had been laying on the roof of her home watching the meteor shower of August, her falling stars. Like in the Observation Lounge, sounds had crept into the silence. Like music. Different pitches and tones. A meteor would streak across the sky, and there would be a sudden symphony. She could hear the stars...their hum and vibrations. She could hear them twinkle. It had been beautiful. The most purest and sweetest music she'd ever heard. She had turned to Ian, to ask if he could hear it, and had been momentarily taken aback to see that he hadn't been watching the stars, but herself.

"What are you hearing?" he'd asked.

"How...?" She'd been surprised. She was so used to Ian, that sometimes she forgot that he was like her and could hear and sense things, like her thoughts and emotions.

"I can feel that you're awed, and deeply moved by something. It happened all of a sudden."

"You don't hear the stars?"

He had looked surprised. "No. Link with me?"

She had agreed, as she was used to his mental touch, she even liked it. It had always been a soft and gentle touch, his power restrained because of her inexperience with her own powers. She had loved the depth of his presence mingling with hers, always afraid that he would find her inadequate. But this night, when their minds had joined...the heavens had errupted. From the corners of her eyes, she saw a true meteor 'shower' as the heavens suddenly errupted with a flurry of falling stars...and each brilliant streak was accompanied by notes she'd never heard before. And Ian heard it too...she'd seen it in his eyes even as she'd felt his internal reaction. It had seemed to last forever...that brief eternal moment. But it had ended far too quickly. Ian had pulled his hand and his mind away.

"I don't know," he'd said. "I've never heard anything like it. We should go inside now..."

And even though there had been hours of stargazing left, she had obeyed and they had went back inside the underground military complex that was hidden beneath her parents' mock home. He'd never been able to explain why she had heard the stars sing. Or why she only heard them sing when he was with her. But she knew. It had taken her years to figure it out, and why he'd lied about it.

It hadn't been the stars. She'd been hearing his heart.

Why she had connected the sound to the stars, Virginia didn't know. They had often sat out on the roof and watched the stars, him telling stories of the different planets he'd been to, quietly teaching her history and culture without her realizing it. In between stories, he had let her pelt him with question after question. But sometimes they would just sit in silence and, after that first time, it was in those moments of silence that the stars sometimes sang, and it was something she'd only ever experienced with one other man.

Marcus had taken her out stargazing, shortly before they had married. And it had happened again, the stars had sang. She had turned to Marcus, to find him watching her. Telling him what she heard, she had asked him if he wanted to hear it too. So, she'd linked with him...had let him hear the music...and when their minds had joined, the heavens had errupted just like they had with Ian. Marcus, though, had kissed her. And the music was consuming. More kissing had followed, and then more than kissing, the music fading into the sounds of their whispers and sounds of their lovemaking but never really disappearing. It had only ever happened when they sat out watching the stars, like the times with Ian.

Decades later, Virginia had made the connection. Both men had loved her...completely and deeply...accepting her for all she was and all she was meant to become. The living one still did.

What she denied was that her heart had been singing as well, that it hadn't just been the men's.

Virginia poured herself another glass of Romulan Ale, thinking that perhaps she wanted to get drunk after all.