Fears and Foreshadowing

Posted on Thu Feb 28, 2019 @ 11:32pm by Lieutenant Nicole Anderson & Lieutenant JG Camille Lévesque PhD

2,522 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Plaga Navis
Location: Nicole's Quarters
Timeline: Three Days Before Prelude to War

Nicole came into her quarters and sighed. She quickly kicked off her boots and shucked her uniform, enjoying the feeling of the cool air hitting her body. She pulled back the sheets of her bed and slipped in as quietly and stealthily as she could, so as to avoid waking the sleeping form next to her.

Her efforts were in vain as the other figured rolled over and stretched. “You’re in late,” Camille said.

“Had to trade a shift with Dasha,” Nicole said. “Sorry I woke you.”

“Pas de problème,” Camille said, smiling and snuggling up. She kissed Nicole gently and pull her close. “But since I’m awake…” she grinned and kissed her again.

Nicole smiled and kissed her back, rolling Camille onto her back and lying on top of her, kissing her deep. She trailed her lips along Camille’s jaw down to her neck, kissing and nibbling it, making the other girl giggle gently.

Nicole kissed her neck harder and Camille moaned. “Easy there,” she said, grinning, then winced. “Nicole, easy.”

Nicole’s mouth didn’t move and Camille cried out. “Ow! You’re hurting me!” She tried to push Nicole off but Nicole’s hands grabbed her wrists and pinned them down as a small line of blood trickled from Nicole’s lips.

Camille kept screaming, “Nicole!” trying to get her to stop, then let out a long, piercing scream of pain.

Nicole!

Nicole sat up in bed, still screaming and spun around and away from Camille who was sitting up next to her. Nicole looked around like a cornered animal, then her eyes settled on Camille and she looked both horrified and terrified, before realizing where she was and what had just happened.

“Are you alright?” Camille said, worried. “You looked like you were dreaming, then you started screaming and--”

Nicole dove forward and grabbed Camille and pulled her hair aside, looking at her neck. She pulled Camille to her and held her tight, sobbing into her shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” she said. “I would never...never hurt you, I swear. I won’t let it happen, I promise.”

"Nicole!" Camille said, holding her close and gently stroking her hair. "It's alright. You're not dreaming anymore. You're awake and I'm fine. But I don't understand. I know you would never hurt me. What won't you let happen?"

Nicole shivered hard, holding Camille tight. "I just wanted a little more time," she complained, then sighed. She sat back and wiped her tears with her tshirt. This was the conversation she'd dreaded most. In the past it had come out of necessity in the moment. She knew she was rapidly approaching that again, and decided this time she was going to beat it to the punch. Still...how does one approach something like that?

"There's a lot we still don't know about each other--" she stopped and caught herself. "More specifically, there are things you don't know about me."

She sat back, looking defeated. "I wanted to wait on this. I never want to burden others with this, but especially you. You...you're so adorably innocent about some things. I don't want to be the one to pull back the curtain--" she took a deep breath, stopping herself from rambling.

"When you were a child," she said, "did you ever fear a monster under the bed? Or in the closet? Or some other dark place, and you knew it was going to gobble you up?"

Camille cocked her head sideways. She had no idea where this was going. But if it helped Nicole get through this, should would answer the question truthfully. "Oui. Except mine was in the basement. A room so dark, especially at night. The house lights didn't activate verbally and you needed to take the first two steps into the dark to reach the switch. I was terrified of the monster that hid down there."

"Just like we all were. So what do you do? The only thing you can: you call for your parents. And they stroke your hair and kiss your cheek and they say what every parent says: Monsters aren't real." She looked at Camille and frowned. "That's a lie."

"Nicole," Camille said, "I don't understand. What does that have to do with--"

"Klingons call them SopwI' 'Iw, Rigellians call them ha'kiv-katau. The Heslings we met called them 'Soul Leeches.'" She took a breath to brace herself. "Humans call them Vampires."

Camille wasn't sure she'd heard Nicole correctly, but after a second she realized she had, and she understood Nicole's implication. She knew the legends, of course. The stories. It also explained her desire to check Camille's neck. What she dreamed about...she must have dreamed she'd attacked Camille. The way she woke in panic, concerned for Camille's well being, the scientist understood that Nicole was sincerely concerned about something bad happening.

Instead of saying anything right away, Camille pulled Nicole into another tight hug. The two sat there a moment in bed, holding each other in silence.

"I'm sorry," Nicole said.

"Tell me more," Camille said. "This is a part of who you are. And I like who you are."

"I wish I did," Nicole said, quietly. She pulled away and got off the bed, moving to her uniform. She plucked her flask out from her breast pocket and handed it to Camille as she sat back down on the bed. "You asked about this," she said. "I wasn't lying. It's poisonous to most species, but it's medicine for me. It's what keeps me from getting..." she made a face. "Hungry."

Camille nodded, understanding her meaning. "How does it contain your hunger? What's in it?"

"Quite a number of compounds, mostly iron-based," Nicole said. "I'll give you the breakdown."

"D'accord," Camille said, placing the flask on the nightstand. "How did you come across it?"

"I....got it from my father," Nicole said.

"You've told me about your mother, and your honorary Rigellian family," said Camille, "but you've never mentioned your father. Was he a...ha'kiv-katau?" She hoped she pronounced it right, and hoped that the Rigellian word was a bit more comforting to hear.

"No," Nicole said, quietly. "A long time ago, a ha'kiv-katau wound up on Earth. I don't know how, maybe it was a scout. It fed, it killed, and eventually it was destroyed. However, before it died it infected a human with a mutagenic virus that altered his DNA and gave him the same desire to feed. It was, effectively, how the ha'kiv-katau reproduce."

She cleared her throat. "That augmented human continued the killings, and eventually he was destroyed as well, but not before infecting a young woman."

Camille was beginning to see the picture. “And that woman was...”

"My mother," Nicole confirmed. "Maybe the virus had been diluted, maybe the infection was interrupted, I'm not sure, but she retained her...well her soul. Her sense of self. She was able to continue living and being a person, despite her new 'dietary requirements.'"

Nicole wiped her eyes. "She lived, she traveled. She made friends, even saved the world with them a few times. When humans took to the stars, so did she. And one day, at a scientific conference she was attending, she met a young, talented geneticist by the name of Thomas Anderson."

"They talked, they had dinner. They had a few more dinners. They fell in love, they got married. Eventually she had to tell him that as much as they wanted to, they couldn't be parents. He refused to accept that. He said he could fix it. He could screen out the virus. He made multiple attempts at creating a live embryo, but nothing took. And then he realized that if he simply induced fertilization mechanically, he could bypass her body's rejection of the process. He tried and....he succeeded."

She was openly crying now. Not sobbing, but the tears were streaming. "He told her....he told her it was another fertility injection. He didn't tell her fertility had already been achieved."

"When she realized she was pregnant, she was furious. She didn't want to risk the virus being passed on. He swore he'd fixed it. She left him, and had a friend take her to Rigel and made it clear she never wanted to see him again. 10 months later..." She held up her hands and gestured to herself. "And for twelve years, I had no idea I wasn't 100% human."

It was a lot to take in. Part of Camille was incredibly curious. An entire set of ideas that she knew nothing about. If the vampires of Earth’s mythology were real, then what else was? Were there more vampires on Earth, or just those ones Nicole mentioned, now deceased aside from Nicole’s mother (presumably)?

But now was not the time to ask such questions. Now was the time to listen. She’s opening up to you, Camille. You need to be there for her.

“What happened at age twelve?” Camille asked.

"I got sick," Nicole said. "my whole body shut down; I almost died. My mother finally had to tell Doctor Hanopar what was going on. They were able to stabilize me. I spent the next four years draining the blood bank supply at the hospital."

"That must have been jarring," Camille said. "From a presumably fairly innocent and carefree childhood to drinking hospital blood. I honestly can't imagine." She took a hand and put it on Nicole's cheek, using her thumb to wipe away a tear. "So four years pass. What changed?"

"The Academy," Nicole said. "I wasn't just 'that intern who does diagnostics on the side' anymore. I was going away from home. There was no way I could keep fed properly. My only option left was to see my father and see if he knew how to fix it." She took a breath. "I took a runabout....helps having a Godfather who's an Admiral...and I went to his University on Mantilles. He couldn't help me, but he'd been working on an elixir. It...compensates. I took it and left. I was so angry with him--" she choked up and started crying again. "I never wanted to see him again."

Camille pulled her close, wrapping her arms around Nicole as tightly as she could. She let her lover cry into her arms. Nicole had protected her so many times. It was time for her to return the favour.

"One thing I don't really understand," Camille said softly, "is why you don't want to see your father again, if he helped bring you into the world and gave you the elixir. I don't question your feelings, I just don't understand."

Nicole pulled back, looking at Camille like she had three heads. "He created something unnatural, unwanted and dangerous," she said angrily. "You have no idea the things I've done, how many I've killed!" She was trying not to get hysterical, but it was getting difficult. Cass had once told her that bad feelings were like a shard of a broken tooth in the gums. It had to work its way out, but it was going to hurt like hell as it did. She was feeling that pain now and she didn't like it one bit. "Whether they deserved it or not, I hate that it's happened, and he didn't "bring" me into this world, he manufactured me and he did it with a lie. My entire existence is based on a lie and I've spent every day trying to make up for that!"

She was shaking again, hating her father for making this necessary, hating herself for yelling at the one person she wanted to tell more than anyone, and hating Camille for being so damned understanding about it. "I've seen them...the Soul Leeches," she said, wrapping her legs around her knees, her go-to protection move since she was a child. "They attacked the Ommadawn. They picked off our fighters and turned them against us. Then they boarded the ship. They killed...so many. Dragged them screaming into Jefferies tubes, ate them at their stations...." she put her head down. "They're evil...pure and simple. And something of them is in me, and you honestly can ask why I would ever want to see the man responsible for unleashing even one more drop of that evil into this universe?"

"I'll admit I've never come across the Soul Leeches before," Camille conceded. But then her voice grew stronger, with more resolve behind her words. "But what I have come across is you, Nicole. And no, I don't know about how many you killed, or for what reason. But I do know how much happiness you bring into my life every day." Her own eyes began to water. "I understand the lie was awful. It was a violation of your mother, plain and simple. But...I don't want to think about a world where he didn't create you. I...I love every second of the day I'm with you. So I can condemn the lies and the violation, but I can't condemn bringing you into my life." By now, streaks of water ran down her own cheeks.

Nicole looked up at her. "I'm being a bitch, aren't I?" she said, sighing. "I just...I appreciate what you say, it's just hard to believe, with what I've seen. And so far you've only seen me like this," she said. "I get scared things will change if you ever saw me...angry. They often do."

"I won't let things change," Camille said. "Tonight you opened up to me. And you swore you would never hurt me. I believe you." She took Nicole's left hand with her right and intertwined their fingers. "You won't hurt me. And you won't hurt anyone else. And if you'll let me, I'll help you." She gently kissed Nicole on the lips.

Nicole closed her eyes, feeling Camille's lips on hers. She wanted to tell her the truth. She wanted to tell her that she was going to hurt others, it was inevitable. Someone was going to attack them, and she was going to dispose of the threat, same as she already had twice now. But she didn't want Camille to worry, and she didn't want her to doubt, and she didn't want to argue. The only thing she wanted at that moment was to be okay, so she surrendered.

She pulled Camille close and laid back down in bed, closing her eyes and resting her head against Camille's neck, smelling her scent and hearing her heartbeat.

Camille lay in bed, holding Nicole to her, breathing softly, and letting her warmth, breathing, and heartbeat calm them both down. It had been a stressful time, but such revelations needed to come out. Camille was glad they had, and vowed to herself to be the fearless stability that Nicole needed in this. As Nicole opened herself up more and more, Camille slowly but surely fell truly in love.

 

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