Post 471: One but Many

Stardate: 71001.1900
Title: One but Many
Author: Ensign Rada Dengar
Scene: Turbolift
Time: Following “Can't Be Helped”
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Rada had just been ordered to help Lily T'Ana with reprogramming the ship’s external sensor grids and so he had rushed as quickly as possible to the nearest Turbolift. This is because Rada has always firmly believed that if you keep someone waiting under normal circumstances there is a ten percent probability that they will decapitate you on your arrival but if that person happens to have just been woken up and ordered to meet you then decapitation is at least ten times more likely.

Rada hoped he was alone inside the Turbolift. However all too suddenly that all too familiar blue light which he had begged himself to forget shone into Rada’s eyes and he knew once again that it had truly started, once again he was blind. “Hello Beta” Rada said in a soft, mellifluous tone.

Rada then continued in a voice with an uncharacteristic panic since he knew that hiding his fear would be quite redundant in present company “I told you, I will die before I return,” Rada tried desperately to fight but could not stop himself.

He continued in that soft tone “Don’t you remember the feeling? The power?” and then getting louder “Don’t you remember the last drops of life leaving their eyes? Don’t you remember feeling the strength of your own hands?”

“I’ll never forget, not any of it” Rada continued with a mixture or hysterical panic and raw hatred. He tried to distract himself by thinking *Peace, calm, home* but to no avail.

The tone simply returned with a touch of mocking inherent as Rada continued now rapidly taunting himself “Peace?! Calm?! Home?! HA! All of the things which you need us to find. No man of your world ever seen true peace, least of all you” *Peace, Calm, home* he continued to think and yet he continued to taunt rapidly “You live a life made purely of your hidden panic,” he continued now slowly with a touch of arrogance added in “And I think each of us knows that we are your only home.”

*Peace, Calm…* it was not working and he knew it. He decided to damn what they knew and just go with what he did, he had to act calm to have control, no matter how transparent, so he continued in a now calm and slower voice “I am stronger and I am becoming immune, you will never have me back,” but his voice changed back and he continued to mock himself with arrogance “You received the letter, you know that you are but one in many and without us your hands will be useless against the others.”

“You are still vulnerable” Rada continued in his normal voice but quickly that arrogance returned “You can not harm us without joining us and once you join us you will not harm us,” the voice stated the conclusion which Rada himself had once reached. The normal voice returned for a few seconds saying “I will…” but Rada cut himself off with that soft voice from the start simply and calmly saying “No”.

Rada’s sight returned and the Turbolift doors opened, he stepped out and was simply left to ponder that word ‘No’. Was it simply the same old case of needing the last word or had he already lost more than he had known?
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Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering Officer
USS Independence NCC-90791