Posted by Lieutenant Celina Rodriguez (Chief Tactical Officer) in Shuttle on route to Deltana V

Posted by Commander Ardashir “Jack” Creed (Executive Officer / CIO) in Shuttle on route to Deltana V

Posted by Lieutenant Celina Rodriguez (Chief Tactical Officer) in Shuttle on route to Deltana V
SNIP

“Come come to the water,” he said leading Celina towards the large cistern in a corner of the camp by the fire. “You must be parched,” he replied dipping a wooden cup into the depths of the container and pulling out a sip of water.

“God I hope this is not Kool aid,” she mumbled to herself as she drank the water.

Celina Rodriguez CTO

Jack slinked behind not wanting to keep her with a sharp eye as Celina got the cup as he looked back and forth between everyone here. His instinct was somewhere between learn more and blast them. Still, water couldn’t hurt… at least Jack assumed as much. “Remember, it’s not the kool-aid that kills you but the cyanide,” Jack said with a smirk, but feeling uneasy at all, as he came up behind them. He looked over at Celina nodding, he had no intention to wait behind but knew he could give her some space.

“I’ll just be right over here… getting my own water,” he said as he let her talk to the man as he gave himself an out to be near.

Creed, XO

“No no no stay. I will get you some. Veat veat,” the guide said snapping his fingers. The word must have been a command of some sort because instantly someone brandished a cup of liquid for Jack. “Besides we don’t have time. The boat will be coming for you and you must be ready,” he said raising his own cup to Jack and Celina in what appeared to be a toast.

Looking down at the drink Jack began sniffing it as he looked over at Celina with a shrug as he began drinking small sips. He didn’t think these people were going to try and kill him, but something made him feel wary all the same. He didn’t know for certain just how much he trusted any of the people here for certain.

Hesitantly Celina raised her cup and said under her breath and through a smile to Jack,”why are they toasting us and why do they think we are sailors? I mean you are a desert people,” she winked at her fiance.

“You do know I grew up in Tampa right?’”

“Tampa,” Celina looked at Jack confused. “You are from Florida,” her tone was almost accusatory. Taking another long sip of her drink Celina mulled over Jack’s statement. Florida? Jack was Persian. This had to be a joke.”With the mouse and retiree’s on scooters Florida?” Crossing her arms over her chest she raised an eyebrow. “No way. You are Persian through and through. There is no way you are a Floridian.”

” I left Tehran when I was six. I learned how to surf and hung out on beaches… my first date was on a boat in the gulf for Christ sake.” he said as he looked over at her with a shake of his head. “You know this… don’t you?” Jack sometimes wondered just how much he had told her at times, they had been a whirlwind between the two and some details just slipped.

“That you are a Floridian. Nooooooooo,” she wrinkled up her nose with a surprised expression, “but then again I didn’t know you were dead for almost a year and we worked through that now didn’t we?” Did he just say his first date? Why did he even mention his first girlfriend and boat? Was that what he was thinking of on a beautiful tropical place surrounded by palms and aquamarine water? Swirling her drink Celina realized she could not let this conversation go with one comment. For some reason, something deep inside of her felt like it was swelling. It was her ego. “So what was her name? Isabella, Gabriella, Marcella?” She had no idea why this was eating at her so but this surge of emotion was overwhelming.

“Oh come on, you really need to know some girl’s name from over twenty years ago? I was 14, young and we hadn’t even met you. I visited to see my family in Tehran often, a lot of Aunts and Uncles there, but a large percentage of my life until Starfleet was in Tampa. Why is that suck a big deal to you azizam?” Ardashir asked her as he looked over, curious where this was all coming from. Celina had told her of other guys she had dated, and surely she assumed he had dated before her.

Celina opened her mouth to reply but had no answer. Jack had dated numerous women before her and even was married before her so why this fourteen-year-old blonde with probably buck teeth was getting her goat. Looking into his eyes she struggled to find words.

“Shhhh its beginning,” one of the tribal members said softly laying a hand on Jack’s shoulder urging him to take another sip of his drink and motioned for Celina to finish off hers.

Raising his hands, the guide began to chant something in the native tongue. It sounded vague Eastern Orthodox in its rhyme and cadence especially when the people in the group replied back in a soft trilling song line response. Several of the members of the village bowed while others kneeled. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the act being performed around them. It had a sloppy elegance as if they were rehearsing for a play where everyone knew what they were supposed to be doing yet no one was in a rhythm.

Jack felt a little like his head had begun to spin, he wasn’t certain if it was the air or what but as he sat around these people he looked over at Celina as he felt a sense of auras and circles all around him. “What… what is going on love?” he asked her softly as he looked over at the others.

Leaning towards Jack, a pretty brunette began to translate. “We are thanking you for coming. You will save us from the Ghost crabs. You will restore balance. The trade will resume as if there was never a dispute. We will all live out our lives in peace and then you can leave,” she beamed up at Jack as if he was a hero.

“Gho.... st crabs?” Jack said as he felt his mind blurring as these crazy people began to talk about Ghost craps and balance. What was going on with these people?

“They are albino crabs that come out at night. They are all over Florida but I guess you were on that boat and didn’t spend that much time on the beach or that would have bitten you on the ah,”

“Oh lord, so the fact that I had a life before we meet is somehow a problem? I never complain when you told me about that summer with Rafael when you were working at that hotel with the insane Chechz woman and her insane mom… or the time you dated that cop from Rigel VII… what was his name? Michael? I seem to recall you mentioning how he had to chase down some drug lord named Sin Nostro where you had to fight off her twin henchmen Roman and Aaron.” Ardashir said looking over at her with a discerning look.

Looking at Jack, Celina threw up her hands. “You make it sound like it is straight out of the telenovela Estrellas de Saturno but it happened! And for the record when they catch Sin Nostro…and they will,” she took on a feisty stance pointing her finger at him, “you will be like No way Lina. You and your friend Michael did help take down Sin Nostros.” Looking at the guide for several seconds she turned back around this time face planting Jack’s chest. The bump stopped her sentence but scent of his cologne on his shirt stole all the words from her mind. Pausing a second she inhaled deeply filling her lungs. It also sent tingles throughout her body muddling her mind more. Celina had no idea if she drifted back or Jack had stepped forward but somehow the space between them had shrunk between sentences.

Jumping into the air, Celina wrapped her legs around his waist kissing him passionately. Her fingers slid through his dark thick hair. A small whimper escaped her lips as her mouth found his. “I love you, Jack. I need you so much,” her words slipped out between breaths as his hand moved down from the small of her back to…

“God why are you so tall and loom....ing,” she threw back the loose strands of dark hair off her face. It was moments like this where reality and fantasy blurred in her mind.
” Don’t answer that. We are in church. No talking in church. And why are you so close and smell so good? ” Celina took a deep breath and tried to get her emotions in balance. She felt like she was drunk but even if she was drunk and in some bizarro cult-like church, it was going to take a long time praying with the rosary to get the thoughts out of her head that she was having before she stepped back into a church
.

“So was it stated. Now it will be done,” the group responded loudly in unison before breaking up and heading in all directions. Their chanting seemed to be timed perfectly to down out Celina’s last word to Jack.

“Please,” the guide gestured immediately to a tent on the right. “You need to be rested for your journey. We have given you the best tent in the village. Please,” he drew back a flap of fabric ushering Celina and Jack towards the entrance. “Please rest and we will have some refreshments prepared.”

Celina Rodriguez CTO

Jack felt his head spinning but nodded as he took Celina’s hand. The two began to leave together as he got into the tent as he tried to keep his mind sharp. “What is going on with this place?” he asked her softly.

Creed, XO

“I think I care more about Florida and beaches and sexy little Latinas named Ella,” Celina flopped into a large poof that was the only furniture in the tent beside the bed. Looking around the room the colors seemed to swirl blending the fabrics into psychedelic hues. Stretching her fingers out Celina ran her hands over the fabric on her seat.

“Lord, you are my sexy little Latina, and her name was Abigal but I don’t really know why that matters… I love you, not someone else.” Jack asked her as he felt himself getting frustrated, this was all so weird already and now she seemed to be angry about something that happened years ago.

“I know that is why I am wearing your ring,” she held up her hand showing Jack the stone he had given to her. Twiddling her fingers, Celina watched the flecks of light and off it. Strangely enough, it had never sparkled like this even when Jack had polished it to brilliance the day he gave it to her. Rolling slightly to the side, Celina grabbed a green-tinged bottle taking a huge swig. The semi sweet liquid dribbled down her chin. Using the back of her hand she wiped her face and extended the bottle to Jack. “Are you as parched as me?” Leaning back she let the liquid warm her insides.

“God is this fabric is so soft. It’s like a warm fuzzy blanket that you wrap yourself up with hot chocolate in front of a fire,” she wiggled down deeper in the seat letting her head loll back into the seat. The problem was the room was far more tropical in feel with the gently flowing curtain walls and soft breeze. It was hard to hold a thought in Celina’s head as the guide carried a tray laden with fruits, cheeses, and breads. She wanted to comment about He nodded with a smile to the young women with him as he gestured it to Celina.

“Apple,” the guide plucked a bright red one from tray and rolled it towards him with a sweeping gesture of his arm. “Take a bite.”

Celina Rodriguez CTO

“I don’t know if I can hold anything down, the room is spinning… why is the room spinning?” Jack asked as he opened and closed his eyes fast as if he could make it stop if he just focused it would all go away.

Creed, XO

“Dwynwen,” the guide nodded his head towards the handsome man now sitting on the edge of the bed in the tent.

“Dwynwen? Now you are just slurring words together, that’s not a real word… is that a real word?” Jack asked as he looked over at Celina wondering if he was just hearing things. What have they given him, this wasn’t turning out how he expected. “I’m gunnna keehl Cesar… that حرامزاده موی موش.” Ardashir said as he began slipping into his native Farsi as he looked at the woman entering as he sat up.

“Your blood sugar is just low,” a sultry voice purred as a bronze skinned hand took the apple. Dwynwen was everything Jack admired in a woman. She moved with a slippery grace gliding over the floor with each step. Her movements were graceful and fluid which accented every curve of her body like water over a stone in a river. Sitting on the bed she slowly pulled a knife from a side pocket of her flowing robe. Placing it on the red skin, she pressed. The slight popping sound of the blade breaking the skin of the fruit seemed to fill the room. The juice dripped down her hand as she sectioned off a piece of the fruit. “Take a bite for when you eat from it your eyes will be opened,” Dwynwen silky voice spoke close to Jack’s ear as she lifted the fruit towards Jack’s lips.

“I don… I don’t… من نمی دانم نامزد من این را دوست دارد یا نه.” Ardashir answered with a feeling of guilt mixed with lust as he stared down the bronze Goddesses in front of him. This had to be a hallucination, Celina hadn’t killed this girl yet so that meant it couldn’t be real. Celina would never let someone that looked like this just offer him the fruit.

The site of the apple and the woman’s words made Celina’s mind slid into a different fantasy. No longer was Jack standing on the open sand of the beach in a white shirt with the wind rippling the fabric over his tight pectoral muscles. It slid to Jack in a lush garden under a large tree wearing only a fig leaf. “Don’t eat the ah puh ellllllll,” Celina said as her eyes rolled in the back of there head.

Celina Rodrguiez CTO

“You see her too عشق من؟” Ardashir asked in a confused tone as he couldn’t quite grasp what was going on. This place felt like one long trip but he had just had water… the water. Jack tried with his whole might to focus on what might have been in that sweet water, it wasn’t berries that was for sure, or maybe it was. There were berries that could cause this.

“We shouldn’t eat anything else, the زن شیطان ماسه و دریا ما را می خورد.” Ardashir said, still mixing Farsi and English as he tried to keep his mind from just slipping away.

Creed, XO