Snip

“I could stay like this with you forever,” he whispered to her, “and we have time. We aren’t due for that walk to feed the giant eagles for hours yet.” He gave their intertwined hands on her stomach a soft squeeze, and ran his fingers lightly over her bare forearm as he watched the multicolored fish outside the window and the coral reef around them. He felt a need to look after her and protect her, she was precious to him in ways that he had never been able to express but with her in his arms, everything about them felt right in that moment. Turning his head and closing his eyes, he kissed her temple, then settled in and relaxed with the woman he loved in his arms and against his heart.

Captain Knight, CO

The hour they spent watching the fish felt like minutes as Daye looked at the clock noticing the time. Patting his hand she pulled out of his arms standing up. “Sitting here with you is amazing skipper but we can snuggle all day back on the ship doing this. I want to get out in the fresh air while we can. Wanna go eat in some outdoor cafe and order two cups of coffee each for both hands,” she said putting her hands on her hips. “Besides I think you can ride them and feed them,” Daye stressed the conjunction with a grin. “So move it sexy.”

Dante lay back in the chair as if he was getting more comfortable, and rolled his eyes in mock exasperation at being told to get up and move. “Since when do we ever get a chance to relax together for more than 30 minutes before somebody comes calling with some weird or wacky problem?” He asked and then gave a large stretch as if he was content just to sit right there, then, he opened his eyes and looked at her more clearly. “Coffee, you say?” and he worked his jaw like he was considering something and tasting the coffee all at the same time, then he rolled off the chair and to his feet. “You want me to move it? I’ll show you how I can move it,” he said to her with an eyebrow waggle as he took the single step to where she was and then scooped her into his arms. “I’m calling Captains Rights, you remember that rule right bub?” His lips found hers as he carried her back to the bed.

Daye loved these moments. She also loved that she had no designs for being in charge or in command. That was always Dante’s job and he was amazing at it. From the first day in the gym Dante had made sure she followed his every order implicitly. He taught her how to control her body so that she was a fluid machine instead of a wildcat of knees and elbows all over the mat. Hornsby had remarked that over the course of six weeks Dante had transformed Daye from a hopeless weakling to someone that could make a fist and hit a target with 75% accuracy. Based on what Dante started with Hornsby wall thrilled and applauded Dante’s tutoring sessions. It was only when Hornsby commented Daye might need these tutoring sessions had Natasha suddenly became a clutz on the sparring mat.

“Yes but I preferred Senior cadets rights where you demonstrated the hip pivot to toss me over your shoulder. Can we have a refresher course on that maneuver? You know I am a slow student at times and might need a lot of repetition to get my part right,” she said with a half smirk. Meeting his lips the world started to go fuzzy as it always did in moments like this. Dante had a way of making her block out the world and reducing all the universe down to two people.

Several minutes later Daye headed to the door with Dante in tow. She wasn’t so sure about the avian adventure but she did need her caffeine fix. Dante had turned her on to a mocha coffee with a shot of hazelnut a few years back. It was sweet and almost as good as any milkshake if you got it iced. As they approached the door it opened before they could exit the room.

“Wow, that was lucky,” Dante whispered to Natasha, “Just a few minutes earlier and the cleaning lady could have been in an awkward situation.”

“Mr. Knight. Mrs. Knight,” a voice said politely from the middle-aged woman entering the room. “I am so sorry to inform you but the aviary had to be closed and there is a storm approaching on land. You are lucky to be down here below it. Nothing should affect you at this depth but we need everyone off the surface for a precaution. Can we bring you something for lunch?”

“A storm?” Dante echoed. “I thought you didn’t get storms on Erewhon. Thank you for the warning, we’ll just go to one of the parks down here and a cafe instead.”

Natasha let out a deep frustrated sigh. “Don’t you have weather control satellites?” She looked at the woman and then at Dante.

“Unfortunately they broke. How about a nice butter chicken with rice and garlic naan?” She offered pleasantly.

“The entire system?” He asked sounding clearly dubious, “What did you have a solar flare that wiped out all electrical systems in space or something? We will just head to the cafe’s and shops down here.” He looked around at Nat, his eyes clearly showing he thought something wasn’t right.

“Do you think we can have Jarred do some off duty repairs,” Daye ignored the woman still speaking to Dante. Natasha was not going to let a little rain deter her from her tropical paradise. This was the twenty-fourth century on a resort world, not twentieth century Earth where you booked a trip and prayed for decent weather.

Lt. Natasha Daye.

“We don’t need Jarred,” he said and turned to look out the window of the undersea hotel they were in. He could clearly see the surface of the water above, and past that, the bright blue of the sky and the sun lowering towards the horizon. He frowned, it was late afternoon and he was sure he hadn’t slept for that long. “I don’t see any storm, Tasia” he said and turned back to the door and woman standing in it. “We’ll head out and get a coffee, and check out the weather reports. Can you make sure that we have something light and fresh for room service waiting when we get back?”

“I am not sure that is going to be possible,” she said softly moving back towards the door as she spoke. Her movements were subtle and slow. Nothing seemed wrong except if Natasha or Dante actually listened to her reply they would have realized this was the first time anyone on Erewhon ever said not to them.

He turned and reached for his jacket, and Nats. Without the sun shining on them it was often more comfortable with a long sleeve on he thought. He heard the door close as the woman left and then, an audible click.

“What the hell was that?” he said and walked to the door.

“They won’t let us out and that would be fine if we....could go out on the bal…con....y,” Daye said looking around the room. She could have sworn there was an outside space to this room. The logical part of her brain said however that she had to be mixed up because they were underwater.

It didn’t open. Pressing the door control led to no result, the door stayed firmly locked. Dante stepped back and looked at it for a moment, then looked at Nat. “Something isn’t right,” he told her, “they locked us in, and it’s late afternoon outside. Last thing I remember was waking up this morning talking about the Eagles, then going to the waterfall.” Dante paused and frowned in confusion.

“No we had just done the deed and you were getting me coffee,” Daye said scratching her forehead. The memory was not exactly clear. It was fuzzy like from a dream where you thought it happened but were unsure all the details. Natasha scratched her forehead as if this would help her sort out what was going on in her mind.

Walking to the panel again he chimed the console, only voice came online. “This is Captain Dante Knight, Penthouse suite on the top floo.....” he paused and his head whipped around to look at Natasha. “Why am I thinking we were staying in a hotel on land?”

“Dante we had a balcony. This is not our room,” Daye said feeling an insane spark of fear pulse through her body sending an icy wave of adrenaline through her body. “Dante this is not our room,” she said feeling an irrational urge to get out of the room they were in.

=/\= Good afternoon Mr and Mrs Knight. Unfortunately we are having some technical difficulties at present. Please stay calm, our technicians will be with you shortly and your stay is important to us. =/\=

“Open this door!” Dante said in his Captains voice, but silence came back to him through the comm. “Oh no they don’t,” he said and moved to Nat, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Do you remember anything? This isn’t right Nat, I’m sure of it.” He looked around the room as if trying to spot something that might help and after a second, his eyes fell on his comm badge still attached to the shirt he had a vague memory of wearing that morning. “The Ship,” he said, and let Nat go to get the comm badge.

“Dante don’t leave me,” Daye said sounding no longer angry or frustrated but almost helpless. “I remember I needed you but you weren’t there.” Daye had no idea why she knew Dante was not there for her but everything in her body told Natasha not to let her fiancee get too far from her. “Please don’t leave me.” Daye felt suddenly nauseous and weak. It was as if she were lying in bed drifting off to sleep but she was not in bed. Natasha could not brace herself. She was going down and it was as if she were falling into a pool instead of the carpeted floor.

He hadn’t taken three steps when he felt himself getting dizzy and light headed all of a sudden, and he paused and looked back to Natasha, reaching out and taking hold of a char to steady himself. “What,” he said, and took a step back towards Nat. That was as far as he got before he collapsed into darkness once more.

“Give it two minutes to make sure they are out properly, then vent the room,” the elderly Erewhon man said to the two younger, homely looking staff at the consoles. “Then call the Meds, they have another mind-wipe to do.” The man cursed his luck, he was still trying to come up with a way to remove the fact that a Starfleet vessel was orbiting the planet waiting for these two to finish their vacation. Under little known Erewhonian law, they were going to be here a while and it had all the trappings of a diplomatic incident.

Captain Knight, CO

=======================
12 hours later.

“Dah....Dah....Dante,” Daye yelled sitting upright in the bed. The silk sheets slid off her body as her hand reached out to the left. Dante was always on her left. She had to find him. Her pulse raced as she fought off the fog of sleep desperate to find the man she loved. She thought she had gotten over this. The reoccurring dream that he was gone and never coming back. A counselor once told her it was due to the long weeks apart and the dangers of his job. She could buy that reasoning in the past but not this time. This time it was more tangible. As if she was watching him slip away from her. As her eyes foused on the room, daye saw that she was in her hotel suite. The balcony door was not open but was there. The table with the coffee and fresh fruits and pancakes was waiting for them but in the room not outside of it. The reassuring smell of coffee filled the room. Everything was as it should be and would be perfect the second she could find out where Dante was.

===================================
Control room for observation of Room 123.

“God these two are going to get old. I mean who doesn’t love the undersea rooms. Fish and aquariums are therapeutic,” a security officer said to his counterpart.

“Yeah apparently they did not get the memo. This is going to be a long 8 months if we have to keep resetting them every 24 hours. I mean it has been a long 4 days already doing it. Why won’t that guy just sit back with a beer and chill the frack out. His profile says he wanted only sedentary activities this trip. Butt in the sand and toes in the beach sort of stuff but every day he is the one fighting us. If he doesn’t back it down they will take more permanent measure of memory removal and that is always messy,” the second guy said.

Natasha Daye medical