"Waking Memories"
written by David Moody and Cyndi Fryar
Captain Lenti Utex and Commander Rhea Kennit


Lenti Utex stared out at the vast unkown of space, oblivious to the faintly dwindling trail left by the plasma vents of the USS Livingston as Utex's crew purged faulty systems to bring the tiny ship back to life.  His eyes followed an uneven pattern from star to star, seeing nothing except the lights reflected in his own eyes. 

Standing there with the information she'd given him apparently unnoticed, Rhea finally cleared her throat.  "Captain?"

Lenti's eyes followed their own gaze, pressing deeper into the man known as Lenti Utex, and it occured to him that he was not entirely certain who that was.  The last few weeks had done nothing if not prove that fact.  He had been overcome by the memorical chade of a previous unfit host, and faced with the possibility of his premature death.  He was not old enough to die, he was certain.  Not nearly a hundred yet, and before the next century, it appeared, from the looks of the ages of those of his crew who had travelled into their past, his present.  Apparently, Lenti Utex was not destined to be the lasting model, either.  Apparently Lenti Tosh was to be proven unfit as well.  Perhaps, he thought for a moment, it was not Lenti at all, but Utex.

Not certain just what was going on, and not sure why the Captain wasn't responding, Kennit cleared her throat again.  "Captain?  Sir are you all right?"

Yes, he mused.  Utex may have been a mistake.  Perhaps he was wrong for having infused himself into Lenti's life.  The two had been meant for one another at one point, but perhaps Utex, in his travels, had reached a point of no return somehow . .. perhaps he stopped being fit . . . for a host.  Lenti's face drew tightly into a scowl.

Seeing the _expression on his face, Kennit set the PADD down and gently reached to touch his shoulder.  "Sir?  Do you need me to contact someone in medical?"

Utex started and, recognizing the touch, his Lenti side having disassociated enough to appreciate the nuances of the woman and her concern, he allowed his shoulders to fall as he turned, slowly.  "Hey," he said, softly.  His face relayed the angst he was feeling.  The fear at the prospect of his death in the foreseeable future.  The regret at having lost the woman standing before him for the ball of shame, disillusionment, fear, and unpredicatbility writhing in his belly.  The symbiont and life he had fought for causing the loss of shimmering possibility.

Rhea's next action came solely from instinct.  An old reaction, born from the knowledge of this man from before Utex.  Seeing the look on his face, the struggle raging in his eyes she took a half-step towards him, at the same time her hand slid up from his shoulder to allow her to brush the back of her fingers lightly along his jaw.  In a soft voice, little more than a whisper she asked "What's wrong?"

Utex felt lightning crash across his stormy eyes as Rhea's touch cooled his nerves.  Even if she was his executive officer; even if she was a commander and he a captain, she was Rhea. 

He managed to husk out, "I'll miss you when . . ." he wanted to tell her that by the time she saw Kylie Utex again, it would be too late for him to try to atone for lost time.  He wanted to express to her what she meant to him.  He wanted to to tell her how even Utex was soothed by the sound of her voice.  He found himself speechless as he attempted to say all these things at one, and his lips parted as he softly inhaled to start saying what he needed to tell her.  He did not want to make the same mistake again, but his voice hitched, and found himself hung in space, his face mere inches from hers.  The light was blinding him, the symbiont was snagging him, and the fear was binding him.

Rhea waited, watching as Lenti struggled for the words hung in his throat.  Her hand rested against the skin of his neck still, palm flat against his chest.  Lifting her hand, she caught his chin lightly in her fingers and used a light pressure to bring his gaze to meet hers.  "Lenti?"

Lenti felt Utex start to physically balk at the scene forming, and decided that it was time to assert himself.  This to make up for lost time before he lost it again.  His lips found Commander Kennit's and hovered for half a beat before his eyes slowly closed.  A kiss now engaged, his right hand moved to flatten its palm between her shoulder blades entirely of its own accord.

For an instant, Rhea stiffened with surprise as Lenti's lips met hers.  Then, almost without thinking she relaxed.  Allowing him to pull her closer to him as she began to return the gentle, at first hesitant kiss which was now becoming much more intense.  Her arms slid around him, feeling the once familiar solid strength of his body against hers as the two stood there locked together in an embrace.

Lenti Utex' world fell from around him, and he was lost in the panarma and the meaning of the moment.  He had begun to live his life again.  This piece of Lenti that had been locked away, shunted aside for years was refurnished in an instant, the love renewed within him.  The floodgates flung wide.  Utex felt this as it surged through him and bound him to Lenti.  It was at this moment, Lenti Utex would realize several decades later, that the recent events had been meant to bring about.  Lenti Utex was whole, for the first time since Lenti Tosh set out to find him.  He pulled back after a long moment, his tongue trailing lazily back into his *own* mouth, lips widely apart.  He came back tom himself, and settled into the new reality that was Lenti Utex.  He shook his head briefly on a tiny axis.  "Medical," he breathed.  "No," he smiled.  "I'm fine now, Rhea," he told the woman.  "Much better."  He watched as the woman did nothing but blink, and the edge of his lips slid to one side in a small smirk.  "You?"

Rhea wasn't exactly certain just how to react for several long moments.  Her heart was racing still, and it took her a minute to calm her breathing. She blushed a little under his gaze, still very aware of each place where their bodies touched as she stood still in his embrace.  "I... uh.. I'm fine..  A little worried about you..  One minute you looked almost lost and then..."  She smiled, "Not that I'm complaining.."

Lenti's hands flew upward to grasp her shoulders lightly.  "I have missed you more than I knew, Rhea," he told her.  "Seeing Kylie Utex made me realize what it is exactly that I stand to lose by standing back and living some kind of life I've built up for this Lenti Utex that I've always assumed would exist.  Well he doesn't," he admitted.  "There's just me.  I'm not perfect, I'm not always right, but I'm also none of the things Utex has been, nor a slave to their pasts.  I need you in my life, Rhea. . . . I'm glad you're here."

Rhea blinked, a little shiver running down her spine as she stood next to him.  Something flickered in her eyes, a hint of what she'd felt when he'd returned from joining with Utex and hadn't remembered... 

Her voice held a tiny tremor as she said quietly, "I missed you as well..  "

The commpanel broke into the moment, shattering the pverisimilitude of the time.  "Doctor Frobisher to Captain Utex," came the call from the woman.
Lenti tapped his commbadge, straightening to command mode.  "Utex here," he called.  "Go ahead."  His gaze was still locked with Kennit's.

"Captain," came the Chief Medical Officer's excited voice.  "I've got some living over here, and more by the moment," the Doctor said.  "These bodies are repairing themselves!  I don't get it," she said.  "But you may want  to record some sort of thank you for this Captain Braxton of yours," she said.  "The doubles are simply fading away in some sort of chronitonal mist, sir."

Pulling away from one another at last, Rhea took several quick deep breaths to get her own suddenly very shaken nerves back under control.  Looking at Lenti..at the Captain, she reminded herself, she said, "We should get down there, see what if anything the people in sickbay can tell us about what happened.  If their condition is reversing, its possible that they won't remember the events that got them here.."

Utex nodded, "Commander Kennit and I are on the way, we'll be there momentarily Doctor."

The Captain then turned towards Rhea, motioning for her to lead the way out of the ready room and then followed her towards the 'lift.

.