“Remember Me?”
written by David Moody
Captain Lenti Utex

On his way back to the White Star Lounge after dropping off the laboring Lieutenant Jackson, he stopped off in Stellar cartography. Entering the room, he spied Cadet Keda Tal working at the room’s main console. “How’s it going,” he called.

The petite Trill woman spun to face the man, a bit startled, apparently having been so engrossed in her work that she had not heard the man enter the room. She looked slightly distracted, leaning back against her console, but gracefully recovered, “Fine, sir.” Glancing back to the wall-spanning viewscreen behind her, she told him, “Just checking some phenomena out,” she told him.

“Really,” he asked, striding toward her, his eyes on a swirling blue mass over her right shoulder. He eyes quickly picked out the course that was currently set by the helm from the bridge, and traced it directly around said mass. He pointed at it, “What is that,” he asked plaintively as he ascended the scant starway.

“Neutron phase stellar mass,” she told him. She turned, first toward the man that had moved to stand beside her, then to her console. “Lieutenant Sito has us diverted directly around it, sir,” she assured him. Looking back up to the image, she enlarged it and zoomed in on it so that the mass would take up most of the viewing area. “It’s magnetic poles are slightly off kilter from it’s axial poles,” she informed the Captain, peering at him out of the corner of her left eye.

“Pulsar,” he breathed, still watching the object’s now detailed firey sapphire choreography. “Is it dangerous,” he asked her, as a cerulean arm pulled free of the pseudostar and quickly dissipated.

“No sir,” Tal told him.

The two watched the phenomenon in silence. Second slipped by, time continuing its relentless oblivionic course. As the seconds ticked by, Utex found himself growing anxious, simply watching the star spin in place and spit off flares from time to time, ranging in simplicity from tiny campfires to what looked as if it were a core eruption from the star, white, to blue, to frosted cobalt.

Utex had something he wanted to say; Tal was certain of it. She glanced at him sideways, noticed him doing the same to her, and then heard his sharp intake of breath, simultaneous to her inhalation in preparation for a deep sigh. She stifled the sigh, and apparently he did the same, because he spoke instead.

“Ambassador,” he intoned, his hands folded behind his back, “I was wondering if you had heard anything regarding the current relations between the Trill Government and the Kast Hegemony.”

Tal barely missed a beat as she responded, “Not so good,” she said. The Kast have been making border raids on the Klingon border, and though the relations between the – hey,” she noticed. She smiled, turning toward the man. “I guess you got me at the one, sir,” she said.

Lenti turned toward her as well, extending his hand. “Suppose I did,” he said. “Ayris was an impressive woman,” he told her, extending his hand in greeting. “I’m sorry to find she’s gone,” he said.

The Cadet lightly took his hand and held it for a moment, her face creasing toward him. “Did you know Ayris Tal,” she asked, slightly confused.

Lenti folded his other hand over the handshake, and told her warmly, “Only briefly. We had a sort of . . . ‘adventure’ together,” he explained. “It had to do with a shuttlecraft and a few disgruntled members of the Kast hegemony while I was in my third year,” he explained.

Realization dawned on her as the two broke their collective grasp. “Tosh?” She smiled as her eyes widened. “I’m sorry, I had not realized that you were Lenti Tosh!” Her brow creased in astonishment. “You found Utex,” she said. “I thought you had given him up for dead,” the Cadet told him.

“I had,” Utex told the Ambassador-turned Cadet. Leaning back against the console, he said, “It was really the influence of my paramour that sent me looking for him,” he explained. “I was just about ready to give both Utex and Lenti up for dead, when she came along and convinced me otherwise,” he continued.

“Amazing,” Tal told him. “I have never heard of anyone recovering their own stolen symbiont,” she wondered aloud. “I mean, most of them were stolen from living hosts,” she admitted. “Yours was stolen from the birthing pools, right,” she asked.

“Right from them,” he said.

“Where did you end up finding him?”

Lenti took a deep breath, “He was inside another Trill,” the captain explained. “On Cardassia,” he said.

Tal was stunned, and her head cocked to one side in interest. “Cardassia,” she repeated. “You found him after the war, then, I guess, right?”

Utex smiled. “Right.”

“How did you get him back from her,” she asked, treading lgihtly toward the infested waters.

Utex held up his hands, peered at them, the looked to the Cadet. “The hard way,” he said. “Utex was being abused,” he explained. “Addict, warrior, slave, spy,” he recounted. “He was all of those things and possibly more, I’m not certain,” he said. “He was passed around several times before and during the Dominion War,” he admitted.

Tal looked uncomfortable. “But you’re . . . okay now?”

Utex smiled, wanting to comfort the woman. “Certainly,” he said. “We’re just fine. Utex went through a lot of counseling, as did Lenti, and we met many many times to reacquaint ourselfves with one another before the joining process started,” he told her. “I was the XO here,” he told her, “but took a leave of absence while I was waiting to join with him,” Lenti explained. “When I came back, the whole damn ship was gone, Captain Zimbata dead, and the constellation replaced by this prometheus,” he gestured around the room.

“A lot of changes all at once,” she mused, empathizing.

He clapped his hands together sharply, “Yep,” he called. “Sure was,” he admitted. Turning to her, he put his hand out once again, “Well, Cadet,” he told her. “I look forward to serving with you. It’s good to have Tal here,” he said. “I hope you’ll be able to do her memory justice.”

Tal balked at the odd phrasing of the comment, unsure of what it meant, then grasped his hand, “It’s right in here,” she said, tapping her chest with her palm. “I’ll be certain to keep this intact, sir,” she assured him.

Lenti smiled, turned and left. “You do that,” he said, as the doors slid shut behind him.

Tal sighed, confused by the seemingly abrupt end of the encounter. Had she said something wrong? Intaking air sharply, she shook her head, auburn tresses lightly caressing her face. She turned back to her console, decreasing magnification and mapping the ship’s path once more for anomalies.