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"Lost in Universal Translation" Rating: PG-13 Author's Notes: There's a reference to ENT "Vanishing Point". Please leave a review! Thanks! Five Hoshi joined the other children in the center of the field. All of them were of varying heights, but they all had curly hair, iridescent skin, and wide aqua-green eyes. The only thing that seemed to distinguish them from each other was the strange ridge on their faces. On some of the children, it ringed the eye and continued down the cheek and the neck. On others, it stopped midway down the jawline, and was even absent on one boy's face. “All right. If you leave the area of the field, you're disqualified,” announced the girl. “You know your assigned pairs; I'll be Nah'lai's partner, since she just joined us. This is her first game, you know.” All eyes hit Hoshi and she felt an embarrassed flush on her skin. She glanced down and watched in fascination as her shining white skin became rosy pink. Apparently when I blush, it's hard to hide it. I feel like a red traffic light. “It's all right,” soothed one of the other girls, but Hoshi heard the slightly condescending tone. “You'll do just fine, as long as you don't do something stupid.” “Maj'ra!” hissed the leader. “That' wasn't a nice thing to say!” “It's true, Khi'nhiri. She's too young to do this. This should be for the older children. She isn't even Verified yet!” Khi'niri's face didn't change, but her skin became a dark bluish-purple. “You cannot be Verified if you don't prove yourself. But if no one gives you a chance to prove yourself, then you have no hope. I say we give Nah'lai that chance.” “I agree,” rumbled a tall, lanky boy. “Besides, it would be a learning experience for us all.” There was a wave of agreement, and Maj'ra only nodded brusquely. “Very well,” she said, “but only because I'm outvoted.” “Thank you for giving in with such grace,” Khi'niri said in an ironic tone. She glanced at Hoshi and said, “Listen carefully to the guidelines, little one. All right?” Hoshi only nodded. As Khi'niri continued, she studied the other children. All of them radiated confidence, though their bodies betrayed their impatient eagerness. This was more than just a game; it was an exercise in tracking and evasion. The goal was simple: to outlast the other teams. Attempt to find and 'mark' the other pairs without being 'marked' as well. They had until the second sunset to achieve that goal. “Let the game commence,” announced Khi'niri. “Now!” The children scattered and were quickly lost in the mass of grain stalks. Hoshi followed Khi'niri, though she had to scramble to keep up with the older girl's long-legged strides. Just as Nah'lai had “shared” her physical body on Enterprise, Hoshi was now doing the same on this faraway planet. It felt jarring, as if someone had stuffed her into an alien body with all of its own rules. This is just like one of Malcolm's training exercises, she realized. Survival training. It seems that these children begin their training early. Khi'niri crouched low on the ground and motioned for Hoshi to do the same. The soft, loamy soil made crawling difficult, as if she was battling her way through deep water. Her hands registered how warm the earth was on her skin, how cool the wind blew through the field, and how dry the air was around her. She glanced down at her six-fingered hands and stared in awe as her skin seemed to change in a blur of color. Tactilely sensitive, Hoshi thought. It's Nah'lai's strongest physical sense, like hearing is for me. That's why I'm processing information through touch and temperature. And that was why Nah'lai was interpreting things through auditory means when she was with me on Enterprise. Then she felt a definite shift, as if the world had shrunk into a bubble all around her. Khi'niri's voice seemed to resonate through her, as if the older girl was directly connected to her brain. The unfamiliar sensation threw off Hoshi's equilibrium; she had never experienced anything like it. It must be an ability common to Nah'lai's people, whoever they were. “Now, focus your thoughts, little one. Use your greatest strength. Extend your senses to locate our quarry,” Khi'niri instructed. “Wrap your feelers around and through, and you will find them easily.” Hoshi wasn't sure what to do, but suddenly, she felt an odd pinching sensation, as if ants were crawling all over her. Then she was going through the field at what seemed like warp speed,. The stalks tickled her skin, the breeze blew past her hair and the vibrations of silent feet pulsed through her blood. The other children were close by; one pair was so close that if she and Khi'niri hadn't stopped, they would have literally bumped into the other team. Yet no one seemed to detect her presence at all. A second later, Hoshi “dropped” back into Nah'lai's physical body. She closed her eyes and visualized the field, and like a sensor grid, she saw the locations of the other teams upon it. Wow. This is weird. It's as if I can feel their footsteps, even if I can't see or hear them. “Well done,” Khi'niri whispered. “Now we know where they are and we can catch them. I'll need you to keep track of their movements while I keep us on the right course.” “Yes, Khi'niri,” Hoshi replied. She tried to regain that mental map, but it didn't come easily at first. Every time she nearly had it, it would fade away, and then it became harder to acquire her targets. Hoshi's skin literally burned with frustration as she tried and failed to feel her way around again. “You're trying too hard. That conscious thinking is blocking your talent. Relax and allow yourself to feel, not think. Do what comes naturally to achieve your objective.” Hoshi nodded and took a deep breath. She allowed herself to drift in that half-aware state that she in whenever she concentrated on an unfamiliar syntax. Her mind made connections and associations between what she knew and what was before her now. It analyzed patterns and simplified them to make it easier for others to understand. At first, she picked her way carefully through the strange territory, but once she got a feel for it, she plunged on ahead. And just like that, her sensory awareness seemed to loom large over her, then extend itself in all directions. She could “see” the others as clearly as day. I can see how this could be a useful talent in a tactical situation, Hoshi thought to herself. Malcolm would be thrilled to be able to do something like this...The thought of the Enterprise's armory officer nearly jolted her out of zen-like state. Was he all right? Was he still on the ship? What about her own physical body? Was she dead, and now her mind in some in-between place? “Nai'lai, you must focus! Show me where the closest pair is!” The stern rebuke brought her back to what she needed to do. The image of the two eldest boys reformed in her mind, wavered slightly, then held. Khi'niri crept forward, her tiny dart gun at the ready. Two ink cubes flew through the air and impacted against the boys' skin. They whirled around in shock, then their expressions became crestfallen as they realized they'd been “marked”. Hoshi couldn't help a wide grin. “Gotcha,” she muttered. Khi'niri crawled back to where she had hidden herself. “Good, my little one! Do you think you can do it again?” “Yes!” she replied. “I can do this!” “Then let's find the others, shall we?” Khi'niri's smile turned predatory and Hoshi found herself matching it. The pride in the elder girl's eyes reminded Hoshi of Jonathan Archer, when the captain had encouraged her to have faith in herself. The two crept deeper into the field, buoyed by their success. Hoshi understood the game now, and thought, All right, let's do this again... Several hours later, they'd taken three other groups out of the game. While they were tracking the last one, somehow their enemy had zeroed in on their location. Just as Hoshi realized where they were, she heard the soft hiss of the dart gun, and a dark hunter green ink cube splashed against her skin. Oh no! They got us! Damn, and we were so close! She blew out a frustrated breath and her shoulders slumped in defeat. Khi'niri coaxed her to her feet as the winning team cheered in triumph. “You did well,” Khi'niri said. “You're still young, but you have the potential. I have every confidence in your ability to save your friends and your family.” Hoshi blinked. “What? I don't understand.” Khi'niri's eyes expanded to engulf her vision. “You have the potential within yourself. Don't force it; allow it to surface naturally. When it does, it will be at the right time. Use your talent, little one. It will bring you salvation and it will bring you love.” The sky above them suddenly flared a bloody reddish-orange as the sun exploded in all directions. The air became an inferno all around them and the grain stalks withered and burned in its wake. A tempest slammed into her body and she collapsed onto the ground. What's happening? Hoshi screamed, as her skin grew hotter and hotter, then burst into flame. All she could see was a fiery gale and her mind tumbled within it. Then, as abruptly as the maelstrom had claimed her, it spit her out into a calm blackness. A blackness with bright points of light. Stars. She was suspended in space. Her lungs ached for air and her head throbbed in pain, but she was conscious. She was alive, in a manner of speaking. To her horror, she saw an expanding cloud of gas and debris heading toward her. No, not toward her; towards the planet below her. In a blink of an eye, it overwhelmed the planet, and its surface boiled away, leaving bare rock that broke apart by gravitational forces. Hoshi watched, stunned, as the debris itself was consumed by flames. She had just seen her world die. Nah'lai's world die. It happened so fast that she didn't have time to breathe between one second and the next, and her chest burned with the effort. For a child whose talent required touching people and objects, this state of not physically existing was the worst form of Hell. There was nothing to hold on to, no anchor in the black sea; she was going to go mad... Hoshi! She tried to locate the voice, but it echoed all around her, and even her acute hearing could pinpoint a single source. If she could clap her hands over her ears, she would have, because the reverberations were worse than the utter silence. Hoshi, come back! “What?” Her voice cracked with disuse. “Who are you?” Then a memory connected the voice to its owner. “ It's as easy as one, two, three...” Eight seconds. She'd been trapped in the transporter for eight seconds, and during that time, she had experienced a twisted form of reality where no one seemed to notice her and no one seemed to care. One of the most painful moments was when she had joined Trip, Travis, and Malcolm in the Mess Hall, and the men ignored her for the most part, except for the story of Cyrus Ramsey. Ramsey hadn't really existed, but Hoshi had heard the scorn in the comment, “Everyone's heard of Cyrus Ramsey.” But he had also called her back to the real world, and given her the strength to return. “Bloody hell, Hoshi, don't die on me!” “Malcolm, for God's sake---!” “Lieutenant, I'm sorry, there's nothing we can do. She's already gone.” “She's not gone, dammit! I'd know if she was gone! Phlox, try one more time. Please!” “Captain---” “Do as he asks, Phlox. One more time.” “Very well. Charging...clear!” The electric shock jerked her back to consciousness. Her eyes snapped open and air rushed back into her lungs. The panel above her head beeped a steady tone. The first thing that registered was the panic in Malcolm's eyes, and she tried to give him a reassuring smile, but the effort was too much for her. His face swam in her vision, then faded away. |
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