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"Kzinti Prime"
Previous post "Time for Action"
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Setting: KZINTI PRIME, Wastelands
Stardate: 5 years ago

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Everything was blurred and hazy when the Kzinti's vision finally cleared. As the mists that had been clouding her mind began to fade away, she found she could do nothing but stare. The sky, a deep blue ocean marked by thousands or millions of shining bright lights. Hex shook her head to clear the ringing in her ear and thought clearly for a moment, [[You can't see KZINTI PRIME sky from the ANUBIS... ]].

Struggling to stand, the Ensign hastily straightened out her uniform and brushed the sand from it. She was back on KZINTI PRIME and, looking around, Hex sighed. It was the planet of her childhood. A childhood best left only to memory, but it was her childhood none the less.

The planet was mostly desert waste lands with small villages or towns as dots all over it's surface. There was very sparse vegetation and very little water, but there was no shortage of mountain ranges and rocky chasms leading to the planet's hollow core.

The steep cliff-like chasms were everywhere on KZINTI PRIME. Those whole preferred the dark, safe habitats underground lived in the hollow of the planet while others, willing to fight any and all intruders, lived above. Hex was standing in one of her favorite places to go as a kid, a deep cave-like chasm in the side of a mountain. It was too high up to see from the ground or for anyone less nimble than her to climb up to.

There, the Kzinti saw herself, although it was a much younger version. Mini Hex was curled into a fetal position against the far wall deep inside her hidden cave. Tears stained her dark cheeks, though no one would notice if they didn't look close enough. Grim covered every inch of her body, torn clothes littered the entrance while the young Kzinti huddled with only her under-gown on.

Hex approached the young child, but was met with nothing she knew in herself, no resistance. As the officer moved closer, she realized that she couldn't see herself. [[I'm going mad... I can't even seem to think straight... ]] she thought desperately, sitting invisibly next to the younger Hex from her past.

"Nothing is right anymore... " the mini Hex mumbled into her knee, "Mom should be taking care of me... not setting me up with some dumb old priest".

The Ensign wanted to reach out and hug the child, not out of sympathy, but out of empathy. This was what had happened the year before she left for the Academy. The younger Hex only looked younger because of ill nourishment and constant beating and exercise.

In the year before Academy, her mother would beat her more often and would sometimes make servants of the temple watch. Hex was, back then, too small to defend herself or to stand and take it, which meant more punishment. Denied entry to any dining halls, the Kzinti had to hunt and fight for the food she needed to stay alive. All normal behavior on Kzinti Prime, anything more was considered doting or overly affectionate. For the females that is.

Men and young boys were treated like gods, though the Kzinti way of life was purely matriarchal. Nothing was given to women who didn't work for it, or had a man work for them. Decreases in the birth rates and increases in the mortality rate was leading to planet-wide chaos. Men were rare and treated as such anywhere they went.

Some, like Hex's brother Damon, had chosen to wander KZINTI PRIME and provide his services as a gene donour, before he settled down.

Hex watched as her younger self cried of hungry, of the cruelty in the world they shared, and of the hardships of being a highly refined priestess's daughter. The Ensign moved away after awhile. Though is *was* her life and her moment, she didn't think she should interfere with her other self's mourning and more than she already had.

The fuzzball slipped silently away into the night, thinking thoughts of the ship in hope of finding herself home. Leaving a much younger self huddling within the cave, unaware of the hardship that was yet to come while she was still facing her own personal hell.

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Setting:USS ANUBIS, Bridge
Stardate: 63073.1050
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The Kzinti officer soon found herself back on the ANUBIS, realizing that the things she thought about would appear, or in the least be clear to her. Hex was looking around the bridge thinking of people, any people she could remember. She thought of Aki, Adriana and the other senior officers, though she didn't know them all by name. Eve was suddenly just *there* looking distraught but thoughtful.

Hex rejoiced.

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Ashley Shane (crazyoneofthenight@hotmail.com)
Ensign Hex Fanngot
Assistant Chief of Security/Tactical
USS ANUBIS