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"From Frozen to Forever"
[previous post was "From Flirty to Frozen" by the skilled writer Hanali]
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Setting: MASQUERADE DREAMS, Room 22-049

Stardate: 30152.1520


Ullians have the unique gift of being able to look into someone's mind and see their memories, from the earliest childhood recollection to the most recent events.  In time this special ability can be refined to allow the individual to seek out long forgotten or traumatic memories or even to push away haunting images that make life impossible to live.


This ability to manipulate memories in such a manner is something that Ullians as a race do not like to make known to the general public, but unfortunately is it a part of that people's way of life, and like everything else it is something that can be used for good, or abused for evil.


Normally a Ullian is unable to scan their own memories, as if the mind of a specific member of that race had been immuned to the abilities of that individual.  As frustrating as this limitation might have been for some, most saw it as a gift, allowing them to be able to look into a mirror without seeing more than a simple reflection of the present.


For Shar'El though things had not been normal.  Since her merging of minds with the ancient machine found on the moon of PI ALPHA III, the woman's mind had been filled with memories that had not been her own.  It was likely because of this simple detail that the acting ExO / ILO had found it possible to scan the mind of the person whose reflection she had seen in the mirror.


The mental gesture had been nothing more than a reflex, one born out of the need for answers and the unlikely possibility that the reflective surface would hold some memories for her to access.  So it was with unexpected shock that Shar'El found herself touching not one, not a few, but several lifetimes worth of memories as she reached out to her own reflection.


Although her body had remained exactly where it had been when the contact was made, the mind of the Ullian was drawn into the world that extended well beyond her reflection.  Time and space collided to fill a single room in which Shar'El found herself to be a prisoner in.


Images of worlds never before seen filled the walls of this imaginary room, letting the woman believe for a brief moment that she had not been locked away in some invisible prison within her own mind.  Voices that had not been heard for countless millennia told strange and amazing stories of events both wondrous and disturbing.


Normally a Ullian could sever the link between their mind and that of another person should there be a reason to do so, but this was not a normal situation.  There had been no link to break, for Shar'El had done the impossible, that of looking into her own mind and memories.  Powerless to do anything else, she watched and listened as the history of countless worlds passed before her inner eyes.


The whirlwind of images and voices had almost become too much for Shar'El to manage, but she found herself unable to move beyond the room as if her feet had been frozen, not only in space but also in time.  Somehow she had found a way to open a door that she had been told did not exist, a door that she had been incapable of finding, let alone close.


All became dark as she fell onto her knees.  Nothing but darkness reflected from the walls around her, walls that she knew were still there despite not being able to see them.  In an effort to regain control, Shar'El forced her eyes closed but nothing changed, from an endless darkness of the mind she went into a dark void limited only by her own eyes.


"Do you know where Nanmi is?"


Shar'El quickly opened her eyes to see a young Ullian child standing in front of her, the tears about her face showed the girl's deep felt sadness.


"Nanmi is between your bed and the wall," Shar'El softly explained to the teary child who had been in her nightgown.  "It fell there during the night."


How had Shar'El known this?  Who had this little girl been?  As strange as it seemed the Ullian knew that the answers had been right there on the tip of her memories, but whose memories had they been?


"Without darkness one would not know light when they saw it."


Shar'El turned around to find the old man who had just spoken, forgetting about the young child as if she had never been there, not that she had been.  The aged man appeared old enough to have seen the birth of the universe and his words carried with them a wisdom that the Ullian could not help but admire.


The dark haired woman smiled as if she had just seen someone who had been very dear to her, someone whom she had not laid eyes upon for several lifetimes.  He gazed back at her with loving recognition in his gray colored eyes and yet she could not find his name amongst the memories that filled her mind.


Who were these people and why had she been here?


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Tiffany Reeve


Lieutenant Commander Shar'El
Acting Executive Officer / Intel Liaison Officer
USS ANUBIS