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"Frightful"
[previous post was "Finding Familiar Figures" by the not so sneaky Mark]

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Setting: MASQUERADE DREAMS, Inner Decks

Stardate: 30153.0415


Alone with her thoughts, the acting ExO / ILO had wondered the various decks of the MASQUERADE DREAMS for quite some time and yet she had only seen a fraction of the luxurious cruise liner.  Recalling memories that were not her own, Shar'El was in awe as to the size of the ship which surpassed many space stations that would be found out there in the cosmos.  Elegance and style radiated from every corner of the ship making it easier for the dark hair woman to find something else to think about aside from the problems encountered on their Intel gathering mission.


Betazoids, due to their telepathic abilities, learned at an early age to filter and even block out the stray thoughts of others.  For a Ullian, this was much simpler as a memory scan required a direct line of sight, so avoiding looking at someone directly insured that Shar'El would not have to deal with someone else's memories.  Having to sort through the implanted memories from the ancient machine found on PI ALPHA III had been more than enough for the time being.


With the decks being nearly empty due to the early hour of the day, the acting ExO / ILO had no problem keeping her gaze from falling on any particular individual as she wondered the decks, admiring the decor and elegance of the Risian cruise ship.  That was until someone forced their way passed the dark haired woman, sending her tumbling forward for a few steps.


Instinctively the acting ExO / ILO moved to stay standing and looked up at the individual who had been in such a rush that they had not seen her standing there. A flood of images came rushing into the mind of the Ullian as if the individual's complete and turbulent past had been on the man's thought at that time. Memories of destruction, war, chaos and even death flowed one into the next at a dizzying rate.


The shock had been so sudden and the images so emotionally troubling that Shar'El found it impossible to remain standing, forcing the acting ExO / ILO to fall onto a knee to keep her from making too much of a spectacle.  As her mind began to clear, a familiar voice called out followed by hurried footsteps.


"Are you alright?" Doctor Doyanne asked as she dropped to the ground next to the dazed Ullian, wrapping her arm around the woman's shoulders.


"I will be," Shar'El replied with a great deal of hesitation as she forced the unexpected memories and images out of her mind.  "Someone ran past me and when I looked up at them, I just picked up on a lifetime of memories that were rather troubling."


"What kind of memories? Can you stand? Should I call for help?" Lillie asked in rapid succession as if the acting ExO / ILO would be able to answer everything with a single word.


"I'm fine," Shar'El restated, this time with far more assurance.  "There were so many memories, all of them filled with a pain that I had never felt before.  There were also a lot of explosions, none of which seemed to be directly link to one another, yet they were in that man's mind."


Shar'El mentioning these explosions and the emotional pain that the man had felt made Jayson recall his most painful memory, one that also dealt with an explosion.  Lost in his thoughts, the Operations Officer stood in a world of his own creation as Doctor Doyanne helped the acting First Officer back to her feet.


"Jayson, are you alright?" Lillie asked when noticing the man's vacant expression which drew Shar'El gaze onto the man.  Out of concern, the Ullian listened in on the memories that Ensign Stark had been focussing on and the image that she saw made the dark hair woman gasp in frightful realization.


"What's going on?" the Doctor demanded, both of the officers standing next to her having all of a sudden acted in a most atypical manner.


"I'm fine," Shar'El stated once again, this time with a tone of seriousness that the Doctor could not ignore.  "You take care of Jayson, I need to speak to the Captain. Now."


Before either Lillie or Jayson could form any sort of opinion or voice a comment, the acting ExO / ILO had left leaving the other two undercover officers by themselves and wondering as to what had actually happened.  For Shar'El, there ha been no doubts as to what she needed to do next, their Commanding Officer needing to become aware of what she had discovered.


Normally the acting ExO / ILO could have used the subdermal communication system to inform the Captain an the rest of the crew of her findings, but in this particular case the dark haired woman had thought it best if one member of the crew had not been informed of her most recent finding.  As trained professional everyone would have reacted as such to the news of her having run into the mastermind behind countless bombing including the attempt on the MASQUERADE DREAMS, but Shar'El could easily understand that the reaction of Ensign Stark would not be so. Especially given the fact that the man responsible for the bombing attempt on the ship and the bombing that had killed his wife and unborn child had been one and the same.


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Tiffany Reeve


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