Sudden Thoughts at 0300
Posted on Wed 21st Jan, 2026 @ 9:37am by Commander Heriah Rex
Edited on on Wed 21st Jan, 2026 @ 3:58pm
1,029 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
[MAIN] From The Ashes
Location: Heriah's Quarters
Timeline: The Night After "Making Plans"
Heriah was staring up a temple, remembering that day those years ago when she was about to meet the High Priest of the Path of T’Ril.
“GOT IT!” rang through the cosmos.
Her eyes flew open and she half sat up in a start. The covers of her bed appeared similarly startled as they jerked and folded and fell away from her body.
“What,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
’I got it.’
“Got what,” she replied as she sat fully up and turned in her bed.
’That Temple dipshit. I know who he is.’
Heriah placed her feet on the floor and stood. “That Temple dipshit happens to be our diplomat. Computer, time.”
=^=”The time is 0300 hours.”=^=
’Diplomat or no. He’s still a dipsh…’
“Is there a point to this Rex?” Heriah ventured to the replicator. “Water. No ice.”
As the replicator did its thing, ’It took a bit but I remember who he is. I’ve been wracking my brain for the past hour trying to remember Temple.’
With a glass of water in hand, Heriah drank at it and stepped away, understanding why she had been dreaming of a temple.
“And let me guess. You remember?”
’Yes. He is the son of one of Luftine’s contacts.
“I need more to go on Rex. Now that I am awake, thank you so much for that by the way, our minds are one and I am not finding this memory.”
’The given name is not coming to me yet, but there was a Temple who had dealings with Luftine.’
“You flood my thoughts with vivid memories time and again when I least want it. And now, you cannot…”
’Pre-Joining contact. This is someone who Luftine dealt with before I graced his abdomen with Joining bliss.’
Heriah made a grotesque utterance with her throat.
’They had little dealings after our Joining so that is why I had such a hard time remembering. Think of it as a half-remembered dream of decades ago. You grasp at it and it tries to slip…’
“Get one with it Rex.” Heriah sat, half falling, onto her sofa. She crossed her legs and sat back. The ambient glow of the planet outside showed through the large windows.
’Well Dipshit Temple…
“Magnus. Rex. His name is Magnus.”
’As I was saying…it was him saying ‘If wishes were whores then beggars would have a ride’.’
“If wishes were horses…” Heriah stopped herself. “Just get on with it.”
’It was him saying that, that got me to recall that his father was this contact of Luftine’s. He was a Starfleet scoundrel.’
“Starfleet scoundrel,” Heriah repeated. “You come up with that one by yourself?”
’No. He was a true scoundrel. Con artist, weapons trafficker, divulger of sensitive information, a little drugs here and there. A true criminal. All under the umbrella of the protection of Starfleet. Who knows how many benefited from his exploits?’
“Well that does not really matter now does it?”
’It could. How far from the tree can the apple really fall? We could…’
“Absolutely not,” Heriah exclaimed as she stood. She went to the window to look out. Only one ship was drifting by in the distance between the planet and 109. Too far for anyone to see the she liked to sleep in the nude. “So what happened to Temple? The father?”
’Luftine got what he wanted from him. It was after Joining with me that I got him to cut ties. This guy was digging in to deep. One slip up and he would get found out, bringing Luftine down with him. So Luftine took my advice and cut ties, erased all records, communiques, laundered all the money, pretty much erased every trace of him dealing with Starfleet Scoundrel Temple. It was a week later that the Federation News Network first spoke on a story about a disgraced officer, facing a list of charges, and looking at doing time in a penal colony and holding the lowest rank one could imagine.’
“So, Luftine kicked him to the curb? Got what he wanted then left him out to face the music?”
’Temple was getting too ambitious, careless. Too many people were already looking at him. Luftine had to protect himself.’
“That made Luftine no less a scoundrel himself. If I recall, after joining with you, he would beat his wife.”
’He had his own problems yes. I admit those problems grew worse after our Joining but that was because he was not always listening to me. But think about it. You and I. We’ve been Joined for over a year now. We are doing good. Take my advice on this. It is certain Dipsh…Magnus Temple never knew Luftine as Luftine Rex. We could pull on his diplomatic strings…’
“Forget it. I am not going to relive past hosts’ lives.”
’You’ve already started sleeping with that Ensign that you intend to kick to the curb.”
“I was low, OK? Drunk and lonely. And I cannot expect you to…” she looked to her nightstand.
’No. You don’t need that stuff. We can…’
Heriah started humming a tune to block out Rex’s thoughts, went to her bed, sat upon it and snatched her monocorder from the nightstand. She placed it upon her finger and watched as it illuminated a solid red.
’Well that cannot be right. These things give false readings all the time.’
Heriah reached into the drawer and withdrew her hypospray, setting it to one dose.
’Drugs. Your answer is drugs.’
Ignoring him, Heriah pressed the hypospray to her neck and sent forth the dosage. She flexed her neck and rubbed at the injection site, trying to send the medication forth. Rex’s constant attempt to get her to exploit Magnus in some way started fading away into the cosmos of her conscience.
Heriah got back under her covers, pulled them over and closed her eyes.
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