A Kestrel for a Star (Star Trek fanfiction)

chapter 4

I lied . . . another chapter :)

Uhura watched her friend who was just laid on her bed, with great interest.

Kez only usually didn’t talk when she was contemplating something.

They’d since changed out of their uniforms and Uhura was wearing a simple dressing gown whereas Kez elected to wear a loose t-shirt and black pyjama bottoms. The said t-shirt was drooping off her shoulder, giving Uhura a full view of the nine black strike marks on Kez’s shoulder.

Uhura knew what they meant, Kez had told her on many occasions.

Each mark, Uhura recalled, signified another life Kez was living in another dimension. Uhura knew that when Sytrox were born in one lifetime, they were also born in alternative realities. She knew that if Kez died here and now she would simply be thrust into another of her bodies living in another dimension. But Kez would be dead in this one, and that was what scared Uhura the most. Uhura knew that that was what scared Kez as well. Many times her friend had sat up and spoken to Uhura about not wanting to one day die and just be cast into another body somewhere else. She just wanted to be here and die here, never to breathe again.

Uhura knew most Sytrox only had two or three chances at life . . . Kez would have to endure nine. Uhura’s only hope was that when Kez moved on, she didn’t take the memories of this lifetime with her. Uhura couldn’t imagine living in a new dimension and lifetime knowing about her past one, remembering her friends and fulfilments and losses. That would be the worse and Kez would have to go through it nine times over.

Uhura shook the thought from her mind just as Kez pulled up her top, still staring at the ceiling.

“Thinking about anything good?” The cadet asked her friend before lying back on her own bed and staring up. Tomorrow night they’d be at the academy.

“Not really.” Kez admitted. Sometimes it felt nice to just not think about anything.

“Uh, fun.” Uhura said pursing her lips, stealing a look across at her friend.

Kez finally turned over to look at her, “Do you think I’m reckless?”

Uhura propped herself up on her elbow, “Reckless? No, why?”

Kez looked thoughtful, “Because I ported in the bar.”

Uhura snorted, “You usually do, what so different this time?”

Kez shrugged, “Just wondered if you’d seen any rouge Sytrox who might want to kill me, that’s all.”

Uhura laughed again, “Really? Are there any rouges left? I thought they all died when Starfleet . . .” She drifted off not wanting to resurrect the past of the planet her friend was originally from.

Unfazed though Kez sat up and shrugged, “I hope they all did, sonofabitches that they were.”

Uhura knew Kez was bitter but Kez usually didn’t show it. In fact Kez never focused on the past, just the present. It was the only place she seemed happy.