Ghosted

Posted on Mon Oct 21st, 2024 @ 2:55pm by Lieutenant Adrianna Baciami & Lieutenant JG Zai

1,255 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Stars Around the Well
Location: Starbase 2
Timeline: Current

ON:

Having eaten, Adrianna and Zai were about to head back to the ship when a familiar face caught her eye. She froze and watched them disappear into the crowd. "Madonna," the word slipped from the lips as she grabbed Zai's arm, "follow me."

'It can't be,' she thought to herself as she practically dragged Zai through the crowd, following the ghost of someone she thought she recognised. She soon let go of him and pushed past the crowd herself, her heart racing and sensibilities fading away.

Losing Zai I'm the crowd, she managed to get to an open area. She'd lost the person she was tailing. Her eyes darted around. Perhaps it was a mirage of sorts. Adrianna could feel a sense of panic rising up in her when she suddenly felt eyes on her. She quickly turned and her jaw went slack, her mind blank and her eyes wide. Her eyes locked onto her watcher. Her heart felt like it was going to pound out of her chest.

Zai had lost her not for long. He'd seen her round the corner and sensed a burst of emotion from her. He ran after her only to stop short when he rounded the corner she was staring at a very familiar face but in an enlisted personnel uniform. "Vance?"

Adrianna was frozen in place, staring into his eyes. She'd imagined seeing him again, and what she would say or do, but her body was not cooperating. She couldn't say anything; she couldn't do anything. Suddenly, the words fell from her lips, barely loud enough for anyone to hear, "Amore mio, you're alive."

Vance blinked.

Zai had moved up to Adrianna and placed a hand at the small of her back. "Vance do you know who we are?"

The man looked at them both. "I... you I know. You visited me at the hospital and you I don't know." he pointed to Adrianna.

Zai's hand pulled her from her thoughts. She shook her head and muttered something under her breath, before nodding, "We-- uh-- I apologise. Sorry, you look like someone I used to know. I'm sorry for staring so much. It's just-- it's uncanny."

Adrianna went pale, her heart breaking a little. Vance was so close and yet so out of reach. She looked to Zai and dropped her voice, "get his contact details. Catch up with him. I'll send you all of his journals and everything I have of his. I-- I can't do this. He doesn't know me and maybe it's for the best."

Vance stared at her. "Are you alright. You look pale?" He walked over to her. "You look as if you've seen a ghost."

Her eyes went back to Vance. She could feel heat rising up in her eyes, but she tried to blink it away. She couldn't move, she just watched him get closer to her. "It's because I have-- I have seen a ghost," she replied in an almost whisper, "Vance, I--" She wanted to wrap her arms around him. She wanted to kiss him. She wanted to tell him that she had missed him. But her words and body were failing her and the closer he got to her, the more her mind screamed at her body to cooperate.

Vance looked from one to the other.

It was Zai who stepped in gently placing an arm around Adri's shoulder "Listen why don't we do this. We all need some time to reflect." How about we take a few hours and meet." He looked at Vance. "You're...enlisted?"

"Yes. On the USS Portus. Engineering Crew."

Zai swallowed down his feelings. "Alright. You know me, I used to visit you and she knows you too. There are some items that may be helpful. How about we all meet for dinner?"

Adrianna clicked out of her thoughts and hung her head a little, trying to shake her spiraling mind. Suddenly, her mouth started running faster than her mind could shut her up. Her eyes went back to Vance, shrugging off Zai’s arm and interrupting the conversation. “Merde, you– you are not my Vance Adams,” Adrianna’s usually tough demeanour had been stripped away, her voice soft, trembling. "If you were my Vance, I would want to hold you... just to feel you close again. I’ve imagined it every night for the past year– what it would be like to wrap my arms around you again, even for just a brief second, to kiss you like we once did-– to actually have the life you promised me on some colony world– or even just have the chance to apologise and to say addio, goodbye, properly. I can almost feel your heartbeat, hear your laughter… but now you’re standing right in front of me, and I can’t even reach out, can I, amore mio?"

Adrianna’s voice cracked, but her eyes fought back the tears threatening to fall. "You don’t remember me. You don’t remember us. How can I want so much from someone who doesn’t even know who I am anymore?" The question was rhetorical, and for herself. She was demanding why this felt like it hurt so much when she knew that this would be a possibility but a tiny voice in her head had given her hope that this would have a fairytale ending.

Her hands clenched, trying to hold back the ache and frustration. It wasn't his fault, but her mouth was running faster than her mind could shut her up, "I’ve dreamt about being in your arms again– even before I found out you were still alive because it hurt so much losing you. I grieved endlessly, and even when I tried to move on– there you were, always in the back of my mind. When I found out, I searched for you tirelessly because I had hoped that we were not done yet– you once said that we were two halves of the same soul– destined to find each other in each life. For so long, I’ve wanted to be in your arms again… but now… now it feels like I’d be holding a stranger.”

“And to the universe, I say ‘vaffanculo’ and to curse them for all of the 1997 reasons that you chose me over you, because this is a cruel punishment for falling in love at the wrong time with someone that I shouldn't have fallen in love with,” She almost screamed the words, but managed to hold back, keeping her voice low enough to just be heard by those Vance and Zai. Adrianna let the words hang there trying to breathe through it all. She could feel her frustration boiling up into an almost rage. A whole new heartbreak stood before her.

She shook her head, apologetically and started backing away, turning to leave, feeling a sense of embarrassment at showing so much emotion in front of ‘a stranger’, not to mention Zai, “Cazzo, mi dispiace– sorry– I should go. Sorry.” She kept backing away, retreating in mortification, finally breaking eye contact with Vance.

Vance's eyes widened as she spoke. One word, specifically one number stuck. 1997 1997 1997. An image flashed in his mind.

Zai took a breath. Adrianna's emotions were seeping into him, the anger, the pain, the despair. Then there was Vance, confusion, frustration, uncertainty. He felt like hyperventilating. His heart was hammering in his chest.

Vance shook his head mumbling something.

Zai looked up. "What?"

"One, Nine, Nine, Seven. Safety..."

OFF:

 

RSS Feed