Sunni Day (Redux)

In the back of his mind, it still fascinated him, sometimes – History's axiom: The more things changed, the more they remained the same.  Once, they had to use PADDs and tricorders, phasers and communicators, to facilitate operations.  Now they had complants, nanomods, automated sensors everywhere linked via subspace, working faster-than-light.  Yet they were still used for the same ends.  Rather than reading the tallied results of the Skinoki mission on a PADD (still an option, for the quaint-minded), he got it all directly by signal, from the ship's computer, straight into his brain.

It shouldn't have been easy, at first, adjusting to comtacts.  The overlaid environment of scrolling data, charts, images, numbers, virtually right there in the air before him, seemed distracting, while one tried to see where one was going, or simply observe the actual environment.  But the technology was thoroughly tested before release to the public.  Routines existed in the wetware for that very purpose, of easing the transition to an overlaid environment.  Everything was made like that, in the age of technology unchained... to be easy as possible to learn, maintain and operate.  He could read a book while taking a walk, on the insides of his comtact lenses, without running into anything.

For that reason, April could have chosen the two-dimensional method, and perused reports via comtacts.  But everything moving so fast... including starships... equaled little time to do it.  Reading manually took longer.  In a mood to cut knots, by necessity, he chose to absorb the information directly, through his complant.

Skinoki had turned out just as interesting, after all.  The discovery of an ancient race... more information on the ancestors of another, perhaps... and a new form of scientific communication.  The starship around him existed for such things.  Exploration... the new and the unknown... learning what was out here to learn, across the reaches of space....  That was why Starfleet existed.

The Federation had wanted to learn more about the Wrnlaxi ever since first contact, when their Second Fleet rescued two Starfleet lifepods from an Orion attack, and ferried the refugees to the nearest starbase.  The reptoids were private... secretive... and other than M'D'li, suspicious of outsiders.  But they seemed benign.  If this discovery turned out to be related to their history, it might be a stepping stone – maybe THE stepping stone – to finally gaining their trust as a people, and in turn greater access to the inner workings of their culture.  Building bridges was another reason that Starfleet and the Federation existed.

Lofty goals though those were, April's mind was on the here and now.

Or, somewhat.  Preoccupied, he almost didn't notice the blond woman waiting for him as he rounded a corner.

He stopped and stared, at an image from the past.  Long blond hair... bright blue eyes... and one of the cutest grins ever on a human female.

"Sunni!"  She smiled and hugged April with a laugh.  "My stars, you haven't aged a day."

"It's not my original body, silly.  But I took your advice.  Remember?"  She turned to favor the gleaming insignia on her uniform collar, pointing at it for extra emphasis.

"Lieutenant Commander Moon," April said, impressed – tactfully ignoring her informality.  Certainly not proper address for a superior officer – but this was Sunni Moon, after all... and he knew her.  At least he used to.  One of the privileges of being captain (and a habit he'd picked up as an admiral) was choosing when to let such things slide.  "I thought you'd decided you were getting out of Starfleet."

"I was going to.  But I have to hand it to you... sometimes you say the right thing at the right time.  I thought about it.  A year after you left, I went back to the Academy... enrolled in officers school... and here I am."  Her smile brightened, as only a Sunni Moon smile could, with a playful flash of her blue eyes.  April had always thought her beautiful.  It was nice to see some things hadn't changed so much, with the times.  "I'm even up for promotion soon," she said.

"Fantastic.  Where are you?"

"Right now, Starbase Omega One-Seven.  But the Echostone needs a first officer; I don't think it'll be long before the captain sees I'm best for the job."

"Maybe I can put in a good word.  Who's the captain?"

She hesitated.  "His name's Patar'andar."

Even as she said it, April was running data through his complant, autolinked to ship's records, which linked in turn to the Starfleet information grid.  Stats and personnel of the USS Echostone filled his brain.  A split second later he blurted, "Jem'Hadar?  There's a Jem'Hadar captain in Starfleet?" 

Moon giggled at his reaction – another unique Sunni Moon trait: No one laughed like that.  And only she would laugh at something that would make thousands of Starfleet KIAs turn in their graves, were it possible.  "He's the first," she said and giggled again, slightly.

'First'.  April wondered if she'd just made a joke.  Every Jem'Hadar commander was called 'First' – at least in the Dominion.

He sighed.  "Just when I'm starting to think things haven't changed much."

"But you don't have to do that.  I mean, help me out.  Fact, I'd rather not.  I've gotten this far on my own.  I don't want any special favors from you."

Maybe it was an innocent statement – but that last sentence opened up a gulf that spoke volumes to April, in an instant.  The words she used: I don't want any.  From you.  Maybe he was reading too much into it.  On the other hand, maybe the past wasn't too far in the past, after all... regardless of the perky face she put on.

"If I get it—" she started.

"—You'd like to get it on your own," April finished.  "I understand.  Congratulations... Commander.  I'm... What can I say, I'm happy for you.  All the best."

"Thanks, Captain."

"What brings you?"

"Well, you can imagine news travels fast.  When I heard Arcadia was back, I checked your flight itinerary, and..."  She shrugged with a grin.  "I thought I'd drop in... and say thanks for everything you did for me."

What he did – or didn't do?, he wondered.

Saying their goodbyes, he gave her arm a friendly squeeze and walked on.  As he turned a corner, she vanished from his peripheral view – subspace transport, or long-range holoform – on her way back to Omega 1-7.

Sunni Moon did something once, that very few people in the history of Starfleet ever did: She asked Stephen April to father her child.  He said no – before learning, later, some rather unsettling facts about her; things he had never known before that point, but should have.  Were this the medieval Earth era, she might have been strung up... and burned, as a witch.  Essentially, that was what Sunni Moon was: A 24th (now 25th?) century witch – as was her twin sister, Kittie, the last he knew, and their other so-called 'sisters'.  Their cultist beliefs were popular in a few scattered communities, on Mars, Luna, mainly Pollux IV, her homeworld.  Most dismissed them as arcane superstition.

Yet April entertained a brief, fleeting suspicion.  He had read stories... even participated in a few, holographically... about witches and their supposed 'powers'.  Moon used to unwittingly annoy him, when she served under him aboard Arcadia as his yeoman.  He'd give her tasks just to get her out of his hair.  She always acted like it never bothered her... and somehow, if she wanted something from him, almost always got it.  He had made her his adjutant at Starfleet Command while he was admiral, the post she held when Arcadia left 2387.

Was she doing what he wanted... or was he doing what she wanted?

Witchcraft.  Magic.  Spells.  It was preposterous, in the cold hard rationale of a scientific age.  But there were mysterious, exotic forces in the universe.  That was a fact.  And some forms of science seemed like magic.  What might they accomplish, with the tools of science at their disposal?

Sunni never said another word to him about it, after that, and he felt uncomfortable, even now, with the thought of bringing it up.  He was still trying to come to terms with the fact that he had another daughter he hadn't known about, before a few weeks ago... and deep down, Sunni Moon scared him somewhat, after learning of her background.  He knew it was just instinctive fear, born out of ignorance of something he didn't understand... but he just wanted to ignore it and pretend it never happened.

Or was that merely what she wanted him to think?