There Are No Gods And This is a Bad Dream

Posted on Sun Dec 31st, 2023 @ 9:31am by Captain Shran dh'Klar & Lieutenant Inara Senn & Ensign Kate Kono
Edited on on Tue Jan 2nd, 2024 @ 3:40pm

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: USS Washington Arboretum

Inara entered the Arboretum after something of a fruitless conversation with the captain. She sat down on the grass in the area and began to speak to herself. "There are no gods, this is just a very long bad dream, and soon I'll wake up and there will be no gods." She closed her eyes.

The sound of a mechanical whine similar to that of an electronic motor approached. A small model of a 21st century automotive conveyance careened through the air and crashed into an artificial pond with a violent splash that went in all directions that shattered the relative peace of the arboretum.

Kate pranced aloofly toward the impact point with a RC controller in her hands before fishing out the waterlogged device. She turned to see Inara and a big grin sprouted on her face as she sat down in front of her.

"Inara!!" She practically cheered her friends name as she saw her sitting there. Kate dropped the now inoperable toy to the ground as she sat down beside it. "I knew about this place, but it's my first actual visit. How are you?" Kate glanced at her, and her smile dropped a little as her dark eyes looked her over. "Awww?"

The sound of footfalls softly on the grass could be heard in the nearby distance as what seemed like a gentle breeze swept through the green of the arboretum. A beautiful maiden dressed in a magnificent gold and green flowing dress walked quietly in the grass barefoot, up a knoll where a holly tree stood alone. She placed a hand upon it and caressed the bark of the tree, and then began to slow walk towards the pond. The said nothing but glanced over at both Inara and Kate.

"This is like trying to avoid the long-winded speeches of Professor Arken Tall at the Daystrom Institute's summer party by hiding in the xenobotany wing. Eventually the man follows you everywhere."

The woman said nothing, just continued to stroll past the two female officers as she approached the pond. She stopped at the edge and knelt down and placed a hand on the still water. Suddenly a jet of water rose from the pond and formed a female shape. In the distance, from a nearby grove of trees giggling sounded. A pair of fair skin maidens leapt from the grove dressed in the simplest of green robes and crowns made of multicolored leaves. They approached the woman and began to speak to her in soft, almost whispered voices. Then all of them looked back at Inara and Kate before returning to whatever conversation they were having, the watery maiden and the woodland nymphs all giggling softly like schoolgirls.

Kate blinked at the odd happenings around her and dismissed it as nothing more than one-up'ing her RC Car game in the arboretum. Kate looked back over at Inara with saddened eyes while, at the same time, dangling her RC car as if trying to drip-dry the thing.

Despite the scantily clad nymph women, Kate just focused on Inara. "You know, they have really good cake in the mess hall today. I've never seen a sad person with cake." Kate offered to cheer her up. The slender intelligence officer pointed behind her to the show that these strange and powerful women were putting on, but she referred them as just another member of the crew.

"We could go down there and test out all the chocolate!" Kate waited for a response.

"This is just a dream; this is just a dream... and a f*cked up one at that." Inara mentioned.

"Life is a dream. This is reality, for better or worse" the woman said from the pond. "You cannot hide from your life. The choices you make have consequences, and that is the reality of life. Not facing that reality only gives power to your fears, and that which feeds upon them."

"Your kind is the messed-up sociopaths that put Hela in charge of the dead!! I saw her ruthlessly and barbarically torture my mate, then she murdered her." Inara noted. "Do justify the civility in that, or the lack thereof?"

Kate turned to the maniac nymphs after standing back up.
"Even if you mean well, maybe now isn't the best times to try and force an epiphany? If there's one thing the Q or an omnipotent god or goddess can't do, it's change a person's mind with a snap of the finger." Kate walked up to one of them and smiled. "... She's kinda godded out. If anyone's gonna help her relax and think straight, it'll be someone fully clothed and corporal. You don't even have an RC car." Kate shook the controller in front of the being. "Humanoids aren't going to get swayed easily by being hawked new ideology from the faces of those that hurt them. That would be like being asked on a date by the identical twin brother of the man that cheated on you."

Kate smiled at her own analogy and turned to Inara. "Wow, I wonder if that's ever happened before?" She turned back to the goddess and handed her the remote control for the RC car. "That'd be crazy, wouldn't it? I got this." Kate, with her hands free now, backed up to Inara while giving a 'thumbs up' to the goddess holding the remote controller on her hands before turning to Inara. "Come on, let's get that cake or something!" Kate still managed to smile even though she knew poor Inara was probably traumatized at this point.

The wind began to swirl and howl, and the ground began to tremble terribly. "We gave Hela no power over anything. What she has dominion over was given to her by mortals, just as it was for all of us. You empowered us all, and now you seek to wash your hands of that creation. You will find that quite impossible. Your understanding of the universe is still vastly infantile. You have grown, evolved, but you are not timeless, and you do not understand the full complexities of the cosmos. You do not even understand yourselves yet."

While it seemed impossible, the trees began to move on their own, moving to block every exit and entrance to the arboretum, even the Jeffries tube access points. The fey creatures disappeared back from wince they came, leaving only the maiden standing before Inara and Kate. "You seek to find that which was lost, that you believe was taken. It takes only belief to give power to hope."

Kate held her hands behind her back and smiled kindly to the goddess, "The great thing about the cosmos is that it doesn't require much searching to find compassion. It doesn't require a god, a belief, or faith; only the capacity to choose. Whatever Inara has lost in her life, she will find a way to deal with the tragedy. We are all by her side to help. You can help too but it's up to her to allow it. She can't make you help her any more than she can ask me to do the same. It's her choice, when she's ready - not yours or mine. You can't force your help on her, your love, your passions, or the belief of miracles. You'll push her away if you try and create will. It's the one power a god never has. That's ultimately what's so special about us."

Kate kept her grin and stood across from the goddess. "If any god or gods created us, they should be proud of themselves because they gave us a power to be something grand or terrible without external will, or strife. To choose to fight, or to hate, to love, to live, and explore within us and beyond on a free will. If there were ever any chains to begin with, we got to thank someone for letting them slip. Ultimately it is you who have to believe in us, not the other way around."

Kate leaned forward and whispered through her unending grin, "if you are our gods, believe in us for a change. We might disappoint you, yes, but if you never give us a chance to fix these problems on our own, we will never, ever have a chance to surprise you either. Because, I think, we will make you see and feel things you've never experienced before."

The robed goddess offered a kind smile. "You attempt to show wisdom, but not everything you say is true. We have power over everything. Perhaps some of you in the millennia to come may grow to have the same power. Right now, though, you are mortal, with all the foibles that come with the condition. We are rarely surprised in the way you mean it because we have seen everything, learned everything, felt everything, done everything. When your planet was not yet formed, we walked amongst the stars like giants. We know all there is to know about love, compassion, friendship, anger, hatred, vengeance, loneliness, and regret. We know the truth about this incarnation and what the next brings. If Inara does not wish my assistance that is her choice. She has no power to defeat Hela in the manner in which she desires, but she is welcome to throw her life away and that of her companions of she so desires."

Kate sighed and put her hands on her hips. "I might be small but my life won't fit in a trash can so she can't throw it away." Kate turned to Inara, "I trust your decisions."

"And in all that time, did you learn how to mind your own damned business? No. Hela forced me to watch as she murdered Josie." Inara noted. "I'm sick of you all. Everything I've always wanted was to be happy, but fate conspired against that. FATE!!! I didn't want Fate to become my enemy, but it kept taking from me. People I cared about, friends that betrayed me, now I don't know. I'm losing hope. I don't want to drink because that is not working, and I don't want to kill myself, because now that I know you things are around, I'd be Hela's prisoner for eternity. Everything I have ever wanted has been denied by fate." She sighed. "And I'm afraid to get close to this crew, because I might lose them too. I feel cursed, and afraid."

The woman had a look of concern upon her face, mixed with disappointment. "How little you understand. Hela forced you to see what she wanted you to see, what she herself thought was happening. Hela is powerful, but not so powerful that she cannot be overcome. Josie is not dead, despite your and Hela's best efforts. And you are not destined to die and fall into Hela's domain. She may make you believe otherwise, but she is omitting important facts." She turned and walked back to the water, dipping her hand into it and bringing a small amount of the clear liquid to her mouth. "It is your fear that it your enemy. Fear of the unknown, fear of loss, and if you do not confront it, fate will never grant you the gift it eagerly wishes to give you." She slowly began to walk back to the knoll towards the holly tree.

Inara approached the tree, "I'm so damaged. That hurt so much, I just wanted to lash out on Hela."

"It is a common reaction. Fight or flight. Hela has a tendency to evoke such responses. She feeds on your fear; it gives her power over you. You must overcome your fear, let go of your rage and desire for vengeance. Look into the pond, see that not all is lost" the woman replied.

She looked in the pond. "I just...I've been living for the wrong reasons for years."

In the pond, the wind made the water ripple, and then suddenly an image appeared, an image of Josie. She was alive and looked happy. "Fear not, I am unharmed. I am reborn."

Inara couldn't speak, she just stared at her. wanting her. "I'm... sorry...." She said to her. It was a true apology, for everything she'd done, everything she put her through. Inara was a complex woman. She wished she could plunge her hand into the water and pull her out. She wondered if Fate would be that kind to Inara.

Not wanting to bother Inara, Kate walked over to the goddess and nudged her kindly with her elbow.
"Under all that seriousness, you're really just an ethereal softie.."

Kate smiled at the sight before then. It was truly one of the nicest things she had seen since her time in the twenty-fourth century, a true show of caring and compassion. The god, goddess, advanced being, whatever she was, had cared enough to do something it didn't have to do, yet did it anyway. Whatever she was, she was good, Kate was sure if it now.

"She did nothing wrong, certainly nothing that warranted Hela's actions. I have returned her to life, but in her correct time. You will have to remain here, in the present time which is the past for you. Fate demands a price for all things, be it good or evil. You must accept this, and if you can, you will have the opportunity to know happiness and joy once again." The goddess turned and walked away from Inara and Kate, and then stopped and looked back, "I will be close by. I will be needed should you accept fate's gift."

"I would live thirty years here, for the rest of my life with her." Inara noted as she looked into the water, into Josephine's eyes. Inara placed her hand on the water. "I'm sorry..." She could only say to Josie.