Body and Soul

Posted on Mon Jan 16th, 2023 @ 5:14pm by Lieutenant Azrel Vox & David Meddows MD-Ph.D.
Edited on on Tue Jan 17th, 2023 @ 4:08am

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: A Fool’s Errand
Location: Deck 7: Medical Section
Timeline: M1 MD06 (2268.21.05) 1600

It had been worrying him.

No denying that.

Torbin Vox had been a professional colleague, a friend, a mentor. Nah, rubbish! 'Mentor' indeed. Torbs hadn't been pompous enough to be called a 'Mentor'! They'd been more like a pair of silly school boys in that lab: playing tricks on each other; sneaking booze in; on one occasion waking up with hangovers in a shuttle half-way to Adhara XVII. 'Mentor' indeed!

But he had needed him. Four months ago, now, Dave had needed someone; someone in this great wide, lonely galaxy to help him, to advise him, to be that mentor. Torbin was the only man he could think of, the only one who would understand, who could tell him what to do.

When he found out that Torbin was dead...

Vox had explained about the Trill, but it had never really registered with him what the implications were, not until now: not until he found himself on the same ship with a young woman who... he shook his head... who somehow 'contained' his dear, old, dead friend, or at least, his memories and his knowledge.

What do you say when you meet that... that 'host'? Dave didn't know. He avoided Lieutenant Vox, stayed away from places where they might meet, panicked every-time he saw a young blonde woman in red, or had to contact Comms.

Then came that fatal hour. The door to his office sounded. His computerised receptionist cooed in his ear "Lieutenant Vox, Doctor."

He stood, not a little shakily, as the door swished open.

Azrel looked at the Doctor and smiled. "Hello Doctor Meadows, its good to see you again. Although, I can tell from your expression and posture that this is somewhat uncomfortable for you. I can always come back, give you more time. " Aze commented.

"NO!!" Dave yelped, now it was happening he wanted to get it over with. "No, I'm glad you've come, erm..." oh God! what did he call him...her...? Vox? Torbin? Azrel? Lieutenant? Instead of coming to a decision he thrust out his hand to shake hers.

"Still got cold hands, then?!" he heard himself ask, dumbly. Well, she had, and so had Torbin.

"Yes Doctor, its a Trill trait. " she replied. She could tell that he was still uncomfortable. "Doctor, you can call me Lieutenant if you want to be formal or Azrel or Vox when not. Most people tend to use my nickname of Aze. " She added.

"Aze... yes, that's good. Aze. I'm Dave... oh yes, you know that. Er..." he motioned toward the chair beside his desk and took a seat himself.

When he was seated he looked at... her... properly for the first time. Why the Hell hadn't Vox been plopped inside an ugly bloke with a big nose and hair coming out of his ears, instead of a beautiful young woman with... with nice legs!? That would have made this so much easier.

"Lieutenant... Aze. I often tell my visitors [patients] that it's good to talk, so I'm just going to talk for a bit, is that all right?"

"Sure. Go right ahead." Aze replied as she took one of the empty seats by the doctor's desk.

"Well, er..." Dave started to toy with a stuffed cat toy on his desk, almost as an excuse not to look at the woman who now... possessed? his friend. Or did he possess her?

"A lot's happened in the last few years... erm... last time I saw you, or rather Torbin, I was being transferred to the Amberol project... that didn't turn out so well, and, well, after a year in a coma I woke up, and then Doreen left me, took the kids, and then I joined Star fleet and, er, retrained as a Ship's Counsellor, and then, er..."

The man was doing well so far, considering the tale of woe that he was very quickly cycling through. Then, inexplicably, the last part made his voice thicken, tears well in his eyes, and a dribble of mucus threaten to dribble from his nose.

"... then, er,... my friend died."

Meddows quickly snatched at a box of tissues which he kept on his desk for upset 'visitors' and blew his nose noisily.

"Bloody air conditioning on these ships!" he complained, as he sniffed back some snot "Always setting my sodding sinuses off! They need to do something about it!"

It was a feeble excuse, but it saved him a little face in front of the attractive woman who, somehow, contained Torbin.

"It has been quite a year for you hasn't it. Your friend is still here David, I'm just Azrel now. There is likely to be a period of adjustment but Vox is still here. I'm so sorry to hear about Doreen and the kids. Do you still get to see them or is it complicated?" She asked.

"She's making it complicated!" Dave growled, but then caught Aze's eyes and smiled "I'm making this all about me, aren't I? Must be funny for you, too. Have you met many people who knew Torbin since the transfer?"

Actually, he felt a little easier all of a sudden, he was purely talking to Azrel now, the young woman who had been an individual a few months ago, before being symbiotically joined to another.

"I mean, I know they train you to cope with it..." 'train' seemed too small a word: he knew that the girl's whole life would have been formed around that goal, leading up to the moment when she reached fulfilment as the perfect host. "... but, well, it must be difficult coping with the reactions of others; especially non-Trill."

"Some of them must even have difficulty with their sinuses." he added, gamely poking fun at himself and his tearful reaction.

"I have met a few people who knew me as Torbin. It is tricky sometimes to deal with things but the training we get does help considerably. And yes I noticed many non-Trill experience sinus and tear duct issues. I wonder if some are allergic to joined Trills who have been recently joined. " She replied. She smiled at him trying to reassure him it would be ok.

"That might be it." nodded Dave agreeably, but thinking it was more likely that, like him, they were confused and emotional about meeting a partial version of someone they had grieved for and come to terms with being dead.

"Do you still.. er... do you take a drink... Lieu.. Aze?" To be honest, if Dave was meeting the woman under normal circumstances he would have found her friendly and charming; but compared with how he had known Torbin, she was cold, which made him even more nervous.

He stood up and stumbled toward the wall, which opened to reveal a small refrigerator. "I've got some nice waters" he offered somewhat pathetically. He hadn't touched alcohol since he had his accident and then become an Edenite. He wondered if Vox's new host had Torbin's ability to drink him under the table.

"I do now and then. But since being joined I have discovered a taste for Tequila. Torbin was very fond of it. " She replied. She look at him closely. she could tell he was nervous.

Dave's hands were shaking as he rummaged through the bottles. "Tequila, tequila..."

"I'm making you nervous aren't I. I was trying to be somewhat subdued so as not to cause you any issues. I'm probably coming across somewhat neutral? I'm sorry. I just didn't know how you'd take it, knowing how fond you were of Torbin. " She sat back to see how he would respond.

The man in blue turned around, he suddenly looked a bit happier.

"It's all right, it's the situation that's making me nervous, not you. You're doing a good job!" that didn't sound quite right but, well, what did sound right in this situation? He held up a bottle which contained a clear liquid with a big fat squat worm bobbing around in the bottom, and two glasses.

"I don't have Tequila, but I do have... Mezcal!" he corrected himself "Torbin and I drank a whole bottle of this once and then tossed a coin to decide who was going to eat the grub at the bottom. He lost but refused to do it - said he couldn't stand the thought of that horrible slimy creature going inside of him!"

"Oh yeah, I remember that. Oh what was the bar called? I am sure it was on Argelius II." She looked at him for a moment. "Are you challenging me again?" She asked.

"It would have been a boring night if I could remember what the bar was called" Dave pointed out, actually smiling a little now "... or what planet it was on. All I remember is those two..." he was about to say blonde bimbos we ran into, but in the current circumstances he swerved that to "... hours it took to get back home the next day." Phew! That was close.

That begged still more questions about what Aze remembered of Torbin, and exactly how the new host remembered. Were Torbin's memories now mixed in with her own? Or was it more like a record, a video tape library that Aze could dip into?

These questions could wait.

He poured them both a drink.

"No, not a competition... a wake. Torbin is dead, the old, unbearable Dave Meddows is dead, unjointed host Azrel is dead: long live Azrel Vox, long live New, unbearable Dave Meddows!" he raised his glass and clinked it on hers.

She burst out laughing " I will drink to that Unbearable Dave. " she said clinking her glass on his. "Oh and those girls were rather nice as I recall." she said winking at him.

The two continued to drink and get reacquainted.

 

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