Clearing the Air Part I
Posted on Sun Feb 22nd, 2026 @ 4:49pm by Lieutenant Vura & Major Edmund Merrick
Edited on on Wed Feb 25th, 2026 @ 9:33am
1,612 words; about a 8 minute read
Mission:
Episode 17 - Going Home
Location: Holodeck 1 - Deck 5 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD005 1300 hrs
Several days had passed since they left Wren IX and the chaos that had happened during the whole Silence mission. Edmund had come across several images that he had drawn previously, one of which was Vura. It had been drawn after they had first met, her outfit and the light in her eyes he had captured. His mind then went to the fight they had, and then to the letter he had sent to her.
The corners of his mouth turned downwards, as Edmund reviewed the message he had sent to her before he and the others went down to the planet of the Silence. They had been on the path of being friends but could they even step back onto that path. He wasn't certain. A list had been formed in his mind as what had happened on the planet, then afterwards--
Edmund laughed slightly, the memory of what happened afterwards when they had gotten to Empok Nor caused the frown to disappear. That certainly was a life changing and mind-altering experience. He decided to find out where Vura was. He asked the computer.
"Computer, what is the location of Vura?" then waited for the answer.
The Computer responded, "Lieutenant Vura is in Holodeck 1."
Holodeck 1 Edmund mused to himself, the last time they had spoken was in a holodeck and that was on Empok Nor. He decided to go down, and see about talking to her, once she was done with her session. Nothing wrong with waiting.
Edmund arrived to Holodeck 1, the archway which led to the inner chamber of the holodeck. To his surprise it activated, he'd not had that happen before.
"Uh hello?" his voice called through the arch.
There was no answer to Edmund's question. Perhaps the reason for that was that he heard a roar of water crashing somewhere in the distance. It was fast, furious, and continuous. Wherever that might be, though, he could not tell, as there was no water immediately present. Instead, he found himself in a lush world. Trees and greenery were everywhere. However, there did seem to be some trampled grass and vegetation at a 45 degree angle to where he was standing.
Edmund regarded this revelation for a moment, his arms crossed over his chest. His curiosity was piqued. Uncrossing his arms Edmund decided to follow the trail. The vegetation quietly brushed along the blue jeans he was wearing, his brown boots not making a sound due to the roar of the crashing water. A leaf fell upon his shoulder, he brushed it away from his light grey tee shirt and continued on.
The "trail," such as it was continued to lead him towards the roar of water. As he got closer, Edmund might have noticed the sound of female laughter. Whose voice it was, though, he could not tell.
The laughter, muffled by the water's sound, made Edmund move forward even more to where he could get a perception of where it was coming from. He felt though like he had stepped inside a live session of a D&D world, and he was the fighter adventurer he normally played. Garrick Ironwolf. Foliage blocked his vision, then he pushed the fernlike frond aside to gaze towards the merry sound.
The waterfall gave way to a rather large pool. In it were four, obviously unclothed female Deltans all soaking in the water. Since only their heads were showing at the moment, distinguishing them was a little difficult. Though, of the ones that were not Vura, one seemed to have a more hawkish nose. The other two had differing eye colors: one with green eyes, and the other with brown eyes.
The brown eyed Deltan without the hawkish nose was looking directly at Vura and said, "And then he told me that my butt was too rough. Can you believe that?"
Vura shook her head and replied, "Would you like me to verify that?"
All the women giggled.
The woman with the hawkish nose looked in Edmund's direction. She said nothing as the women continued to chatter. However, telepathically, she told Vura, ~There's a man spying on us. I think we should give him a show.~
Devilishly Vura replied telepathically, ~I think that is only fair.~ She then informed all of the other women of what was occurring and they all laughed. She knew it was Edmund. Knowing him, he meant nothing by his intrusion but torturing him would be delicious payback.
Therefore, Vura and the Deltan women started to be more overt and subtly direct their feminine wiles in Edmund's direction.
He stood there, gawked for a moment, then catching himself stuttered out. "P-pardon me ladies, I seem to have walked into someplace I shouldn't be, and I don't think that I should be here with such beauties," Edmund quickly turning around and beat a hasty retreat in the direction of the archway.
Vura called after him laughing, "Can't handle the beauty of a Deltan woman or four? Shame!"
Edmund called out over his shoulder. "Oh, I don't think I would survive that, Vura." A tone in Edmund's voice conveyed that he was grinning. "I did come to see you, of which I saw a bit more than I was expecting" feeling is face heat up.
He paused then added, "And sorry to have interrupted your personal time. I wanted to talk with you, but that can wait." Gone were the edges of anger that had seemed to leak out from him in his previous exchanges with Vura.
Edmund could hear Vura's voice call, "Computer, freeze program." She then stepped out of the water and found a towel, wrapped it around herself and tied it so it would not slip down. She walked towards Edmund and asked devilishly, "Which view was nice?"
Edmund gave a embarrassed chuckle. "All of it?" he looked back to the scenery. "Is this Delta?"
"It is a part of it," Vura confirmed. "However, it is only a part. I'm certain that you have places like this on Earth, but not all of it looks like that. The same is true on Delta IV." She then put her hand on her waist and said, "You do realize that saying, 'all of it,' is seriously avoiding any decision, right? You don't need to be politically correct. Have a preference."
Edmund shook his head, "I would prefer not to say."
Vura wrinkled her nose. "Sometimes, you can be a downright chivalrous bore, Edmund." She strutted up to him, surprisingly in a non-sultry way. "So, Edmund, you wanted to see me. This is now twice. Tradition says that I should wait for your third effort, but you're here and I'm literally caught with my pants down, or at least off, so what do you want?"
Edmund chuckled, "I am glad I haven't changed a bit when it comes to my being a chivalrous bore." He gave her a wink. His face went somber after his smile.
"What I wanted to talk about was the letter that I sent to you before I went down to the Silence World and honestly I probably could have approached the subject in another way. Emotions were high due to the influence of the Silence, among other things. I was angry, I felt hurt, as I was trying to share a memory that I cherished I had of my sister and it went into a sensual direction. And then it quickly went in a different direction that neither of us anticipated. I needed to be a bit more calm and approach you about things that were causing me problems."
He paused and asked the computer to form two chairs, a bit more pertaining, to the scenery.
"Can we sit down and discuss this? I'd like to clear the air." His eyes formed a pleading expression in them.
Vura frowned at Edmund. Once again, it was always about his needs, his thoughts, and his views. "Look, Edmund, I highly doubt that you want to hear anything that I have to say on the subjects. Perhaps we should just keep it that way. Maybe Rowena will be everything that you need or want."
Edmund actually shook his head, not even angry at her words. "It's not really about my needs it is more on the fact that I said some hurtful things to you as well. That was just my trying to open up the conversation. That is all. I'm not a counselor, nor have I claimed to be one. And I should have led with I am sorry."
Raising an eyebrow and tilting his head slightly to one side. "And I'm not here to talk about Rowena. His voice didn't show any true emotion when he spoke her name.
"You and I were on the way to being friends. Then things went sideways." He took a seat on the chair that appeared, Deltan in design. "This is rather comfortable."
Vura wanted to be mad at Edmund. He just kept needling her and needling her and saying hurtful things. However, she had to remember that he was male and men were just stupid, especially non-Deltan males. Finally, she exhaled exasperated. He did apologize. Sure, it was at least a week overdue, but he did it. The least she could do was hear him out.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Vura
Chief Counselor, USS Pioneer
Major Edmund Merrick
Company Commanding Officer Officer, The Cure
USS Pioneer
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