Star Trek Enterprise Fanfiction (Malcolm x Hoshi and other pairings...)

4. Kartika Temple

Despite slight dizziness and a strange feeling in her stomach, Hoshi reached her quarters safely. Once inside she dimmed the lights and headed straight for the bathroom. She took her clothes off and stepped into the shower, turning the water on. She had to raise the setting to make it warmer, her fingertips all of a sudden feeling ice cold. Steam rose from the warm water and as Hoshi looked at it, it seemed to change to a turquoise hue. Seconds later tiny stars appeared in Hoshi's vision and started dancing in the blue steam, it was starting to look awfully similar to the nebula she had seen on the viewing screen. She turned the water off and got out, quickly drying herself and putting on her pyjamas as she felt her knees starting to buckle beneath her. By the time she reached her bunk bed her stomach seemed to be spinning. She felt dizzy, disoriented. She considered calling Phlox but decided to try and lie down first. She remembered a piece of advice that both Phlox and Malcolm had given her several times over the past months. When feeling stressed, disoriented or trapped, take slow deep breaths, the oxygen will help your system. She tried it and it seemed to be working, both her head and stomach seemed to calm down somewhat. Covered with her blanket she felt better, warm and somehow safer, like in a cocoon or womb. Turning to the side she stared out of her windows at the stars outside. Her eyelids felt heavier and she slid into a curious half-sleep, her dreams very vivid, almost like visions.

On the Parveen World, in the Kartika temple, the Priestesses stood in a circle holding hands over a shimmering pool of water. The velvet dark sky jewelled with stars glittered above their heads, as the temple had no roof. The darkness of the sky intermingled with the gas clouds and distant blue stars of the cluster which together created magnificent shades of blues and turquoises stretching from one end of the horizon to the other. The temple's walls were made of silver glittering stone, with great openings between the columns. The openings were lightly covered by richly coloured pieces of finely woven fabric. The whole temple looked more like a woven net or a coral structure than a building. The priestesses wore glittering dark clothes, with colorful symbols upon them and shiny cloaks reaching to their feet. They thought of the Starship that had neared their star cluster. They knew it would come to visit them again, but now it had to continue on its course... which was now steered in another direction, than before, as fate had it.