Definitely Not Watery-Eyed (Pt. 1)

Posted on Sun Mar 8th, 2026 @ 11:13am by Ensign Jara'kani & Lieutenant JG Cormac MacArthur

2,437 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Chapter One - Arrivals
Location: USS Lenora - Holosuite
Timeline: 240003.02

Jara'kani had decided long ago that no simulated pool or beach would ever beat or even match Suraya Bay's pristine lagoons. Sure, you could replicate the sights and sounds and even smells, but there was something about it she couldn't put her finger on that you simply had to be there to experience. Maybe it was the sensation of having the real sun warm her skin as she emerged from the water, or the salty scent of the real sea breeze that stilled her heart.

Either way, since she didn't have access to either of those things she settled for the next best thing: a simulated version of Suraya Bay's most famous beach on the Lenora's holodeck, empty of all patrons except herself. And who was she to complain about that? Dressed (or perhaps barely dressed) in a dark green bikini and thong, the Jem'hadar was totally in her element, slicing through the waters with powerful, practised strokes. Sure, she looked a bit like she were swimming for her life, but she'd always considered it to be part of her. So what if she swam a little more vigorously than normal?

Meanwhile, Cormac had just gotten to the door and looked puzzled at the active status. Normally, at this hour, no one was awake. It was public hours, however so anyone could be in there. As he touched the door's control panel, it swished open to a very bright beach.

Admittedly, Jara'kani hadn't really expected visitors. But since these holosuites were public anyway she thought she may as well just roll with it. The Jem'hadar popped up from the water to look at the visitor, entirely unconcerned that she was already barely dressed. Human woman did this all the time, so why couldn't she?

"Hello." She said with a slight smile. "Don't mind the splashing. I like my routines to be fairly strenuous." Well, no, not really - but it did make for a pretty good conversation starter. People liked to comment on the absurd. And/or the highly unusual.

Cormac, who had not yet had a chance to change, found himself in uniform looking over what appeared to be a female version of a tough-skinned bipedal being. "And here I am, ill prepared for this evening." he replied. His hands were starting to build that static energy between them as he clasped them together creating a bit of what could be static electricity.

"No, don't be ridiculous. You are perfectly prepared." Jara'kani replied with a chuckle. "Does my presence make you... uncomfortable?" She teased, quirking both eyebrows at him. It wasn't as if she was going to leave if he'd actually said no, of course - she was long, long past the stage of being willingly displaced by people who found her unsettling.

"Not at all, it is a free ship, for the most part anyway. I just have a lot of energy, so to speak." Cormac said with a smile and a chuckle. Letting go of his hand, he extended his right, "I am Cormac MacArthur." he said in a heavily accented voice of Gaelic. Even the Universal Translator could not filter how his name sounded when he spoke.

"Give me a moment-" Jara'kani hauled herself out of the water and dried off with a towel before reaching out to shake his hand. "Thought it'd be rude to shake your hand when mine is all wet. Jara'kani." She stated.

"You come here often, Cormac? The holosuites?" She asked, quirking an eyebrow at the human. "I wouldn't mind having a frequent fellow swimmer."

"Anytime I get the chance," he said before shaking her hand. "It's been a good bit since I have spent time in the water, I'm afraid. I tend to hover over it these days and reminisce. I'm some what of a genetic mystery lately. " he let out a chuckle.

"Oh, come now. You can't be more of a genetic mystery than I am." Jara'kani replies with a chuckle of her own as she loops an arm around his back ad pulls him forward. "Tell me about it. I guarantee you there is very, very little you can say that I'll find strange."

Cormac felt himself go forward, and a smile washed across his face. "How does alien mold altering ones DNA to make them a touch more electrifying sound?" Cormac put his arm around her back and let out a little shock from contact with the water.

"Well, shit." Jara shivered slightly as she felt static electricity tingle up her spine. "So what kind of superpowers did you take away - the ability to give people little shocks on demand?" Which, honestly, she thought was a fairly silly power - but hey, who's to complain?

"Alien mold from where, exactly? I want superpowers. Did you eat it, or...?"

"A planet called Dava Four, and I do more than that. Allow me to demonstrate?" He asked as he pointed to the water beside them. "I'm still practicing, so bear with me."

"Be my guest." Jara'kani uncurled her arm from around him - mostly for her own safety.

"What're you doing going swimming, then?" She asked, quirking a disbelieving eyebrow at him. "Don't you worry that you'll shock someone with those powers of yours?"

Cormac shook his head. "Practice makes perfect, so they say." Cormac said before turning to the water and rubbing his hands together. As he did, a black substance began to be excreted from them. He took a few deep breaths and then charged toward the water, throwing his hands out in front of him. As he did, an electrostatic field began to form as he jumped. His hands created enough energy to lift him off the ground and above the water as his hands stiffened and moved toward his sides to balance him.

Jara'kani watched in silence. Stunned silence that is, with her hands on her hips and eyes wide as she beheld what should have been a scientific impossibility had she not seen it with her own two eyes.

"Sweet." She called out to him, standing on the shoreline with her feet scrupulously kept away from the water. "So you can fly by creating an electrostatic field that repels you away. I would guess that you can even control the strength of the repulsion and therefore the height you can reach. Convenient."

"Still, how. Dumb luck?" She narrowed her eyes at him with her head tilted. "What were you doing on Dava IV anyway?"

Cormac brought himself back the shore and landed softly on it but lost his footing in the sand, artificial or not, it was still reacting as if it was sand, and he fell backward into the water before he could brace his hands again. Once his hands touched the water, a flash of light sparked between the two palms, and for a brief moment, the holodeck grid could be seen. "Jasus! Fuck me running, that hurts!" He said scrambling to his feet. "Curse rather than dumb luck. And that I can not recall, I just know thats where they found me in a rather altered state."

"Right." Jara'kani folded her arms under her chest and shook her head. "So... what are you, exactly. Human with extra bits added in? Or something else entirely? Because I swear most humans I know don't make black slime when they rub their hands together. Or fly. Or throw static."

"Human with the little bit of extra." Cormac said brusing off the sand on his uniform. "Hence the practice. I am like a capacitor; the longer I go without spending the energy, the more I have until I can't control it." Cormac nodded at his uniform then looked up. "Now your turn, good-looking."

"I was born in a lab. My name used to be just a number - 093- because the idiot who made me made 92 more of me who didn't make it." Jara'kani explained, as casually as she would speak of a hobby or a typical day in her life.

"Funny thing is, he sent me to school. Preschool, primary, secondary, post-secondary, all from homeschool. So I got out by mailing my grades to Starfleet recruitment and letting them pull me out in a raid." She didn't feel the need to mention that she was still chained to Naix at the ankle despite him being no longer physically present - or the various scenarios that he'd put her through to prove that she was smart. That was for another day.

"I'm not angry about it. Why should I be? I feel good in my own body." She added with a smirk. "And I'm a free woman. I am me and not a specimen in a lab. What's not to celebrate?"

Cormac listened with intent to know more about the woman in front of him, "Numbers don't suit anyone. Even former Borg, they all deserve a name." his hand moved toward the lover half of his shirt where he grabbed it and began to remove it. "It's warm in here. This uniform is super stuffy." he commented as he tossed his uniform top over toward the holodeck entrance or at least where he thought it would be.

"You're teasing me." Jara'kani quipped as said uniform top sailed over her head and landed in the sand. "That, or you're just used to people looking. Which is it?"

"What's there to tease?" Cormac asked as he looked at his body, "I could afford to lose a little weight, at least according to Starfleet Medical over on Starbase 2." His chest had a few very faint scars from some injury he had yet to reveal. Other than that, it was an average fit build.

"Confident, then. Used to having eyes on you. Because you're clearly not too bothered about undressing in front of a lady." Jara'kani stated as she strode towards him, one meaningful step at a time. "Least of all a lady you're meeting for the very first time. Something tells me that isn't just because Medical has been looking at you over and over again."

"So what do you do for fun, Mr. Cormac, apart from shoot electricity and undress in front of ladies?" She teased. "And swim despite all of that, obviously?"

"Well, I am just shirtless, after all. The rest is for interested parties. As for fun, I tend to enjoy a good run out in the open; a good bite to eat is always a winner. " Cormac did not move or flinch, but instead watched Jara'kani move closer toward him in what he thought was a very clear move.

"Interested?" The Jem'hadar quirked both eyebrows in amusement. "Fascinating."

"You're not running." She noted with wry amusement. "Good. I like that. Some men take one look and lose their cool. Some of their brains can't take the idea that yes, I'm a thing and stop working."

"You learn a few things growing up on Risa. You're not moving, which tells me you're actually not all that opposed to what could happen in the next few minutes." She continued, stopping just a few feet from him. "Am I right?"

Cormac moved forward two steps, one at a time, with clear intent. "I am not opposed to what might happen."

"Interesting. Very interesting." Jara'kani smirked as she threw an arm around his back and pulled him up the beach with surprising strength. Slighter as she might've been than her male counterparts, she still possessed considerable strength.

"I have drinks in my bag if you want some." She added. "In case you need something to... wet your whistle. Mostly chocolate, though."

Cormac for a brief moment was surprised by the movement but that passed and he went with it. "Nothing wrong with either. What's to drink then?" he asked.

"Again, mostly chocolate drinks. And water." Jara'kani replied as she sat down on her towel and looked through her bag. From it she withdrew what seemed to be bottles of a chocolate malt drink called Milo, a chocolate-flavored protein shake and... a bottle of plain water.

"I can't get enough of it." She sighed as she unscrewed the protein shake and took a sip. "Chocolate was the first thing I had when I was freed. Before that all I had to eat was blocks of protein."

Cormac took a seat next to her and nodded as he grabbed the Milo and shook it up. "I enjoy it with peanut better. There are something called Buckeyes, they are peanut butter balls dipped in milk chocolate. They are something you find mostly in a place called Ohio, on Earth."

"Tell me more. I must try them someday." Jara'kani requested as she lay on her side, body turned towards him, with her head propped up in her hand and one leg draped over the other, chest pushed up gently against the towel.

"There is something for every place on Earth, I think. A place called Wyoming for instance, Rocky Mountain Oysters in a chocolate drizzle. I enjoyed them until I found out what part of an animal they were from." Cormac twisted the lid off the malt and brought it to his lips pouring it slowly down his throat.

"Come on, tell me." Jara'kani quirked both eyebrows as she shifted closer to him. "I have seen some odd things on Risa. Trust me when I say there are very, very few foods that scare me."

"They happen to be the testicular sack of an animal known as a bull." Cormac shuddered a little bit before leaning back to lay down, "It might appeal to some species but for this guy," he said pointing to himself, "it ruined the thought of the food."

"I'd try it. Once." Jara'kani stated with a smile. "Perhaps I might hate it. Perhaps I might never eat it again. But I will be able to say that I have learned something about myself - even if that something is that I hate bull testicles."

"How's the Milo? I had it once as a cadet. Now I cannot get enough of it." She asked. "I wonder if that is what I'm truly addicted to. Not ketracel white, but a sweet brown human confection known to rot teeth if eaten in excess."

"It's pretty good, definitely sweet. I have a drink recomendation called a Mud Slide. Next time you get a chance to order one, I hightly recommend it. This reminds me a bit of it's flavor." Cormac said with a smile.

To Be Continued in Part Two...

 

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