Missing Links
Posted on June 27th, 2004 by Amythyst Crystals and Ian Blackthorne

Ian Blackthorne and Amythyst Crystals

Amythyst Crystals walked along the smooth pebble path that wound through the blooming hydrangea shrubs in the Arboretum. Vice Admiral Ian Blackthorne walked next to her, seeming to be at once lost in thought and yet highly attentive.

Amy had been overwhelmed the entire time she had been alive…. overwhelmed with the feelings of people she hadn’t met yet knew their deepest dreams, battles she hadn’t fought yet knew every strike, civilizations she hadn’t lived in yet knew every custom, fear and hatred of people on the Atlantis that she hadn’t met, or had met and couldn’t get through to.

Was it the fate of every hero to be shunned and reviled, she wondered?

She turned to Ian, catching the look of naked emotion in his eyes. “Is that anger for me, the Crystalline, or for your breakfast?” she asked with a smile.

Ian looked up into a tree as they walked for a contemplative moment and replied, “It’s more at the whole situation. Do you know that a simple accident started this whole mess?” He walked in silence for a few more steps before continuing, “So many senseless deaths could have been avoided had we simply been able to say hello.”

“I know.” Amy sighed. “But this mission will have you and the Atlantis renowned throughout history. You’ll be establishing communication with a previously hostile, totally incommunicative race. Interracial peace like that is worth its weight in… well… in anything at all.” She picked up a smooth stone with colored flecks in it, rubbing her thumb over the small indent on the side of it. “Your crew’s faith in you will be richly rewarded.”

“Yes, yes…” His faded blue eyes lost focus as they looked off into the distance. “That’s all very well and good, but it’s not quite what I’m worried about right now.” Turning back to look at her, he stopped walking. “Is this at all fair to you? You are also part human, just as much as you are crystalline. You’ve been here such a short time, experiencing everything for the first time, and there’s so much more here and on Earth, and all the other Federation worlds. You should have the right to experience those places as well as the crystalline homeworld.”

She looked at him carefully, her violet eyes taking his expression, her senses on full alert of his genuine concern. He actually wants to know, she thought. “Well, in all honesty, I’d love to see Earth’s oceans, hear the cry of the lunar eagles on Betazed, stand under the falls on Deneb… so many things I know, but have never experienced. But,” she walked a little further, dropping the stone on a different part of the path, “what I want and what needs to happen are two very different things. There’s that old saying about the good of the one…” She drifted off, looking at the stone she had dropped.

“I wish the Vulcan who said that had never been born. I don’t believe that it’s always true.” He looked down at the stone, envying it for a moment. “You’re unique, a hybrid of two warring races that could never create a hybrid through natural means. I’ve never met someone like you, nor will I ever again. So, again, I ask, what about you? Why is it that they demand you go with them?”

“There’s a real chance for actual peace, Ian. The Crystalline are as distrustful as any of your own people, and I’m sure that they want to see if I’m real.” She was confused about the envy she felt, and started to expand on her thoughts for peace, but she was stymied by the emotions Ian was flashing through. “You know… it’s very confusing. You… were genuinely happy to see me walk onto the Bridge. You were glad to bring me here. You.. oh, this is different.” She smiled at him, then, her face lighting up. “I know how it feels for people to care about one another. I have hundreds of feelings inside of me, but you are the first person who has had feelings for me.”

She walked ahead a few steps, then turned to face him. “So many emotions mean different things, now.” “The look of awe on her face was almost comical. “The only emotions I’ve identified and experienced so far have been hatred, distrust and anger. I haven’t been upset to leave the Atlantis because I didn’t identify with anything else.” She walked back to Ian and put her hand on his arm. “What else am I missing?”

Ian was suddenly quite aware of her hand on his arm and looked into her eyes. “You know of negative emotions, and you’ve experienced them here, on my own ship, from my own people. You know about all kinds of positive emotions, but have yet to feel them yourself. That’s just not right.” He lifted his arm and traced a finger down her cheek after brushing a few errant strands of hair aside. “Tell me, how does that feel?”

She smiled and leaned her head on his shoulder. “Aside from my physical in Sick Bay, it’s the first human touch I’ve had. I feel as though I’m waking up from a long sleep, but I can’t remember having been awake in the first place.”

As though in answer to her previous question, Ian tipped her head up and kissed her, slowly, sweetly, thoroughly. As his arms tightened around her, he thought that she wasn’t hard, like a crystal, yet she wasn’t soft, like a human. The feelings shooting through her were too numerous to count, and too intense to put names to. The feelings she felt in him mirrored her own, yet were different, giving her senses a different, male perspective on them. Ian leaned back and smiled at Amy, his pale blue eyes looking deeply into her deep purple ones.

Happiness was an overwhelming emotion.

They walked and talked for several hours, getting some food at one point, dipping their feet in the small stream at another. For the time being, their roles were forgotten, and they simply enjoyed the evening. Their idyll remained intact until a terse comm came through, directed at both of them.

The Crystalline homeworld was on the main viewscreen.