THE LOST GIRL WITH THE KC BLUES By Lashunda C. Johnson

CHAPTER I-LASHUNDA'S STORY

The stars traveled in different directions as I lived on this ship, Enterprise-E. The new ship was bigger than the previous yet, the exobiological ship brought back painful memories. Recently, I became twenty but nobody seem to notice but I didn't care since this was very usual for me. I didn't know how to begin about my life as a Starfleet officer since it seems so long ago. My career looked irksome to some even though my real antiquity was sketchy. I am Lieutenant Lashunda C. Spencer of the USS Enterprise-E, formerly of the Enterprise-D. I graduated second in my class at thirteen although I was stationed on the Enterprise in 2364 when I was twelve, which proved that I was the actual youngest Starfleet officer on the ship since many said that Wesley Crusher was the youngest, which was untrue. I was a computer technical operator and a science specialist. I had curly, waist-length locks, which were now straighten; smooth, medium-brown skin; a button nose; deep dimples; full V-shaped lips; large dark brown eyes; and a slightly bony forehead. I was from a mixture of Klingon, Vulcan, and Native American descent even though I was diminutive and skinny with a 44 DDD chest. Fortunately, I wore special bras that condense my large bosom. Pretty unusually, huh. Strangely, I had a brief crush on Wesley until I discovered his true personality. He was a two-faced egotistical, snotty amentia; and those were his good characteristics. Wesley, that worthless bag of garbage, wouldn't know a quantum electron generator if it landed on his flabby, pimple-infested mug. I should know because I was his former tutor. I mean, the guy was a complete infuriating dolt. The mere sight of him now made me want to vomit. It all started when we first met on the Turbo-lift with his mother, Dr. Crusher. The Chief Medical Officer introduced me to her mother. As we shook hands, I felt electricity from his touch. Suddenly, Cupid's arrow found my heart and Wesley Eugene Crusher became my crush. To me, I thought that he was my true darling. Yet, after two months of torment with Wesley's verbal assaults and the senior officers' favoritism toward Wesley altered my complete love for him into inadequate abhorrence. From then on, our relationship became troublesome. Many of the senior officers, especially Riker and Picard gave him favoritism. This helped fuel the fire. I responded quietly as he gave me both public and private torment. Until in 2365 on the Bridge, Wesley gave the most painful verbal insult that I ever endured. In my very first fit of rage, I gave a surprising assault with a fervid slap to that punk's face. The hit echoed throughout the Bridge and left my handprint on his facial cheek for weeks. Despite my diminutive victory, I was punished with the cancellation of my much-needed vacation on Vilac IX and spent two weeks with Capt. Picard at the boring Starfleet Admiral/Commander conferences. Now in my new quarters I put on my roller blade armor over my black bell-bottoms and my long-sleeved black and blue Smashing Pumpkins hockey jersey. Shortly later, I left and skated all over the corridors of my floor while I passed by and greeted my crewmates with friendly hand waves. As I passed my quarters for the second time, I nearly collided with the Captain while he went to the nearest Docking Bay to leave for a covert mission. I then excused myself after I sensed his masculine yet sweet pungency and brushed my face with his chest. For several moments, we stared at each other. I was 5'2 while he was 5'8. He wore his standard red Captain uniform but I noticed that he had on the silver wristband that I gave him on Surak's birthday, which was a Vulcan holiday that I celebrated. On the holiday, it was required to give a silver gift to your neighbor since it symbolized harmony and respect. I didn't know why I gave that gift to him even though he lived right in front of me. I got the bracelet from Deep Space Nine while I momentarily was stationed there. As he fixed the bracelet on his wrist, I looked around the corridor for a moment and returned my glaze on him. His pale shorn head shined against the corridor's lights. Finally, he looked up and showed his blue eyes, which always strangely haunted me. His eyes were one of his features that absolutely frighten me, but I didn't perceived why. Then he gave a warm smile and put his hand on my shoulder.

CHAPTER II-NARRATOR'S STORY

Lashunda felt slightly uncomfortable but looked at him with a stone face. Jean-Luc then removed his hand from her shoulder and brushed away a lock from her baby doll-face. She rather liked his gentle touch since it came from a strong yet aged hand. Later she turned away and bit her bottom lip as she tried to figure out what to say. When she returned her glare to him, she covered her blushed face with her hand and peeked through an opening between her fingers to see that he was still there. "Boy, she's shy," Jean-Luc thought as he removed her hand from her face. Her dark eyes glazed into his somewhat exotic blue eyes while he held her hand. She blinked when Picard's communication badge sounded. It was Riker from the Bridge. Although Lashunda disliked Riker, she was glad that he interrupted them. "I'll see you later, Yeoman." He smiled as he released his grip and walked away. Picard still called her Yeoman, yet now as a form of sententious affection. He began this since her return as his crewmate four years ago. Also secretly she was his biological daughter. She was created naturally by both him and her mother, Sara Spencer on his former ship, the Starglazer. His relationship with Sara began in 2350 after Jack Crusher introduced Jean-Luc to Sara at a small party on the ship. Almost instantly, the two fell in love yet, neither did know yet until a couple of months later. Coincidentally, Lt. Cmdr. Sara J'oplia Olivier Spencer was in heat and badly needed a mate because if she didn't receive a mate soon, she would die. Covertly, she tried to control it however each day she became worse and worse and Picard's unannounced appearances didn't help either. Finally, it stopped when they had their first intimate encounter in the Turbo-lift. It initiated as they slowly stood closer and closer together. Shortly later they tediously held hands. Jean-Luc gently rubbed his thumb against her almost chocolate hand. Sara quietly caressed him with her free arm around his neck. Her very full V-shaped lips parted barely while her fingers stroked his receding yet thick reddish-brown mane. As time passed, their bound grew stronger but it was tested when she became both tortured and used as a guinea pig in bizarre experiments during a secret mission. During this, she learned that she was pregnant with Jean-Luc's baby. Despite, she didn't know that she was already pregnant during the infamous Uorp'ans mission. When Picard discovered about the "happy news", he was thrilled and prepared for fatherhood. While their fetus offspring developed, their relationship became gradually strained. Eventually, Lashunda's biological mother left him when Lashunda (Sean-Luc) was two. Sara's brother, Krom and his wife adopted Lashunda thereafter. Lashunda returned to her quarters and changed into her blue uniform while she put her mane into a ponytail. She felt somewhat terrible today since she recently had a violent flashback. Her near-death from an induced-poison while stationed on Deep Space Nine caused her to have rather lengthy yet intense flashbacks, which happened unpredictably. Luckily, the poisoner was caught but when Picard heard about Lashunda's near death ordeal, he had a fit and wanted to kill the contaminator himself. Before she left her quarters, she rubbed her dark neck. As she stood quietly in the Turbo-lift, she thought about her next session with Dr. Mercury Braxton. She had sessions with him twice a week. He was young but experienced psychologist. He was a 6'2 young man with rather thick red wavy medium-length locks, blue eyes, rather full lips, a long yet thin nose, a noble chin, very high-distinguished facial cheekbones, and a large yet lean muscular frame. Today he wore a dark purple long sleeved shirt, black trousers, black wingtips, and a black blazer with a Princeton crest. Moments later, she arrived at his office. The office was a pecan-colored area with mixed office furniture from both early 19th and later 20th centuries Earth. The slightly older man greeted the officer with a firm handshake and smile. The ancient 21st century desk lamp made his blue eyes sparkle as he spoke gently to her with a mixed accent of West Californian and South Alaskan and showed her to a 23rd century styled walnut armchair. After she sat down, she relaxed and tugged on her uniform. "Dr. Braxton, please forgive my unusual behavior. I just had a horrible flashback. I can only remember a small portion of it yet I'll try to tell you." "Proceed." So, she told him as he listened carefully. After she finished, he gave her a clear analysis, which she mostly understood. "Doctor, I'm sorry to say this." She paused. "I think that I am partly to blame. Well, I formerly used both my Starfleet career and my other career, music as hiding places. I never could balance them because I would use one to hide from the other and vice versa. Now I can't hide from neither of them." She folded as he continued to listen. Soon he began to analyze her new problem. He persisted on articulating until conclusively Lt. Spencer's hourly session was over, and she returned her quarters. Concisely, Sean-Luc looked at the stars from my window before she turned on her music disk player/mini-jukebox and played Elton John's "Daniel". Serendipitously, Daniel was the middle name of Running River, who was her adoptive paternal grandfather's brother. Whilst the song played, a light-colored alien ship came near the Enterprise. The ship was called the Marvis Pearl, which was one of the alien ships visiting the Enterprise. After a moment had passed, the gray music player changed and played Enos' "Kudos and Pepper", which was the classic cub dance remix version. Abba, which was Shun-Luc's nickname, danced to it as her Terran beagle, Zeppelin watched nearby. Her dog was black and white and ate replicated food while her snake was green with black spots and ate fresh vegetables. Then she took Izzy, her Klingon boa out of its aquarium and continued to dance. Soon she switched it to play mode with the white button and put on her solo album, "KC Blues". The album was named after her illness, The Kurt Carpenter Depression or KC Blues, for short. The disorder, itself, was after the founder of this new type of depression. The symptoms were self-torture, isolation, work addiction, unusual calmness, diffidence, rage fits, appearance concealment, and weirdness. Lashunda was now dealing with one day at a time. The album consisted: MORE THAN A FEELING (BOSTON) GOODBYE OLD CONSOCIATE (SPENCER) WINTER COMES (SPENCER) PLACE IN THIS WORLD (MICHAEL W. SMITH) KC BLUES (SPENCER) WHAT IT TAKES (AEROSMITH) MISS WORLD (HOLE) JUST PLAINLY TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME (CARPS) TWO OUT OF THREE AIN'T BAD (MEATLOAF) IF MY HEART GAVE IT NOW-DUET WITH CRYSTAL WAITERSON (SPENCER) GATHER'S CHILD (SPENCER) LIKE A ROLLING STONE (BOB DYLAN) FALLEN ROSES (SPENCER)

Her fourth solo album was the most personal to date. She produced and engineered as well as wrote all of the original songs and performed on all of the instruments while she both mixed and digital mastered at Doe Homes Studios, which she created herself with her Lava Lamp-Computer's help. Her pets also contributed on the album. In "Winter Comes", Zeppelin provided his howls while Izzy hissed in the introduction of "Fallen Roses" and slivered loudly in the climax of the bass solo of "Gather's Child". Lashunda (Sean-Luc) listened to her works completely before she returned to the Bridge. As she approached the helm, Riker stopped her and told her that the new Captain wanted to meet her in the Ready Room. Lt. Spencer found this strange because when he told her, the Bridge was exceptionally silent. After she entered the Ready Room, she noticed that the new captain was a 6'1 boyish-looking Terran man with violet eyes, slightly smooth olive skin, a conventional-shaped pointy nose, undiscernibly full lips, a sculpted chin, bushy Tom Cruise-like eyebrows, and thick straight dark blonde locks that came halfway down his elbow. He wore a standard Executive uniform, a ponytail, black fingernail polish, and a small black oval Starfleet class ring with a skull inside it on his first index finger. He was the former captain of the USS Odes for five years. Its new captain was now Baniel James, the ship's former second commanding officer. Capt. Naves was five years younger than Cmdr. Riker and previously served with Cmdr. Sisko. His close friends called him "Hud". "Hello Lt. Spencer," he remarked balmy with a dark silky voice with a faded Cajun accent. "I'm Captain Hilen Naves, your new commanding officer. You must be my new Yeoman." He smiled with a gentle head bow. "Yes," She nodded calmly. Capt. Naves noticed that the young officer bore some resemblance to the previous captain with her chin, facial cheekbones, smile, and deep dimples even though her chin didn't had a dimple. "I'm sorry that you weren't told sooner but I will give you details later. For now, I need a report on the M'iopyan Battle on Dence VIII. "Well Helmsman, set a course to Earth 5," He spoke amusingly as Lashunda went to the Bridge's main computer to research. She worked it as Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" played in her mind. Today she seems happy but didn't understand why. Soon Capt. Naves sat on his commanding chair and crossed his legs. Cmdr. Riker glanced at him jealously before the older officer returned his attention to the screen. "Damn! Why most of the time they replaced him with another captain instead of me. This totally sucks!" Riker thought as he leaned back in his seat sideways with his legs crossed. "Sore butt, huh Riker," chuckled Hilen as he turned to Riker. The Bridge mostly chortled, including Lashunda. "Punk!" Riker snapped quietly as he continued to look at the screen. Fortunately, the young Captain didn't hear him. Lashunda went into her quarters and removed her uniform top as she sighed. She took her hair down as she turned on her console and checked for messages. There weren't any. Then she pulled off her pants yet kept her boxers on after she turned off her console. It was now almost bedtime as the quarters became silent. The stars passed her window. Janet Jackson's "I Get So Lonely" started to play in her mind. That song was the story of her life. "It's only a memory if somebody commemorates," said Lashunda softly. "I am Hamlet, Ophelia, and Cymbeline into one. A soul, that is so tormented and confused, has madness for a core. A specter, that is so shredded, has pure numbness." Then she took off her boots and went to bed. Several hours afterwards, she woke up to the sound of Abba's "Dancing Queen" on her alarm/mini-jukebox. It was an eighteenth birthday gift from her "Aunt Sara". Shun-Luc liked it but it played mostly Abba tunes. The gift was one of the few birthday gifts that came on time during her birthday. Unfortunately, Lashunda was confirmed to her quarters with the Romulan Mumps at the time. One of the other presents was a puppy, that Lashunda called "Zeppelin". Ironically, Zeppelin was Lashunda's boon from Picard. He secretly put the canine at her door himself. He quietly hid nearby and watched the ill-stricken young woman come out and the puppy. She wore a white long-sleeved gown that came down the floor and a lengthy dark scarf that was wrapped around her neck. Her brown face was swollen while her facial cheeks were covered with large orange rashes. Within two weeks, Lashunda fully recovered and returned to her post. During that following week, she had her braces removed and cut her hair to shoulder-length with bangs. At the present time, Lashunda changed into her blue uniform with 10-inched black platform Starfleet boots, bright green lip-gloss, and her black Starfleet fanny pack. The sides of her black curls were pinned back into a braided ponytail while the rest hung down. She went to the Bridge and began to work on the helm. As she piloted the ship, she watched many stars pass the vessel. As she continued to work, the Bridge was completely silenced. After several hours had passed, she moved to the Bridge main computer and sat quietly as she worked. Momentarily, Capt. Naves came to her. She then turned around and gave him the assigned report. He thanked her with a smile. Lt. Spencer responded with a small head bow. After two hours went by, she returned to her quarters and answered her messages that were on her standard office desk console. There were several but the first was from Alidar Ken' ab Jarok, the new owner of Tork Records. He took over the business when the previous proprietary sold it two months after Lashunda's contact ended. They only met five times when he became the new boss. Lashunda turned on her first message, which sounded like this: Hello Ms. Spencer, it is Alidar Jarok, CEO of Tork Records. My lawyer and I have found something important concerning with your contract. Please contact me as soon as possible. Thank you. The beep ended the message as the consule went to another message. The second one was from Adm. Benton Russell. He told her the recent report about the Synthetic Mutants or Sutants for short, which was the Mutative Children' new name. They were created by a now extinct race, Uorp'ans. The Uorp'ans were an evil race who tried to other races with mutations but their plan somewhat backfired. Their experiments help strengthen many races and made most of the children immortal, especially those who died mysteriously. Currently, the Sutants were now zombies except for one, Lashunda. She was the only living Sutant left. Lashunda discovered this terrible secret three years ago from her friend, Othella Quinn Wallychuck. Othella was Adm. Quinn's semi-interplanetary daughter. Since Shun-Luc was one of the Sutants, she had very close ties with them because some of them were both her former classmates and confidential friends. Also Adm. Russell had a son, who was a Zombie Sutant Mystic. Only a few of the Sutants had mystic powers. During the last five years, they had predicted many events, including the Enterprise-Nexus Incident, the Dominion Encounter, Sarek's death, and Kahless' return. Ironically, they told her telepathically days before they occurred. Like the Zombie Sutants, Abba was forbidden to tell about the predictions because of the timeline. Occasionly, she wanted to tell but didn't have the enough courage to do it. Today, Adm. Russell told her that the Sutants now had two planets. The newly-inhibited planet was named Ioulaus. Then he gave her some details before the messages ended. Later she listened to the rest of the messages and answered before she returned to duty. This time she was at the helm. The Bridge was silent as the senior officers continued to work. For several hours, it remained that way until Capt. Naves went to his Ready Room. Lt. Spencer then left the helm and joined him. They worked together till her shift was over. The young Starfleet officer quietly returned to her quarters. While she returned to her sleep in a fresh long yet dark pair of Sonic Youth pajamas, she strangely recognized Picard's scent. He was nearby. Fleetly she went to her quarters' door. The door opened and there stood Picard in his uniform, which moderately sloppy. She found all of it very odd since it was now a little past midnight. The Captain also had a gym bag in his hand. The next morning Lashunda made breakfast in her blue Starfleet uniform while Jean-Luc made the bed. The sides of her lengthy curls were pinned back with a black Vulcan IPIC insignia-shaped hair clip while she wore light peach lipgloss and a black Starfleet fanny-pack. As she fixed the two cups of Earl Grey, the older officer came out of her bedroom and wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt, dark pants, and black boots. His blue eyes stared quietly at the dark-skinned young woman for several moments before she looked up at him. Since she first arrived on the Enterprise in 2364, his gazes at Lashunda became very common. Unfortunately, they always bothered her but she didn't know the reasons of his ogles because he never told her. "Captain, you never told me the reason that you are hiding out in my quarters." She said from her chair after she took a sip out of her tea. "Because I was ordered to by Adm. Webster and that's the end of the discussion." He took a sip out of his Earl Grey. Briefly afterwards, he became sentimental with silence as his eyes looked at her up and down. "I'm sorry, Lashunda for being so cold. I didn't mean to. I'm in a bad mood today." "I understand." She remarked calmly and swept several strands away from her shoulders. He smiled with his cup near his lips. Moments later, she finished her breakfast and tugged on her uniform. Thereupon she put away her dish and headed for the door. Jean-Luc followed her but stopped her near the door. "See you later," he spoke rather shyly heretofore he gave a quick kiss on the nose and a reasonably lengthy hug. "Okay," She said gently while she softly rubbed his back with her brown hands.

The End of Act I Pictures

Courtesy of Alidar Jarok, Mary Jensen, and Lars Ivarsson

Special Thanks to the credited, which are above.

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