Star Trek - Outwardly Mobile
Ayam and the All
by
Jay P Hailey and Garry Stahl

 

Ayam was on the medical table. She had quite an audience. Dr Burlington, T'Sing the healer, Kamaline, Gensilan, Analessur and Rotamgreb. They all watched a bank of displays and chatted avidly about what they were seeing.

I was there because I was curious, but helpless to contribute. Ayam grinned a pretty, dimpled grin and her hand became a paw. Something cat-like with serious claws.

I watched things change on the monitor and the chatter grow more excited.

"Anyone care to try to explain to a layman what we're seeing?" I asked.

T'Sing raised her eyebrow at me and considered it. "If I am right, Ayam's cells can change."

"Oh?"

"A muscle cell can become a neuron, which can become a structural member not unlike cartilage or bone."

I nodded dumbly. It sounded impossible.

"Her cells can move in regards to each other and can hold on to each other very strongly, Captain." Rotamgreb explained. In this way she can shift mass around and make soft tissue appear hard and hard tissue dissolve away in an instant.

"The scans tickle." Ayam said. "You're saving the data?"

"Oh, yes, yes we are."

Kamaline shook her head and smiled beautifully. She was like a kid in a candy store. "I have never seen a life form like this. Captain. She's amazing."

Ayam giggled again. "Thank you."

Kamaline chuckled and dropped a little curtsey "You are a fascinating subject and a good colleague."

Ayam laughed. "I don't think even Ynosedrev has complimented me so broadly."

"So." I struggled "Her cells can be anything she wants them to be?"

Rotamgreb locked at me dubiously. "Yeeesss."

I shook my head "That's impossible. Show does any given cell know what to be? How are neural impulses transmitted? How is energy metabolized and transmitted from cell to cell?"

Rotamgreb liked that question. He smiled like a college professor with a bright student. "We suspect that Ayam's cells may have multiple functions that they do all the time, a little bit of nerve, a little bit of blood, enough to keep her alive as she goes."

"I don't eat much unless I am thinking very hard or shape changing a lot." Ayam said. "If I choose a form that has a lot of muscle mass I'll also eat quite a bit. So my body must be pretty efficient at absorbing and distributing nutrition and energy."

Gensilan looked at her with a curious expression. "So if you want your brain can get bigger?"

"Yes."

"What's that like?"

"I try hard to think harder and I do."

"May I attempt telepathic contact?"

"Feel free."

Gensilan moved over to the medical table and looked at Ayam. He gaze became fond. "Thank you."

They stared at other for a bit. As they did, Gensilan's expression became more distant. At first Ayam's face was a mask of joy and surprise. Then she took on an expression of concentration

I realized I was holding my breath.

Gensilan's expression became positively vacant.

Ayam stared into her eyes. Suddenly her features flowed and rearranged themselves. It was very odd to watch. And there Gensilan was on the table looking back into Gensilan's face. At least Ayam-Gensilan was still wearing her Atebian uniform.

They stared at each other blankly for a few minutes then Gensilan shook herself and seemed to wake up.

"Ayam! No! Come back to me!" Gensilan shook Ayam urgently.

The doctors moved quickly to Ayam's side. Marcella and T'Sing started exchanging information about pulse, respiration and other vital statistics while re-arranging their equipment. I thought I understood the words but I wasn't fishing the meaning out.

Kamaline slid up to me. "Ayam now has Gensilan's vital signs. They're good, but the neural activity sensor is doing something weird."

Ayam's features melted and slid again. Rotamgreb and Analessur continued to monitor information.

The melting, shifting flesh rearranged to a small Ane, curled up on the medical bed. It rose to it's feet and made a noise. The voice was reminiscent of Gensilan's if she'd been inhaling helium.

Gensilan grabbed Ayam and peered into eye eyes

Falban and Resilan bombed into sickbay on the run, they didn't stop or utter greetings they just moved up to Gensilan and one grabbed each shoulder.

The noise the small Gazelle was making sounded happy, joyous. Three part harmony by piccolos who were being tickled. The noise faltered and the harmony shattered.

Now the piccolos were heart broken. The sound was heartbreakingly sad.

The one quarter scale Ane collapsed sadly and melted into an oblong puddle about the color and consistency of vanilla pudding.

Marcella's voice was grim "We can't keep up with this. Every time she changes form she throws all of our assumptions out the window."

Gensilan's knees buckled. Falban and Resilan kept her from collapsing. T'Sing abandoned Ayam and moved to Gensilan's side. "What is wrong?"

Gensilan tried to answer but seemed out of it. Exhausted or intoxicated.

T'Sing picked her up and carried her to another sickbay bed. Falban and Resilan looked at each other, amused. "She'll be fine, healer."

"I must make certain." T'Sing placed her hand on Gensilan's face. "My mind to your mind."

"If these readings are correct," Analessur told Burlington "Ayam just expended a huge amount of energy."

Marcella looked up. "Really?"

"Yes, her cells are in some sort of neutral mode and the balances of electrolytes and. well. body surgars looks low."

Marcella stepped back. "Treat her, Doctor."

Analessur looked at Burlington "This is your sickbay."

"And you have some sort of idea of what's normal. I'm flying blind."

Analessur moved over to Ayam's bedside. "Umm, a glucose drip. We'll feed her enough glucose to stabilize her body and then see of we can get a response."

Nurse Kabonyan appeared with the right equipment. After a moment's hesitation, Analessur just stuck the end of the hose into the mass of Vanilla pudding.

After a few moments, T'Sing stepped away from Gensilan. "She will be fine. She is concerned for the state of Ayam."

Falban looked at me and shrugged. "I told her."

I waved my hands a bit. "I heard you."

T'Sing approached Ayam bed and laid her hands on the surface of the pudding.

"What are you doing?" The Atebian doctor asked

"I am beginning a mind meld with Ayam." T'Sing explained

Analessur grabbed her hand. "The last telepathic contact hurt her."

T'Sing looked up at Analessur. "I am Vulcan. Not Ane. I saw in Gensilan's mind what the problem was and my mental contact with Ayam will not injure her further. However right now she lacks vocal chords or the energy to manifest them. A mind meld is the only way for me to ascertain if there has been any permanent damage."

"What did Gensilan do to her?" Analessur asked.

"Gensilan did nothing. Ayam unwisely attempted mental contact with the Ane telepathic community. Billions of Ane can be reached in this manner at once." T'Sing explained quickly but clearly.

Analessur let go of T'Sing. Ting once again laid her hands on/in the vanilla pudding glob. "My mind to your mind."

-*-

Ayam came into my office. She was back in her customary form, but looked haggard and worn.

"Have a seat please." I said. "Can I get you anything?"

"Orange juice, please." Ayam said as she sat down on my couch.

I got up and ordered her the drink from the replicator.

"Ayam, Can you tell me what happened?" I asked. I had already spoken to T'Sing ands Gensilan. I didn't understand most of what Gensilan told me. The best I could do was nod like an idiot and go along with the flow.

Ayam looked at me sadly. She thought about it. "Captain, may I ask you for confidentiality?"

I had to think about it a moment myself. "I will keep what you tell me private unless the safety of the ship, yourself or any member of my crew is at stake."

"Good enough." She said. "Captain, I am not really Ayam."

I cocked my head to the side. "What?"

She melted again. There was a glob of vanilla pudding in the chair in my office. "This is my true, form, Captain." The sound came from it.

"Oh." I said. "So why the Ayam act?"

"Ayam is a. belonging of my people. She exists frozen in time in a religious place." The Vanilla pudding explained.

I wasn't doing much better at understanding this than I did with Gensilan. "And you."

"It's a ritual of deep meaning for my people. I mentally touched the image, the essence of Ayam, and then I became her."

"You became Ayam?"

"Yes. It was beautiful. The over writing of her identity over mine was so complete, she never had an idea that she was me and not herself. She was all the things I present to the Atebians and to you. A Space Scientist. An Explorer. An adventurer. She loved the things she did." Ayam-blob said.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well, she tried to escape. Many do. Many of our avatars do rage against their circumstance or try to find out how they came to be with us. But Ayam and a few others have the skills and abilities to actually build space craft. Ayam, Melzok, Zephram and Kellar had the ability and found artifacts from earlier avatars in such a condition as to allow them to build their escape craft."

Something tickled the back of my mind. "Zephram. Zephram Cochrane?"

"Yes. That was him."

I blinked. "Ayam, that is a historical figure from the Federation."

"He talked about the planet Earth a lot." Ayam said.

"Yes, that's my homeworld." I said. "He is considered the father of our warp drive age."

"He was very good at improvisation and making do with insufficient tools and materials. I learned a lot from him." She/it said.

"But it wasn't him, it was one of your people with the delusion that it was him?" I asked.

"Exactly."

"Why?"

"Becoming one of our avatars is a religious experience for us, Captain. It's a way of stepping into another mind and exploring a whole new set of experiences and perceptions of the world. It's beautiful." Ayam explained.

I leaned back in my chair. "Wow. And what do these people do with themselves when they are . being someone else?"

"Whatever that person would really do in that situation. Like I said, many of our Avatars seek escape, or seek understanding. Some try to recreate their homes. Some try to understand us. It's fun to see."

"So you and four others build a spacecraft to try and escape from your world." I said.

"Correct." Ayam said. "We flew away and encountered different peoples and places. It was . heaven."

"Really?"

"For me. I got to see and do so many new things. I got to meet so many new people. Ayam liked it as well, but not everyone was friendly." Ayam explained. "We were attacked. We had adventures not unlike yourselves and the Atebians."

"What happened to the others?" I asked.

"They ... died." Ayam said, sadly. "I didn't know I was me. I thought I was still Ayam, and so I didn't try to remember them or carry them along with me. I regret that so deeply now. But Ayam did what Ayam would do."

"So eventually you hooked up with the Atebians?"

"Before then I encountered a situation which forced me to alter my shape. I was trapped in a damaged space craft and could only escape through a small opening. At that moment, the wall between Ayam's identity and the realization of who I really am came down. Usually this is the beginning of the end of our. expressing? Being? Manifesting? An avatar. But I was still so far away from home. Ayam had many skills and thought processes that were useful. She is much more well adapted to life as a space explorer than I."

"And that's why you're seeking your home world."

The vanilla pudding glob began to extend into an oblong shape. Soon it became a humanoid glob. "If possible, I'd like to return and add my memories of my experiences to the community memory of my people."

She continued to slowly reassert her Ayam shape.

"So what happened with Gensilan?" I asked.

"I became telepathic so I could touch her mind. I had to learn how from her. When I copied her form to allow this. I saw.. The All."

"The All?"

"They have avatars in the All, Captain. They have identities there semi static, but still accessible, from Ane and other people for million of years. Millions of individuals." Ayam was now fully back in Ayam form. She stood up and began to put her uniform back on.

I was stuck between enjoying the show and being confused. "They have people stuck there?"

She shook her head. "Not like you mean. I was able to touch one and try to.. manifest it."

"Uh. the Ane form you took on?"

"Yes. It looked like. Paradise. Heaven itself." Ayam said. "So many lives to be. So many people to explore."

"But it didn't work."

Ayam nodded sadly. "The Ane are incapable of the sort of self deception that manifesting needs. As Ayam, I needed to believe utterly, whole hearted, without reservation that I was, in fact Ayam. That's the way it works. The Ane mind doesn't work like that."

I blinked. "Okay. But you're not permanently injured, or angry with Gensilan?"

She shook her head "Oh, no. But it's a cruel, cruel thing. To be shown heaven and then be forced back out of it."

"And you want the fact that you're not the original Ayam kept confidential." I said.

"Ayam's memories suggest that people wouldn't take well to knowing that I am a shape changer impersonating their friend. They might think that I harmed the original Ayam to take her place." Ayam said. "It is much simpler to let the external manifestation go on."

"And you feel comfortable doing this?"

"Ayam's scientific world view is much better for coping with your world, Captain. I am so steeped in her thought process still I suspect I won't stop being Ayam on some level for centuries."

I nodded. "Okay. I want you to tell T'Sing and Kamaline the whole truth about yourself so they can try to develop ways of coping with illnesses or issues that affect you in your real form."

"Gensilan saw the whole thing in my mind, Captain."

"You have people among the Atebians who call you friend." I said. "I suggest you tell them the truth. There are trust issues there."

Ayam looked at me sadly. "You have no idea how much of my world and myself I had to filter through Ayam's world view just to be able to express it to you."

I shrugged. "I didn't say it would be easy. I think it would be more honest."

Ayam nodded. "Is that an order?"

I shook my head. "Your personal life is your problem. It's not my place to issue orders about that."

"Thank you Captain."

"When you promised to follow my orders and obey the regulations of the Discovery, did you mean that?" I asked.

She nodded gravely. "Oh yes. I have been on ships and Ateb long enough to know how it works."

I nodded "Alright. What should I call you?"

Ayam grinned, slightly. "Ayam. I have a name in my natural form but it's not spoken."

"Alright Ayam. Thank you for stopping by."

She turned and left, form solid and dressed and nothing at all out of the ordinary.

I turned on my computer and started designing a brig cell so secure that Ayam couldn't get out of it even if she placed all of cells in a single file line.

 

-end-

Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.

This story posted by permission of the author. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Jay P. Hailey

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June 18, 2005