Break On Through III

Posted on 30 Apr 2013 @ 3:49pm by Crewman Neo

729 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Mess Hall
Timeline: MD7 0700 Hours

ON:

Maenad stopped chewing. She looked at him as she drank some juice. "Is that a problem?" she asked finally.

"I don't know. It depends on what you've heard."

"What would make it a problem?" she ate the rest of her cereal and took another sip of juice.

"Depends."

"Why do you want to know?" Maenad asked him. Liyar had told her that these kind of questions were extremely personal for a Vulcan. Neo would have known that, surely.

Neo finished his drink and set the cup down. "Consider it curiosity."

Maenad sat back in her chair and put her hands in her lap. Her expression blank, more than usual. Like she were deliberately trying to hide to something. "If you want to know what said about you, you will have to ask him," she said firmly.

"It's all bad," Neo concluded, tilting his head to the side. He didn't appear surprised.

She shrugged. "That's not what I said.

"Most people don't have a problem saying the good things. It's the bad things they're reluctant about." Neo sounded completely fine with it. Truthfully, he expected no less. After fifteen years, what could two people possibly have to say about one another? Getting blown up may have made Liyar more sympathetic to him, but it didn't change their foundation.

With a sigh, Maenad decided that she had to reassure him somehow. Liyar hadn't said anything damning about Neo, but he had given her the impression that he wasn't exactly the happiest with him. He felt ostracised by his family, inadequate. She had already seen how Neo treated strangers; she could only imagine how he treated Liyar. "Liyar told me," she started quietly, gently even, "that it's impolite for Vulcans to reveal their personal lives with others. What Liyar tells me, he tells with confidence. Even if he said nothing but praise, I would not tell you."

"He's revealed his personal life to you," Neo noted casually. "My personal life."

"He hasn't given me your personal life," she replied with a frown.

"But he's given you his. Said we haven't spoken in years, talked about our differences." Neo quoted her words back at her, likely said in the heat of the moment.

"Sure," she admitted. Maenad licked her lips. "I know about him. He has told me about himself, yes," she was getting impatient, and thinking about him like this wasn't helping either. She didn't want to upset him because she remembered how he was with Naskisem for revealing less. "You're not being very fair."

"Yeah?" Neo asked. "How so?"

"You're trying to get me to say things you know I'm uncomfortable talking about," she whined. "I can't say anything."

Neo stared at her evenly. "You can't say anything," he said flatly. "Because of your own propriety, or Liyar's?" He blinked, eyebrows drawing together subtly.

"Both," she told him. "He is my friend, and he trusts me. So, please, stop asking me," her eyes pleaded.

Neo gave her a vague look, one that threatened clarity in an uncomfortable way. He saw. Neo collected his things one by one back onto his tray. "Yeah, all right."

She watched him replace everything. "Are you leaving?" she asked him, sounding surprised.

"Yeah," Neo said. Isn't that what she wanted? As far as he saw, there was no reason to stay. He'd gotten as much information as he was able to. Anything else would surely skate over into uncomfortable territory. He had a lot of things to sort out, and they had to be sorted out quickly. "Take care of yourself."

"Oh," she frowned with her lips. "Well, you too, then." The abruptness of him going had caught her off-guard. "I didn't mean to upset you."

"Vulcans are incapable of getting upset," Neo returned blandly.

She smirked, knowing that to be a lie. She said nothing and popped a banana slice into her mouth, keeping her eyes on him as he gathered his things.

He stood up and inclined his head to her, before heading out.

"Bye," Maenad said to herself as she watched him to the door. She returned to what was left of her breakfast and finished it alone, slowly shaking her head.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer, SSC
USS Galileo

Crewman Neo
Support Craft Pilot, FCON
USS Galileo

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