Civilised Man - Part 1/3

Posted on 09 Jun 2013 @ 12:53am by Raifi Zaren & Verity Thorne

2,857 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Raifi Zaren's Quarters
Timeline: MD 04 - 1000

ON:

Verity pressed the chime to the quarters, glancing down the corridor as he cleared his throat. He'd heard that their guests were settling in nicely, but he figured that he should check up and see if they needed anything, having been assigned to their needs by Coleman. He doubted that journalists needed any encouragement to make themselves at home, but it didn't hurt to check.

"Hi, good morning, come in," Zaren called, pushing the button to open the door. After the morning meeting, he'd gathered his PADDs to him to review Freya's newest calls to arms before she recorded them.

Verity smiled when he saw the Trill, his hands resting on his hips as he took a deep breath. "Hello, Mr Zaren? I thought I'd come and check on how you're doing. Seeing as I'm sort of your assigned tour guide for the ship."

"Oh?" Zaren grinned, rising and sliding over the edge of the table to pat the stranger on the shoulder. "Nice to meet you. Who are you? Let me grab a PADD for notes."

"Verity Thorne," he moved to take a seat out of the way of the well used desk. "I'm the chaplain. I've been asked to take you around when you want to go on walk abouts. And I'm thinking that sort of makes me your local guide," he laughed at that idea, shaking his head. "It's a step up from the computer anyway."

"Chaplain," the Trill repeated, scribbling onto his PADD with a stylus, then tucking it under his arm. "Great. Show me the sights. Do you get a lot of patronage?"

"More than you might expect," Verity replied with a smile at that, his hands slipping comfortably into his pockets. "More than I expected when I joined up, I have to admit. But people come to me for all sorts of reasons," he watched him with curiosity. "How are you finding Galileo so far? Is she giving you a lot of material?"

"There's time. I don't have to turn in my take until the end of this trip. By then... yeah. By then I'll have something worth sharing." He waved towards the door, "Shall we?"

Verity led him out, walking easily at his side down the corridor, smiling warmly to him. He'd gotten the idea from the undertone of his orders from the Chief Intel Officer that the chaperoning was to make sure they didn't stray where they shouldn't. However, from Verity's point of view, he wanted to make sure their guests felt welcomed and that they had what they needed. "Your job must be very exciting. You get to travel and experience so many different things."

"It is and I do," Raifi agreed with a broad grin. "What about you? Much traveling before you joined the Galileo?"

"Oh yes," Verity looked to him with a smile at that. "I travelled for a while before settling down in Starfleet. I tried to pack in as much as I could in the time I had. See as much as I could. Do as much as I could. No plan, just - drifted," he smiled gently, watching him for a long moment. "I'd just left the Priesthood, I needed a break from Earth."

"Where is 'the priesthood'?" Raifi asked as he traipsed alongside Verity. "I'm not very familiar with Terran geography."

Verity couldn't help but laugh at that, his eyes shining with warmth and mirth. "Sorry, my fault. I was a priest on Earth. And then I left. It's how we say it - leaving the Priesthood. I wanted to travel for a while, taking in the universe. See if I wanted to stay out here or not."

"In the universe?" Raifi asked, then his smile slipped sideways. "Xale, xale," he shook his head. "So where all did you go while you were... leaving the Priesthood?"

"I visited some Federation worlds, and then I went off trail to non-Federation worlds, bases. I saw and experienced a lot of new things. Well, for me anyway," Verity chuckled, shaking his head. "It can't be a patch on how much you've seen and done."

"I don't know about that; I haven't done a lot of wandering, only following trails. Trails have always interested me; the stories that get us from one place to another. But you were looking for you - not the stories of other people. What did you learn?"

"I learnt - " Verity tilted his head, considering the question for a long moment, not wanting to give a whimsical answer. "I learnt that I couldn't just drift," he admitted, smiling weakly. "That I needed to do something. I'd spent my life doing things for a parish. It didn't feel right without it. It's why I decided to join Starfleet. To be a part of something again. Something real."

"And your priesthood? You joined it again as well?"

"No," he let out a long breath, casting a small smile to him. "No going back on that. I'm not a priest anymore. Just a chaplain. Sometimes there's religious discussion as a chaplain, sometimes more spiritual in general, sometimes not at all, sometimes just talking and chatting. It all depends what people want and need to talk about when they come and see me."

"So this ship is your... parish, then? Your place that you do things for?"

"I suppose, personally, for me, yes it feels like a parish, because of my previous line of work, but in terms of the job description? Not really. It's just a ship, like it is for everyone else. The chaplaincy is there for all different religions, all different spirituality, and discussion and talk on anything and everything playing on peoples mind. Starfleet doesn't want people to think that the chaplaincy is only there as a religious office. Sometimes people don't want to go to a counsellor. They don't want an official meeting. And they want something that feels a little more detached from official counselling and evaluations. Sometimes, that's when a talk with me can help get things off their chest. Or to work out what's weighing on their soul. Of course, I'm more than willing and able to talk to people who do want to talk about their religion and how it is for them living with it in service. Sometimes, living with their religious belief and their Starfleet duty can be a difficult balance for people."

"Belief based on expectation rather than fact has always been interesting to me," Zaren said thoughtfully as they meandered down the corridor towards the turbolift. "We don't really have anything like it on Trill - but Selik spent a great deal of time on Bajor and I always thought there was a kind of beauty in the way they believed so whole-heartedly in things they had no real proof of. It's a bit like childhood in a way. Except... not." He turned his ring around his little finger once. Twice. "What interests me most is that so many species have spent so much time creating explanations for the mysteries of the world instead of simply waiting until they're able to discover the answers they seek. It must be difficult to live for so little time and to have so many questions."

Verity smiled at that, chuckling softly. Wasn't that just the basis of so many debates of faith. "Well for people with faith, they don't believe it's just been invented in a void of knowledge. They believe it's real. I suppose Trill is unique, it's always interested me. For those that are a host, there is a chance of a kind of immortality. That must change a culture and society and how they see faith and the afterlife."

Afterlife; Zaren tapped his fingers to his grinning lips. "Another intriguing point - we have no 'after life'. I've experienced three host-deaths so far, have absorbed and carried each of their memories and spirits with me, but never felt any thing more. I have lain in their corpses, waiting to be removed and transferred to a new host, and there has been nothing but cold flesh slowly wilting. Decaying. As it must; bodily processes being what they are. So far, I've yet to speak with any Joined Trill who have experienced any kind of 'soul fleeting' or other such sense that denoted a continuing on of a dead host's spirit beyond the finite experiences catalogued and collected by us, the symbionts. I cannot say for certain whether or not this is true for other species; it's entirely possible that we are simply different because of our symbiotic evolution. But I've seen no evidence to prove that. Which returns to your point - does the belief that something is real in the absence of evidence mean that it is?"

"No," Verity shook his head gently with a small smile to him, his blue eyes shining. "But that's why it's called faith. You have to have the faith to believe in something you can't see or touch."

"Why?"

"Because that's what makes it special," Verity said softly, holding his eyes with a warm smile. "And sacred. Anyone can believe in something that is right in front of them. It is a harder test of faith when you have to believe in what you feel instead. Can you see 'right' and 'wrong' in front of you? Are they tangible things you can touch and measure with a ruler or weight? No. It's the belief in them that makes them real, or not matter, depending."

Zaren quirked a brow. "For us, the ideas of 'right' and 'wrong' are elucidated by a collection of algorithms designed to designate behavior that is supportive of communal goals versus behavior that is destructive in a non-useful way. Those behaviors are tested, noted, and added into a lengthy list of laws designed to support behaviors that are beneficial and proscribe behaviors that are not. So, they are tangible in the way that gravity and the various laws of physics are tangible - not with physical touch, but with logic, experimentation, and evidence. So you're saying that humans believe that the things that... they believe... that lack evidence... make them stronger in some way?"

"I'm not saying humans believe that. I'm saying I do," Verity corrected quickly with a soft laugh, wanting to clear that one up. "Some humans believe as I do, many others don't. It feels right to me. It feels real to me. But to others it doesn't. And thankfully we've reached a stage where that's alright. Where it's okay that one person believes and another doesn't, and it's okay for them both to still like and love each other without conflict or hatred for the other's point of view."

"Yes, I've heard about that - so many wars fought over these 'gods', so many lives lost in the pursuit of a truth that can not be proven one way or another." He shook his head. "It is a kind of flaw, I think, in our people. We haven't experienced wars like yours. Or like so many other species. It confounds me that one would choose to solve a philosophical conflict with physical violence. Or violence of any kind. The Dominion's advances and aggression were out of territorial greed; that I can at least logically comprehend without supporting their cause or methods... but then, the more I read about the wars fought on Earth over philosophical differences, the more I wonder if those 'religious conflicts' were not simply banners to wave to hide the same intent as the Dominion - territorial gain and access to naturally occurring resources that were not freely shared between different groups of humans."

"Very possible, although I believe that some of the more ancient wars held a stronger base in the faiths," Verity nodded with a frown, before sighing as he shook his head instead. "I'm sorry, I can't explain why my ancestors would use physical violence where religion is concerned. It's not something I've ever particularly understood either and I had many discussions and debates with my mentors in seminary," he smiled at that, shaking his head to him. "The place I was trained to be a priest," he explained, realising he probably wasn't familiar with the term. "Sometimes, you never know the why. All you can do is be grateful that things have changed for the better."

"Every answer can be found - with patience and good work ethics," Raifi winked, tapping his fingers together again. "And your Faith - you're saying this remains with you now. And you speak of it. Teach it. How are you no longer a priest, then?"

"I don't teach it. Only answer questions when asked," Verity said softly, shaking his head with a weak smile. He let out a long breath. It was always an awkward question, why he left. It was very personal. "Something happened, and it tested my faith, and my vows. I didn't want to be a hypocrite. My vows were important to me. So I left. I travelled and then here I am - on the goodship Galileo."

Raifi shoved four curled fingers into his mouth and bit down; the questions begged asking. Begged. What vows? What happened? He was an insatiably curious person and every door quietly closed demanded opening for him. But he understood patience, even if the idea of privacy provoked him. "How long have you been with the ship?"

"Has to be a good number of months now," Verity let out a long breath, almost in surprise as he thought about it. "I came on at the start of the last mission. It's been - a wild ride so far," he laughed softly, shaking his head. Although, he had a nagging doubt about how much he was actually contributing.

"In what way?"

"We're a science ship," Verity gave a light shrug, clearly deep in thought. "But we've had over our fair share of fighting so far. This mission seems calm so far though. I'm not a scientist, so I'm not due on any of the mission teams though. I can't tell you much about it."

"Not even off the record?" Raifi asked wistfully.

"Honestly," Verity laughed softly at that, shaking his head to him and tapping his arm with the back of his hand. "Because I'm not involved in the mission, I don't know much about it at all. I'm sorry to disappoint you. You must have had interviews with other crew though? Some of the scientists maybe?"

"No one's talking. Not even about expectations for the current mission. And most everyone makes oblique references to your last mission - I get whiffs of violence and unexpected events, but no one will elaborate or explain. In fact, it comes up so often and is negated so often that I am beginning to feel as though there's a real story there - that everyone seems to want to have heard. It's just that no individual wants to be the one to do the talking." The Trill tilted his head. "I've been on front lines and back rooms; I've been smack dab in the middle of real, longstanding conspiracies. I know what they smell like."

Verity gave a soft smile, sympathising with his situation, but also understanding the crew. "This is a crew," he said gently to him. "When a crew goes through a lot together, they become a family. Loyal. No one will want to betray the trust of others by saying things that are still raw for some people. I'd concentrate more on what's coming up. Like I said, this is a science ship; battle wasn't what most crew expected from a ship with a science mandate. That's probably why it's hovering in the atmosphere so much. No big deal," he said softly, trying to play the last mission down a bit. "What's to come is probably far more interesting."

"No one will talk about that either. There's a freeze on all information except the vaguest dregs. Every officer I've spoken to seems convinced that they need command permission to tell me what they're planning on eating for dinner that evening. The only thing I'm allowed to know - apparently - is what I find for myself or see with my own eyes." Raifi snorted an amused laugh, "And I'm supposed to be selling the welcoming atmosphere of Starfleet, according to Trija. The ingenuity of the planetary sciences division. How?" He paused, "What is it, exactly, that you're allowed to show me?"

"My book collection?" Verity teased lightly, but with a small smile and a glint in his eyes. "People will relax. You'll see. At the moment, they're het up because we're on the eve of away mission. Especially science. This is their thing. Be patient, give it a few more days. Information will be coming in then, people will know where we are and where we stand. We'll be in the swing of things. You're more likely to get better stories then."

TO BE CONTINUED:

Raifi Zaren
Journalist, FNN
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

PO2 Verity Thorne
Chaplain
USS Galileo
(PNPC Scarlet Blake)

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