A Shoulder to Cry On

Posted on 30 Jan 2015 @ 11:57pm by Commander Norvi Stace & Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones

2,089 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 07 - Sojourn
Location: Starbase 84, Warp Lounge
Timeline: MD 09 :: 2030 Hrs

ON:

Stretching her legs after a long day of being cooped up in her temporary office, Norvi Stace wandered almost aimlessly about the colossal starbase. It was vast. And she loved it. She didn't realise how small a Nova class vessel felt in comparison but longed to get lost. She'd not visited the stardock before in either Starfleet career and loved to explore. She stood in a turbo lift filled with both Fleet personnel and civilians and decided to ride it for two stops. Wherever the third stop ceased she would alight.

And there it was. Right across the promenade was a bar that danced with red and purple lights. It caught her eye and she sauntered across, walking in and looking about the mix of civvies and crewmen. She hoisted up to the bar next to one lone customer and ordered a beer. Turning to her right, she recognised the man, the feint familiar spots adorning his brow and temple. "Grayson, isn't it?" she asked, taking a sip of her beer and seeing the forlorn look on his face. "Norvi Stace. We serve in the Gally together but have never officially crossed paths. Are you all right?"

Alright was an understatement for Grayson right now. An old flame, who had been sending subspace letters for weeks had casually strolled back into his life that afternoon, turning his head and heart upside down. Starship Captains, in Grayson's rather limited experience were rather fleeting lovers, especially when you met them as a cadet. Safe to say, the encounter had left the broken engineer at the bottom of his fifth cocktail, examining his life in great detail. "Right now, about the furthest from alright as one could feel, but I'm sure that is the drink talking...mostly," he replied with a sullen chuckle, staring longingly into the bottom of his glass. "I've seen you around the ship, lowly grease monkey, Grayson Jones, Assistant Chief Engineer." He held out a hand.

"Nice to meet you in person," she said with a cracked smile, taking a big sip of her own drink feeling that she needed it to get through this conversation. "Wanna talk about it? Sometimes I find drunk-talking the best conversations I've had. What's up with you, Grayson?"

"Only if you are having a drink as well," Grayson smiled. "Ever just get one of those moments where an ex walks back into your life and completely messes with your head?"

Stace cocked her glass to him and winked. "Every conversation deserves a drink, Grayson," and she took another swig. She placed her glass down on the beer mat and twisted her stool to him, resting her elbow on the bar and her head in her left hand. "I probably know more about people coming back into your life, or you coming back into theirs, as much as the next Joined Trill. And I see by your faded spots that you're not that far off the beaten track yourself. Are you half Trill?"

"I am, Trill mixed with Human. An interesting combination to say the least," Grayson gave a short laugh and he finished his drink and signaled the bartender for another. "It provided the Trill government more ample opportunities to carry out tests on the viability of hybrid hosts."

"And," she replied, indicating to his belly, "were they successful?"

"Yes and no," he sighed. "Physically, all the Trill 'plumbing' so to speak is there," he lifted his shirt up to reveal his perfectly human and toned stomach, "but there is no direct means of access to it. They themselves say it is a weird one. If I was ever to be used, I would have to be cut open for a symbiont to be inserted. I'm not a fan of that idea, cut open or joining." Grayson winked at the barman as his drink was delivered and gave his casual, easy yet surprising charming and effectively seductive smile.

"Being Joined is perhaps the most wonderful I have ever accomplished," Stace replied with a wink of her own. She took to her beer again and drained the last of it. With the bartender nearby she merely indicated "Ice whisky, please," and he brought one over before the moment was through. Instead of knocking it back, she cradled in between her cupped hands. "So, tell me more about this ex of yours. Heartbreaker?"

"Starship Captain, former visiting Academy instructor. We got pretty serious my final year, all hush and hidden though." Grayson gulped. "He was there for me when no one else was, helped me through a rough patch. Funnily he should turn up as I am going through another." His eyes welled up slightly as his thoughts wandered to the past few days of the untimely passing of his father. His speech trailed off a little too long and abruptly brought himself back to the room, sweeping those memories under the figurative rug in his mind.

Continuing he queried, "I need to ask though. I've always wondered, is your mind not cluttered with so many memories from past lives? I think I'd struggle to keep everything separate."

"It could be," Stace replied honestly, listening intently and then picking up her tumbler to her mouth. The clink of the ice in the glass tinkled and she looked deep into the amber mixture. She took a sip, the burning alcohol filling her senses as she swallowed. She started, cleared her throat and then made an unpleasant face. "You see, we go through years of specialist training and counselling to order the wealth of feelings and knowledge we amass when we Join. But don't forget, it's sometimes just like adding an extra layer to a cake. The personalities have lived harmoniously in the previous host. I'm just adding my own twist to it. The Norvi in me. That ultimately does become an entirely different personality but one that I'm somewhat familiar with."

She paused and then raised the glass to between them both. "Norvi Perim, before she was Joined, loved ice whisky. So much so, that even on her sixteenth birthday when she got so drunk off the stuff and vomited-out her entire party, still enjoyed the drink afterwards, well into her twenties." She took another sip, swallowed and made the same disgusted face. "I think it's the Kell in me. Or maybe the Hanor, but I can't stand the stuff now. But I forget. And I order the drink, take a sip and remember back to when I used to savour that oakey flavour. I don't really forget that I no longer enjoy drinking it, but it's a part of me that I like to cling to. Your memories can get a little muddy, and I think I see people in young faces that I recognise, that I don't. You can keep on top of it if you disconnect from your past. But sometimes some things can always haunt you."

Continuing his drink, Grayson continued with, "I don't think I could handle it. It happened to my father and he changed over night from the man I looked up to and respected. Our relationship was never the same after his joining. I think it threw me off it all when I saw how much it can change you."

"You have to think long and hard about the life you have before you Join with something that can change your personality, you perception and your path. It was all I ever wanted. And my mother is Joined so I was encouraged to from an early age. It's strange that he was Joined so late in life; after having an established family. Do you know why?"

"My father was, at the time, the Trill Ambassador's Aide. I think it was set up so that the symbiont, when the time came would transfer to my father to allow it, or him, to finish the work that was going on. I was pretty young at the time, so wasn't sure what was going on really. He never spoke of it much other than the pride and honour it was to take up such a role. We never saw eye to eye on it. I used to think I would have a big scar across my stomach like his," Grayson laughed, "not really knowing what it was and how my physiology is different being part human. That and it is not like he is around now anyway for me to ask him these things."

"That is rather an usual case," Norvi replied, furrowing her brow and cocking her head to the side in thought. "The Symbiosis Commission usually insist that the Symbiont have very little contact with a previous host's life. I should know. The mere mention of returning to Starfleet had me almost exiled. But to take up a direct connection is almost unheard of. How did it change him?"

"I think it was a whole mess to be honest. He became much more sever, bad tempered. I went from son, to luggage overnight. Wheeled out to play with the other diplomatic brats to 'foster interspecies relationships' as my new father so lovingly put it. Really, I think, there must have been some kind of accident and my father was the only available host nearby and it became dangerous to separate them some time after. No one would admit to that though."

"Well," Stace said, scrunching up her nose, "that's a shame. Perhaps, in his later years, that piece of him, that was your father, may shine through a little more. He might one day reach out to you."

He hated to bring the conversation down even more, however, "He was killed yesterday...some kind of accident on the ship transporting him. Details are a little sketchy still." Grayson held back some tears. "Sorry, I shouldn't be like this with someone I've just met."

Stace was stunned. Something that she didn't suffer from very often with her wealth of experience. She held out her hand and placed it on his arm. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Grayson felt the touch warm him, it was the first time he had been physically consoled since word of his father's passing. "Thanks," he managed to mutter out, "I'm ok for now, I think. There isn't much to talk about anyway, I don't know too much of what has happened."

"Well," Stace replied warmly, "that doesn't necessarily mean that visiting a counsellor might not help you through this. Or a Joined Trill for that matter. I've gone through the process several times over." She paused and then thought. "Do you know what will become of the Symbiont? Have you even thought about exploring that avenue?"

"I think all aboard were killed by the sounds of it. I don't think I will ever be the kind to explore that. I don't want to change, I like myself as I am. Sharing a mind? Sharing a body? Some people are cut out for it. I would not be one of them." Grayson tried not to show how repulsed he felt at the idea of joining. Joining with the thing that changed his father? It made him sick through his stomach.

"If all aboard perished, then the Symbiont will be lost." She cocked her head to the side as she re-listened to what he had just said in her mind. "I didn't mean for you to attempt to Join with your father's Symbiont, Lieutenant. It is highly irregular that your father received the Symbiont from his employer, but for it to be passed down to his surviving son, unheard of." She went quiet for a moment and then looked him softly in the eyes. "I meant to perhaps see what he then develops into. The new host may have been able to have given you an insight into what happened."

"Maybe, but now, it will just be one of life's big great 'what ifs."

"Well," Stace added, now resting back into her own chair, "if you need anything, then just let me know." She stood, and then offered him another comforting hand on his arm before smiling weakly to him and then saying, "I need to get back, Lieutenant. But if you see me around, then all you have to do is ask."

"Thanks. It is good to know I have a friend around here."

[OFF]

Lieutenant Commander Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer & Second Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant JG Grayson Jones
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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