Revelations

Posted on 03 May 2018 @ 7:06am by Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 1:37pm

2,560 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: USS Schofield - First Officer Quarters
Timeline: MD -09, 1100 hours

[ON]

Allyndra had gone through most of the people on board, some more or less and many she knew already from the Galileo. There were a few though she did not know well.

She had interacted with the counselor only a few times and to say he seemed intriguing was something she would say did not describe the man. He sometimes seemed flippant but there was something serious underneath as well. She had perused his record but it did not really tell her much about the man himself.

=^=Lieutenant Ir-Llantisant, please come to the first officer's quarters when you have a moment=^= She made a face as soon as she said that but right now her quarters and her office were basically one and the same.

In the fullness of time, the chime to Allyndra's quarters rang out. Once Allyndra allowed it, the doors parted, and Lake sauntered in at a languid pace. As much as he commanded his body to make eye-contact with Allyndra, his curiosity got the better of him. His head pivoted from side to side, studying Allyndra's quarters for any hints to the persona within.

"Good morning, Commander," Lake said. Eventually, his eyes found their way back to the Akkadian herself. He still couldn't quite drop rank with her, especially in her current role as his Executive Officer. "I hope this day finds you well," he said.

"Good enough," she replied. "I thought keeping medical records was enough but keeping personnel records and duty shifts and so forth is even more boring. I had thought I had gotten away from all of that with the arrival of Commander Blake. So..." she leaned forward sllightly, "how are things with you and this sudden change of venue and departure. I think it caught a lot of us off guard."

Speaking slowly, Lake demonstrated what he'd learned of the vulnerability and humility Starfleet expected its officers to embody. It took a conscious effort on Lake's part, because this wasn't what leadership had looked like in the Romulan Star Empire. "Like much of the crew, I feel uprooted by this tour of duty, even before the last transplant had taken hold," he said.

Lake relaxed his posture, somewhat, into an approximation of a parade rest stance. "I hadn't fully settled into my commitment to the Galileo-A and it's been... disorienting to set that ship aside before I could reach resolution. It hasn't helped that, as you know, I struggle to understand the significance of this mission we're on," he said, referring to his previous questions to Allyndra about the scientific validity of the crew's research venture.

"Please have a seat," Allyndra offered. She did not like this too much formality. "Understood, well things have a way of happening." She smiled and then said, "We have a saying: 'When all the sky is calm and the flying smooth is when the storm you did not see comes up behind you'. In other words always expect the unexpected. As far as the mission itself, well I do not pretend to understand the full science behind things but suffice to say it was exciting enough for Fleet to acquiesce to the Daystrom Institute." She made an odd rolling shrug of her shoulders.

Lake ate up the intricacies of Allyndra's body language with his eyes. It would be important for him to understand Allyndra's micro-expressions, and even more so now she was serving as his XO. He waited for Allyndra to finish speaking before he moved towards the chair and then he lowered himself into it, in a lopsided, informal posture. "Where does that saying come from?" he asked, always curious what each person considered we.

"From my home, Akkadia...." she sort of trailed off lost in a bit of memory. "It seems like forever since I first tried my wings," she mused for a moment and then returned to the present. "I would have never thought I would have ended up off planet and aboard a star ship from back then. Your own journey to here must be full of twists and turns as well."

Shrugging helplessly, Lake remarked, "I thought my tale was a tragedy," and he said it in good humour, but it was humour clearly fueled by pain. Clearly. "Who would have thought defecting to the Federation to stay alive, and then leaving my newfound Federation home to leech off my ambitious friends would be the best thing for me?" --His head tilted to the left, his posture deflating-- "Until Romulus burned and the Federation's Tracken colony failed. Home isn't a safe concept for me. Yet, I find a way to land myself in the right place at the right time somehow."

Allyndra nodded. "As did I..." she cut that off realizing that it tread on things that she had told only a few and things which Akkadia still kept quite close. It was her discovery of a Fold Ship tucked away far in the mountains that made her realize that the part of the phrase 'we put away things' was literal, they had not been fully destroyed but hidden away. She did not want to talk about that not to him so instead she sighed if a bit forced, "tragedy as well marked my life. I was upcoming in my House, my guild as it we have on my home world. Everything seemed perfect, I had the eye of the Guild Mother, a husband who was loving and caring and an artist, and we were looking forward to our children but then it seemed like the gods just frowned and it all went...." She closed her eyes a moment.

Thoughtlessly, instinctively, Lake breathed out an, "uh," that practically said: you can't stop the story there! Embarrassed at the brief vocalization, Lake tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling. He had forgotten to put on his counseling game face. He wasn't accustomed to serving as confidant for the command staff. The perspective of a Chief Counselor was all new for him and he figuratively scrambled to catch up.

Leaning into his training, Lake said, "Commander--" but he immediately caught himself. He shook his head to apologize, because he knew better than that by now. He knew formality would make her uncomfortable. Rather, he said, "Allyndra, would you be comfortable talking about what happened?

Allyndra looked at the man for a moment. It would bring old wounds up but it had also been many years ago now and she more or less though she had settled that the past had been the past. She made that odd rolling shrug and then said, "Gerrin was his name, my husband that is. He was from the artist guild, a painter in what is called water colours. We met at a High Summer dance and my guild mother thought he would be a good match for me. Someone to help both my wonder and yet focus on something other than books. And yes, before you ask, our guild houses select our partners for us. Anyway, it was more than just being selected, we actually liked and fell in love and it was a good match. Gerrin always loved painting the scenery and made me go along with him. He seemed to always figure a spot by the ocean or a lake knowing that I loved water dancing...." She paused and chuckled.

"Water dancing is my sort of release from the tensions of the day when and if I can do it. It is about the only artistic part of me. Anyway, it involves using one's wings to hover just above the water so ones feet just touch the surface and then one dances. On Akkadia it is called the balance of wind and wave as one has to compensate while dancing for the vagaries of the wind and the movement of the waves."

Sinking into his chair, Lake smiled fondly at his imaginings of how Allyndra would water dance. "That sounds like a science as much as an art," he said, his timbre wistful. "I wish I could know that feeling, that dance above the water. It sounds... unimaginable, really." Lake nodded at Allyndra, saying, "Gerrin must have painted many a portrait of you out on the water..."

"Actually no, he wanted stillness, said I moved around too much. The only portrait he ever painted of me was just before I made my matron flight. It was the last picture he would ever paint..." Allyndra closed her eyes thinking back and feeling that wound being opened again. It still hurt but time had gone on and it did not hurt as much as it once did.

As much as Lake wanted to know what had happened, he couldn't read Allyndra well enough to know if he should pick right at that scab just yet. He didn't say anything at first, he let Allyndra close her eyes and feel what she was feeling. Before the pause drew on too long, he asked, "How did his painting turn out?"

"A masterpiece like all his work. He had studied that art a lot and was gifted as well. Unfortunately it hung in my quarters on the old Galileo and was destroyed presumably when that ship was." She made a small sort of circular motion with her hands. "The Twins took that final bit away from me as well. All I have left now is memories and hope that they will not take that as well." She took a deep breath and then shook her head slightly. "The ocean is wide, my old Guild Mother told me, be prepared to ride many currents. So far I have, I just did not expect where they would lead."

"Yes," Lake affirmed, nodding with her, "That's often a surprise to all of us." He lay the flat of his palms in his laps and he leaned towards Allyndra. "Where in the ocean would you like the currents to take you next?" he asked.

"In all honesty, I am not sure, maybe instead of fighting them like I did when younger just go with the whims of universe. I know it sounds like no plans and in a way I do not have any. Relationships are something that I am a bit afraid of, a few have failed and so I think I will just see what fate and time and the gods have in store at this point."

"Let's put aside what it sounds like," Lake said. There was some emphasis in what he said, but he wasn't firm about it, nor was he commanding. "It doesn't matter what it sounds like. What does it mean to you to float along with no navigation? With no wants?"

"What I want has to take a distant second to my responsibilities. I have this ship to help administer right now, beyound that my responsibility to the Fleet and also to my House and planet. I am Mother named of House Warraquim and when I go home, it is to that duty not to relax. House Warraquim is one of the primes and has a great deal of say on the direction of the society especially to how we interact or do not with the rest of the galaxy. That has become my lot. Trust me, it is not a complaint and I accept it gladly. I guess I must for the gods do not seem to be done toying with me. Just before we left on this assignment my current love told me he was accepting a position on another ship. It is a big promotion for him but most likely once we get back and the Galileo-A leaves I will most likely never see him again."

Leaning into his seat, Lake said, "Have you spoken with your lover about what this means to you?" --He tilted his head from side to side, not wanting to assume one thing or another, but sometimes people responded better to a bad assumption than to a question-- "Have you ended the relationship?"

"No," she said firmly. "He could not decide but in his eyes I could see that he wanted to follow his dream. It was not for me to deny that so I said the He Uʻi Maoli No, the cutting of ties. There is no more to discuss."

Tilting his head back, Lake squinted at Allyndra, balking at there is no more to discuss. "Where does that leave you, though?" he asked. The way Lake asked the question, It sounded like he was asking from his own curiosity, more than from a therapeutic methodology.

"Leave me?" Allyndra was not sure of the question. "Little has changed. I am still a medical person in Fleet and a mother of a house back home. I have been alone before and it is something I have become used to. That I have shed a tear, yes, but as the mother before me said: 'There is no use crying over spilled blood flower juice. One learns to move on.'

"What I'm hearing is that you have great purpose in your life," Lake said, nodding as he made each point. He looked Allyndra right in the eyes as he continued; he was a little bit dazzled by the crystalline sapphire colour of her eyes. "Your expansive knowledge and skill are greatly relied upon by Starfleet, just as your leadership is necessary back home. The universe has many waves and currents to pull at you, and what does it mean to you to go through it alone?"

Allyndra leaned forward and shook her head. "It will be as the gods intend. If there is a chance that some day there will be another it would be nice. The hope is there but I will admit that I have pushed that down and it is only a dream at this point."

Lake nodded at Allyndra with a sense of agreement, rather than simple understanding, this time. "There's a kind of beauty in surrender," he said. "Something completely freeing in the admission of how little freedom we have, how little control we have. I have found greater heights of fulfillment in living a life of service -- to Starfleet, if not to he gods."

"Perhaps, perhaps that is what I need to learn yet. I have the fleet and I have my House. Once I really accept that is where my duty and destiny lies. Still according to our mythology the Twins defied the gods and became something more. Well a story for another time. It has been nice to talk though I must admit."

"I would enjoy that, I must admit," Lake replied. "I suspect I could speak with you at length and it wouldn't feel like long enough..."

"Perhaps over dinner some time if you would like. I have been working on my gourmet cooking. When things settle a bit more if you would like."

"I could eat," Lake said. At that, he nodded enthusiastically, maintaining eye-contact with Allyndra all the while. "When there's food, always count me in."

[OFF]

--

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Schofield

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Acting XO and Chief Medical Officer
USS Schofield

RSS Feed