Meet the Saalms (Part 2 of 2)

Posted on 25 Jun 2018 @ 2:43pm by Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm & Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Nesh Saalm & Aila Saalm
Edited on on 25 Jun 2018 @ 2:43pm

2,805 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Rigel VII - Vajripam
Timeline: MD 105, 1839 hrs

[ON]

20 Minutes Later...

"Unidentified vessel," the comm suddenly crackled in the cockpit of the small yacht the Starfleet crew was on, "This is Orion orbital control, identify yourself and state your intentions," said the traffic controller.

"This is the SS Sacagawea out of Terra," Javier replied, "Requesting permission to dock at Hawamahal, with four passengers to transport to the Seregama resort." He touched a couple of buttons. "Passports transmitting now." The formalities wouldn't take more than a moment. "I can beam you ladies straight to the hotel if you want, join you later?"

"No. We're going to my residence, first," answered Lirha with a shake of her head. She hadn't been back to visit her family's property on Vajripam in what seemed like years, and while the idea of a resort sounded appealing, there were more important places for the Orion captain to first see. She grabbed her small duffel of belongings and pulled a PADD from the outside zip compartment to check the weather report. Rain as usual, she muttered to herself. The city's tropical climate was currently transitioning from the dry to the rainy season which meant potentially days of constant downpour. It was a small price to pay, however, for the chance to be around her own kind once again.

Turning to Amaranai, the captain explained her plans for the early evening. "Most of my family lives in a residence in the central business district. It's...very nice," she said to the Security officer. "We own the entire 82nd floor of the building and I want to visit before we go out for the evening."

"You're wasting party time," Nesh groaned, but leaned over Javier to enter the co-ordinates for the Saalm family home into the computer. She gave him a kiss on the top of his head. "Meet you at the resort in a few hours? Yes?"

The human man nodded, reaching back to squeeze her hand in his. "Okay. Everyone ready? Energising."

The three women disappeared in a curtain of sparkling light, reappearing on the transporter pad in the lobby of the Saalm's floor. Nesh looked around with trepidation. No one was in the immediate vicinity "Oh, look, no-one's home, we can go."

When the transporter cycle completed, Lirha watched the familiar white molecular particles shimmer from her vision then paused to take in her surroundings. The main guest and merchant room in the foyer was darkened and it looked like all the furniture and display cases had been locked up for the evening. Multiple candles and incense burned nearby, lighting the greeting chamber in a soft orange hue which illuminated the various gold decorations and latinum trophies adorning the walls. The entire suite and the corridors leading to the adjoining rooms looked...like a typical Saalm residence. Luxurious by Human standards yet simple in form and style. A combination of centuries of Orion mercantilism combined with high art and fashion; the epitome of urban life in a free trade society.

The scent of light musk mixed with volcanic incense pleasantly stimulated Lirha's nostrils, and it was a refreshing departure from the sterileness of Starfleet vessels. Observantly, she looked around the immediate area. "Someone is here," she frowned, finally replying to her sister's comment. There was too much illumination on the floor to warrant a vacant residence, her perceptive eye noticed. "Maybe Cousin Gosad and his friends...?" she mumbled out loud.

Transporting to the surface was never a problem for Amaranai. In fact, for the longest time, she used to get a high from the transport. It had waned in the past couple of years, but this transport, with Lirha by her side, brought the rush back to her again. Her insides squirmed and tingled as it reacted to the forgotten feelings in her body. She was going to have to remember it for later with Lirha. It might be something fun and different to try.

As her eyes began to focus on the room around them, she was amazed. She understood Orion society at the base level, but she could not believe the grandeur. In a way, however, it reminded her of her own parent's audacity and avarice. She wondered how Lirha could have grown up in a place like this and still become the woman Amaranai had fallen in love with. Of course, the same could be said about Amaranai and her own upbringing. Luckily, there was no way Amaranai was going to take Lirha to visit her parents.

"Lirha...Nesh..." the woman's voice, filled with surprise, came from the other end of the corridor. It didn't take long for Aila Saalm to recover though, her hand releasing the grip of the weapon strapped at the small of her back as she saw her daughters. She smiled warmly, tightening the tie of the white, silk wrap around gown as she made her way to them. "My girls..." she kissed Nesh's hair first with a firm squeeze of a hug before turning to Lirha. She embraced her, the hug taking on more protectiveness as she held the back of her head, pressing a kiss to her dark hair. "So strong," she whispered.

Amaranai stepped back slightly as the woman approached the two Orions. She didn't belong and it was obvious, so she figured she would stay out of the way as long as necessary.

The voice calling out Lirha's name sounded all to familiar even before she turned to see who it was. Decades spent listening to it both on board her family's freighter and on Earth mean the older Orion sister could easily identify the words of her mother no matter how long it'd been since they had last spoken. "Aila?" she called out with surprise while the maternal Orion woman came closer. "I...thought you were back on Earth?" was all she could manage to say as she returned the hug.

"I had some...business here to attend to," Aila replied, her eyes closed as she held her fiercely, as she had wanted to when she'd first heard of all that she had been through. "And how pleased I am for it; I have been delivered an even better reward than I had hoped for," she smiled fondly to them as she finally let go of Lirha, touching her cheek with one hand as the other went to touch Nesh's cheek.

"I'm pleased to see you too." Lirha briefly wondered what particular type of business her mother had been engaged in, but decided she'd wait and ask later. In the meantime, she was curious if there were others present in the family suites. "Are you alone here?"

"Yes, well," Aila tilted her head in consideration for a moment. "I've had an associate staying here, but..." she shook her head and waved a dismissive hand. It said it all. "So, just us," she smiled as she looked between them with a delicately arched eyebrow. "I...assume you will be staying here, of course...?"

"Oh. Well...yes, of course," Lirha answered, seeing little choice in the matter now. It was a great offense in Orion culture to decline family hospitality, and with that thought, she suddenly turned to her non-Orion guest with a bit of embarrassment. "I'd like to introduce you to Amaranai," she said, taking Franklin's hand and encouraging her to step forward. "Amaranai, this is Aila, my mother."

Amaranai smiled at the older woman as Lirha took her hand. She stepped forward.

"Hello, Aila," she said. "It's an honor to meet you. This is an impressive home you have here."

Aila cast her gaze over the young woman, her quick eyes taking her in, appraising her, but the small, elegant smile never left her lips. "Thank you, although I should say that it is the family's home, not just mine," she added quickly with a soft chuckle. "Please...come, my girls, I have a bottle of sweet wine chilling..." she was already walking back to her suites, lifting a hand and motioning with her fingers for them to follow. "Come, come..."

"I can't stay long, Mama." Nesh began lapsing into her native tongue, and following along beside her mother. Next to her mother, who had the je nai se quois of a woman who had walked the world a time of two, Nesh looked suddenly very young, for all her teenage affect of cynical world weariness "I have a date. This really sweet boy I met on Terra."

Lirha followed in step behind the two others, still leading Amaranai by her hand as they now proceeded down the hallway. "The boy can wait, don't be rude," she quietly whispered to Nesh who was in front of her. Despite her motherly flaws, Aila had always been attentive to details and she'd no doubt have many questions for the both of them. And perhaps even more for Amaranai.

"I'm not taking etiquette advice from someone who barged into my home and shot my models! Nesh snapped back. "Mama, tell her to butt out of my private life! She's always interfering and its got nothing to do with her. She just doesn't like me having any fun!"

"My little fireblossom, your life is everything to do with her; she is your elder sister, and one day, when I'm no longer here, she will be your matriarch, and don't forget it," Aila replied bluntly, but the fondness in her smile softened the words. She waved a welcoming hand as she showed them into the opulent living room of her suite, motioning them to take a seat and get comfortable as she poured drinks. "And perhaps we should stick to Standard while we have guests, hm?" she added with an almost sing song lilt to her voice as she offered a glass to the lady in question.

"Over my dead body" Nesh replied to the comment over Lirha's future precedence in the family hierarchy with teenage petulance. "What guests? Amaranai is Galileo crew. She doesn't count. She's family."

Amaranai had been following the group and despite not knowing the actual language of the Orion, she had an idea of the conversation, mostly by reactions between Nesh, Lirha and their mother. The comment about their mother dying brought Amaranai's mind to her own mother's recent death. Not caring about her mother's death at the time of finding out was one thing, but now, being reminded of Lirha's mother's mortality seemed to make Amaranai even sadder.

The sudden switch from Orion to Federation Standard caught Amaranai off guard and she heard Nesh's comment about being family. Amaranai smiled at the girl and then back to her mother.

"I will tell you that there are plenty of people in my family that speak other languages around me knowing I am not fluent just so they can speak their minds." She paused. "Basically, I'm used to not knowing what people say and it hasn't slowed me down."

Lirha followed her mother's lead and took a seat on the large plush sofa in the living room. "You could learn to speak Orion," she proposed to Amaranai after a short moment of thought. "It's not a hard language to master. We also speak Yrevish but it's more challenging to pick up." Despite the common presence of universal translators throughout the quadrants, there was no true substitute for speaking in the native tongue. Word meanings, inflections, and accents were all slightly distorted by the translator technology which meant there was inevitably a loss of true communication during exchanges -- however slight it might seem.

"Lirha could teach you," Aila pointed out casually, pressing a glass first into Nesh's hand and then another into Lirha's. "She is a very good instructor after all. It would be something you could explore together," she added as she took a seat for herself. If the girl was suitable, she would push for her daughter's security...and with Lirha's accomplishments, the security she needed for now was some happiness and home. And some romance, or even love, could provide both of those things. Aila had no qualms in involving herself in her daughters' lives when necessary.

Lirha took a long sip of the drink her mother had given her then looked over to Amaranai with an affectionate smile. "I'm sure we can come to some sort of...arrangement," she mused, her eyes now glinting with mischief.

Amaranai looked to Lirha as she spoke. She offered a smile tainted with lust and hunger. The innuendo was there, which only made Amaranai smile bigger. She reached a hand out to Lirha and stroked it gently.

"I might need some extra lessons," Amaranai said.

Nesh made a gagging sound and mimed making herself vomit with two fingers. "Ugh. TMI, people. No-one needs to know about your cunning linguisitics."

The older Saalm sister was tempted to reply to Nesh -- if only to tell her to hush -- but her attention was now being diverted by the luxurious decorations she now noticed hanging on the walls. Latinum-framed pieces of ancient Orion artwork and gold-plated sculptures adorned the display shelves lining the walls, and elegant tapestries weaved from Tholian silk hung from the ceiling and glistened in the candle light.

"I don't remember our complex being this nice...," Lirha privately whispered to Amaranai. "I think my mother's done well for herself," she confessed with a squeeze of her hand on her partner's arm.

Amaranai looked around the large room and nodded.

"It reminds me of home," she started. "Lots of places to hide all the bad things you don't want the family to see."

She had whispered that to Lirha and hoped that Lirha's mother nor sister heard her. Amaranai was still not comfortable talking about her past despite the fact that she was removed completely from it now.

"Oh I'm sure mother has access to every room," Lirha grinned, still whispering. "Our secrets are her secrets. At least that was the way it was growing up," she lightly shrugged. "There's not much privacy in Orion families."

Amaranai looked at her lover for a moment. It seemed odd that their mother would know all the secrets. Even her parents hadn't know every crime that Amaranai had committed in her younger years - and Amaranai was grateful for that.

"Seems rather intrusive," she said after a moment. "I wouldn't want my mother or father knowing everything. That's the whole point of hiding."

"I..." Lirha's voice trailed off when she started to respond, then became silent. She couldn't think of any counter-argument to what Amaranai was saying, and her eyes slowly lowered to the carpet. "I suppose. But, I never really had anything to hide," she admitted with a consoling look to Franklin. She cringed privately as soon as the words came out and hoped Amaranai wouldn't take them the wrong way.

Nesh leaned in too Amaranai. "That's because Mama's girl over there doesn't know how to have fun." She stage whispered. Then she gave Amaranai a devilish look and raised an eyebrow. "Or maybe she likes being watched?"

Amaranai looked at her lover when she had nothing to hide. She felt slightly ashamed at her past all of a sudden, but didn't say anything. It was Nesh that decided to speak up. The security officer wanted to blush at Nesh's comment about Lirha and then looked between the sisters.

"Well," Amaranai said after a moment and then grinned. "It's obvious you don't like watching."

"I'm an artist, watching is what I do." Nesh replied. "I'm just not into nauseating displays of affection. Especialy when I'm not invited to join in." Nesh was being deliberately provocative, wanting to see how her sister's Siren-replacement could be pushed.

Amaranai stared at Nesh for a moment. Without saying anything, she pulled Lirha toward her and kissed the Orion's lips for a prolonged amount of time. Her hands wandered, not worried about the audience. After breaking the kiss, her hands returned to her side.

"Sorry," she said to Nesh. "I don't like to share."

Nesh rolled her eyes. "Like I said, nauseating."

Aila caught the tail end of the display as she returned with the new bottle of wine. She shook her head with a soft chuckle, sighing heavily. "Okay, enough," she set the bottle down, shaking her head firmly. "You youngsters want to go and play....go out, have fun, live life," she was already turning to return the bottle with a small smile. "Just be sure to come back soon. Nesh and I have some talking to do."

[OFF]

--

CAPT Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-A

Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical Officer
USS Galileo-A

Aila Saalm
Civilian
[PNPC Blake]

Nesh Saalm
Artist
[PNPC Derani]

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