The Future All Mapped Out

Posted on 12 Aug 2018 @ 12:58pm by Aila Saalm & Nesh Saalm

1,683 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Rigel VII - Vajripam: Saalm Residence
Timeline: MD 107 0930

ON:

The low table in the richly dressed living room was covered with plates of small bites of food to be picked casually at. It was the way Aila Saalm preferred to eat during the day, and a jug of iced tea from a leaf grown on Betazed was standing with two glasses. Aila was knelt at the table, comfortable as she poured the tea, glancing up as the door opened. "Ah, there you are Nesh...and not even *that* late..." she teased lightly as her daughter appeared.

Nesh walked in, already dressed, or perhaps had never undressed, for a day at the beach, her blue macrame bikini bright against her green skin, and a soft silk sarong knotted around her hips in a bad impression of decency. "I'm still on San Francisco time, mama. I'm practically early!" She stopped down next to the table and poured herself some iced tea. "What did you want to see me about?"

Aila motioned for her to join her at the table, smiling gently as she just took her in. Had she ever been that young? Yes, oh yes, she had, and behaved it too, most likely. "How are you, Nesh?" she asked gently. "We don't get much chance to talk these days."

"I'm good. Leaving Starfleet was the best thing I never did. My drawing has got so much better since I've been doing it full time." Nesh took a thirty gulp of drink. "Have you been okay? It's been months since Lirha got married."

Aila smiled weakly at the mention, nodding slowly as she leant to refill both of their glasses. "Oh fine, fine. I've been putting a lot of time into the business. Regaining some ground that has been lost for too long." She glanced up to Nesh at that, but looked for long enough to meet her eyes. "We have a proud family line to uphold."

"Yeah. I'd be careful mentioning that to Lirha." Nesh shifted. What had happened to her big sister was more horrible than she cared to contemplate. "Did you know? About the babies? Had she told you?"

Aila looked down for a long moment, so she wouldn't be able to see her eyes as she set her glass down heavily on the table. "Yes. No one should have to go through that. It seems so unfair." She took a deep, sharp breath, straightening slightly with it. "But Lirha is strong."

"Too strong. She's uptight and humming like a wire. I had to practically drag her all the way here. And she's pathologically co-dependent on Starfleet. It chewed her up and spat her out, and she still won't tell them to go f- themselves."

Aila looked away for a long moment, weighing her words, her mind going back to points in her life, in their lives. "She is loyal," she said quietly, looking back to her to meet her eyes. "Stubborn. Addicted to hard work," she smiled softly at that, shaking her head. "They can be good things."

"Starfleet still sucks," Nesh replied. "Glad I'm out." She paused. "Don't tell her, but I'll miss her. She's going for three whole years this time, and the but end of the quadrant, so no hopping back for cocktails and gigolos. It won't be the same."

"Don't worry, I will keep you busy," Aila assured with a smile, her head tilting to the side as she watched her with shining eyes. "I'm working hard to bring some deals together at the moment. You can help me."

"I don't need to be busy." Nesh popped a piece of fruit into her mouth and let the juice run down her tongue, before swallowing and replying. "I've got my portfolio to work on. I need to get in at least half a dozen more large pieces before I can really start showing, or trying to get work as a commercial artist."

"Mm hm..." Aila nodded vacantly as she talked about art, reaching to catch hold of the PADD under the table, scrolling through pages on it until she reached a picture of a man. She put it down so Nesh could see, tilting her head as she looked down at the picture. The man clearly had an Orion heritage, however his paler green skin and dark eyes and black hair against more aristocratic lines in his features showed the Betazoid blood in his mixed heritage. As did the leaner body in the expensive suit, making for an athletic and slighter build than the usual bulky full blooded Orion males. He looked as if he was a similar age to Aila, but he was a handsome man that some would say had only improved with age. "What do you think?"

Nesh shrugged. The man was old enough to be her father. He was neither here nor there. "He's a new boyfriend? Looks okay. You want me to do his portrait?"

"No," Aila said slowly, titling her head to look at Nesh rather than the picture. "This is Reon Visan, your fiance."

Nesh had a mouthful of iced tea. She sprayed it out in shock. "Fiance? What the hell, mama!?"

"It's all arranged," Aila nodded firmly, her voice taking on that tone that meant she'd planned every last detail as she ignored the outburst. "The wedding will be in three months, that gives us enough time to arrange it to be the event that it should be. He's a driving force in the guilds, he can do us a lot of good. And it will give you structure."

"No." Nesh said, a laugh in her voice. It was a joke. She was eighteen, not quite nineteen. Among most earth societies, where hse had grown up, she was barely considered an adult. She wasn't old enough to get married. And even if she wanted to, it was going to be to someone of her choosing. For love. "I'm not getting married. I'll sort myself out in that regard, don't you worry."

"But I do worry," her mother replied bluntly, tilting her head as she watched her with meaning. "You gave up what could have been a perfectly good career, with position and respect. Just as I thought you had shown signs of settling down and working hard you have thrown the chips up in the air again. This marriage will give you security and structure, and the chance to contribute to our family legacy."

"Starfleet wasn't a good career. It was stifling, boring and had entirely too much of people bossing me about." Nesh replied, with just a hint of bitterness. "And I have security already. I'm an Earth and Federation citizen. I don't have to worry about being sick, or going hungry, or cold. I want to be an artist, and I can be an artist. I'm giving myself structure. You and Lirha might not like it, but its working so far."

"I wouldn't exactly use the word 'working', in any sense," her mother replied honestly, shaking her head with a slight frown. "I brought you up to have a work ethic...to work for what life gives you, not to rely on the rest of the world to look after you. We all have to find a way to give back and make ourselves stronger in the process. I had hoped Starfleet would do that for you. Now that it's apparent it won't...well...I have arranged for an alternative."

Nesh looked at her mother like she'd grown a second head. She'd been raised on earth her entire life. Earth with its ideal post consumer society, where self-actualisation was the most important thing; freed from worry over basic needs, humans had driven their society higher and higher, to ever greater achievements in science and technology, art and music, peace and tolerance and cohesion. Forced marriage has been consigned to the garbage heap of history four hundred years ago.

The calm resolution on her mother's face chilled Nesh. There was nothing she could do or say that would change her mother's mind. She would have to find another way to get out of this. "I've never even met him. Do I even get to know him first? What if he doesn't like me?"

"You will meet him soon," Aila assured quickly, settled by her daughter's seeming lack of argument. "I'm sure you'll like each other, do you think I would pick someone completely unsuitable?" she waved a slight hand, plucking a grape from a bowl to pop in her mouth. "But that's not to say it won't be work. All partnerships are work, Nesh...be it business or marriage."

Nesh noted that her mother hadn't actually answered her question. "When is the wedding?" she was still slightly nauseated that her mother had cheerfully arranged what would be years of either celibacy or rape without consulting her. "Before of after Lirha leaves?"

"In three months, after she's gone," Aila reached to top up Nesh's glass, shaking her head lightly. "It is plenty of time for you and he to get to know each other. To get an...understanding of how this will benefit both families."

"Okay." Well that wasn't so bad. There was still time. Nesh got to her feet. "In that case I'm going to insist you don't tell her anything. I don't want her complicit in this." She gave her mother a hard look. "I need one person in this family I don't utterly despise."

And then she turned on her heel and walked out.

Aila knelt back as she watched her leave, flinching inwardly at the parting words. She watched the table for a long moment, her brow slowly furrowing into a frown. She had to remind herself that Nesh's world was very different to her own. She wouldn't understand that Aila had reconciled herself a long time ago, on a ship, flooded by Nausiccan pirates, to the fact that she would, and could, do anything for her children. Even if they didn't realise or agree it was for the best.

[OFF]


Nesh Saalm
Artist in training
[PNPC Derani]

Aila Saalm
Mother & Civilian
[PNPC Blake]

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