Exothermic Reaction

Posted on 03 Dec 2023 @ 4:41pm by Nesh Saalm & Rear Admiral Lirha Saalm

1,928 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 19 - Tomorrow's Galileo
Location: USS Galileo-A - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 01, 1532 hrs

[ON]

The door to Galileo-A's small mess hall softly swished open then closed. Behind the doors and inside of the crew dining area now stood Rear Admiral Saalm in her future Starfleet uniform jumpsuit with a full crimson upper torso and a deep black fabric coloration running from her belly down to her toes. She was still the same Lirha of the past, yet different - emotionally and physically fatigued by over a decade of war and showing visible signs of the trauma within her once-youthful features. Streaks of graying hair highlighted her head and new wrinkles had formed along the outer edges of her eyes. Her once-bright and vibrant gold lips appeared more subdued. She was, in a way, a shell of her former self, one who knew her life was coming to a swift end. But before that occurred - in her last days - she searched out her younger sister. Her now-deceased sister who was alive once again.

Nesh didn't notice her at first. Rumours travelled on a ship anyway, and Nesh tended to be an ear for many of them, just by being in the mess. She was stirring when she looked up, seeing Lirha. Her eyes quickly clocked how old she looked, the uniform...and for a moment there was something softer inside of her, concern. It quicky died with the memories of her last encounter with her sister. Her sister who had put Snuffles with Blake and not even sent a message to Nesh. "Is that how I am going to look when I get older?" she asked, looking down at what she was doing. She stirred again. Baking, the PADD next to her displaying a recipe.

From across the room, Lirha saw her - alive and youthful, just as she'd remember her twenty-five years ago. Emotions overwhelmed the older sister as she brought a green hand over her mouth to suppress a cry while her eyes began to water. Slowly and trepidatiously, she walked forward, closer to her. "...Nesh..." She'd mentally prepared for this moment for many months but still hadn't been able to predict how it would play out. "I never thought I'd see you again," she spoke in their native Yrevish tongue.

Nesh gave a snort at that, still stirring, not looking at her. "So this is the future?" she asked, even if it was obvious with Lirha's aging. She looked at her, seeing the tears. "Stop it. It's not real. This..." she gestured around with a hand, putting the bowl down. "Is not real."

Lirha closed the awkward distance between the two and walked to stand next to Nesh in the galley. "I am real, Nesh...you are real, too. Why do you question this?" She searched her thoughts and the deepest memories of her past to remember the last time she'd seen her sister before she was killed in action a decade prior. "Are you angry with me for leaving you behind on Galileo? Because of my intelligence assignment?"

Nesh looked at her, holding her eyes for a long moment. When she spoke, it was Standard. "Yes, I am. I am angry that you did that, I am angry that you talked me into a corner where I had to chose between science which I hated, and being the chef here, working 18 hours a day. I am angry you gave Snuffles to Blake and didn't even bother to tell me. You, Lirha, can just get lost. I didn't even have time to get off this cursed ship before Tarin was appointed Captain. You could have warned me. Instead you let me rot." She stepped back, creating distance between them.

Moisture collected once again in Lirha's eyes and soft tears dripped down her olive-flushed cheeks. Whether or not Nesh was still mad at her was inconsequential. She was still alive, and even if she didn't recognize it, the simple opportunity for Lirha to talk to her again after she'd been long dead was nothing more than a miracle. The older Orion sniffled then smiled gently at Nesh with consolidation. "I should have been a better sister and a better mentor to you," she nodded with recognition. "You were always the most independent child out of the three of us...but I cared for you the most. I did not leave you on Galileo by choice, those were my orders. That has always been hard for you to understand."

"No, what is hard for me to understand is why you didn't tell me!" Nesh shouted the last word, watching her with anger flaring in her eyes. "Why you didn't say goodbye, you selfish targ! Because if I knew you weren't coming back, I wouldn't have stayed on the ship. I would have found my own way, with a civilian ship. But no, I stayed for you."

Nesh Saalm was as stubborn as Lirha remembered her. More tears manifested in her light green eyes which she wiped away with the back of her knuckles. "I didn't say goodbye because I couldn't, due to my orders from Starfleet to terminate all contact going into my new assignment. Nesh...I wanted to tell you. I wished I had had one last hour with you aboard Galileo to explain where I was going and why, but I couldn't. I take responsibility for that, but this is my life as a Starfleet officer. Sometimes I am asked to do things for the sake of the mission and objective, things that cannot conform with my duty to you as your sister. And for that...I am so very sorry." Lirha lowered her eyes to the carpet of the once-familiar Galileo mess hall.

"You're only sorry because in this time, I'm dead," Nesh said, watching her for a long moment. "You gave Snuffles to Blake. Not to me. I didn't want a mission briefing, I just wanted to know you were leaving! So I could make my own choices on my life! And clearly, that's worked out so well for me in the future. Take your apology, Lirha Saalm, and shove it out of an airlock. You're not getting whatever you're seeking here." She shook her head, breathing hard with her anger hardened by the time they had been apart. The hours working, being under Tarin, confined to quarters, having to attend the Captain every day at set hours like a beast dragged out for show, being attacked by Ferengi, watching people try and kill each other...it had been too much for her to stomach and keep a smile.

Lirha's stomach tightened and she experienced a wave of light nausea. Nesh's words were cold and further stabbed the rear admiral's already-broken heart. "And Livana? Aila? They are dead too, now. Would you speak to them this way as well if you had one last chance?" The entire Saalm family in this future - except Lirha - was gone. There would be no future children to carry on the family lineage. "I know you're angry with me. I...wasn't the best sister to you during my last year aboard Galileo-A. Sometimes we struggle to understand the value of what we have until it is lost, forever. Will you give me another chance, Nesh? Here, in this time?"

Nesh watched Lirha for a long moment, letting out a shaky breath. Part of her would. It was her sister in front of her. But her words pushed more anger through the Orion. "In this time that I have been pulled to, you mean? Give you a chance here?" she asked, suddenly laughing at how absurd it was. "Yesterday, all I had to worry about was how to get off the shift as soon as we got back to Regula I. Because I am. I am leaving, I am going to ask to be on a civilian ship with...a trader. Today, I am in this time for no reason whatsoever and my family is dead. I should have been left where I was. Because this? This is not real, Lirha. Not to me. This is a nightmare that I have been pulled to against my will, a hostage."

"This is our future, Nesh," the older Orion continued to try and explain, "not some alternate reality or different dimension. This is a continuation of the life we once lived together. If I hadn't brought you and Galileo forward in time - and if this crew doesn't work to correct the past - then what has happened will happen again, to all of us. Of this, my scientists and I are certain." Lirha took a deep breath then lightly crossed her arms over her chest. "I know you are leaving Galileo, because it already happened. Your trade vessel, along with many others, were some of the first casualties when the war began. You and I...became estranged after you started your new career and it's one of my deepest regrets in life. I never had the chance to reconcile with you before you died. Please, Nesh. I've lost everything. Allow me this one last chance to experience your company before it's too late."

"It isn't for me, because it hasn't happened yet. And you! You suddenly control time? Well good on you, Lirha...always have to come in and rescue people, the great hero Lirha Saalm! The amount of time you've disappeared off and then come back with a fleet, to make you feel all superior...rather than stick it out. Always the easiest way out," Nesh shook her head, her cheeks flushed with her anger. "I am not surprised we became strangers in this time. Because truth is, you only care about yourself. And what it means for you. So let me rest in peace, big sister..." she raised an eyebrow, watching her. "I am not going to be offering you salvation. I'll be in your company when you order me to. I will smile and bow, like I have since I ran away here. I will be your perfect little game piece...just like I would have been for mother. But don't think I owe you anything beyond that."

Lirha's throat again tightened and became dry. The lump of saliva she swallowed was both physically and emotionally painful, bordering on torturous. Her shoulders sagged with defeat and she turned away from Nesh to not let her see the full stream of tears beginning to cascade down the bridge of her nose and emerald cheeks. She walked away from her little sister while memories of affectionately holding and cuddling Nesh as a newborn threatened to break the remains of her emotional fortitude. "I've always loved you...more than anything else in the galaxy," she finally managed to say in a pained voice over her shoulder before she stepped out of the mess hall with a swish of the door.

Nesh watched her go, taking a slow and centring breath. "If you loved me, you wouldn't have kidnapped me from my own time," she breathed, before she moved to sit down. Emotions warred and for a moment Nesh realised one thing...you could love someone, and really dislike them, all at the same time.

Wasn't familial love a funny thing.

[OFF]

--

RADM Lirha Saalm
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo-B
[PNPC Tarin]

&

Nesh Saalm
Chef
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Rice]

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