by Lair Kellyn
90312.21
Following The Summit
Soundtrack: Wherever You Will Go by The Calling
-=/\=-
-=Mount Seleya, Vulcan=-
90312.21
Following The Summit
Soundtrack: Wherever You Will Go by The Calling
-=/\=-
-=Mount Seleya, Vulcan=-
She lost count of the minutes as they passed by after the first thirty had elapsed.
Her attempts at meditation had served as a good distraction for awhile, convincing Kellyn that small miracles could still happen in life.
A much larger miracle, however, was what she had come to this planet in search of.
Hours had slipped by mostly unnoticed, despite the extreme weather conditions in which she found herself in or perhaps because of them.
Maybe she was delirious with fever and in Sickbay, she thought at one point, and not living the bad dream that she feared all too real.
Time seemed to slow, coming to a grinding stop as she tried once again to make sense of everything that had taken place since she'd left for Lethus.
She quickly realized and accepted that all of this had started far before that.
In fact, this had all begun long before Arie was born; ages before she had even met Salvek.
This had all started when he was but a boy only five years of age and it began with an initial act of violence so heinous that if Lair Kellyn had ever found herself alone in a room with Taris the Romulan, she'd have strangled the woman herself with her own two hands.
There was little in life, it seemed, that Zanh Liis and Lair Kellyn agreed upon. But the necessity of Taris' death- not simply her capture- was one of them.
Finally, that long-awaited and -if it is ever right to pray under any circumstances or manner for another beings undoing to happen- prayed for event had finally taken place.
What Lair Kellyn had not counted upon was that Taris' grasp was so far reaching, it had even succeeded in slipping the bonds of Death.
She wondered suddenly why this should be a surprise to her.
After all, if love could be strong enough to defy even death, what would prevent an emotion as powerful as hate from possessing the same power?
Maybe the Vulcans had the right idea all along.
Maybe all emotions were evil and should be suppressed, or even eliminated altogether whenever possible. Perhaps she was wrong to encourage Arie to embrace the feelings that were part and parcel of her Bajoran DNA.
Of Kellyn's DNA.
She held a small rock in her hand and thought about tossing it over the edge along with the others she'd thrown in frustration but abandoned the idea, accepting that frustration was her greatest enemy at the moment.
That, and the heat.
The heat.
At least they weren't freezing in the cold on Yensul V...
She sat still in the withering, arid desert; partly to conserve her energy and partly because she was too far beyond caring about anything, least of all moving.
She was beginning to feel the effects of exposure, even though she was shielded by light layers of bright white clothing and wearing almost an entire tube of skin protectant.
Her eyes themselves felt as if they were on fire; dry and gritty from the sand which seemed to be an integral part of the very air. Swirling around her, it blasted the interior surface of her lungs with each inhalation. It was abrasive against her face even though there was absolutely no breeze stirring to propel it.
Without any productive activity into which to steer her bottled up energy, Lair found herself rather un-productively questioning every decision she'd ever made as a mother as she sat there, baking in the sun.
Her exchange with Vol Tryst left her unsettled. Even though she knew that the reasons for her actions had once been sound she wondered if, or when, they stopped being what was right for Arie and started being what was convenient for her and Salvek.
"Although the right intention, wildly supported by your motherly instinct and shared by many mothers before you, a lie is still a lie." Tryst had said, and of all he'd said that one sentence was what had wounded her most.
How many times had her own mother done what was most convenient for herself and sacrificed the interests of Kellyn and her sister, considering that the best course of action?
Was anything she was doing with her life the right thing?
She pulled the hood of her cloak away from her face at last. Sweat matted her hair to her brow and trickled down the back of her neck.
She reached into her survival pack and took out her last packet of water. She used a small amount to rinse out her eyes before greedily gulping the rest of it down.
Suddenly she was cursing herself for not having at least had the foresight to keep Salvek's supply pack with her, which had more water in it. He hadn't needed more than one pouch the entire journey up to the summit, and he'd certainly have plenty of it available inside the caverns.
The caverns.
Their darkness appealed to her very much at the moment, even if she was afraid if she stepped inside those caves that the change in temperature might break her like glass; taking her from extreme searing heat to deep icy cold so fast that her body simply wouldn't be able to withstand the difference.
Much like, she thought, what had happened to her heart the moment that she heard Salvek say he'd melded with Taris.
-=Flashback, USS Serendipity, shortly after Lair Kellyn was released from Sickbay=-
Vol Tryst had just been welcomed back to the ship.
Arie was in the Arboretum, playing with the Blakeslee boys in order to give Samthia a chance to visit with Zander for awhile in Sickbay.
Finally, for the first time since they'd returned to the ship, Kellyn and Salvek were alone.
Kellyn found herself feeling nervous around him; a sensation as distressing as it was unfamiliar considering all of the years they'd been married.
Even longer than they'd been married they'd been partners in their work, and so it was not unusual or uncomfortable for her to spend long periods of time at his side in silence. They had never feared a lack of conversation, at least, she never had.
She had learned quickly that it was simply his way to speak very little when he was content with his life and his surroundings, fully engaged in what he was doing.
This silence, however, was different.
It was a space inhabited by an unwelcome, eerie tension that sucked the oxygen from the air and left it so thin that Kellyn grew light-headed trying to exist on it.
Her world was spinning off its axis.
She had known that the moment she'd looked into Salvek's eyes after his return from Taris' ship. She just didn't understand why.
The instant the doors to their quarters closed, Salvek shocked her by taking her face into his hands and kissing her.
Forcefully, passionately.
It was a very emotional sort of kiss and there was more to it than just longing and joy over their reunion.
There was a desperation in it that she hadn't expected to feel radiating from him for...well...for a few more years if the timing ran true.
His hands moved to her shoulders, and then clasped firmly around her waist, pulling her body against his. He held her so tightly that what was left of Kellyn's ability to breathe seemed to vanish.
She turned her lips from his, fighting to speak.
"Salvek."
He kissed her again.
She placed the palms of her hands against his chest, and pushed him back with all her strength. "Wait. I." She was still weakened from her injuries, and she was really beginning to think she might pass out. "I can't-"
Salvek stopped, bitterly misunderstanding her need for air as a rejection of his advances. He turned away from her and stormed into the bedroom, leaving her behind.
"I just, wait a second!" She followed and then reached into the drawer of her bedside table. She withdrew her bronchodilator spray and inhaled deeply of the medication.
"Can't breathe. Wait." She dropped down onto the bed where he now lay, staring up at the ceiling with his hands clasped behind his head.
Once she'd finally caught her breath, she moved closer to him. His body remained still and rigidly unresponsive to her as she put her arms around him and tilted her face toward his, ready to kiss him.
Salvek refused her now. Sitting up, he threw his legs over the side of the bed and directed his deep brown eyes down at the deck.
"What is going on?" Kellyn demanded. "First you...and then." She stopped.
Her hands began to tremble, and she grasped hold of the blanket atop the bed to try to hide it.
"What happened to you over there? And don't even try to tell me that nothing did, because so help me, Salvek, I swear to the Prophets-"
"I melded with Taris." Salvek snapped, barely controlled rage permeating every word.
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Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project
Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project