Remember When it Rained Part One
by Vedek Jariel (as told by ZL)
71209.17
Soundtrack: Remember When It Rained by Josh Groban
Hours after "Unwanted Guests" -just before the Alchemy reaches Aertok
-=Aboard the Alchemy=-
by Vedek Jariel (as told by ZL)
71209.17
Soundtrack: Remember When It Rained by Josh Groban
Hours after "Unwanted Guests" -just before the Alchemy reaches Aertok
-=Aboard the Alchemy=-
Time passed so slowly now, as the Alchemy made her way through the silence of space. They had even more to be concerned about than they had before, the fact that apparently the Romulans really had received Gleen's invitation and did want to get Liis into their clutches.
Jariel appreciated the support of his friends and crew mates, he really did.
The gesture that February had made earlier had pulled him back from the edge of a very steep precipice, and after being reassured that those on the bridge were still doing all that they could in the rescue effort, Jariel believed that by staying there he would be selfishly serving his own needs and getting in the way of their vital work. So, he'd gently kissed February on the forehead and shaken the hand of each and every person on the bridge to thank them for their help to him, and their loyalty to Liis.
Lastly, he'd hugged Kellyn, who took the opportunity to whisper words of comfort of her own into his ear. Then once again he retreated from the bridge.
They had all told him that he should try to sleep, to save his strength for what was to come. Yet he knew that no matter how he tried, sleep would not allow him even a temporary escape tonight from the ache in his heart. Every time he closed his eyes, he had the most vivid visions.
These visions were actually memories that he was still processing and learning to live with, as in this timeline he had no knowledge of them until after his Orb experiences.
Until recently it had been his understanding during the last decade of linear time, that he had first met Zanh Liis aboard the USS Independence; when he was serving as an ambassador and was the favored choice of his people to become the next Kai.
There was so much more to their history than that.
They had actually grown up together at the orphanage. Liis remembered this with varying degrees of clarity, as Temporal Investigations made it a practice to 'reset' the memories of their operatives with the 'proper' information after each time jump had been completed successfully.
TI had found that there was something particularly resistant about the very brain cells of this Zanh Liis. Something defiant in her, that refused to let go of all of the memory engrams. This prevented them from 'resetting' her entirely, and left her with nightmares and flashbacks, deeply haunted by the lives she'd led and lost in alternate branches of the space time continuum.
It was for this very reason that, after getting to know Liis for the 'first time' in his view, Jariel knew that he had to find out, somehow, the truth of it all. He would leave no stone unturned, no opportunity unexplored, until he understood why it was that they were so tied together on a level that he couldn't explain, even if someone had asked him to.
The Prophets had been offended by his stubborn refusal to let it all go. To let her go.
They'd taken his voice, nearly his life, after they finally gave him all the knowledge he sought- bringing new meaning to the old saying "Be careful what you wish for- you may get it."
Since he'd 'gotten it', he had tried to process it all, and for the most part, he had a much better picture of why and how Zanh Liis had become the woman that she was today.
He could hardly believe all she had survived up until this point, and he felt even more certain that it was his purpose above all else to protect her, even though she would swear that if anyone was to be protected at all costs from the evils in life, it should be him.
He'd already cleaned up the mess in the small room serving as his quarters, and he turned his attention to the small leather suitcase that sat on the bunk beside him. He opened it, and even though he knew what was inside, looking at the few belongings that Liis considered to be her prized possessions made his chest ache.
He picked up her temporal compass. It was dark, and silent. He had actually hoped that it would be flashing. That it would be making that insufferable sound that she, dark sense of humor very much her style, referred to flippantly as the "damnable beep of doom."
If the compass was flashing, that might indicate that all that had recently happened was an accident. Incorrect as far as history was concerned. That meant that maybe, a time jump could correct it. That this was not the fate she was supposed to suffer.
He couldn't stand the thought that after all the lives she'd lived, that Zanh Liis' existence might come to an end with her dying alone, on a cold, metal shelf on some alien world.
She deserved better.
He withdrew a data rod from the case and plugged it into the panel on the wall. Listening to her music made her feel so much closer, somehow. A random selection began to play.
He next removed a small, well-worn leather book from the suitcase and rotated it in his hands.
He untied the straps that held it shut. He flipped open the cover, and the end papers held something he had never seen before. Her handwriting -if the cryptic scrawl she referred to as handwriting could be called that- lined the pages.
No flowery prose, no elaborate notations present, as he would have been prone to create had this been his own journal.
It was simply a list. Each entry began and ended the same way.
Jariel: Here- then a stardate.
Jariel, Gone- another stardate.
One entry in particular near the top of the list was slightly different though, and it caught his attention.
Jariel: Here. First night. Stardate 2367.12.20.
Me, Gone: Stardate 2367.12.21
The music intensified the meaning of the words on the page as he read them.
Jariel's mind became overwhelmed by vivid images, and he realized exactly and instantly what that entry meant.
-=Flashback=-
He was laying on the bed in his small room at the monastery. The fireplace crackled, as the wood he'd just added to the dying embers finally caught and the heat it created began to chase away the bone-chilling cold that permeated the old stone building.
Staring at the ceiling, Jariel's mind was far away from his current location as he listened to the sound of the rain pounding upon the roof.
It was unusual to have rain this time of the year in Altaan, usually it would already have been replaced by snowfall, or at least precipitation in the form of ice pellets that stung your skin as you hurried from the temple back to the dormitories.
Tonight, the wind howled and the window was streaked with jagged lines of running water, illuminated only by the light of the candle on his windowsill, the one next to him on the bedside table, and the flickering flames of the fire.
Peldor season was officially over.
The scrolls had been burned, the ashes of the Baterat leaves discarded. All the food consumed, and the reality of the beginning another bleak year settled over him like the clouds had settled over the landscape. This one would be far worse than past years, though.
She was leaving in the morning.
Jariel appreciated the support of his friends and crew mates, he really did.
The gesture that February had made earlier had pulled him back from the edge of a very steep precipice, and after being reassured that those on the bridge were still doing all that they could in the rescue effort, Jariel believed that by staying there he would be selfishly serving his own needs and getting in the way of their vital work. So, he'd gently kissed February on the forehead and shaken the hand of each and every person on the bridge to thank them for their help to him, and their loyalty to Liis.
Lastly, he'd hugged Kellyn, who took the opportunity to whisper words of comfort of her own into his ear. Then once again he retreated from the bridge.
They had all told him that he should try to sleep, to save his strength for what was to come. Yet he knew that no matter how he tried, sleep would not allow him even a temporary escape tonight from the ache in his heart. Every time he closed his eyes, he had the most vivid visions.
These visions were actually memories that he was still processing and learning to live with, as in this timeline he had no knowledge of them until after his Orb experiences.
Until recently it had been his understanding during the last decade of linear time, that he had first met Zanh Liis aboard the USS Independence; when he was serving as an ambassador and was the favored choice of his people to become the next Kai.
There was so much more to their history than that.
They had actually grown up together at the orphanage. Liis remembered this with varying degrees of clarity, as Temporal Investigations made it a practice to 'reset' the memories of their operatives with the 'proper' information after each time jump had been completed successfully.
TI had found that there was something particularly resistant about the very brain cells of this Zanh Liis. Something defiant in her, that refused to let go of all of the memory engrams. This prevented them from 'resetting' her entirely, and left her with nightmares and flashbacks, deeply haunted by the lives she'd led and lost in alternate branches of the space time continuum.
It was for this very reason that, after getting to know Liis for the 'first time' in his view, Jariel knew that he had to find out, somehow, the truth of it all. He would leave no stone unturned, no opportunity unexplored, until he understood why it was that they were so tied together on a level that he couldn't explain, even if someone had asked him to.
The Prophets had been offended by his stubborn refusal to let it all go. To let her go.
They'd taken his voice, nearly his life, after they finally gave him all the knowledge he sought- bringing new meaning to the old saying "Be careful what you wish for- you may get it."
Since he'd 'gotten it', he had tried to process it all, and for the most part, he had a much better picture of why and how Zanh Liis had become the woman that she was today.
He could hardly believe all she had survived up until this point, and he felt even more certain that it was his purpose above all else to protect her, even though she would swear that if anyone was to be protected at all costs from the evils in life, it should be him.
He'd already cleaned up the mess in the small room serving as his quarters, and he turned his attention to the small leather suitcase that sat on the bunk beside him. He opened it, and even though he knew what was inside, looking at the few belongings that Liis considered to be her prized possessions made his chest ache.
He picked up her temporal compass. It was dark, and silent. He had actually hoped that it would be flashing. That it would be making that insufferable sound that she, dark sense of humor very much her style, referred to flippantly as the "damnable beep of doom."
If the compass was flashing, that might indicate that all that had recently happened was an accident. Incorrect as far as history was concerned. That meant that maybe, a time jump could correct it. That this was not the fate she was supposed to suffer.
He couldn't stand the thought that after all the lives she'd lived, that Zanh Liis' existence might come to an end with her dying alone, on a cold, metal shelf on some alien world.
She deserved better.
He withdrew a data rod from the case and plugged it into the panel on the wall. Listening to her music made her feel so much closer, somehow. A random selection began to play.
He next removed a small, well-worn leather book from the suitcase and rotated it in his hands.
He untied the straps that held it shut. He flipped open the cover, and the end papers held something he had never seen before. Her handwriting -if the cryptic scrawl she referred to as handwriting could be called that- lined the pages.
No flowery prose, no elaborate notations present, as he would have been prone to create had this been his own journal.
It was simply a list. Each entry began and ended the same way.
Jariel: Here- then a stardate.
Jariel, Gone- another stardate.
One entry in particular near the top of the list was slightly different though, and it caught his attention.
Jariel: Here. First night. Stardate 2367.12.20.
Me, Gone: Stardate 2367.12.21
The music intensified the meaning of the words on the page as he read them.
Jariel's mind became overwhelmed by vivid images, and he realized exactly and instantly what that entry meant.
-=Flashback=-
He was laying on the bed in his small room at the monastery. The fireplace crackled, as the wood he'd just added to the dying embers finally caught and the heat it created began to chase away the bone-chilling cold that permeated the old stone building.
Staring at the ceiling, Jariel's mind was far away from his current location as he listened to the sound of the rain pounding upon the roof.
It was unusual to have rain this time of the year in Altaan, usually it would already have been replaced by snowfall, or at least precipitation in the form of ice pellets that stung your skin as you hurried from the temple back to the dormitories.
Tonight, the wind howled and the window was streaked with jagged lines of running water, illuminated only by the light of the candle on his windowsill, the one next to him on the bedside table, and the flickering flames of the fire.
Peldor season was officially over.
The scrolls had been burned, the ashes of the Baterat leaves discarded. All the food consumed, and the reality of the beginning another bleak year settled over him like the clouds had settled over the landscape. This one would be far worse than past years, though.
She was leaving in the morning.
Vedek Jariel Camen
(as told by ZL)
Ship's Chaplain
Currently aboard the Alchemy
(as told by ZL)
Ship's Chaplain
Currently aboard the Alchemy