To Light the Sky at Night
by Zanh Liis
71222.2
--=At the Central Assembly Hospital, on Bajor:
Seventy-two hours after the Alchemy's landing=--
by Zanh Liis
71222.2
--=At the Central Assembly Hospital, on Bajor:
Seventy-two hours after the Alchemy's landing=--
Liis had struggled as she was coming out of general anesthesia.
Her body chemistry had never handled it well. With all she had gone through on Ferenginar and beyond, it reacted even worse to the procedure this time than in the past. It took her days to fully emerge from unconsciousness that should only have lasted hours.
As she tried her best to come out of the fog now, she attempted to reconstruct the things that she could recall. To shape the fragments into a coherent series of events.
The last thing she remembered was feeling numb, and hearing the words "cardiac repair" spoken by someone who seemed to be very far away.
In the netherworld between unconsciousness and clarity, she asked herself one question in light of those words.
*Have they finally found a way to surgically mend my broken heart?*
She was startled completely awake by the sound of an explosion outside the room. She tried to sit up, but found that her wrists and ankles were restrained.
She gasped as her eyes flew open, and she looked around, frantically trying to determine where she was.
Her vision was blurred, but when she was finally able to focus she stopped fighting the restraints and relaxed against the bed. Wherever she was, at least she wasn't in the hands of the Ferengi anymore. Or worse.
Slowly she came to the realization that the explosions booming outside were not artillery fire.
They were fireworks.
She turned her head in the direction of the window. Crimson, gold, and heliotrope colored sparks illuminated the sky, and she heard the sound of the temple bells ringing in the distance, their song rising in the air above the rhythm of the shells' detonations.
She breathed in the aroma of Baterat leaves, and looked over to see several branches worth lying on a table across from the bed. The symbol of her homeworld was emblazoned on the wall opposite her.
*This must be the afterlife,* Liis thought. *But then why am I still in a hospital bed?*
She hadn't noticed yet that someone was standing in the shadows beside the window, watching the fireworks as well and feeling very lonely doing so. He heard her rustling the bed sheets and turned around.
He looked at her, and cast the most beautiful smile upon her that she had ever seen.
"Jariel?"
He moved to her side, leaned over, and caressed her face. He pressed his lips softly against the ridges of her nose, before moving lower and slowly kissing her lips.
Then he did the second most extraordinary thing that Liis had ever seen.
He spoke.
She thought that she had heard him speaking to her when she woke up in Sickbay on the Alchemy only briefly, but believed that it had to have been a hallucination. He'd been silent so long, how could it have been real? Hearing his voice again now that she was alert and fully in the moment was nothing short of miraculous.
"Peldor Joi, Zanh Liis," he reveled in the beauty of her expression as she accepted that she was, in fact, not dreaming or in heaven. She was very much alive.
He rested his lips against her ear and sighed with relief and contentment before finally saying what he'd wanted to so badly, for so long. Ever since he'd been struck mute; ever since he'd learned the truth.
"I love you, Liis. So much. More than anything or anyone else, I swear it."
She tried to reach out to touch him, but the restraints stopped her.
"Oh, here, here," he hurried to untie them. "The nurses insisted, I’m sorry. They were afraid that you’d hurt yourself if you sat up too quickly and pulled out your support equipment.”
That was when Liis realized how much “support equipment” she was still attached to. Wires were everywhere.
He lifted each of her hands and kissed them in turn as he freed them. He adjusted her blanket after untying her ankles from their restraints. He tucked it in around her, taking care to avoid the wires and the attached leads. He brushed her hair back affectionately. "Are you warm enough?"
"But how," she looked around. She counted the days that must have passed since her abduction. If the date on the display beside her was accurate, weeks had gone by, in total. "Are we on Bajor?"
"We are," he replied, still stroking her hair softly. "Are you in pain? I should get your doctor," he turned to go, but she grabbed his sleeve and tugged.
"What I need is information," she insisted. "If you're really you, and I'm really me, and we're really on Bajor, then someone must have rescued me and brought us here. And something else must have happened while I was doing my best popsicle impression, because in case you haven't noticed, you can talk."
He smiled at her again. "I've noticed, Soshara,"
*Soshara.*
Hearing him use that Bajoran word, a word that translated roughly into Standard as "the reason”,was quite a shock to Liis’ system.
It was a shock, because it was a term of endearment that he had made up for her when they were only teenagers. He often said back then that she was "the only reason he had for getting through the day".
Eventually he shortened the statement, turned the abbreviation into a title, and bestowed it upon her.
It was so much more than just a nickname.
That he should remember to call her that name now brought tears to Liis' eyes for the first time since she awakened. She cried because it was a memory from a time he didn't- no, shouldn't- remember. At least he hadn't remembered it when last she had seen him, weeks ago.
*What else did he remember while I was gone?*
"I need to know, Jariel," she pleaded. "I need to know everything."
"You will. I promise. But first, I'm going to get your doctor." He hurried to the door, stopping to look back as if he couldn't believe she was alive, awake, and speaking to him.
He saw that her gaze had drifted back toward the window, as the bells from the temple continued to toll in celebration of the Gratitude Festival.
Snow was falling outside, and the drifting flakes seemed to shimmer, reflecting the brilliant hues of the fireworks igniting above them, until the colors washed down and faded into the snow on the ground below.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Liis whispered. The tears in her eyes spilled down her face as she found herself thinking back to the song her grandmother used to sing.
Remembering the simple wish it contained for Bajor, in fact, for every inhabited planet. That someday, lights of celebration would forever replace the crossfire of war. Those words echoed in her mind once more:
*Then only fireworks will light the sky at night,
for all the world can see.*
"It's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life," Jariel replied honestly, as tears filled his eyes as well. Without another word, he disappeared into the hall.
Even though she couldn't see his face as he spoke, Liis knew from the sound of his voice that unlike her, he wasn't referring to the fireworks.
Her body chemistry had never handled it well. With all she had gone through on Ferenginar and beyond, it reacted even worse to the procedure this time than in the past. It took her days to fully emerge from unconsciousness that should only have lasted hours.
As she tried her best to come out of the fog now, she attempted to reconstruct the things that she could recall. To shape the fragments into a coherent series of events.
The last thing she remembered was feeling numb, and hearing the words "cardiac repair" spoken by someone who seemed to be very far away.
In the netherworld between unconsciousness and clarity, she asked herself one question in light of those words.
*Have they finally found a way to surgically mend my broken heart?*
She was startled completely awake by the sound of an explosion outside the room. She tried to sit up, but found that her wrists and ankles were restrained.
She gasped as her eyes flew open, and she looked around, frantically trying to determine where she was.
Her vision was blurred, but when she was finally able to focus she stopped fighting the restraints and relaxed against the bed. Wherever she was, at least she wasn't in the hands of the Ferengi anymore. Or worse.
Slowly she came to the realization that the explosions booming outside were not artillery fire.
They were fireworks.
She turned her head in the direction of the window. Crimson, gold, and heliotrope colored sparks illuminated the sky, and she heard the sound of the temple bells ringing in the distance, their song rising in the air above the rhythm of the shells' detonations.
She breathed in the aroma of Baterat leaves, and looked over to see several branches worth lying on a table across from the bed. The symbol of her homeworld was emblazoned on the wall opposite her.
*This must be the afterlife,* Liis thought. *But then why am I still in a hospital bed?*
She hadn't noticed yet that someone was standing in the shadows beside the window, watching the fireworks as well and feeling very lonely doing so. He heard her rustling the bed sheets and turned around.
He looked at her, and cast the most beautiful smile upon her that she had ever seen.
"Jariel?"
He moved to her side, leaned over, and caressed her face. He pressed his lips softly against the ridges of her nose, before moving lower and slowly kissing her lips.
Then he did the second most extraordinary thing that Liis had ever seen.
He spoke.
She thought that she had heard him speaking to her when she woke up in Sickbay on the Alchemy only briefly, but believed that it had to have been a hallucination. He'd been silent so long, how could it have been real? Hearing his voice again now that she was alert and fully in the moment was nothing short of miraculous.
"Peldor Joi, Zanh Liis," he reveled in the beauty of her expression as she accepted that she was, in fact, not dreaming or in heaven. She was very much alive.
He rested his lips against her ear and sighed with relief and contentment before finally saying what he'd wanted to so badly, for so long. Ever since he'd been struck mute; ever since he'd learned the truth.
"I love you, Liis. So much. More than anything or anyone else, I swear it."
She tried to reach out to touch him, but the restraints stopped her.
"Oh, here, here," he hurried to untie them. "The nurses insisted, I’m sorry. They were afraid that you’d hurt yourself if you sat up too quickly and pulled out your support equipment.”
That was when Liis realized how much “support equipment” she was still attached to. Wires were everywhere.
He lifted each of her hands and kissed them in turn as he freed them. He adjusted her blanket after untying her ankles from their restraints. He tucked it in around her, taking care to avoid the wires and the attached leads. He brushed her hair back affectionately. "Are you warm enough?"
"But how," she looked around. She counted the days that must have passed since her abduction. If the date on the display beside her was accurate, weeks had gone by, in total. "Are we on Bajor?"
"We are," he replied, still stroking her hair softly. "Are you in pain? I should get your doctor," he turned to go, but she grabbed his sleeve and tugged.
"What I need is information," she insisted. "If you're really you, and I'm really me, and we're really on Bajor, then someone must have rescued me and brought us here. And something else must have happened while I was doing my best popsicle impression, because in case you haven't noticed, you can talk."
He smiled at her again. "I've noticed, Soshara,"
*Soshara.*
Hearing him use that Bajoran word, a word that translated roughly into Standard as "the reason”,was quite a shock to Liis’ system.
It was a shock, because it was a term of endearment that he had made up for her when they were only teenagers. He often said back then that she was "the only reason he had for getting through the day".
Eventually he shortened the statement, turned the abbreviation into a title, and bestowed it upon her.
It was so much more than just a nickname.
That he should remember to call her that name now brought tears to Liis' eyes for the first time since she awakened. She cried because it was a memory from a time he didn't- no, shouldn't- remember. At least he hadn't remembered it when last she had seen him, weeks ago.
*What else did he remember while I was gone?*
"I need to know, Jariel," she pleaded. "I need to know everything."
"You will. I promise. But first, I'm going to get your doctor." He hurried to the door, stopping to look back as if he couldn't believe she was alive, awake, and speaking to him.
He saw that her gaze had drifted back toward the window, as the bells from the temple continued to toll in celebration of the Gratitude Festival.
Snow was falling outside, and the drifting flakes seemed to shimmer, reflecting the brilliant hues of the fireworks igniting above them, until the colors washed down and faded into the snow on the ground below.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Liis whispered. The tears in her eyes spilled down her face as she found herself thinking back to the song her grandmother used to sing.
Remembering the simple wish it contained for Bajor, in fact, for every inhabited planet. That someday, lights of celebration would forever replace the crossfire of war. Those words echoed in her mind once more:
*Then only fireworks will light the sky at night,
for all the world can see.*
"It's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life," Jariel replied honestly, as tears filled his eyes as well. Without another word, he disappeared into the hall.
Even though she couldn't see his face as he spoke, Liis knew from the sound of his voice that unlike her, he wasn't referring to the fireworks.
Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: I asked him for a word. He gave me Soshara. We both knew instantly what it meant. Thank you, Jariel ~ZL
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
NRPG: I asked him for a word. He gave me Soshara. We both knew instantly what it meant. Thank you, Jariel ~ZL