61: The Man Behind the Curtain
Lt. Commander Blane and Captain Zanh
80103.9
Immediately following Searching for the Ruby Slippers
--=Sanctuary and Orphan's Home, Altaan, Bajor=--
(...continued)
"We brought as many supplies as we could procure on such short notice, Vedek Timal." Liis changed the subject, outwardly ignoring Timal's criticism. "We didn't know we were going to be on Bajor, or we would have planned ahead and brought more."
"I'm glad that you appreciate this place at all and remember what we did for you, Zanh Liis. You were always in such a hurry to leave, I had thought you would never set foot upon this land again." Timal turned again to Jariel now, and smiled at him brightly. "Come, let's get you inside where it is warm. We can offer you a cup of tea, after you finish bringing in your kind gifts to us."
Liis caught Jariel's reassuring glance as he pressed his hands together and tilted them in a gesture of thanks toward Timal.
The two men walked on ahead, and Liis mumbled to herself as TC came back for another load of bins.
"After all." She scoffed. She drew back her boot and kicked a streak of snow toward the sky in frustration.
"What do you see when you look at him, Zanh Liis?" TC asked, indicating Timal as he disappeared into the small sanctuary. "You seem to be seeing something I'm not."
"What do you see? I'm curious."
"I see a frail old man, who has given up much in his life to serve others. You?"
"A tyrannical taskmaster who made my formative years a living hell and almost kept me out of Starfleet by threatening to fail me in my senior year philosophy class."
"Look at him again, Liis." TC advised. "Really look. Then when we are ready to leave, tell me again what you see." He started to whistle contentedly, as he kicked the toes of his boots into the foot of the runabout's ramp to remove the snow compacted into the soles. "Now the real fun begins."
After the ship had been unloaded, all the children were gathered into the dining room.
Liis and TC began installing the replicator in the kitchen around the corner, and watched through the doorway as Jariel began distributing the clothing, starting with the smallest children first. He was saving the toys until the end.
Liis shivered visibly, and TC wondered if she was feeling all right. It was drafty in the room, to be sure, but not really cold. "Do you require a warmer coat, Captain?"
"No, it's just. . ." Her gaze wandered over each of the walls, then up to the ceiling before trying to refocus on the task at hand. "This room is haunted."
She looked at the rows of tables for the children out in the dining room, amazed at how tiny the chairs looked to her now that she was full grown.
She remembered a time when she had to hop up, just to sit in them. Could she ever really have been as small as the children who sat in them now?
TC watched her expression change from one of concentration, to reflection, to far removed distraction, but let the moment stand in silence. He turned his attention back to getting the replicator hooked into the building's power.
--= A little while later =--
Liis watched as the children happily tore into the baskets of fresh fruit they had brought, encircling TC. He handed out individual pieces to each one, clearly enjoying the event. She was so glad that he'd thought of doing this.
*There is so much more that makes TC Blane an officer and a gentleman,* Liis thought, *than just the uniform and rank insignia he wears to work every day.*
With the replicator installation complete, Liis was ready to test the device and decided, why not do it on something that might bolster her flagging spirits?
"Strong coffee, hot, double cream." The replicator produced the beverage, and she nodded with satisfaction as she tasted it. Everything seemed to be in good working order. She made a mental note to send a personally handwritten thank you letter to Ambassador Stell, as soon as their trip to Earth was underway.
Liis held the cup in her left hand, while her right grabbed a chair and spun it around backwards. She threw a leg over and sat down, straddling it.
She sipped her coffee slowly, eyes closed, until she heard familiar footfalls approaching. She found Jariel standing behind her a moment later, his hands on her shoulders.
"Hello, sunshine." She looked back and gave him a weary smile. He frowned and plunked down into the chair beside her.
[[Are you all right?]] He knew that being here was different for her, than for him. [[I worry, you know.]]
She squeezed his hand. "I know, but don't. I'm all right."
Jariel looked around, taking everything in. [[It's so different, being back after my Orb experiences. I have been remembering so much. Vague images are coming into clear focus now that I'm here, and-]]
He stopped cold. A look of revelation dawned upon his face. He grasped her arm.
[[Liis! This room.]] He signed excitedly. [[I kissed you for the very first time in this room. You were barely seventeen.]]
Liis felt like she'd been caught in a vacuum, her breath violently expelled from her chest without warning when he made this announcement. Unlike him, that was an event that she had always remembered. Despite all of Temporal Investigations' best efforts to make her forget it.
She jumped out of her chair, leaving her cup on the table and bolting from the room without a word of explanation. She didn't need to offer any. He understood she needed to clear her head.
She pushed through the back door, sucking the freezing winter air into her lungs as fast as she could.
Everything was different here, in this place. It seemed that even the oxygen concentration in the air was lower than anywhere else she'd ever been, and no matter how she tried, when she stood upon this ground and breathed the rarefied atmosphere, she became disoriented.
It felt like she was suffocating.
She blazed a path through the snow, away from the main hub of the sanctuary. She traveled toward an antiquated and empty dormitory made of stone.
She marched up the front steps and pulled on the door, but it was locked. For an instant, she considered grabbing her phaser and dispatching the knob in one shot, but quickly thought better of it.
Instead, she descended the steps again and walked around the side of the porch. She reached out and rubbed a gloved hand against the nearest window to clear away the snow and fog that obscured the view.
Through the remaining condensation, she was able to make out the frames of rows of small, metal cots. They were everywhere, lining the darkened room on the other side of the glass.
The days were shortest here this time of year and already, the sunlight was waning. It reflected off the window and back into her face as she tried to really analyze the interior. So bright, the glare burned her eyes, and after a moment she was forced to close them.
She could remember it all; the smells, the sounds of that room. The feeling of dread this place created in her, when she was small.
The feeling of dread it created, still.
"It ends now." She whispered, her breath visible in the frigid air. She pounded her fist against the glass once. "This ends tonight."
She heard boots crunching through the snow behind her and expected to find Jariel standing over her shoulder. She didn't turn around.
"I think we were a hit." The voice was familiar, but unexpected. "What do you think, Captain?"
"I think that if I never come here again, it'll be too soon." Liis blurted, not having intended to share that particular thought aloud.
TC folded his arms across his chest. “Really? I can think of worse places to be.”
"I've been in worse. The camps were worse." She began, but she stopped. She looked away. "Doesn't matter."
"Now, that's where I would be forced to disagree with you, Zanh Liis. It seems that it matters a great deal to you, otherwise we wouldn't be standing here and having this conversation."
"Are we having a conversation?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure what the hell I'm doing here, to be honest."
He walked around to stand in front of her. He did not pretend to understand what her childhood was like. Growing up in this place, without a family as he knew it. He was from a typical bread and butter mid-west family. Not very large, but very close and caring.
He thought for a moment as he wondered if he shouldn’t go back inside before he spoke again. “You know. Sometimes, we have to be torn down before we can be built up again. Normally we are stronger for it.” He glanced up at the sky, the setting sun gave the atmosphere a fiery feel to it, despite the cold. “I can not speak of the child you were before you came here, if you even remember that child you were.”
He looked back at her. “In all honesty, I know very little about the child you were when you were here.” He rubbed his hands together warming them. “I can, however, speak to the adult you are in the here and now.
“You are my captain. Not just in title, but in spirit as well. That was earned and not given. This place, for whatever bad feeling or memories it may hold over you, made you, defined you at least in some small way.” He folded his arms back across his chest. “This place helped to make Zanh Liis, as much as you worked to make yourself.”
She stood with her hands still pressed to the glass, staring. Silent.
He smiled. “There is good in that. There is good in what is done here, from what I can see.” He started to walk back to the warmth of the sanctuary, stopping to pick up a handful of snow. “If not, there is good in what YOU do. Of that I do know.”
He pelted her in the back with a snowball as he ran quickly inside to avoid any return fire.
"You'll get yours, Blane!" Zanh shouted after him, trying to sound menacing, but the laugh she couldn't prevent told him that she was clearly amused by his spontaneous action.
She laughed softly again as she shook stray flakes of snow from her hair and bent down to gather up a few handfuls, herself.
As she pressed the shimmering precipitation into a compact, round projectile, she stared back toward the doorway of the sanctuary and observed Jariel questioning TC as to her whereabouts.
TC pointed in her general direction before returning indoors.
Liis gulped hard, knowing that the conversation that was about to happen was going to be difficult, but that it had to take place, just the same.
"We brought as many supplies as we could procure on such short notice, Vedek Timal." Liis changed the subject, outwardly ignoring Timal's criticism. "We didn't know we were going to be on Bajor, or we would have planned ahead and brought more."
"I'm glad that you appreciate this place at all and remember what we did for you, Zanh Liis. You were always in such a hurry to leave, I had thought you would never set foot upon this land again." Timal turned again to Jariel now, and smiled at him brightly. "Come, let's get you inside where it is warm. We can offer you a cup of tea, after you finish bringing in your kind gifts to us."
Liis caught Jariel's reassuring glance as he pressed his hands together and tilted them in a gesture of thanks toward Timal.
The two men walked on ahead, and Liis mumbled to herself as TC came back for another load of bins.
"After all." She scoffed. She drew back her boot and kicked a streak of snow toward the sky in frustration.
"What do you see when you look at him, Zanh Liis?" TC asked, indicating Timal as he disappeared into the small sanctuary. "You seem to be seeing something I'm not."
"What do you see? I'm curious."
"I see a frail old man, who has given up much in his life to serve others. You?"
"A tyrannical taskmaster who made my formative years a living hell and almost kept me out of Starfleet by threatening to fail me in my senior year philosophy class."
"Look at him again, Liis." TC advised. "Really look. Then when we are ready to leave, tell me again what you see." He started to whistle contentedly, as he kicked the toes of his boots into the foot of the runabout's ramp to remove the snow compacted into the soles. "Now the real fun begins."
After the ship had been unloaded, all the children were gathered into the dining room.
Liis and TC began installing the replicator in the kitchen around the corner, and watched through the doorway as Jariel began distributing the clothing, starting with the smallest children first. He was saving the toys until the end.
Liis shivered visibly, and TC wondered if she was feeling all right. It was drafty in the room, to be sure, but not really cold. "Do you require a warmer coat, Captain?"
"No, it's just. . ." Her gaze wandered over each of the walls, then up to the ceiling before trying to refocus on the task at hand. "This room is haunted."
She looked at the rows of tables for the children out in the dining room, amazed at how tiny the chairs looked to her now that she was full grown.
She remembered a time when she had to hop up, just to sit in them. Could she ever really have been as small as the children who sat in them now?
TC watched her expression change from one of concentration, to reflection, to far removed distraction, but let the moment stand in silence. He turned his attention back to getting the replicator hooked into the building's power.
--= A little while later =--
Liis watched as the children happily tore into the baskets of fresh fruit they had brought, encircling TC. He handed out individual pieces to each one, clearly enjoying the event. She was so glad that he'd thought of doing this.
*There is so much more that makes TC Blane an officer and a gentleman,* Liis thought, *than just the uniform and rank insignia he wears to work every day.*
With the replicator installation complete, Liis was ready to test the device and decided, why not do it on something that might bolster her flagging spirits?
"Strong coffee, hot, double cream." The replicator produced the beverage, and she nodded with satisfaction as she tasted it. Everything seemed to be in good working order. She made a mental note to send a personally handwritten thank you letter to Ambassador Stell, as soon as their trip to Earth was underway.
Liis held the cup in her left hand, while her right grabbed a chair and spun it around backwards. She threw a leg over and sat down, straddling it.
She sipped her coffee slowly, eyes closed, until she heard familiar footfalls approaching. She found Jariel standing behind her a moment later, his hands on her shoulders.
"Hello, sunshine." She looked back and gave him a weary smile. He frowned and plunked down into the chair beside her.
[[Are you all right?]] He knew that being here was different for her, than for him. [[I worry, you know.]]
She squeezed his hand. "I know, but don't. I'm all right."
Jariel looked around, taking everything in. [[It's so different, being back after my Orb experiences. I have been remembering so much. Vague images are coming into clear focus now that I'm here, and-]]
He stopped cold. A look of revelation dawned upon his face. He grasped her arm.
[[Liis! This room.]] He signed excitedly. [[I kissed you for the very first time in this room. You were barely seventeen.]]
Liis felt like she'd been caught in a vacuum, her breath violently expelled from her chest without warning when he made this announcement. Unlike him, that was an event that she had always remembered. Despite all of Temporal Investigations' best efforts to make her forget it.
She jumped out of her chair, leaving her cup on the table and bolting from the room without a word of explanation. She didn't need to offer any. He understood she needed to clear her head.
She pushed through the back door, sucking the freezing winter air into her lungs as fast as she could.
Everything was different here, in this place. It seemed that even the oxygen concentration in the air was lower than anywhere else she'd ever been, and no matter how she tried, when she stood upon this ground and breathed the rarefied atmosphere, she became disoriented.
It felt like she was suffocating.
She blazed a path through the snow, away from the main hub of the sanctuary. She traveled toward an antiquated and empty dormitory made of stone.
She marched up the front steps and pulled on the door, but it was locked. For an instant, she considered grabbing her phaser and dispatching the knob in one shot, but quickly thought better of it.
Instead, she descended the steps again and walked around the side of the porch. She reached out and rubbed a gloved hand against the nearest window to clear away the snow and fog that obscured the view.
Through the remaining condensation, she was able to make out the frames of rows of small, metal cots. They were everywhere, lining the darkened room on the other side of the glass.
The days were shortest here this time of year and already, the sunlight was waning. It reflected off the window and back into her face as she tried to really analyze the interior. So bright, the glare burned her eyes, and after a moment she was forced to close them.
She could remember it all; the smells, the sounds of that room. The feeling of dread this place created in her, when she was small.
The feeling of dread it created, still.
"It ends now." She whispered, her breath visible in the frigid air. She pounded her fist against the glass once. "This ends tonight."
She heard boots crunching through the snow behind her and expected to find Jariel standing over her shoulder. She didn't turn around.
"I think we were a hit." The voice was familiar, but unexpected. "What do you think, Captain?"
"I think that if I never come here again, it'll be too soon." Liis blurted, not having intended to share that particular thought aloud.
TC folded his arms across his chest. “Really? I can think of worse places to be.”
"I've been in worse. The camps were worse." She began, but she stopped. She looked away. "Doesn't matter."
"Now, that's where I would be forced to disagree with you, Zanh Liis. It seems that it matters a great deal to you, otherwise we wouldn't be standing here and having this conversation."
"Are we having a conversation?" She shrugged. "I'm not sure what the hell I'm doing here, to be honest."
He walked around to stand in front of her. He did not pretend to understand what her childhood was like. Growing up in this place, without a family as he knew it. He was from a typical bread and butter mid-west family. Not very large, but very close and caring.
He thought for a moment as he wondered if he shouldn’t go back inside before he spoke again. “You know. Sometimes, we have to be torn down before we can be built up again. Normally we are stronger for it.” He glanced up at the sky, the setting sun gave the atmosphere a fiery feel to it, despite the cold. “I can not speak of the child you were before you came here, if you even remember that child you were.”
He looked back at her. “In all honesty, I know very little about the child you were when you were here.” He rubbed his hands together warming them. “I can, however, speak to the adult you are in the here and now.
“You are my captain. Not just in title, but in spirit as well. That was earned and not given. This place, for whatever bad feeling or memories it may hold over you, made you, defined you at least in some small way.” He folded his arms back across his chest. “This place helped to make Zanh Liis, as much as you worked to make yourself.”
She stood with her hands still pressed to the glass, staring. Silent.
He smiled. “There is good in that. There is good in what is done here, from what I can see.” He started to walk back to the warmth of the sanctuary, stopping to pick up a handful of snow. “If not, there is good in what YOU do. Of that I do know.”
He pelted her in the back with a snowball as he ran quickly inside to avoid any return fire.
"You'll get yours, Blane!" Zanh shouted after him, trying to sound menacing, but the laugh she couldn't prevent told him that she was clearly amused by his spontaneous action.
She laughed softly again as she shook stray flakes of snow from her hair and bent down to gather up a few handfuls, herself.
As she pressed the shimmering precipitation into a compact, round projectile, she stared back toward the doorway of the sanctuary and observed Jariel questioning TC as to her whereabouts.
TC pointed in her general direction before returning indoors.
Liis gulped hard, knowing that the conversation that was about to happen was going to be difficult, but that it had to take place, just the same.
-----------------------
Lt. Commander TC Blane
Chief of Operations
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Captain Zanh
Lt. Commander TC Blane
Chief of Operations
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Captain Zanh