81014.20
Following It's About Time
-=Captain's Ready Room: USS Serendipity=-
Liis marched down the steps and through the doors, fists clenched as tightly as her jaw.
*The Steady Hand to Victory...*
The sound of Keiran's low, determined voice echoed in her head, assuring her that she could face any and all opposition to the new life she was choosing.
Even that which came from those she loved most.
She would make her stand here, feet planted firmly on the deck at the center of her Ready Room.
The doors closed behind Salvek, and Liis studied his features carefully.
*This is not going to go well.*
Certainly she and Salvek had disagreed before. They had debated tirelessly over decisions concerning particular missions or assignment of crew.
They'd even had what could only be called flat out fights over what he perceived as her 'reckless disregard for the value of her own life'.
Usually, his wisdom tempered her passion, and her stubborn refusal to declare anything a lost cause taught him that hope was an emotion worthy of consideration.
Her heart sank as she regarded him now, fearing that this confrontation was going to be one for the record books.
All the years he had known her she had been with, or was trying to get back to, Jariel. His entire image of her was tied up with the idea of her and the Vedek together.
So it didn’t surprise her to think he may be uncomfortable with the idea that, in what seemed to him such a short span of time, she would abandon such a long standing relationship. Let alone the idea that she would end it and then jump head first into a marriage with someone else.
Someone who, from his perspective, she had known for less than a year.
She knew that hearing him object to her decision to marry Keiran would hurt, and braced herself as best she could. She also knew that all of his arguments would make complete sense and be totally sound, logically.
Problem was, Logic had absolutely nothing to do with falling in love.
Seeing the façade of calm give way every so many seconds to a flash of disapproval in his eyes, she just wanted to get this over with.
“You have something to say to me, Salvek?”
“Captain…”
“No. We can’t do this that way.” Liis reached up and took off her combadge. “No rank. Just you, and me. We’re more than friends, Salvek. We’re...” she sounded as wounded as she looked. “After all we’ve been through...”
She did not say ‘after all I have been through for you,’ feeling that would have been not only self-righteous but also unfair.
He never asked her to do all she’d done for him during the time she had been with Temporal Investigations. That was a bargain she had made for her own reasons.
Reasons that, she had to admit now, had been very self-serving, at least initially.
“We’re family, Salvek. So whatever you have to say, don’t just stand there. Please.” She twisted her earring chain until it nearly broke free from the cuff. “Just say it.”
Salvek inhaled slowly. There was no way to sugar-coat or water down his opinion, and he would not disrespect her by simply telling her what she wanted to hear.
His mind and heart were heavy, weighed down by the memory of a conversation he'd had with O’Sullivan, not so very long ago.
The one in which O’Sullivan warned him that if she should remember that past life, it could very well mean the end of her.
Those words of warning had never been far from his thoughts, not since the moment he’d heard them.
“I could not call myself any kind of family to you, Zanh Liis, if I did not go on record as saying that I believe you are about to make a serious error in judgment.”
“Is it my getting married you object to, or is it the man I chose that bothers you?" She frowned deeply. "I have the feeling if I were planning to marry Jariel when we got to Earth that you and I would not be having this conversation.”
“No.” Salvek answered plainly. “We would not.”
“Why not? Is there something about him that you think poses a danger to me? Do you think I’m not thinking this through? Do you think I am only doing this because Jariel went back to Bajor? What?”
“I have no doubt that you believe you are in love with O’Sullivan,”
“I don't believe I am. I know I am.”
He sighed softly and continued. “As I said. I have no doubt that you believe you love him. You may, in fact, actually have genuine feelings for the man, and frankly it is none of my business who you choose to become romantically involved with.”
“But.”
“But,” his deep, dark eyes stared at her with an intensity she’d rarely seen. “If the events that the Sylph brought to your memory, and to O’Sullivan’s are to be believed... and since you both seem to remember those alternate timelines so clearly and without conflicting versions of the story it would seem that they are…”
He steepled his fingers and brought them to his lips. “One would ask that you be mindful of the outcome of your romance with him, in both of those alternate times.”
Liis was well aware of those outcomes. She had lived them in a way that she couldn’t explain, courtesy of the memories from Keiran’s perspective that the Sylph had inflicted upon her.
“You died.” Salvek elaborated bluntly. “Both times.”
She looked away. "I know that."
“If you seriously consider the fact that getting involved with him in past timelines cost you your life twice over, how can you possibly-”
“I shouldn’t have to explain this to you, of all people!” Liis interrupted, raising her voice. “That was then. We are living the alternate now, Salvek. We’re off the map. I have no compass, and I am finally free. Why shouldn’t I be able to at least-“
“Logic would dictate that if getting involved with him cost you your life twice,” Salvek repeated, just the slightest hint of emotion breaking through in his voice as he raised it to equal hers, “that it would be unwise to test History’s patience a third time.”
“Unwise?” Liis shook her head. She turned away, mumbling softly in Bajoran.
“Unwise.” She leaned forward and placed both hands flat on the surface of her desk.
As she did so, she became aware for the first time that there was a large envelope sitting on the desktop.
There was a note affixed to it, and it was addressed to her.
Captain Zanh,
I believe that you will want to return these items to their rightful owner yourself.
Best of luck, Gem Lassiter
Liis flipped the envelope over and saw the original handwriting it bore. She closed her eyes, running her fingers over the sweeping curves of script bearing her name.
“Yes.” Salvek repeated. “Unwise. You have responsibilities. To Starfleet, to The Alchemy Project…”
Trying to persuade her to see that she should deny her own needs and desires again for the sake of others was a grave miscalculation on Salvek’s part.
Her hand balled into a fist, and she raised it high before swiftly smacking it full force against the desk.
“That’s it. You’re done talking now.”
Her voice was low and deadly serious, and it took Salvek aback. In all the years he had known her, she had never spoken to him this way.
“You asked for my honest opinion, Zanh Liis. Is it too much to ask, then, that you actually allow me to finish speaking it?”
“When Kellyn came home,” Liis shouted, slamming her fist against her desk a second time to make sure she had his attention.
Salvek's lips parted, but he did not speak.
“And you know what I’m talking about here,” She was referring to the error in the timeline that, long ago, she had been sent on a Jump to fix; believing when she did her life would end and that would be it.
The Mudor Filament Field Jump was the one she thought would be her one-way trip. But she knew that if she did her job correctly, that not only would the major, critical errors in the timeline be set right, but Salvek’s wife would be returned to him.
Lair's death was an event that was never meant to happen; something that, for the sake of the future of the Federation, had to be undone.
-=/\=- Zanh Liis
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
Commander Salvek
Executive Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012