787: Defying Logic

by Lair Kellyn
90222.01
Following For Safe Keeping

-=Quarters of the Executive Officer, USS Serendipity=-

"Arie, it's not like we're going on vacation without you." Lair Kellyn sighed, pacing back and forth in her bedroom as she sought civilian clothing to pack into her duffel bag.

"I know that."

Kellyn looked at her daughter, eyes pleading that she not press the issue any further.

She had already explained to Arie three times from beginning to end that her father had suffered trauma on Taris' ship, and that he needed to go to Vulcan to try to heal from that trauma. Arie seemed, however, intent that the family remain together, regardless how difficult the road they were about to travel.

"Father said that being a family means that no one is left behind or forgotten." Arie quoted, and Kellyn stopped what she was doing, approached the seemingly-taller-every-day young lady, and held her by the shoulders.

"Arie, listen to me now. I'm going to talk to you like the young woman you are, not the child that you used to be." Kellyn knew enough to give Arie credit for the fact that she possessed wisdom beyond her years and a healthy dose of Vulcan stoicism, but she knew that if Arie had seen her father as agitated as Kellyn had seen him last before he left for the Inquiry, it would truly disturb the child.

"Your father is ill, and I have to take him to Vulcan for treatment. He needs me right now, and I need you to help us by staying here with Reece and Grace, where I know you'll be safe and looked after. I can't focus fully on helping him get well if I have to worry about you too."

"I am too much trouble." Arie announced, just enough of her Bajoran emotions creeping through her calm facade to sting her mother's conscience.

"No! I didn't," Kellyn gave in and allowed the anguished groan of frustration that had been building in her for hours to escape her lips. She folded her arms. "You're not too much trouble. It's just that, Arie,"

Kellyn again reached out to her daughter, taking her by the hands this time.

"You want things back to normal as soon as possible, don't you? You want your father to be your father again, and not this..." she stopped, the lump in her throat feeling as if it had traveled steadily lower, taking up position where her heart had once beaten and turned to stone in its place. "Not this."

She took a moment before continuing, fighting to catch her breath. Unable to do so, Kellyn finally she gave in, reached into the night table drawer and pulled out a canister of medication.
She inhaled of it deeply, and Arie waited patiently, knowing it would take a moment to go into effect before her mother could continue.

The spasms of Kellyn's lungs eased up and finally, she went on.

"We love you, with all our hearts. And I know you love us, and want us to stay together. But if your father is going to be well it's going to take a lot of work and it's work that you can't help with. So if you really want to help, you have to do what is actually going to be helpful. You have got to stay here for now."

"You promised," Arie turned away, moving to the viewport and gazing out at the Earth, far beneath them.

"What did I promise?"

"That we'd never be separated again. After father took the Executive Officer position on the flagship. But you didn't keep your promise." Arie whispered. "It's always one of you on the Alchemy, or one of you almost getting killed, or..." Arie bit her lip, trying to fight the urge to cry. "You promised, Mother."

"It was wrong of me," Kellyn answered honestly, standing over Arie's shoulder, "to promise you that. I shouldn't have done it. I was wrong, and I'm sorry."

This was not the answer that Arie had been expecting, and she turned back to Kellyn with an expression of astonishment. "What?"

"I'm sorry." Kellyn repeated. "That I promised you that. I didn't intend to break the promise but I know now that it was more wishful thinking on my part than anything else, Arie. Your father and I, the work that we do, it is difficult and it is dangerous." She turned Arie by the shoulders, though the girl fought at first, until they were again face to face.

"I don't want us to ever be apart. But it is what it is, Arie. Your father has an important role to play in the future of Starfleet," she lifted Arie's chin until the girl was forced to meet her eyes. "And so do you."

Arie blinked, stunned. "I?"

"Yes." Kellyn said soberly, taking Arie by the hand and leading her toward the bed. Kellyn folded her leg beneath her and sat down upon it, pushing her bag out of the way so there was room for Arie to sit too.

"You know how you've been nagging me and your father to sit down with you and have the conversation about how you ended up here, with us. About why the records say that you are adopted when," Kellyn's voice faltered.

"About why the records say that I am adopted when in fact I am your biological child."

"That's right." Kellyn wrung her hands as she talked. "This is a conversation that I wanted to have with your father present, with Vol there and perhaps even Captain Zanh."

"Captain Zanh understands that I am aware that I was not born into this time," Arie stated slowly, "We discussed it when we spent the day alone together on Betazed. I refused to stop asking her questions until she answered them."

"Did she answer them?"

Arie nodded. "In her way."

"And what did the Captain tell you?"

Arie thought back, considering. Zanh Liis had in fact said very little, it was more in what she did not say that Arie had learned the most. "She did not say that you were not my parents."

Kellyn was now the one who blinked, but in confusion. "What?"

"I asked her if you and Father were my biological parents, and she did not want to answer. So I asked her, if it were the truth but she could not answer, that she simply not tell me anything else. She wished me a goodnight, and in that lack of an answer, she gave the answer." Arie explained. "I know that I must have been brought here from another time. I just want to know why."

"I'm not entirely sure myself, Arie," Kellyn admitted, "That's why I wished to have this conversation with Zanh Liis and your father. But that...isn't going to happen. At least not for awhile. Not now. So I will simply tell you what I can."

Arie nodded, listening intently. She reminded Kellyn so much of Salvek in this moment, the look in her eyes and her posture, that Kellyn wasn't sure she could bear it. Seeing such traits in her made Kellyn miss the Salvek she knew, all the more. "You know that Zanh Liis used to work for Temporal Investigations."

"As did Commander O'Sullivan."

"Yes. With him, in fact." Lair confirmed, as this was now a matter of public record there was no need to hide what Arie had certainly already learned from ship's gossip, anyway. "They were partnered by TI for a long time, and their job was to protect your father from Taris."

"But why?"

"Taris...Arie," she put her arm around the girl, bracing her as best she could.

"This is my fault." Arie interrupted suddenly.

"What?"

"If I had not been kidnapped by Taris, then father wouldn't,"

"No, Arie, listen to me. This started long before you were born, long before your father and I ever met. Arie..." she paused. There was just no easy way to say this. "Taris murdered your grandparents."

She allowed the words a moment to settle between them, before she continued. "She has for years been trying to kill your father, and also your uncle, Sacul."

"Then it is a very good thing that she is dead." Arie responded with a coldly certain logic that blew Kellyn away.

"Yes," Kellyn replied, teeth clenched as rage coursed through her that while Taris may be dead, as long as part of her lived inside of Salvek, she was most certainly not gone. "It is. But before she died, your father chose to meld with her and now," Kellyn couldn't hide the tears in her eyes any longer. "She has damaged him, Arie. Somehow. And I hope that in taking him to Vulcan we can help him find the peace that he's lost."

She cleared her throat and continued as best she could. "You, though. We were talking about you." Kellyn knew she'd danced around giving Arie the answers she sought for so long, she couldn't do it any longer.

"Zanh Liis has only told us this. That there is something about you. Something you're meant to do, here, in this time, for the good of others. That is why whoever it is that makes these decisions decided that you had to be brought here to be raised by us. Because we couldn't raise you in the other timeline."

Arie grew concerned. "Why could you not raise me in the other time?"

"Because, Arie," Kellyn hoped that she wouldn't regret what she was about to do, revealing the truth. "Your father and I both died in that time. He, before you were born, and I, right after."

Arie considered this for a long moment, and reacted only in as much as someone who has just had their suspicions confirmed. "I see," she replied, most seriously. "And what it is that I am meant to do? I would hate to...not do it."

Kellyn hugged Arie now. "I don't know. I don't think anyone knows." She held her daughter close. "We didn't want you to know the truth because we didn't want you to feel pressured to be anything that you are not. Whatever you are, whatever it is that you are meant to do, we believe that you can only do that if you simply live your life in the here and now and see where that path takes you."

"And you believe that for now, it is my path to stay here and yours to go with Father to Vulcan."
Kellyn looked down into Arie's earnest, searching eyes. The words she had to say were breaking her heart. "Yes, I do."

"I do not." Arie replied, withdrawing from her mother's embrace and walking across the room once again to the viewport. "I believe that I am meant to see Vulcan at this time. I have never been there. I believe that I am meant to learn there, and that this will set me on the path that I am meant to take." She spoke with such certain conviction that Kellyn was struck silent. She considered Arie's words carefully.

"You are certain of this?"

Arie turned and looked her straight in the eyes. "I am, Mother. I am certain that the place of the daughter of Salvek is at his side, as he tries to find peace."

"You know what when we go to see the priests, that you will not be allowed to come along."

"I understand. I will stay aboard ship, or at any other location on Vulcan to which you wish to send me."

"But who will look after you, Arie?"

"Ensign Sten has proven himself a trustworthy and able caregiver to me aboard the Serendipity," Arie reasoned. "In addition, he is fully Vulcan. He can surely take me to see the educational sights of the planet while you and father are...busy."

Kellyn sighed, unable to believe that she was about to say what she was about to say.

"All right." She conceded. "But only if Counselor Tryst approves. If he says no, then you have got to stay here on the Serendipity with Reece and Grace. Do we understand each other?"

Arie nodded. "It is an acceptable proposal."

"Glad to hear it." Kellyn said, rising from the bed and returning to her packing. "Then you had better go and pack some things in case the Counselor gives his approval. We will leave as soon as we can after your father returns." *If I have to tie him up and drag him all the way to Vulcan...* Kellyn thought.

"Yes, Mother."

Kellyn raised her hand to tap her badge and ask Tryst for a moment of his time, but before she could reach it, Arie turned back to her.

"Mother," Arie's eyes had turned red, though they did not actually hold tears.

"Yes?"

"Our. We." She stopped, wrapping her slight, thin arms around herself as though she were cold. "I know that our love can save Father," she whispered softly, with the sort of trusting, innocent faith that only children can possess. "...even if Logic cannot."

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Commander Lair Kellyn
Engineering Research and Development
The Alchemy Project