by Vol Tryst and Zanh Liis and Trev Sterling
91109.2158
During and after Sage Advice
-=Base Camp on Sibalt=-
91109.2158
During and after Sage Advice
-=Base Camp on Sibalt=-
"I don't know, February." As he pushed two tent poles together and turned them until they clicked into place, Trev Sterling almost frowned. "He just doesn't seem that into the idea."
"Oh, he's into the idea." Bru replied, handing him the material that she had unfolded that would cover the frame of the tent. "What's your game plan?"
"This time I have no plan."
Bru made a noise somewhere between a shocked squeak and a disappointed sigh. "You always have a plan!"
"Yes. But if you try a plan on a telepath..." Trev sighed. "They know it's a plan and you're doomed at the start."
"Point taken."
February watched as Dabin absentmindedly tried three times to secure the canvas of the tent he was working on to the pole and failed. Now she really did sigh.
"What's the matter with the Science Guy?" Trev asked, jerking his head in the direction of Dabin.
"Don't know." February bit her lip and frowned, an expression that seemed completely unnatural to the normal, optimistically upturned features upon her face. "But there's something. His mind is fogged. I have to go see what's up."
"Well foggy mind or not..." Trev widened his eyes at Bru teasingly, taking his chance to comment at last on the 'tactics' that Vol had used during the tug of war. She'd just confided that the Betazoid was definitely not above hitting below the belt. "The Counselor is right. Dabin is irresistible."
"Shut up." Bru said, pushing him playfully. Trev simply laughed, brushed the sweat and mud dampened bangs back out of his eyes, and continued working.
A short time later, he found himself sitting in front of a small fire that he'd set up in front of the tent he and Vol were assigned to share. Vol, who was inside the tent making clucking noises with his tongue and mumbling softly, popped his head out from the opening.
Trev sipped his warm beverage from a small metal cup and he kept his eyes on the flames.
"You're hogging my side of the tent." Vol accused.
"I am not." Trev replied simply.
"You are to. Your sleeping bag was over the line past the pole which is the clear demarcation of the middle point. I moved it."
"Thank you, I think." Trev said, almost resigning sigh escaping his lips.
"Something the matter?" Vol inquired, stepping out of the tent as he did so.
"No, just exhausted from today." Trev lied.
Vol sat on a log right across from the fireplace from where Trev now sat. Vol said nothing as he simply stared at Trev through the flames with raised eyebrows. It took Trev a moment, after looking a Vol's expression, before he realized his mistake.
"I suppose nobody can successfully lie to a Betazoid, can they?"
Vol silently and slowly shook his head from side to side, a small smile forming on his lips.
It quickly faded though when he felt a strong rush of emotions- one so strong that it nearly overwhelmed his sensitive Betazoid senses.
Trev immediately responded to the change in Vol's expression. "Vol, are you all right?"
"I am." he said slowly, scanning the immediate area for the person whose emotions had become so quickly and clearly evident to him.
It was a very familiar mind- a pattern of thought that he knew well and so to feel it so distressed struck him as being very wrong.
"I have to...excuse me." Vol rose and immediately moved away. The woman whose mind had reached out unintentionally to his was not far from him- though the moment he called her on what she was feeling, she would wish that she was.
Vol swept up behind her before she was aware that anyone was there.
She was standing in the shadows.
The rain had stopped, and Vol didn't know if they had the Gods or the Science geeks to thank for it, but either way, he was grateful.
The woman before him cared not in this moment whether it poured. In fact, she was so far away in her thoughts now that Vol was certain that the sun could've broken through the clouds and begun to shine as brightly as it would at noon in the middle of the night here and she would not have noticed that, either.
"Captain."
Zanh jumped, sloshing coffee out of her cup and onto the toes of her boots.
"Vol, I swear, one day-" She turned toward him, and the look in his eyes told her not to even attempt to do what she was thinking of attempting doing.
"Please." He said softly. "You know that you need to talk about this. Don't try to push it away, or push me away for that matter. You know I can be very insistent about these things."
"That I do." Zanh replied, sounding a lot like her husband as she said it. The very man who was, at this exact second, standing across from her on the other side of the firepit where most of the Sera crew had assembled now and was alternately bartering food items, telling stories about past missions or even attempting to carry a tune when someone suggested a sing along.
The moment the last suggestion had been made, Keiran's head had snapped up to take in the countenance of his wife; and he found the look in her eyes to be just as sad as he feared it may be. He mouthed her name to her, hoping to catch her eye and remind her where she truly was. She was among friends here, she was safe and this was not the kind of camp that she remembered so well from the days of her childhood.
Now her eyes finally met his and though he was no telepath, he didn't really need to be to read her. He could read her like a book, chapter and verse. He nodded slowly, encouragingly, to her. She knew what that meant. He was asking her to talk with the Counselor.
"Captain, let's talk." Vol suggested, with the gently insistant finesse she knew so well. He was truly surprised that she offered no further resistance to the idea. She mutely followed as he led her forward back toward the smaller fire across the way where only Trev was sitting.
"Mister Sterling..." Zanh began when she saw him, "If I might beg your indulgence, do you think we could sit here for a few minutes and talk, Vol and I?"
"Of course, Captain." Trev rose, pausing to nod to Vol before moving to join the others around the larger fire.
Zanh slowly sank to the log, and Vol sat beside her.
"What did you see in the fire, Zanh Liis, that frightened you so?"
She knew that there was no point in pretending now. "I saw my past. And I saw her."
Vol's ears perked up. "You saw Naloy?" He was intrigued by this; the Captain had not mentioned having felt, whether real or imagined, the presence of her grandmother in some time. She had even told him at a point that she felt she'd never see her the same way as she had before in dreams again.
Zanh nodded, and the chain on her earring jingled softly. "She was sitting there, before the fire, clear as day, Vol. Just as I remember her." Liis shook her head in disbelief. "I didn't know if I'd 'see' her again. But I did and she was." she paused, and he noticed her eyes took on a glimmer that threatened tears but did not actually create them.
"She smiled at me. She nodded slowly, and she looked at all around her. All around us." She whispered the rest, uncertain that she could even believe what she was saying herself let alone that Vol would. "She looked at each person by the fire, and then she looked over at. At."
Subconsciously Vol let a hand run up and down Zanh's arm in order to provide some sort of comfort. He'd already surmized what name was coming up next.
Her throat tightened, but she fought for the words.
"She looked at Keiran." Vol concluded, knowing that only one person could stir such deeply felt emotions in the woman before him. Again, Liis nodded.
"She did, she looked at him and she gave me a look, I can't describe it to you other than to say it's the one I remember that she gave when she was very much pleased by something." Liis voice faltered, and she cleared her throat before continuing. "She looked at him, then at me, and she nodded very slowly."
Now her eyes did hold tears. "She gave us her blessing, and then she told me that I didn't need her anymore. That I'd set her free, and that she could be at peace."
Liis head dropped into her hands. "She said that...or thought, or..." she rubbed her eyes then looked back at Vol. "She said that she'd always be within me when I wanted to remember her, but that I didn't need to hold onto the sorrow any longer. That we were both free." Tears spilled down her cheeks and Zanh furtively brushed them away.
Vol's arm now traveled the length of Zanh's upper back as he held her in a semi-hug type of embrace. He allowed a little time to pass, so that the Captain could fully appreciate all that she'd just said. After a moment or two, Vol simply said,
"Personally, I don't know what she was talking about. How can you both be free when you're both on this bloody planet."
Zanh wasn't in the right head-space for humour just now. She heard the joke, understood that it was quite funny, but her face and feelings just would go for it. She looked up into Vol's eyes, her own silently asking for his forgiveness.
"Oh come now." Vol shrugged it off and fully embraced Zanh now. His chin rested on her shoulder as her's did on his. "This is no time to be sad Captain, this is a time to rejoice." Vol comfortably grabbed onto Zanh's arms, moving back so that he could look into her eyes.
"It is not an end, it is the beginning." Vol smiled.
Zanh knew than the Betazoid was right, but her heart wouldn't give in just yet. For a moment, she wished she was back on the Sera in the comfort of her ready room and the halls of her ship instead of this planet. Looking back at Vol, and hearing the words, whispers and laughs from those in the area, she realized that she had deceived herself. She didn't want to be back aboard the ship, at least not more than she wanted to be with her crew, her support, which is exactly where she was.
A smile finally formed on her lips, and she subconsciously let her hand squeeze Vol's. As if it provided some sort of assurance that, if he was still there and real, then so was the rest of her . . . of her family.
"Would you like to join the others Captain?" Vol nudged without pressure. The Captain let out a long sigh of mixed emotions when she finally nodded.
Vol was right, and it was true, this was a beginning. She would always remember Naloy, but her departure meant that Zanh had to move on from her.
As she neared the larger fire, and made eye contact with several members of both teams, she knew there was no other group of peopel she'd rather be moving on with. What was even more reassuring was the thought that Naloy most certainly would continue watching over Zanh, and she was going to need it when it came to tomorrow's challenge for the Sera and the Alchemy teams.
Lieutenant Vol Tryst
Ship's Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis O'Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Ship's Counselor
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
and
-=/\=- Zanh Liis O'Sullivan
Commanding Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012