<USS Atlantis> "Vampire Pt II"
- From: "Tempest Rainbird" <counselortempest@xxxxxxx>
- To: <ussatlantis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 04:37:04 -0800
"Vampire Pt II"
Lieutenant Commander Kiela Merienn
0101.21
The first rays of morning, hope gleaming in the splendor of their
beams, cast themselves fitfully through the polished glass window and onto the
mass of tangled black hair that shrouded Keila's face from their light. Their
playful journey led them to bejewel a fallen tear, then cast the black and
purple rose of a bruise into the light of day that never should have seen it.
What deeds were done in darkest night could not be chased away by the
light of day. What right, indeed, did that righteous light have to illuminate
the dark doings? Better to leave them unknown and unexpressed... shrouded...
Keila lifted her head, neck arched like a bird, and closed the shades
so that the tenacious rays were directed toward the floor. Banging her fist on
the glass pane, she slid pack into a prone position, and closed her eyes
against the intrusion of the sun.
The frenzied note in Kiela's voice was barely disguised and she
jammed her palm against her communicator. "Starbase Aerheart. One to beam up."
"Hold still, will you?" T'shara groaned, exasperated. "How am I
supposed to help you if you won't hold still?"
Lowering her eyes, Kiela obediently held her head firmly in place
while T'shara activated her bootleg dermal regenerator.
"I braved sickbay for you," T'shara complained. "Sickbay! What if
Juli had found me? I could have been subjected to a physical. You'd better
appreciate this." A moment later, the hiss of the dermal regenerator subsided,
and T'shara cocked her head to get a good look at Kiela's earlobe. "That's done
it," she concluded, putting the dermal regenerator aside in a secluded drawer.
"I don't understand why you didn't want Juli to know about this. How did you
hurt your ear anyway?" A mischeivious thought crossed her mind, and T'shara
grinned. "Tarine give you a 'love bite?'"
Kiela coaxed her lips into a half-smile which quickly fell away
again. "Nothing of the sort," she protested softly. "It was an accident."
"Some accident. Looks like someone grabbed hold of your earring and
yanked."
Kiela managed another wan smile, and T'shara narrowed her eyes.
"You're not telling me something."
"It's nothing T'shara," Kiela said. There was a note of finality in
her tone that warned T'shara not to pursue the subject farther. Kiela glanced
around the room. "I hate to ask, but I need another favor. Can I stay here
tonight?"
T'shara glanced around the spartan guest quarters she was occupying
on the Starbase and shrugged slightly. "I guess so, but there's not much room.
What happened to the room you rented with Tarine on Titan?"
Kiela intently examined a crystal turtle T'shara had left on her
table as a decoration.
"Let me guess," T'shara said. "Nothing."
Kiela stood. "Thank you for letting me stay here, T'shara," she said.
She spared her friend another wan, half-spirited smile, before letting the
doors to her quarters serve as a barrier between them.
Later that morning saw Keila, garbed in an orange silkish affair that
shrouded the abuses of the previous night, on the Starbase promenade.
Carefully, she made her selection of the day's fruit, piling the acceptable
golden orbs in her wicker basket with delicate precision bordering on obsession.
It was silly, she suppposed, to drill her way through this empty
routine. Six months of acting for Tarine's interests as much as her own had
driven out her earlier preconceptions of the way to spend a free morning, and
so she found herself moving through a masquerade of normalcy, like an amnesiac
dancer imitating the movements of a dance.
Finally satisfied she'd gotten the best of the crop, Keila presented
her basket to the woman behind the counter. To her surprise, Kiela saw it was
the other Bajoran on the ship -- Ensign Alois, swathed in a traditional
merchant's cloak.
"Alois..." Kiela stammered, surprised.
"Will that be all for you today, Madam Merienn?" asked Alois with
mock-deference, calculating the weight of Kiela's purchase. Smiling at Kiela's
surprise, she explained, "The business is a family concern. Since the Halcyon
stopped here for leave, my aunt put me to work right away." She glanced around
the booth. "I think I get the best of the deal, though. Auntie distills Saurian
brandy, and I get a case of her finest for my labors."
"I see," Kiela said briefly. As Alois turned to ring up Kiela's
purchase, Kiela gestured back toward the cartons of produce. "You're out of
Kili fruit?" she asked.
"We are indeed," Alois answered. She proffered the bill for Keila's
thumb print. "We sold our last shipment almost as soon as it arrived." Eager
for her share of the ship's gossip, she added, "How's Tarine?"
"He's well," Keila half-lied. She glanced askance at the figure on
the bill before offering her print.
Seeing her skepticism, Alois continued, "I know, the prices of fruit
certainly have gone up, haven't they? After a few years of bad crops, the
farmers think they can charge anything they want. There's nothing we can do
about it, of course," she continued, hands spread wide, "We're powerless on
prices."
Keila nodded again, and picked up the basket. Alois was a cheerful
woman by nature, and Kiela could not bring herself to exchange her lively
reparte. "Thank you," she said. "May the prophets be with you."
"May the prophets be with you," Alois agreed, then her gaze caught on
something as Keila turned to go. "I say, Keila. You've forgotten your earring."
Keila paused and clapped her hand to her ear. "So I have," she said.
Her fingers unconciously traced the line where the dermal regenerator had
sealed her split lobe after the earring had been torn from it. It was barely
perceptible, even to her probing touch. "Forgotten it," she continued in haste,
"Thank you for telling me."
One of the Rengi fruits fell out of her basket as Keila made haste to
leave, but in her hurry she disregarded it altogether.
That was the first time she'd lied about her missing earring. It
would not be the last.
One last night. The appointment with Admiral Gem and Commander Tim
had been made for the morning. The day's aching sorrow, much of it spent on the
observation deck of Starbase Aerheart, staring down at the dusty red whorls of
Titan's surface illuminated by the fiery tongues of the sun seen from space,
had convinced Kiela after doubts and discomforts had fled that she had to
leave.
Her Starfleet uniform concealed the tattoo on her stomach. Above all
else, she must keep it concealed.
One last night. And on the morrow, Kiela's fate would change.
"I hope it's comfortable enough," T'shara said, fretting over the
positions of the pillows on the couch. "It really isn't meant for someone to
sleep on. I do wish you'd given me enough time to make proper arrangements
before visiting..."
"No, really T'shara," Keila said, "it's fine. More then fine." She
half-heartedly fluffed the stiff pillow, and laid her head on it. "Just thanks
for putting me up, that's all."
"Oh, really, Keila, you're never an imposition," T'shara countered,
smiling the nervous hostesses smile, "Only I wish I'd had a little more warning
-- for your sake, you know -- that's all."
"Good night, T'shara," Keila said, smiling. The last rays of sunset
had flickered out behind the mountains, and the two women were illuminated only
by the rosy artificial lampglow.
"All right, Keila," T'shara finally conceded. "Good night. I'll see
you in the morning." Turning off the lamp on her way out, T'shara left the room
and left Kiela in her native darkness.
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