Secrets, and Those We Share With

Posted on Wed Jun 6th, 2018 @ 8:26pm by Lieutenant Hel Samedi & Lieutenant Valeria Mordin

Mission: Of Machines and Men
Location: Holodeck 2

Valeria stood in the midst of her creation. Easily two hours of work went into this, and another half an hour was spent making it as close to perfect as she could. With very little to go on, and very little to reference, she felt uniquely satisfied that this worked out as well as it did. She stood in the presence of her own creation for just another moment, basking in the glow as it were before she suspended the simulation and returned the room to a dark, black hollow suite... as it were.

Once things were back in their place, Valeria tapped her comm badge. "Mordin to Samedi, would you meet me in Holodeck two at your convenience?"

"Sure!" Sounded Hel's voice, chipper as ever when it was Valeera listening. "I can be there in two minutes, or ten if you need me to wear something other than my uniform. Anything particular I should wear?"

"I'm dressed casually, you can come as you are or something more casual if you wish." was the rabbitess' reply. "But take your time. I'd like for you to be relaxed for this."

"Not gonna happen while you're around." Hel chuckled. "Alright, give me ten minutes. Gonna slip into something more comfortable, do my hair up." she concluded.

"I'll be waiting." Valeria replied, a little sing-song to her voice perhaps. Or just a trick of the echo of the holodeck...

True to word, Hel arrived at Holodeck Two about ten, eleven minutes after the summons, wearing a simple black dress over heavy boots, her hair in a pony tail. Her dress had very faint images of crosses on it. She took a moment to compose herself, then rang the door chime.

The doors slid open to reveal the rabbitess, dressed in a simple one piece dress. Simple, but still it clung to her where it needed and slid where it should. A simple dark red in color, with a brighter red pattern on it. A tree, with petals in the breeze... or a salamander... maybe a pair of turtles...

Rorschach would have a field day with that dress.

"It's good to see you again." she offered first, with a soft smile. "You've guessed already that Ts'usugi life is dominated by protocol. What we should do, what we can do, and what we shouldn't do. Or shouldn't do yet." she started. "You've shared so much with me, I wanted to share something with you. I also understand there's something... provocative about something forbidden. The more you shouldn't do something, the more you want to do it. That being said... Computer, resume previous program."

The holodeck sprang to life, putting grassy fields and shrubs where there was just blank space moments prior. A hill, a field, and the pair were on something of a cliff. Nothing spectacularly high, just enough to overlook what looked like a small village not too far away. A thriving village lit by lanterns and streetlights along a central path. It was dark out, but not so dark that it was impossible to see, though there night sky held no stars. What it did hold was a majestic sight.

Two sister moons, and a massive central planet.

Hel took a step forward, and another. Any words she might have had as response to Valeera were lost before they could materialize. She looked up, left, right, forward, then back at Valeera with a smile, before looking around once more, lamenting that she had only two eyes to see with. But perhaps the most telling was that she took out her contacts. This simple act brightened the dim lighting to allow her to see everything with. Only two eyes to see with, yes, so better make them able to see it all.

Things set in quick. The village, the workers in the fields... those were all Ts'usugi. The children running in the fields... Ts'usugi. The elderly sitting on their porches or just walking together down the central path... Ts'usugi.

"I had to remove the stars." Valeria admitted. "And, since it's rude to emulate someone as a hologram, I made sure to flip the entire moon as through a mirror. My village is usually on the left side of this cliff." she said with a smirk.

Hel reached out for Valeera's hand and pulled her a bit closer, leaning in to nudge her forehead against the Ts'usugi's. "It's beautiful." she quietly spoke when she found words again. "The moons, the planet, the - ... Everything. Beautiful." She smiled, taking another step closer to the cliff's edge to peek over.

Valeera took the seeking hand and moved next to the pale human, and a widening smile developed at the simplest of contacts. She joined Hel at the edge, watching everything unfold. "These are the Home Moons." She was silent for a moment to let that fully sink in, before motioning to several brighter spots along the horizon, brighter in the sense that there was a small aura of light along the edge of the horizon. "There, and there, are two of the closer cities. That one has a Blink port, so we do a lot of trade with that city. The lights along the main path were new when I left. It was deemed needed to ensure the safety of our elderly populace." she gave the history lesson of her village. She then motioned over to the outskirts of the village, where there was the beginnings of a patch of woods complete with a soft blue glow.

"We called it Tattle Tail wood, for obvious reasons. The most dangerous thing in those woods is the local version of a creature you call a spider but parents worry." she said with a smirk. "We can stay and enjoy the view, or if you want we can walk through the village."

Hel was silent for a few moments before responding, lost in thought, lost in the beauty of the place. She registered Valeera's words of course, never would she disregard the voice of the woman beside her it just took her a moment to parse and come up with a reply. "I don't know." she said, turning to the other woman.

"I honestly don't know. I'd be perfectly happy seeing the village, and I'd be perfectly happy staying here. I'm curious to the village, but part of me would also prefer my first time seeing it up close when it is real, and we're there." the pale Engineeress mused. "So, I'm going to give the proverbial ball back to you, if that's ok."

Valeera gave a smirk, "Then we stay. We're observers here, so the village won't come up here curious. We can watch the moons, watch the home world. It's a far cry from the real thing, but I wanted to share this with you."

The view of the moons was spectacular. Along the night-half of each moon, cities and civilization lit up the surface, while the day-half of each moon was bathed in the light of the star that, currently, hid behind the home world of Ts'usu. The home world itself, though, was dark and silent. There were no lights, no beacons, no sign of civilization of any form.

The soundtrack that played in the background of this view was the laughter of local children, the sounds of the workers in the fields, and murmurs of a dozen conversations down the cliff and off the way. The sounds of a simple life, in the shadow of a grand civilization.

From time to time, a little blip of light would pop up from the nearby Blink port, and then would streak out into the distance... off making another trip. After a moment, a Ts'usugi starship came out from warp to drop off another Blink shuttle, or receive one.

Hel smiled and simply sat down in the grass - alien to her, but grass is what she would call it as it was similar enough. The soundtrack of the laughing children, the sights of the blink ships arriving, departing, blue shifts and red shifts, it made a mesmerizing lightshow with the village's own lights below and the incidental sparkle of a ship dropping out of warp, above.

Eventually Hel whispered something quietly, and an acoustic guitar manifested in her hands. She smiled softly at Valeera, then looked out over the cliff again, gently strumming some chords fading into some melodies and back out again, a simple whim of the mind musical backing to the sights before her - only enhanced by knowing what they were, and meant.

Valeera took a seat next to her, not crowding her playing but certainly close, and just enjoyed the music. A simple strum, a melody, but still it was music. When Hel smiled over, the rabbitess returned the smile with a soft ghost of a smile herself, and a relaxed head tilt. Here, she was happy. It was true what they said: Ts'usu is wherever we are.

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Lt Hel Samedi
Engineering

&

Lt Valeria Mordin
Chief Science