A long time passing

Posted on 29 Apr 2009 @ 7:54am by Colonel Stadi Andrus

1,241 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: M2: Aggressive Negotiations
Location: New Zealand, Earth
Timeline: 2376

Melanie had left everything she knew behind in San Fransisco, her career, her friends. How surprised they would be if they ever found out that she was living with Talar. She walked along the beach, her sandals in her hand, her long skirt flowing around her in the breeze. Her mind wandered as she walked. ~He was right...this is the most beautiful place on Earth.~ She thought to herself, how strange she never made her way down here in all her time on Earth...

He found the constant breeze invigourating especially after the endless sunlight; Talar had alwas preferred a milder climate. As he watched from the veranda, his arms folded on the painted wooden rail he was not so sure about Melanie ... was it enough for her to own all the land one could see between the sky and the sea?

Melanie let her sandals slip from her hand and walked to the ocean. The waves washing over her feet soaking the hem of her white cotton skirt. She closed her eyes opening her mind. She felt Talar watching her, she touched his mind, comforting him with her thoughts.

Talar smiled to himself, "Come back up to the house," he said, she might be comfortable just to communicate in thoughts, but he wasn't, he needed the form of the words on his lips.

Melanie left the ocean, her skirt soaked through and was now sticking to her legs, it would dry by the time she reached the house. She grabbed her sandals from the beach and slowly made her way up to Talar never breaking eye contact, constantly touching his mind.

"I think this is heaven," he said as she approached. As he took her hands the scent of roasting fish was beginning to fill the air, he had already placed a carafe of chilled white wine on the crisp linen table cloth that rippled in the breeze where it hung down to the floor. "It'll be a few minutes until lunch," he added with a smile.

"Last time you said that with that smile on your face lunch was burnt to a crisp." She said laughing.

"As I recall, e'lev that was not entirely my fault," he grinned.

"Hmmm..." She responded blushing. She turned her face to hide it staring out at the ocean.

"What's on your mind," he asked looping his arms around hers from behind and resting his head on her shoulder, her cheek, so fresh from the sea breeze still cool against his.

She leaned back against him, letting him support her weight. Melanie opened her mind sending him images of the last time that they had been together...too distracted that their dinner had burnt to a crisp.

"I'm starting to think you're not hungry, Melanie," Talar said squeezing her a little harder.

"True..." She replied laughing, "But I don't want to burn more food and have it go to waste either."

"Then let's eat first ... how about a glass of wine?" he suggested.

"That would be lovely Talar." She smiled.

He released her and crossed to the table picking up the glasses with one hand and the carafe with the other, "Take that off the heat," he said as he sat on the step, "It'll come to no harm."

The golden liquid gurgled into the glasses as he poured handing one to Melanie as she joined him.

"What is the occasion Talar? Did I forget your birthday?" She asked teasingly.

"Does there have to be an occasion?"

"No..." She replied slowly, "But you don't normally pull out the nice wine for lunch unless there is an occassion."

"Aren't you the one who is always saying I should be less uptight and more spontaneous?"

"Yes and think it has come back to haunt me. " She replied laughing.

Taking a sip of his wine. Talar stretched his legs out down the steps and leaned back on his elbows, "Isn't it said that you should be careful what you wish for," he said wryly.

She nodded sipping her own wine, his grandmother's bracelet clinking the glass as she drank.

"I don't know about you, but as far as I can tell, whoever said that didn't wish hard enough."

"Hmmm?" She asked, she had managed to distract herself again with thoughts of how he had relaxed since coming to New Zealand. Melanie liked the change in him.

"Are you going to tell me what is bothering you or are we just going to sit here and pretend that it is nothing?" Talar asked.

Melanie put down her class and looked into his eyes, speaking nothing but truth. "Nothing is the matter Talar, promise. I was just thinking that you are different from when we first met. You are less abrassive, loving, caring, you show your emotions rather than me sensing them. I am sorry if I upset you."

He laughed, "that must make me the worst fake Vulcan in history, there I am showing emotions when I should be stoic and po faced. See, that's why I like it here, there's no-one around."

"You are like that with me Talar, not around other people. You are like a stone, completely emotionless. I don't like it."

"You know that I can't give away who I am, or what I am. They'd never understand and I'd be on the first freighter home if I was lucky ... do you want me to be locked up and accused of spying?"

"Of course not." She replied reaching across the table and taking his hand. "I am not prepared to lose you. I can't....."

"I never thought life could be so simple ... perhaps I just find it hard to trust anything that isn't complicated," he speculated.

"I know...I used to be like that too."

"I know that isn't true," he said kindly, "your world is remarkably black and white ... or it was until I introduced a certain shade of grey. You don't have to worry about me leaving, who else would have me?"

"Life hasn't been black and white since...well." Changing the subject abruptly away from when she was 16. "I worry sometimese though that this is too much for you and all you want is to walk away and disappear. I have taught you well to hide your thoughts and memories. I do not go looking but still I get nothing from you, I cannot even feel your emotions most of the time."

Talar tilted his glass in his finger watching the liquid swirl and flow. "I'm content, which is more than I was back ho ... in the Empire."

"Do you still consider it home then? The Empire?"

"It was my home for over forty years, it takes a while to change the way you think. It was a slip of the tongue, nothing more."

"I lived on Starships, so besides this place here nothing has ever been home to me...but of course you knew that." She giggled softly.

He pushed his glass aside and walked his fingers up her wrist, "here's the deal then, we forget about the places we've lived and concentrate on making our own home."

She smiled. "Home, that sounds wonderful. Does this mean that we are a family then...the two of us?"

Talar nodded.

"I still can't believe all of this." She smiled, "We both found what we were looking for."

"It seems so."

OFF:

Doctor Melanie Hemmingway
CMO
USS Freedom

Talar

 

RSS Feed