Stardate: 71013.1900
Title: Starfleet Boy Meets Alien Girl. . .
Authors: Ensign Biggs and Lt. Grace
Scene: Caverns of Yensul V
Time: Between "An Overture" and "Without Fanfare"
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As he once again fell asleep by the fire, Simon's mind flashed back to the moment when he'd first beamed into Alchemy's Sickbay with Reece and Grace and was shocked to see an alien woman had pulled a knife on Lt. Commander Lair.
--=Flash=--
Simon jumped to action, rushing towards Lair while pulling his phaser from his belt and preparing to fire.
He was about to tell the alien to drop the knife and to put her hands on her head when Lair spoke to him directly, commanding him to stand down. Simon was surprised at the odd request, but complied and put his phaser back in its holster.
He caught the alien woman looking at him, asking Lair why he did what he was told to do by a female. Simon remembered reading up years ago about the Enterprise's mission to Angel One, where the women were the dominant gender of their species. Stronger, more intelligent, and thought this must be a similar situation.
Simon relaxed a bit and put his hands up in the air in a gesture of surrender, and keeping an eye on the alien lady just in case, waited while Lair explained that she out ranked him and he reported to her because Salvek was not present. She also told the alien that N'Dura, Simon's supervising officer on the Independence, was also female.
Simon tried not to smile, impressed when Lt. Grace suddenly caught the female alien off guard and took the knife from her. He made a note to himself to mention Grace's actions to N'Dura when they returned to the Indy.
"Who are you?" Simon asked the woman softly as he approached, giving Reece a fireman's lift and setting him on one of the biobeds. Simon then focused his attention on the female alien, who removed her scarf and hood to reveal her face.
He suddenly felt his jaw drop, and caught February's expression as she noticed him staring at the woman. He had a feeling he was going to catch some flack from the Trill about his reaction later on.
--=End Flashback=--
Once again, as the cold around him seeped through his clothing, Simon shivered and woke up, remembering his surroundings.
It seemed everyone else was still asleep by the fire, and he sighed. He kept waking up, his troubled thoughts wouldn't let him sleep no matter how he tried. He found Tybelle Maffe staring at him, as she began poking the fire to stir the fading embers.
"You were talking about them before," Maffe whispered. "In your dreams."
"Who?"
"Your family."
Simon looked away.
She stood, taking a torch and the blanket that Simon had given her earlier, before pulling him up from the ground by the hand. "Come with me, Simon Biggs."
Simon followed, and she led him to a small, deserted cave attached to the main cavern. There was no fire burning here, not yet, and she lit the remains of an old one with her torch and then settled down on the ground on top of the blanket and gestured for him to sit, too.
"Talk to me. Tell me about them."
Time slipped by quickly, and after what seemed like hours of talking about his family and the accident that had taken his father and sister, Simon fell silent. Tybelle had put her arm around him, comforting him as he talked as best she could.
"I was three when I lost my father," she confided at last. "That is why we ended up here. My mother, and I. With the others, thrown away."
"It's wrong, what has happened to you here," Simon said, his eyes reflecting his anger. "No one should ever have to live this way."
"Tell me, Simon," she asked eagerly, "What is it like, where you came from? Is it warm?"
"Earth?"
"Yes."
"It's. . .very green." He replied. "In the United Kingdom, where I'm from," he paused, thinking of home and all the ways that it had changed since he'd left to join Starfleet. Still, a place like that would surely seem like paradise to a woman who had grown up in a place like this. "It's beautiful. Trees, as far as you can see. Countryside with rolling hills. Lots of rain, even with the weather modification net. To keep everything green."
"United Kingdom," Maffe said thoughtfully. "What a beautiful name. Sounds like a safe place, where everyone gets along."
"It wasn't always that way," Simon replied honestly. "A few hundred years back, Earth was not a lot better off than Yensul when it comes to how our people treated each other. But we learned, and we changed. Perhaps, your people can change too," he added hopefully.
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Ensign Simon Biggs
Security Officer
USS Independence/USS Alchemy
and
Lt. Grace
Helm/Flight Controller
USS Independence/USS Alchemy