This Year IV

Posted on 20 May 2013 @ 11:39am by Lieutenant JG Kestra Orexil

1,885 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Sickbay
Timeline: MD7 0700

ON:

I believe you would find it comforting there. Vital. Breathing. Existence. Colors and cells, vibrating, moving, living. Condensed, square inches of animation. Regardless of Maenad's presence. I will take you there, when I return from my away mission. If you wish. He looked down at his hands to realize the second knot had formed itself without his conscious direction. He let it dissemble and moved his hands quickly again. I recognize this. It is shaankevrya. He crossed his hands at the wrists, separated them wtih the rope and then held them out in front of him, touching an invisible mirror before turning his thumbs outward and completing the knot. The Reminder. Kayat tarya, it is taught that every action exerts force, that one's opponent is a reflection of one's self. He blinked. He hadn't been thinking of that when the Honor knot formed. I do not believe I am doing this correctly, he lamented.

You are doing exactly what you must. For every knot is a variation of one solemn truth - that our lives start with a jolt and end with one, and in between we have many choices, many new things we learn, and all of these serve to guide us step by step into who we become in our last moments. Perhaps your progression is different than my own, and that is as it should be. So long as they link together, binding you to yourself and helping to secure you, that is all that matters. She remained steady, unflummoxed, pleased at his swift progress, but moreso, pleased at his mind and his heart which were both so overwhelmingly full. We will find the path that works for you, through trial and error - it is the only way. Now. Health and Kinship. I'll show you and you'll find your own method.

Liyar cocked his head to the side, waiting, and allowed the rope to unwind in his lap. It was such a different way of learning, he could feel it distinctly as his mind learned to bend to the shape and contour of the ropes. In its own way precise and measured. His own training had been more holistic, dealing with people and pinpoints of connection, cores of self. Physical in touch, nerves, feeling, rather than motion from within. He was quietly impressed by the complimenting simplicity and elegance of the Betazoid way.

Keeping the body in good order is a duty we have, to ourselves and others, she began, receiving the rope from his hands and beginning a slow winding path with one end. Otherwise we are not able to keep our minds strong and clear. We must be strong, as we are able, quick, as we are able, limber, as we are able- Her thoughts shuddered to a jerking halt, though her hands finished the knot. Little wonder she couldn't gain control over her own telempathic abilities when she was malformed as she was. Such a waste. Such an awful waste. And still no word on what she might do to overcome it. Was the weakness a bodily one or a flaw in her mind? It all bound together, after all, didn't it?

She frowned, finishing the knot, then untying it again to begin over. This was Liyar's journey. She was only a guide. It wasn't about her and she oughtn't to make it so. After the Health knot had been completed again - it's gentle turns producing interlocking winding connections in a small circle - she showed how it linked into the Kinship knot. Here, like this, she looked over to the small table beside the bed and fished a stylus she'd been using to help her complete reports for Rhodes on her PADD. Turning it, she hooked the hard metal end into the weave of the rope to open up individual strands. We begin as part of a whole, bound by blood and the long history of our family. That family, we do not choose. Only learn from, are guided by, and are bound to as inevitably as a leeching pitcher plant. We take our nutrients from that tree, in order to grow. But as we do, we expand- vines seeking - and the kin we cling to from that point on are the family we choose for ourselves. Different, because we learn to love them and aren't expected to. And each of these, and each of the faces that peered down at us when we were children and taught us to stand on our feet, are threads in our life that help us to fly without fear of flying too far. She slipped the rope through the open thread loops and showed him how it slid, grumbling, through. Clearing the rope, she handed it back to him. Now you, my brother.

It is not about who it is about, Liyar shook his head. Not in that way. Liyar took the heavy rope and began the arduous task of the Health knot. The knots were sturdy and strong, but winding, meandering, falling off, ragged and unsure. He parsed it out as he tried to make his meaning clear. We are all bound together. The guide and the student are part of the same, tapestry, you called it. I learned kinship thus. Every action one takes, every endeavor, every choice, is a reflection of the self. The guide is that way for a reason, as is the student, one cannot be impervious to one's own Core, nor should they forget it. That is especially important in teaching. Like Honor, Kinship came to him more easily than Health, his mind seeking and reaching as naturally as stretching and breathing. Then we learn, the teacher cannot become so enamored of it that they feel incapable of being supported. It was a wry reminder. Don't-worry. I-get-it.

Perhaps not, she agreed, eyes on his hands. Yet I am begged to recall the Terran aphorism - 'it is useless to cry over spilled milk'. As neither I nor the medical professionals on this ship are able to figure out why my legs are stubbornly sedentary nor how to go about affecting a change in them, whining about the situation internally or externally feels a waste when I could instead be focused on what I can do. Which is, I suppose, to teach knots. Her eyes crinkled with the humor that blossomed - sunlight rippling over water - within her. I am grateful to you for the chance to be effective for a change. It seems the last few days I have simply been reaffirming over and over how little I can actually do. Regret and frustration. They meant well. Tried to give her work that suited what they saw as her complete inability to do more than input data and be her breed and not her skills. Did the other officers shoot with their legs? Oh, she longed for the range. She would go. Today. She would go and release this frustration in the safety of the range through the venue of a variety of phasers and perhaps she would find herself more suited to the patient, dull deskwork after that. Trivialities. Health again. This time, feel the bend of the rope beneath and between your fingers. It will come easier if you take in mind where its natural turns are hidden.

Have you ever used a ra'de-kutha? Liyar asked between braids.

The term was unfamiliar to her, but the image in his mind - a sleek Vulcanoid technology to hone psionic attacks- she shuddered despite herself. So it's true; I'd always thought that was- you do use your psionic abilities as offensive weapons. She pressed her fingers to her lips and breathed to quell the sudden surge of discomfort the idea elicited. She'd been taught all her life that her mind was built to induce harmony and bonding, not to harm. Never to harm. Perhaps, maybe, as a defensive gesture, but even then... Of course, she'd thought of it; especially when she'd been outmatched physically by some of the Klingons she'd trained with. Even then, she'd held to the nature of her teachings and learned to adapt physically rather than psychically. Only, how much good did this anathema towards psychic offensive abilities really aid them, she wondered, thinking of the millions dead on Betazed in their pitchfork defense against the Dominion. If they'd been able to use all of themselves in their fight, how many might have been saved?

Liyar's eyes widened at the idea and he blinked several times. "No," he spoke out loud. No, not as a tool of harm. He thought of her phaser, directed energy, channeling, focus, control. A physical representation of release. The ra'de-kutha uses psionic energy to form barriers. Like directed energy. However these barriers are primarily fashioned into shields, or ballistic points. The ra'de-kutha is a backup weapon, to be used by a Vulcan who is incapable of operating a phaser or using defensive training. It functions by channeling a person's psionic energy into forms and shapes. It can range from harmless as touch, to a shield capable of withstanding a great deal of force. They protect buildings.

Her tension released, shoulders dropping. Yes. That was better. Much. How does it work? Left, under, through.

Liyar's fingers moved awkwardly, clumsily. His movements got a little more confident as he attempted to explain. Vulcan telepathy is a bit more physical than Betazoid, I think, Liyar mused thoughtfully. For us, it is energy, the Self. We can channel and focus that into the tariman stone, the vessel of the ra'de-kutha. Then we must learn to shape and use it to our will. As it is a resonator technology, it can only be operated by those who are at peace, who are disciplined. Negativity and pain breed pain and chaos. To effectively wield it as with any telepathic practice one must be in tune with the Self. He looked down at his feet, suddenly unsure of his brilliant plan. It can be taught, I believe it can. I possess one here, if you find that operating a phaser is not as satisfying as it would be if you were fully mobile.

I don't believe they are confident that I can manage one, Kestra smirked. I think they are quite wrong, but one needs to prove these things. I should like to see this ra'de-kutha in use, however. Her eyes narrowed on the knots, Much better.

Looking down, Liyar realized that the clumpy, irregular spirals of his knot had formed into a solid pattern. Prove them, you shall. His amusement was muted, supportive. I will bring the ra'de-kutha with me when we meet again.

OFF:

Lieutenant (JG) Liyar
Diplomatic Officer, VDF/SDD
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Kestra Orexil
Patient/Former CTSO, SFS
USS Galileo

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