Heart of the Sky

Posted on 26 Jan 2014 @ 1:03pm by Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin
Edited on on 26 Jan 2014 @ 1:24pm

1,784 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 05 - Solstice
Location: Vega IX - Vega Colony - The Stagger Inn
Timeline: MD 11

[ON]

"Holy crap Siri, you look like a dead fish this morning."

"I worked late at the Mudlast night. My eyes are so puffy, look." With long, manicured nails she lifted her eyelashes for Deidre to see the redness.

"Your nails look great though!" Deidre always seemed to see the weather better on the other side of the mountain.

"Modir did them for me yestermorn". She allowed Deidre to look closer at them. "See how the silver changes to amber like that?"

Deidre oooed her appreciation. "You Vegan girls love your nails. How is your mother by the way?" Terrans were always obsessed with knowing the health statuses of everyone. Even as a general greeting.

"She's not dead?" She said with a small laugh.

Deidre rolled her eyes and gave her hideous Stagger Inn shirt a once over. She seemed to manage finding one with few wrinkles today. "Is this a coffee stain?"

"You can't see it very well." She dismissed it with a wave. "Has Gravtul showed yet?"

"I really don't know why you're so obsessed with that Nausicaan." The two girls walked out of the staff area and into the empty restaurant.

"He's my favourite regular." She shrugged then began taking chairs off the tables, setting them for the breakfast rush.

"Yeah, but Nausicaan, Siri? He looks like he'd eat your face if you ever kissed him." She gagged at her own mental image.

"Haark spit! That's gross."

"I told you."

Sigrid righted the last chair and moved towards the hostess stand. "Look, it's not like that m'kay? It's gross because he's old, not because he's ugly. I think he's, I dunno, probably seventy or more. I don't know what that is in Nausicaan years, but he looks ancient." She picked a PADD off the stand and began separating the restaurant into sections and assigning servers to them. Her job here at the Stagger Inn was much less stressful than at Muddy Water, even if the tips at the Stag weren't great. "And he's not ugly. He's actually kind of handsome in his own way. I'm just concerned that's all. He has come here every single day for breakfast for the last eight years and he always sits in that booth there. He orders six eggs, raw with a half pound of unground coffee beans on the side."

Deidre made another gagging sound. "I don't know Siri, he hasn't been here in a week. Oh! Don't put me with Jac today. He smells and busses my tables soooo slowly."

"You know if you just bussed them yourselves..."

"Siri!" She squealed at the horror of it.

"M'kay!" She laughed. "Take section six and unlock the doors."


**********************************

Her shift had gone by much the same way it always had. Trying to wake your brain up before a hundred people stagger in for breakfast and then a tornado of eggs, bacon and coffee later you're left with a partially empty restaurant and a couple hours worth of clean up. All to be repeated again at lunch. Taking correspondence science courses on the side made it half tolerable and she had convinced herself that she wasn't going to serve tables her WHOLE life. For now, she didn't mind it. She liked talking to people and meeting new ones and she formed friendships with her regulars, a trait she inherited from her mother who beautified people for a living.

It was partly because of this that she found herself walking down snow-packed sidewalks of Vega Colony's North end. Everyone in Vega seemed to think the North end was some crazy crime filled neighbourhood. If her Modir knew she was walking around Hinderton street unaccompanied, she'd have a stroke. Then again, no one who actually lived in this area viewed it that way. It was just a part of the colony that was inhabited by a large population of offworlders.

She found the address she was looking for. She had to admit, she was a little covert in her obtaining it, but she convinced herself that she was spurred on by genuine concern and thought peaking at the address that Gravtol registered for his bar tab wasn't illegal it was simply the right thing to do. Why her boss thought she needed to be fired for obtaining it that way was another matter, but she'd figure that out later. She was certain she could talk her way back into the job, but first she needed to make sure Gravtol was well. He was her friend and this just wasn't like him.

She rang the door. A few moments later she heard shuffling from behind the door but nothing else. She knocked. "Gravtol? It's me, Sigrid."

"Go away." From behind the door it sounded more like a growl than words.

"I've brought you some things. We haven't seen you around the Stag in awhile." She knocked lightly again. "I just wanted to say howdy." The door didn't budge. "M'kay. I'll just leave these here then." She put down a paper bag filled with groceries before turning and returning to the street.

"Why?" Gravtol was standing on his porch now, looking at the paper bag. He eyed it with beady eyed suspicion.

"Oh." She said returning to the porch. "I just thought, maybe, I don't know that maybe you were running low on...foodstuffs?" She suddenly felt stupid for doing it.

"Come in." He picked up the bag with mild interest and returned inside.

His house smelled like a gym change room. Humid with the smell of sweat lingering. She wrinkled her nose a little. It was surprisingly cleaner than she had anticipated. Nothing was on the floor, and everything had it's own place. No clutter. Things hung on the wall that were presumably decorative to Nausicaans. Siri thought it looked like the guts of an animal. He rummaged through the bag. "That's a frehsa, a seasonal fruit. Tastes like an apple, if you've had one of those."

He made a clicking sound and put the fruit back in the bag, whatever that meant.

"Do you live here alone?" They stood in what she assumed must be the kitchen. The design of the place was foreign to her, and it didn't seem Nausicaans arranged their domicile the same as Vegan's did.

"Yes."

"You're pretty chatty this morning." She smiled. She had said that to him everyday for eight years.

"Why are you here?" He growled.

"I told you. I wanted to say howdy and to bring you some food." She said brightly.

"You have done so. Thank you. Now, will you go?"

She moved around what she thought was a dining room table. Or perhaps it was a sacrificial stone? It was a little vague. She grimaced at the colour of it. "I was concerned."

"About what?" He crossed his arms and just blinked at her.

"Your...health? I suppose?" Maybe Deidre was wearing off on her. He didn't say anything for awhile. She hated awkward silences and began to fidget.

Finally he said, "You thought I was dead?"

"No. Well, maybe. Yes." She stopped fidgeting and moved towards the door. "But I see that you're not. Dead, that is. So, I'll just leave you alone." She had almost made it to the door when she heard a noise that was not a growl this time. She turned and realized he was crying; or what she thought was crying. He had liquid coming from his eyes, nostrils and whatever else those were.

"My beloved's tegol was returned to the Four Winds."

She felt her eyes instantly get wet. Oh boy. "Your beloved's tegol...?"

"Tegol. Her soul. She has returned to be with her kin in the Heart of the Sky."

She rummaged through her pockets. With the humidity of his home, and the fact that she was still wearing her winter jacket, she was feeling quite flushed. Deciding it would be unfortunate if she passed out from heat exhaustion, she took off her jacket then found a handkerchief in her purse. She handed it to Gravtol who used it with a large and long honking noise. Thankfully he didn't try returning it. She might have thrown up. "I'm sorry, Gravtol. You must miss her a lot."

"More than the sun misses the moon." He nodded sniffing back his tears.

She hugged him, trying not to pull a look of disgust at the smell of salt and sweat wafting off him. "You never said you had a wife before, how long were you married?"

"Nausicaan's don't have marriages. We fight and kill to win our mates."

"Oh." She should have figured that.

"Sarsa was different. When the Borg came to our home on Narsicaa and we had fled here, Sarsa wanted to be like you. Like Vegan's. Get married. Have a brood." He lurched over to a stone box and lifted the lid producing a photo of two Nausicaans. Sigrid wouldn't have known who was who, had they not been wearing a tuxedo and white wedding dress.

"She's...beautiful." Well, the sentiment was at any rate. Her eyes widened again when she looked at the weirdness of seeing a Nausicaan in a wedding dress. She didn't tell him that it was a tradition in some Terran cultures, not on Vega Colony.

He replaced the picture and turned back to her. "You require compensation."

"Huh?"

"You require compensation." He dug into his pockets.

"For...?"

"The foodstuffs." He said handing her a slip of something.

"Oh,you don't have--Haark spit! This is too much Gravtol!"

"It's a tip." He said making for the door. He opened it and motioned for her to leave.

She just stood there. It really was a lot of money. "I can't accept this."

"Yes you can. Use it to go to Earth. You've always talked about it. Been saving for it. Now you can go. You can learn about planets and do good things Sigrid. Thank you for your kindness. My people do not experience that often."

Earth? Of course she'd always planned for it. It was her wish to leave Vega Colony and explore space. Learn about planets and do something useful. Perhaps she could get work that allowed her to continue studying. She'd check the job listings when she got home. Her mind went through all the things she'd have to do to prepare for a move like that. She'd never left Vega IX before. The realness of the moment brought her to her senses.

"Thank you Gravtol. This was beyond generous." She gave him another hug.

[END]

Sigrid Thelin
Bartender
USS Galileo

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