Little girl lost part 1

Posted on Fri Mar 27, 2020 @ 12:13am by Lieutenant Yukiko Winters

1,966 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Things Past
Location: Bajor/Betazid
Timeline: Approximately 3 years before En et Arcada Ego

Vedek Kil'an stood quietly watching. The young human woman with the white hair was seated on her knees and sitting on her ankles, her head bowed forward with her forehead just touching the ground. It was some sort of formal posture that she had learned from her own home planet. Right now with her head just touching the floor, he could just hear her offering prayers. It was not a language he was familiar with. She was not a follower of the Prophets but she had much respect for the sanctity of the place.

He had been adverse when she had first appeared having asked and been accepted to spend time here. So many outsiders had come, but really did not quite understand the life and many usually left or spent time just taking pictures and otherwise being just guests. This woman looked to be more of the same. Young enough, but she had instead seemed to merge quickly into real monastery life. She had kept quiet except when spoken to, had pitched in without a protest when asked to do even the most menial of tasks such as sweeping the floors with a broom. When she was not tasked with something instead of walking the gardens and taking pictures she was found here, just as she was now.

He waited quietly and in no hurry as she finished her prayer or devotion and with a grace that belied her years came easily to her feet. She then clapped her hands three times in a very stylized manner and made a very deep bow toward the box that stood on the platform and turned. She did not startle to see him there but only made a respectful bow about half as low as that she had given to the Tear that stood in its place on honour. It was not a practice that the followers of the Prophets did but somehow like other things she had done, while alien, it did not feel out of place.

"A word if I may," Kil'an said quietly.

The woman made a bob of the head, "Of course honoured Vedek."

There it was again that slightly alien use, but again the tone and manner was respectful. Still there was something that bothered him about her. She had been so different from many including some of his own people and yet there was an impression an aura of something that hung about her. It was like a shadow and look to the face perhaps.

"Come, have a seat with me." He gestured to a bench just outside the chamber. Silk obeyed without question but did not take the seat until he did. Again, something alien to what he was used to but maybe not alien so much as different.

"I must say you are different from many of the other visitors we get especially those off world. So many come here but it is more for other mundane reasons. I have watched you and you have slipped into this life as though one raised here. You are human are you not?"

Silk nodded in the affirmative. "Yes honoured Vedek."

There was just a bit of pride there but constrained held tightly in check.

"Just Vedek, or Vedek Kil'an," Kil'an replied gently with a smile, and then continued. "I thought when you first arrived just another but you have had training in something similar. Please tell me about it, I am curious." He added hastily, "if you do not mind."

Silk started a shrug then stopped with a sort of flinch as though being struck and quickly bobbed her head. "I was raised in a place called Japan on Earth Vedek Kil'an. We have temples and shrines, maybe not to the Prophets but then who knows what each form a greater force assumes."

Vedek Kil'an had to smile at the diplomatic turn of phrase but said nothing.

"My mother was a geisha, a sort of formal hostess," Silk looked confused as she tried to explain. "It is very formal profession with much formality. I was trained in it as well and one must learn discipline. At first it was not something I wanted to do, but now I have to admit that when I was allowed to wear and style my hair I felt pride."

Vedek Kil'an made a note to look up this geisha but he noted the way she said discipline the tone, the slight shift of the body and still there was nothing of that startlement that another would have had even those that gave their life here to see the Vedek standing watching them. It piqued more about his curiosity and something that almost seemed palpable like a cloak that hung around her.

"We all feel pride in a task well done, but forgive me..." He had to think through the names many of which he did not commit to memory and realized he could not remember.

"Silk, but it is not my formal name. Yukiko is, though I do not use it much." Silk replied.

"Why is that Yukiko? Is there shame in it?" He did not quite pronounce the alien name quite as easily as she but it was close enough and she gave no correction.

There was a tinge of colour to the cheeks. "No Vedek, well yes, I was teased a lot when younger and through my days at the Federation Academy over it. It means snow girl." She made a brief wave of her hand over her hair and down her fair complexion.

"It would seem to fit. I fail to understand why you feel the way you do or perhaps it is something that is alien to me." Kil'an knew that one could not always fathom alien things though humans seemed closer to Bajorans then most.

"Outward looks I suppose, but it also means sort of cold, distant..."

There it was, something that bothered this young woman, something that was at the heart of the matter Kil'an realized. How many other young Bajorans had come here and it had taken time to weed out why. He had learned to listen well and read what people said with both words and body.

"And are you cold Yukikko? Are you distant?" He asked.

There was a tension suddenly to her body, a sort of internal struggle before she said, "No I don't think so." The lips said one thing, the eyes and body said something else. He leaned closer and placed a hand on her and shook his head. There was a slight flinch as he did so but again he felt her control herself.

"This is a place of truth, a place of contemplation and revelation and confrontation of one's soul and fears. Again, Yukikko, are you cold? Are you distant? You show discipline in a way that impresses me and yet I still sense there is something else."

There was a very long silence. The words when they came were both quiet and yet tinged with emotion. "Yes, yes there is."

"Why? What makes you that way?" he asked.

"I can read minds," the woman said and looked down.

The Vedek looked at her a moment and realized why she might have flinched when he touched her. "Telepathic?" Kil'an inquired.

"Yes," the answer was flat a statement as saying the sky was blue.

"A gift then, rare in many here and on your world if I am not mistaken."

"No gift! A curse!" the words came out hard and fast and Silk shook her head and went to stand.

"Please," Vedek Kil'an put a bit of strength in his hand. "Stay." The word was commanding and yet soft. There was a point that he was not sure if she would or not and her hands moved for a moment but then stopped. She was still like a coiled snake but she did not leave. That fight within her between whatever she had learned from her mother and the impulses of emotion at war still within her.

He removed his hand and then waited before speaking again. "A curse? Because you can feel what others feel, hear others thoughts? I would relish such a gift so that I could help others, but there is something missing I do not understand isn't there?"

She nodded briefly. "You know everything, hear things you do not wish to hear, know when they mean something and when as you say the lips say one thing but you know something else. The voices all around, it is enough to drive one crazy at times."

He was puzzled. "You have had no training in your gift?"

Again that tension rose visibly shaking the young woman that had been so quiet and serene in the shrine. "Yes a long time ago." She made a face. "I was not a good student, I did not have the discipline that I learned later."

"Please continue Yukikko," Kil'an urged.

Silk did not like his use of her formal name but she would not correct him. One just did not do that with the honoured elders or scholars.

"I was young, very young when I could hear voices. It was like being in the market with a thousand vendors shouting but all the time. A Betazoid doctor realized what I had and sent me off world to learn. I was scared, frightened to be away. Far from home, family, things of familiarity. Oh they were kind my adoptive family and gentle but fear turned to resentment and instead of putting my hand to the task that had been laid out before me, I fought and was a terrible student." The woman shook her head violently. "I am ashamed of myself now and have no honour in that." Though she did not sob, tears came anyway.

"I see..." Vedek Kil'an said quietly and then touched one of the tears suddenly making up his mind. A tear, perhaps a single tear could make a difference and he looked into the shrine a moment. It was not a thing done but there was a feeling that washed over him as he looked at the tear in one hand to the Tear in the shrine.

"Come," he said standing and holding out his hand.

Silk looked at him for a moment and then took his hand in hers and stood.

He took her back into the shrine and then to the box that stood on the pedestal, with its carved wood and inlaid jewels. "Stand here," he told her and then went around the back to face her.

"Perhaps, the Prophets might help," he said and then grasped the box and opened it with both hands. "Look into one of Their Tears Snow Lady."

Silk was puzzled. She had heard about the Orbs, which the Bajorans called the Tears of the Prophets but in a moment that thought was washed away as a bright light caught her eyes and she could not help but look. For a moment, it seemed as if she was bathed in light and was blinded for a moment before the sun shone on the beautiful lush gardens and tinged the pink clouds above.

It took a moment or two but Silk realized she was on Betazed. Not only that but she recognized the garden and the lovely house set within the lands. Her eyes roamed over the familiar landscape but a flash of white caught her eye near the small lake. A child, almost a young woman was throwing stones into the water causing turbulent waves to span across. Why and how Silk had come to be here, she was not sure but she felt an odd sensation knowing who she was watching and a sudden urge came with that as well.

TBC:

 

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