Music has Charms

Posted on Tue Jul 14th, 2020 @ 7:36am by Lieutenant JG Gallia Norris & Lieutenant Colonel Azhul Naxea

Mission: Season 3: Episode 4: Cause and Effect
Timeline: MD 7
3077 words - 6.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Naxea, having found some downtime made her way to Deck 22 when she caught sight of a small blue Andorian girl being escorted by Gallia. "There's my favorite little ball of blue," Naxea said to the girl she knew as Tayalas as she picked up her pace a bit.

Tayalas, previously overwhelmed by the sight of all the new things and people around her, stopped when she heard a familiar voice. Turning her antennae first, then her head, she looked up and broke into a huge grin, hollering, "See-a!!!"

"Hi!" she grinned widely at the little girl. "Hi Gallia. How are you you two doing?"

"I cannae complain, we're takin' the l'il blueberry te sign up for a music class." Gallia replied with a smile, thrilled almost as much as Tayalas was to see Naxea, "She loves te sing so much, I figgered, mebbe we let her get some proper trainin' for her l'il voice."

Tayalas, for her part, now stood at See-a's feet, reaching her short blue arms skyward, she wanted uppies.

Naxea obliged and picked up the little blue bundle of joy. "So, you like to sing?" She tickled her belly playfully.

Tayalas giggled and cooed for a second before answering, "Yes! Lub te singy sing."

Naxea giggled at Tayalas' response before continuing to walk next to Gallia. "I bet you're a very good singer." She looked at Gallia. "How did she fare during our bumpy trip?"

"We had some scary moments, but Mrs. Blankenship takes such good care a her, there wasnae anythin' te worry aboot." Gallia replied, "An' she is a right good singer, every song jus' couldnae be nay cuter."

Naxea smiled at Tayalas. "I don't doubt that. I think you've gotten bigger since I last saw you. You're not growing on me are you?"

"Uh huh, mommyy say I be big girl soon." Tayalas replied proudly, "I be tall enough to reach shelfy shelf."

"Is that right?" Naxea asked giggling as she carried Tayalas down the corridor in her arms. Looking at Tayalas made her think of having children of her own. Was she ready? Were Bajorans and Sequus even compatible? "Your mom is right--you're just too cute. Is this her first time going to the singing teacher?"

"Aye, dinnae even rightly know who the teacher is." Gallia replied, "But, whoever it is as long as they're patient it'll be okay."

"If they aren't, just let me know," Naxea winked with a giggle.

"Why dinnae ye come with us, Naxea?" Gallia offered, "Ye might get te listen to the kids sing a little bit."

Naxea looked from Gallia to Tayalas and shrugged. It wasn't often she had actual down time and to be honest, she didn't feel much like doing any training. "Sure, why not. Would you like that, Tayalas?"

"Yay!" Tayalas squealed, "I singy sing for my See-a!"

Naxea laughed in response. "Then yes, I am definitely coming." Soon they came to a door as Gallia stopped. "Is this it?"

"Aye, that it is." Gallia opened the door and was immediately caught by the sight of a short woman, with a short pixie haircut like hers, and a magnificently toned body, she looked somehow familiar, "Excuse me, miss, are ye the singin' teacher."

Anje then turned around and smiled broadly, seeing Tayalas, "I am, and if any of the kids want, I'm also going to offer ballet lessons. Glad to see her."


"You teach singing and ballet?" Naxea, asked surprised at seeing Anje. She could never picture Anje doing ballet or singing.

"Oh, yes." Anje smiled, she would be nice to the Major in Tayalas' presence because she knew how much the little Blueberry loved her, even if she herself did not, "I went to a performing arts school in San Francisco for high school, was lead soprano in our choir, and actually studied for a summer at the Rusev Moscow Ballet company, they're the farm team for the Bolshoi." She walked over and kissed Tayalas on her head, "And I am so glad to see you here, little one. I can not wait for your adorable little voice to be in our Christmas carol show for this year's holiday party."

Naxea recalled the Christmas Carol from hearing humans that she had served with talk about it, causing her to have read the novel eventually. "Christmas Carol...let me guess, you're going to be Scrooge?" Naxea teased with a smile.

"No, not Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol, though that was a favorite of Trapper there and the departed Hawkeye Hertz, Christmas carols, Christmas songs, you know?" Anje explained, "And I for one can not wait to hear this little angel singing the twelve days of Christmas. Then if she decides to take some dance lessons, she can do Swan Lake for us."

"Enn-a, wha's a Swan?" Tayalas asked, she'd heard of them but had no idea what they were.

"A swan... hmmm..." Anje thought, not quite sure how to explain swans to the toddler, "Okay, so a swan is like a big beautiful ducky."

"I lub duckies!" Tayalas responded with immense and obvious cheer, starting to sing, "Baby duck quack quack quack quack quack, baby duck..."

"That's beautiful, honey!" Anje applauded, wanting to encourage the talented tot, "But you're already in, you don't have to audition."

"Tank oo." Tayalas smiled warmly, "Enn-a, you know See-a?"

"Yes, the Major and I have met." Anje nodded, she wasn't going to ruin the mood by trashing the other woman, who Tayalas very obviously loved, "We work together and it's not that big a ship."

"See-a, Enn-a." Tayalas pointed, apparently wanting the Marine to talk to her new teacher, "Enn-a, See-a."

'You're lucky you're cute,' Naxea thought, looking at Tayalas and then looking at Anje. "So what is this Twelve Days of Christmas that Tayalas will be singing? Any significance?" she asked, trying to make conversation.

"It's just a fun little Christmas song." Anje shrugged, she'd never had to explain Christmas carols before, but she knew Major Azhul wasn't Terran in any part, so it would naturally be lost on her.

"Ah," Naxea replied, though she never understood humans and Christmas but for some reason everyone seemed happier when doing Christmas things. She set Tayalas down. "Better go, blueberry."

"You comes, See-a?" Tayalas asked, taking the marine's finger into her tiny blue hand, "Dancy dance with Enn-a, she show you how."

"She's right, I can show you how." Anje laughed, for some reason of other the little blueberry wanted them to make up then and there, ~It's like she senses the tension or something.~

"Ah think she wants ye two te spen' some time together's whet." Gallia added, stating the obvious for the other women's benefit.

Naxea sighed as she went with Tayalas. "Fine, let's see this dance," she gave in.

"Well, got to love that enthusiasm." Anje laughed, though she was less sure about this than Azhul was, the only one who seemed to think this a good idea was Tayalas.

Naxea smirked. "Definitely," she joked. "How do we begin?"

"Moosic!" Tayalas added; how do you dancey dance with no moosic?

"Good idea, baby." Anje smiled down to Tay, turning on some music, "Clearly we're not going to do a ballet routine, she just wants us to dance, maybe she senses our tension. So, shall we?" Anje offered her hand to Maj. Azhul, hoping they could manage to be nice to each other in Tayalas' presence.

"Well, she is Andorian," Naxea replied, knowing that andorians could use their antennae as a sort of sixth sense, able to pick up information that normal senses could not. Sergeant Sohl always seemed to know what Naxea felt--though he was also one of her best Marines. Naxea took Anje's hand into hers. "Very well. I'll follow your lead."

"Okay." Anje smiled, changing the selection to a slow song and gently swaying with Maj. Azhul... Naxea, as Luther Vandross wove a soulful tale of 20th century romance.

The closeness of Anje felt uncomfortable and yet at the same time she also enjoyed Anje being close. So why this particular song," she managed to say after a moment.

"Because now it's futuristic." Anje laughed, when she had downloaded that song originally it had been a relic of the past, now it was a glimpse of the future, which she hoped would be the past again soon enough, "Plus I just love his voice."

Naxea chuckled at the comment. "I suppose you're right. This singer does have a good voice for singing. Though it is a bit on the romantic side."

"All of Luther's best creations were either romantic or fattening." Anje laughed, referencing his music and his famous burger on two Krispy Kreme donuts, "But if it bothers you I can change it to something less romantic."

"No, it's um, fine." Human musicians were sure strange. She recalled her roommate at the Academy that had an interest in music from the 1980's Earth. Some of those musicians were down right frightening. She specifically recalled a favorite musician of her former roommate named Dee Snider. Just the image of the guy gave her chills. "If I step on your foot, it's not on purpose. I have never been a good dancer."

"Mommy taught me to dance before I started pre-K, if you were the first person to step on my foot it would be a different thing altogether." Anje laughed, "But you won't even be the first today, no worries."

"You either have tough feet or no feeling in them whatsoever," Naxea replied, laughing.

"I'm a Russian, my people are used to marching barefoot through the snow, it's ingrained in our DNA now." Anje laughed, continuing to spin Major Azhul around the floor as Luther reached a soulful crescendo, "That's the best part right there."

"It is a nice song," Naxea commented, focusing on trying not to step on Anje's toes. Relaxing her guard felt nice and to be honest, she enjoyed seeing Anje enjoy herself. "It somewhat reminds me of the works of Tor Jolan. He was a famous musical composer on Bajor," she explained.

"I've heard some of his work." Anje said with a sad smile, Tor Jolan had been a favorite of Cheline's, who was stationed on Bajor for the first five years of her career, "Real talent."

Naxea studied Anje for a moment. She had never seen this side of the woman. "Bad memories?" Naxea asked finally.

"Good memories, turned painful." Anje answered honestly, "Love gone horribly wrong."

"I'm sorry for bringing it up," Naxea said. She could understand Anje's feelings. Though she never lost a lover, she had lost her father and friends.

"You didn't know, you couldn't have." Anje smiled and laughed it off, "It's not like we ever sat down and talked about my ex-relationship. Or for that matter anything."

For her part, Tayalas wanted in on the fun, too, and was now being spun around the floor by her mother, cooing and grinning all the while.

"Maybe we finally should," Naxea said before laughing at Tayalas. "She's a natural--far better than I am."

"Tha's Lana in 'er, she was nachrul at everythin' my sister." Gallia laughed, "I dinnae remember anything she wasn't better 'an me at 'cept cookin'."

"If you think you can have a conversation with me without bringing up your irrational hatred for my girlfriend, then I'd enjoy that." Anje smiled, the Marine couldn't be as bad as she'd previously thought, Tayalas obviously loved her dearly and the kid was a better judge of character than any of them were.

Naxea let out a sigh. She never trusted beings such as the Q. Too many times they ran rampant with their powers using the galaxy as their playground. However, Quinn had saved Sergeant Sohl. "Well, she did save the life of one of my best Marines so I will give her some leeway."

"Yes, she did." Anje smiled, dipping the Major for a minute before bringing her back up, "How is Sergeant Sohl? I haven't seen him since the firefight."

"He's doing good. He's mostly been keeping busy training in the gymnasium," she replied. "Seems a bit more to himself but otherwise he's fine. So has Quinn visited you lately?"

"No, she had to go back to the continuum, who are as thrilled about me as people here are about her." Anje laughed, "I'm hoping we'll see each other again soon, she hasn't met my blueberry yet."

"Tha's me!" Tayalas cooed, recognizing her nickname, "I's the buberry!"

"That you are," Naxea laughed.

"You two are too cute." Anje laughed, Luther Vandross winding up the song as she did, and released Naxea, "Okay, so let's get you ready for your lessons, Blueberry Queen."

"Ye hear that, mommyy, I's the Buberry Queen." Tayalas stated proudly, taking Anje's hand as she led her over to the other children about her same age, "Okay, so we're going to start learning our Christmas Carols tonight, there are a lot of songs we'll be performing at our annual Christmas event this year and we need to start preparing now."

"How many songs are we going to be learning, ma'am?" A young Bajoran girl, her ginger hair in a cute angled bob, asked.

"Between now and December, my goal is for us to learn twenty songs, we'll perform between twelve and fifteen." Anje replied, "Thank you, Corana. We're going to start right now with an old favorite of mine, the twelve days of Christmas, then we're going to go into Frosty and Rudolph."

"Yay!" Tayalas clapped and cooed, "I lub Wudolph."

"Um...Rudolph? Frosty?" Naxea asked, giving a confused look.

"Aye, Rudolph the Red Noshed Reindeer." Gallia replied, "Tay's favorite he is. I's a song aboot a reindeer who's not bein' treated proper cause he's different. she identifies wit' the poor l'il fella."

"Tayalas, do you know Rudolph?" Anje asked, getting down to her blueberry's level.

"Uh huh uh huh." Tayalas nodded her head rapidly in her joy before starting the song unprompted, "Wudolph the wed nose weindeer, had a vewy shiny nose, an' if ye evew saw it, you would even say it gwows..."

"Could she be any cuter?" Gallia asked Naxea proudly, wiping a happy tear from her face, Tay brought her so much joy.

Naxea smiled as she listened to Tayalas sing. "Not one bit. She does quite a good tune as well."

"That was beautiful, Tayalas." Anje applauded, "Okay, so I think I've found our little angel for the Christmas show. I'll need one of you older kids to hold her while she sings."

Naxea waited for another kid to volunteer but none were stepping forward. "I will if none of them will volunteer," she said finally.

"Thank you very much, Major." Anje nodded, "It's very kind of you to offer. Okay, we need someone to be the Christmas tree, Tayalas is going to be the Angel and sit on your shoulders while she sings. Come on, somebody brave."

A couple minutes passed and nobody seemed to have the requisite guts, so Anje turned to Naxea, "Congrats, Major, you wear oak leaves but you've just become a Fir."

"Wait, what?" Naxea asked, clearly confused. "A tree? Are you serious?" She saw Tayalas looking at her with a giant smile and big eyes. 'Damn you, and your cuteness, kid,' she thought.

"Wub oo, See-a!" Tayalas said, making Gallia wonder if the kid was deliberately messing with Naxea, to make her do what she wanted.

Naxea let out a long sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Fine, I'll do it," she gave in while giving Tayalas a smile.

Tayalas giggled and blew Naxea a kiss, causing her mom to laugh hard, "Ye know she jus' scammed ye good, Naxea?" Gallia said, laughing so hard tears were streaming down her face.

"Keep it up," she warned Gallia with a smile while wagging a finger at her.

"Isnae mah fault yer mighty marine resolve croombles when she smiles at ye." Gallia laughed.

"In your defense, Major, that child could crumble a T-34 with that smile." Anje comforted Naxea, "There's no countermeasure for that level of cute."

"And that's why it should be illegal to be that cute," Naxea commented. She was never going to hear the end of this from the Marines in her Detachment.

"It's okay, I think any marine in your detachment would do the same for her." Anje laughed, "I even saw Rhodes smile a little at her once."

"Now I know you're lying. That man never smiles," Naxea joked.

"He smiles at Tay all the time, Naxea." Gallia laughed, "Jus' no at any of oos."

"I think he reserves his few smiles he's allotted annually for the children so he doesn't scare them." Anje offered, "He smiled at me from time to time, even gave a couple of sweet compliments, until I turned 17 and joined the Academy, at which moment I went from being a 'beautiful young lady' to a maggot."

"Now tha sounds mar like 'im." Gallia laughed.

Naxea joined Gallia in laughing. "Yes it does. So, when are rehearsals normally?"

"I think the class meets on Wednesdays." Gallia answered, checking the 'ad' on her padd, "Aye, s'on Wednesdays."

"Wednesdays aren't too bad for me so I should be able to squeeze it in," Naxea stated. "Especially now that I have a trusted and experienced XO."

"They're going to keep Rhodes as XO?" Anje asked, she'd expected him to be reassigned when this new First Looey came aboard, but he wasn't, this was good.

"For now, yes. The Detachment's new officer is First Lieutenant Cross and his orders are to take command of First Platoon," Naxea explained.

"Hope Tim isn't too tough on him." Anje sighed, she knew how tough Rhodes could be on people, even if he knew and liked them.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Naxea assured Anje.

"An' good luck wif that one." Gallia laughed, keeping Rhodes corralled would be a challenge for the entire security department, much less one woman, but we'd see how it went.

"Thanks. I have the feeling I'll need it," Naxea said.

"Aye, well mebbe Anje's aunt can give ye some hints on how te deal wif 'im best." Gallia suggested, knowing that Rhodes and the Ambassador had a long tenured friendship, possibly his only one.

"Oh, yeah." Anje agreed, "Auntie's always happy to give advice, you don't even have to ask her for it."


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