The Painting

Posted on Fri Oct 14th, 2022 @ 5:59pm by Captain Samuel Woolheater

Mission: Season 5: Time Warp
Location: Woolheater's Quarters - Deck Thirty-Two - Marine Country
Timeline: A Day Ago
2576 words - 5.2 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]

It was late when Samuel got back to his empty quarters. He came from the ship’s gym and his marine green t-shirt, the one from the Starfleet Design Bureau was wet with perspiration. The t-shirt with an image of a Defiant-class ship, phaser red and photons firing that read,

“NX Engineering Project – Peace through Strength”

There was no one to greet him in his quarters back in Marine Country. “Lights” he said, and some came up. The room illuminated with a warm light. He stepped inside and the door closed behind him. He set his gym bag on the table, took the sweaty towel off his shoulders and stripped off his t-shirt. His muscled frame shone. He dropped the t-shirt into the dirty clothes hamper. Later he would recycle his clothing into the replicator. He kicked off his gym shoes to his bare feet and got himself a drink from the replicator. Today he worked chest and arms and the hard work in the gym showed on his cut upper body. Taking a long drink and putting the cool glass to his forehead he went over to the window and looked out. The Elysium was at warp and the stars outside streaked by. Only the ones very far away seemed to stand still. He closed his eyes and set his hands against the transparent aluminum window. It was cool to the touch and perfectly smooth. He wanted, more than anything, to be touched right now. He longed for it. He imagined his girlfriend greeting him now. The hairs on his arms stood up and he got gooseflesh as he thought about all those times, he took having someone to come home too for granted. How Emily would often pad out and join him at the viewport back at Pacifica Station. She would smile, such a lovely smile, happy to see him and come up from behind and encircling her arms around him she would hug him. How he loved that silent communication; together they would be like that for a few minutes. He would caress her arm and eventually intertwine his fingers in hers. How that very simple touch calmed him and reduced the stress of the day.

But it was a fantasy now. And he sighed with a heavy heart.

He took his hand off the viewport and went over to the couch. Feeling the carpet beneath his bare feet felt good too. Somehow relaxing. He emptied the glass finishing the cold water and set the glass on the coffee table. Off came the gym shorts, down to his boxer shorts. He kicked them off, and they flew up into the air in front of him where h caught them. Then he, with a practiced move, dropped them, like a basketball into the dirty clothes hamper, and they landed in perfectly. He made a sound like the crowd at a sports arena, “AAAhhhhhhh!!!!” Then, lying back on the couch he covered his eyes with the crook of his arm and let out a long sigh. He took deep breaths to try and calm himself. His cum gutters had been worked today and he would be sore tomorrow. It was fifteen maybe twenty minutes before he moved again. Sitting up and yawning, he checked messages and seeing none headed for a shower.

It did him a world of good too. In a fresh white t-shirt and red knee-length shorts he came back into the living room. He ate a sandwich for dinner and drank a protein shake before sitting back down on the couch. He felt so profoundly lonely. Back on Pacifica, isolation and social disconnection were used as extreme punishments for crimes. Pacifican prisoners had sometimes died from being “cut out” of society and social connection with other people. Like Humans, Pacificans were “wired” for social connection. Sam was of course, entirely human. He was simply born on Pacifica. He was not one of the Selkan species that were native o Pacifica. It was Samuel’s humanity that was in pain with the isolation he felt aboard the Elysium. It hurt, physically, his heart felt heavy. He sighed and sat back down on the edge of the couch. He wasn’t tired yet anyway. He still had the Gamma Shift and that meant working nights.

He had gone shopping a few days earlier and picked up an art book from one of the shops. Just something to look at. Picking up the oversized book from the coffee table he read the title in Fontalan, “I Grandi Artisti della serie Fontalis: La terza era - Gli inizi dell'impero” on the cover was the Imperial Palace at Serse. He opened it to the bookmark and looked at the paintings in the art history book. It was something to pass the time while he waited to get tired. He stretched out his legs onto the edge of the coffee table and skootched over to a corner of the couch where it was more comfortable.

When he was younger, he loved going to the “art palace” as his dad would call it. And it really was that. It really was a former palace that was donated to the Pacifican people and now housed the massive art museum at the capitol. Just like the coffee table book that he had in his hands, just like the museum on Fontalis. He remembered seeing some of these works of art as a kid. They were always fond memories. His dad would say to him, “Get to know them as you would a person. Visit them often. Learn from them.” He could hear his father’s voice. He could remember his dad lifting him onto his shoulders for a better view and having Sam sit there as they walked about the museum.

He turned a page and there it was! One of his favorite paintings! He has so forgotten it too. Samuel sat up a little bit on the couch. He looked at it and he was transported back to his home world of Pacifica. Years ago, when he was just a kid. His family was there, mom, dad, brother and sister and him. He remembered that they were meeting his mother there. A concert was being given at one of the exhibits and his mother and the other musicians were performing there. They walked into the large gallery and there was a crowd of people already here. The music had already started.

The Federation had sent a group of Human (Terran) musicians from Earth to Pacifica on a cultural exchange kind of mission. These were the people that were just finishing their recital. His father found their mother and the drew close to her. His father kissed her. She was watching a man play the large, black, full-sized concert piano that had traveled all the way from Earth. Everyone was quiet and listened as the man started to play the most amazing and wonderful thing that many had ever heard. Yaniris, Samuel’s mother, drew Sam into her arms and pulled him close and set him on her lap so he could see.

As Sam sat there, he thought it was the most magical thing he had ever heard. It was so delicate, so fragile, so beautiful he was spellbound. It was like someone was weaving a tapestry with music! Years later, he would discover that the music he heard that day was from the Earth composer Johann Sebastian Bach. And that music, played so lovingly and tenderly was from a composition, “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" the chorale from Cantata No. 147. It must have been the pairing of the music and the paintings in the gallery, because Sam was instantly transported back to this memory now. The other Terran musicians watched and listened quietly. What was for them “just” another piece of music; was magic for everyone else in the large gallery. The music filled it like the light from a candle that grows and grows, illuminating both hearts and minds. And now, sitting in his shorts, on the Elysium a bad ass Marine in t-shirt years later he was again that little boy, caught in an ecstasy of wonder and loving amazement. The music filled the gallery room in his memory room with a kind of transcendent awe. People held their breath, really, they did. No one had heard a ‘piano’ and they were amazed by it. To make any sound at all would detract from the music. It hung there in the air and blessed everyone who could hear it. The man who played it played the keyboard as one would touch a child; with great, kindness and loving tenderness each key sounded forth and filled the gallery with spellbinding sound.

Samuel allowed his eyes to wander into the gallery and as he listened, he fell in love with the sound. The music led him to this painting. It was one of the larger ones that hung on the wall directly ahead of him at the other wall facing them. It was enshrined in an ornate frame. Carved in Pacifican coastal redwood were figures that hovered all around the edges of the painting. Looking towards the painting and inviting the viewer in too. It was bathed in the brilliant light of the suns. It was a landscape. Somewhere on the Northern shores far away from the bustle of the capitol. The northern provinces were filled with mountains and streams, immense solitudes and the awesome great beauty of the wilderness. Places of magic and wonder, a place the refreshed the spirit and freshened all the world into smiles.

It was along the coast, a dim tower; ancient sentinel it was. From long ago, from time immemorial it had stood watch on these shores. A green forest was the tower’s only company now. The waves lapped the shore here. The fury of the sea did not rage here. With bowing waves before such grandeur was enough. The painting was of sunset on this shore. The sun hung low in the horizon and would soon hide behind the mountains and out of view. The evening stars, those bright angels of the night, too numerous to count were coming out as the sun laid down his reign for another day. The yellow and orange of the sunlight glimmered on the lapping waters of the sea. The fog and mists from the forest green slowly flowed towards the cooling shore. Cooling and slow, they flowed to the shore. The dim tower covered in moss and vines as thick as your leg seemed to grow darker by the minute if you let your imagination free. Soon, it would be treated to the canopy of stars as night would soon be here and cast her nocturnal cloak over the world.

There! Can you see them?! Look now! Just coming out of the forest were the strange and oh-so-rare silver-white deer. Now a protected species, these animals were as rare as Unicorns! Incredibly delicate and still beholding a majesty all their own. Here, in this painting, they made an appearance. They came out of the green forest heading towards the cool, still waters that flowed from the mountains to the sea. Here, they came, by the still waters and then, fled like ghosts before the day. They would be gone. Now they were protected, cherished, no longer the sport of Kings; but loved by all.

How can one say what it is about this work of art that speaks to the soul? For every person it is different. And for many this painting was not their favorite. But, for Samuel, for the eyes of a child in his mother’s lap, hearing such a music as this from a people so far away in distance, yet so close to his heart made the moment stick with him. Yanni squeezed him tight as the man playing the piano played the final notes. Everyone held their breath as the sound evaporated. The echo died away and Sam’s hair stood on end and his flesh tuned to goose bumps. It was an electric moment, and he felt pride in being human. For if they were capable of such a music as this; they cannot be all that bad.

Someone started clapping and the man at the piano stood up and bowed. They continued clapping and would not stop and the man had to come back four more times.

-=*~*=-


Now, back in his quarters on the Elysium Deck 32, Marine Country, the memory fresh in his mind, he touched the glossy paper of the book. He traced the frame with his finger and for the first time knew why he liked the painting so much. Because it was a moment in time, fragile and precious, just like the music from Bach he heard that day, so long ago now. The painting is not haughty, not proud or extravagant. It is rather humble. The waves of the sea, they are not enraged. The mountains they lay their glory aside in this scene. The tower ruin, an ornament to an earlier, ancient age. The silver-white deer, rare and untamed. No longer hunted for game, or pride, or vanity. It is, quite simply, the natural world simply being present. Quiet. Calm. Loved. At least, for Samuel, it was that.

Tomorrow, would be better. Tomorrow would be a better day he told himself. Laying back on the couch, feeling terribly alone, he closed his eyes.

“Computer? Can you play for me the chorale from Bach’s cantata #147, “Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"? I’d like to hear a piano version please? Computer, do you have any version played by Alon Gold from when he visited Pacifica?”

=A= Affirmative. There is one recording available. Recorded during the Federation Artistic Mission to the Pacifican Assembly at the Palace of Fine Art on stardate 50668.3. =A=

“Play it” he said. Hoping that, by some miracle, this was the recording he longed to hear.

The audio started and from the first tender notes he knew that this was the recording. “This is the one” he said. Closing his eyes, holding the book open, he allowed himself this moment to once again be wrapped and suspended in such a sound. It was like a visit from an old friend. It was warm and loving and he didn’t feel so alone surrounded by the music and the book in his lap. He imagined himself on those northern shores and near that tower. He imagined meeting friends there. He pictured, in his mind’s eye, getting close enough to touch the silver-white deer. To dip his hand in the cool water. To breathe in the cool air and relish the sun as it kissed his face. And he didn’t feel so lonely. His tenor voice, singing softly the cantus firmus of the chorale he could finally relax. And his thoughts eventually quieted, in time, in quiet appreciation and he fell asleep as the music played.

His hands still holding the art history book held open the page of the painting he loved, there, written in Pacifican:

“Pastorale Northern Coast with Sylvan White Deer” by Silesius Amthor - Third Era – circa 3015-3056

[OFF:]

Captain Samuel Woolheater
“Saepius Exertus, Semper Fidelis, Frater Infinitas”
Division VI, MARDET 62nd Company "Spartans", 1st Platoon CO
=/\= USS ELYSIUM - NCC-89000 =/\=