Perfection

Posted on Sun Apr 21st, 2019 @ 11:53pm by

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Bajoran Wilderness
1808 words - 3.6 OF Standard Post Measure

Liorga brought the shuttle down to a soft landing in a small clearing a few hundred feet from an isolated, crystal clear lake, “Now this is a campsite!” She said with a ready smile, “Oh, and I’ve checked, no ‘company’ for at least five kilometers. Just me, you, and this beautiful place.”

“Let’s go for a walk”, Estelle suggested. “Explore the shore line, find a good place for a camp fire?” She grabbed a pre-packed rucksack and also fastened a knife and a phaser to her hip.

“Good preparation for an officer.” Liorga nodded approvingly, putting on her utility vest from the war; she’d dug it out of her closet the day they hit Dunphy’s hideaway after not using it since she came back from the war, now it was indispensable to her as it had been then. Slinging her own pack over her shoulder she matched Estelle’s hip phaser and raised her a rifle on the opposite shoulder, “So, shall we?”

“Uhm, Liorga, we’re going on holiday, not to war”, Estelle said, pointing at the rifle. “The only reason I’m even taking a phaser is because the stun setting is really useful if we run into one of the local predators.” She wasn’t usually comfortable being armed at all but a stun setting was the best way to save their lives, as well as the life of the animal.

“We get some big, nasty predators in these hills.” Liorga explained, “And some of them I don’t want to get within pistol range of.” Tomlii’s family had lived in this region for centuries prior to the occupation, he’d told some stories about some of the local game, including some particularly nasty bears.

“Well, if it makes you feel better”, Estelle shrugged. She wasn’t going to start their first argument over that. “Though, if you could do me a favour and not shoot on sight? I’d love to get a good look if we’re lucky enough to even encounter one.” And unless the animal was really hungry or felt threatened, Estelle wasn’t worried about getting attacked.

“Fair enough.” Liorga agreed, she wasn’t about to kick off their first fight over this, either. Besides, truth being told she had the rifle with her on the one in a million chance her former captor reared his ugly head again; try though she might, she couldn’t shake the idea from her brain that he was just around the corner, lurking in the nearby shadows. It was a kind of irrational fear that she hadn’t had since her father and his team rescued her, a fear she didn’t shake until Barnkt was hauled away in handcuffs to serve a very long stretch in prison. To shake this one, she’d need to see Dunphy in handcuffs or a body bag, no other way was going to work.

Estelle took Liorga’s hand as they stepped out of the shuttle. She took a deep breath, smiling at her. “Isn’t this wonderful? Real, pristine planet air.” A cynic would have said that they’d breathed pretty much the same air at the remote monastery, but for Estelle it was something else, being in the wilderness. She hoped that her cheerful attitude would serve to infect Liorga, too. Estelle could feel Liorga wasn’t all right yet.

“Really is beautiful.” Liorga smiled; truth was she hadn’t gotten to spend as much time in surroundings like these as she would’ve liked. Until her first kidnapping, she and her mother had always lived in inner cities, usually in the worst areas because it was all they could afford, after it had been bouncing from ship to ship, usually in the cargo hold like an animal, after her rescue it had been the Grotton until her dad had adopted her and took her to Detroit, again, not exactly the primal forest, then Starfleet and the many ships and bases she’d served on. This might have been the purest, most natural place Liorga had ever been, so, to her it was definitely a different experience, even from the monastery.

“I hope the water is as clear as the sky”, Estelle said as they approached the lake. She loved camping, didn’t worry about the occasional insect or spider, but didn’t like murky waters. “You’re going to love what I’ve planned for dinner tonight. Wood-fire roasts are divine.” Not that she was *always* thinking about food, but it was an important aspect of her existence, and she was determined to enjoy it.

“I’m sure I will.” Liorga stated happily, “And everything you’ve made has been divine.” The fact was in the time of her relationship with Estelle she’d already put on about eight pounds, not that she was complaining.

Reaching the water’s edge, Estelle stopped and squinted. “Now would you look at that?” she asked, pointing in the direction of two birds on the calm surface of the lake. “Mallards! I did not expect to see them introduced to Bajor.”

“Really?” Liorga raised an eyebrow as she observed the ducks, “Because any time I go anywhere with you I expect to see ducks.”

Estelle laughed. “Well, this time it’s not my fault.”

“I remember the first time I saw a duck.” Liorga began, “I was in school in Detroit and we were on a field trip to the Lake at Auburn Hills; it’s a man made lake, there used to be some sort of sports arena there, but the team sucked, people quit going to the games, and after they folded the property was bought by a civil engineer, someone like Stefanie, and they turned it into a two hundred acre lake. I was standing at the bank when a big white duck came swimming up and just kind of looked at me and quacked and swam off. Almost cried because it was just the most beautiful thing I had ever seen to that point.”

Estelle agreed. “It’s almost magical, a wild animal approaching out of curiosity, just like we do with them. Makes me feel more connected, part of the whole.” It happened rarely enough, as most wild animals were afraid of the typical humanoid face, the eyes facing forward like those of a predator.

“Right.” Liorga agreed, “I don’t know, maybe more time in these type of surroundings is what we need, maybe help me take the edge off. Basically my whole life I’ve spent on a ship going here, there, and everywhere. This, I don’t know, it just feels right for some reason.”

“Probably because our minds feel most at ease in the kind of surroundings we evolved in”, Estelle suggested. “Though, my knowledge of ancient Deltans is limited. It certainly applies to humans.” She couldn’t help it, even with the almost magical beauty around them, Estelle’s mind kept going back to explanations, and the need for understanding rather than just wonder.

“Or maybe the place is just magic.” Liorga shrugged. She wasn’t one for the whoo-whoo stuff or the paranormal, but she couldn’t deny the feeling of healing, of rebirth, she was experiencing at that moment. Was it the place, Estelle, all of the above? Was her soul just thirsty for something pure, serene, and safe? Whatever, at that moment she’d found it.

The word magic, when used in the sense of the inexplicably beautiful, was certainly appropriate in Estelle’s mind. She put down her backpack in the grass and took out a huge blanket, watertight on the underside but fluffy on top, and spread it on the ground where she couldn’t see any obvious insect or rodent burrows, or whatever it was Bajor had that filled the same role.

Liorga sat down beside Estelle, moving close enough to touch, “You know, I used to say I lived with no regrets, but now I do have one.” She mused, “I regret not finding you sooner. I mean, yeah, beyond my control and all that, but still, more time with you could only ever be to my benefit.”

That was sweet, possibly a bit too sweet, but Estelle wasn’t complaining. She kissed Liorga. “We’ll just have to make up for the time lost.” She took out a pyramid-shaped sensor and set it up next to the blanket. “This’ll alert us if any creature larger than Anje Brett gets close, so we won’t have to watch our backs all the time.”

“So that would be, what, a small puppy?” Liorga joked. She was genuinely fond of Anje, but the fact was there were carnival rides the tiny Russian couldn’t get on, “The Tsarina is cute though, fun size like those little candy bars.”

“Whoever came up with calling them ‘fun size’ has a seriously malformed joy gland”, Estelle smirked.

“I guess so.” Liorga chuckled, fun sized chocolate for her love would be roughly the size of her rifle, maybe larger, “I’ll be sure to never buy tiny chocolate bars for you, full size only.”

“Much appreciated”, Estelle agreed. She reached into her rucksack again and next pulled out a bottle and two glasses. She filled them, handing one to Liorga. “Fresh, sweet Moba juice, compliments of Fanny.”

“Sounds wonderful.” Liorga smiled, smelling the bouquet and raising her glass, “To us, second chances, and new beginnings.”

With a small sip of the flavourful liquid, Estelle agreed, though she wasn’t sure what Liorga meant by ‘second chances’. Listening to the birdsong, Estelle realised that the animals in their immediate surroundings were beginning to recover from the fright put into them by the shuttle landing, and the area seemed to be coming alive again. Maybe that had inspired Liorga?

Sipping her drink, Liorga found herself completely at peace for the first time since the incident on Cortic, “This is perfect.” She sighed, content, wondering for a second if this wasn’t really all just some glorious dream.

Estelle shuffled around until she sat behind Liorga, then wrapped her hands around her, resting them on Liorga’s abdomen. “Now it is.” It was her way of saying ‘I’ve got your back’ without saying it.

Liorga placed her hands on top of Estelle’s, leaning back against the blonde and smiling, “If there’s anything better than this in the galaxy, I never saw it.” She mulled over asking Estelle to come meet her father on their next vacation, though she couldn’t imagine Estelle, someone made for an environment like this one, enjoying Detroit too much. Dad will just have to come see us, Liorga decided, realizing she missed him, but not so much Detroit. Perfection had been found among the stars.