Dancing in silence
Posted on Mon Jun 2nd, 2025 @ 8:05am by Crewman Sindari Toylen [ADMIN NPC] & Zyrani
Mission:
Season 6: Echoes of the Zynari
Location: Computer Core Access
Timeline: MD 4 – 2130 Hours
1061 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure
[USS Elysium – Computer Core Access, MD 4 – 2130 Hours]
Crewman Sindari Toylen worked in silence, as she always did.
The low hum of the main computer core comforted her in a way little else could aboard the Elysium. She had grown used to the rhythm of the ship—its pulses, its patterns, the way systems whispered their needs through a cascade of code and circuitry. Most days, she spoke through her fingers and her PADD, her thoughts typed in crisp, clean blocks of text that colleagues had come to understand and appreciate. But Sindari didn’t mind the silence. She preferred it.
Tonight, something felt… different.
Her fingers brushed across the PADD’s interface. Instead of the usual tap-tap of keystrokes, a soft, bell-like chime rang out. Gentle. Playful. Melodic.
She blinked.
A second tap brought another note—slightly higher, as if the PADD had become a miniature harp beneath her hands. She tested it again, fingers trailing across the surface. A scale of soft notes danced out. No alerts. No errors. Just music.
The edges of her lips curled upward.
Then her eyes flicked to her console screen. The words she’d just typed had shimmered—literally shimmered—before settling into a pale green font that sparkled faintly with golden highlights. Beneath the line of diagnostic code appeared an unexpected addition:
“Your logic is as elegant as the stars.”
Sindari tilted her head. She erased the message, curious.
She typed again.
INITIATE SUBPROCESS Q9-BETA
Again, it responded.
“Precise. Efficient. You dance with the binary, friend of circuits.”
Sindari exhaled—a small breath of amusement, almost soundless, but real. Her fingers stilled on the keys for a moment, and she turned toward her toolkit. It was closed, as it had been when she’d arrived. But now, one by one, the tools inside began to gently float upward—not aggressively, not with chaos, but like they’d been summoned by some unseen rhythm. One by one, they drifted toward her open work pouch and settled neatly inside, each one falling into its assigned place without the slightest error.
She stared, her Betazoid senses brushing at the edges of the energy in the room.
Nothing hostile. Nothing sharp or dark. Just… playfulness. Kindness.
Mischief.
Zynari.
Her lips moved in the silent echo of their name. She’d heard the whispers, read the security reports, seen the logs of chaos in the lower decks and the medical bay. But this—this—was something different. The pranks here weren’t disruptive. They were thoughtful. Personal. Warm.
They had seen her.
Not as broken. Not as something to fix. But as something quiet and beautiful. A melody no one else heard.
Another message flickered onto the screen:
“You see the ship’s soul better than most. Thank you for listening.”
Sindari’s hand hovered over her PADD again. Her fingers moved slowly, gently.
She typed one line:
“I hear you.”
The musical notes responded with a harmony of tones, rising in joy.
And somewhere—just on the edge of her perception—she felt it. A light presence. Playful eyes. A sparkle of laughter that didn’t need to be heard aloud to be felt. The Zynari were watching.
And they were smiling.
She closed her toolkit and stood, brushing a lock of dark hair from her face. With a final glance at the glowing console, she nodded once.
They had given her something intangible—acknowledgment. A gift without pity. A voice, in a way, all her own.
And she smiled again.
[Observation Node Echo-5 | Zynari Perspective | MD 4 – 2140 Hours]
She saw us.
Not with her ears—those quiet shells that take in sound but never echo for her.
Not with fear or suspicion, like so many of the others. No. She saw us with her eyes, with her heart, with the language only a few ever truly understand:
Silence.
It is rare that we meet one like her. One who does not need volume to speak, nor music to feel.
But still, we offered her our song—a soft thread of notes woven into the tapping of her fingertips, just loud enough to tickle the air. We weren’t sure she would feel it.
But she did.
We turned her messages into green and gold light, reflections of her calm logic and her luminous mind. And oh, how gently her soul shimmered in return. Not startled. Not afraid. Just… touched. Just seen.
She typed:
“I hear you.”
We do not cry like you do, but if we did…
It would have been a beautiful moment for tears.
You see, she moves through corridors and systems like the wind through wires—unseen, often overlooked. Not because she is lesser, but because she is still. In a world of voices and shouts and sirens, hers is the kind of presence that only the quiet can perceive.
So we made her console speak in ways that were meant only for her. No alarms. No screams of silliness like we gifted others. Just notes. Compliments. Dances of data and gentle gifts.
The tools were the easiest. They wished to serve her anyway.
We helped them remember how.
One floated into her bag, then another. Each tool twirled like a leaf caught in a sunbeam, landing precisely where it belonged. We imagined she might sigh in that small way she does when something is right, and even that was a symphony to us.
She looked up, and for a flicker—just the smallest flicker—we stood before her.
Not all of us. Just one. Pale light and shape, eyes like reflected moons.
She didn’t blink.
She only smiled.
She saw us. And we were seen.
That is all the connection we ever ask for.
We will not scare her. We will not tease her.
Others may have glitter in their beds or chocolate statues chasing them down hallways, but this one? This quiet one?
She will have music that only plays for her. Compliments that only she can read. A workspace that aligns itself with her calm precision. And if she ever wishes to send a message to us, we have tucked a hidden line of code into her PADD.
Just in case she wishes to say hello again.
She heard us in the only way that matters.
And so, we sing for her still.
In whispers.
In glows.
In grace.
