Heaven's Nova

Almeria pulled out the leftovers and set them to warm up. She didn't need to supervise that since the heating unit would monitor the temperature and moisture content of the food. She poored a pair of glasses of water and set that on the table by the couches, folded up the blanket Tra had used last night and even found the shirt he had discarded and placed it on the an armrest for him.

She touched the journal and sighed, then went to the small alcove and took a moment to center herself and petition for guidance in the days to come. She felt some divine guidance would not be horribly egotistical to ask for considering, though she did also make sure to affirm that she was grateful for the blessing of being able to learn from action. After all she might have to act before Gohdem chose to guide her. She knew that it was first her own actions and decisions that would make changes and create the future she desired.

At peace, and hungry she went back to the couch and waited for Tra. She wouldn't eat ahead of her host.
 
Tra stalked out, tension evident in every bit of him. Without saying a word, he scooped up the journal and put it in a drawer. He was almost uncharacteristically silent, lost in thought. It took him a moment, but he shook it off, dropping down on the couch next to Almeria with a warm smile.

"I apologize for you having to drag me to bed last night. That wasn't very considerate of me. Truly, you could have just left me out here." He reached out, picking up a glass and taking a sip from it. "I think you will like Doctor Travers. I report to her when I'm on base, so I can walk you there if you want. She's a nice old lady, just a bit... well, you'll understand when you meet her."

Compared to the silence of a moment ago, he now seemed perfectly happy to talk. "If you want a tour, I can have someone show you around, as well, but I do have a meeting or two today." At that, he frowned, an imposing look. "Actually, I should check that I'm not needed to give exams to the refugees. I doubt I'd be assigned. I'm slated for light duty, since I'm to watch over you, but they might have need of me that wasn't foreseen."
 
"There's no reason my being here should keep you from helping people!" Almeria felt she didn't need a babysitter, but kept that particular comment to herself, less it be taken the wrong way. "Of course you should see if the refugees are in need of anything you can offer!" She got up off the couch to retrieve their food from the kitchen, having placed a hand on his arm when she did so that he would stay where he was. Almeria was still feeling the need to do what little she could for him so he didn't try to do everything out of his odd sense of duty. It was better to focus that to real need.

Returning she handed him one of the plates. The food smelled nearly as good as it had last night even. "It would be nice to get a chance to look around today." As she sat she looked at her plate, she had no appetite now. She knew why too.

Placing her plate on the table she turned, on leg curled on the couch so that she was looking right at Tra. "Last night..." oh how she didn't want to anger him or disappoint him, yet she doubted she would have chose differently then she had. Life had consequences. "You likely don't recall, I think you were more asleep then not. You'd said you were glad I escaped the fire." Even the next morning she found she got goosebumps from that. "When I came into the living room, I had but awoken from a nightmare.... A familiar nighterror I had not gone through in years. I was I'll at ease." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I came here and sat down trying to think. It was lying open, and I really didn't think about what I was doing at first. I realize that a vision is a highly personal thing. I would have stopped reading it once I realized, but.... I saw my name."


One hand was clutched to the hem of the large shirt, the other around her pendant, but her eyes were on him. She wouldn't hide her eyes from him, though he might curse her for what she did. She hoped he wouldn't, but she would not blame him if he did.
 
Tra accepted the plate gratefully, starting to eat. He was very hungry, and the food tasted wonderful. However, as she started to speak, he set the plate down, along with the glass. His attention was on her, that gentle gaze not leaving her face. His expression fell as he listened, concern for her filling him.

Tra reached out, stopping just short of embracing her. "I was going to tell you, when I found the words. When I had prayed more and deciphered it better." His hands fell to his lap and he turned away, leaning back on the couch and resting his head on the back of it. "Nothing is certain. I could be completely wrong in my interpretations of the signs and symbols." It was as though life had seeped from his voice. In his stupidity, he'd very likely put her in danger! He sat up again, and this time he did gather her into his arms.

"Almeria, I will keep my word. I will not let you come to harm. I am so sorry that you read that. I should not have been so irresponsible." His words were kind, but there was a strange hint there. Fear. The priest was afraid, and he couldn't quite hide it. "Please," he spoke in a tight whisper, "please believe that I will not rest until I have helped you to the complete extent of my abilities."
 
Of all the responses Almeria considered Tra having, this was not one of them. She was shocked at his behavior. "I hadn't any doubt in your word," she told him, unsure what else she could possibly say. Realization dawned and she felt stupid for not realizing it sooner. A vision wasn't like a dream, not even like a memory, it could be much more intense then reality, or so she was given to understand. She had never experienced a true vision. Yes they were symbolic, but reading it from just the surface he felt he'd already failed her before they'd even begun. No wonder he was the one apologizing.

"After seeing what you did I would not have blamed you if you wish to no longer have any more part in my path." She leaned back so she could look into his eyes. "I'm not being fatalistic, I very much would like a long future, but I have always known that I might have to make a great sacrifice to defeat Namir. It's not what I fear. I fear failing. Not that I think no one else can, but I don't know anyone else will. Not without things becoming much much more horrible."

Sighing she placed her hands in his. "If you wish, we can still part ways. You have no obligation to me. I am already grateful for what you have done for me. You have done so much already." Almeria did not pretend to understand Gohdem's ways, but she felt that this priest needed to be assured he carried no guilt. She wanted his decision to be what he truly wanted, not what he felt he should do. His vision showed him his own death following her. He did not need to die for her, not that Almeria thought it was a certainty.
 
He looked at her hands upon his, then back to her eyes. How could he leave her now? It hadn't been a thought, it wasn't a consideration. This needed to be done and he would stick with it til the end, of course! He lifted her hands, looking at the backs of them and the backs of his own.

"Almeria, my life is devoted to helping others. I do not fear my own death as much as I fear failing you, failing everyone." His throat felt like it was tightening, making the words harsh to the ear. "I will not abandon you. But..." He let her hands go, taking out the journal and flipping through pages til he reached the ones from the night before. His finger struck down on the page, jabbing it audibly. "The swords, Almeria. They worry me. Something about them, his teeming with life and existence and mine devoid of it. What if I am the cause of your downfall in the end, Almeria? I do not wish to cause everything you are working so hard for to fall apart. Yet I need to be there for you, to protect you. It. It is important to me. Ah, I..." He trailed off, sighing and setting the book on the table.

"My service is to you. I gave my word. I wish to be able to keep it."
 
"Thank you," she sad with a smile that was perhaps a bit sad. "Thank you for being so willing. I don't want to be alone. Not in this especially." Had he taken her up on her offer to part ways, she would have been alone. More alone then she had ever been in her life. She would have pushed on, but she would not have been happy in her solitude. He wanted to come though. His doubts were not in having to do something, but in doing something wrong. She understood that feeling.

"I'm also glad you are not going to be stalled in action," her expression softened. "I don't want you second guessing yourself. Yes the swords are very intense. But ...." In the surface. What was behind the surface. Almeria wasn't sure, it could have been a caution to him, his ego, everyone had an ego, but that did not explain Namir's sword. "I don't know. When I first read it, it just seemed like a blank slate in the description, not like it was nothing or that it was a hungry void." She shook her head. The vision wasn't a warning to him, was it. It was not pleasent, but it also did not seem to indicate defeat. Just things to watch for.

"Do you doubt that Namir is unholy? He could not whield an instrument of creation if he is what I know him to be." There were many things about his vision that should be uncovered, but Almeria knew that until the truth of the swords were unraveled her priest would still have doubts, and she thought that much more likely to cause harm then him doing any sort of action. Maybe she was wrong, but she did not believe he could do her harm and if he accidentally was he would be quick in his actions to rectify it.
 
He seemed to be relaxing slightly, nodding to her words. "The problem with visions is that they have so many interpretations. So many, many things can be other than what they seem. Visionaries have gone mad simply because they try to base their actions around the visions." He thought for a moment, speaking softly. "I don't believe Namir to be at all holy. He is a traitor to the church, if anything." He would not follow them down that path. Life had to be lived. To try and script it was a mistake.

"I believe what we do is right." Yet there was still fear there. If it meant something else... what could it be? He would put it out of his mind for now. No need to let it distract him. "As for the part where I... well, death is usually never death. It normally means something else entirely." He reached up, brushing his hair back out of his face so that it wasn't causing a veil over his field of vision. "Almeria," he said, voice intense and sincere, "I will do everything I can. I will not let any vision stop me."

Tra sighed and gave her a strange look. "I want you to know, I consider you a friend."
 
There was still time to resolve the vision, today was not going to see it perhaps, but they were not going into the lions den yet. It gave her something to ponder though. She would help him find the truth in what he saw. It wasn't stopping him though, and that was important!

His affirmation of friendship reached straight to her core. An ally was a wonderful thing in the times to come, but a friend. A friend was irreplaceable. She small sound escaped her lips as she quickly reached up and gave him a hug. She even shook slightly, her emotions never far from the surface.

"And I you," she said once she let go, her eyes a bit misty but the smile shining on her face. "I think we both should finish eating. You made it sound like there was a busy day ahead."
 
They ate in companionable silence before Tra cleaned up the dishes and made the bed. He then handed her a handcomp, complete with a map, codes for accessing needed things, and even the address of an onbase tailor. He pressed a few cred sticks into her hand as he left her at the doctor, presumably so she could get some food and clothing that was more her stlye.

The doctor actually had a reception room. It was decorated rather plainly, in pale blues and soft peach tones. It was packed, too, but Almeria would soon find herself being ushered into the office itself. Several nurses in Medic Priest robes took her vitals, asked her history, and had her wait for the doctor to arrive.

About twenty minutes later, a woman wearing a blue medical gown walked in, looking over a handcomp. She was petite, maybe 5'2, with silver hair cut short and styled in a way that suited her face. She looked to be in her mid sixties. The medical gown she wore was, strangely, unadorned. There were absolutely no religious markings. And yet, the backs of this woman's hands bore no marks of disgrace. Ideally, the medical profession was one almost exclusive to the clergy, so to see someone, even an exile, unadorned, would be a strange thing indeed!
 
Almeria was no stranger to a full medical examination. Being involved in many extracurricular activities she had to go it once a year with the campus doctors. She was half convinced the records were so extensive at this point that it could indicate to a reader where she was ticklish!

When the doctor came into the room, Almeria smiled. They looked to be about the same height. It would be nice to not have to look up at someone while talking for a change. Then she noticed more details, and was actually delighted by the odd curiosity. It was strange for a doctor not to show any signs of faith, but this didn't worry Almeria. Instead it just piqued her interest in this woman more.

She swung her legs slightly from where she sat on the medical table. "Hello Doctor. Any surprises with my tests?"
 
The older woman chuckled softly, shaking her head. "You're perfectly fine. I hope you don't mind having to sit through this too terribly much. There are so many refugees in the station right now that the waiting room has been full all day. My name is Doctor Travers, by the way. Pleased to meet you, Almeria. Now, I have a few questions for you." She pulled out a stylus and started tapping the large-ish hand comp she was using.

"Have you sustained any injuries lately?"

"Names of all planets and ships you were on anytime this past month."

"Have you had any changes in diet recently?"

"How are you liking Doctor Deleshanda?"
 
"I don't mind. I understand that the refugees are in much greater need for help and support right now." If anything Almeria just felt bad that in the short term there wasn't anything she could do, but she wasn't going to dwell on that.

"Mm, the last injury I got was spraining two fingers a little under a year ago. They've been behaving fine though," she wiggled the fingers of her right hand. That had been an interesting sparring match. Unarmed combat excercises could at times be dangerous, though she had never suffered any broken bones, just sprains, bruises, a concussion once. That hadn't been her fault and her instructors were very upset over the whole thing. Moreso then she recalled her mother being at least. That had been a long long time ago. The fingers on the other hand might have been. She won the match though and finished through that days exercise none the less.

"As for planets, I hadn't left Kolatus until I was taken aboard the Church ship Kamke. Then I was, um, retrieved by the Stellar Flare..."

"My diet? Well since I left home I suppose it's not been exactly my usual, unfamiliar places, lots going on...." she didn't add the stress, but she rather not discuss that if Doctor Travers already knew.

The last question startled Almeria and she felt her cheeks warm for some reason. "Tra? He's, well, he's been horribly kind to me through all of this. And, um, I mean, I'm just glad he's bend so kind and...." Did she just say he was kind twice now?
 
The doctor grinned knowningly, running a few final scans on the girl.

"Well, then, I suppose I must have been imagining the way he was looking at you. Must just have been kindness." She laughed softly, starting to put her tools away. "He'll not do anything to harm you, though." She sounded so sure of this. "Got to say, it's been years since I've seen him look even close to how he was looking when he dropped you off."

The old woman smiled brightly, starting to talk to the nurses again about test results and walking out of the room. She didn't say goodbye, already caught up in the minutia of her job. It was a long few minutes, then finally a nurse came to dismiss Almeria.

"You'll have to forgive Doctor Travers. She's bad about only asking important questions and then wandering off without much bedside manner."
 
"Oh, um... It's okay... There's a lot going on," Almeria got off the table still in a bit of a daze. Surely those important questions did not include the ones about Tra. As she left the doctors office she still pondered this. Dr. Travers must know Tra better then a lot of people, being his direct supervisor on base. "More then just kindness?" she muttered to herself as she wandered off.

Eventually Almeria pulled out of her internal contemplation. Knowing not where to start she figured she'd go find the tailor that Tra recommended. That had been a fun experience. She got some shirts that were not as exposing as what she had been wearing the last few days and even had enough credits for a long jacket.

She then headed to find some food. There were a good number of choices to be had and she gave herself time to make the decision. Eating in the common area was interesting. She caught snippets of conversation. Some were very mundane that you'd hear anywhere, others not so much and it reminded her that this was a place where people that were at war. A war that most of the galaxy wasn't even aware of. That had to be frustrating in many respects.

After her lunch, Almeria wandered for a time until she figured she should at least head back to Tra's quarters. If he wasn't home yet she might even get in an early bath. She wasn't one to take baths all the time, but she figured she should take advantage since there would be only a shower once they returned to the Stellar Flare.
 
Tra had spent the day attending meetings. It had been dull and tedious, and he was in a (for him) foul mood by the time he returned to his quarters. The refugees were eating up station supplies, literally and figuratively. Which meant that ships, even those not quite ready, were going to be sent to retrieve new stock. A few of the captains had argued that this was going to break the pirates, and Tra had spent hours reminding the others of just what they had all be through when they first found one another, how they owed it to the others to at least try to get new supplies. Still, even he worried about the risk.

He arrived home a few minutes before Almeria and was busily going through several documents on his handcomp when she came in. He was so busy that he barely had time to give her a quick smile before going back to his work. "We have actual groceries now, if you want a snack," he said, his mind clearly on his reports and not on food. One of the top priorities was medical supplies, and Tra was put in charge of finding a target for a raiding party. He'd settled on three possible choices, two supply ships and a hospital ship. Groups would likely be sent to each.
 
"Alright," she replied smiling at him. He seemed busy so she just went into the bedroom to organize her new clothing purchase. When she came out he was still hard at work and she watched him for a moment then headed into the kitchen. She wasn't hungry, but she had a suspicion that if he had food next to him he would eat.

Looking at what was available she pulled out a few fresh ingredients and whipped up some meat roll ups and a simple dipping sauce. It was one of the few things she could make without a receipt. She then came back out and placed the plate next to him on the table. "Did it go alright?" Almeria thought taking that early bath might still be a good idea, he really wasn't back yet if he was still working.
 
He looked up, glancing at her and then the food and picking up one of the rolls, dipping it in the sauce and taking a bite. He was famished. "Thank you, I needed that." He set the handcomp down, turning to her and setting his food down as well. "It's been a long day. I still have some things to do. I'm to find some targets for a new series of raids. They, ah, fall within my area of expertise, unfortunately." He wasn't incredibly happy with this. He hated stealing medical supplies from others who needed them, but the Church had an abundance and could do without a few. Worse was the thought of actually having to go up against other priests."Tell me, how did your day go?"

He seemed perfectly happy to focus on her for a moment, and indeed she was a wonderful distraction, so much better than working on trying to pick out medical targets for the pirates. He sat sideways on the couch, one arm draped over the back of it, and smiled at her.
 
"The way he was looking at you." Doctor Travers words bubbled up to the surface. It was really hard not to ignore them either as he went from concentrating so hard on his work to beaming that wonderful smile on her, his attention all on her. Not that she really minded, she loved seeing that smile. Still though....

"Your Doctor Travers is an... interesting woman," Almeria started. She was leaning slightly forward, her hands in front of her as she faced Tra. She wouldn't have had to move much for her hand to touch him even. Not that she was aware of her posture. "Her nurse even apologized for her bedside manner afterwards. But she seems nice." Though perhaps she wasn't as all business as the nurse thought Almeria tried to think of a polite way to ask her question, then figured she should just directly ask. Worse thing that could happen was that Tra told her it was none of her business, which it wasn't, but she was still curious. "Did she ever belong to the Church?"
 
Tra laughed softly. "Doctor Travers is a bit eccentric." He picked up another bite of food and popped it in his mouth, considering her question as he chewed.

"Doctor Travers... well. She's an atheist. Her allegiance is to the medical sciences. Ever since I've known her, she's been a dedicated healer. She may not have any of the healing gifts of the priesthood, but you really couldn't be in better hands. She's an odd bird, though. Never married, very career obsessed. She sacrificed a great deal to be able to perform medicine, and now, since she is not part of the church and can't practice legally on any planet, she works and researches here. Did she give you one of her lectures on how pirates are foolish and get a great many more injuries than any normal person could be expected to survive? Or did she just talk with her nurses and pretend you were part of the furniture?" He chuckled again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back