NEW: Kail's Story 3/5 [PG] DS9
Carolann Potee
Author: Carolann Potee
Contact: cpo...@towson.edu
Series: DS9, season 5-ish
Part: 3/5
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Star Trek and all entities relating to it belong to
Paramount.
I just like to write stories about it, so please don't sue me.
Archive: ASC only, but link to
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Lot/9166
Summary:
Kail is a lonely changeling living on Bajor and he falls for a young
woman
who knows him better than he thinks. When they detour to Bajor, will he
be found out? Find out now!
*****************************************************
The next day came quickly and Kail found himself eagerly
awaiting the arrival of the two girls from their rooms. He had
dreamt about taking Connie to the Lerrena Cliffs the night before
as he was resting. He sat at the kitchen table, his pack resting at the
foot of his chair.
"Hello, Kail!" Kelsee greeted him as she walked into the
kitchen with her own pack; Connie was close at her heel. "Are you
ready?"
"I've been ready!" Kail exclaimed excitedly.
"Let's go then!" Kelsee said, leading them out the door.
"The less time we spend here, the more time we have to hike!"
Kelsee led them down the same trails her father had taken
her as a child, the trails that Dovan had also shown Kail. The first
hour of the hike was traveled in relative silence as they climbed
steadily upward at a slight incline. Kail stopped after a while when
he saw a patch of wild lavender bell-flowers growing next to the
trail. He picked a few of them and hid them in his pack to give to
Connie after they made camp.
They passed a few other beds of wild flowers, some of
which Kail also collected, as they continued on upward towards
the top of the ridge where the Lerrena Valley was formed and the
cliffs overlooked the entire valley from the eastern side. When they
got to the top of the ridge in late afternoon and if it turned out to be
a clear evening, they might even be able to see the lights from the
city of Lerren farther down in the valley.
Evening came and the afternoon haze faded with the sunset
as expected. As the three climbed higher up the ridge, they could
see some of the light from the city through breaks in the trees. It
was just after twilight set in the sky when they finally found a fair-
sized clearing to make camp, and they set up their tents and lit a
campfire. After Kail set up his tent, he removed the carefully
stored flowers from his pack and arranged them in a pleasing
manner for presentation to Connie. She was sitting on a fallen log
near the campfire, listening to it crackle and looking up into the
stars, thinking about how very soon she would be traveling among
those stars once again. Kail came up behind her so as not to be
seen and kept the gift out of her sight to surprise her.
"How are you this evening?" Kail asked politely as he sat
down next to her.
His sudden presence seemed to startle her a bit. "Oh, I'm
fine. I was just thinking about how much I'm enjoying this, but I'm
still anxious to start that survey of the Denorius Belt from Deep
Space Nine."
"I see," Kail said, looking around to see if Kelsee may have
been listening in, but she was still busy making minor adjustments
to her tent and bedding. That was good; that way, he and Connie
could have a few moments alone to talk. He brought the flowers
into her view, which she almost immediately noticed.
"Oh, Kail, they're beautiful!" she exclaimed as he held
them out to her. "I had no idea Bajor had such a diverse and
beautiful variety of flora. You found all these here in this forest?"
"Yes, I found them as we were hiking," Kail explained.
"The Lenner forest is one of the few places that remained relatively
untouched by the Cardassian occupation. I think even the
Cardassians found this place too peaceful and beautiful to destroy."
"That, and the fact that this land has virtually no mining or
major agricultural value whatsoever," Connie pointed out.
Kail smiled. "Yes, that too."
"Thank you so much for the flowers, Kail," Connie said. "I
love them so much."
"You're very welcome," Kail said, feeling very pleased
with himself. "There's also something I'd like to show you
tomorrow morning."
"Oh? What is it?" she asked with curiosity.
"It's a surprise, but I will tell you that it's a place I'd like to
take you early tomorrow morning. Kelsee likes to sleep somewhat
late, so we should have time to do it before she wakes up."
"Wouldn't she miss us if she wakes up while we're gone?"
Connie asked, hesitant to leave Kelsee out.
"We can leave her a note, but I imagine we'll be back
before she even wakes up. Besides, it's not far, not even a half-
hour's walk. Kelsee knows where it is, but the place is a while off
the trail we're following, so we wouldn't be seeing it on our way. I
thought you might enjoy seeing it, though."
"All right, but I must warn you, I'm not a particularly early
riser myself," she admitted. "You may have to wake me up."
"That's all right, I don't mind," Kail said with a smile, and
then suppressed an involuntary cringe as Connie leaned up against
him with her head on his shoulder. He cautiously placed a
protective hand around her waist and she happily cuddled closer to
him.
They remained in this comfortable position for almost half
an hour until Kelsee came over to join then at the campfire and
brought some food rations with her. Kail, like always, ate very
little. Connie and Kelsee chatted lightly while they ate to their
hearts' content, but Connie kept looking curiously over at Kail,
who seemed unusually quiet. Like most women, Kelsee and
Connie never seemed to run out of subjects to talk about. Even
after they finished eating and were lounging by the campfire, they
did not stop talking for more than about thirty seconds. Kail was
reserved for most of the evening, but occasionally made a
comment or two while listening to the girls.
It was getting quite late when the first yawn of the evening
came from Kelsee. Another came from Connie and their
conversation dwindled for more than a minute, the longest period
of silence that evening. Kail was becoming very tired from holding
his humanoid shape and was about to excuse himself to bed when
Kelsee spoke first.
"I'm really tired," Kelsee said, followed by another yawn.
"I think I'm going to go to sleep now."
"Good night, Kelsee," Kail and Connie said in unison as
Kelsee got up and walked inside her tent, leaving them both sitting
on the log next to the campfire.
"Well, if you're going to be taking me to see something
tomorrow morning, I'd better go to bed, too," Connie said.
"Yes, I'm feeling quite tired myself," Kail agreed.
Connie stood and then kissed him lightly on the cheek.
"Good night, Kail."
He said nothing and just stared after her as she walked
away to her tent, then disappeared inside. She had kissed him on
the cheek. What did that mean? He didn't know what it meant,
except that she liked him. He still wasn't sure how much she liked
him, though. It was almost like she had changed overnight from
being confident and inquisitive toward him to being aloof and
slightly cautious, but it was still obvious that she liked him a lot.
Kail got up and retired to his own tent, still thinking. She
was probably able to guess by that point that he was interested in
her too, but how else could he show her? He'd gotten her flowers,
he's going to take her to see the cliffs tomorrow morning; what else
could he do? The only thing he could think of was to wait and see
what opportunities arose. But what if it wasn't enough? Would she
expect more from him?
Kail banished the thought that he was not good enough and
settled down on some blankets he'd brought to substitute as a bed.
But he couldn't help but worry about what she might think of him
if she ever found out the truth about him. Would she still love him
if she knew he was a Changeling? Would she become afraid and
turn him over to the authorities? Many humanoid species had a
xenophobic tendency to fear or even hate others who were
different and often stereotyped them all as being the same. Would
she think him as the same as one of the founders of the Dominion,
the empire her own people are at war with?
He wanted to think of her as being smarter than that. He
wanted to believe that any initial fear she might have would be
overridden by the knowledge of what kind of person he really is.
But will she know him well enough if and when she finds out? He
wasn't sure of that either, but he would trust her. If he was going to
pursue this relationship, it's only a question of when she will find
out. And if it got really serious before she found out herself, he
would just have to tell her.
He could not hold his shape any longer. As the molecules
of his body lost their cohesion, he hid himself under one of the
blankets so as not to be seen. Kail rested, his thoughts in turmoil.
**************
Bajor's red dwarf sun was about forty-five minutes away
from its rise over the horizon. Kail arose from his bedding and
solidified himself, fully refreshed and anxious to take Connie to
see the Lerren cliffs. He quickly packed up the blankets and then
left his tent to rouse Connie. As he approached the opening to her
tent, he was almost run down as she was exiting. She obviously
didn't see him until they were standing virtually nose-to-nose.
"I see I didn't have to come and wake you up after all," Kail
said.
Connie smiled and blushed slightly. "I guess I was more
anxious to see whatever it was you wanted to show me more than I
thought. I woke up about half an hour ago and couldn't go back to
sleep."
"Are you ready to go?"
"Already?" Connie asked, surprised. "The sun hasn't even
come up yet. There's no light."
"That's the best part," Kail hinted.
Connie put it together very quickly. "So, we're going
somewhere to watch the sunrise?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "And before I manage to spoil any
more of it for you, perhaps we should be on our way."
She quickly grabbed her jacket from her tent and joined
him at the edge of the clearing they were camping in. "Lead the
way."
Kail led her through the trees and thick underbrush. It was
still a bit too dark to see everything clearly, so she ended up
tripping a few times on loose stones or exposed roots from time to
time. Overall, they had a good pace and Kail was glad to know
they would arrive just in time. Connie still didn't know where
exactly he was taking her, and so was visibly disappointed when
they stopped suddenly.
"Are we here already?" she asked in confusion.
"No," Kail said. "I just thought I should stop and warn you
to be extra careful that you don't trip and fall or lose your footing
around here."
"Why is it I should be so extra careful now?"
Kail stepped forward, parting the bushes in front of them,
and offered out his hand to her. "This is why."
She took his hand and stepped forward to see that the
ground became very steeply inclined for a few meters and then
disappeared completely, revealing a very wide-open space. She
took another cautious step forward and suddenly realized she was
looking down upon the entire valley from above on the top of a
cliff. The early morning twilight still made it difficult to see
everything, so Kail sat down to wait for the sunrise and urged
Connie to join him. She sat down next to him, a safe distance away
from the edge, and marveled at the sights being unveiled before
her. The sky brightened with the sun's first rays of light.
She could just make out the lines of the trees that covered
the ridge as they wrapped protectively around the valley on its
southern and eastern edge. And, if she looked hard enough, she
could just see the farthest outskirts of the village they had left the
day before. It was towards the bottom of the valley. A few distant
clouds had just become visible as the morning sun's first rays
peeked up over the distant horizon in the general direction of the
city of Lerren.
Those first rays of light shone out upon the trees and the
ridge like beams of spotlights looking for someone to shine on.
The beauty of the scene took her breath away as the beams of light
grew to encompass the entire valley.
"This is so beautiful, Kail," she said dreamily. "Thank you
for sharing this with me." He smiled as she leaned closer to
him. "You're quite welcome."
No sooner had they stood up to take in the whole scene
when he felt her lips upon his. It startled him at first, but as she
wrapped her arms around his chest, he relaxed and kissed her back.
His own arms found their way around her waist and they held each
other in a passionate embrace.
They remained in each other's arms a good while before an
unusually strong gust of wind came at them and the sound of a
shuttlecraft hovering just above them greeted their ears. It was a
Starfleet issue shuttlecraft and in the main window port they could
see Kelsee, who waved at them just before a transporter beam
whisked them away.