PNPC Gila Sadar - The Words of a Sofarih

[LT Tamio K'Wara]

(( Cargo Bays - Level 279, Deep Space 224 ))

Gila wasn’t really sure what she was doing there in the first place. Perhaps she was just out to be out. The talk with Kolya was going to be a difficult one, and yet the fact that it hadn’t happened yet weighed on her far more heavily than she’d anticipated. Keeping secrets from Kolya was an all-too-familiar experience, and Kolya was - as befitting of his Mizarian ways - not one to pry. When Gila had told him they were going to be moving off of the Artemis and onto DS224, he’d been confused but had not demanded an explanation. Yet.

But Gila could see it, every time she walked past him in their new quarters, still filled up with luggage that Kolya was unpacking and arranging in the most aesthetically pleasing manner to him. He was curious. He wanted to know why. And worse, Gila was going to tell him.

That thought made her sigh, her chest rising and sinking with the weight of the conversation she hadn’t had yet. She was going to be a sofarih, shunned and erased by the silence with which she would be treated. Kolya would never look at her again, nor speak to her. Doing so would be joining her in her sin. She could feel her heart breaking, not only for herself, but for Kolya - the sweet child - who would have to live with her, knowing what she was. What she had done.

oO Eyla, my sister, you made a mistake. And now I can’t even tell you... Oo

Tho’Bi: ::awkwardly:: Doctor.

Gila tensed up, her whole spine as stiff as the proud trees lining the Academy Quad where she thought she’d found a new start all those years ago, only to squander it now. And slowly, she turned back towards the familiar voice.

Instinctually, she felt wrong and embarrassed for being caught out of uniform by the Ensign, and then her shoulders sagged. Sofarih had no uniform to wear. Sofarih didn’t belong anywhere.

And now she realized that, perhaps, there was some measure of kindness to the Mizarian way of doing things. For if you were found deviant, you were sofarih and no one acknowledged you or spoke to you, and you would never have to answer for what you had done, ever again.

Gila nodded slowly to Ens- Officer Tho’Bi, cautious of how to greet him. Her instinct was to say nothing - the sofarih way of doing things - but Officer Tho’Bi wasn’t Mizarian. He was Federation, and the Federation had their way of doing things.

And besides. Gila wasn’t Mizarian anyway.

Sadar: Officer Tho’Bi...

She followed the tall and youthful Andorian with her eyes as he came to a stop next to her, resting his arms against the railing of the walkway. Gila turned away from him again, looking at the busy cargo bay below them, the crewmen milling about, doing their duty. Gila absent-mindedly twisted the black obsidian band.

She’d never taken the time to just stand and watch like this.

Now she had nothing but time.

Tho'Bi: ::nodding at the approaching shuttle:: Are you waiting for the shuttle?

Sadar: What? ::processes:: U-Uhh, n-n-no... I, I just... oO I’m hiding Oo Watching.

The conversation died once more with Gila uneasily awaiting what was inevitably going to come: the scorn, the derision, the demands for explanations, the-

Tho’Bi: I grew up in a place like this. ::smiles:: Me and a lot of other kids ::smile fades::.

Gila blinked, confused.

Sadar: I-I... I see...

Growing up on a space station... Gila knew that happened - more than a couple of the Artemisian crewmen had families living on Deep Space 224 - but it was so far removed from her own upbringing, it was difficult to imagine.

Tho’Bi: Response

Sadar: D-Did you... H-Have you ever been to, uhh ::searches brain:: Andoria?

Tho’Bi: Response

Sadar: I... I didn’t know...

Tho’Bi: Response

TAG/TBC

Gila Sadar

Sofarih

DS224

As simmed by

LT Tamio K’Wara

Operations Officer

USS Artemis-A

A240006GS1