Lt. Doz Finch - The Good, the Gagh and the Gladst
Doz Finch
((The Aronea Gorge Hiking Trail, Cordina Valley, Palanon))
After enjoying their picnic under the wooden pavilion overlooking the tranquil periwinkle waters, and after having her say on how to deal with thermal runaway, the Finch lot started their journey along the Aronea Gorge Hiking Trail. A haunting task for anyone with vertigo, the trail weaved alongside protruding rocky walkways, looking down into the waters below.
Merilia: What was he like?
Finch: Oh he was lovely, Merilia.
Merilia: It isn’t like you to fall for someone “lovely”. Usually they’re fierce warriors with an appetite for gagh and gladst.
Finch: ::She simpered.:: Just the opposite this time.
Merilia knew all about Doz’s dating habits over the years, and was referring to her tendency towards Klingon lovers. It had never been her intention to date Klingon men, but she’d always gravitated towards them because of their boisterousness, their zest for living. The disastrous end to her relationship with Faruch had somewhat drawn a line under all of that, under the possibility of her ever being in love again or even having a family.
Finch: There was a kindness there, Merilia. He radiated this warmth that just rather felt—
Merilia: Like home.
Merilia looked up ahead toward Ernest, her husband, who led the party with a large branch he’d found and utilised as a trekking pole. Wallace and Arthur were also with him at the front, and at the rear of the group was Apa Rojehl chatting to Arthur’s Aurelian wife, the sound supplemented by the occasional buzzing of an iridescent Palanon dragonfly.
Finch: It was a bit foolish of me really.
Merilia: Nonsense, Doz. The way I see it, there was still a risk that you might never have made it back here. Might never have put things right. Who wouldn’t want to carve themselves a bit of joy in a galaxy so devoid of it?
Merilia was right about that. It was what those who lived on Nassau had done; using whatever means they had, using any old paint brush, using any old nuts and bolts, the survivors found the asteroid and repurposed and moulded themselves a miniature world away from worlds within it. And Hal, even though he lived alone, was at the heart of so much of it—she could have lived the rest of her life there with him.
Finch: Do you know, I never told him I wasn’t coming back. But I think he knew that the last time we spoke was a bit of a goodbye. Actually, ::she exhaled, brows elevated,:: he definitely knew.
Merilia: Because he was Ullian.
Finch: Exactly, love.
Ullian, meaning that he was telepathic. In the brief time she knew him, he rarely ever talked about that aspect of his Ullian heritage. He had talked about losing his family to the Borg, and about his home in Ashmeransa on Ullia, but he never seemed sad, and there wasn’t ever a spec of anger in him. Just acceptance—any other person and that would have frustrated her, but it only somehow made her more fond and taken by him.
As the group continued their hike, now on a bit of an incline, she pulled fresh air into her lungs. She fell quiet for a minute, smiling as she recalled the times she had spent with him. At least she had her memories to treasure forever.
Merilia spoke again, sounding somewhat stirred.
Merilia: He's alive and well, then, in this time and in this galaxy?
Finch: ::Staggered by the realisation.:: My god Merilia. I suppose...yes, yes I suppose he might be?
Goosebumps soared through her skin at quantum slipstream speeds, lifting follicles into bumps and hairs into spikes, and her eyes widened into sparkling brown marbles.
TBC