[sb118-khitomer] Lieutenant (JG) Ezra Zerva - Welcome to Marathon and Histona
BC Cooper
((OOC - After Lunch at the Mellow Mushroom))
((Ventral Ring Beta Module, Smith's Superior Holosuites, Deep Space 33))
Ezra and Lera had been walking down the corridor talking about a wide range of topics both important and superfluous. Most of the time, the specific topic was less important than the fact that they were together. Ezra had enjoyed lunch with his friends, but spending time with Lera always brought a smile to his face. He was happy to see what she had planned for the two of them.
Michaels: I reserved a suite for a full hour. My original thought was that we would play a high adventure. None of the standard ones here appealed to me. I tried building my own, but that is harder work than I had anticipated. John Carter and Dejah Thoris on Mars simply is not ready to play.
Ezra recalled his brother, who had absorbed nearly all of earth’s culture had mentioning a book series by that name. It would be an interesting program.
Zerva: ::nods:: I tired making a Holodeck program on my own last year and ran into a similar problem. I’m still learning how it all works. I look forward to the program once it’s finished.
Michaels: To learn and master the techniques, I built a much simpler one that I wish to show you today. There are no actionable characters so it will be just the two of us.
Zerva: What made you choose one of the holosuites on the station instead of the Khitomer’s holodecks?
Michaels: One of the appeals of Smith's Superior Holosuites is that they have change rooms and an assortment of suitable costumes available for what they describe as a "nominal fee." :: she smiled at Ezra :: I suspect the fees are nominal if you have more credits than you know what to do with them. ::beat:: You will not need a costume for this one. All right. This is our suite. It will be best if you close your eyes. Are you ready?
Ezra still had his winnings from the dabo tables at Quarks from last year’s shore leave at DS-9. Even so, he was saving up his Latium for a rainy day. He made a point to see about replicating his own costume when the time came. Assuming the station’s holosuite operators would allow one to bring their own clothes for their program.
Zerva: ::closes his eyes:: I’m ready. I like surprises. I’m assuming it’s safe?
Of course it was. He knew Lera would never hurt Ezra. Why would he think otherwise? He could hear gateway to the suite open. Lera took his hand and gently led him into the room.
Michaels: There is nothing to trip over or fall off of. Just a few more steps. Computer. Close the gateway. :: she sighed.:: Now you can open your eyes.
Ezra slowly opened his eyes. It was dark and his eyes did his best to see. After a brief moment of adjusting and he saw a few lights from the nearby buildings, but they seemed some distance kilometers away. It didn’t take long for Ezra to realize what it was that she wanted to share with him. His gaze drifted upon into the night sky. It was a beautiful cascade of stars that stretched across infinity. It was beautiful.
Michaels: Welcome to Marathon, Texas located in the beautiful, largest but least populous county in Texas. Generally recognised as the darkest night sky in the United States outside of Alaska and Hawaii. :: beat :: Is it not beautiful?
Zerva: ::whistles:: It is indeed. I could spend much time here gazing at them. ::smiles over at Lera:: You have chosen your first program wisely.
Lera gestured at the broad whitish band of stars and galaxies that stretched from one horizon to the other. It took his breath away. He could stay here forever.
Michaels: The humans refer to that broad swath as the Milky Way. Of course, it is our galaxy. I assume that Trills have a different name for it.
Zerva: I’m not a hundred precent sure what it would be called in the Trill tongue. I haven’t been to my people’s homeworld since I was five. Besides ‘the galaxy’ my parents have refereed to it as the great spotty spiral and the shimmering river.
Michaels: There are many stories about how it got its name. My favorite was that some ancient humans thought it was a goddess's breast milk spray across the sky. It seems ludicrous today, but we have to remember that the ancient ones had no idea what a star was.
Zerva: Their are some among my people that reference the galaxy as a pouch with all the planets and stars inside of it. The stars are akin to our spots indicating our origins arrived from the stars itself. We were blessed with a reminder of that for every Trill that is born.
Michaels: I spent many nights when I was little in this very field gazing at the stars. We never just look at the stars any more do we? They are beautiful. :: she laughes softly: :: One of my big disappointments with reality is that the stars do not actually twinkle.
Zerva: Indeed we do not. We know much more about stars as advancements in technology allow us to examine there much closely.
Michaels: The Milky Way did look different where I was born. Last Hope was much closer to the edge of the galaxy. I was very little then, but I remember how the night sky changed with the seasons. Part of the year, the Milky Way was bright and wide. Part of the year, it was just a thin line. On Earth, you barely notice the change.
Lera took his hand in the darkness and pulled him a bit closer. He smiled as she did. Ezra didn’t know much about her childhood, and in turn she likely didn’t know about his.
Zerva: Can you tell me more about your childhood?
Michaels: My childhood? You do not really want to know about my childhood.
Zerva: ::squeezes her hand in a show of support:: Please. ::smiling:: In return, I’ll tell you about mine if you’d like?
Michaels: ::her voice filled with a bittersweet sadness. :: My first memory is of our home... something my father ... my human father had put together from the wreckage of our ship. It was not much, but it kept the wind and the rain outside. There was what was left of the ship, a vast graveyard where my father buried everyone else who had been on the ship, and there was our little house. I guess house is the right word. It was home. Some of what we had was salvaged from the ship. Some of it we made or grew ourselves. Looking back, I count us as fortunate that we were able to salvage as much as did from the ship. Our early crops were unexciting.
Ezra couldn’t imagine what she must have gone through. Especially for a child. He was grateful that her father was there for her.
Zerva: I’m sorry you had to go through all of that. ::squeezes her hand::
Lera shook her head as he held her hand.
Michaels: Then my sister, Katherine, was born. Things were better then. :: beat :: I think I always knew that I was different from the rest of my family, but when Katherine was born, I was fascinated by her round ears and yellow hair. About the only feature we had in common was our eye colour. That and our love of the stars. ::longish pause.:: The stars that remind me of Last Hope, where my biological parents are buried, and Marathon, Texas.
As she spoke about her biological parents, he wanted to reach out to give her a hug in that moment, but he wasn’t sure how she would respond. Instead he got an idea, he was sure she would love.
Zerva: ::smiling:: I have an idea. I hope you don’t mind. Computer
::bleep:: Upload program, Histonia-E-Z-102.
Marathon, Texas disappeared and gave way to an almost circular opening between steep cliff walls. It had a diameter of about 30 meters. There were several openings in the cliffs leading to caverns in the stone. The ground was partly dirt and partly grass. The air smelled like a lush forest, although only a few trees could be seen within the opening they were standing in. A small fire was lite just in front of them about a yard away. In between them were places to sit made of wood. On the outside of the parameter, a number of tiki torches were lite giving off a soft glow around the circular area as it was late in the evening. In front of them sat an older weathered, wise looking Emisan gentleman with a tail that hanged off from behind where he sat. His face showing an expression of warmth and gentle kindness about him.
Above them was a cascade of stars as beautiful as that of Marathon, Texas. Stars of all manner shown above them and Lera would recognize the view as the very same stars one would see from the Khitmore docked at DS-33.
Michaels: Response
Zerva: ::nods:: This is Histona. Or rather Histona as it used to look. It was located in Saretis, one of the four larger continents on the Emisan home planet. It was my first contact and away mission with the crew ::pausing:: And the last one aboard the Arrow. ::his face briefly showing signs of sadness:: Unfortunately their home planet no longer looks like this. Sadly after years of internal wars all that was left, was a bombed out husk of nuclear radiation.
Michaels: Response
Zerva: The Emisan survivors were divided into two groups. Those living deep underground in the caves, and those who lived in the station above the planet. We had to help them relocate to a new planet. They gave us the history of their people on a file that we used to upload it into the Holodeck database. This area was used by several neighboring villages as a place to meet and gather. I uploaded the program to both the Khitomore and the stations Holodecks respectively. Commander Dewitt and I created the program together last year.
Michaels: Response
Zerva: We decide it would be best, if the night sky view was the same location as the Khitomer was in space. Wherever the Khitty goes, the stars here in the program align to our position in space.
Michaels: Response
Zerva: ::smiles over to the storyteller:: He’s an Emisan storyteller. All you have to do is ask him to tell you a story and he’ll select one of the many stories throughout their history. The perfect place to toast some marshmallows and make some s’mores while listening to campfire stories. I wish I had some with me now.
Michaels: Response
Ezra took her by the hand and made his way down onto one of the seating areas around the fire. Looking up at the stars next to her. The fire gave off a warm glow that sparked and crackled in late evening.
Zerva: I find this spot right here is best view of the stars. My brother, sister and I would sometimes come to a park nearby our house in California and look up at the stars together. Makes you wonder if the two of us were ever gazing up at the same time. ::smiles over at her, with one hand still holding hers.::
Michaels: Response
Zerva: ::looking back up at the stars:: Tell me more about your sister please. Did she ever visit the stars like you did?
Michaels: Response
TAG/ TBC
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Lieutenant (JG) Ezra Zerva
Security Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240101EZ2