Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in MPT - LS Trickster - Communications - Raauhl
Karra begins to clear the table, the day was already shot with Zanya here. The children were always excited when she showed up. But that meant she would have an afternoon almost free. “Terul!” The little boy showed up almost instantly as if he’d had a cloak around himself and dropped it. She smiled. “Why don’t we go for walk. We’ll show Mr Anderson to Yarla’s house and then you can help me.” At the mention of Mr Anderson the little boy’s face lit up, but the idea of helping Karra with her ‘chores’ sounded so dull to the very energy filled little boy. Karra chuckled, not in the least bit offended. “Zanya, you will be alright all on your own with the masses?”

Zanya/Casela laughed, “Do I have a choice?” She got up from the table and moved back into the main room of the orphanage. The children old enough for school would be back soon and the small back room was not big enough for everyone.

Karrah grabbed Terul’s hand. He tended to run off to whatever caught his attention, and though Karrah loved his enthusiasm he tended to wander off at times following whatever it was that he noticed. “It’s this way!” he said enthusiastically. Karrah shook her head with long years of dealing with children’s loud voices that could do nothing but express their excitement.

“Yarla used to work on a freighter and worked in communications. She’ll be happy for the help.” They walked out the back door, Terul chattering on about what he did here and there and look at that mud splotch on the wall where he drew a rock with an ogre, and over there he almost fell off the wall running once, and then, and there, and that, and on it went.

Yarla lived near the west end of the village where the hills dropped away to an open field. There were several plots of produce growing. Karrah knocked and the door was answered by a very old Benzite female. “Yarla, this is Mr. Anderson, Zanya brought him. He’s a communications engineer.” Terul let go of Karrah’s hand and ran inside. “Yarla I can smell them! You baked cookies!” Yarla chuckled. “Come in Mr. Anderson. Karrah, I’ll bring Terul back to you later. Along with extras for the rest of the children.” She stepped aside letting Mr Anderson into her home. Terul was already at the table with cookies and trying to pour a drink from a large pitcher. Yarla pointed to the side of the main room, where a very old CB radio stood and the interface for their subspace transmitter sat. “We use the old radio to communicate between the villages. But the subspace radio is, well it’s old. I know how to work it, but not how to fix it.”

L>Story Teller EvilJen

Raauhl had remained quiet and nodded politely, sometimes throwing in a smile for good measure but now they were down to buisness, “No problem, I can give it a look over and see what I can do” He said looking to the subspace radio, it was old even by his standards “So how long have you been here?” Raauhl asked in attempt of small talk as he worked.

• Lt Cmdr Raauhl