Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in One Step at a Time

Posted by Civilian Sisnil Zoi (Intelligence Consultant) in One Step at a Time

Posted by Ensign Dradvia (Medical Officer) in One Step at a Time
Posted by… suppressed (19) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
He shrugged, “Probably.” Sisnil let Simon climb on his shoulders and then cleared their trays. “What do you want to do?” He asked Dradvia.

~ Zoi

Dradvia noticed how Sisnil always took their trays. She wondered if it was deliberate, so she would know she didn’t have to serve him. Or was it just because it was who he was? Either way, it was an appreciated gesture. She met him at the door.

She shrugged at his question. “I don’t know. I… well I really don’t do much but sit in my room and read when I’m off duty.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Come oooon, you had to have liked something,” Sisnil said, meaning before she was taken.

~ Zoi

Dradvia was lost in remembering for a handful of moments. “I used to go to the beach and the gem mines. I would use what I found to make jewelry. I babysat to make money to buy supplies. We would go to the market. We could spend all day there just watching and browsing. I was in a book club at the library.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Hmmm.... Why don’t we walk a beach program? I’m sure I don’t have to specially program that.” Sisnil said, though he had another idea that did need preparation.

~ Zoi

“No, there are plenty to choose from.” The computer’s library was massive. She turned toward the lift. She wasn’t exactly dressed for the beach in her uniform. It would be fine, she didn’t exactly have anything else to wear.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“What do you wear besides your uniforms?” Sisnil asked her as they headed into the holodeck. He picked a program and set it.

~ Zoi

“Oh… ummm…” she flushed a little, “pajamas. I don’t really need anything else. I… I don’t like to be around a lot of people off duty. I had to replicate what I wore down on the planet.” Her uniform gave her a degree of protection when she wasn’t on the ship. People saw the uniform and not the person.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Hmmm.....” Was that… A flash of mischief on his face? He was certainly planning something. He patted her shoulder and grinned. “Come on, show me what you like to do.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia gave him a puzzled and slightly worried look. What was he up to? She walked into the holodeck and looked around. She closed her eyes and stood there listening to the waves and feeling the salt air on her skin, the breeze in her hair. After a deep breath she opened her eyes and walked toward the surf. “We used to come and look for shells, sea glass, sometimes I would find feathers. We would spend the whole day. We’d swim and make sand sculptures. Sometimes we’d stay after dark and have a bonfire. All of us together.” She walked as she spoke, picking up shells as she went.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil walked with her. He didn’t much like the beach, but he wouldn’t show that. “That sounds nice,” he said.

~ Zoi

“It was. There were always families there. On vacations, celebrating, being together. So we kind of made our own little traditions. All we had was each other. There was a boy, Rou, he never joined us. Said he was waiting for his family to adopt him, then he would have traditions. He grew up, never got adopted, he had to leave the orphanage. He was really bitter.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil nodded. “Children are naive and hopeful. It’s still sad he never was, but let’s be honest, most kids aren’t.” He and Noril wasn’t. No one looking to adopt kids wanted troubled twins.

~ Zoi

“People want babies. No one wants more than one.” Dradvia shrugged. “Baby Elise was adopted, but Kimmel, her older brother wasn’t. He told Ms. Lyta to let her be adopted. Better one of them. They never brought her back to visit or let him see her. It’s tragic.”

She stopped to pick up a shell. She turned it over in her hands. “I always wanted a family of my own. We all did. You can’t help but want it. To belong. But… but the adults, they think they can just erase what we had together. As if all that time meant nothing. Like we didn’t live before they take a child home. It’s cruel in a way. Though I’m sure they don’t mean to be.” She stood and tossed the shell into the waves.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“They don’t. They just… They don’t want to think about the baggage kids have.” Sisnil shrugged. “Noril and I had each other. That’s all we ever needed.” The way he said it, Dee would know that was what they had told each other over and over again.

~ Zoi

Dradvia looked over at him. She reached over and squeezed his hand. “That’s what Kryssa and I told ourselves too. As long as we were together, we could handle anything.” They had been so wrong. “Kryssa designed fabric. Beautiful designs and textures. I… I used to have a shawl she made me. It was beautiful, soft, and so warm.”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I wish I could get it back for you,” Sisnil said, knowing it was likely long gone. He squeezed her hand gently. “We could, though, the two of us. Handle anything.”

~ Zoi

“It was burned when Lokhar took us. You can’t get it back. And Ms. Lyta has surely given away or tossed anything we left behind. All I have now are my memories.” But they all led to that one horrible last memory of Kryssa. She looked out at the ocean. “Kryssa could have painted this beach in her fabrics,” she said on a whisper.

“You could. Not sure about me. I mean, I could heal you when you got hurt or sick,” Dradvia shrugged awkwardly. She had value, she just had to keep telling herself that.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

Sisnil tugged her toward him and hugged her. “Good, because we do that a lot. Always have.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia stumbled slightly in the sand as he suddenly tugged her towards him. She didn’t fall, instead she was caught in his arms, held against his chest. Simon sniffed her forehead. Sisnil’s sudden closeness warmed her against the chill of the ocean breeze, and she settled closely against him. “Always?” She knew his life was dangerous, but… but it made her sick with worry suddenly. “I don’t suppose it will do any good to make you promise to be careful?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“I can promise to try,” Sisnil said gently. He pulled up a sleeve and showed her a scar on his upper arm. “I was six when this happened. We couldn’t get medical care but it wouldn’t stop bleeding so we glued it.”

~ Zoi

Her fingers traced the scar slowly, as if she could heal it simply by wishing. It reminded her of the other slaves and herself that she had nursed. Never any medical care, doing the best she could for them. “You’re lucky it worked. It could have continued to bleed internally. That was good instinct though. Primitive but actually an old method to seal incisions. How did you get hurt?”

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

“Trying to steal food,” he admitted with a shrug. “It’s only still so visible because that’s how it healed.”

~ Zoi

Dradvia hugged him tightly, understanding what it meant to be hungry. Then she pulled back as far as his hold would allow. “I could fix the scar for you.” She stared at the scar, her thumb running over the mark slowly.

Ens. Dradvia, Medical Officer

He smiled. Her touch was gentle, soft. The feeling in his arm was numbed over the scar, but not around it. “Did you fix yours? When you joined the Fleet?”

~ Zoi