Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Chief Science Officer) in side-sim From Columbia to Capitol

Posted by Ensign Tabris Asam (Engineering Officer) in side-sim From Columbia to Capitol

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharah Fayth (Chief Science Officer) in side-sim From Columbia to Capitol
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(snip)
It was several days later and Sharah got a message from Tabris asking her to stop by, it was about that box she had dropped off. Sharah was extremely excited and, instead of dropping by the arboretum after her shift, there was nothing pressing to do that day, she went straight over. She hoped Tabris had good news for her. She rang the chime and was greeted by a very subdued Julin. She looked at the little boy, taken aback and concerned about his lack of energy. “Hi Shawah.” He took her hand and after getting her to sit down climbed into her lap and was still. Absolutely still. Concerned he might be sick, she started taking his vitals manually, even making him open his eyes and checking to see if they dilated properly. The benefit of knowing a doctor. “Julin, do you feel okay?” Neltus let out a little chuckle. “He’s fine. He went to the daycare today for the first time. He’s never played that hard, ever.” Julin mumbled something about new friends and toys and then sighed sleepily.

Sharah looked up at Neltus, “Might better feed him soon before he’s out of the night.” She looked around, “Where’s your dad? He asked me to stop by.”
Lt. jg Fayth, CSO

Neltus looked back from his project and shifted on his knees before standing up, stretching his arms up above his head as he yawned a little before saying, “I’ll go get something going.” He said as he trotted off towards the kitchen before turning on his heels to say, “oh! Dad and Vedi are finishing up the thing, turns out Vedi wired something backwards and he had to have dad get the parts from his old antique stuff. They were almost done when he sent that.” Neltus dug his toes in the carpet and rubbed his left arm with his right hand as he looked down towards the floor, a little nervous about what he was going to say next, “Um.... I knocked one of the thin plastic things off the table and it broke. Dad said that he had one to replace it… I’m sorry Sharah....” He turned around again and made his way quickly to the kitchen. Mecona appeared and stretched, rubbing her eyes sleepily as she climbed up next to Sharah as she had just woken up from a nap. “What did you do today?”

TGoC

Sharah smiled and shook her head at Julin who was already half asleep. “Neltus, if you have a camera, you might want to get a picture. This will never happen again.” She smoothed back Julin’s hair and thought about grabbing a blanket to cover him, but that might make him too comfortable.

Neltus ran to his room and grabbed his holo camera, snapping a photo of the two sitting on the couch, Julin looking as glazed as a donut fresh on a bakery shelf. “Oh dad’s going to love this!”

“Oh well I guess I just go here a little early. What are you working on?” she nodded towards the project he had left to go make Julin a snack. Sharah knew before, Neltus spoke, what he was going to say, but she knew he needed to say it. She also knew that Neltus had exceptional raw talent with his empathy, and so made the supreme effort to make sure to hide her disappointment from and then her relief that Tabris had a replacement. “It’s okay, Neltus, really. Accidents happen and that’s what it was, just an accident. I’m not upset with you.” Sharah put her free arm around Mecona and gave her a squeeze. “Hello sleepy head.” Mecona grinned and snuggled down. “I was working in the science labs all day today. We are working on making medicines right now. We take parts of different plants and when we add them together with other things, it makes medicine for us for when we are sick.”
Lt. jg Fayth, CSO

Neltus let out a giant sigh of relief and said, “Thank you for understanding I still feel kind bad.” He hadn’t picked up on what she was thinking as her ability to mask was far better than his natural empathic abilities. Mecona smiled and turned her gaze up to Sharah as she spoke, smiling at the squeeze as she nodded, “What kind of plants are you using? What is the medicine for?”

“It’s okay, really Neltus.” She smiled at him, and would have offered him a hug if he wasn’t already out of the room and the fact she had two small children on her. She looked at Mecona, “Well we use the medicines to help when we get hurt and the pain is really bad, or if we are sick it helps get rid of what makes you sick. If your daddy says it’s okay I’ll show the plants some time in the arboretum, but you have to promise not to touch them or eat them, okay?” Mecona was a very sweet child and loved being outside. Sharah could tell that from her thoughts and she missed the trees and plants. Sharah felt the same way.

Neltus didn’t have anything else to say and picked up on her genuine understanding and compassion which put his little heart at ease as he nodded and headed into the kitchen to make a snack. Mecona did indeed miss the trees and the outdoors and her thoughts were clearly pining for the fjords. She looked in wonder as Sharah described the plants, her imagination running through the colors and shapes, wondering if they glowed or were fuzzy and basically letting her preschool mind run happily, the vivid pictures would be clear to Sharah. “I’ll ask! And I won’t eat or touch unless you tell me I can!”

Tabris and Vedi appeared through the front door, Vedi struggling to carry the thin packages while Tabris was carrying a much larger box. They set the packages down on the table as Vedi excitedly bound over to Sharah and started saying, “Sharah! We got it working again! Dad thought it was a lost cause” This comment earned the boy a glare from Tabris but not much else as he continued, “But we got new rollers, sprockets, drive motors, belts, heck Dad even wired a new power supply that you can plug into that thing he put in your kitchen, I did a bunch of the woodworking to make sure it looks it’s best and there was this thing he had to install, a cartridge I think he called it? It’s blue and really delicate, and it’s so cool!!!”

Tabris et. al

As Vedi bounded over she winced to herself, not because of his thoughts but his voice, Julin was being so calm and quiet. She hurridly shushed Vedi, but it was too late. Julin popped up, “Bedi! Bedi bedi bedi!” He slid, still tired and like the cute 3 year old he was, stumbling with exhaustion to climb up his big brother for attention. Not getting more than a hug from Vedi, because Vedi was too excited, Julin clamored haphazardly down Vedi and stumbled over to Tabris. “Abis…” he slurred over, and then in his sleepy mind coming to some conclusion about Tabris’s name, he pulled on Tabris’s hand till he sat down and he climbed into Tabris’ lap, put his head on his shoulder, closed his eyes and sighed. “Daddy I tired.”

Vedi blushed as he realized that he woke up his little brother more than he should and smiled as he heard the little boy chanting his name as he clambered towards him “Hey buddy! You had a really busy day huh?” Vedi said as Julin was trying to cling onto the older boy, Vedi gave him a quick hug and started to bounce excitedly on his heels while Julin proceeded to toddle towards his daddy as Vedi started to talk Sharah’s ear off. Tabris had sat down on a chair across from Sharah and Mecona at the behest of the little hand followed by Julin crawling into his lap and slumping onto him. The little words were a rare and sweet reminder that despite being a bundle of energy, Julin was still just a little kid. He wrapped his arms around the little boy and rocked gently back and forth as Vedi explained everything.

Sharah was now at the table, having been pulled there by an excited Vedi. She picked up Neltus’s holo camera and snapped a picture of Tabris and Julin while she listened to Vedi explain. She looked over the whole thing, and the repair work a little misty eyed. “Thank you.” She looked at Tabris, this was such an important thing to her, and he’d fixed it when she broke it. “Really, thank you. I don’t know what else to say.” She gave Vedi a hug. The boy deserved it. She was sure Tabris did most of the work, but Vedi had worked very hard as well. She went through the smaller packages and let out a little happy yelp before slapping a hand over her mouth and glancing at the sleepy Julin. Her voice dropping to a whisper. She help up a new one, that she hadn’t had. “Tabris you found one. I…I…thank you thank you thank you.” She gave him a very quick hug around Julin, she was so happy. She owed him big time for this.
Lt. jg Fayth, CSO

Tabris smiled, Julin now fast asleep on his lap as Sharah excitedly went through the items with Vedi. The boy was beaming with pride and Sharah would feel that sense of purpose and belonging as he accepted the hug with a smile ear to ear. “You’re welcome!!! It was really fun working on it!” He replied as he bounded off to go annoy Neltus in the kitchen, resulting in a wave of irritation emanating from Neltus. Tabris nodded and smiled at the hug, something that Sharah had commented was for close friends. “I had that one and the one Neltus knocked over, I hope he apologized for that by the way.” He said as he looked up and said, “Neltus worked really hard on something for Joseph, and he forgot to tell you but there is a section for a serial number plate on the front. It was scuffed and he took it on himself to craft a new plate that reads ‘To Joseph, from Sharah’. It might be a little crude and I understand if you want to put the old serial number plate back, I’ve left it in a little bag with the screws. He did well though on the wood work, sanding the scuffs away and polishing it with a fresh stain and lacquer to restore it to what it might have looked like new. It’s not perfect, but it’ll work perfectly and I hope you like it.”

Tabris et. al.