Posted April 1, 2019, 8:25 p.m. by Commander Relann Fell-Drayke (Executive Officer) (Lindsay B)
OOC: Steven and I have a plan for the future. I’m taking a break from Relann and might do quick messages to Jacen. When I’m ready to bring her back, she’ll return as a civilian with lots of room for more adventures with the crew.
IC:
Eyeing the bags, Relann studied their contents and wondered if they were forgetting anything. Really, it didn’t matter. This wasn’t permanent and they could get anything they needed where they were going.
When Dalaira said she needed to return home, Relann had made the slight quip about which home. Did the Elder and Ambassador mean the Dy’allan colony or their true home, Molaida (known as Rai’vel to everyone who wasn’t Dy’allan). It was the deeply startled look in her friend’s eyes the prompted a conversation. And then another one. And several more that also including Sowyn and Jacen.
In the end, no one could deny the truth of what needed to be done: the Dy’allan people needed to return home. But the trauma induced by the massacre that prompted their escape meant that returning to a place where they had lost so much was not going to be easy. Even convincing them that this was the right path would take time and patience. But Relann and Dalaira were both in agreement that it needed to happen.
The plan was that she and Sowyn would accompany Dalaira to see their people again and hopefully get them to move back home. In messages with Dianj, Relann learned that Rai’vellan government was very supportive of the idea and would lend whatever help and resources that were required.
The major downside was that Jacen wasn’t going to be able to come with her. Relann also knew deep in her heart that the time had come for her to embrace what she was. She was a Chihao and while there she needed to embrace it again. Once she did, she knew deep in her heart that her path would be irrevocably changed. Resigning her position as first officer was really hard and she knew Kelly wanted her to reconsider. But Relann knew it was time. Her people needed her more than the Atlantis did, for now, and after that she knew other things would happen. She had communed with the Spirits a couple of times and that is what sealed the deal on this trip.
Alexx… well, even if he hadn’t told her exactly what he thought of the whole thing, she’d have known. She insisted she’d be back soon. Shorter than when he’d been ‘dead’, she noted, just to make a point. That went over exactly as she expected it would.
It would last a few months. Three, four? If all went well. And then Sowyn had insisted on going. Relann understood. It was hard being the only Dy’allans out here and if only for a short time, she wanted to be amongst them again. It was that reason alone that Relann thought Jacen was as okay with them going as he was. He was needed on the ship, and being apart would be difficult, but they would be able to send messages regularly, so that wouldn’t be too much of a problem. Still, she was going to miss her husband terribly and as that thought came to her mind, she had to brush a tear away. They had never been apart before.
Finally, everything was packed and farewells made. It was, ‘See you as soon as we can’, not good bye. But it was an end. An end of a career that saved her. Being an officer had given her meaning in a life filled with loss and trauma. Even to this day it was hard to express what she felt when she remembered that day her family and friends and all the people she had known growing up had been mercilessly killed. But in her new life she had found things she wasn’t sure she’d see see and know again: compassion, care, laughter and most importantly love. More love than she had thought was possible for her. And she found herself returning it freely.
This visit was going to be a change- a good change and for good reasons. It was then Relann Fell-Drayke realized just how magnificent her life really had become.
Her prayers had been answered.
Commander Relann Fell-Drayke, Saying See you soon
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