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When the kids came to Sickbay ...When the past doesn't match the present...or the future

Posted Jan. 9, 2022, 4:01 p.m. by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) (Kate O'Neill)

Posted by Civilian Evrilla (Chief Medical Officer w/ specialty in Pathology) in When the kids came to Sickbay …When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Civilian Jessa Novar (Child) in When the kids came to Sickbay …When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future

Posted by Civilian Evrilla (Chief Medical Officer w/ specialty in Pathology) in When the kids came to Sickbay …When the past doesn’t match the present…or the future
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Jessa sat in the room looking at the trays piling up in the corner of the room. It took every ounce of restraint not to throw them out into the middle of sickbay. It was not because someone had made her angry of the food was unpalatable. It was because it was just sitting in the room. Jessa had overheard the men at her door joke when the doctor brought in her tray that she was lucky because the nutraloaf was going to make her friends in sickbay wish they were dead the second it hit their stomachs. Jessa knew the Elders were too smart to eat anything these people gave them and if they were not eating, she wouldn’t either. It was still hard though sitting in the room with the food when she had not eaten anything solid in two days.

Getting up she paced the room thinking about everything that had transpired over the past few days. So much of what the Elders had promised had come true. They had said the crew of this ship would be hostile and aggressive. Zala Tsu warned Jessa they would end up in the brig but not her. Because of her age, Zala Tsu had said they would isolate Jessa in some form, which they had. Her hand moved up to the small tender area on her neck. Mardusk said it was Zala Tsu. Jessa knew it could not have been. They needed her but every time she replayed the event in her head, it did not make sense. So many things did not make sense right now.

Evrilla was well aware that Jessa wasn’t eating, and more than that, she was well aware of the consequences that could have for her health. Clearly, the only course was a secret plot, with the best spy on the ship… her daughter.

Tatyl slipped inside Jessa’s room, still wearing her backpack from school. Slipping it off and setting it by the door, she met Jessa’s gaze with a wink and a finger over her lips. She bounced over to the older girl’s bed, standing on her tiptoes in an attempt to level the playing field. “I’m Tatyl.” Her greenish hand hung in the air between them as she stared Jessa down, waiting for her to take the offer.
-Tatyl

“I’m Jessa Novar,” she looked back and forth at the kid and the people outside the door. Of all the things that had surprised Jessa, the little blue mini-me of the doctor moving around was not one of them. Jessa had had some sporadic contact with the blue-skinned doctor but it was short and fleeting. She assumed it was because the woman was tending to the other person that had been hurt and that Jessa was not her immediate patient. Jessa hoped it wasn’t because the woman did not want to deal with her.

Tatyl beamed at the implied permission.

“You know they might get mad seeing you in here,” Jessa hooked her head at the door. “I’m so glad to meet you but I don’t want to get you into trouble. Are you sure you are allowed to come in here” she smiled. The little girl was several years younger than Jessa but it was nice to talk to someone. Sitting in the room was lonely and she could only sleep so much to pass the time.

“Well… Nooooooo. Nurse Briza didn’t tell me not to, and my amma says I can go anywhere that isn’t explicisiously marked off.” Tatyl’s butchering of ‘explicitly’ only added to the child’s charm.

“Expliciously marked off the places are the best. Makes me feel adventurous,” Jessa smiled warmly at the child. “There is a garden back where I live and you are not supposed to go it in but there is this tiny, tiny waterfall that empties into a pond. In the springtime it is full of tadpoles. Sometimes I sneak in and just watch them swim around. It makes me happy.” Jessa felt a weight lifting off her chest. The only thing she had talked about was business recently. It was nice to share a memory.

“Baby frogs!” Tatyl whispered, enthralled by the very idea of amphibians.

Jessa laughed at the little girl’s enthusiasm. “Do you know why I love tadpoles so much,” Jessa asked the little girl. “It’s because they start off as one thing in life and become something else. It’s like magic. Oh, and they are green. Green and blue are my favorite colors. I lived on a planet once that had an orange sky and because of that the plants were all blue.” Jessa’s chest tightened. Thinking of home was dangerous in so many ways. In a different time or place Jessa would have gone on for hours about the park, her school, Elgin, and Pellan but she was not in a different place.

“Are you going to school,” Jessa pointed at the door. “I like school but hate math.” Jessa wrinkled up her nose and shook her head playfully at Tatyl. The little girl was adorable. She had a bright smile and was so cute when she put her finger over to shush Jessa earlier. Where the little girl came from Jessa had no idea but she was glad she was there.

Jessa

Tatyl giggled joyfully. “I just came from school! I have lots fun stuff in my backpack!” Tatyl eyes grew wide, a reaction that would seem exaggerated in an adult, but fit perfectly on her face. “I have colors! Do you wanna color?” She didn’t wait for a response before running to grab her backpack off the ground and upending its contents onto the floor. A PADD clattered against the ground, a coloring book of Mandalas, colored pencils rolling every which way, and something Evrilla had snuck in: Fig bars, still in sealed packaging.
-Tatyl

“Lemme help you,” Jessa got down from the bed and started picking up the pencils. Moving around the room she found the small packages of wrapped food. For a split second, Jessa debated about stuffing them in her pocket. Her belly was full now but that could change in a second. Picking it up small packages, she held it in her hand before grabbing the last of the pencils and moving next to Tatly. “Here we go,” she helped the little girl put the pencils in the box. “Now should we color on the floor or the bed,” she asked. Wrinkling up her nose, Jessa looked at the bed and realized that was never going to work.

Getting up Jessa pulled her blanket off her bed and spread it on the floor. “How about we sit on this,” Jessa laid down and made room for Tatyl next to her. Grabbing the coloring book, Jessa opened it and froze slightly. Her heartbeat increased slightly and she leaned to the left looking out her door. Picking up a pencil Jessa began to flip through the pages of the book slowly. She had no idea what the symbols meant at the bottom of the pages but she was pretty sure it was their numbering system. She scanned each page long enough to make it look like she was selecting a picture to color instead of trying to find what she was looking for. Several pages in Jessa found it. The line and the hook. “Can we do this one,” Jessa asked Tatyl. “I like the flowers on it.”

Tatyl nodded vigorously. “They’re supposed to be chrysanthemums. From Earth.” She searched around in the box, offering a deep red pencil to the older girl.

After a few seconds Jessa said in a casual tone, “I miss going to school. Seeing my friends. Wanna play school,” she let out a laugh and dropped her head like it was the funniest thing in the world.

“How about you pretend you are the teacher and I can be the student. Miss Tatyl,” Jessa smile using a sing song voice. “What number is this,” she pointed to the bottom of the page?” Jessa held her breath hoping the little girl would play along. She had never in her life hoped for something as bad as this.

Jessa

Tatyl barely refrained from tilting her head curiously. However, growing up amongst blind children she was no stranger to reading labels, instructions, or whatever else didn’t come in a convenient writing system. “It’s 14! Cause on the far right is the ones place, and that’s a 4, and the left one is the tens place and it’s a 1. So you add them, one ten plus four ones!” Why the older girl wanted numbers of all things, instead of letters Tatyl wasn’t sure, but the faint echoes said she REALLY wanted them.
-Tatyl

“Wanna see a secret,” Jessa said Tatyl. Using her red pencil, Jessa wrote out her name. जेसा “So where I come from there are a lot of different people and a lot of different languages. That is my name at least how I write it where I am from. How do you write Jessa?” Jessa knew this was dangerous. No one could know the secret language but she had to find a way to figure out their alphabet.

Jessa

Tatyl frowned, but drew a blue pencil from the box. “I’m not sure. Maybe… J-E-S-A? Or two Ss? Or it could end in -uh. Phonetic spelling is hard.” She wrote in order. J-E-S-A, J-E-S-S-A, J-E-S-U-H, and J-E-S-S-U-H. “I think it’s one of those.”
-Tatyl

“You are right and so smart,” Jessa smiled and used her shoulder to nudge Tatyl’s playfully. “Its that one,” she picked the second one. Jessa could not read any of it but the second one matched the name over her bed. She didn’t know what was over her bed but the five letters matched that. “Wanna see your name in my writing,” Jessa picked up a green pencil and wrote the letters the way it sounded in her own grapheme form. “टाटा. That is your name.”

Tatyl clumsily copied the letters, smiling the whole time. “That’s cool. Aenar don’t even have an alphabet.”

“Why? How can they learn to read without an alphabet,” she looked at Tatyl confused.

While this little game would work, Jessa needed it to be faster. Looking at the book Jessa came up with another idea. “Can you help me with something?”

Tatyl tilted her head curiously.

“Everyone was so nice to me here I want to do something nice for them. I want to give your mom this picture I colored to say thank you for helping me. I would buy her something but I don’t have any money. Think she would like a picture I colored for her?”

“Yuh-huh! My amma puts all my pictures in a special folder, and takes them out 3 times a year.”

Jessa smiled happily. The little girl’s personality shown through with everything she did. Tatyl was such a happy kid. Jessa loved to see kids happy. It was rare where she came from. “So I am going to have to go talk to someone soon but if you can help me? Can you write the words as I color the picture? We can say we both made the gift and we can get it done before I have to go or you leave. ” Jessa colored the picture making sure she covered up her writing. “What if we say thank you so much for being so nice to me. Then we can sign our names.” The sentence was long and would give something for Jessa to work on to learn their letters. It would go much faster if she had a primer like when she learned to write but for now this would work.

Tatyl nodded furiously and started to write it out on her piece of paper. “I gotta check my spelling.”

Jessa watched Tatyl and felt her heartbreaking. She also felt a hot rush of anger fill her body. Her new friend was just being nice and Jessa could not even enjoy it. She could not learn something new because she wanted to. She could only learn something to improve the success of her mission which was their alphabet.

Damn you Rinker. Damn you Aunt Kayla. Damn you Galactic Union, she thought in her mind. Tatyl was such a sweet and trusting soul. Jessa decided in this moment, she would not let anything happen to her when the Union came to this galaxy. Jessa colored slowly as her mind raced in her thoughts. Jessa was angry that Rinker even opened her mind to the possibility that these people in the Milky Way might not be happy with a new life in the Galactic Union. It was not his fault she felt this way but if she had never met him, she would not be thinking these thoughts.

She was even angrier that she would not be able to ever mention anything that happened here to her Aunt Kayla without fear of retribution to everyone on this ship she had met. Aunt Kyla always said Jessa could tell her anything but sometimes after she did bad things happened.

Most of all Jessa was furious at the Galactic Union for even finding this place and sending her here.

She could not dwell however with sad and angry thoughts. It would make her like Da Mu or Rogan. Taking a deep breath and pushing her worries away, Jessa decided to focus on the things she could control as Rinker said.

“So do you have any pets,” Jessa asked as she colored.

Jessa

“No… Andoria’s too cold for pets. A lot of Vulcans had pets though, and T’loa showed me her sehlat. Do you have pets?”
-Tatyl

“No, but I have always wanted one. My mom gave me a stuff Chrisvens mouse when I was little. It was just a toy but I used to put a piece of rope around his neck and draw him with me to the park pretending he was real.” Jessa let out a laugh remembering how dirty the toy got when she did this. “My mom and I named him John which means God is gracious. She told me that the name was special to her but I was not allowed to tell anyone else this. I don’t know why though,” Jessa finished coloring the flower and moved to a different one. “So don’t tell anyone okay,” she held out her hand for Tatyl to shake it.

“You live here though and not Andoria,” Jessa countered. “Why doesn’t your amma get you a pet now?”

Jessa Novar


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