Hangout ((Chalice/t'Tamarak))

[Jaiysa t'Tamarak 0]

((This log is set *directly* after the end of the 6/22 sim, before "The Welcome Wagon"))

 

Jaiysa stepped off the turbolift and eyed the doors of the Manticore sickbay thoughtfully for a few moments. She had just come from the bridge office of the lloann'na enriov, Atragon, and though she had been expecting that conversation for some time, its outcome had still felt slightly startling. She stepped through the doors and looked around, wondering if Vilanne was still up and about or if the stocky human nurse had come back and bundled her into a biobed.

 

Nurse Nancy was no where to be found. Vilanne must have stuffed her body in the storage closet or something. Vilanne, however, was on one of the consoles nearby her biobed, which no longer had a curtain drawn about it.

 

Jaiysa made for the young doctor, glancing around for the yyaio on whom she had been doing scans when Jaiysa left. The room was quiet, however. "Maenek..." she said dryly, "You should not still be out of bed."

 

"Jaiysa! I have news...good news!" Vilanne blurted out as Jaiysa approached, spinning around on the stool and smiled broadly. "I can be out of bed; in fact, I've been released from bedrest now. No duty, but I can move about the ship and even sleep in my own quarters now."

 

"Ah...good..." Jaiysa said, distracted from her own news as Vilanne's bearing exploded with movement and energy. "I'm glad your treatment has been judged a success."

 

Vilanne stood and grabbed Jaiysa's arm. "Let's go for a walk, I want to get out of here!" She turned back momentarily to finish up the things she had been doing with the neural scans on the console and locked it out.

 

Jaiysa glanced at the console at which Vilanne had been working and then found herself steered out the door and into the corridor. "Your scans of the Vulcan?" she asked, gracefully disentangling herself from Vilanne's grip as they began to walk, Jaiysa's security entourage following a few steps behind.

 

"Shhh...shh...you don't know about those." Vil winked at Jaiysa as the group walked to the turbolift. Once there, Vilanne called out the floor for her quarters and pulled Jaiysa out on the correct deck, ushering her along the corridor to her door. "I want you to hang out with me," she said, glancing at the two security men. "Alone."

 

The two gold-shirted men seemed suitably uncertain about this instruction, but took up positions outside the door of the quarters which Vilanne had arrived at. Vilanne, satisfied, stood at the door for a moment before opening it, with her arms spread out as if to hold anyone from going in. "You have to understand," she said to Jaiysa, "I'm quite the comfortable person. I don't...um...have a maid or anything, but this IS my home." With that, she turned around and opened the door through the security padd on the wall.

 

The door opened and Vilanne scooted into the middle of the room, which was furnished plainly, though there were articles of clothing strewn about on various areas near the bed and bathroom. She grabbed a few piles and tossed them behind the sofa, giving room for both Jaiysa and her to sit.

 

Jaiysa looked as if she was restraining a couple of different comments and settled for, "Indeed." She stepped through the doors and let them slide shut behind her, eyeing the seat Vilanne had cleared for her for a moment before taking it.

 

Vil didn't sit just yet but instead went over to the replicator and placed an order. "Two hot cocoas, medium warmth, with whipped cream." She waited for a moment while the very familiar order materialized. She picked up the cups and carried them carefully over to the coffee table in front of the small sofa. "Ever had these?" she asked as she handed one to Jaiysa, then sat down next to her and picked up her own, smelling the delicious aroma that was filling the room. "I miss these most. Nurse Nancy refuses to get them for me, claiming I'll burn myself drinking them from the biobed." She watched Jaiysa with hers.

 

Jaiysa sniffed at the hot liquid for a moment and then sipped at it. The sweetness of the drink startled her and she made a slightly strange face, setting the mug down on the table. "She is probably right."

 

Vil was confused. What woman in her right mind didn't crave chocolate?! "Something wrong with it?"

 

"Not to my taste," Jaiysa said with a shrug and a faint dry grin. "Rather too...cloying."

 

"Not sure what cloying is... is that a Romulan word?"

 

Jaiysa snorted. "Actually, it's one of yours. Your drink is too sweet, maenek."

 

"Oh, well then... " Vilanne lifted Jaiysa's cup and placed it into the recycler and stood in front of the replicator. "What can I get you? Anything your heart desires. Do you miss anything, just name it."

 

Now, there was an interesting question. Do I miss anything? Jaiysa had been spending most of her time preoccupied with the question of whether she would be forced to return where she had come from; the question of missing things had been entirely beside the point. It still was. This place, not ch'Rihan, was where she had to focus her energy. "I'm fine, hann'yyo," she replied after a moment's silence.

 

"Jaiysa...c'mon...I can replicate any treat or drink you crave. Don't you have cravings where you come from?" Vilanne pleaded.

 

Jaiysa grunted. "Of course...I am simply not..." Her voice trailed off and she sighed. It was clear from Vilanne's plaintive expression that she would likely not let the subject rest until she felt she had offered hospitality, whether or not Jaiysa asked for it, which she did not, particularly hospitality along the lines of 'remembering where she came from.' "Coffee. Dark," she said resignedly. A drink at least very different in the Federation than the Rihannsu equivalent, and one which would not suffer from the saccharine overload which the chocolate provided.

 

"There you go. Now we can relax and you can tell me all about your life, your loves, your passions, everything," Vil said, smiling, as she finally sat down, handing Jaiysa the dark brew.

 

Jaiysa took the mug absently and looked at it in silence for a moment as if lost in thought, then laughed sharply. "You give me far too much credit for an interesting story to tell, I'm afraid."

 

Vil's feet popped off the floor and landed on the coffee table in front of the little sofa, and she adjusted her body back into the cushions so that she was in a very relaxed position. "Are you trying to tell me that your childhood and teen years weren't filled with adventure and excitement?"

 

"Yes," Jaiysa said shortly, and she eyed the second dark brown drink in her mug with mild skepticism for a moment before draining a small gulp from it. Better, considerably so. "At any rate, I am...of the sort who prefers to focus on the present."

 

"Well then, tell me about the present! Isn't it great to skate away from your escorts?" Vil nodded towards the door. "They are probably bugging us," she giggled. "Just kidding! But I'm sure their ears are to t he door to see if we are breaking through the ceiling panels and escaping."

 

"They are diligent in their duties; I respect them for it," Jaiysa said slowly, sipping again at the drink. "Though...it is possible that they will be returned to other duties soon enough." Atragon had of course told her that his decision regarding her still required the approval of the Manticore's chief of medicine, and she might retain her escorts at any rate if the security department continued to distrust her. She could respect them for that, too. But the possibility of greater allowed freedom was now there.

 

"What happened when they dragged you out of sickbay? C'mon, give up the dope."

 

"Your enriov, Atragon, wished to speak with me," Jaiysa said, then paused. "He had in the interim been completing background checks on me and was apparently...satisfied. For the time being I will be remaining aboard the Manticore, assuming your medical department can find use for me." And that you can find patients willing to be treated by me...

 

Vil almost dropped her cup, "You are staying?" As quickly as she had spit the words out, her cup was sliding just shy of the edge of the coffee table and her arms were around Jaiysa's neck in a hug. "That's excellent! I mean, Chief Mele said yes? Admiral Atragon said yes? This is so sweet!" She released her hug and went immediately back to her cup.

 

Jaiysa clamped down on a near-shout of surprise as she was enveloped in a hug tight enough to be a stranglehold, but before she could pull away, she had been released, and was looking around for the shreds of her dignity. She wasn't sure what to make of Vilanne's exuberant reaction.

 

To be honest she wasn't really sure what to make of Vilanne in general. Even in light of the life-saving business, the human doctor's enthusiasm for Jaiysa's presence over the last week seemed to the Rihannsu incongruous to the circumstances, evidence of a mildly naive tendency towards easy trust, and very discomfiting. It was good to have an ally, but one so easily obtained was...confusing, and thus, to Jaiysa's mind, to be taken with suspicion.

 

"It is...not certain yet, I suppose," she said, shifting against her seat once she had been released. "I do not know the response of your chief. Atragon had yet to speak with him. But it is likely."

 

"Excellent to hear, Jaiysa. I just gotta ask you one favor if you get to stay in sickbay and help out." Vilanne looked all serious and stuff.

 

Jaiysa's eyes narrowed slightly and she looked at her companion curiously. "What favor?"

 

"That word...that maniac word...can we drop that one? I know it means doctor...but, um...just doesn't sound right." Vilanne giggled, so hard that she couldn't continue talking for a moment.

 

Jaiysa looked slightly startled, and her narrowed eyes sparked with sudden dry amusement as she eyed Vilanne's paroxysms of laughter on the couch. "Perhaps 'maniac' would be more apt..." she muttered, then shrugged with a sobriety equal to that which Vilanne had displayed in making the request. "I had expected something more complex. I have no attachment to the word."

 

Vilanne's smile broadened. "We are going to get along just fine!"

 

*enriov = Admiral.

*hann'yyo = Thank you.

*maenek = Doctor.

*lloann'na = Federation