"Hard Lesson to Learn"

[Ruca NEtani 0]

"Hard Lesson to Learn"

Doctor Ruca N'Etani, Ensign

Stardate 0307.15

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As Doctor Telano and Ruca headed off to try and solve the problem, Ruca glanced back over her shoulder and watched Ensign Light move off in his own direction. Each of them had their own agendas, their own things to be doing on this mission, but Ruca found it comforting to have the conversation on the shuttle on the way down. She had never been one to get close to anyone, having grown up the same way. Servants and slaves were never really 'allowed' to socialize, but of course, it would happen occasionally. Some would get romantic and have children. However, they were never allowed to keep their kids and were always separated from each other as well. Slaves never knew their families. Some barely knew their last names. Ruca had been lucky.. she had been told her full name, but was also told that searching for her family would be futile. The government kept those records under tight security, and a slave would have chance of even seeing them. Ruca could never forget the feeling she had when she realized what she was.. and what she would be missing in her life ....

 

She had tiny hands, and she grasped the rough iron fence with an unusual strength. Her steely hazel eyes looked a dark gray at the moment, since the sky above was brewing a distant storm. She watched two young girls, her own age, walking past the institute briskly on their way to school. Their clothing was rich in colour and textures. This little girl had never seen anything so beautiful in her life.

 

"Ruca! Come away from that fence and get over here! You have yet to finish seeding this garden here! How will you ever be placed with a family if you don't know how to simply seed a garden!" A shrilly woman's voice rang out behind her. Ruca glanced back at the girls one last time and turned around, her bare feet avoiding the rocks as she walked over to the garden where other girls and boys her age were hard at work.

 

"Where are those children going, Miss Orwen?"

 

Miss Orwen, her trainer, looked down at Ruca with semi-sympathetic eyes. She knew that working with the slave children would need a softer heart, especially since she would have to let these kids know exactly what sort of life they would have to lead, "Ruca.. they are going to school."

 

"School? Like what we do here?"

 

"No .. you learn the basic things here. That is all you are allowed to learn. Those children are privileged.... they learn a lot more things."

 

Ruca blinked her 6 year old eyes, "I want to learn more things."

 

Miss Orwen kneeled down, "Ruca .. you are a slave. You are not the same as them. You are beneath them. Because of that .. you cannot learn more. You must learn what you can about being a servant and that is all."

 

She looked into Miss Orwen's eyes. Despite their soft nature, Ruca somewhat understood. She was beneath everyone else. Including Miss Orwen. A slave. A servant. Her eyes fell to her feet, dirty with small cuts from walking around with no shoes.

 

A nobody. It was a hard lesson to learn.

 

"Ensign N'Etani..?"

 

Ruca blinked her eyes, hearing her name. She nodded and followed everyone else into the hospital. It wasn't time to think about the past. Just the task at hand, and maybe the future. She had hoped that Mister Trichon Light wouldn't think of her as beneath him .. since she sometimes assumed that everyone thought that. Even if she knew better. This wasn't Turani .. but it was hard to think anything else after a while. She sighed.  Friends were something she had never had.

 

It would be nice to have a friend.