Memory Lane

[Eva Jaz 0]

Meritorious Achievement Award

 

Eva exited sickbay letting go of a barely audible sigh, knowing she wouldn't be away from it for long.

 

After a short ride in the turbolift, she made her way down the corridor leading to her quarters, nodding politely to a couple of the crew members she crossed on her way.She couldn't help but notice that some of the crew members she met were sporting the same look, the one she saw in the mirror: tired eyes, carefully engineered facade, forced smile. This entire ordeal with the away team was taking it's toll on the crew. "I'm glad not to be a telepath today" she told herself as she reached her quarters. Once in, no time to sit lazily and relax.Staying away from sickbay for a full shift under such circumstances seemed almost impossible to her. Not only did she still need to keep her mind busy, but her professional instincts were taking over knowing that an emergency requiring the full medical staff could be possible at anytime. Or at least that was her excuse for not getting any sleep.Well that and all the caffeine she absorbed. She stripped out of her uniform before looking at the chronometer and allowing herself a "long" 5 minutes to clean up and relax sonic shower. Like an automaton, she put on a fresh uniform, her body doing the mechanical work while her mind was racing.

 

Eva was lost in memory, not her own per say but Jaz's. It was 124 years earlier. Saranni was Jaz's host back then. He and his wife were going on a scientific expedition, just the two of them for a month, alone in the wild of a now inhabited planet. Saranni had been looking forward to it for months before. Finally spending time away from the Kem'alta institute... going back to his roots as a field archeologist, not trapped in a lab doing analysis all day.

 

This planet was once home to a humanoid specie, long instinct by now. Trill traders found the ruins about 5 months earlier , their ship caught up in a ion storm, forcing them to land. Word of the discovery made its way to the Kem'alta. It was decided that a pair of archeologists would be sent for a short period of time to accumulate data and assess the scientific interest of a full on dig. Saranni Jaz volunteered for the assessment project, knowing that him and Allaly, his wife of 11 years, were more than fully qualified. He also thought that it could be a mini vacation for them, a mean of getting away from the routine, the institute.

 

When they were chosen, both him and Allaly were ecstatic. Archeology in it's purest form, remote secluded area on a beautiful class M planet. Allaly had already pick for them a nice spot to set camp near the ruins. They talked for 2 weeks, prior to their departure, about the long gone habitants of the planet, losing themselves in conjectures, being hardly able to wait. The departure day finally arrived. They were on their way to the planet, when their ship was attacked. Their communication systems were the first thing to be disabled. Saranni remembered until the day he died the look in Allaly's eyes when he told her no one would get their distress call. The little vessel they were aboard wasn't equipped to put up a fight. From the moment they were first hit, Saranni's memory went blank. The console exploding, Allaly screaming and a sharp pain in his head was all he remembered.

 

He woke up 23 days later in a medical facility on Trill. No permanent damage to the host nor the symbiont was the doctor's diagnosis. As soon as he was able to talk he started asking for Allaly, but the medical staff were avoiding his questions. It took Saranni days to be told the truth. Their vessel was attacked, he was lucky to be alive. No traces of Allaly were found among the debris, no escape pod was ever detected. After a short investigation, it was concluded that Allaly was probably taken by whoever attacked them, and most likely sold as a slave. From that day on Saranni was never the same. He searched for his wife for years after the attack. Resigning from the institute, buying a small ship and searching endlessly. 18 years he searched, his heart aching for her. When he finally realized that he would never see her again, the Trill archeologist stopped searching, flew his small vessel back to the Trill homeworld and slowly let himself die, in what had been their home .

 

Eva shook her head as the memory slowly dissipated. Saranni's pain had been one of the hardest things to deal with after the joining, it made her depressed for weeks before she finally manage a right balance between her own personality as a host and Jaz's past hosts memories and personalities. The recent events made her think back about Saranni's life. The never ending worries and the incessant pain of not knowing what was happening. Eva took some deep breaths before, pinching the bridge of her nose. " You have to keep going... get back in sickbay, do what you can, trust the crew to find him... them... " She repeated those words in her mind time and time again as she walked back to the medical bay. Almost believing them as she reached the door.