Star Trek Outwardly Mobile:
Meeting Butterflies
By
Jay P Hailey and Garry
Stahl
I was a mass of curiosity and sadness as I walked into the sickbay. Out of maybe one hundred crewmen on the derelict, we'd saved three.
As I walked in, I looked for Marcella Burlington and T'Sing. They would be taking it the hardest. Burlington was gone. T'Sing looked at me with a raised eyebrow. I knew her body language well enough to look for the subtle signs. She wasn't distressed at all.
I blinked.
I felt a feathery touch on my mind **Hello**.
I turned to see one of the survivors sitting up in bed. She had obsidian black skin and solid blue eyes. Her face was just long enough to say "not human", but otherwise interesting. She seemed happy, almost perky. Her eyes were bright with curiosity.
"I'm Jay P. Hailey." I said. "In command of the USS Discovery. Can you understand me?"
She smiled warmly at me. **Yes. I can understand you. Call me Gensilan.**
My heart started to come apart. "Gensilan. I'm afraid that not many of your crew made it off your ship."
She nodded **I know. We discussed it. Three of us elected to return.**
I stopped and blinked. "Huh?"
**We discussed it. I don't feel finished yet. Neither do Falban and Resilan. The rest were satisfied that they'd lived enough.**
"You discussed it?" I had the feeling that there was something very large I was missing.
**Yes, we did. Your doctors did nothing wrong. The ones who died did so voluntarily..**
The idea was very difficult for me to grasp. "They committed suicide?"
Gensilan quirked her mouth and looked thoughtful in a cute way **No, not like that.**
I considered it for a bit. There was way too much I didn't understand. "Umm. Can you tell me of your ship and your people?"
She nodded solemnly **We were the Starship Rengal. We were, oh, scouts, I guess you could say? From the Planet Coventry. We destroyed our engines about 200 years ago by your reckoning, trying to return home in time to fight the last battle against the Cold Reavers, the people you call the Kliges'chee.**
My guts churned. "Ah. Well.... You could say that the Kliges'chee problem has been taken care of." I felt like the stump of what was left of my soul was rotting.
Gensilan looked at me carefully. **Good.**
"Can you direct us? Maybe we can take you to your homeworld and we can see what became of them?" I was pretty sure they'd survived the Kliges'chee conquest. I was just as sure that they didn't enjoy it.
**They did.** Gensilan said. **My people look forward to meeting you. They
tell me they didn't expect a Federation ship to stop by for quite a while longer.**
"They know of the Federation?" I asked.
**I should hope so! We're members of the Federation!** Gensilan said.
I stared at her. And I blinked a few times.
Gensilan grinned at me.
"Ummm... how do you figure?" I asked.
**We're members of the Ane Confederation, Captain. When El Nanth signed the Articles of Federation, they were signing it for all Ane worlds.** Gensilan explained.
I peered at her. That's where the eyes looked familiar from, anyway. "You don't look very Ane to me."
Gensilan's expression was eloquent. Appreciation mixed with exasperation, mixed with pain. **Thank you, I guess. Blame the Rishans.**
"I always do. What for this time?" I asked.
**They altered us.** Gensilan said. She said it plainly. I'd heard female friends admit to having been raped with the same tone of voice.
"The Rishans altered you?"
T'Sing called up a scanner view on the monitor over the bed. "Captain. Although humanoid, Gensilan's internal organs and physiology are distinctly Ane in nature."
"Oh. My condolences." I said.
**Thank you.** Gensilan said.
"So the other ninety four of your crew people died voluntarily?" I asked.
**Yes**
"And you spoke with them. You saw them making this decision?" I was very confused.
**Yes.**
I shook my head at her. "How?"
**We're telepathic, Captain.**
I blinked. I'd been hearing her voice in my head the whole time. "Ooooooh." I said, feeling dim and slow.
Gesilan grinned at me. **You're cute. When can I get out of bed?**
I blinked at her again.
T'Sing raised her eyebrows. "Cute? A very... human term."
I caught her expression though. I blushed.
Gensilan's laugh was musical. Three part harmony. Flutes by Michaelangelo in Love.
-end-
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.
This story posted by permission of the author. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.