11 hours ago
(This post was last modified: 11 hours ago by Hallowette Maxas-Darl.)
Hallowette's smile lingered as Ardanna spoke about Ollie. There was something reassuring about seeing another person so thoroughly happy. The details of the story were unique to them, but the idea of it felt familiar enough. Friendships becoming something more often seemed obvious in hindsight. Like constellations. Once somebody drew the lines between the stars it became difficult to imagine not seeing the pattern.
Ju's observation about people entering lives for a season rather than forever drew a thoughtful tilt of Hally's head. "There's, uhm, actually a word for that in Aldebaran. Veshuri." The unfamiliar word rolled easily from her tongue, carrying a faint musical quality that Federation Standard never quite managed to replicate. "Or at least that's the closest transliteration." A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "It's one of those words that can take an entire paragraph to translate properly." She glanced between the two of them, "Some words just aren't meant to be translated - just...felt."
Her fingers curled around her glass. "The simplest version is someone who leaves your life but leaves it better for just having been there." The pilot shrugged lightly, her words trailing off slightly as she considered exactly what the word meant. "The...actual meaning is much prettier than that."
Languages had always fascinated her for reasons she had never fully managed to explain. Words revealed things about a people. What they feared. What they celebrated. What they considered important enough to give a name to. Every culture left little fingerprints behind in its language if someone cared enough to look for them.
When Ju asked where they were from and what had brought them to Starfleet, Hally laughed softly. "Well..." Her teal eyes drifted briefly toward Earth hanging beyond the spacedock window. "Uhm, Trill, mostly." The answer came easily, but wore its conditions like clothing. "At least that's what I usually tell people."
It wasn't wrong, just sort of incomplete. Hallowette considered for a moment how to really answer the question. Her life had been much more complex than just a simple planet or ship. She seemed to have been born into a complex situation when it came to her family. "My grandparents raised me there when I was little - both of my parents were absent, my Mother was an officer in Starfleet Intelligence with a brilliant career to cultivate, and my Father a member of the Bajoran Resistance."
Her thoughts lingered on the planet of her childhood. Rolling hills. Forest trails. Summer afternoons spent wandering farther than she was ever supposed to. So many sunsets where she Returned home covered in dirt and grass stains while pretending she hadn't been gone for hours. Her Grandmother had always seemed disappointed, but only rarely did she ever say so. She seemed to know down deep that her accomplished daughters little girl was born to explore - to wander.
A fond smile found its way onto her face. "Trill...is beautiful." She looked up at the pair, "Have you ever been?" She asked the table softly
Then she paused, a quiet unsaid moment of emotion crossing her freckled features, "Though if I'm being completely honest, the place that feels most like home wasn't really Trill."
The thought drew another musical laugh, the sound of her accent coming through as she worked less hard to hide it under the Federation standard she was speaking, "You both should know that I am a chronic oversharer." The warning came with an amused shake of her head. "My father joined Starfleet not long after I was born, and eventually served aboard an old Akira-class Peregrine carrier called the Ark Royal when I was growing up. I moved aboard to live with him when I was ten."
Just saying the name brought memories with it. The low vibration of engines through deck plating. The smell of machinery and recycled air. The hum of the docking bay and the laughter of the flight crews as they went about their duties. Endless corridors that seemed impossibly vast to a kid her age.
A wryness filled the space of the smile on her face, "To make a long story short, I was the Chief of Security's kid and the pilots on the ship were a lot more patient with me than they had to be." There was enough affection in her voice to suggest she considered that one of the better things that had ever happened to her. For a moment she found herself watching a shuttle glide across the spacedock beyond the window. "I think that's probably where Starfleet started for me. Those officers more or less adopted me. Taught me to love to fly. To find freedom in going beyond whatever horizon loomed before you."
For a moment she considered her words. It was never quite just about Starfleet, at least not as an institution. It was the feeling. The wonder of it.
She took a sip of her beneer juice before continuing. "My father eventually transferred into diplomacy and we moved to Cardassia. I ended up joining the Youth Ambassador Program a few years later." Her expression brightened slightly at the memory. "That was probably the first time I realized how enormous the galaxy actually is."
A soft laugh escaped her. "And how strange." New worlds. New languages. New customs. Endless conversations with people whose lives looked nothing like her own. She considered how much she'd already shared with these new friends, and how little she wanted to continue talking about herself. The fact she came incredibly close to becoming a diplomat. Her first solo flight on a Bajoran Lightship. The trouble with her mother interfering at the Academy.
Realizing she had somehow managed to wander through half her life story while answering a relatively straightforward question, Hally covered part of her face with one hand and laughed. "I'm sorry. That was probably a much longer answer than you were expecting. Long story short, I chose Starfleet because the time I felt most at home was when I lived was on a Starship."
Lowering her hand, she glanced toward Ardanna. "What about you Ardanna? How does someone decide to go into Starfleet Security?"
Ju's observation about people entering lives for a season rather than forever drew a thoughtful tilt of Hally's head. "There's, uhm, actually a word for that in Aldebaran. Veshuri." The unfamiliar word rolled easily from her tongue, carrying a faint musical quality that Federation Standard never quite managed to replicate. "Or at least that's the closest transliteration." A small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "It's one of those words that can take an entire paragraph to translate properly." She glanced between the two of them, "Some words just aren't meant to be translated - just...felt."
Her fingers curled around her glass. "The simplest version is someone who leaves your life but leaves it better for just having been there." The pilot shrugged lightly, her words trailing off slightly as she considered exactly what the word meant. "The...actual meaning is much prettier than that."
Languages had always fascinated her for reasons she had never fully managed to explain. Words revealed things about a people. What they feared. What they celebrated. What they considered important enough to give a name to. Every culture left little fingerprints behind in its language if someone cared enough to look for them.
When Ju asked where they were from and what had brought them to Starfleet, Hally laughed softly. "Well..." Her teal eyes drifted briefly toward Earth hanging beyond the spacedock window. "Uhm, Trill, mostly." The answer came easily, but wore its conditions like clothing. "At least that's what I usually tell people."
It wasn't wrong, just sort of incomplete. Hallowette considered for a moment how to really answer the question. Her life had been much more complex than just a simple planet or ship. She seemed to have been born into a complex situation when it came to her family. "My grandparents raised me there when I was little - both of my parents were absent, my Mother was an officer in Starfleet Intelligence with a brilliant career to cultivate, and my Father a member of the Bajoran Resistance."
Her thoughts lingered on the planet of her childhood. Rolling hills. Forest trails. Summer afternoons spent wandering farther than she was ever supposed to. So many sunsets where she Returned home covered in dirt and grass stains while pretending she hadn't been gone for hours. Her Grandmother had always seemed disappointed, but only rarely did she ever say so. She seemed to know down deep that her accomplished daughters little girl was born to explore - to wander.
A fond smile found its way onto her face. "Trill...is beautiful." She looked up at the pair, "Have you ever been?" She asked the table softly
Then she paused, a quiet unsaid moment of emotion crossing her freckled features, "Though if I'm being completely honest, the place that feels most like home wasn't really Trill."
The thought drew another musical laugh, the sound of her accent coming through as she worked less hard to hide it under the Federation standard she was speaking, "You both should know that I am a chronic oversharer." The warning came with an amused shake of her head. "My father joined Starfleet not long after I was born, and eventually served aboard an old Akira-class Peregrine carrier called the Ark Royal when I was growing up. I moved aboard to live with him when I was ten."
Just saying the name brought memories with it. The low vibration of engines through deck plating. The smell of machinery and recycled air. The hum of the docking bay and the laughter of the flight crews as they went about their duties. Endless corridors that seemed impossibly vast to a kid her age.
A wryness filled the space of the smile on her face, "To make a long story short, I was the Chief of Security's kid and the pilots on the ship were a lot more patient with me than they had to be." There was enough affection in her voice to suggest she considered that one of the better things that had ever happened to her. For a moment she found herself watching a shuttle glide across the spacedock beyond the window. "I think that's probably where Starfleet started for me. Those officers more or less adopted me. Taught me to love to fly. To find freedom in going beyond whatever horizon loomed before you."
For a moment she considered her words. It was never quite just about Starfleet, at least not as an institution. It was the feeling. The wonder of it.
She took a sip of her beneer juice before continuing. "My father eventually transferred into diplomacy and we moved to Cardassia. I ended up joining the Youth Ambassador Program a few years later." Her expression brightened slightly at the memory. "That was probably the first time I realized how enormous the galaxy actually is."
A soft laugh escaped her. "And how strange." New worlds. New languages. New customs. Endless conversations with people whose lives looked nothing like her own. She considered how much she'd already shared with these new friends, and how little she wanted to continue talking about herself. The fact she came incredibly close to becoming a diplomat. Her first solo flight on a Bajoran Lightship. The trouble with her mother interfering at the Academy.
Realizing she had somehow managed to wander through half her life story while answering a relatively straightforward question, Hally covered part of her face with one hand and laughed. "I'm sorry. That was probably a much longer answer than you were expecting. Long story short, I chose Starfleet because the time I felt most at home was when I lived was on a Starship."
Lowering her hand, she glanced toward Ardanna. "What about you Ardanna? How does someone decide to go into Starfleet Security?"