Work Text:
This is an encoded message for Commander Raffaela Musiker.
Raffi hears a familiar giggle layered over Elnor’s nervous voice, and her gaze softens as Soji appears onscreen next to him.
You know you can just say Raffi, right? You don’t have to be so formal about it. Hiya, Raffi!
Soji grins and waves at the screen. Raffi laughs, waving back to a week-old recording that she had left sitting in her comms. It wasn’t as though she’d wanted to leave it for so long. But, as she had learned, the paperwork you had to fill in after a time-travelling, Q-wrangling stint piled up hard and fast. It certainly didn’t help that the words swam before her eyes and lengthy, legal sentences unravelled like noodles if she stared at a PADD for too long at a time.
Seven had offered to help her with it, but there was only so much she was allowed to access, being non-Starfleet. JL had merrily slipped off back to the Chateau, brandishing his status as a retired admiral, and somehow, things fell to her through the chain of command. Typical.
Anyway, Soji’s come here to visit me in San Francisco. It’s spring break at the Academy, so we thought we’d spend some time catching up. Travelling Earth. She wants to see the Pacific Northwest, where she allegedly was from according to her implanted memories. She thought it would be humorous. Truthfully, I’m concerned that it may bring her more psychological harm than good.
Elnor!
That boy and his Absolute Candor, Raffi thinks, reclining back on her seat with a smile. She cradles her tea closer to her chest, and as its warmth seeps through the fabric of her shirt, for a brief moment she can imagine the two of them being right there in her embrace.
We’ve met some of Elnor’s classmates, Soji continues. They’re… nice.
I disagree. Elnor’s face turns sour, and Raffi finds herself leaning towards the screen, her interest piqued. She’d seldom seen Elnor like this; he wasn’t one to dislike people easily.
“Tell me, honey. What’s going on?” Raffi whispers, as if she was right there beside him. As if they were back on the La Sirena, trading advice over a spanner or a broken conduit. As much as Raffi had stories to tell, when it came to the people she loved, she only ever wanted to listen.
They saw that I was accompanied by Soji, and they immediately asked if we were romantically involved. That made me uncomfortable. Elnor squirms in his seat even as he recounts it, and Soji puts a hand on his arm reassuringly. When I denied it, they said I would figure it out one day. It felt like they were infantilising me.
He and Soji exchange a glance.
Romance is not something I’ve ever felt the need to pursue. I wish they would just drop it. It’s disrespectful.
“I get you, buddy,” Raffi finds herself murmuring. Being the first of any humanoid species in the Academy had its drawbacks – if they weren’t human enough, if they couldn’t blend in fast enough, they’d be seen as something… different. Un-understandable. Something better off put in a zoo than a classroom. Raffi had seen it second-hand: officers talking to alien cadets loudly and slowly, as if they couldn’t understand Federation Standard even with a translator at hand. Junior officers being treated like some fresh meat they’d have to marinate in the pleasures of the human experience – relationships, alcohol, sex. It sends a shiver down her spine to think of what Elnor’s classmates would have been saying to him.
That’s why I find my friendship with Soji so comfortable, Elnor continues, and a hint of a genuine smile appears on his face. She doesn’t have any expectation of a relationship beyond what we are. I find that many others are different. Especially on Earth.
“Mmhm. Especially when you’re young and your blood runs hot and you’re desperate to make something out of yourself.” Raffi comments, taking a long drink of her tea. God knows she’s been there. Waking up next to people she didn’t know or love. Lashing out at whoever dared to care about her. Considering running away with her then-girlfriend to the Maquis if Starfleet didn’t pan out. (And for a good while, it looked like it almost didn’t.)
Raffi’s mind was always racing – she never could sit still, and she had no idea why. It was certainly frowned upon as she rose through the ranks, and she has had all the accusations layered on her. Nervous trigger finger. Poor concentration meant disregard and disrespect. That was until she was somehow passed along like a hot potato to JL.
Raffi remembers burning in her youth. Just wanting to be put in the eye of the storm, the epicentre of danger, to fight, to fight, to fight.
This bunch was different, somehow. Elnor’s sword was pledged to a lost cause and not whatever enemy he can stick it in. Soji – such a brilliant woman, born to do anything (literally) – chose to work on the Borg Artefact, doing research. Grinding away at statistics and calculations, all to help people largely abandoned by Starfleet. In the aftermath, she travels galaxies to make friends. Soji and Elnor were kind, and they never let anything challenge that.
Maybe this was the hope that was embedded in the next generation. Such gentle compassion, such resilient minds. Curious about the world in all its frustratingly infinite glory.
There’s something in Raffi that wants to reach out and give them both a hug. She reaches out to the projection, and the light shifts where her fingers skim the screen. “I miss you crazy kids,” she whispers, knowing they wouldn’t hear her. They were probably jet setting around the Alpha Quadrant now. Maybe they were planning to see the moons of Jupiter. They could be anywhere, see anything. Raffi smiles to herself, knowing how they will marvel with wonder, like she first did when she left the solar system for the first time.
The projection switches off, and Raffi realises that her attention had wandered off the video for the last of it. She sighs at herself, reaching to turn it back on. What were they saying again? Something about travelling?
A knock comes on her door, and Raffi jumps. Not that she didn’t find her little trailer in the desert a homey place to be, but who else would willingly want to come out here?
She crosses the room, kicking piles of discarded clothes out of the way (she’d been meaning to do a clean at some point). Raffi opens the door, stepping onto her porch, and two figures launch themselves straight into her embrace, knocking the wind out of her.
“RAFFI!!!”
“Elnor? Soji?” As soon as she gets her breath back, she adjusts herself and squeezes them tighter to her. She doesn’t let go until they do, and they all share a breathless, delighted laugh.
“What are you kiddos doing here?” she asks as she turns to give them each individual hugs. “I thought you were travelling the Quadrant!”
“We figured since we were back in California, we’d swing by to pay you a visit!” Soji pipes. “We mentioned in our comms that we’d be coming in about a week! Remember?”
Ah. So that was the part Raffi had missed when her attention wandered.
“We’ve been everywhere this past week!” Elnor continues. “Earth alone has so many hidden gems to explore.”
“I’m sure it does. Did you get tanned?” Raffi reaches to cup Elnor’s cheek, and he laughs into it. “Yes, in Spain!”
“Sounds like you had a fun time. You’re glowing, honey. You both are.” Raffi’s gaze travels over the two of them, and an unspoken rush of pride wells up in her chest.
“Actually, we got you presents!” Soji heaves a large bag in front of her. Raffi’s eyes widen at the sight. “Woah. That’s… a lot of presents.”
“I know!” Soji laughs. “But Elnor and I just couldn’t help ourselves. It’s like, everywhere we went, we saw a little trinket or something that reminded us of you. Or we thought you’d like to have. So we just kept picking things up, and more things, and more things, and it kind of piled up.”
“There’s Japanese melon that we got from Okinawa. Belgian chocolate. Some bracelets and necklaces from Morocco – Soji picked those out.” Elnor quips. “Let me think, what else? I almost got you double swords because I thought you’d like them, but Soji said it was too much.”
“Wow.” Tears prick at Raffi’s eyes, and she hides them in a chuckle. “I just… I can’t believe you were thinking of me all this time.”
“Of course we were!” Elnor says earnestly. “You’re our –” He falters, struggling to find the appropriate word. “Well, you know.”
“You’re you,” Soji finishes for him. “You’re our Raffi.”
“And you’re my Elnor. And my Soji.” Raffi pulls them in for a hug, and she doesn’t let go for a long, long time.
“Come on,” she whispers finally. “How about you guys come in, I make you some tea, and we open up some presents?”