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Genesis Lythe wasn’t El Aurian. She’s Dar Sha. But she’s still a good listener. She fancies it one of her talents.
That’s why when she hears someone sending a message to their mom, she pauses, furrows her brow, and listens. She can understand feeling homesick, especially if it’s someone’s first time away. So she listens, to get a pulse check on how some of her fellow cadets are feeling. That was another one of her talents - matching peers’ energy, making herself approachable.
Her forehead softens. “Mom, I’m on my way to earth. We were supposed to see it together.” Her stomach curls vaguely. A sentiment that was familiar to her. She leans against the wall as her curiosity gets the best of her and she continues to listen. As she focuses, her eyes wander up at the nondescript room number, and she realized she was standing in the doorway of a classroom. Curiosity getting the better of her, she steps a little further into the doorway and sees a figure in all grey standing at the terminal.
He was lanky, lean. His grey uniform silhouettes a straight, unassuming body. His dark hair and complexion were blue-lit by the terminal. His arms pressed against it, tensing against the ashen uniform, revealing maybe a little more than unassuming under the sleeves. As the terminal screen flashed and lit up his features, Genesis quirked a brow in realization and strode in.
“I thought it was against regulations to hack an instructor’s terminal.” She smirked as the figure flipped to face her, and was pleased it was who she thought it was.
“Are you going to rat me out or shake me down?” He blurted. She knew to choose her next words wisely. She smirked and walked towards him.
“You are wound very tight. I don’t want anything. For now.” She turned on her heel and left. She grinned as she stalked away.
Caleb Mir.
Rumors, confirmed pretty much, that he had been in prison. Other cadets seeing him walk off the same shuttle as the chancellor. She searched his name on her padd as she walked, clicking on the first Federation source link. Caleb Mir’s Federation Justice profile popped up, with a headshot that was more tousled than the person she just saw but with the same fire in his gaze. Anything past three years ago was sealed and unviewable, she glances at his birthdate and realizes he’s 21 years old. Anything younger than 18 was sealed.
“Wow,” she thought to herself. “A record under 18. I’m glad I had the upper hand in that encounter… I hope I did.”
——
San Francisco
The lights in the hallway dimmed to a warm orange. It was 0200 hours, and the lights were tuned to accommodate circadian rhythms in relationship to Earth, to help every species awaken around the same time at the Academy.
Growing up from star base to star base, Genesis was used to living on manufactured time, with the chasm of space and bright fluorescent lights the only constant. On Earth, the new constant was the constant change of the sun rising and setting every day. Genesis was still getting used to leaving the weight room before heading to the track and squinting into the rising sun. The sunbeams would press into her face and she would close her eyes, feeling the warmth on her nose, cheeks, exhale, and let her forehead and neck relax.
She had to admit, she liked getting used to that, and getting used to the gentle lighting in the quiet hours of the morning. The gentle nudging that one should be asleep, creating a hushed environment where it felt wrong to shatter it with more than a whisper. She had started to allow herself to relax more when not in class or around superiors - so when she heard footsteps behind her, her shoulders straightened and she stopped and turned to be caught off guard.
“Hey,” She spoke before he could. It was ingrained in her greet first, both to be polite and to assert herself.
“Hey.” Caleb Mir said as he jogged in her direction. Genesis nodded, turned back and continued walking. “Hey, wait!” She stopped again and turned fully to face him.
“Shh, I’m pretty sure it’s ’quiet hours’ or something like that. Did they ever do anything like that in prison, or?” Her voice lingered at the end of her sentence and she studied his face. The same fire burned behind his eyes and she felt her brows raising a tad in spite of herself as he towered over her.
She had seen earlier that day that the grey standard uniform had been covering study muscles and his hardened gaze covered the fire that was his tell. She should have known better than to goad him, but he had almost gotten them all killed earlier, and she helped, and didn’t even rat him out! Luckily he had done that for himself. Genesis remembered him apologizing to her as his message played ship-wide, and she didn’t even have space to process that in the moment since she was focused on not letting her Cadet Master die.
“Heh. Yeah, actually. I’ll take it.” He caught up to her. “Where are you walking to?”
“Just back to the temporary dorm.” she answered. “What are you doing up so late?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“Yeah, well have a good night,” Genesis looked at him, raised a brow, and kept walking. He quickly caught up with her again.
“Wait, um.” He spotted a nook a few meters ahead in the hallways, arched out of the way. Its walls were covered with academy information screens, and the bench had soft cushions and varied stools and tables. He walked towards it and she followed. She sat on the bench on a cushion and crossed her legs, angling herself towards the cushion next to her, where she expected him to sit. Instead he leaned in the entryway directly in front of her, forcing her to turn her body again to face him directly. She blinked and slightly cocked a brow as she gazed up at him.
“I just wanted to say thanks. For not saying anything.” He swallowed. “About what you heard.”
She didn’t say anything for a moment, and just looked him up and down again. This time, in the orange light. This time, knowing what was under the unassuming uniform, and under the defensive bite. “Yeah. Yeah, no problem.” She nodded and he nodded back. “But I still want to learn to kill a man with a toothbrush.” She gazed at him, challenging his response.
“Well, the chancellor gave me 90 days planetside probation. So. Maybe once I get a toothbrush I can take you up on that.”
“Dude, it’s 3192.” She laughed. “You realize you can replicate one right?”
“Hm. Haven’t spent much time in the post-scarcity part of the galaxy. So I guess I’m still getting used to that.”
“Yeah. Hey, fair. I mean, I didn’t really have to not say anything, the Veneri Ral did it for you.”
“Yeah. But anyways um, thanks. For also, helping, and stuff.” He shifted his weight and stood on his two feet again and started to turn.
She watched him start to stride away, and something in her stomach twinged. Something in her chest clenched and simultaneously seemed to reach out. Maybe the warm orange lights lowered her inhibitions, just like it did with her voice. But she stood and it was her turn to call “Wait!” She beckoned him over with a nod of her head, and he walked back. This time she leaned against the entry. “Sit,” and nodded towards the cushions. He slowly approached the cushions, and lowered himself until he sat with his back straight, feet planted on the floor, arms on his thighs. She could see the tension in his shoulders, but didn’t quite spot a fire in his gaze.
“Did she get your message?”
He stared at her.
“Your mom?”
His gaze hardened. “No,” a steely note in the syllable.
She held her hands up, bowing her head slightly. “I’m sorry. I mean, if our warp core almost got stolen, if she’s able to, the least she could do is respond,” she replied. “If she’s able to,” she repeated.
“Yeah. I guess that’s the question.” He shrugged. Again his weight shifted to his feet and he started to stand.
She started towards him and opened her mouth. “I - um. I wouldn’t have said anything anyways. Is it your first time on earth?”
He nodded.
“You said you two were going to see it together.”
“Yep. Even as a kid I knew that was a pipe dream though. Something my mom told me to try to comfort… be comforting.”
“Sorry.” She looked down. “That sucks. I hope she’s able to get your message and get back to you sometime.”
Caleb stared at her. “I haven’t even told you if she’s dead or alive.”
Genesis’s head stayed down. “I mean, either way, I hope she’s able to get your message and get back to you somehow.”
He stared at her head, tilting his head to get a glance of her forehead and eyes. “Well, they told me she’s alive. So. Yeah. I guess I hope so too.”
“Oh!” She looked up and her eyes widened. “She’s alive. That’s good news!” He shrugged again, shoulders dropping down. “Well, if there’s ever anything I can do to help-“
His eyes narrowed. “What? Help how? By interrogating me?”
“Hey -“ she grabbed his arm and sat next to him. “Look. I said I wouldn’t tell. So just. I get it. That’s all.”
“Isn’t your dad a Starfleet Admiral?”
“Yeah.”
“So you understand why I have a hard time totally believing that, considering I grew up breaking out of prison to prison? And don’t give that ‘Growing up in my dad’s shadow was a prison of its own’ crap.”
Her brow raises higher than it has yet in this conversation and she takes a deep breath. She remembers she was taught to listen with an open face. It made people feel more comfortable. So they would speak more. She speaks slowly. “Ok. I’m going to overlook that, because that wasn’t what I was going to say.” Her brow unfurrows slightly. “My dad is a starfleet admiral. I haven’t seen my mom since I was 8.”
“Trauma twins,” he mutters with an eye roll. But he looks at her after and pressed his lips together, and maintains eye contact.
She narrows her eyes and chooses to continue. “We were moving to my dad’s next assignment. My parents had been fighting a lot. They actually, uh.” She cleared her throat. “My dad got promoted from Captain to Rear Admiral. At the promotion ceremony, you choose who you want to put your new pips on your collar. Usually people choose their mentor or spouse. It’s a whole thing. So my parents got into a fight, well it was the respark of a fight that had started when he found out he was getting promoted. At the ceremony in front of the whole ship and base, they called my mother to present the pips. And… she refused to step forward.”
He continued to stare at her, but with a steady gaze. Her eyes met his, and she looked back at her hand on his arm.
“Anyways. I knew my dad was going to be so mad when we got back to our quarters. I was scared, because I was 8. I could tell my dad was getting so angry, and I just wanted them both to stop. After she didn’t respond, the admiral tried to save it, and I did too. I didn't want my mom and I to be in even more trouble when we got home. I didn’t have the pips but I stepped up anyways, and my dad leaned down and played along for the rest of the ceremony but he wouldn’t look at me. And he wouldn’t look at me or my mother on our way back to our quarters. And I kept telling him how happy and proud I was of him and he wouldn’t answer me. And I kept asking my mom if she was mad at me and she wouldn’t answer me.”
She suddenly felt a hand squeeze hers, and she realized her hand dropped off Caleb’s arm while she had been speaking. She blinked again and smiled slightly, and continued.
“Anyways. We moved to the starbase where my dad’s new assignment was. My dad and I traveled over first. My mother was supposed to meet us there. The convoy she was supposed to be on arrived, and she wasn’t on it. In hindsight, I don’t know why I was surprised but again. I was 8.”
She chuckled a little and he cracked a grin and snorted.
“Right anyways. Long story short.” She shrugged and stood up. She held her arms up in front of her again, palms facing him in a submissive posture. “I wasn’t going to tell. Don’t worry. I got you.” She stood up and faced him, backing away. She wanted to study his expression, but her vision was growing blurry. “You should go to sleep. It’s quiet hours after all.”
She turned on her heel and started towards the temporary dorm before he could respond.
Her footfalls were heavier than normal, and heavier than she would have liked for 0300. But the twinge in her stomach had turned into a heavy knot as she walked, and her chest felt tighter and heavier and it was almost like there was a magnet in her stomach and a magnet in her sternum because as she walked she felt her torso want to invert towards each other. She picked up her pace and widened her stride as her breath caught in her throat. Pressure built behind her eyes.
The locker room was ahead and she ducked in and ran into a shower stall. Although sonic showers were the norm, they were planetside, and traditional water showers were available. Genesis Lythe was still getting used to water showers. That night, she joined the time honored tradition of bracing her hands against the tile walls, cranking the faucet to the right, and covering her hiccuping gasps with coughs.