Lt. V’Len Kel - Interlude

[Etan Iljor]

This was an achingly beautiful read, courtesy of @VLen Kel.

—

((Senior Officer’s Crew Quarters, Deck 5, USS Intrepid))

 

V'Len walked into his quarters and dropped down onto the bed. Well not really his quarters, these were quarters of his Intrepid counterpart, CMO Sevrik.  Training the crew to man the Intrepid had been exhausting and he was glad to finally be able to relax and hopefully sleep. He couldn't help but look around the room and smile.  Like V'Len, Sevrik was clearly a music lover. There were three Vulcan lyres scattered around the room, a sort of metal flute, a brass instrument and a fine guitar hanging from the wall. The quarters were spartan by the standards of the 25th century.  There was no carpet, and the metal walls were undecorated apart from the guitar, but V'Len felt very much at home.  Xam Kel had spent a good decade in quarters like this. At first alone and then with…Millie?

The name echoed around in his mind for several seconds.  It was a name V'Len had never heard and at the same time he suddenly knew everything about the owner.  Her warm embrace, her effervescent laugh, her sharp voice when she was crossed.  V'Len felt he'd always known her, better than he knew Jack or Nesre.  But how had he forgotten?  How had her name been buried and silent for so long in his mind?  

He rose, not sure where he was going, but moved over to the room's computer terminal and began wildly punching buttons.  The interface was frustratingly slow.  Data could not be brought up by simply giving a verbal command, not in this era.   While only moments passed it felt to Kel like an eternity.  Finally  the screen lit up and displayed a picture of a gentle eyed, Andorian woman.  Millie.  Kel sat down facing the display, his eyes open wide in wonder.  She was on a Starbase 12, just 6 lightyears away.

Kel gently caressed the image on the screen with his thumb as a thousand memories rushed back.  There she was.  Millie.  His Millie.  His wife.  Not exactly V'Len's wife, but Xam Kel's wife. The two had met serving on the Exeter, Xam a brash, Trill helmsman and she a confident, Andorian engineer.  Millie.    She was just a week's journey from their current position and 6 lifetimes removed from Kel.  He was trying hard to hold back the tears welling up in his eyes.

They worked together for 3 years before karaoke and too many drinks resulted in him waking up awkwardly in her bed.  The truth that they both cared for each other finally came out and they were married a year later.   V'Len could almost have been their child. But there were no children, because V'Len Kel was not the first Kel host to suffer a grievous injury.  The CMO of the Exeter was unsure whether Xam Kel could be saved after suffering traumatic injuries on an away mission.  Then the Trill Symbiote Commission had stepped in. The Kel symbiote was removed and whisked back to Trill, a death sentence for Xam.  Xam Kel had never fully regained consciousness, but voices still rattled in his mind.  Millie shouting at the Trill representatives, impassioned pleas by the Exeter's Captain and loud weeping had traveled with him through lifetimes. 

Kel finally let his head fall on his arms in front of him and the tears flowed.  There had been other lovers, friends, even a husband, but never another Millie.  And here she was, achingly close.  By now Millie had been alone for over a year.  Lifting his head Kel realized there might be hope.  Surely this time trip was destined to allow them to be together once more.

Edited March 18, 2023 by Etan Iljor