Subject: Grail: The Great Brightness - Arda

"Angeles"

"Angels, answer me,

are you near if rain should fall?

Am I to believe

you will rise to calm the storm?

For so great a treasure word will never do.

Surely, if this is, promises are mine to give you.

mine to give...

Here, all too soon the day!

Wish the moon to fall and alter our tomorrow.

I should know

heaven has her way

- each one fiven memories to own.

Angeles, all could be

should you move both earth and sea

Angeles, I could feel

all those dark clouds disappearing...

Even as I breathe

comes an angel to their keep.

Surely, if this is

promises are mind to give you.

mine to give..."

- "Angeles", Enya, "Shepard Moons"

Kaje left the meeting in a tizzy. Everyone had been yelling and

screaming to the point of frenzy. The Prime Directive, how to revive the

star, what to do with the lords, personal feelings about each other, all

rang through her like death tones in the belfry of a Terran Catholic

Church.

The Prime Directive fight had left her in tears. If it wasn't

for the Prime Directive, Arda might not have spent those horrid years on

Xzarre's ship. The Federation would have come in and helped its people

move away from the Cardassians. The Federation would have done

something. The Federation that had sent her on this doomed mission to

the Delta Quadrant.

The Delta Quadrant. Damn the Federation. Damn Starfleet!

Again, they turn their backs on her, letting her rot on this ship of

fools. They left her to the wrath of the Circle on Bajor. They left her

in the hands of the Maquis during the treaty with Cardassia. Then, in

their effort to make peace with her, they trained her for a mission with

Death. A mission of doom.

Arda slammed her fist into the nearest wall, letting out a cry,

and sank to the floor in tears. Damn Starfleet and it's 'Prime

Directive'. Damn it all!

"Damn it all!" she cried.

{{{{Mommy?}}}} Kaede was scared. She had never seen her mother

this upset. The tiny voice in the back of Arda's mind went unheeded at

first. She was too absorbed in her own self-hatred and pity.

{{{{Mommy.}}}} It was stronger this time. {{{{Mommy, stop!}}}} Arda

sniffed, her cries coming to a stop. {{{{Mommy, no hurt!}}}} She wiped

her face on her sleeve, now realizing how much this had to have hurt

Kaede. She was so stupid! {{{{Mommy, STOP!}}}}

Kaje couldn't move. She was frozen in place on the floor of the

corridor. Perhaps someone would find her there, perhaps not. It didn't

matter. All that mattered now was to get herself under control, to get

herself out of this lapse into the past. The torrent of emotions that

swirled in her mind were confusing and upsetting. How was she to beat

that?

Arda knew that she had duty this shift. She had to get back to

the Shuttle Bay. The Orinoco had to be ready for the mission to

Kerestia, if they were still going. Yet, Kaje couldn't stand. She was

exhausted. Her hand throbbed from slamming the wall. She didn't look at

it, fearing the worst of it being broken.

{{{{Mommy, love you.}}}} Kaje let her head drop to her knees.

She was so tired. Kaede's undying love and support surrounded her. Kaje

didn't know how, but the child developed so fast and now, in the only way

she could at this distance, the little Arda gave her mother a hug.

Jessica-Lynne Sullivan

-+=+- anuther viktum uv the publik ejukashun sistum -+=+-

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