[Oira]
Lhoell had felt the stares that they had tried to mask by keeping themselves busy the moment she had stepped on the Oira. Time enough to know who was who later, and see where their spoken views lay. She already knew that the officer she was to replace as Daise`Gonaiih`Saehne couldn't care less for her by the way he had remained stotically silent on their way back to the ship. She couldn't blame him for that really...she would've mistrusted and resented him if the situation was reversed. As to the rest of them, their hidden agendas were of no concern to her at the moment, and would reveal themselves in time. The atmosphere within the room reminded her more and more of her days spent under the 'Aehallh -Leih's' watchful eye. It was not the atmopshere she had become accostomed to while being one of the living-dead. Taking the seat in front of the gonai pannel with a silent, inward sigh she realized that this again, was not what she had become accostomed to - spoiled by, one might say - with it's VR display and nothing more. It was not a ship to be piloted as a fighter would be by sticks, but controled through a computer interface alone. Such was the technology of the Galae. Efficent....but not as advanced as the other branches were. A good ship, but not in the class of her previous Leih's ship.
She had followed the orders given without spoken comment, other then the occasional and Rihannsu-mandatory 'Ie, rekkhai.' There was no need for anything else, and the gloom that hovered within the Oira was thick enough to cut through with her kaleh anyway. Too many were reflecting on what her 'Serious tr`Caernu' (or, tr`Rok now, it seemed) was to face once they reached their destination. Lhoell wasn't concerned in the least by it, really. That one had a sense of Mnhei'sahe that ran deep. She had seen too many like himself - and too many who were persecuted at the whims of others less loyal to the People themselves - not to know that Conn`Hae was no traitor. His fate, while not hers to know, would become apparent in time. She wondered if she would soon add her old student's - now Leih - name to those that died for a cause others did not comprehend or would misread. And again, as she had on the planet before, she somehow doubted it.
As they entered the system of their destination, she had heard another's voice issue the command of dropping out of warp, and she followed through with the request with the standard-issue 'Ie, rekkhai'. It wasn't that she didn't dare look back to her new Leih for confirmation of this order, but rather that she had expected it. By the book flight proceedure. Seemed everything was by-the-book with the Galae. Something else she had been spoiled by: her old Leih would not have given the order in the first place, but would've known that she would've carried it out on her own after the announcement of entering the system had been issued - though she would've made it closer to the planet before going in on half-impulse only. But such was the way with a Lhoell.
*Here is na about ninte ways, Llyriah....* she reminded herself silently, checking over the panel before her and entering the info needed as they cruised along, *It is about the ways of those that are behind au now.... The ways of a Galae-ship where everyio follows things 'by-the-book'......and where they do na know au, or quite what to expect from au as yet....And where au will soon be sitting here babysitting the ship while it hovers in orbit.* she thought that last with a silent sigh. Standard orbit was never very fun. She much rather have tested this new-to-herself 'Bird' to see just what it could do. But that, she was sure, would have to be something that was done within a holobooth. Not a very true test of the ship's capabilities, but oh well for her. Conn`Hae - Element's bless him - was not Raith and would probably not allow for a 'test drive' that would push his ship to the limits...and just a little beyond them. *Well.....at least the controls don't stick...* she had thought with a ruefull smile that did not appear as she brought the ship to orbit with another almost-absent 'Ie, rekkhai' *.....na that there's sticks to stick in the first place......*
And while she sat back in the chair that looked too big for her small frame and watched the panel in front of her as they hovered above the planet below, her mind turned back to those she had known and had grown to care about as her mind had often done while on that dustball of a planet with nothing much else to do. She wondered if the others were fairing well - or if they had even survived - and she wondered if they thought about her at all. Did they miss her in the least, or wonder if she was all right? It wouldn't be for her to know anyway, and it wasn't like she could look up information on any of them. There would be no information to be obtained. A dead-end mystery that would turn up no clues no matter how hard she looked for them. No matter how hard she looked for information on one, especially. Crossing her arms over her midsection as she sat there in a new Gonaiih's chair, Llyriah had never felt as alone and as out-of-place as she had right then.
Perhaps it was that feeling that came over her that started the whole thing. Or perhaps it was simply the old dizziness and nausia she had experienced while back on the planet that had suddenly come over her. But no matter how it came about, Lhoell's vision suddenly blurred and the room around her ceased to exist for a frozen moment in time. The panel that her eyes had been on a moment before, had melted away through a hazy-fog of whiteness that was soon parted with a flash of some half-forgotton crest.....
A robed figure with it's hood drawn over it's face,
Wind that whirled around It,
Standing on sand that blew in gusts,
The figure bent and worked on something,
His hands, so strong yet not callused,
Freeing something from the sand that had claimed it
To hold it closer to Itself,
A gesture of protection....
A feeling of hope.....
The vision blurred once more and the figure,
now seated and still shrouded from view,
Sat at a table in the shadows, working;
Wood and glue....
Strings, bridge, and bow....
The Dead brought back to Life
And all around the figure, the Shadows whispered,
Faint echos of voices She could barely hear:
"Find them...watch them....protect the child....
....the Bloodline must not be broken...."
And with another brief flash of that half-forgotten crest, Lhoell once more found herself back on the Oira, the panel in front of her just where it had been, the others around her still carrying on with their own duties to perform. Checking the readings a moment to be sure their path had not strayed in the least, Lhoell sat back again and let her eyes trail up to the screen and it's view of the planet below; feeling the brief moment of nausia, vertigo and the memory of the strange vision slip away as if they had never been there.
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