poly_chromatic

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star trek xi - pavel chekov

video;

This is Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich, navigator of the USS Enterprise.

[You can trust him; he's currently in uniform. His uniform tunic has been too short in the sleeves for several months now. Oh, the woes of being a still-growing teenager!]

I would request a response from any Starfleet officers or allies who receive this message. Thank you.

If you have only just arrived, you may have questions. I have attached a text file to this message that may, I hope, be useful. If there are other questions or if anyone would like to speak with me, I would be happy to talk.

Captain Kirk? Uhura and I have the communicators working. They can pick up local transmissions, and we have connected all four to a secure channel. I think that is the best that can be done.

[attached file: City_brief]

[ooc: Fourth wall post! Everyone (duplicates, face twins, and so on) is welcome and anything goes. If you don't fancy network communication, action just about anywhere in the City is fine by me. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Maybe because there is always something that is worth that sacrifice. The tragedy is that a sacrifice must be made at all.]

There's no winning, is there.

No, but that only means that I shouldn't worry.

Have you been visited yet by anyone from your home?

I hope so. Still, if you need anything.

[Because she's been exactly where he is.]

As for my visitors, er... Well, yeah, a few from years in my past. People who grow up to be my professors or friends' parents or godparents. [And James who dies when he's barely her age now.] And some people I'm not very glad to see. But it's nothing I can't handle.

[She's just got to keep Bellatrix away from the people she cares about, right?]

You? You've had loads of arrivals recently.

Thank you, Ginny.

[He means that. This is something that she gets, and that does mean something.]

But no one from your time that you were hoping to see? That is disappointing.

Aye, yes--I think that most of my ship is here now, as well as Starfleet officers from other times. Not all of them will stay. I wish there was more time so that you could meet Hikaru and Mr. Scott; Hikaru's my closest friend at home, and you would like Lieutenant Commander Scott. Everyone does.

My brothers must've been too busy, even with an invitation. [She's not disappointed. Not at all.] After all, I'm still right there with them, aren't I?

[She grins on her end and it colours her voice.]

Well, look, any friends of yours. What're they like?

In a way. [But knowing that and actually experiencing that--their company--are different.]

Both of them are very intelligent, among the best in their fields. There is nothing that Hikaru isn't good at. He's brave, but he prefers alien plants to fighting. Mr. Scott is always talking and no one minds because he's funny and clever, even if he's so clever that he gets himself into trouble.

The best kind of cleverness. What are their fields? Not alien plants.

Yes, see--you would get along very well! Mr. Scott is the ship's chief engineer, but I have never asked what he studied. Hikaru specialized in astrophysics at the academy, if I remember correctly. Xenobotany and interstellar navigation, also.

[The Enterprise: where everyone is a genius.]

[Clearly a prerequisite before joining the crew.]

Astrophysics. [She recognises that word.] Did you ever know Amory Felix while he was here? He studied all that. Physics and astronomy, right? The, er, laws of it all as applied to stars.

[See, she listens. Even when science and magic don't really mix.]

Yes, I did! He was very intelligent. I have some of his books still.

Ah--not that you aren't intelligent. You are, but in a different way.

I just have his cats.

[God, she misses him. He arrived a month after she did. Then she laughs, touched.]

Well, coming from you, that's quite the compliment. Thank you.

They take more care than books; he would be grateful to you for taking care of them.

But do you believe me?

If he ever comes back and actually says thank you, I might die from the shock.

[Wry, for the most part. She and Amory had an unusual friendship but she's still fond.]

Yeah. I was an alright student back home. [Just as brilliant as the rest of her brothers, actually, but.] If that's what you mean.

Stranger things than that have happened.

[He shakes his head in response.] Academic intelligence only counts for so much. No, what I mean is a more useful cleverness that concerns people and conduct.

[She starts laughing again, pushing her hands through her hair on her end.]

Thank you, Pavel. You're brilliant too.

Thank you, too, but I know that.

[Cheeky.]

[Her laughter picks up, louder.]

I'm sure you do. Youngest on your ship, right? Am I remembering correctly?

Yes, yes, yes--youngest on the ship, youngest in Starfleet. I didn't feel so young here when I was mostly alone, though, because the City doesn't consider anyone's age.

No, it doesn't. Especially when you're here alone, you just sort of... carry on by yourself. We've definitely done loads of growing up. How old were you when you arrived? I was sixteen.

Some growing up has been unavoidable, yes. I was seventeen... recently seventeen.

[Pause.]

Did I miss your birthday.

Not yet, no.

You traded to be the right age, didn't you? After you returned home?

I—yeah.

[She exhales, shrugging.]

It didn't feel right. I mean, maybe it's weird, but I lived the years here. I felt like I didn't match up.

No, that makes sense to me even if, logically, physiological age shouldn't matter. I would not want to be seventeen again, even if only physically.

Well, you know... people treating you like a child when, for all intents and purposes, you're anything but.

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