Surprise Reunion

Posted on Sun May 10th, 2026 @ 7:30am by Nollel Livaam (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya

Mission: Shackles
Location: Allhallow Prime, Marketplace
2335 words - 4.7 OF Standard Post Measure

Burnie had walked around the town, then the festival market, shopping for the bonfire part of the festival. While he'd been disappointed in the lack of fireworks (though he understood; bonfires and inexperienced users were a bad mix) he'd found some flame-coloring packets. He figured he could add just a little touch of accelerant to really make them pop. He'd also picked up a few other things, and then looking to relax until Nollel finished her shopping, he'd found a table a biergarten style area where he had a good view of the preparations for tonight.

He was sitting with a nice local ale in hand, when he spotted her in the crowd. He waved, smiling. "Nollel, over here!"

Nollel was in her own little world when she heard the yell. She span around until she saw him and offered a wave back before she turned around to several people following her and pointed to him. She spoke quickly to the group and weaved through the crowd until she stepped up to where he was. “Hello you.” She greeted kissing his cheek. “I found some of your friends whilst shopping.” She admitted.

"I guess you did," Burnie said, kissing her back and then standing with a wide smile. At first, he'd only spotted Kali with Nollel, but then he'd noticed the man behind her - that blonde head sticking up over most of crowd was hard to miss. "Gunnar! Good to see you ag- Oof!"

"Burnie!" T'Ango exclaimed with a tackle hug.

He half grunted a laugh, and briefly returned the hug before stepping back, leaving one hand on her shoulder in Dosadi greeting. "And you too, T'Ango. What are you guys doing here?"

"We came for the festival." Whiskers flicked in teasing grin. "I guess we should have expected to find you here, what with the bonfires."

"Yeah, that's fair," Burnie chuckled, then glanced up at Gunnar and seeing a familiar expression, cocked a brow. "And you can stop running that visual medscan. I'm sure Divash told you she got a comm about me, but I'm 100% fine." Before the medic could question that 100%, he quickly added, "Where is Divash? I thought you three were still ...together."

Gunnar ducked his head slightly, "We are, but she was tapped to guest lecture at Academy Medical - quite an honor, but not flexible for taking leave. Honestly, I was only able to make it because Haumea finally got a CMO that's stayed," Gunnar reached down, quickly knocking on the wood of the table. Then, with a brief I-see-what-you-did-there look, he glanced toward Nollel. "But I'm very glad I did. You do look well, and understandably, happy."

“Oh that is nothing to do with me.” Nollel said quietly but with a huge grin. “He has a Captain and ship where he can blow things up without complaint.” Nollel commented as she sat down and tucked the bags under her chair to keep them safe.

T'Ango made a show of looking him up and down. "Are you sure you're not part felinoid? Because you sure landed on your feet!" she laughed, and took a seat as well. "Seriously, though, it sounds perfect. Though if you want to be planetside to start a family, you know after how you fixed the Tarak, there's a standing offer at Dosad's shipyards."

Burnie ducked his head. "Thanks, but we're pretty happy as things are, um...." He glanced over at Kali. "Speaking of kids though, is your family going to survive without their adopted babysitter," he cast a teasing smile at Gunnar, "Or should I be asking if Haumea will survive?"

Gunnar laughed. "They'll be fine. Though they will be asking a lot of questions when I get back and tell them I saw you both here."

"I may use you as a courier...I got all the kids some stuffed dragons on Hysperia; they've been sitting stuffed in my closet for awhile now. What will be missed though I suspect is the only person in the group who knows how to cook...." Kali made an odd expression halfway between a smirk and a grimace; given her parent's and aunt's skills in that area were limited to the sort of things one might do in an emergency and possibly even worse than hers were.

"I will gladly serve as courier for gifts," Gunnar replied with slight bow whose precise angle would betray to anyone aware of such things that he had spent an uncommon amount of time around upperclass Romulans. "I may be missed for cooking, but I did leave recipes programmed into the replicator, so mostly it will just be the twins missing the entertainment value of a human chopping vegetables," he laughed.

Nollel smiled a little. “You should have said I would have arranged transport to anywhere you needed. We arrange stuff to send to Michael’s family.” Nollel said quietly as she watched some of the locals breezing through the crowds ghostly against the smaller species.

"That reminds me," Burnie picked up a bag from under the table. "I found this butterfly-princess mask for Sophie - pink and purple and sparkly. Plus, I got some extra packets of the salts for making flames change color."

"Already encouraging your niece to be a pyro," T'Ango quipped, whiskers flicking with a grin.

"'Raise them up in the way they should go." Burnie pronounced sagely, then broke into a grin as well and cast a look at Kali. "Actually, I bought a lot of the rainbow flame salts if you want to send some to your sisters too."

"Sure; they'd lvoe to toss those in the fire pit out back, I'm sure." That Kali had in fact never actually seen the new house yet didn't mean she had't heard a decent amount about various features from the gaggle of teens who considered it a definite trade up from the Boston rowhouse.

“I do not believe Sophie needs much help to be like her uncle, but his sister is relieved that I have help in the presents that are sent.” Nollel teased, looking at the flame salt intrigued before putting it back in the bag. “That will certainly make her happy,” Nollel commented seeing the mask. It was a beautiful design and she knew the girl would love it. “Is there anything you are all looking forward to doing?” She wondered the group as a whole.

"We came for the Trial of Masks," T'Ango said. "But I'm hoping I can drag this one," she hip-bumped Gunnar, "away from watching all the cultural interplay here to go hiking up in the Highlands."

"Hey now, it won't take much dragging. There are cultural experiences there too," Gunnar replied, almost managing a straight face before adding, "and I like hiking too. Though I suspect the real draw will be looking for opportunities to rock climb."

"She has a natural advantage over you there, though." Kali grinned, with an appraising glance at the felinoid. "Built in climbing hooks."

“I have booked a gh…” Nollel stopped as she saw someone familiar walked through the Allhallowians. The woman was hard to miss with the ethereal grace but also the blue dress she wore that stood out against the orange and black that’s lot of people wore in different tones. What was Meghan doing there? “Ghost tour…” she continued and blinked turning to see where she had gone but she was no where to be seen.

"Are you all right?" Burnie asked, concerned. "For a minute there, you looked like you had seen a ghost."

"I... yeah... yeah... obviously a ghost," Nollel said, looking at the drink he had gotten her. "Is this alcoholic?" She demanded softly as she looked at the crowd trying to reassure herself that the woman was not there.

"Not really." Kali pursed her lips, giving the Romulan answer to something with that little alcohol in it, and looking around reflexively for the sight of anything that might've disturbed Nollell to that degree, but on first pass seeing nothing of note.

"It's a cider, but not that much alcohol," Burnie told her, concerned. He studied her and then scanned the crowd, looking for anything that might have spooked her. Before he could ask further, he heard a soft buzz and realized Gunnar had pulled out the medscanner that the medic was never without. Normally, that would've annoyed him, but at the moment he just looked up, brows raised in silent query.

"No allergic or hallucinagenic reaction to anything in the drink," Gunnar replied. He gave Nollel a semi-apologetic smile. "Forgive me. After years of working with Starfleet crew who refuse to admit they need care, just scanning when there might be an issue has become reflex. But I can assure you, you're perfectly healthy and unimpaired."

T'Ango's ears had perked at Nollel's reaction, and Burnie's. She'd had a couple brief instances of hyper-awareness since arriving, but Gunnar had too, and they'd decided it was likely triggered by thoughts of what they might face in the Trial. Now she wasn't so certain. In fact, her Raider training was poking its head up and reminding her that ignoring things that seemed off was all too often a bad idea. "You do seem a bit shaken though. If you don't mind me asking, what did you think you saw?"

Nollel took a huge gulp of the cider and frowned at the sweetness of it. She missed the crisp cider that she had tried on Hysperia. She glanced at the man running a medical scan and frowned a little, but said nothing negative. Michael would have done the same if he had the medical scanner. “I’m okay. Maybe a little dehydrated but …” she held up the drink. “It was a passenger that… well, she caused a few problems when we started dating.” She started to explain.

"Meghan??" Burnie's brows shot up, his head instantly on swivel as he scanned for any sign of the woman.

T'Ango oriented on the engineer. Given his expression whoever this Meghan was the trouble had nothing to do with a love triangle, or at least if there had been romantic interest from Meghan it had been seriously unrequited. "From your reaction, it must have been some real problems."

"Yeah." He blew out breathe. "She's ...not a Q, but she's got some god-like-being level powers ...which... she said it was an accident so I guess she isn't that good with..." He shook his head, ran a hand over his hair - he wasn't explaining this well. "Long story short: she body swapped several of us."

T'Ango exchanged a look with Gunnar. "Well, at least Q never did that to us," she said, whiskers flicking in small grin. "He did turn you into a golden retriever once, but at least it wasn't a swap. I don't know how I would have handled a dog in your body."

“It was not a good situation.” Was all Nollel said on the situation. “Maybe I imagined it.” She sighed softly drinking some more of the cider but she was sure that she had not. “Saw a brunette and assumed.” She said hopeful.

"I don't know," Burnie said, still scanning. "Brunette isn't a rare thing to stick out here."

Nollel shrugged. She was not proud of her reaction but it was not a time of her life she often thought on. “Maybe it was the red dress.” She sighed shrugging. “Sorry,” she glanced around at the group and shrugged again trying to not look completely stupid in front of Michael’s friends.

"Don't be," T'Ango said. "Whoever it was is out of sight by now, but if it was her, better that everyone's aware."

"If it wasn't, there's still nothing to be sorry for," Gunnar put in softly, having read her discomfort. "I know how easy it is to imagine a face in a crowd, particularly when something has stirred old memories. It's nothing to be embarrassed about - it's part of the pattern-matching skill that most sentients have, but it can be particularly acute in those who are creatives. I think I recall hearing you're artist?"

The woman nodded despite how pale she looked. "I am. That was going to be my career, but now I do it as a hobby." She admitted with a smile. It was a great hobby as it gave her a few extra marks on the sly.

"Hobbies are still good - they make us more than just what we do professionally," T''Ango said, picking up on Gunnar's change of topic. "Like, he cooks, I play flute. What type of art?" she asked, whiskers and ears perking in interest.

"Mostly paint right now, as it's easier to carry around. But I have done sculptures and bigger works. I'll show you some of my work as I am sure we shall meet again over the next few days." It was unlikely that Michael would not want to meet them for food and a proper catch up.

"Yes. We'd love to see them!" T'Ango said, tail swishing happily. "And the ship of course - an old Connie! - I can't wait to tell my team I was on a working one when I get back."

"I am sure we can arrange that." Nollel smiled, feeling a little calmer than she had been earlier. "Oh shoot, I need to go to that ghost house event." She realised, grabbing up her bags to take back to the room quickly. "Stay if you want to." She whispered to Michael, kissing his cheek.

"Miss taking a ghost tour with you? Nah." Burnie said, getting up. "Good seeing you guys." He clasped T'Ango's shoulder Dosadi fashion, almost considered doing the same to Gunnar since last he'd seen him the man had sort of gone native there, but the height difference made it feel award so he just clasped his hand briefly. "I'm sure Kali has your comm code. We'll catch up later."