Bury and then give the honor

Posted on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 9:39pm by Ka'see 'Cassie' McAvoy (*) & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya & Liha t'Ehhelih

Mission: Shackles
2480 words - 5 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie looked at the straw in front of her and then at the Allhallowian giving the instructions on what she needed to do. They all had pale grey skin and irises that naturally glowed faintly in dim light and reminded her of ghosts, but everything about this place reminded her of her teenage years growing up in Scotland. The people were warm and interested in helping people make their effigies, but Cassie looked up at her shipmates and smiled. “What are you making?” She wondered quietly.

“A warbird,” Liha answered simply. She’d finally settled on that as the symbol that embodied everything lost and left behind - her family, her world, the Empire she’d been raised to revere and serve; all of it wrapped in the symbol of the Galae career that she’d once thought of as calling. “The Empire burned, It’s time to burn my old attachments to it.” She frowned momentarily, determined but still not wholly comfortable with the thought. Then shifted the topic rather than elaborate. “How about you?”

A warbird made perfect sense to Cassie when she thought about it. The woman had been tying herself to similar attachments, but she had no idea where to begin. "I made a Starfleet Insignia, I guess." She held up her own crudely made symbol but was not at all sure if it was really what she was trying to cut ties to or whether it was the easiest to touch on.

"I wonder how many of us are letting go of prior service," Liha mused. She was fairly sure burnie wasn't - he still held affection, even pride in having been a part of Starfleet. It had been plain on his face when he'd talked about running into old comrades. Then again, she'd feel the same about most of the people she'd served with in the Galae and despite having to flee retribution from the political side, she was still proud of her service.

“Well I let it go 150 years ago.” Cassie snorted just a little. She had loved her time there but she was out of date and would never be able to catch up there now without having to explain a lot of things. “But I do wonder sometimes if Jake thinks I will just up and leave on a whim but it’s never crossed my mind after everything.”

Liha tipped her head a moment, thinking. Eh, tact was for people she didn't think of as a friend. "I'd think it more likely you'd both be more worried about him growing old and dying long before you."

“I’m half human. I’ll only live a few decades more and we are certainly not at that stage… at least I do not think so.” Cassie laughed a little as she made her crudely made insignia a little more sturdy to see it burn properly.

“Very nice.” Said one of the grey humanoids of the planet as they passed checking to see if anyone needed help and support.

“There is Kalahaeia.” Cassie announced making space for the woman to join them.

The fact that she still - despite it being a somewhat more regular occurrence of late - got a silent little thrill hearing anyone actually pronounce her name correctly got straight to the heart of the matter of what Kali had been working on, for that matter...though one would have needed to look closely to decipher her rather complex piece she started putting the finishing touches on in the space cleared for her: Interlocked with one another, a question mark symbol from the English she had grown up speaking (alongside Federation Standard) in Boston, and a roughly equivalent symbol from the Rihannsu she had grown up speaking in her family home. Being an unknown quantity might be valued in most segments of Romulan society - and for that matter, certain Earth ones - but in neither case was it yourself who was supposed to be the one unclear on your identity or nature; and if there was anything in life she'd ever like to settle, it would be maybe, someday, looking in the mirror and knowing for sure who was looking back at her.

"If we get too may more of us here they may have to start a separate fire just for our ship." Kali joked, holding up her piece rather sheepishly given that she was betting at least one (and for all she knew, possibly both) of the other women could identify both of the symbols depicted with it.

After a brief glance at the interlocking question marks, one brow tipped slightly upward, that expression Liha's only comment on the choice. "I expect Burnie might need one all to himself. I can't imagine him deciding to throw away his love of explosives, but adding an extra 'bang' to whatever he's casting away? Definitely."

“Nollel would not let him do it.” Cassie laughed feeling more like herself against after the last few months of recovering after the arrow in her shoulder “but this is not the only fire. I saw lots of different sets ups on my walk through from the hotel.” She had gotten a room close by to savour the atmosphere.

"All the more reason he might find a way," Liha chuckled, though she doubted he'd do anything big enough to cause any real trouble. He liked fireworks, but he wasn't stupid about it. Usually. "There seem to be bonfires set up at various places around the city so everyone has a chance to get in a toss stuff. It wouldn't be much of a ritual if you couldn't watch yours burn because you had to move along to make way for the queue behind you."

Cassie nodded silently as she added more twine to her creation to make it look like an insignia more. For such a simple shape, it was quickly becoming hard to get right, and she was sometimes a perfectionist. “I am looking forward to that part of the ritual.” Cassie wanted to watch it wither away to ash.

"I wouldn't say looking forward to it," Liha said, studying her crude model of a Bird of Prey. For all its faults, there was a real loss in the end of the Empire. And core memories from her service in the Galae, including comradeship of fellow pilots, and experiences that had made her who she was today. "Throwing this in the fire isn't about rejecting it. It's about letting go of what's gone."

"Can't really say mine's exactly about rejecting anything or anything that's gone. It's more...aspirational. Something I'd like to see resolved...someday." Kali sighed.

"Each to their own," Cassie said, unusually bright about what she was doing. She wanted to watch the past burn away; she wanted to finally let go of that part of her life, despite how it had led her to being where she was. It was unusually painful to think about why she ran away back to Starfleet instead of dealing with the problems in her marriage.

Exactly which 'each their own' she belonged to, Kali thought, was rather the problem she was yearning to solve, really. Though the older she got the more she unfortunately believed more and more that the conclusion was 'neither; also both; all at once; but none of them very well'. "If I could make an effigy of the dude who recruited me to SFI, might burn that instead; but given the materials available; not really feasible. What are your plans for after this?"

"Hmm... there's a Tal'Shiar I'd like to burn. Couldn't do better than a crude doll, but I could mold their symbol - burn the whole agency..." Liha mused. "I wonder if it's okay to toss more than one thing in the fire?" Who was going to stop her? She set the warbird aside and began crafting a Tal'Shiar insignia. "As to afterward, I intend to see if there's enough decent liquor on this world to get very drunk."

Cassie leaned over and grabbed some more of the items to help the woman build what she wanted. "I found a bar in the back streets last night," Cassie admitted. "Jake and I enjoyed it. It was off the beaten track, and they had a decent selection." They had not indulged in the selection, but it had been large to her.

"I'm planning to hit up a few of the...less traveled...local attractions myself. Found a hoverbike place I might try, and probably will see if I can find whatever passes for the local gambling." Kali twirled her completed fire offering in one had, then the other, back and forth possibly without conscious thought.

"I don't care about gambling," Liha said, "But hoverbike could be fun. I've also heard there's a place to do hang gliding up in their highlands. Might be a bit cold this time of year, but I'd be willing to bundle up for pure flight around those cliffs."

"Just need the right gear." Kali shrugged. "Remind me to hook you guys both up with my cold gear supplier sometime." To a casual glance, Kali's rather thin, fitted leather jacket and gloves looked like they wouldn't be that warm....a look that was definitely deceptive; as both were lined with both reflective insulation and heating.

“Oh I am good but I would appreciate a 24 century person instead of relying properly on replicator.” It had been a hard adjustment when she had joined Starfleet as one of the first hybrids but she had made do but in this time people were a lot more comfortable and relaxed about species intermixing.

"I don't mind a replicator if it can do good thinsulate, though a good source is worth knowing." Her eyes slid over to Kali. She'd met Burnie's old crewmates, when he brought them to engineering and she was still trying to wrap her head around the blonde guy being a sort of au pair for Kali's family. His Rihannsu was good for a human, but either he was a lot less calm and peaceful than he came across, or Kali hadn't gotten that weirdness about her just from being raised on earth. "Which I guess you'd have what with your sisters' nanny coming from a place called 'Iceland'."

"If you ask him about that name, he'll claim all the ice is actually in a place called 'Greenland'." Kali muttered reflexively and sardonically. "But honestly, my cold gear knowledge is more because the city I grew up in can also throw some serious winters so I learned how to handle them as a kid. I didn't meet Gunnar till I was in my 30s. My parents...borrowed...him to be a forth adult when my sisters were little." You had to read between the lines to match up that this meant his association with the family predated both her discharge from Starfleet and departure from Federation space, and her aunt Caithlin's arrival in Federation space with her cousins a few years after that; as those events had then placed the count briefly at down to three adults and then back to four. "Though I'm pretty sure these days Ieliene would outclass him in a fight." Mostly because she won't hesitate to make a lethal strike and I'd bet real money that Gunnar still would, Kali thought resignedly.

Liha's head tipped a bit to the side. It took a beat, but she thought she understood the comment about the ice being in 'Greenland' - misdirection was second nature to Romulans, but some humans were pretty good at it too. If his people were like that, maybe he could fit in better than it seemed. He'd come across as completely open, but if that was an act... someone who could fake sincerity that well could be a useful ally, especially as a liaison in human-dominated spaces. Which would mean it was just Kali who was messed up (pretty believable given how much personal information she'd just shared in response to a minor probe). She still wasn't so sure of his usefulness as a 4th adult though. "He's a good size and muscular, but Ielene's what? 15 now? He probably hasn't been able to class her in fight for 8 years now."

Kali suppressed rolling her eyes hard - Liha, to her observation, occasionally threaded the line between 'realistic analysis of strengths and weaknesses of their species', and 'really reaching with the arrogance and bravado into inaccuracy'; and this comment was definitely leaning towards the latter; as few people got beaten in a fight by a 7 year old unless they were also a 7 year old. There wasn't really a great way to correct the statement without getting more into Gunnar's...regrettable...lack of willingness to push a fight with decent enough ferocity to win, though; which she wasn't willing to do in a public setting, and turned the conversation back to Cassie instead. "You and Jake have any other plans while we're here?"

Cassie listened to the pair for a few moments as they spoke about their connections. She smiled at the fondness in their voices as they spoke about it all; she kept herself busy finishing up her creation. "We have a few things planned but he is a bit busy with duties, taking the armoury back."

"Mostly tossing these into the bonfires," Liha said, holding up her effigies. "I do want to join one of the one memorial events," she looked down a moment, there were a lot of dead to honor - too many for traditional Romulan banners - but she wasn't set yet on which might be most fitting, "...though I haven't decided which. I know the Trial is the big one, but I'm not all that keen on confronting ghosts. My preference is to bury and then give the honor due their lives."

Kali dipped her head ever-so-slightly in agreement with that point, then shrugged again. "I figure I'm just gonna wing it, for the most part. I'd check out some of the shops again; but I don't think I need to make my luggage any heavier than it already will be."

Cassie nodded. She needed to attend a few random events but she had no real plans just ideas. “That sounds a little more in keeping with my ideas too Liha. I have confronted enough of my ghosts recently with dead lovers.” She said shaking her head as she realised she had been making another effigy for Johnathan. She had been thinking on him recently and how abusive he had been at the end that she did not mourn but she learned to move on.

And this was what after all the whole thing was about right?