Foreseeable future – Goodbye old friend
by Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & HoD Ro' Matlh

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Title   Goodbye old friend
Mission   Foreseeable future
Author(s)   Soghla' Terri (Tell) Hope & HoD Ro' Matlh
Posted   Sat Dec 01, 2012 @ 5:21pm
Location   Marla's tomb
Tag   Ro'

You can shed tears that she is gone
Or you can smile because she has lived
You can close your eyes and pray that she will come back
Or you can open your eyes and see all that she has left
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her
Or you can be full of the love that you shared
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday
Or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
You can remember her and only that she is gone
Or you can cherish her memory and let it live on
You can cry and close your mind, be empty and turn your back
Or you can do what she would want: smile, open your eyes, love and go on.

I am never one to show sentiment or emotion, well not often anyway if I can help it. There is always too much pain involved and I hate being in pain as much as I hate bad coffee. I have always told myself that I never had the time for all that slushy, gushy girl stuff that so many women seem to like. When I was with my friend Marla though it was different. I could be myself and allow the inner girl in me to escape and have fun. We would laugh so much at just about anything.

I always try mentally to keep myself together . (Though some say differently about me.) I live and work on a Klingon ship after all and it wouldn't do to be seen as overly sensitive. They would look on it as a sign of weakness and so I have to prove to them all the time that I am just as good as they are, maybe even better. I might be lacking in height but I can fight like the best of them. When push comes to shove, I can hold my own along side all of them. When I was with my friend, it didn't matter about any of that. We just accepted each other for who we were and we were the best of friends.

Now I appear to have lost my best friend. Who was so much more than a best friend could be, she was more like the sister I never had. Out of all the things I have been through and faced in the past, I find her death the most difficult and hard to accept. She can't be dead, not Marla, not her.

I left the other crew members talking, squabbling and making their lists of what they needed to repair the Fhew. Were going to make our final flight soon and hopefully go back to our own time. Though I have my doubts about that, I hope Jared knows what he's doing. I knew what I wanted already but, I had to come here first and find her. I wanted to convince myself it wasn't true, that she was still alive and playing a practical joke on us all. She would be good at that.

My shuttle touched down near to where they said she would be. I stepped out feeling uneasy and paced up and down a few times. I wondered what I was going to say to Marla when I saw her. I wouldn't get angry with her. I just wanted to see her again and persuade her to come back with us. It wouldn't be the same with out her.

I dragged my feet along a grassy swathe overlooking a pretty little spot near to where Marla and her family lived. There was not a sound to be heard or a soul in sight. It was as if the very air itself was holding it's breath and waiting. For a fleeting moment I wondered if I was doing the right thing. She had family now but it couldn't do any harm just to talk to her, just to see her and convince my self more than anything that she was alive and well.

Her family tomb was right were they said it would be. Her name wasn't on the headstone so I knew it wasn't true. Hope raised with in me at the thought of seeing her again. I knelt down on the dew soaked grass and a gentle breeze blew past bringing with it a scent of flowers and a voice I recognized.

"Tell"

I looked at my best friend standing there smiling at me. She looked well, she looked alive and I could have cried right there and then. I was so happy to see her.

"Marla." I choked and almost screamed at her. "Your coming right back with me now even if I have to knock you out and carry you over my shoulder. I'm not leaving you behind."

She sighed and hugged me. "Do you remember the Valentines Dance?"

"Do I? There are still balloons hanging in the mess hall that haven't burst yet. That was over two years ago. It was a good night despite Ro' not getting it at all. He thought Valentine was some kind of Klingon warrior who spilled the blood of his victims year after damn year. You understood it though Marla. You understood a lot of things."

"I had to almost carry you back to our quarters."

"Can't remember that. I must have been well out of it."

"What about the time you made me cut your hair with my knife Tell."

"Yes that was funny. I don't think I will ever get my hair to look quite that same way again. You got better at it though Marla it was just a case of practice makes perfect. Who will cut my hair now if you don't come back with me? Wouldn't trust the others as far as I could throw them."

"The doctor will cut it for you next time. What is it you call him?"

"Dr Doom, I call him Dr Doom, you know that. I don't know why, the name just seems to fit"

"How many Klingons does it take to change a light bulb?" she asked me

" Just one. A Klingon would never display such dishonor by allowing someone else to help him with such a remedial task. Or something like that." I laughed " How many Romulans does it take to change a light bulb?"

" 151. One to change it and 150 to self-destruct the ship in disgrace." answered Marla.

"The Princess Bride, we still have half the film left to watch." I told her as if that might sway her decision to come back with me. "There isn't any one on the ship mad enough to watch it with me."

"How many times have we watched it now?" she asked me and I just shrugged my shoulders and thought too many times. "We were going to make our own version remember?"

"I remember" I said "We could still do that."

I began to quote some memorable bits from the film she had grown obsessive over. "Who says life is fair, where is that written?”

"Life isn't fair, Bill. we tell our children that it is, but it's a terrible thing to do. It's not only a lie, it's a cruel lie. Life is not fair, and it never has been, and it's never going to be."
Marla replied, we knew the film off by heart.

She stood up as if she was going to come with me and I thought I had won the battle and Marla would return with the crew. I stood next to her waiting and hoping. "Come back with me Marla ... please. Your my best friend, my only friend, in fact more than that, my sister." I pleaded with her and we both started to walk towards my shuttle.

It was then I heard another noise. It was the sound of a shuttle approaching and coming into land. It disturbed the area around us and distracted my attention from my best friend.

"I'll always be with you." She told me.

When I turned back to her Marla had gone and I was alone. I thought...I thought she was there beside me. I looked around, did she walk back to the house? She was just here, right here and I searched frantically for her hoping to catch a glimpse of my friend but there was no sign.

Tears were stinging the corner of my eyes and before I knew it someone was standing beside me. I hadn't heard her at all and part of me was hoping it would be Marla. She placed a sympathetic hand on my shoulder just as a traitorous tear fell from my eye.

"I've come to tell you about my mother." she told me "She wanted you to have this."

She pressed a small carefully wrapped package into my hand and then we sat under a tree and talked about Marla. We laughed and we cried and grieved over our loss until I was able to at last say goodbye old friend.