Interrogation Over Tea

Posted on 08/28/2020 @ 10:57am by Captain Cian D'Anvers & Lieutenant JG Niun & Lieutenant JG Siobhan Richards PhD
Edited on on 08/28/2020 @ 2:18pm

Mission: S2E1: The Skunil Incident
Location: Hydroponics, Deck 11
Timeline: Day 40 at 0630

Early morning in the Hydroponics Bay was a pleasure that Niun savored. Lacking the casual intrusions so common in the Arboretum, this was a place more suited to purists. After a fascinating dinner with the botanists on board followed by approval to transfer his plants, his routine returned to normal. He grew a variety of plants, from a number of worlds, all used in a tea infusion that was never the same two days in a row. At the moment, a small woven basket in hand, he was snipping off leaves that he would use in the morning's preparation and as he worked, he hummed a tune he'd heard that he couldn't quite place in his memory. Almost at once, an image slid into his head of curly red-gold hair, sparkling blue eyes, and graceful hands dancing across the keyboard.

Niun flashed a smile at the young dusei lying near him, nodding as he did so. He spoke in the low speech, known only to the two of them, "that's right. It was that bar on Risa, wasn't it? The one that never seemed to close."

Images of the bar from various angles followed in a rapid stream ending with that of a woman framed in the doorway. Niun stopped and turned as a woman entered. ~Now, I don't remember her at all. Oh, I see. Hardly a threat, my friend,~ he sent, mind to mind. ~We are in no danger here.~

Siobhan entered the Hydroponics Bay and looked around curiously. She was freshly after morning gym workout and the shower so she felt the different humidity and temperature here particularly well. Her eyes slipped over various plants and finally focused on the pair of beings deeper into the bay. He was quite handsome, it was an interesting animal she had never seen before. She read about it in the file but there was enough to actually rub her natural curiousness of other cultures and when Siobhan heard of rather unusual habit Lieutenant Niun had, she decided to meet him sooner than later.

Approaching closer, moving gracefully yet confidently, very non-military way, she stopped few steps away from the man. Unsure at which point he drew a line of his personal space, she opted for being on the safe side until she would known him better.
"Hi. I am counselor Richards, I've been looking to meet you."

Niun, set the basket to one side, as he turned fully towards the door. It had been fully eighteen years since he'd last set foot on his home world; the smile that lit his face in welcome had been hard-won. Years of unlearning the hyper-vigilant discipline of his people and adopting a new way of being, one that was more uniquely his own. And so, he smiled. A simple act, common in this Federation of Planets, and no one knew just what an achievement it was for him to do so. "Hello, I'm Niun. Recently arrived on the Fair Winds." He tilted his head slightly to one side as he thought about what she said. "You've been looking for me?"

Siobhan returned his smile with her own soft and sincere. There was something off about the man in front of her. She knew he wasn't a human from his file so she could pinpoint the 'off' factor. It meant she would need to know him better, to create patterns of his behavior.

"Yes. I came on the Fair Winds as well and I heard of you there, sharing a tea with crewmembers." She said letting her hands freely set on sides of her body. She recalled him was a warrior, so she guessed that seeing her hands in his view might avoid tension. "I wanted to ask about that. Is that a custom? Where is it coming from? Why do you practice it?"

"Come with me, then, and I'll explain," Niun said as he picked up his basket and headed toward the exit. He led her to his office, not far along the corridor. Small office and yet, he'd found a way to arrange his desk so that there was space in middle for a low table and two heavily embroidered pillows. He dropped onto one of the two, gesturing for her to take the other, as he began to prepare the tea. "I am Mri though, among ourselves, it was just the people. We lived in tents and ate our meals around campfires. It was the Kath, the artisans and caregivers, who did this. Every morning, they would make a large pot. Never the same twice, you understand, because its intended to help those who partake."

He rose, in a graceful, fluid move, to order hot water from the replicator and then returned to the table. Once he was seated again, cross-legged, on the pillow, he continued. "Every morning, the smell of that tea drew me out of my dreams." He flashed a smile at the counselor as he fed the leaves in. "I'd lay there in my blankets and hear their laughter as they began preparing the morning meal. I kept up the tradition for myself and then, for those I knew."

Siobhan followed Niun as he led her to his office. She briefly stopped to give the office one over, before she moved to the indicated pillow. She sat down on her heels, knees together and listened. She admired Niun's graceful fluidity in his moves. It spoke a lot about who he was and what he was capable of. She herself was very much aware of her movements and kept them similarly graceful, though on the feminine, sensual spectrum.

"Do you miss them? The Kath?" She asked raising her eyes to meet Niun's as so far she was observing his hands moving seemingly studied and precise. She wondered how much of that was codified, part of the ritual, and how much it was improvised. "And what does it mean never the same twice... was the pot filled each time with something else?"

"Yes and no," Niun said. The tea was steeping now so they had a few minutes before it would be ready to pour. "I miss the ... community, I guess. And the Kath had a gift for making you feel welcome and at ease. Now. As to what its in the pot, yes, it changes every day. A bit of this. A bit of that. Never quite the same taste."

"Do you feel homesick?" Siobhan eyes moved the pot watching it for a moment. "Why did you leave?"

"You know," Niun said as he checked the color of the infusion and then poured a taste into a small cup, lacking handles, decorated in a delicate, somewhat geometric design, "this feels somewhat like an interrogation and I don't remember signing up for a counseling session." He lifted the cup to his lips and took a cautious sip. The blend was a good one and he savored the taste for a moment before filling her cup and then his own. He sighed softly. "It's good. Not to the standards of the Kath but still, enjoyable."

Siobhan smiled softly and raised her hands in defensive gesture when accused of interrogation.
"I am sorry this is just my curiosity. I like to know about other cultures and didn't intend to make it an interrogation." She said apologetically. She reached out and picked the cup and lifting it to her mouth, she took a sip of a strange taste. It did remind her floral teas a bit. "I cannot say what is the standard but indeed, this is good."

"Thank you," Niun said before taking a sip and replacing the cup on the table. "The habit of silence is a bit ingrained, I think. My people are not what you would call an open society. As an outsider, you would never have met the Kath. What you would have met would be Kel, someone like me, warriors. One of our many functions were gatekeepers and interface with those who sought audience with our leader, the She'Pan. Well, me as I was then anyway."

"Did you have a lot of contacts with foreign cultures before you left?" Siobhan asked and then smiled apologetically again. "Sorry." It was just her curiousness of knowing people. But realizing that Niun seemed unwilling to talk about himself, she changed the subject. "So She'Pan. After I would meet him, could I meet Kath?"

"No," Niun said quietly. "You would never be permitted contact with the Kath and really, it would be dangerous enough for you to meet the She'Pan. She's the matriarch of the tribe. Her word is law and to touch her, to dishonor her in any way, would mean immediate death. She's guarded, you see," Niun said as he lifted his cup again, cradling it in one hand, "by two Kel bearing swords and knives. Their sacred duty is to protect her at all times."

Siobhan was far from making any judgements on the culture. But as she listened to Niun she assessed his culture was relatively formalized one. An interesting example among fringe cultures she met in her life. "So, She'Pan, is chosen for life and is not allowed to have children?" She asked curiously. "Are there others position of power among Kel?"

"Kel," Niun said, "is a caste same as Sen and Kath. Together, the three castes form a tribe under the leadership of the She'Pan. There are many tribes and collectively, you would call the people Mri. And to answer your question, there is only the She'Pan. Her word is law."

"Does she rule alone? Or is there a council to support her? Or does she has advisors?" Siobhan asked.

"Alone," Niun said after a moment or two's thought. The counselor's curiosity walked, uncaring and heedless, through a wealth of memory; his reactions mirrored the two halves of his internal landscape. One, to shut it all down, protect the tribe. The other, to answer in reckless rebellion against a way of life that existed more in his memory than anywhere else. The secretive Sen had seen to that. "The Kel fight as she directs, the Sen, they would be the scholars, tend to the mysteries, keep the history, and the Kath, well, they welcome us to the fire at the end of a long day." He took a sip of tea and sighed, seeking to shift her focus a bit. "I was Kel because I was ordered to be so. We are called, and its a rough translation, 'the star that shines brightest though briefly'. We all knew we would die young. Wasn't even a question. We were weapons, we Kel. That was all. So, the Kath, the heart of the tribe, they made things easier ... they bore and raised the children but it was always understood that the children belonged to the tribe. I had fifty fathers, maybe as many mothers. And later, when I was old enough, I was welcome to visit their tents for a time in the evening but we didn't marry, didn't fall in love. That wasn't even a concept among the Mri."

Watching Niun, Siobhan couldn't decide if the discussion was stirring positive or negative emotions in the man. She knew enough from his dossier to suspect that the latter was more likely. Especially, considering slight change in the subject and she was wondering if Niun was checking up on her because the subject was hitting quite close to her interests. For now, she decided to, colloquially saying, bite it.

"So, you are a warrior and to my understanding, procreation is in your society removed from emotions that usually accompanies that in other cultures. Is that correct?"

"How to explain," he said quietly. "I lived each day as though it was my last as it well could have been. Always moving. Always working. Engaged. And at night, when I returned to the fires, they are there with food and drink and abundant laughter. We Kel would play with the children, rolling and racing and wrestling, and then there would be a meal and stories. Later, as everyone found their sleeping mats, sometimes, I went to their tents, I wasn't thinking about procreation. Pleasure shared and multiplied in the giving and receiving. And come morning, it was over. I would return to my duties." He finished his tea and turned the cup over, set it down. "The moment mattered. I was Kel. What more could there be?"

"How one become Kel?" Siobhan asked. She decided to change the approach. She started to get the hang of the culture with each piece that Niun was sharing. It was very much interesting one, with very much communal aspect overwriting everything.

"That's a long explanation," Niun said, "and I have tea to pour. Perhaps we can do this another time?"

Siobhan smiled and bowed slightly. "Of course. I'll be looking forward to taste the tea again." She said realizing that this was a cue for her to leave.

"Already looking forward to it," Niun said as he rose smoothly, in an uninterrupted fluid movement, and picked up the teapot. He followed her out of his office door, teapot in hand. "I have several people waiting for their tea."

Siobhan gracefully stood up from her heels and moved toward the exit. "Of course. It was nice talking to you Lieutenant." She said before she left the room and headed back to her own quarters.


Lieutenant JG Siobhan Richards PhD
Counselor
USS Crazy Horse

and

Lieutenant JG Niun
Intelligence Officer
USS Crazy Horse

Tag