By Jade East
Rated K+
Copyright April 2008
J/C
Disclaimer: Voyager and the characters belong to Paramount. I am just borrowing them for fun.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Jemima, 50 of 47, and Heartwings for your betas. Any remaining mistakes remaining are mine alone.
What if an alien saw the potential for romance between Kathryn and Chakotay? What if they wanted to help? This is an "other voices" story.
While the soothing lullaby of the night birds in the cinka tree outside her window made her eyes grow heavy with sleep, Vylisa Rosnet pushed aside her tiredness so she could reread her last journal entry. Something within urged her to be sure the diary was just right.
My mother always told me that I should be patient about the timing of my gifting. She often said that no amount of wishing or imagining could rush its arrival. However, no matter what I do, I can't help wanting and hoping it will come to me soon.
As I watched my parents again today and saw the wonder of the gift in their lives, I thought I'd burst for the wanting of it. I'm old enough, that much I know. I have passed my twentieth solar rotation. Being the oldest child, I don't have the first hand experience that would come from watching the gifting in one of my sisters. Nevertheless, I'm rarely envious of my friends who have older sisters. I'll be the first of my siblings to receive, as my mother and her mother before her had been. It's a special honor and one I'm happy to be a party to.
Mother loves to recount to the family the story of her gifting. It was wondrous and mysterious. Just after the empathetic gift came to her, she found an old man who was seriously injured at the side of the road. Although she was frightened and nervous about helping him, she told me that she couldn't turn her back on someone so obviously in need.
As she nursed his wounds, she found out that his cuts and bruises were nothing compared to his broken heart. He had lived with his family in a remote area of the mountains. His wife's gift had made them happy for a very long time. Even the fact they had only one child during their time together didn't dull their joy.
Their daughter had been gifted quite young and soon after found her life mate. They lived close by and had many children to warm their parents' hearts and those of the grandparents.
Tragedy struck during a storm. Their daughter and her mate and all but one of the children drowned when they were caught on a mountain lake during the bad turn of the weather. The sole survivor was a little boy. No one is sure how he managed to get to shore or be discovered before the elements could finish the job the storm started.
The old man and his mate raised the boy as their own child. The boy grew strong and tall, making them proud and easing the pain of their loss. When the boy, as a young man, found a lovely gifted mate, there was great joy in the old couple's home.
Finally the years claimed the old man's mate. Because of the grief he carried after the feast celebrating her life, he didn't exercise his usual alertness when he walked home instead of driving. Robbers waylaid him and beat him, leaving him for dead.
My mother's gift helped to heal his physical wounds and especially those of his soul. When she took the old man to a healer, she found the one who was to be my father as well, the one who would take her surname as his own. My father was that healer.
I can only try to do as my mother says and be patient and ready to do what I must when the gifting does come.
Closing her journal, Vylisa sighed. Patience had never been her strength. However, she understood the wise Gifter knew best when it came to the timing of the gifting.
Vylisa yawned again as she put the small diary back into its hiding place. She knew that it might be quicker to use a computer interface tablet, but like her grandmother and her mother before her, she favored the ancient paper and pen for her diary.
Setting aside the writing implement, Vylisa chided herself. She must get her rest. In the morning she would assist Chancellor Nasus Llireh at the greeting ceremony. Vylisa's apprenticeship at the embassy's cultural center was nearly finished, but this assignment would be the test of everything she'd learned in the past four years of training and study.