=/\=

Mezoti sat down to review her message for Neelix, before sending it up to Masseni's ship. He'd agreed to deliver it when he approached the Talaxians' asteroid, upon his return to the area in a couple of months.

Stardate 54980

Dear Neelix,

It was so good to hear from you. Your new home seems very nice. Masseni came to dinner at our house and told us you have been very helpful to the colonists inside your asteroid. That's why Captain Janeway used your expertise when she made you Voyager's liaison to new species when we encountered them on our journey. It's good to know you are now officially an ambassador for the Federation, even though you aren't on Voyager any longer.

Masseni told us you may be marrying Dexa soon. She seems very nice. I'm sure she's helping you adapt to your new world. I have very good foster parents, Neelix. Arebi and Mazani love me and take good care of me, but I still miss everyone on Voyager terribly, especially Icheb and Seven. I hope exchanging letters with you will help. Since you say you can still talk to Seven, I'd like you to help me exchange messages with my family on Voyager, too.

My teachers in school are very nice, and they've encouraged the other students to be more friendly with me, but somehow, I'm not close to any of them in the way I was to Naomi on Voyager. I don't know if it's me or if it's them. Azan and Rebi have friendships from their sports teams, but even though I do play on teams at school, the other females haven't really accepted me. So maybe it IS me. I do like my school, though. I'm learning lots of new things, especially about the natural world here, but it is a funny thing. The more I learn about plants and animals and bugs here, the more I miss learning about space, and living on a ship.

Mazani told me that her daughter had a "pen pal" on another planet when she was a girl. When Arebi, who is a pilot, traveled to this planet, the two girls exchanged messages. They were friends for life, Mazani told me. Xericla still stays in touch with Mazani and sends letters to her about her family. She was very happy to hear that her friend's sons survive, even though her good friend did not. When Mazani told this story to Masseni, he suggested that Brax might want to be my "pen pal," too. If I'm sending messages to you, I could send a separate one about my life here to him, and he could send answers back to me. Would you ask him if he'd like that? If he does, have him send me a letter back the next time you communicate with me and I'll answer his, too. You can share this letter with him if you like.

I have to send this letter up to Masseni. He's leaving for his next stop tomorrow morning. He's a very nice man. We enjoyed our dinner with him, and we hope to see him again very soon.

Neelix, it made me so happy to hear from you and see where you are living now. I look forward to hearing from you again.

Your friend, Mezoti.

After reviewing her message, Mezoti stood up and walked over to the window. The trees in the woods behind the house were sparkling with a new coating of ice and snow. Mazani had told her it was rather late in the winter for a storm like this one, which had come upon them quite suddenly, right after Masseni had gone back up to his ship. Mezoti had to deliberately shut out the subvocal grousing of the twins, who were annoyed their sporting event, originally scheduled for tonight, had been postponed. The other team's community had received a much heavier snowfall, and the sports league authorities mutually agreed to reschedule their game.

Somehow, the twins' annoyance, coupled with the icy scene outdoors, matched her own mood. Neelix's message had made her very happy, and Masseni had been wonderful company at dinner the previous night; but this afternoon, she missed everyone on Voyager more than ever.

Trying to divert herself, she checked her sensor monitor to look in on the ant colony behind the house. The ants didn't seem to have been harmed by the sudden burst of bad weather. They hadn't really awakened from their winter sleep yet. She was glad of that. Perhaps she'd feel better when the bugs and flowers finally began to appear. She'd wanted to live on a planet, with weather and a natural world. She had that here, and now she wanted to live in space. How illogical! Would she never be satisfied with her life anywhere?

Turning her thoughts back to her visual letter to Neelix, she wondered, "Maybe I should cut out that part about not having friends at school." After thinking about it for a few minutes, Mezoti decided to leave her message as it was. Naomi once told Mezoti that Neelix seemed to be able to understand a lot of things that people hadn't really said. Naomi called it "reading between the lines." Mezoti didn't mind if he realized how lonely she really was. Actually, from the way Masseni looked at her a few times at dinner, she thought he was pretty good at "reading between the lines," too. She suspected he'd tell Neelix what he'd observed anyway.

She didn't have messages to send to Seven or Icheb. She didn't know what to say to them in the short time she had to prepare a letter to them. There was so much she would want to say to them, she didn't think she could fit it all in a message right now. Should she say she knows she made a mistake leaving Voyager? She didn't think she'd be able to hide that from them. Just thinking about it made her long to see them again.

The possibility of communicating with them in any way was so overwhelming to her, she simply couldn't think about it now. It was enough, right now, to know that she had a way to share her thoughts with them in the future, to let them know they should come for her if they ever get the chance.

Mezoti decided it would be better to plan on what to say to Seven and Icheb - and Naomi too, come to think of it, since she could write to her now, too - and put it all down so that when Masseni came back again, she'd have it all ready for him to take with him, to share her life with her Voyager family again. Especially, now that she knew her own mind: she wanted to live with them again, in any way she could - even if that way was simply in an exchange of letters. It was more than she'd ever expected, once Voyager had traveled out of subspace range with Wysanti.

Mezoti returned to the family communicator and sent her message to Masseni, with an extra note to the pilot himself:

Stardate 54980

Dear Masseni,

I've attached my letter to Neelix to this message. Thank you so much for being willing to bring it to him. If you want to read it yourself, you may. There aren't any big secrets in it!

I hope you had a good time at dinner with us last night. I enjoyed meeting you very much and hope you come back very soon to visit us again. Thanks again for helping me stay in touch with my friends from Voyager.

Your friend, Mezoti

=/\=

(Thanks to Six of Twelve for suggesting Mezoti might become pen pals with Brax. I loved the idea.)