Beginning: A Star Trek Novel (New Frontier Reloaded Book 2)

by ROVER MARIE TOWLE

  "Will this do?" Odo picked up a random plant.

  "Let's check. They're not healthy unless you can rub the leaves without them oozing on you. Here's how you test it." Kejal gingerly took a takeo leaf between thumb and forefinger and massaged it. Viscous clear fluid welled up where the leaf joined the stem. "See? This one's no good. Its cell walls are too weak to sustain its needs. It'll never grow its leaves back after they get picked off. Takeo plants are herbs and you need them to keep producing leaves."

  Odo tried a different plant. "I see...this one isn't leaking. Fascinating." He chuckled to himself. "You seem to know plants the way I know criminal investigations."

  Kejal set the faulty shrub aside and put the one Odo just checked in the basket. "It takes practice. Gardening is so rewarding...seeing something you're taking care of grow into the world you brought it to-- sometimes I think flowers are how plants thank us for giving them a chance."

  Then Kejal went off ahead to pay the gardening merchant. Odo stood back, watching. He flashed back to the days when Kejal was just a rippling sensation in his chest. It amazed him how something so small could become the person he saw laughing and talking animatedly about mulch. Kejal often expressed his joy at working in a garden over the Great Link, but it wasn't the same as actually experiencing it first-hand.

  Odo wanted to join that part of Kejal's life, to really, truly know him.

  Everywhere I go, I feel like an outsider. Even with my own people. I don't want to feel that way around Kejal. I want to live inside his life the way Doctor Mora did. They are so close...

  "Mother?"

  Blinking, Odo turned his eyes towards Kejal. "Finished here?"

  Kejal nodded. Behind him, the merchant collected the plants in a shallow crate meant to be carried aboard a hover tram.

  "And that's how you buy plants." Kejal said with flourish while they waited for the tram to pick them up.

  "You would make a fantastic botanist." Odo remarked.

  "Maybe!"

  The tram arrived and he helped Kejal settle the crate safely near their feet. Kejal told the driver where to go.

  Odo watched the various leaves and blossoms shiver as the tram pulled away from the market. He didn't speak for almost an hour. Kejal had no problem filling the silence by joking with the driver. Odo jumped in during a lull in the laughter.

  "Kejal..."

  "Yes, mother?"

  Mother... Odo smiled inwardly. No matter how many times he heard it, he found it sweetly amusing. "I'm sorry that I wasn't with you in the beginning."

  Kejal took his hand and squeezed. "I've told you in the link and I'll tell you again now. You did what you had to. Father did everything you wanted him to."

  Tingling sensations prickled Odo's eyes again, like his body tried to shape shift something. He blinked and it was gone. "I missed an important time in your life."

  "I wouldn't be who I am if it weren't for you. You made the right choice."

  Uncomfortable now, Odo leaned forward on the hard tram seat. "I wish I had the closeness with Doctor Mora that you have. When I see you two...I-- ah, never mind."

  "What?"

  "Nothing. Look, we're almost home. Let's gather everything up."

  Kejal raised a brow. "Right. I got the crate. You let father know we're home."

  Getting out of a hover tram never felt so good. Odo hopped off before it completely stopped moving. He keyed the code to open Doctor Mora's front door and was greeted by the sound of quiet laughter.

  "Doctor Mora? We're back." Odo said.

  "Odo!" Doctor Mora sounded downright jovial. "Come in and meet my new friend!"

  "New friend?" Odo ventured into the sitting room to find Doctor Mora seated in the large chair by the oval window, sharing some sort of fruit drink with a Talaxian woman. "Oh...hello. I didn't know Doctor Mora was expecting company."

  "Good morning, Odo! I'm Aleexa. Pol told me all about you." Aleexa stood and extended her hand, and Odo politely shook it. She smiled. "Oh, look at those beautiful eyes you have. I'm sure women comment on them a lot."

  Odo stopped himself from shying away at her compliment. "Um, sometimes...thank you." He cast a curious glance at Doctor Mora. The scientist was dressed in casual house clothing-- a loose blue and brown shirt with an asymmetrical neckline and matching pants hemmed precisely at his ankles.

  "I just hired Aleexa to be my palliative care nurse. She's going to attend to my needs from now on, and she's quite a sweetheart," said Doctor Mora.

  "Pol, you flatterer!" Aleexa smiled at him and returned her attention to Odo. "And, Odo, if you have anything you need to talk about related to Pol's condition, please don't hesitate to speak with me. I don't just take care of a patient, I also tend to the family."

  Now Odo really wanted to shape shift into a pebble and roll away.

  "I'll keep that in mind, thank you."

  "Now you," Aleexa turned to Doctor Mora, "Don't forget-- you need to drink a takeo smoothie each time you take your metorapan. The batch I made up should last a week. Just pour and sprinkle."

  "I'm sure my back will remind me if I forget." Doctor Mora replied. "I feel better already. I never would have thought to combine herbs and medicine."

  Aleexa said, "Men usually don't-- it's a funny phenomenon amongst Bajorans. Women are the ones who say the herbal remedies aren't working, and trying a drug does the trick."

  "Heh, heh! Women...the universe's biggest mystery."

  "Oh, we unravel if you're patient." She giggled and looked around. "Now where is the other fellow? I thought there were two of you."

  "Right there." Odo gestured to the back door, where Kejal busily swept up the deka seed pods littering the ground. "We were out selecting items to plant in the garden."

  "Well he looks like a darling." Aleexa clasped her hands together. "How adventurous is he?"

  Odo looked pleadingly at Doctor Mora, who only shook his head.

  "Aleexa is quite perceptive about people," he said. "Good luck hiding anything from her."

  Odo's hackles raised at Doctor Mora's condescending tone. He wanted to bark that he could read people too, but he decided against it. Starting an argument wouldn't serve any purpose. Besides, Aleexa came across as a kind individual.

  Maybe Doctor Mora didn't realize his remarks rubbed wrong.

  Forcing his annoyance aside, Odo ignored her question and asked, "How long have you been nursing?"

  "Twenty years," Aleexa replied. "I consider my line of work as being a midwife for the soul." She exchanged smiles with Doctor Mora.

  Odo couldn't help himself. He had to grill her. "Ah, so what adjustments will you be making to his care right now?"

  "I've already ordered adaptive equipment and an adjustable bed." She gestured to the chair. "There will be grab poles next to every chair to help him get on his feet. The same goes for the bathroom-- grab bars in the shower and next to the waste receptacle. The goal is to maintain his independence as long as possible."

  "But I wanted to get used to the new bed right away, so it'll be arriving with the rest of the equipment. I can transfer my original bedding onto it without having to alter anything." Doctor Mora sipped his smoothie through a straw. "How did the market go?"

  At that, Odo finally relaxed. "Kejal was everywhere. I never knew he had that kind of energy."

  "He looks like a lively one." Aleexa patted Odo's forearm. "If it's all fine with you, I'd like to go out and meet him."

  "You're welcome to it." Doctor Mora gestured to the door. "Please leave it open. It's a nice day...I'd like to enjoy the fresh air. I'll have Odo close it if I get chilly."

  "You got it." She pressed a button to open the door and left it that way when she stepped through.

  Odo eyed Doctor Mora. "You look better than you did this morning."

  "That's her doing. Amazing, isn't she?" Doctor Mora's straw gurgled as he drank the last of his smoothie. "Takeo herbs mixed with metorapan...it's practically a miracle." He straightened and bent his normally limite
d leg. "Even my knee is less stiff!"

  "Doctor Bashir said takeo herbs help with inflammation, but I never imagined them helping this much." Odo remarked. He liked seeing Doctor Mora showing improvement after the awful mishap on Deep Space Nine.

  Then he focused on the holo-images he hadn't paid attention to last night. Kejal's birth, captured as holograms, shone in his eyes.

  "Oh..." He knelt to examine them closer. Unconsciously, he laid a hand on his chest.

  "Do those images bother you?"

  "No. That moment was special to me."

  Doctor Mora clasped his hands together. "Me, too." His expression softened. "So was the day you came into my life. I simply didn't know it at the time."

  Something in Odo's substance fell inward. He sat down on the floor, unable to say how much it meant to hear that. Then he realized he was sitting exactly where he saw Kejal sit in the shuttlecraft.

  And he said the first words that sprang to mind.

  "Doctor Mora...you need to clip your toenails."

  Doctor Mora burst out laughing. "Only you would notice that!" He examined his feet. "But it's true, and now I think I can actually reach them for the first time in six months. My clipper disk is in the chest. It should still be set on the measurements I prefer."

  Odo opened the chest and retrieved the small, flat disk from its home beside an elongated gold box. He handed it to Doctor Mora. "If you find out you can't...I'll...I can do it for you."

  But Doctor Mora didn't need any help, and he took such joy in the act of grooming his own feet that Odo wondered when he started taking life's little simplicities for granted.

  .o

  Kejal tossed an errant deka seed pod onto the sizeable pile he swept up against the house. The grass beneath his now bare feet felt soft on his toes. He heard the back door, but paid it no mind until an unfamiliar voice called his name. Only then did he turn. There stood a slightly chubby Talaxian woman with eyes a lighter shade of brown than his own. Nothing about her looked delicate, but she radiated a friendly warmth as soon as she smiled at him.

  "You're Talaxian!" Kejal blurted out. He remembered his manners and straightened. "Sorry...hello. You're the first Talaxian I ever met." He focused until spots similar to hers appeared all over his skin.

  The woman laughed, a sound as jolly as her appearance. "That's a greeting I've never experienced before. Pol told me all about you and Odo. My name is Aleexa. It's so nice to meet you, Kejal."

  "Likewise," Kejal grinned, letting the spots vanish off his body. "So, what brings you here?"

  "I'm a palliative care nurse. I came to help Pol with his end-of-life needs."

  Kejal winced and went back to sweeping. He didn't let her see the smile drop off his face. "I see...um, whoops, I'm sweeping that way."

  "Oh!" Aleexa hopped aside. She was more agile than her appearance let on. "As I was saying...I won't be just tending to him. I take care of families, too, since this is always a difficult time."

  "I don't like to think about it." Kejal peered at Aleexa. "It's too hard."

  She came closer to him. "What happens when you do think about it?"

  He couldn't meet her gaze. "I feel empty if I imagine him not being there. He raised me for my first ten years." The push broom dropped from his suddenly limp hands. "Part of me wants to be angry with him for getting sick and making me feel this way. But that wouldn't be fair to him, would it? I'm angry at the disease, too, because it's the reason this is happening."

  "Anger is a normal reaction, Kejal." Aleexa stepped into his line of sight. "May I suggest something?"

  He nodded.

  "The three of you are together." Aleexa spread her hands. "That wouldn't have occurred if Pol wasn't ill. There would be no reason for him to seek you out. He had infinite choices for his final journey off Bajor. Risa, Earth, Vulcan...so many possibilities, and he chose your planet. I saw his face glow when he spoke to me about you and Odo. He loves you both like his own." She touched his arm and he couldn't avoid looking into her eyes. "At this time in someone's life, the best way to show him you love him is to help take care of him. Watching his decline won't be easy, but you learn to look past it."

  Kejal's internal fluids churned until he had to concentrate on holding his humanoid shape. "Father has always been so strong and active. I can't imagine him sick or weak."

  "And he can stay active for a long time. Part of my job is ensuring his comfort. People who have their pain controlled remain out and about longer than those who don't. His pain is already greatly reduced-- and he can't fool me either. I'm very good at picking up nonverbal pain cues." She gave his arm a squeeze and looked alarmed when she was able to close her fist completely. "Oh! Oh goodness! Did I injure you? I'm sorry!"

  Kejal glanced between her hand and his arm. "I'm a liquid based life form. I don't have bones. You can't hurt me. Here, this is what I really look like."

  He abruptly liquefied at her feet.

  Aleexa knelt over him. She jumped back with a gasp as he reassumed his humanoid form. "Oh! How amazing! Pol said you and Odo are shape shifters, but it's another thing to see you do it."

  Kejal's smile became genuine. "Oh, that's nothing. Watch this."

  He hunched low to the ground and concentrated on becoming a large, crystalline stone. Getting the angles and colors right was a formidable task, especially when mimicking mineral deposits. He was proud of his ability to achieve several varieties of rocks.

  "Kejal?"

  Kejal perceived the vibrations of Aleexa's voice without actually hearing it. His ability to see, feel and hear varied depending on what he shape shifted into. Rocks were good for going numb and keeping people away.

  Again, he concentrated, and his hard surface elongated as he shifted into an exact replica of the push broom lying on the ground.

  After a moment, he proudly reclaimed his humanoid form. "I can take a lot of shapes, but I'm still working on this one." He gestured at himself. "Someday, I'll look more like my mother. Just, um...don't ask him to shape shift for you. He gets touchy about it."

  "Yes, so I've heard. I'm glad you aren't." She glanced at herself. "I wish I could shape shift into a thinner body."

  "Really?" Kejal cocked his head at her. "You look fine to me."

  Aleexa's cheeks turned darker pink. "Thank you." She looked up at the tree. "Say, I have an idea! Pol mentioned your intent to rejuvenate this garden. Why don't the three of you do it together?"

  Kejal's defenses almost rose. Gardening was very personal to him. He did everything a specific way.

  It's the last time I'll plant a garden while he's alive, isn't it?

  The sobering thought overrode his need for perfection.

  "This is all wrong..." Kejal whispered. "Father can't die. Parents are immortal."

  Aleexa placed a hand on his shoulder. "Letting go is the hardest part."

  "Then he can't die unless I say goodbye. If I don't say goodbye, he won't die!"

  "Oh, Kejal." She let her arm fall at her side. "Sometimes, it takes time. You don't think so now, but you'll just know when the time is right to say goodbye."

  He clenched his fists, his eyes fixed firmly on a spot between his toes. "There isn't a 'right time.'"

  "True. Losing someone you love never feels right. It hurts. But it hurts worse to lose them when you still have so much to say. This is a time where you should say the things you always thought you had the time to say."

  "Aleexa, I'm terrified to look at him. What if he drops dead while I'm talking to him? What if I walk into his room tomorrow morning to wake him up and realize he died during the night?"

  Aleexa cocked her head. "Is that what this is about?"

  "Isn't that how it happens?"

  "No." She sat down on one of the deka tree's roots and patted the spot beside her.

  Kejal seated himself. He folded his hands in his lap. "I never saw a sentient being die before. Not in person."

  She picked up a deka seed pod and rolled it between her mottled hands.
"Dying is a biological process, just like birth. Both show signs that the end result is imminent. It may be hours or it may be minutes before, but I can assure you that you will know it's close by the time Pol reaches that point. He won't suddenly expire right in front of you."

  He challenged her, "Is it going to hurt?"

  "The disease will cause him pain. I'll make sure it stays controlled. He won't be suffering at the time of death. I promise you that."

  Kejal chewed on his bottom lip while he absorbed Aleexa's words.

  "Pol is on a journey that starts here and ends in the Celestial Temple." She touched his hand. "I'll walk with all of you through every stage of this if you want me to. If something bothers or frightens you, let me know. I'll be glad to explain what is happening. All you need to do is ask."

  "I just have to ask?"

  "Mmhmm."

  The conversation made Kejal squirm. He studied the deka tree's branches and changed the subject. "Will you go get everybody? The spiny basil plants are father's favorite, and they need to be planted first. Do you want to help?"

  Her eyes lit up at that. "Thanks, but I can't. I have to finalize everything on Pol's equipment before it arrives tomorrow. I'll be back in the morning. It's been nice meeting you, Kejal."

  Kejal stood-- Mora taught him it was always polite to stand when seeing a lady off. "Likewise, Aleexa."

  She smiled at him and headed towards the back door. The sound of farewell pleasantries filtered into the not-quite-spring air.

  Kejal brought the individually potted spiny basil plants to the swath of smooth rocks on the garden's eastern edge. They were nicer than fences for marking a property line. He retrieved the gardening equipment from the shed attached to the house.

  Odo emerged first. "Careful, the ground is damp. Wouldn't it be better to put your slippers on?"

  "I'll be fine. Leruu always gardened barefoot." Mora joined him. He gestured at Kejal. "And I'm not the only one."

  "I'm afraid I'm at a loss here," said Odo.

  Mora didn't lean on his cane as much when he walked across the grass. His whole demeanor was noticeably brighter. "You won't be for long. Kejal, how is the soil?"