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Posted on Tue Aug 11th, 2026 @ 9:09pm by Subcommander Kaiae t'Lien & Nveid tr'Rehu

3,686 words; about a 18 minute read

Mission: Intermission: Safe Haven
Location: Medical Center, Haven Colony

It had been hours since NVeid has chosen to make himself useful in the children's ward. He hadn't even entertained a break, feeling it was too important to help Emni sort the patients according to severity of injury and help her learn to make a better decision based on her readings.

Breathing a soundless sigh, he eased himself down in a nearby crate and rubbed his hands over his face, willing away the feeling of exhaustion.

---

Kaiae had paused outside the medical center to try to take a moment to center herself, but she knew her heart rate was still, unfortunately, notably elevated as she walked through the medical center to where someone had indicated they'd last seen NVeid.

The entire walk over to the medical center through the colony, she had found herself forcibly setting aside the memories of days of questioning all their alliance headquarters personnel on DS9 had been subjected to in the aftermath of...whatever the situation had been...that had occurred in the midst of the war with the Dominion. She had been the most junior of the comms team there, among the officer ranks at least; at the time a young sublieutenant only in her 20s; and to this day had little knowledge of whatever had gone down to lead the Continuing Committee to haul Senator Cretak back to the homeworld and charge her with treason. Whatever it was, though, it had cast the rest of the personnel there with a pall of suspicion initially; and she had spent the subsequent days of Tal'Shiar interviews of all the officers and crew aboard the Federation starbase terrified that at any moment that the interview would end with some abrupt order for the execution of everyone there, or worse. That it in the end had not...to this day, Kaiae still wondered occasionally how much of that had been because any of them had been believed; and how much of it had been a decision that in the midst of a war for survival, they couldn't afford to lose trained personnel in the absence of anything even remotely approaching proof of whatever conspiracy had been suspected. It really wouldn't do to go into this meeting with that on her mind, however; and if the pause she'd taken outside the structures had done little to lower her heart rate much; at least her hands had stopped shaking; she'd take 'no outward signs' if it was all she could get.

"Dr. NVeid?" Kaiae stopped just inside one of the supply rooms, a decent distance away from where she saw a man who looked like he matched the image from the man's file, perched on one of the crates; a distance that conveniently left her near the door to the supply room still - if this wasn't the right man, she could simply exit; and if it was...well, it it was, this was definitely a closed-door conversation.

NVeid looked up and nodded, not for the first and certainly not for the last time wondering why people insisted on using his given name rather than his clan name to address him. He stood and retrieved his small PADD from his pocket, typing a quick message. "I'm Doctor NVeid tr'Rehu," it sounded out, and the use of his full name seemed deliberate.

"Are you in need of medical assistance?" As the message sounded he was already giving her a once over even though she looked neither sick nor injured. However, in his many years of experience, he also knew looks and bearing could be deceiving and his senses told him she was experiencing a certain level of anxiety and most notably, distrust. The latter didn't surprise him as he'd been encountering a certain sense of suspicion all day .

"No." Kaiae reached out one arm to shut the door to the room, and walked closer...though, notably not within an arm's length or an easy striking distance. "I'm Kaiae t'Lien, the senior Romulan officer on the colony and the ships it owns." Though 'no longer wearing the uniform' had made perfect sense in most regards - given that she had well and truly burned her connections to it, with the treason charges of her own to match, in opposing the Empire by rescuing their families from the homeworld and the other core worlds now destroyed - this might be one area where it would do her exactly zero favors: Without it she probably looked, in civilian clothes, even more 'exactly as young as she was' and therefore far too young to be the senior officer of anything.

NVeid gave another nod in acknowledgement of her introduction. The once-over had already told him she wasn't sick or injured. "Then how many I help you?"

"I spoke to Dr. Savin earlier once Dr. Gable had finished clearing him medically. Certain...information...was brought to light about you by them both during that meeting. Concerning, among other things, your theoretically past allegiances." Kaiae was mostly just glad at the moment that she could actually speak the correct language for this conversation; because trying to control any vocal, facial, or body language tells while also trying to speak Federation Standard had been difficult, and she wasn't entirely sure she hadn't mostly succeeded simply because Savin couldn't hear her.

Ah...that explained the feelings he sensed. "They're not theoretical, but they are past," he typed, and right now he felt very unfortunate that his text to voice couldn't convey how he felt by tonal inflections. "And preferably, that's where they remain," he added. He didn't look away, but his expression spoke volumes as he looked at her. "They don't reflect who I am, and what I stand for. My primary desire is to help where needed, as needed. I'm a surgeon and an immunologist."

A very aggressive eyebrow rise crossed Kaiae's face at 'preferably, that's where they remain'. "Let me make it clear, in case it isn't already: Should I ever discover the past is anything but where they remain, I will take the appropriate course of action. As it is, I'm about to have to order half of town not to do so anyway preemptively. So you can start by telling me exactly how and why you ever were one of them, if they do not reflect your your views, honor, and beliefs?"

"I'm a telepath," he started, his expression changing to one of sadness as he continued to quick type. "I was around seven when it was discovered and I was taken away from my parents and sister. I have barely seen them since and since Romulus was destroyed I don't even know if they're still alive. I was trained as a surgeon, to interrogate prisoners and draw their most kept secrets from their minds. I took no pleasure in that and objected a great many times, at great cost to myself. My wife and child were murdered when I was much younger...and I as subjected to torture myself."

He paused his expression painted. "Almost to the point of death and not wanting to continue to live. You can ask anything you need to and I will answer, to prove that I am dedicated to the medical field and helping those that need it."

Kaiae nearly had to actually bite her tongue to keep from pointing out that there was a fairly straightforward solution to being abducted by an enemy who attempted to force you to do their bidding. No; that was an unfair standard to hold a child to. And if the story given was accurate, then by the time he'd been old enough she would've held him to adult standards, he would have spent years already with them; enough to twist the mind of an adult let alone a youngling. Still, the story was going to be very hard to verify or to disprove alike; and some statement as to how he had finally managed to extricate himself would probably be of use in judging it.

"There is little you can say at the moment that will convince me. However, Dr. Gable would seem to believe you; and therefore neither am I intending to dismiss the possibility out of hand. So, if you did indeed defy them, then I suppose my first inquiry is, to put it bluntly, how are you still alive now?"

"Thanks to Starfleet." It was the simple answer and the truth. "After yet another attempt on my life, I killed the person who tried to kill me, grabbed Jarron and fled the complex. I was badly injured in the attack and the weather was a frozen hell. We were captured by a Kzinti party, and we were put together with a captured Starfleet team. A Starfleet vessel rescued them and took us with them as well. After my recovery, I have served on various vessels. When I was abducted by the Tal Shiar, the captain of the vessel I served on mounted a rescue. I was near death when rescued, and it cost me my right eye." He was typing slowly now, his hands trembling as he remembered. "I was injected with a psy blocker during my capture which rendered me completely unable to communicate." Another pause, during which he did look away in obvious shame. "I tried to take my own life then, but thankfully failed due to the watchful eyes of the chief medical officer. This was approximately seven years ago. I have not been back near Romulan territory since my initial escape. This is the first time."

The Federation records of pickup from a Kzinti attack was probably verifiable, at least; and Kaiae made a mental note to see if Freya could dig it up. It would fit with the Federation Starfleet tendency to seemingly pick up random galactic strays wherever they went, if nothing else. And she couldn't help but notice the shaking hands at the moment, given she'd had to suppress her own before this meeting; a reaction that would fit with the story being told, given that it was a significantly worse one with, as she'd heard one of the humans say once, 'the Empire's boogeyman', than her experience with them whose recall had caused her own hands to shake on the way to meet him. Though. She also couldn't discount an experienced agent, if he was one undercover, would be able to fake that. When he looked away from her in seeming shame while recounting what most would consider a perfectly reasonable - and in fact expected - response either to capture by a untenable foe or to assuage real or perceived disgrace, though....that admittedly threw her for more a loop and made her entertain more strongly that perhaps this man really had been in Federation space too damn long: It was the Federation's thoughts on such things, the human view; and not one she could think of there being much advantage at all (and a few downsides, in being a strange alien morality) in interactions with her to fake having developed.

"...How does Jarron factor into this, then?" Kaiae sighed, and though she didn't sit down, she did lean up against a nearby stack of crates, which was at least slightly more of a relaxed posture than previous. "Did they kill his original guardians when they captured them? Or were they just impossible to locate afterwards?"

"His guardian was killed when their shuttle crashed, the boy captured. After our rescue, he was delivered to a to him yet unknown father, the father also unaware of his existence. After his father's death in an accident, the boy was delivered to me as apparently his father had assigned me as guardian in his will. The child was comfortable with me so I legally adopted him. He is half Betazoid on his mother's side, half human on his father's. After our rescue, I discovered I took am a hybrid, my father is Betazoid. So now, while am Romulan, I also hold Betazoid citizenship through my father, who acknowledged my existence."

NVeid seemed happier once the conversation shifted towards family and his expression changed as a gentle smile now appeared. "All I want is to help, and to make my son happy. If being watched while I work will help you to learn to trust me, it won't bother me. I'll do what it takes to earn it."

"An unavoidable component of that will simply be 'time'. I am meeting with the adults of the colony tonight to divulge this information; at that time I will also be making it clear to them that none of them are to seek to harm you." Kaiae made another mental note as to the Betazoid father, and Betazed being the world through which he drew Federation citizenship; that was another thing she could check, at least, as well. "As for your son, I don't anticipate any attempts to target him; he is after all underage. We don't really have a real school here yet, though."

"I understand," he answered, his expression matching his statement. "I dearly hope not," he continued in regards to his son, his eyes now briefly flashing. Anyone who would target his son would have him to deal with, for certain. "Perhaps I can assist with the schooling," he offered, "at least in the biology department."

Kaiae considered the benefits of another potential instructor against any possible potential threat, and leaned on another one of the skills she'd practiced often in her prior career: Stalling multiple parties for time while you looked into or contemplated something further. "I'll inquire on it with the people who've been spearheading the school issue. Last I heard on the topic though, we may supplant formal schooling for the adolescents with pairing them off as apprentices; more practitioners of a variety of trades will be needed given the rather lopsided children and adolescents to full adults ratio at the moment."

"Basics are still required before going on to an apprenticeship," NVeid countered, "as well as a minimum age. Not to mention aptitude." He knew he was being held back though, and he understood why, but that didn't mean he didn't feel hurt in the process.

"Aptitude is definitely going to be taken into account. Minimum age...might come down a bit from where it would've been before." Kaiae shrugged her eyebrows; she wasn't sure exactly how any of it was going to be evaluated or set up; but unlike her parents she'd never had a civilian career to date and so had limited idea of how apprenticeships used to work, either. "As for basics, I suppose that brings up another question - how long have you been Jarron's father for, now? Should we expect him to know how to handle himself around the colony, or not?" Kaiae was personally leaning a fair bit towards 'not'; because it sounded like all that time had been spent in Federation space, but it would be useful to know the answer either way; in figuring out whether a separate warning was perhaps warranted at tonight's meeting not to hold certain behavior or lapses in courtesy against the boy while he learned things.

NVeid considered the question for a moment, hand poised over his PADD. Then he shook his head. "Jarron attended school on Betazed the last six years, but I assume you mean self defense skills? Weapons skills? He has none and I would welcome him to join any classes to bring him up to speed. He'll pick up the language fast enough if given the space to do so. I expect him to learn."

Considering how quickly some of the youngest members of her own crew had picked up Federation languages over the last year just from exposure to them, Kaiae didn't doubt this was true - give it another year, she suspected Seira's accent in Federation Standard would be better than her own, for instance. "What about everything else? Etiquette, manners, or general cultural knowledge and practices?" It suddenly occurred to Kaiae belatedly as she asked that it was honestly entirely possible, if he had been taken from his family at only seven, that NVeid had never learned half of that, either; or at least not fully and normally. Then again, she thought acerbically, neither had Kaol, somehow, either. Maybe doctors were just bizarre in general.

"Federation etiquette and manners," he typed, "Betazoid and Human culture. He will learn the Rihanssu way now as he has need for it. But I require help, as I don't really know Rihanssu etiquette either. My mother never got around to teaching me, before I was claimed by the Tal'Shiar and all they desired was obedience." He offered a small smirk. "I never was good at that part "

"I'll...mention that part to people, then. To expect the gap there for awhile." This made the seemingly very deliberate insistence earlier on his house name beyond even the level many might fall into place more for Kaiae, as well, really; as she started to build a picture in parallel of sorts of her doubts on one side vs. her observations of things if the story panned out on the other side: It was perhaps, in the end, nearly the only thing he had left of his family, out of everything they otherwise might have passed on to him as hers had to her. At the moment, though, she wasn't sure she would necessarily succeed in finding many people willing to instruct him directly. Though, she might have better luck finding someone willing to teach Savin, and let him teach NVeid in turn. "When you checked in with everyone else, did they assign you all anywhere to live, yet?"

This time, he gave a single nod. "It was still to be built, if I understood correctly, but yes we were assigned housing. I suspect this gap you mentioned won't last long, Jarron will want to fit in and learn quickly enough. Or face the consequences of not learning quickly enough with his peers, I imagine. It's probably a good thing he isn't Rihanssu, given how I'm being treated. I wouldn't wish that in him, not do I want him to worry about me."

For all that she might otherwise have commented in one way or another on the rest, the part of Kaiae's brain that had been handling almost nothing but colonial logistics and the like for the last few months got stuck on the first part of the response, instead. She could feel the headache she'd had more days than not during that time returning again, her voice unnaturally flat yet exasperated at the same time with her next words, and this time the ire wasn't directed at the man in the room with her in the slightest; possibly beginning to reach the end of her rope a bit with the myriad problems she'd been troubleshooting of late...And well, in all honesty, had been troubleshooting since her commander vanished about a year ago and left her in charge of somehow bringing the now-completed evacuation of their families to fruition.

"Someone assigned you all to live in a house that has yet to be built?" Kaiae sighed. "Was it one of the prefabs, I hope? Those, at least, should be able to be erected within the day." If it was instead one of the spots they were building regular construction on, though....well, she would hope no one was stupid enough to tell people to go live in built-from-scratch house that had yet to even have a foundation dug, but she seemed to be discovering new depths to the number of idiots in the galaxy every damn day the last year or two.

Again, he nodded. "They showed us where the housing would be built, but from my understanding it would indeed be...pre-fab. I expect to have somewhere to sleep tonight, as would Jerant and Savin I imagine. From what I understand we have the same complex?"

Oh. Right. Jerant. The third man that she still needed to meet. Kaiae mentally appended at least another hour to the already-long agenda she had running for the rest of the day and evening. "If for some reason they don't go up as planned, tell Dr. Gable, or whomever is staffing this place overnight if she's left for the day; and I'll troubleshoot the issue." Exactly how she was going to do that if need be Kaiae hoped she didn't have to figure out; but if nothing else she supposed should could assign bunk space inside some public building for the night if it came to that.

"I can use a shelter if needed, as long as my son has somewhere to go." He did appreciate the effort the woman was showing on their behalf. "I'm grateful for your efforts however. Was there anything else you wished to discuss? Otherwise I feel I've taken enough of your no doubt valuable time."

Kaiae dipped her head slightly in acknowledgement and started for the door, and if she was reluctant to put her back towards a potential threat; it was an unavoidable test; and she would rather it be her taking the risk than one of the colonists. When she reached the door rather uneventfully, she pulled it open and walked through it, crossing ‘meet NVeid tr’Rehu’ off her mental agenda for the day and heading to the next item on the list.

Watching her leave, he stayed right where he was, not quite sure what to make of this meeting. He couldn't put any positive or negative feelings towards it, except that he was somehow glad to have it out of the way. Once she was fully gone, he sighed a breath of relief and returned to just sitting on the crate for a few more minutes.

 

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