Little Boxes

Posted on Tue Jan 8th, 2019 @ 7:23pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox

Mission: Section 31-B
Location: Crew Quarters, Deck 8
Timeline: 2396

Sitting on the back corner of the bed in her senior crew quarters, Lieutenant Junior Grade Melanie Dox fumbled through a small box between her legs. One of three on her bed. The last few weeks had been something of a roller coaster of emotional revelations and stress that left the young, part Romulan pilot exhausted more often than not. And as an anxious, nervous woman who was woefully inept in social situations, she tended to spend the majority of her time off-duty in her room. But tonight was ever so slightly different.

The box was one of three that she had put in storage when she came on board the Hera. Boxes Melanie had put in storage over six years ago as she was leaving for Starfleet Academy. She had been living with her paternal Grandparents since she was sixteen in Ohio, which had been an extremely turbulent period in her life. As an angry young woman, she had made no effort to connect with them while they were still alive and had spent years being conditioned by life on Earth to try and hide her Romulan heritage. This was made slightly easier by having a largely human looking appearance as she lacked the characteristic pointed ears of the race, a fact that filled the conflicted young officer with resentment.

Thinking back, she nervously rubbed an ear as she recollected. It was a habit she had for her entire life. A habit she had only recently learned was due to her human father having had her Romulan ears surgically altered when she was young enough to block the traumatic memory out. And that was only the tip of the iceberg of revelations.

After she had recovered from her injuries, the ships Chief Medical Officer and her friend Asa Dael let her know the results of an extensive genetic scan that revealed that when her ears were surgically altered, she had also underwent somewhat sloppy genetic manipulation to make her appear more human. It left her blood a strange brown hue for years and Asa was concerned that if left as it was, would end up causing deteriorating genetic damage as she got older.

Looking at her hand, she couldn't help but notice a change in her skin tone. She was only a day into a gene therapy regimen that would last another five days. It made her nauseated in the morning and just a little constipated, but it was also regulating her system and her copper based blood was clearing itself of the side effects of decades old sloppy tampering. Within a week her blood would be as green as any other Romulan and her complexion was becoming decidedly more olive as a result.

Grabbing a glass of syntholic Romulan Ale on her nightstand and taking a drink, Melanie rolled her eyes at herself. She was trying to make an effort to stop obsessing over what had been done and move forward while trying to rediscover herself. And she felt that the three boxes in her room we're a first step in doing so.

This was the new Melanie Dox, or Mnhei'sahe, which she now knew was her original given name. And she was going to stop beating herself up over her past of it was the last thing she did. She took another sip, wishing it were the real thing as it would make forgetting her anxiety more than a little easier. The thought gave her a smile as she set the glass back down and pulled the lid off of the first box.

It had been years since she had seen any of the items. Possessions from her childhood that she tucked away to avoid unpleasant memories and reminders of past pain. A trend she was only now realizing was more than a little problem for her. On the top of the box was a dusty, high school yearbook that she began to think through. She had only the one picture in it, a three dimensional bust of a nineteen-year-old Melanie with a slightly dour expression on her face, largely hidden behind an unkempt mane of curly auburn hair. The other faces blurred together in her memory for the most part. A collage of people that had little impact on her other than the background noise of bullying that reinforced her introversion.

She tossed the book on the floor by the side of the bed without much of a thought and continued to dig through the box, pulling out an antique jewelery box. Melaine pulled open the lid, which stuck a little from not having been opened in years. The slight smile on her face broadened into a wide grin as she pulled out a handful of various coins. Old Earth coins, Ferengi Latinum, Klingon Darseks, and more.

Letting the coins run through her fingers, she looked at them and her mind drifted back. Physical currency might not have been used on Earth but such things still had an appeal to Melanie.

Friends were not a commodity she had any stock in during her few years on Earth as a sullen little ex-smuggler. But she had skills that at least attracted her share of acquaintances interested in the things she knew how to get her hands on. Real Romulan Ale, for instance. And while the coins had little real value on Earth, they were still hard to get and Melanie found value in the stories they reminded her of. And the bitter teenager liked sending people who wanted Romulan Ale or Klingon Bloodwine on wild goose chases for actual money. It was one of the few little pleasures she allowed herself to enjoy in those years.

She set the box aside on her nightstand next to her drink and kept digging. Most of the items were casual things that didn't mean much to her. Old shirts that stopped fitting years ago and meaningless paperwork she long ago forgot why she thought it was important enough to keep.

Getting up, she put the first box in the back corner of her small closet and tossed the yearbook on top of the lid. The box of coins, she placed on the single ornamental shelf she had in the corner of the room next to the framed picture she kept of the senior staff of the Hera.

Swapping the now empty glass for a freshly replicated drink, Melanie flopped back onto the bed with legs crossed in front of the other two boxes. She pulled the tops off of both, looking inside. In the second box was a series of older books she had had for years, some from the modest library she had as a child growing up on the smuggling ship, the Forager.

The first she pulled out was a thick, dark green leather-bound hardcover tome. Taer'thaiemenh, by the Romulan author V. Raiuhes Ahaefvthe. The book where she first read about the Romulan principal of honor defined as 'ruling passion'. Or as it was known in Rihan, the Romulan language: Mnhei'sahe.

This time, the rush of emotions was a positive one. She had read the book a few times growing up and could never understand why it was so important to her. The memories of the name her mother had given her were buried with those of the violation of having her appearance surgically altered against hers and her mother's will. Suddenly, seeing the old dog eared book, she was flooded with the emotions of old memories. Of the feelings of happiness before she learned to feel shame at being Romulan.

Wiping the dust off of the old book with the bottom of the t-shirt she was wearing, she set it gently beside her with a smile. She was as much Mnhei'sahe as she was Melanie and she was learning to be comfortable with that idea.

The other books were a mix of books from Earth and Vulcan. Surak's Analects, A Wrinkle in Time, Falor's Journey, and more. Books she hadn't read in years that she suddenly felt like revisiting. Looking up at her sparsely decorated quarters, Melanie scrunched her face and tilted her head.

"Computer... Project holographic representation of available... Four shelf bookcases in that corner of the room." Melanie gestured with her hand as she spoke towards the wall opposite the small couch along the windows of her room.

=^=There are 1,877 currently available design options in the replication catalog. Please refine search parameters.=^=

Rolling her eyes and sighing at the somewhat pedantic response, Dox replied. "Cross-reference designs using similar materials and designs as the existing shelf unit on the opposite wall, please."

=^=There are 19 available designs. Beginning holographic presentation cycle.=^=

Getting up from the small alcove her bed was in, Melanie grabbed her drink and her copy of Taer'thaiemenh and walked over to the living room as the first Holographic representation of bookshelves began. The designs were all fairly simple, and after about a minute, she smiled. "Computer, pause."

Holding her book up to see that it would fit easily between the shelves, Melanie smiled again and took a sip of her drink. "Perfect... Computer, please order shelving unit 7 and replicate in place as shown."

The computer chirped, and moments later a shimmer of light and the hum of energy flared in the room leaving a very real set of shelves where moments earlier was only a hologram. Melanie placed her book prominently in the center, smiling.

About twenty minutes later, the medium sized shelves all were about half filled with the remaining items from her three small boxes. In the middle, was her modest library of books. On the top shelf was a small model of a Romulan D'deridex class Warbird that she had built as a young girl that was missing half of one nacelle with the paint faded and chipped.

Laying next to the model was her previous uniforms Comm Badge. The Symbol of the Federation she had first worn when she came on the Hera before changing the emblem for the one on her new uniform. On the shelf below the books was the Romulan disruptor she had purchased at the auction she had attended with Captain Telvan and the Baroness, deactivated of course. Next to the disruptor was a small identification document with her picture that read 'Baroness Fifth Class Melanie Dox of the Artan Family', given to her by Captain Telvan on that same mission.

Barely filling out the rest of the sparsely populated shelves was her academy class ring and her small but seldom used keyboard along with the small Vulcan Brazier given to her by Lieutenant Sonak to aid in her mental training and meditation.

It was a small collection of memories, but it was a start and sure to grow the longer she served on the Hera. The pieces of her lives didn't need to be sources of pain or regret anymore unless she let them be and she was determined to figure out not only who she was but everything that she could be.