Star Trek Voyager: VX

Music Hath Charms

Stardate 49063.6

Samantha walked into Xeno immediately behind Zariel, their duty shift about to begin. Wally and T'Lin, whose shifts were about to end, looked up and greeted them as they entered.

"So, are we going to play this evening?" Sam asked.

Before Zariel, who had been eating and sleeping increasingly poorly and who'd had a bad night the previous night, could make an excuse, Wally perked up. "Play what?"

Sam answered, "Well, she plays guitar and I play keyboards, and we really just kind of mess around with songs we already know."

Wally spun his chair to face them. "Could you use a drummer?"

Samantha's face lit up. "Sure! Can you come to Holodeck Two at 1800?"

Wally stretched out in his chair and folded his hands behind his head. "Oh yeah, I've been wanting an excuse to play. You bet I'll be there." He turned to T'Lin, who was still bent over her console. "Hey, T'Lin, you're a musician too, right? Why don't you join us?"

T'Lin turned to look at him, a bit puzzled. "For what purpose?"

Wally rolled his eyes, then turned toward her. "For fun, what else? To enjoy each other's company and to create something together." He flung his palms out, as though this should be obvious. "You know, like friends?"

T'Lin continued to look at him blankly, and he got up from his station, grabbed up his carry case from the floor, muttering, "Vulcans, che frustrante, Dio mio." He pointed at T'Lin. "Holodeck Two, eighteen hundred, be there. If you have your instrument, bring it. If not, we'll replicate you one." He turned and exited, chin firmly forward.

T'Lin got up and exited as well, nodding a farewell to her CO.

Zariel folded her arms, a bit uncomfortable now. Meeting Samantha to play music had been very soothing to her. She always felt better afterward, could usually sleep and eat better. The music lessened the weight, the terrible intrusion, of the constant proximity of others. Would that now be lost with the addition of a larger group?

Zariel started as Samantha laid a hand on her shoulder. "I hope it was okay to invite them to join us."

Zariel said, "Yes, of course, it'll be fun. I bet they'll enjoy it as much as I have."

But Samantha stepped in front of her, taking in the weight loss and the incipient dark circles under Zariel's eyes. "Are you okay? You seem like you aren't feeling very well today."

Zariel shook her head, and moved away, toward her station. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't sleep all that well last night, but I'm okay, really." She didn't see Sam put hands on hips and shoot her a disbelieving look.

Zariel walked up to the door of Holodeck Two a few minutes before 1800 hours, and from the hallway could already hear the sound of Wally's drum set. She stood and listened for a moment, delighted. He was good; he was going to add a nice dimension to their sound.

She walked to the door and waited while it whooshed open, then went to the control console to order her guitar. She frowned, noticing that with the addition of two more musicians, the computer gave her a slightly different guitar.

She walked to the center of the room, where Wally finished a riff with a flourish and grinned at her, twirling a drumstick in one hand. T'Lin was there as well, a ka'athyra or Vulcan harp at her feet and a guitar in her lap. She was looking at the lead sheet, and apparently, learning the chords she was about to play. Zariel was tempted to mutter something about Vulcans and how they made everything look easy, but instead she asked T'Lin, pointing at the ka'athyra, "Is that yours or is it replicated?"

T'Lin set the guitar down and picked up the traditional Vulcan instrument, apparently deciding on playing it instead of the guitar. "It is mine. I brought it on board with me at the insistence of my parents."

Zariel frowned and tilted her head, questioning, and T'Lin explained, "I did not think I would need it on a three-week assignment."

At that, Zariel grinned ruefully, thinking of all the stuff she'd have brought with her if she'd known she'd be gone for the foreseeable future.

Samantha entered and ordered up her keyboard. Once she got set up, she tapped a few controls on her PADD to share music on their devices as well.

"Lieutenant, since we were working songs we associate with a pleasant memory, I had Wally and T'Lin pick some too."

Zariel twiddled one of the tuning pegs on her guitar. "Sounds great. Anyone else sing, I hope?"

Wally and T'Lin both nodded, and Wally said, "But you're doing lead vocals. We've heard about that voice."

Zariel shot an incredulous look at Samantha, who gave her an innocent look and a shrug, and merely started the intro to the first song on the list.

Zariel shook her head and allowed herself to get lost in the music. Over the next hour, she discovered that leading them in this was as effortless as leading them in their duties, and that the soothing effect of the music was increased by the increase in their number.