Eriecho - Star Trek Kelvin Timeline fanfiction

Recessive - Wonderful and Rare Characteristics

In her and Saddik's home, which was little more than a Quonset hut; Eriecho set about fluffing up the pillows on a small sofa. Sollastek queued up the film on the viewer.

"May we speak a little beforehand?" she asked, sitting down.

"Certainly." He stopped what he was doing and sat down beside her.

"I know we have not touched very often." Eriecho stated. "Touch telepathy is so very strange at times."

"True. I do not believe the humans quite comprehend it, although they do try, to their credit."

"It can bring on strange knowledge at times."

"How so?"

"In Canamar," she explained, "with some species it was more ... unsettling ... than with others."

Sollastek was silent for a moment. "Was there much physical contact there?"

Eriecho nodded. "I, I am not a virgin."

He bit his lower lip a little. "I believe that I can understand that. There, it was violence done to your person?"

Eriecho nodded. "When my mother, H'Shema, died, I lost much of my protection. I carried a metal shank wherever I went." She retrieved the object from a closet. "This is it."

He touched it briefly. "I see."

She put it down and sat down again. "But it did not protect me from all that could happen to me."

He put a hand out, intending to touch her cheek and forehead. "I could, we could attempt a mind meld. Then I would know, and you would not need to say."

"No, Sollastek. Please, do not. I must speak it. I must vocalize it."

"Then please do. And I will listen." He folded his hands and listened, expectantly.

There was a pause. "Very well," she stated. "There were many of them, yes. They were of several different species. It was most difficult until I took up with Griud."

"Oh?"

"Griud is an Imvari." Sollastek's face betrayed some puzzlement, so Eriecho added, "They are a humanoid species but they do not, their, their genitalia, they are not in the place where we are used to." She touched her own knees. "Here, there are two pieces, and they are both located here."

"I see."

"And so he did not bother me as much, for we were fairly well incompatible. He would, in exchange for his protection ...."

"Protection?"

"Yes, he was over two meters tall."

"I see. Go on, Eriecho."

"Yes, well, as a trade for his protection of my person, he required that I, well, he would sit upon his cot with his legs flat. He would bade me to sit upon his knees."

"I think I understand."

"It was not for very long. He was not kind to me. But he was still somewhat safer."

"I understand."

"I tell you this, Sollastek, because I want you to know of my flaws, and of my history."

"May I speak to you off my own?"

"Naturally," she replied.

"As Vulcan fell, I was out of doors. I was not at studies. They seemed pointless, for I have never felt that I am too terribly bright. Yet that allowed me to flee. I saw the destruction. I could not turn back and save my classmates, or my parents or my brother. I should have gone back for them."