Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Part 27 - Flight of the Swan

As over two decades passed, there were even more changes on the NX-01. Jonathan had been right, that Esilia and the other full-blooded Ikaarans were all, belatedly, affected with the decline.

Lemnestra and Verinold went first, but they were also older than the others. Lingering was unpleasant and painful. One by one, the remaining Ikaaran women succumbed, until finally only Izquilla was left. And then, suddenly, she was gone as well.

The older generation drifted a bit, as some of them retired. Since the ratio was again lopsided, marriages sometimes opened up, and many of the women – who were in their sixties and seventies and older – sometimes took lovers.

The captain found himself bringing flowers to Karin Bernstein-Rosen one day, and replicated candy to Bree Tanner Greer the next. Susie Money Lattimer would entertain not only her husband, Mario Lattimer, but also, at times, Tristan Curtis. Relationships had become fluid as everyone tried, in one way or another, to provide comfort to the lonely and bereaved. T'Pol abstained from the many tortuous connections and reconnections.

And through it all, Lili remained loyal to José. They welcomed grandchildren, and even one great-grandchild.

=/\=

Lili was in the galley, still cooking at age ninety, but slower and far easier to tire. Her hearing was going as well. Craig and Brian continued to work there, too, but it was Aaron Archer and his assistants, Brandi Moreno Ryan and Michelle Phlox Mayweather, who did the cleaning and the heavy lifting while the older generation did the chopping and the cooking.

"Do you think," Lili asked Aaron, "that if we made empanadas, the Admiral would like them?"

"Lili?" Aaron asked his mother-in-law, "There are no Admirals here."

"Admiral? Oh, I meant the captain."

"He likes your empanadas. Everybody does."

"Then we will make them. How is your granddaughter?"

"Squalling a bit. Marie Helêne is quite the yeller," Aaron replied.

"Well, she knows what she likes, I think," Lili replied. She sat down on a stool in the galley.

"Are you okay?" asked Brian.

"Suddenly, I'm very tired."

"Do you need to go to Sick Bay?" asked Craig.

"Don't be silly," she scoffed.

Surreptitiously, AG flipped open his communicator. "Uh, José? Can you come to the galley? It might be nothing. But just, uh, please come."

"Sure," José replied and, before he closed the connection, he could be heard to say, "Josh, Margaret, Jill, please monitor the containment field. The lever is stuck again, so don't rely on it exclusively."

=/\=

In the galley, Lili looked up. "What are ya callin' José for? I mean, I like seeing him and all, but don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit?"

"Better safe than sorry," AG replied. "Now, while you're sitting down, tell me again how to make the sauce for the empanadas."

She smiled. "Ah, I see, you're gonna bribe me with an exploration into my secrets."

"Just, just humor me, okay?" He looked at his mother-in-law. She was white-haired and stooped, with deep lines on her face. "ME says that you've been acting tired all week, according to José."