Post 38 - Little Orphan Kodak

Posted on Mon Apr 26th, 2021 @ 7:43pm by Captain Björn Kodak & Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: Grand Delphinium, Delphi, Risa
Timeline: MD 48 - 1005 Hours

[The resort lobby of the Grand Delphinium]
[Delphi, Risa]
[MD 48 - 1005 Hours]

The main building of the Grand Delphinium Resort boasted a large lobby area outfitted with various comfortable and well appointed couches, lush rugs on floors that appeared to be made of peach and white marbled rock. Pillars of the same substance towered up into the sky meeting an arched ceiling made up almost entirely of glass panes. The effect gave visitors coming and going the impression that they were outside while still shielding them from breeze or precipitation as they went about the usual business of arriving and departing.

Emni t’Nai had settled herself in one of the sofa’s, a small cup of espresso situated on a pristine table next to her and a novel loaded onto her PADD. Her rooms were a short walk away and although she knew that everyone was out and enjoying the beaches, sand, and delightful local fare she hadn’t yet been able to shake off the doctor-Emni in favor of woman-on-vacation-Emni. No matter what she did some part of her brain remained on call as if waiting for a non-existent sickbay to call her from her luxurious Risian bed to come address this crisis or that.

After delivering Lenek to Dr. Cowell’s care and working with Starfleet to remove the ceiling for the LMH’s program, she (with Karim in tow) had been redirected to Risa for shore leave. 20 days on a foreign vessel that you were not assigned to was a not insignificant amount of time and while she was glad for the physical rest she was still working with Karim at regular intervals, doing her best to support the Vulcan as he worked to reassert control over his emotional state. To not have that top of mind at this moment felt almost like a betrayal. Or maybe it was simply that she couldn’t imagine not treating someone, even if for only a day.

Absently she grasped the delicate handle of the espresso cup, bringing the bitter liquid to her lips and sipping. The words on the PADD in front of her blurred and she absently rubbed at her eyes with the butt of her palm, espresso mug still balanced between three fingers. She had read, or perhaps not read, this same page three times now and couldn’t seem to hold the words in place. Setting down her cup she looked up, scanning the room as if looking for someone even though she had no plans to meet any of her crewmates.

Unexpectedly a familiar form came into focus from her peripheral vision. Captain Kodak, a collapsible beach chair and bag slung over his shoulder, was making his way across the entrance toward the door. Although it had only been two days she had yet to encounter anyone other than Karim, so she made a split second decision, scooped up her PADD, and made her way towards the burly Chameloid.

Kodak seemed oblivious to the world around him -- "phaser-focused" might be the most apt way of describing the way his attention was fixed solely forward, navigating around the people checking in and out or meandering through the lobby. Clad in blue swim trunks and a gauzy white shirt -- open at the chest, the linen panels held together loosely by strands of something resembling shoe lace ties -- the Chameloid moved forward with purpose, unaware of Emni until BAM: there she was, almost standing directly in his path.

"Uh...Doctor?" Kodak asked, a bit surprised to see the woman. Owing to her lack of Starfleet uniform and lab coat, it took the Captain's brain a few extra seconds to recognize her. "It's good to see you," he recovered with a smile, though it seemed perhaps a bit forced. Kodak threw off waves of emotional sensation that did not seem to match up with the image of a man headed out for the beach. He seemed anxious; his nerves were a little on edge and there was a hint of melancholy coloring his thoughts. "How have you been? Irynya told me everyone had been put up here for the duration of our stay. I'd been in a little villa on the coast but figured it'd be nice to bump into folks here. So I moved," Kodak chuckled, his mental landscape again out of tune with the mellifluous sounds of his laughter.

"Enjoying your coffee?" Kodak asked, adjusting the chair and bag slung over his shoulder as his eyes moved to the cup in Emni's hand. Truth told, he enjoyed the German variant -- kaffee -- but he could smell the beverage and it percolated his senses. "Or is it espresso?" he asked, trying to pick out the hints of the scent in the air.

A frown flashed across Emni's features, creasing her forehead in concern, before she managed to get her features under control. There were red flags everywhere in the Captain's emotional signature, clashing heavily with his body language. Momentarily unsure how to respond, she looked at her espresso cup still clutched in her grip.

"Uh... it's espresso," she said, feeling slightly ridiculous as she did so. "I'm terribly sorry, sir. I get the impression I may be interrupting something. I've only been planet-side for two days so outside of Commander Karim, you're the first person from the Adelphi that I've seen."

She floundered then, suddenly unsure of what to say. Kodak was clearly eager to be free of the conversation, the anxiety and melancholy mingling in a strange red-blue crest of emotion. It had been so long since she had been near enough to engage with the Chameloid that she was both relieved and strangely nervous. "Are you...." she began drawing out the word slightly, "... headed to the beach?"

"Nothing to be sorry for," Kodak shook his head slowly, pursing his lips for a moment. "Welcome to Risa, by the way," the Chameloid nodded, flashing that same discordant smile. It stayed for a moment, like the shaft of a sunbeam peeking through heavy cloud cover, but was quickly swallowed up as the Captain consider his response to Emni. Kodak mused that he could simply affirm her thinking, which might allow him to escape further conversation if Emni thought she were keeping him from his plans. But that thinking felt disingenuous, especially since the good Doctor was an empath. She likely knew something was up already. If only there was a way to keep people out of my head, the Chameloid grumbled internally.

Aloud, however, Kodak said, "Yes...and no." He gestured then to the beach-chair-in-a-bag slung over his shoulder and lifted the canvas bag holding a towel, sunscreen, and other accoutrements. "Yes in that I'm headed to the beach. No in that I'm not heading there specifically for sun and fun. I, uh..." suddenly the Chameloid found it a bit hard to speak, "I'm going to the beach my parents found me on as a baby. Not that I expect to find any clues to my parents' identities after all this time," Kodak shrugged, "but maybe visiting that spot will make me...I dunno," he locked eyes with Emni, "maybe help me understand why they left me somehow?"

He'd made no secret of his origins. In fact, they were spelled out in Kodak's Starfleet personnel file. As a baby, the Chameloid had been found on a Risian beach by Klaus and Ingrid Muëller. Vacationing there, the human couple had stumbled upon a beach bag containing both baby Kodak and the small, onyx orb that had been on display in the Captain's Ready Room desk aboard the Adelphi. Risian authorities had been unable to track down Kodak's parents and, feeling for the boy, Klaus and Ingrid decided to foster and then eventually adopt him, taking Kodak back to home in Germany on Earth. From there, he'd grown into the man who'd gotten the Adelphi steamrolled into uselessness by the Vidiians.

Kodak dismissed that particular thought, pushing aside the related guilt and shame. "And what're you up to today? Aside from espresso and...a book?" he asked, spying the PADD clutched in Emni's hand.

Emni brought the PADD up and stared at it with a mixture of derision and surprise, as if it had just appeared and somehow offended her. "I suppose you could say I am reading, but I'm quite sure I have read the same page several times already. So perhaps 'attempting to read' would be a better description."

She lowered the PADD, palming it as she did in a move that she regularly undertook in sickbay when she finished a patient file. "Honestly, I haven't got a clue what I'll be doing today. I suppose you could say, after weeks of being on call between Commander Lenek and Commander Karim, I'm a bit at a loss. Karim..." she paused, realizing too late that she had inadvertently dropped the formality of the counsellor's title. It stood as evidence of the informal nature their relationship had taken as the two of them had traveled together forging what might even be called a sort of friendship by some.

"Commander Karim," she self-corrected, "seems content to sit in his room and doesn't seem to have need of my medical services at the moment so I'm a bit at..." she gestured with the hand holding the PADD, "loose ends I guess?"

Kodak's eyes softened a bit as he considered the Doctor's position. He was no empath but the woman often seemed to want -- need -- to take care of others. And on shoreleave without someone care for, Emni seemed to be a bit at a loss. While the Chameloid didn't think he particularly needed caring for himself, he though, perhaps, having something specific to do might be helpful. "Well, you could always come with me?" The statement was upturned at the end, it's lilting drift at the tail end turning the offer into more of a question.

"No pressure, of course," the Captain shrugged lightly. "But if you're looking for something to do and would like to see a different part of Risa, well...feel free to bring your book with you," Kodak offered with a warm rasp and a smile. The idea of Emni tagging along shifted the colors of his emotions, effusing them with shoots of comfort and a slight lessening of anxiety. Even if the Chameloid himself didn't realize it, his emotions did: having the Doctor along would make for an easier experience, it seemed.

A warm smile lit the Romulan woman's face mirroring the change in emotional makeup that she picked up from the Captain. "I'd like that," she said and then, remembering she was still holding her cup, she tipped its contents back in one gulp. Casting about for an obvious place to leave the cup behind she finally settled on the reception desk. Turning back to Kodak she shrugged. "I don't suppose they'll mind if I leave the cup there," she said her voice sounding less certain of the action than her words. "Lead the way."

"I mean, all that is theirs' is ours," the Chameloid smirked back, "I assume that includes space on their reception desks." Using his head to gesture towards the door, he indicated that Emni should follow now that she'd officially joined the party. He led the way outside, circumnavigating new and returning guests streaming in through the front doors. "The beach is on another continent. It's a bit far to walk," Björn chuckled lightly, "but we'll just grab a quick transport and away we'll go."

It didn't take long to reach one of the several transporter stations sprinkled across Isle Delfino. After waiting their turn in the queue, the Chameloid stepped up and plugged their destination into the computer. Gesturing Emni up onto the pad first, Björn then joined her, assuming a casual stance as the whispy sprites of glowing energy enveloped them. A haze of sparkling motes wavered across the near-field, dazzling away Delfino and replacing it with their target location.

[Iakuhe Beach]
[Isle Uhao]

Stepping down from the transporter dais, Björn offered a smile to the man who stepped up behind them with a broom. As he swept away the sand and dirt that accompanied the pair from Delfino, the Chameloid began walking towards a lifeguard shack in the distance. "It's over there," he explained, gesturing towards the shack and a few isolated pockets of beach goers.

Unlike Delfino, Uhao was not a premiere destination. It did, of course, have a couple of small resorts but being so much smaller than Delfino, crowds were just not a thing there. If one wanted to shop at interesting stores or dine out for a fancy meal, the local resort offerings were all that were available locally. Anything else would require transporting away across the planet. But what Uhao lacked in tourism it more than made up for in beauty. Which was, perhaps, why Kodak's parents had gotten married there so many years before.

As they walked, the Chameloid turned to Emni and explained this, his emotions infused with the love he carried for Ingrid and Klaus Müeller. "Can you believe that was nearly 45 years ago? Don't get me wrong," he smirked in the stark sunlight, his eyes hidden behind mirrored aviators, "I love the idea of being with one person for so long. But how do you logistically make that work? At least I don't have to worry about that yet," he smiled, though the expression was hollow. Behind it, a note of sadness colored his emotional landscape as thoughts turned to leaving Andrew behind on Risa at some point.

"When they found me, mom and dad had come back here to celebrate their wedding anniversary," Björn explained, his feet trudging through the sand. Thanks to his Chameloid biology, his flip flops -- an affectation of his shapeshifting -- stayed hugged to the bottom of his feet, not allowing any sand to come between the rubbery material and his flesh. This was welcome as the sands of this particular beach were more coarse than that of Delfino. "I think they thought finding me was some kind of message from the universe," he chuckled, coming to a stop at an empty patch of sand not far from the shack.

"Well? What do you think?" he gestured around them. "According to my parents, this spot right here is where they found me. Tucked into this beach bag," Björn smirked, holding it up for Emni to see. The bag was made of tan canvas and was mostly nondescript save for some wear and tear from the long years.

Emni had listened quietly as Kodak spoke, letting her emotional guards down as she did. It was a relief to be so much less guarded. Between working with Karim and arriving at Risa she found herself in the practice of keeping things particularly tightly guarded. So it was that she experienced the Captain's emotional ebbs and flows more like a gentle tide than an assault on her senses. She noted the deep love when he spoke with his parents, but also notes of sadness and anxiety when the topic of long term relationships came up.

As they came to a stop at a nondescript spot in the sand Emni turned her attention to the area around the. The sand here was more gravelly, the waves a bit wilder than the sedate waters around Isle Delfino. A few beachgoers sat in chairs or blankets they had clearly brought with them. Emni tried to picture baby Kodak, wrapped up in a canvas bag in this quiet place. Had whomever it was that left him there still been on the beach when the Müellers arrived? Had they known that their child was safe--perhaps sensing that Klaus and Ingrid were the type of couple to immediately fall in love with a baby they had just met?

"It's..." she struggled to think of a good word to capture the place. "It's idyllic," she finally settled on. "Not in the way that Risa's intensely beautiful views wow you, but in a lasting beauty sense. As if the wilds of Risa hold more sway here than other areas experiencing their weather control."

She quieted a moment, thinking. Her heart ached to imagine the parent or caretaker who had left young Kodak here. What kind of horror must they have experienced to leave an infant behind? What kind of life had they felt he would have that they themselves couldn't give?

"Have you been back here since they found you?" she asked already guessing at the answer, but hoping to keep the line open for her Captain to talk.

"Wilds...that's a good way of putting that," Kodak nodded slowly, eyes taking in the cresting waves off shore. This particular beach wasn't so much known for swimming -- although there was a calm cove to do so -- as it was for surfing. Off the shore, several people could be seen attempting to tame those wilds with their various-sized surf and boogie boards. Most failed but one person was successfully riding their way through the overhang of a large wave pushing towards the shore.

Turning to Emni, the Chameloid shrugged lightly. "We apparently came here when I was six. Honestly, I don't really remember that. But you know how kids are; not everything sticks," he chuckled, tapping his forehead.

With Kodak's Finding Spot not currently occupied, Kodak removed a large beach blanket from the canvas bag and rolled it across the sand. Extracting four weights from the bag as well, the Chameloid parsed them out on each corner of the large blanket. Next up went a gazebo tent, erecting itself from a metal gadget thrown onto the middle of the blanket. After several moments of the device unfolding itself and telescoping its legs, the blanket was now covered in shade. And since Kodak only had the one beach chair, he simply set the bag it was in to the side before taking a seat on the blanket and inviting Emni to join him.

"Like I said back at the Delphinium," the Chameloid sounded slightly unsure, "I'm not really on top of why I'm here." And that confusion could most certainly be felt in his mindscape; his questions fell like the first few sprinkles before a rainstorm. "I guess maybe I just wanted to see the place with my own eyes. Thought maybe it would help me understand somehow," Kodak said, looking around the beach and then out to sea. "But it's just a beach, really. Like a thousand others on this planet, I'm sure."

From his pocket, the Chameloid withdrew a palm-sized orb in obsidian. Even shaded by the canopy, the object seemed to suck in all the light around it. With a gentle toss, Kodak sent the orb Emni's way. "Apparently it's a puzzle box of some kind? Or so Timmoz told me. Orion in origin but it doesn't seem to have any controls on it. No clue what's inside but I was found with it." If especially observant, Emni might recognize the sphere as the one that sat on Kodak's Ready Room desk back on the Adelphi.

Emni sat where indicated, crossing her legs under each other in a sort of lotus and resting her arms on her knees. Kodak's uncertainty spiked as he spoke, having the unintentional effect of setting the Romulan doctor in a watchful state. As he spoke she absently surveyed the area finally looking over when he removed the orb from his pocket.

Catching it with both hands, she turned it over in her palm, running her fingers along the smooth surface. The inky black of it was unusual, reminding her more of a blackhole that drew in all that was around it than the shine of true obsidian. Curious, she leaned forward, her hands and the orb sticking out beyond the protection of the tent into the sunlight. The small object began to hum as it met the light, a low vibration accompanying the sound startling the doctor who nearly dropped it from where she held it.

Pulling herself together, she turned her head to the side. "Sir?" she said a question hanging on the honorific. "Is it supposed to hum?" As the hum continued, the smooth surface of the object seemed to ripple--a series of extremely small bumps flowing across the surface to coalesce as a series of buttons, knobs, and switches. Afraid to move out of the light now, Emni held the orb gingerly. "You'll want to look at it," she said, at a loss for any kind of eloquent way to explain what had just happened.

"What in the..." Kodak rasped, concern and wonder both filling his voice as he reached for the orb. As the small sphere was handed across to him, the act of touching the object again caused the oscillating hum to suddenly stop.

Sitting in the Chameloid's palm, the various knobs, switches, and other protrusions all began to move on their own. With a great mass of whirring and clicking, the bumpy buttons operated themselves into a configuration that, upon the ceasing of their movement, activated a small hologram. The projection hovered several feet in front of the orb, depicting a symbol neither Kodak nor Emni had ever seen before -- a symbol that flashed in cadence with the voice now speaking from the hologram.

"Geo-lock condition: met," said the gruff voice that issued forth. "DNA scan: complete. Age check: verified. Hello Kodak," the voice greeted somberly. "This unit will now respond to your touch. Solve its enigmas to find The Path."

And with that, the hologram shut down. The voice was gone. Only the buttons, levers, switches, and dials remained, the smooth surface of the orb having given way to the controls. Kodak stared down at the sphere, startling eyes startled by what had just happened. While the Chameloid was often known for cracking jokes to break the tension and deflect his own anxieties, it seemed the man was without levity now as he regarded the puzzle box.

"Geo-lock? DNA? Age?" Kodak looked to Emni, puzzlement written across his face. "Does that mean it would only do this here," he gestured to the blanket beneath him, "and only for me at a certain age?" He actually whacked the orb with his hand, as if somehow hitting it would prompt the hologram and its voice to return. "And 'The Path?' The path to what?" he asked, his frustration rolling off him in staccato waves.

Emni had settled into a mildly protective state, warding off enough of the Chameloid's emotions to ensure she wasn't affected by them, but still able to feel the intensity of his frustration, like the sting of a heavy rain drop hitting the skin with more force than one typically expected.

"It does seem that Lieutenant Timmoz was correct about its origins. If it's a puzzle box then it does seem, based on what its identified so far, that you are the key to it." She paused, thinking carefully. "Perhaps other conditions haven't yet been met for it to open. Or maybe it's based on knowledge it expects you would have. Either way I doubt it will be clear until it's opened fully."

She frowned again, reaching across to put a hand on her captain's forearm. "I know this feels like glimpsing the edge of something special before having a curtain drawn back across your vision, but it's not a permanent curtain. Give it time, sir. You may find that you need that time as much as the puzzle needs you to take it."

Give it time... Puzzles were not Kodak's forté. They weren't something he enjoyed or spent a lot of time practicing. And now some kind of secret knowledge was hidden behind one? "You better believe," the Chameloid looked at Emni with dismay, "that I'll be recruiting your help with this thing." The dismay, of course, wasn't with Emni but with the situation itself. "It's a good thing we'll probably be here for a few more weeks at the least. Going to need that time to work this thing out. Assuming I even can," he noted.

Looking out at the beach, Kodak reflected on how this trip had started as just a curiosity. Something to do on an otherwise not-so-busy day. But now it'd become a mystery wrapped within another mystery and the Chameloid wasn't sure where things would go from here. But then again, he did have plenty of time to find out. "Thanks for coming with me, Emni," Björn nodded slowly, reaching over to cusp the hand on his forearm with one of his own hands. "I'm glad this didn't happen alone."


=/\= A joint-post by... =/\=

Captain Björn Kodak
Commanding Officer, Unassigned

and

Doctor Emni t'Nai
Chief Medical Officer, Unassigned