INT. USS FORGER -STARBOARD LOUNGE- EVENING
The lounge is buzzing with quiet conversation as small groups of Starfleet officers mingle, Commander SABIN LAHL, a Trill sits at the bar talking to the bartender EVAN who appears as a human male in his thirties dressed in an anachronistic jacket and tie. They are approached by CONOM RAHN a young Trill ensign in a science officer’s uniform.
ENSIGN RAHN
(nervously)
Commander, you wanted to see me?
Commander Lahl looks up and smiles warmly at Ensign Rahn.
COMMANDER LAHL
Ah, Ensign Rahn, please come join me, have you met Evan our resident bartender yet?
(to Evan)
Mr. Rahn is a new transfer.
ENSIGN RAHN
Yes, just over from the Canberra; good to meet you Evan.
EVAN
(friendly and nodding)
Likewise ensign,
(switching to deadpan)
now please state the nature of your refreshment emergency?
Ensign Rahn is taken aback before Evan interjects.
EVAN
(smiling to Rahn)
Just some holographic humour, what can I get you, Ensign?
Getting the joke Rahn smiles weakly.
ENSIGN RAHN
Oh, a raktajino, please.
EVAN
Coming right up.
(to Lahl)
And you Commander? Another Andorian ice or can i tempt you with one of Commander Mourad’s Orion hurricanes?
COMMANDER LAHL
(chuckling)
No, just the ice and we’ll take them over there by the window.
(nodding to an unoccupied table by the window)
EVAN
Sure thing, Commander and welcome aboard ensign.
COMMANDER LAHL
(Getting up)
Come along and we’ll chat.
Lahl leads Rahn to the table and Evan brings them their drinks and departs.
COMMANDER LAHL
So, the Symbiosis Commission thinks we have something to teach each other.
ENSIGN RAHN
That’s what they told me too, sir.
COMMANDER LAHL
They think we can teach each other, with you having been through the initiate program and my first host’s experience at being a first host.
Ensign Rahn nods, his expression thoughtful.
ENSIGN RAHN
Yes, that’s what they told me too , and I’ll be happy to take whatever advice you can give…
Commander Lahl studies Rahn, his expression sympathetic.
COMMANDER LAHL
It’s not what you expected, is it?
Rahn looks surprised then slowly nods.
ENSIGN RAHN
Not at all. I just expected more.
COMMANDER LAHL
I understand, Ensign. My first host, Azala Lahl, felt the same way, hell, she almost quit when they told her she’d be a first host.
ENSIGN RAHN
(sitting up, Interested)
What made her stay?
COMMANDER LAHL
(chuckling)
Mostly the sunk cost fallacy. She worked damn hard to be joined and she wasn’t going to throw it away because the Commission was too stubborn and stupid to give her a “better” symbiont.
ENSIGN RAHN
(smiling faintly)
Her too, huh?
COMMANDER LAHL
Yep. I imagine a lot of first hosts feel that way.
ENSIGN RAHN
How’d she get over it?
COMMANDER LAHL
She didn’t really but taking to her docent helped her make peace with it, as much as Azala made peace with anything anyhow. She went to her grave calling Lahl “her parasite”.
ENSIGN RAHN
(talking into his drink)
I call mine my hitchhiker.
Laughing, Lahl takes a sip of his drink.
COMMANDER LAHL
Though with the perspective of a few lifetimes I can see how she left her mark. Lahl has a reputation as the overachiever’s symbiont but I think that’s mostly her. All of Lahl’s hosts accomplished things before they were joined but they pushed even harder once they were joined, did more, rose higher though out of all of them she did it without the memories pushing her forward.
ENSIGN RAHN
And you sir? How is she pushing you?
COMMANDER LAHL
(smiling)
Taking this position for one. I was comfortable as the Centaur’s XO, but the promise of a promotion and a more challenging assignment was too hard for me to pass up. Not sure it would have been before I was joined. I know I wouldn’t be going for my doctorate in warp field dynamics without Azala’s part of Lahl giving me a push.
A silence falls on the table as Rahn is clearly working up the courage to ask something.
COMMANDER LAHL
Go ahead, ensign.
ENSIGN RAHN
(embarrassed)
Why didn’t you apply to be joined?
COMMANDER LAHL
Upbringing and self confidence. My mother named me after a Purist philosopher, if that gives you an idea of her views of joining…
ENSIGN RAHN
(interjecting surprised and a little disgusted)
You’re named after Sabin Kal?
(catching himself)
Sorry sir, it’s just a surprise.
COMMANDER LAHL
I get it, how did someone named after someone who advocated for the destruction of the symbionts get joined? It definitely wasn’t my plan, don’t get me wrong I didn’t have my mother’s disdain for joining. I just felt like I was enough without being joined and after spending my earliest years in a neo-Purist commune I was eager to get out and see the galaxy.
ENSIGN RAHN
I see, then how did it happen? I assume an emergency of some kind?
COMMANDER LAHL
You assume correctly, ensign. My last host caught a Dominion engineered plague and I was the only Trill available, Lahl was mostly immune but Nimony’s illness weakened them so stasis wasn’t an option, I stepped up.
ENSIGN RAHN
To save a symbiont?
COMMANDER LAHL
To save a life. What they were didn’t matter, I could save them so I did.
ENSIGN RAHN
(understanding)
You had no idea what you were in for…
COMMANDER LAHL
Academically I understood I’d be taking on four lifetimes of memories but that doesn’t prepare you for waking up with four lifetimes in your head, including two husbands, two wives, five children one of which I remember giving birth to and a whole bunch of habits from swearing to a craving for Tarkalean tea, I fucking hate Tarkalean tea.
Rahn smiles at that last remark before becoming more serious.
ENSIGN RAHN
From what they taught us you’re thinking about things all wrong. Those are your memories and your habits now the same as the ones you formed between the time you were born to your joining there’s no difference… At least that’s what they told me.
COMMANDER LAHL
(realizing)
I’m sorry ensign, this must be rubbing things in your face a little bit.
ENSIGN RAHN
(shrugging)
Maybe a little but it was the Symbiosis Commission’s idea for us to talk about things. And they tend not to care too much about our comfort.
COMMANDER LAHL
You’re telling me, I spent the last six months under their supervision, made a posting to starbase 80 sound good.
Ensign Rahn chuckles and Lahl’s combadge beeps.
BRIDGE OFFICER (VO)
Bridge to Commander Lahl.
COMMANDER LAHL
(tapping badge)
Lahl here, go ahead.
BRIDGE OFFICER (VO)
The orders for the Tolen IV mission have arrived from Starfleet and the captain wants to see you in her ready room.
COMMANDER LAHL
(Getting up)
On my way.
Lahl’s badge beeps finished and he turns to Rahn.
COMMANDER LAHL
I enjoyed our talk today ensign, if you would like we could make it a regular event, make sure we’re both handling life with our hitchhikers.
ENSIGN RAHN
(smiling)
I’d like that, sir.
COMMANDER LAHL
Sounds good. We’ll talk again after this mission.
(notices other junior officers watching them talk, claps Rahn on the shoulder)
In the meantime enjoy the notoriety.
Lahl exits as the young officers move to Rahn’s table to find our how he got to get a quiet drink with the XO.
FADE OUT