Echoes of Vaeron - Part 1/2

Posted on Sat Aug 2nd, 2025 @ 5:49pm by Chief Warrant Officer Alexion Wylde & Petty Officer 2nd Class Khlynt Medan

2,564 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: To Boldly Go
Location: Sickbay, USS Fenrir
Timeline: MD 10

ON:

The El-Aurian let out a soft breath as he walked into the USS Fenrir’s sickbay. A medical check up was one of those things that, every now and then, he didn’t see the point of. He rarely got sick, didn’t really have aches and pains despite the appearance of a middle aged man and, unless there was temporal fluctuations happening, didn’t really get a headache. But it was one of the many things that Starfleet required. And while he sometimes found the rituals of Starfleet tiresome, at least it wasn’t a gala dinner.

He walked over to a nurse, saying his name before being directed to a biobed to sit down.

And then he saw him. It took him a moment to recognise the man, perhaps because of the location. A face he hadn’t seen since a dinner that had been hosted by the other man’s father. Wylde. It had been on Vaeron. Khlynt had used a different name there, the distance from his own pain eased by a shield. Ephron…they had known him as that. Would the man recognise him? Or had time dulled memories of a bye gone age?

"Khlynt...Medan?" Doctor Alexion Wylde read the name from the padd he carried, not actually glancing up to the patient waiting for him on the bed. He had never been known for his bedside manner...quite the opposite in fact. Considering he had never wanted to be a doctor in the first place, it was something of a miracle that he still came to work everyday, but there he was. He moved in closer to the bed, pulling the man's medical file up.

Khlynt watched Alexion with awe. It truly was him. Not the heir, no, Jaq was older and he knew he had continued his career as an actor. No, this was Alexion, the doctor. The Healer. He swallowed with the sensation of a suddenly dry mouth, nodding. He cleared his throat before he looked down. “Yes, that is my name,” he said, in Standard, even if part of him longed to speak in a language he hadn’t spoken for 25 years.

Alexion finally glanced to him, his eyes narrowing as they fixed on the familiar man. Recognition stirred in him, but...he glanced down to the padd in his hand again. The name did not. His eyes narrowed further, almost with a note of suspicion now. He reached out, pressing his hand to the back of the other man's, using his Talent to figure out if he really was the man he thought he was. A face from the past. From another life. Another world.

Khlynt saw the moment as clear as the sun breaking through clouds. He turned his hand, so that Alexion felt his palm. When he spoke, it was in Alexion's language, the tone calm. "It pleases me to see you, Alexion Wylde, son of High-Pralor Jaimes Wylde. I had not expected to see you, or anyone of Vaeron, here." It was a formal tone to it, a politeness that Khlynt had once wielded like a blade in a room. He watched him with calm blue eyes, a small smile curling his lips from the more severe look his face usually settled in. It made his eyes appear kinder too, where sometimes they could be a bit cold.

Alexion's lips parted as he watched him with disbelief followed by a mixture of awe and grief. The usually acerbic doctor wasn't prone to showing much real emotion. He usually held the world at bay with a rough mask of cynicism and a sharp tongue to match. He hadn't expected to be confronted by a face from his past here. Stirring memories of a life and world that were lost to him. "I am sure you did not," he replied bluntly. Because with so many of them lost, who would expect it? "The last time I saw you, it was in my family's home, alongside my father."

Khlynt watched him before he nodded, a small and fond smile coming to him at the memory. "Your father was always a gracious host," he said, his mind focusing on the details. "I recall you have a son. Is he well?" He didn't ask if he was alive, if he had escaped. He had checked on all the family members of the Council after his escape. After all, if anything this encounter right now reminded him how small the universe truly was. "He must be approaching the age for his Talent to emerge." Ah yes, he recalled Jaimes telling him, under the influence of smoke and drink, that to him Alexion seemed to rebel against his Talent has long as he could before inevitability struck and he 'settled' into his life. Settled had been the word used, with a sigh, and Khlynt had wondered in that moment if Jaimes didn't just miss that rebellion of his son a little bit.

"Laeon," Alexion nodded, surprised that he remembered so well. It had been years ago now after all, but then, they were both people with many years behind them and, hopefully, even more ahead. "And yes, you are right...it won't be long now before his Talent emerges. There have been...glimpses here and there," he admitted with a weak, wry smile. There was only one good thing to have come out of that forsaken slaughter...and that was here in the Federation, Laeon wouldn't be bound to take a career that suited his Talent. He was free to be whatever he wanted. And he intended to make sure that he was. So long as it wasn't a doctor. Or a Starfleet officer. "Although, we do not speak of it much here," he added for good measure. Despite his years of service, he still wasn't keen on broadcasting the Talents that emerged in his people for fear of unwanted interest.

Khlynt watched him at that, a small smile curling his lips. Ah yes, Alexion was smart. With the Federation not knowing much about the Vaeron, it made sense he would not broadcast it. So, he decided to play along. And shrugged. "I was never that interested in xenobiology," he said as he glanced away. "Perhaps after this, we should sit down. I would like to hear about you, how...things have been." It was selfish. He had always liked the world he had landed on, the people. This tie back to it felt...intriguing. Like he could take a moment and enjoy it.

"If you are buying..." Alexion arched an eyebrow with a hint of humour breaking through as he recovered himself, reaching out to prepare the scan. Alexion was a different man to the one Khlynt had met all those years ago. More settled, more accepting of his reality working as a doctor, as a father, rather than the rebellious libertine he had been in his youth. It was a distance from who he was now...the Federation doctor who begrudgingly served to give his son a safe haven...and a place to belong.

"I am," Khlynt said as he looked at him work before he let out a soft breath. "I...used a different name, back then. I wanted a little distance from my own and...Ephron seemed a decent choice. Not too alien for your people." He added the last quietly, showing that he had...taken such things into consideration in his time.

Alexion glanced his way, his jaw a touch tighter at the words. It might have been a small deception to the other man, but it made him wonder what else he'd lied about while a guest in their home. "Anything else I should know?" he asked gruffly, as if he didn't care either way, but there was an undeniable bluntness to the question.

Khlynt looked at him, serious as he watched him. He noticed the tightening of the jaw, the coldness in the eyes. He saw Alexion's father's steel in the man in the moment. "I'm El-Aurian," he said, knowing it was in the file. "My health is as it is, I have tasted the pleasures of the universe and I like to indulge at times." He did keep himself healthy, more out of habit and some vanity than anything else.

"That is not what I meant," Alexion replied bluntly, but motioned for him to lie down so he could bring the arch up around him, starting up a full scan. Having been forced into a new life amongst strangers, he could understand the temptation to wear a mask. But it also made him more cautious of the people that wore them.

Khlynt eased himself down, his hands going to rest on his own stomach as he closed his eyes. He knew what Alexion had meant. It was clear. And he sounded so much like his father in that moment, blunt and firm. "I never meant any harm to your father, or people. I was a traveller who...they were kind enough to accept as a friend. I never lied about anything except the name I was using...and that was only because the name I had before didn't feel like it belonged to me anymore."

Alexion studied the man's face in the safety of him having his eyes closed. He could have touched his skin to find out if he was telling the truth...but he found that he already believed him. Maybe he wanted to. But either way, he did. "Well, let's be honest, none of it matters anymore," he replied tiredly. That world they had met in...it was gone. What did it matter?

"It matters," Khlynt kept his eyes closed but moved an elegant finger, almost wagging it. "It all matters, and will matter until the day you die. Until the day I die. It's part of your history. It might hurt, the wound fresh under the scab, but it is part of your history." He sighed and opened his eyes.

Alexion frowned as he watched the results from the scan scrolling in. He didn't like to admit it, but Khlynt was right. No matter how much he tried to smother the past and turn away from it, it was always there, like the threat of a nightmare when sleep took over. "You didn't get your last injuries from fighting with your staff seen to," he rebuked instead.

"Ah," Khlynt chuckled softly, surprised that Alexion remembered that he used a staff as his weapon of choice. "That was...some time ago. I didn't see it necessary to bother a doctor with something that my body can heal by itself, given time." It was still something he was adjusting to, even after all these years with the Federation. On El-Auria they had used similar technology to heal hurts, broken bones...but Khlynt had gotten out of the habit over the years when he didn't have those tools for himself. Even now, it was a little unusual for him to even think about it.

"People say that until they start getting mysterious aches and pains a few years later," Alexion chided him gruffly, shaking his head as he pulled an osteoregenerator closer. "I can improve the healing on this rib," he assured, motioning for him to sit back up for him.

Khlynt smiled as he sat up, looking at him for a long moment. "Ah, no ache or pain is mysterious," he said lightly before he met his eyes. "But I will follow the doctor's orders on this one, Doctor Wylde."

"Even mine?" Alexion replied with clipped humour, fine tuning the settings on the regenerator. This man had seen him in a way no one else in Starfleet had. Back on his homeworld, in his old life, playing the role of a different man. It felt strange...maybe it even made him feel a touch vulnerable. Was that why Khlynt had kept his real identity secret? "Strip to your waist so I can see what I'm doing."

Khlynt reached to remove his jacket, followed by the shirt underneath. His eyes were on Alexion, studying him closely. There was a stillness to his gaze, as if he was doing some sort of calculation of him. "Especially yours," he finally said, meaning it. He hadn't take the question for a joke but rather as an admission of something deeper. The fine silver chain that tied them together with a knowledge of a planet and world gone. "You have always had one of the sharper minds I have encountered, whether I like to admit it or not. I think you've...always seen past the first layer of a person."

"It takes a rogue to know one," Alexion replied with a weak, wry smile as he leant in close, touching the rib in question carefully before starting to run the regenerator over the area. "I have seen the true thoughts and feelings of enough people to know how much remains secret under the surface," he added softly, seeing no reason for his usual reluctance to talk about the Talent seeing as Khlynt was more than aware.

Khlynt looked at him, sitting still. He looked thoughtful before he gave a small smile. "I've never truly hidden what or who I am. It isn't under the surface, I wear it as an armour. It's my past that is the secret under the surface, something tucked away from eyes that...might judge. It's not a clean past, Wylde...but you know that. I think you knew that from the first time I bowed my head to you. And back then, when I first met you...it terrified me."

Alexion worked in silence for several long moments, letting himself focus in on the calm of an old dance he knew well. "I knew," he finally spoke, a raspy sound as he tested down his ribs with careful fingertips before starting on a lower one. "If you'd have proven a danger to my family, I'd have taken you down," he assured softly. "But I didn't think you would be...so I let it play out."

Khlynt watched him for a long moment, staying still, but he had a look of amusement in his eyes. "I was a survivor...but not a danger to you, or your people. I...liked it. Being there, having...a taste of power," he was honest with him about it. With his hand on his bare skin, a lie would be felt. "But I never wanted to hurt anyone. In a way, I wanted to help. As much as I enjoyed the luxury that my new friendships...allowed me. I have always liked comfortable living. And...it reminded me so much of a life I once lived."

Alexion met his eyes at the words, his throat growing tight with emotion. Not that it showed on his face, the only change was his frown growing a deeper shade of deep and his jaw clenching tighter. He could understand that...being reminded of a life once lived, wishing there was a way to turn back time and change the nightmare back to reality. "I miss it too," the words slipped out before he could stop them. He'd always noticed that around Khlynt. Words fell out of him.

TBC:


PO2 Khlynt Medan
Counsellor
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Hanlon]

&

Dr. Alexion Wylde
Medical
USS Fenrir
[PNPC Blake]

 

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