==/\==Shi'kahr==/\==
Miranda walked silently through the hallowed halls of the red stained building that she had enjoyed so much so long ago. She made a certain stoic entrance to the main lobby like she had nothing to worry about, or in contrast, anything to care about. The lobby was still as busy as ever in spite of the recent attacks, and as she walked in grand, graceful strides across the room to the front desk, she forgot to take in the eight story domed ceiling. A spectacular art piece that she never hesitated to take in in the years past.
Strolling up to the front desk she stopped and waited for the clerk to turn around. Though at the moment she had better turn around quick, patience had gone out the window along with emotion, befitting of this place no doubt.
As the clerked turned around she did not care to look up, too absorbed in her work, typical Vulcan. "I'm sorry Madame but we are all booked, reservation only." She said in a surprisingly well executed Francophone accent. Shuffling some papers she laid them on the front desk without a single hint of emotion.
Miranda gave a small exhale meant to sound like a laugh through her nose and pursed her lips. "What if I told you I had a reservation for life?" She said as she removed her wide brimmed white sun hat. "And I would think after all these years it would still be valid." She continued as she removed her sunglasses.
The clerk looked up from the for a moment to give Miranda the 'eye' to buzz off, or the Vulcan equivalent. Opening her mouth to say something she started to engage her vocal cords but stopped short when she took in the very well aged woman in front of her. Looking back down at the top paper of her pile and back up again she sighed and gave an unemotional look of hospitality. "Miss Valeria." She continued.
"Xavier." Miranda corrected, it had been that long since she had been here, long enough for them to know her birth name. Not as if she cared much.
"Miss Xavier, we have your room prepared, we will..... make the room available, a glass of Bordeaux will be sent up to your room and...." The young woman tried not to stumble, if Miranda had learned one thing after so long around the pointy eared "Children of the Forge" she had come to know them as having the biggest egos ever.
"Thank you." Miranda said with a nod as she slid her hand across the granite counter and took the key in her hand as she moved off towards the turbolifts.
==/\== Eighty Third Floor==/\==
Miranda had always been impressed by Vulcan architecture. When she was first going through University back on El-Auria she had focused her studies on artistic interpretation and mathematics, two of the most important skills for architecture, not to mention a sense of style. She enjoyed the sand blasted red stone of the buildings and the contrast within their modern interiors, the sleek and round edges and facades provided a view to marvel at. Even more so then her beloved cities of Paris, New York and San Francisco on Earth.
And as she stared out over the skyline she felt as if that was the only thing she wanted to do for the next ten hours, or the next ten days, or even the next ten years. She was feeling just as unemotional as the lot of the populace on this planet, call it her defense mechanism or something along those lines, but Miranda had always pulled her self into the other side of her personality when the wind changed too quickly. And not for the better.
This Miranda was cold, calculating and on the surface and in public, completely aloof and demanding. But then sometimes one had to be, to save everyone else the burden of hearing her problems. She had joined Starfleet this way, for it had only been a short amount of time, well to an El-Aurian, since her homeworld had been bombed out and left as a barren husk by the Borg.
Miranda shuttered a bit as she felt tears coming to her eyes, tears of memories of evils past. Looking down at her computer she gave it a rather simple command. "Computer contact Mnia Valeria, Palace de la Concorde, Paris Earth." Miranda said as she continued to cry softly. The tanned face of Miranda's older sister appeared on the screen with a slightly worry in her eye as she looked her sister over.
"Miranda." She started, continuing to take in the sight of her emotionally deteriorating sister.
"Mnia they're dead." Miranda said as she paced the room, still openly crying. "Mnia they're dead, the whole town." She sobbed. "The Charon stopped the attack but it didn't stop a few kamikaze warbirds from smashing into the surface! They killed everyone in the town, I saw the wreck, the fire! I left without even trying to look for them Mnia! I feel like I'm going cold, like.......... like I l don't care what happens to anyone or anything anymore! Cutting my self off never works! First the wars, then El-Auria, the President, and then Balin, why should I have the monopoly on pain and suffering?" She cried out in tears.
Collapsing on the floor in front of the armchair Miranda continued to sob. "I have seen more death then anyone ever should in one lifetime, regardless of how long you live, five hundred, one hundred, it doesn't matter. So many people have died around me Mnia, and it happens even if I do my best to prevent it! It shouldn't happen Mnia! It never should have happened." Miranda said as she buried her head into her knees as she rolled her self up into a ball and gently rocked back and forth.
"Miranda you can't blame your self......." Mnia interjected as she looked over her once vibrant sister's wrecked state. "There was nothing you could have done." She continued, though she could not hear a difference in emotion.
"Stop with that bullshit Mnia! I've heard it a thousand times in a thousand different languages! That is only used to comfort ourselves with the choices we already made! With the tasks we failed at! I failed and now six thousand people are dead! Dead!" She screamed in anguish. "Maybe I should just shoot my self now and save another six-thousand right off the bat." She said in a shaky voice, the tears still rolling down her face in rivers.
"You don't mean that Miranda, you're not sad you're angry and you want to take it out on your self, you've done it once and you're doing it again! First you shut down, stop showing emotion, then you reflect, then you take it out on your self, and then you take it out on those around you!" Mnia exclaimed in a stern tone.
"I am not doing what I did last time!" Miranda yelled.
"Yes you are." Mnia stated firmly. "And quite frankly Miranda I'm getting sick of it, you bitch with Ciana, you never see mother, and you took a deep space assignment when you haven't even seen your daughter in years! You're still running from things you did hundreds of years ago! And you find something at the end of the incident and turn on your self! You've done nothing but wallow in...."
"Off." Miranda said softly as she commanded the computer to turn off Mnia's message. Putting her hand on her head and inhaling deeply as she calmed her self, Miranda looked over towards the computer. "Computer send message to Captain Rehu, tell her I'm taking a few day's leave to Earth, actually I might not, just tell her I want to meet with her tomorrow." Miranda dictated.
Closing the machine and pushing it away, Miranda looked over to the window as she remembered a poem she had loved as a young girl. And for that she silently thanked the Vulcan Skyline. One that she had always said, told us to to not reflect too much on the past or the future, but even Miranda had a hard time doing that.
==/\==TBC==/\==
Miranda Xavier
JAG Afloat
USS Charon
