InsaneJournal

Rahne was still a little blown away by ending up on a version of the Enterprise. And more blown away that they were letting new arrivals have training to become active parts of the crew. And that, of course, meant that she jumped at the chance of science training. Moira would be over the moon getting to see all this advancement.

The Enterprise seemed to be under the impression that they might not be able to return to their timeline, or realities as the case might be. Jadzia wasn’t going to give up, but that was more of a side-project for the time being. If nothing else, she could learn about different people, cultures and technology and that alone was worth all the gold-pressed latinum that was in her quarters on Deep Space Nine.

Of more concern was how she’d ended up here. The last thing she’d remembered was Dukat and being attacked. What if she was dead, and could never return? Not without disrupting the timeline.

Timetravel was headache inducing.

So she focused her efforts today on the cute redhead that had recently arrived. “Welcome to Sciences. I’m Lt. Commander Dax, but until you’re officially on board, just call me Jadzia. It’s easier to say than just “Commander” all the time.”

Rahne blinked up at the very tall, very pretty woman. “Hello. Jadzia. I’m Rahne Sinclair. And I’m very happy tae be learning about new things in science.” She eyed the pattern of spots trailing down the sides of her face and neck.

“If it’s a rude question, you can stop me, but might I ask if the spots indicate that you’re not exactly...the same species at human?”

"It's nice to meet you, Ms. Sinclair." Jadzia offered her her hand. "If I might say so, your accent places you as somewhere in the British Isles on Earth?" O'Brien had been Irish but Rahne's brogue was a bit different.

She waited for skin contact before turning her hips towards Rahne. "Yes, I'm a Trill. And before you ask, they go all the way down."

Indeed, the stockings she wore with her skirt, while dark, where just transparent enough to very slightly show the spots.

Rahne shook the offered hand, still slightly awed by Jadzia’s height. She grinned at the question about her origins. “Aye. Scotland. Been awhile since I was there, thought. Spent a lot of time in the US. And...various other place.”

At the mention of the spots, Rahne glanced down at Jadzia’s legs, then up again, brain filling in the space in between. Which might have made her redden just a wee bit. “...och. Well, that’s interesting. It’s nice to learn about new species.”

Clearing her throat to help mental change topics, she added, “I’m not exactly human myself--I’m a mutant. Where I’m from, mutations take a lot of of forms. Some the sort of things people might call super powers, some not so much. It’s...very complicated and not likely tae get any less so for awhile yet.” There were also a lot of things that existed that weren’t human but weren’t mutants...but that was a sore spot for multiple reasons.

"Various other places? That sounds like a story." Jadzia winked at her, the blushing frankly adorable and it made Jadzia only want to tease her. She refrained, mostly. "Learning about new species is one of my favorite things. Even across all of my lives, I've always taken great pleasure in acquiring sometimes intimate knowledge. Do you mind?"

Jadzia held up a medical tricorder.

“Quite a few stories, actually,” Rahne said, grinning. “So I wasn’t as surprised as most to end up in space.”

She cocked her head and looked at the tricorder for a moment. “Aye, go ahead.”

"I'd love to hear them sometime," Jadzia said, amused that her little joke had gone over Rahne's head. "Let’s see. Definitely human, but I can see already that genetic difference you're talking about. A clear genetic offshoot. Julian would love this...."

“I can shapeshift,” Rahne said. “Intae a wolf. And intae something more in-between, like some Hollywood werewolves.”

"One of my best friends is a Shapeshifter. A changeling, his natural form is a liquid. So that's a bit different. But that's so interesting. Benjamin once showed Curzon an old werewolf movie. Cheesy, but fun."

Which probably needed some clarification. "Ah, I'm a Trill. My species has a symbiotic relationship with what we call Symbionts. Another sentient being implanted within me. It gains a lifetime of knowledge and experience that it then shares with the next host. I know I don't look it, but I'm over 300 years old. At least the Dax Symbiont is."

That shapeshifter sounded a little like some less fortunate mutations, so Rahne had a decent point of reference. “Och! Now that’s an interesting symbiotic relationship!”

Rahne peered up at Jadzia. “So you can remember everything the other hosts have learned? Is it easier with the more recent ones?” She paused. “D’ye ever have really awkward run-ins with exes? ‘Cause that’s awkward enough without past lives thrown in, I can tell y’that.”

Jadzia grinned, enjoying the spate of questions, even if some of the questions dug up some painful memories. "I can remember a lot of things. Most of it, though it's a bit harder to dig up older memories. I pick up some skills, too."

She set the tricorder aside. "Oh, there've been some awkward run ins. It's actually taboo for two joined Trill to reconnect with new hosts, if they were in a romantic relationship before. That happened with Dax and another. I tried to avoid her, but meeting again couldn't be helped."

Lenara Kahn. Jadzia sighed, looking into the past. "I very nearly gave up everything to be with her. I've never felt a pull like that. It wasn't just our shared past, and the mistakes we thought we could remedy, but the attraction between the two of us, Lenara and Jadzia...it was like fire."

Her eyes came back to the present. "It's different when it's with an unjoined Trill, or a non-Trill. Unhealthy with the former, acceptable with the latter. Benjamin and I met when I was Curzon. He was an interesting one, Curzon..."

Rahne listened intently. It was very fascinating, though she did feel bad about the part where former partners weren’t supposed to meet again with new hosts. That had to be hard.

And from the way Jadzia described it, it sure as hell did. “‘M sorry that things couldn’t...go better, for the both of you. I’ve...had some people it was hard to part from. One was romantic, and the other…” She sighed. How did she want to describe Dani, when that hurt as much, if not more, than losing Hrimhari? “I guess you could call it more complicated than I ever really gave it credit for.”

"It often is. I've been both husband and wife, girl and boyfriend, and more dalliances than I can count. Relationships are complicated, but then, we still love them. But thanks."

Jadzia gestured to the equipment. "Ready to get started?"

Rahne nodded. “Aye, let’s. I’m very eager to see what all of this future science has been up to.”

"We're going to start with a simple scan of the nearby star system. How many planets, composition, any ship or warp signatures, etc. I'm going to show you how to use the interface, but cut you loose and see how much you can pick up on your own." She flashed a charming smile. "Think of it as a day one pop quiz."

“Alright.” Rahne nodded. “Sounds like a plan.” Scanning star systems, och, how exciting!

After giving Rahne the downlow on the interface, Jadzia stepped back to let her work. "Took me a little bit to get used to it. It's kind of a cross between what I'm used to, and some older technology from my universe."

Rahne watched and listened intently as Jadzia explained the interface. It was...definitely very high-tech, but thankfully Rahne was used to running into different sorts of technology. She ran through the steps once again quickly in her head before following the steps she’d just watched performed.

Rahne seemed to pick up the tech really well, Jadzia was impressed. She paced around, watching the redhead as she worked. “Good work so far. What’s the composition of the fourth planet?”

Rahne double checked the readings, eyes starting to get used to the way the interface was laid out. She found the fourth planet’s composition readings and rattled them off as asked.

“Nice. There’s about a 75% chance there’s life on that planet. See if you can narrow it down.” Jadzia leaned her hand on the back of the chair, bending over Rahne a bit to get a better view at the display.

Rahne took a deep breath and bit her lip thoughtfully as she narrowed her eyes at the screen. A few “keystrokes” later, she leaned back. “Looks like if there’s life, it’s most likely confined to the planet’s western hemisphere.”

“We’re a bit too far away to find out what kind of life it is. Most likely vegetation, low level animal life.” Jadzia pointed something out on the display. “See that? That gives us the rough age of the planet. It looks to be roughly three billion years old so we’re not likely to see anything more advanced than that, though life does evolve at different speeds on different planets.”

Rahne looked at the indicated area of the display. It was amazing that the future had the sort of tech that could figure out the age of things from such a distance. “Amazing.”

“Yeah, it is.” Jadzia looked at her new friend and smiled. She still felt that wonder of discovery though it had been years since the Academy. She loved seeing it in others.