What are these? (Part Two)

Posted on Tue Jan 6th, 2026 @ 10:49am by Consul Andrinn Orin

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Andrinn's Quarters
Timeline: Between Missions
1043 words - 2.1 OF Standard Post Measure

[ON:]

Andrinn was slowly starting to wake after a bit of a restless night sleep. He couldn't stop thinking about what he and Teevs had talked about, as well as what he had found out about the Bajoran idioms and phrases. Andrinn was slowly taking a deep dive into History, as his friend Nick would say.

Something that Andrinn thought about while he was laying in bed and trying to slowly wake up was the various phrases that both of his parents and siblings would say back on Trill when he was just a young boy. Andrinn's mother was of course an El-Aurian diplomat that eventually made Trill her home for a bit. Andrinn's father was one of the Trill diplomats that helped to establish contact between the Trill homeworld and the rest of the galaxy after Trill's First Contact.

So, to say that his house was truly blended was an understatement of the century.

On Trill, there was a saying that Andrinn's father would tell him whenever he would complain about something taking too long. "A pool does not fill faster because you stare at it," Andrinn's father would tell him. When Andrinn was a child, it would drive him absolutely mad and up a wall whenever his father would tell him that. However, as an adult and one that was joined with a symbiant, Andrinn quickly grew to understand and appreciate the wisdom of those words. Especially now that his father was gone.

Patience on Trill wasn't this passive thing. It was active and intentional. Time moved whether you approved of it or not, and wisdom came from learning how to move with time instead of fighting against it.

Another Trill phrase that Andrinn's father came to his mind as he stretched and stared at the ceiling of his quarters. "You can only borrow today from yesterday. Never from tomorrow," Andrinn thought, thinking about how his father would say it. Andrinn's father used that one sparingly, usually when talking about History or responsibility. Andrinn felt the weight of this one, as a member of two worlds that carried History and time on their shoulders. Nothing you did existed in isolation, and nothing you did truly belonged to you alone.

Andrinn's mother's idioms were different though. El-Aurian sayings rarely came with tidy morals. They were almost like warnings disguised in observations. Truths that were slowly whispering from a past that only a few got to see, especially from a planet and its people scattered across a galaxy. One of her favorites came back to him now, spoken soflty whenever a discussion grew heated. “Be careful where you stand when the story turns," his mother would say, her voice soft. But, with vibrato that could scare a thousand men. Whenever she would use that phrase, she was talking about perspective and about understanding that time has its way of reframing heroes, villains, and witnesses alike.

As Andrinn laid in his bed in his quarters, more phrases from both homeworld came through as clear as the first time he heard them from either one of his parents. Another El-Aurian phrase that came close behind the first one was that one that she whispered to him as he was leaving home for the first time for school. "Listen longer than you speak, as time always finishes the sentences," she whispered to him. At the time, Andrinn just assumed that it was another motherly attempt at keeping him out of trouble.

However, now that he was serving as a diplomat for the Federation, he understood it for what it really was. People might not always use words to explain what they mean. You have to look for the meaning by listening. Both with words and physically. For some, people try to fill in the spaces between words with more words, giving up more than they would care to admit. For others, the silence where you're listening makes them physically uncomfortable and you can watch how their bodies react to said silence.

As Andrinn laid awake in his quarters, Andrinn couldn't help but smile as he thought about all of the phrases that his parents and siblings would say to one another throughout the years. Blending them together, Andrinn realized that these phrases and idioms helped shape him in more ways than one.

Trill patience. El-Aurian awareness. One culture taught Andrinn how to carry the past and the other taught him how to step aside to let the future unfold as it must. No wonder he’d ended up a diplomat. He’d been negotiating between time and memory his entire life.

Andrinn leaned over and grabbed a PADD from the nightstand in his quarters and said, "Computer, access the directory that I made for the cultural idioms and sayings that I have saved. I want to make two new sub-directories within it. One for Trill and another for El-Aurians."

The computer came to life and said, "Working. One moment, please." It didn't take long before the new folders were created and showed up on the PADD in front of him and the computer confirms their completion. Andrinn knew that there was so much that he could add into the files. So many sayings. So many phrases. So....much! But, something that he had been thinking about too was the stories that various cultures would tell one another and others outside when they met them.

So, Andrinn reached over and grabbed the PADD again and started inputting stories that he remembered from when he was growing up on Trill. Stories from both sides of his family. Stories from the El-Aurian homeworld before it was destroyed by the Borg during the middle part of the 23rd century. The rich histories of both species and how they eventually intermingled to help make a young man named Andrinn.

Once he was done, Andrinn's eyes were starting to get heavy and he was realizing quickly that he needed to sleep at least a little bit before his next duty shift. So, he put the PADD down and turned the lights off again. He rolled over and looked out the window to the universe around him and smiled before dozing off to sleep.

[OFF:]

Consul Andrinn Orin
Chief Diplomatic Officer
USS Elysium