When Val Etilen returned to his room, he found one of his scarves missing from where it had been draped over a chair. Fearing he'd been looted during the chaos, he scrambled to the drawer where he kept his latinum and found it all to be undisturbed.
Now being as good a time as any, he packed it away into a small box with red paper and included a recorded message. Luckily for Val, the station's voice control was very robust, even in civilian quarters.
He curled up on his sofa, and Papus jumped up to the back, rubbing himself against the back of Val's head.
"To be delivered to Val Lorana, Musilla Provence, Bajor," he instructed before starting the recording. "Hi mum. Just a quick update - I've got lots to do. I'm settling in really well here," she would be able to tell he was lying, but there wasn't much she'd be able to do about it. "Being on a space station is just like being in a port city. Tourism, constant comings and goings.. lots of beautiful things from other worlds. I'll send you something shiny once I'm a little more established. Is the Musilla Provence boring you yet? I imagine your little cottage becoming a point of pilgrimage for wandering waifs, seeking spiritual guidance and mud masks. Or at least for passing lumberjacks. Let me know how you're getting on."
He closed the recording and sealed the box.
Home 
