A surge of adrenaline floods Kylah at the realization that their group is to play next. Surreptitiously she slips the program from her lap to the gap between her chair and the one to her left, then wipes her moist hands on her skirt.
The thought strikes her that with her zither, there would be no need to do this. Moisture is--was--an integral part of how one played the instrument.
Pushing the thought aside, she glances at Brooks and Anand to see whether they are aware of the order, then looks forward to hear the chorus. Almost all music carries emotional weight, all the more under these circumstances, although yet again her lack of empathic abilities flatten the experience for her.
She has always enjoyed music multidimensionally, from listening to the notes, to watching the performers, to experiencing whatever feelings are evoked by the composition, and finally--what is missing now--to sensing the swell of emotions of those both on stage and in the audience.
Still. She is grateful to avoid the sorrow that others must be feeling now. Her own pensive grief for a lost colleague is enough. Kylah cannot help remember those horrible moments in the shuttle, when both she and Velir were aghast at Dr. T'Var's passivity. Perhaps nothing could have saved Fujishiro, but a small part of Kylah will always resent the possibility that that some, any effort, might have slowed the disease's progression. Perhaps if Waite had stayed on board, his knowledge of the experiment could have helped.
It is all too late now. No doubt T'Var has her regrets... hidden though they might be behind that Vulcan logic.
She lets the music waft over her and closes her eyes. Her brother, as with all those chosen as Dohlman, is the unofficial representative of the Creator on Elas. Once Tellun was selected to succeed Elaan, thereby making Uncle Aldaan Tel's Regent, Kylah knew certainly that the Creator must be false. Or evil.
So she does not pray to him. Instead she once again goes through the piece she, Brooks and Anand are about to play, her fingers not visibly moving this time, but the tiny, imperceptible pulse of her commands still rehearse her part on her knees.
Only when the chorus is finished does she open her eyes, take a deep breath, and prepare to reach for the lute once the trio is introduced.