<USS Avalon> Outlook Not Clear -- Try Again Later

Outlook Not  Clear -- Try Again Later
Lieutenant  Felicity Roan
 
    Felicity  sat at the console in her lab and studied the results.  She was 
so  impressed with herself and nearly discounted the results that she saw 
displayed  before her.  She'd been working on the project for months.  Yes, the 
 
ship needed a Chief Medical Officer, but if you can't cure illness, what good 
is  being a doctor?  This was her specialty and one of the reasons that  
Starfleet had put her on a ship.
 
    She spent  a few more moments when the console beeped at her.  Slowly, 
she pulled up  the viewscreen to see a message from her brother, Dylan, waiting 
on her.   With a slight grin, she opened it.
 
    "Freddie!  What does it take for you  to talk to me these days?  I sent 
you five messages before this one.   What is more important than me, your twin 
brother and much better looking twin,  I might add?"
 
    'Oh,  great,' thought Felicity, 'just what I need after all this hard 
work,  pestering from my brother.'  Then, she turned on her radiant smile and  
replied, "Well Dylan, if that's what your mirror tells you in the morning, who  
am I to argue?  What is it that you've done this time and how can I not  help 
you get out of trouble?"
 
    She saw  Dylan squirm oh-so-slightly and then look down at the floor, 
"Well it's funny  you bring up trouble, it seems I'm going to be assigned to 
the 
USS Renegade as  an Assistant to the Assistant Engineer.  My scores on the 
exit exams  weren't as high as I'd hoped, but I did get a placement.  Scott 
Wylen 
 got an assignment as a Cadet on the USS Quince patrolling the Beta  
Quadrant.  I really feel for him..."
 
    She nodded  and tried to let it sink in ... her delinquent brother 
finally a graduate of the  Academy and with an assignment -- mind you not a 
great 
one, but an assignment  nonetheless.  She paused to decide what to say, "Well 
Dylan, you have to  start somewhere.  Congratulations!  Keep in mind that my 
first  assignments weren't that spectacular and I had to work a small Medical 
rescue  ship for nearly 6 months before something more promising opened up, I 
hope you  aren't too disappointed."
 
    "No way, I  am happy to not be sitting in the classroom pretending to 
work on Warp Cores or  Plasma Ducts in a holodeck.  Now I'll be working on the 
real thing and  seeing the stars.  The Renegade isn't the finest ship in the 
Fleet yet, but  it's not the USS Reject either.  I think the ship will come  
around."
 
    "When do  you leave for the Renegade?"
 
    "Two weeks  -- I'm going home to spend some time with Mom and Dad and 
visit the rest of the  family and then I might do some skiing in Banff.  I hear 
the mountains are  perfect this year."
 
    "Wow, I  wish I could see you before you go ... things here are crazy, as 
usual.  I  just finished an experiment that I need to take to the Captain.  I 
am not  sure how he will take it.  I don't get the impression that Germs are  
his forté, but hopefully he can feign interest while I explain."
 
    "Well,  that should be interesting ... umm, well I guess if you're into 
Germs and  all.  Felicity why couldn't you study something more exciting where 
you  interact with people?  You are the oddest doctor I know in the Fleet.   
You are the Chief Medical Officer who barely interacts with her patients.   Are 
you antisocial because of some childhood problem?  Was your brother  mean to 
you or something cruel?"
 
    She  frowned at him, "Dylan, I am what I am.  I don't have your bubbly, 
outgoing  personality to get me in trouble or cause problems of charisma.  I 
like  studying diseases to help cure cultures of things that have taken 
thousands of  innocent lives.  As for interacting with the crew, I've found it 
to be a 
 liability.  Shielding yourself is the best course of action.  That has  
nothing to do with you Dylan ... as much as I know you'd like to believe it  
is.  
I talk to the crew when necessary and try to be helpful and friendly,  but 
right now, I don't see the need to put myself out there to socialize.   I watch 
them ... and what I see at times frightens me."
 
    He  returned the grimace, "I am continually astonished by your cynicism 
and lack of  faith in humanity and humanoids.  You'll grow old and turn into a  
Spinster with that attitude.  Lonely and Loveless is no way to live a  life.  
Give it some thought Freddie.  You're still young enough to do  something 
about it."  He paused and looked at his chronometer and glanced  back at her, 
"Okay... I need to run Ms. Freddie, the boys and I are going out to  celebrate 
our last night here at the Academy.  I'll talk to you  soon."
 
    "Okay  Dylan, congratulations again and good luck with your assignment.  
Send my  best to Mom and Dad.  You know where to find me if you need me ... 
and  Dylan, stay safe."  She couldn't bring herself to respond to what he'd 
said 
 right now.  Every time he lectured her, it hurt more and more.
 
    She  watched the screen fade to the Starfleet emblem and studied it for a 
few moments  before returning to her experiment and collecting the PADDs 
she'd need to  present to the Captain.  She heard the summons to the Conference 
Room,  acknowledged it and made her way there, and in the back of her mind, 
Dylan's  words haunted her... "Spinster, Antisocial, Lonely..."  What did he 
know  
anyhow?  She shrugged them off and kept walking.
 
    As she  walked to the Conference Room from the Turbolift, the reminder 
tone on  the appointment PADD sounded.  Felicity took note that it  indicated 
today began the crew physical rotation.  She quickly sent a  note and reminder 
to Dr. Idrys and Nurse Lewis to ensure that all of the crew  received their 
physicals in a timely manner.  If they coordinated and  worked together, she 
estimated that they could have them done in the next two  weeks without a 
problem.
 
    She took  her seat in the conference room and stared out into the stars.  
Lonely,  Antisocial and Spinster -- these were not words that she wanted 
associated with  herself, yet she couldn't help but be Felicity.  As she 
studied 
the globes  of light and gas, she wondered if these words were her future ... 
only time  would tell, and if they did, could she change it?

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