<USS Avalon> The Chip from Nowhere

The Chip from Nowhere
by Captain Keith Ketchum and Cadet John Forester
 
 
Keith sat wondering in his office, something nagged at the back of his mind.

"Ah, the chip, I left it in the secret office", he exclaimed to himself.

Standing he secured his office main door, and then walked over to the Jefferies 
tube entrance and opened it with his code. Sliding in, he made his way to the 
office, the one that wasn't on the schematics, the one that was for emergencies.

Sliding into that room, looking around and making sure that it was empty, as it 
should be. He looked into the adjoining room, which was made up as a sleeping 
quarters. To make sure that it was made up, and ready in case the Maquis 
mission went wrongly.

Moving over to the desk, he sat and opened the top drawer. Inside was a chip.

Sliding the chip into the player, the voice came over the speaker attached.

"Captain Ketchum, this is John Forester."

The slight inflection in the sound of the voice was still unsure, he could tell.

"I wanted to thank you for coming to my mother's funeral, I know that you knew 
her years ago, I think that she'd have appreciated your being there, I know I 
did. I wanted to take you up on your offer of sponsorship to the Academy, sir, 
if it is still available."

Slowly he heard the voice continue, " I also wanted to say that I kinda wish 
mom hadn't kept you away. You are my father, after all. My step-father was 
never around to provide the support that I needed and my brothers... my 
step-brothers were always tormenting me. I think it would have been nice to get 
away and visit you. I missed a lot by not knowing you."

There was a pause in the recording, "You probably don't need to know how I 
found out about you, not that I wanna tell you either. And you probably don't 
want to deal with me after all these years. I know that we might not be able to 
have the father-son relationship that I want, but maybe we could just try to 
become friends. I don't want you to protect me but I think that if I knew you 
would be able to be there to listen, it would make losing my mom a whole lot 
easier. I hope we get to talk in person, I felt that this time it was best that 
I just talk. I await your response. John signing off."

Keith knew what he had done the first time he heard the message, that was to 
put his sponsorship request in for John for the Academy. The other was to 
contact him and at that time they talked for hours. He told him then that when 
he was up for his semester in space, that he could come to the Avalon.

Standing from the desk, Keith slid the chip into his pocket and made his way 
back to his quarters. Patience hadn't arrived home yet, and he unsecured the 
door, and went back to reading PADDs. The break he had just taken cleared his 
mind, and allowed him to work harder. 

                
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