<USS Avalon> An Unexpected Call
- From: Elizabeth Bethell <ejbethell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <avalon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2005 21:50:41 +0000
An Unexpected Call
by Ensign Sussanna Jameson
Sussanna wandered back to her quarters. Today was turning out to be fairly
normal by her scale of things, at least it couldn't get much worse, she
thought. Her dinner had been fairly basic, not trusting her stomach on
anything too rich after her trip through the transporter that morning. All
replicated food tasted like cardboard anyway but she'd tried the broth,
which hadn't been too bad, a little more watery than her mum's but then
nothing's quite like your own mother's cooking.
She smiled to herself, remembering her mum stood in the little kitchen of
their bungalow in Sydney when she was seven. The smell of the soup on the
hob and the bread baking in the oven filled her nose and mouth and made her
stomach rumble despite the fact that she'd just filled it. They'd not owned
a replicator until after the accident. Her mum always said that she liked
the feel of the raw ingredients in her fingers as she manipulated them into
the greatest food in the galaxy.
The door to her quarters swooshed open and she noticed with a little
irritation that her roommate was still in. Trying to be as quiet as
possible, Sussanna slipped into her bedroom and started to close the door.
"You've had a call," a voice called.
Sighing, Sussanna poked her head out of her room. "Who from?"
"How would I know? I'm not your damn answering service, you know."
"Right, thanks." Yeah, thanks for nothing.
She went over to the console next to her bed and brought up her messages.
One from Marksbury reminding her to arrive early for training, one from
Security saying that they'd cleared her on their system and one personal
one. Curious, she opened it up.
"G'day, sweety, hope you're settling in well and everyone's treatin' you
good." The familiar, round face of her father filled the screen. "Call me
back when you get this, just to let me know you settled in fine. Okay, I
hate these things so I'm gonna go now. Bye." And his face popped out of
view.
Her stomach hit her toes. She really didn't want to do this, she thought as
she typed in the recall sequence. Maybe he'll be out, she thought with very
little conviction.
"Hey little Sheila," her father's image cried with obvious glee.
"Hi Dad, what can I do for you?"
"Oh now is that a way to greet your old man? Nothing, I just wanted to see
you before you were too far away. You've never been so far away from home."
"Yeah, well you've seen me, bye." Bitterness and bile filled her mouth and
nose as she reached for the off button.
"Stop right there young lady, I just wanted to talk to you so there's no
need to be so rude. Spend five minutes with me, that's all I'm askin'."
She raised her eyebrows. "Five minutes? We haven't spoken for this long in
almost three years, not since mum... Why now, dad? What is it that you
really want?"
His grey eyes narrowed the way Sussanna knew her own did at times and she
could see him sit back from the screen. "Can't fool you, can I? All that
covert nonsense you play at. And that's what it is: nonsense and playing.
You quit the only worthwhile thing you've ever done. And now look at you.
You play at being a doctor and you play at being a spy. You're just a silly
little child, Suzy; a little girl who should come home before she makes an
even bigger fool of herself."
Outrage and fury heated her cheeks. "Is this why you called me? To insult me
and my work? Well you know where you can stick that, don't you!"
"Really, where's that? Look, Suzy, in all seriousness just go to your
captain and tell him you've made a mistake, that you're not cut out for the
military life. He'll understand, drop you off somewhere and you can come
home and finish your medical training." A warped sort of compassion filled
his eyes. "You know that you're not cut out for this, don't you Suzy?"
Confussion and doubt filled her mind and her brow furrowed as she replied,
"I graduated top of my year. I'm one of the best. Of course I can do this."
If only I sounded like I mean it.
"You really sound convinced of that," he said, his voice dripping in
sarcasm. "If you really are the best then how did your first day go? If
you're so hot then it should have been a breeze."
Thinking of her confrontation with Marksbury, Sussanna winced, and then she
thought of her cheerful roommate and winced again. "Fine, it went just
fine," she said, just managing to keep the doubt out of her voice. "They all
love me, my superiors think I'm going to do really well here, no problems."
"Uh-huh, that's not what I've heard. I heard that you've already had a
run-in with your chief of Covert Ops and that you're not going down too well
in Sick Bay either." He sighed but still managed to look a little smug.
"Come on, Suzy, you can't lie to me. You're already a failure, just admit it
and come home. Don't be such a stubborn little fool."
Sussanna had no problems believing that her father had contacts on the ship,
that bloody man had so many fingers in so many pies that she was surprised
that he had any left to deal with his patients. She reached over to the off
button and looked sadly into her father's eyes.
"I'm sorry, dad, I just can't do that. Jameson out." She flicked at the
button and the screen went blank.
Leaning back in her chair, she gazed at the mirror over the console. She had
bags under her eyes that you could carry a week's worth of groceries in and
her face was drawn from too much work and not enough food or sleep. You
look ill and tired, she thought, you should get a nap before training
tonight. Instead she decided to go for a walk around the ship to get more
familiarised with it. As she headed out the door, she called a goodbye to
her ever happy roommate and took out her PADD to call up a map to guide her
walkabout.
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