[USS Vanguard] Re: What to do with a Cerberus that bites you?
- From: Kieran Darkwater <kierandarkwater@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ncv80221@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 10:45:10 +0000 (GMT)
Kieran didn?t feel the contact at all as the Vanguard settled into place
against the docking clamps, and barely registered the announcement they were
alongside and leave had started. Out in the main bay, his department finished
up their reports and experiments over the next half hour or so and slowly, one
by one, trooped out to their various enjoyments.
?Sir,? he looked up to see Lieutenant Gardner in the doorway, ?we?re heading to
the base for a meal. Would you like to join us??
?No, thank you, Sean.? He didn?t know how he?d managed it ? probably it was
more to do with the people he?d inherited in the department than anything ? but
he?d managed not to alienate them with his markedly different style of
management. He was a little more distant, a little more disciplinarian, but he
was still fair and rewarded good work with praise as much as he pointed out
sloppy or poor performance. Another benefit of inheriting good people was how
infrequently he?d had to be a disciplinarian.
Now, though, he found himself eyeing the roster of possible replacement
personnel, and one name leapt to the top of the list. She wasn?t applying for
the science department, but the list was circulated whole, and his commentary
wasn?t required, but he opened the entry anyway, morbid curiosity capturing his
mind as the memory echo surged from the back of his mind.
<snip>
?I?d rather see Lieutenant Leonov, actually.? (Kieran) replied, which startled
(Challis) slightly.
?Ana Leonov? She?s on duty, I?m afraid.?
?Not tha.. no? Ana Leonid?s physical body must be aboard somewhere? I?d like to
visit her ? we were close, once.?
?I don?t think I could?? Challis began, but a quiet voice from the doorway
interrupted her.
?Let him.? Ana said, quietly, her eyes searching Kieran?s for a moment. ?It?s
been a long time, Kieran.?
?Nearly six months.? He replied, quietly. Challis took her cue, excused
herself, and returned to work. ?I tried to call ahead, to let you know I would
be coming.? He explained.
?How are you?? she asked, ignoring the offering, caught somewhere between
delight and anger.
?I?ve been busy ? work, mainly. I finally finished ?Lord of the Rings? last
month, though. I was laid up after a mission inj?. Injury.? He tailed off,
quietly, and her jaw tightened up a little more as he followed her into a
turbolift.
?You could have sent messages.? She offered. ?Called once in a while. What
happened to ?Till Death Do Us Part??. You offered that, remember, on the
Hermes.?
?I remember.? He snapped back. ?You declined, as I recall. You ?didn?t need all
that pomp and ceremony?.?
?So you just forgot about me, did you?? The doors hissed open to reveal a
stark, sterile, computer laden room somewhere in the heart of the ship.
Monitors and readouts lined the walls, and conduits and channels gathered into
banks around the narrow bed located in the midst of it all. A thin, frail, bony
figure ? dressed in a perfectly tailored StarFleet uniform ? nestled amidst it
all, locked into connectors and sensors, an elaborate mesh of interfaces and
support equipment. Sat within it, the only truly clear piece of vision in the
entire room, were the two deep, crystal blue eyes of what was left of Ana
Leonov, rolling downward slightly to stare at him as she had for those nine
long hours in the cave on Calenset seven.
?I could never forget, Ana. Never?? he said, and she didn?t need the
holographic presence to see the tears glistening in his eyes.
</snip>
It wasn?t /his/ memory, as such, a fragment of an echo of a future that might
not occur here, but the pain it brought with it was real, the anguish and the
ache for something not lost but put out of reach forever.
Could he handle having her on the ship, knowing what might happen? Could he
deny her the chance to serve where she wanted, knowing he might be saving her?
well, not her life, not even her career? Was it just selfish to not want to go
through that? It would be painful, for everyone, but was it guaranteed.
/You?d think,/ he finally decided, tossing the padd back onto the desk,
/serving aboard the temporal flagship of the fleet would have taught me better
than to get hung up on these sort of stupid questions?/
He rubbed at the bridge of his nose, feeling the pressure of a headache
building, and rose to collect his thoughts, wandering seemingly at random for a
while until a gaggle of familiar voices brought him back to the present.
Clustered at a nearby table were some of the Vanguard?s command staff, Santos
and Desdemona.
?Room for another?? he asked, dragging a chair into place from a nearby table
as they all shuffled round to make space. ?Just milk, please.? He asked the
waiter, straddling the chair and leaning his arms on the back.
?So, what?s been happening in the universe while we?ve been away??
Off>
Sorry for the delay - hellish week for study :) Good to be back, though!
Cheers
Steve
---------------------------------
Win a BlackBerry device from O2 with Yahoo!. Enter now.
_____________________________________________________________
USS Vanguard: http://www.ncv80221.net/default.htm
Vanguard Archives: //www.freelists.org/archives/ncv80221
FreeLists: //www.freelists.org
Trying to contact the USS Vanguard managers? Send an email to:
vanguard.staff@xxxxxxxxx
_____________________________________________________________
Other related posts:
