From: Sarah Albertini-Bond (serendipity77_at_gmail.com)
Date: Sat Jan 26 2008 - 21:09:31 PST
"Oppressive Silence" <continued to from Steve's "Old Feeling New"> =/\= From the personal log of Xana Bonviva: I love Gene mightily, but AJ has always had a part of my heart. Gene never spoke about it but I knew that Jemmy held some piece of his heart too. I wonder if that's what married life is – you live with someone you love and look to the future, while both of you live the memories and reminders of the loves from yesterday. Now I have to learn to live without Gene as AJ shows up. Gene who is in the ground on BAJOR and AJ who's on my ship now, the ship named for Gene. Both of them are cold to me, just in different ways and for very different reasons. =/\= Location: USS MCINNIS Scene: CO's Ready Room "Come in." There was a surreal quality to walking into her office. There was the desk filled with PADDs in no particular order. There were the chairs shoved off to the side. There were the cookie jars on her desk, and there was the dog coming around to sniff you and look for some attention. And he looked over to see the azure woman sitting in the hammock. Still it was not a complete time warp. The woman did not look completely the same; she definitely looked older and tired. The dog was still affectionate but he didn't quite knock you over anymore. And there was a picture of a little blue girl with blond curls on the desk. The long oppressive silence was necessary, there were too many emotions to suppress on both sides. After a while AJ nodded to the azure woman and said simply, "Commander Bonviva.". "Hello...Lieutenant O'Malley," Xana nodded. The CO stood up and walked over to where he was standing. Pointing to the chairs off to the side she said, "Let's have a seat." AJ nodded, moving easily over to the chairs. He waited until she settled in before handing her a PADD. "Here is the information you requested about ASTROs." The azure woman nodded and took the PADD, not looking at it. She looked off into the distance for a long time before turning back to him. She longed for her life to go back into the neutral zone that she had been in and he couldn't do that with AJ here. But she had work to do and that overrode everything else. She couldn't read AJ anymore, the woman realized. Perhaps there was a time when she could guess what he was feeling but being out in the field made him even better at hiding his feelings than he had been before. And before...he had been damn good at it. Then again maybe he didn't feel anything anymore, she really didn't know. "So...what brings you to the MCINNIS?" she asked quietly as she looked back at him. AJ watched her for a moment, blinking his green eyes. He still could read her. He had heard from others that she had shut down. They didn't know her. Not like he did. He saw the way she was acting and knew she wasn't shutting down, not really. It was the calm before the storm, there was anger there brewing just beneath the surface, and she was doing everything she could to fight it. If she was fighting it this much then he figured the eventual explosion would be spectacular; not that he wanted to be around when that happened. "I was ordered to," AJ replied. Xana nodded at that, unable to afford any emotion to that response. Shaking her head she exhaled. "Why Command and SFI decided to do that I don't know. You did a superior job in the field. Then again you were a damn good ILO so..." she shrugged. Skimming the PADD she continued on while absentmindedly petting Angus, "I'll read this more thoroughly later but so far everything seems to be in order." AJ waited a moment before diving into work. Work could be a respite. "What about this mission?" Xana gave him a look. "What about it?" "Where do you want everyone?" he asked. The CO shrugged. "Kat's in charge of one team and she'll be with Zach investigating the life signs. Dr. Serafini will be investigating the warp corp and seeing to structural damage along with Lt. Cmdr. Mendar. Eilean and her group will be split between the two groups. I imagine you'll want something similar – have people on both teams which is fine." The only sane thought racking around her brain was that she had to be a better CO to AJ than she had been XO. Looking over the ASTROs memo again she asked, "Is there something we should know before going in?" AJ's mind spun quickly, trying to recall everything he had read recently about this area. "Nothing comes immediately to mind but then again I not as familiar with the Alpha Quadrant as I am with other areas. Did you want me to see what I could find out?" Xana nodded at that as she looked up. "If you have time before you go, then yes." It seemed like forever before she spoke, the awkward silence hovering around them. "Well then if you have nothing else, you're free to go," Xana finally offered. AJ nodded then; it would be best just to get the hell out of here. "No, ma'am," he replied as he went to stand up. "Wait," she said, closing her eyes. She briefly rubbed her temples, as if in pain, before opening up her violet eyes. Looking up at him she said, "You know my name, AJ. You can use it..." =/\= NRPG: Alright I'm kinda surprised that this came out the way it did considering I've got "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" playing in the background lol Made up teams for the mission because I realized I hadn't done that. However, feel free to change the teams if you'd prefer something else :-) Steve: I don't know what you had in mind, hopefully this works. Let me know if it doesn't. =/\= Sarah Albertini-Bond Commander Xana Bonviva CO USS MCINNIS What would Brian Boitano do? If he was here right now He'd make a plan And he'd follow through, That's what Brian Boitano do. --Kyle, Stan and Cartman from "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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