From: Kenneth Field (envision_at_fidalgo.net)
Date: Sun Jan 06 2008 - 07:34:50 PST
"Bad News"
(continues from Taylor's "103")
Location: Aurelis Outpost, DELTA IV
Stardate: 2.80105.1800
Scene: Observation Deck
--
News travels fast in times of conflict. You don't need a historian to
tell you that. Even from the more detached Federation homeworlds,
currents of information run strong, like pulsing conduits through the
bulkheads of a starship. For Counselor Zachary Wen, the privileges of
Level 3 security clearance meant he could stay abreast of the
situation at the front while stationed at Aurelis Outpost, surrounded
by DELTA IV's lush tranquility. Reading war reports seemed to
validate his duty as a Starfleet officer. But the bottom line was
that he was personally interested in the safety and well-being of
certain people trapped on the other side of the wormhole.
Currently Zachary stood motionless on the observation deck looking out
the window. His arms hung limp, one hand barely clinging on to a
week-old casualty report.
On it was one of those people.
(( MCINNIS, GENE -- KIA ))
--
<<Flashback>>
Scene: Auditorium, GS-2
[ Time Index: Two years ago ]
Gene looked up at his crew and smiled in welcome. He didn't use any
amplification device. He didn't need one. A Captain never does.
"Brave souls," he began, "we've lost the ship."
His voice had roughened with emotion. He took a breath, calmed himself.
"But what is more to the point, we've lost people," he continued.
"People we all knew and cared about. And they are gone from us long
before we expected anything like that to happen."
He paused a moment. He hadn't prepared a speech.
"Family," he said at last. "When you join Starfleet, that's one of
the many lessons they teach you. People die out here, just as they do
everywhere else. But I tell you this, our friends gave their lives
... not in conquest ... but in defense. Not in anger or fear ... but
in determination ... that no one might profit from violence and
terror. You just forget sometimes what the price can be. Until the
bill comes due."
--
<<Present>>
It was just a second; a memory so brief, yet so vivid that it could have been
yesterday. The flaming hues of DELTA IV's polychrome sunset seemed to
accentuate the dead Commander's words, and they lingered, making even
more profound the sense of loss he felt. Zachary put a hand up to the
window and touched its cool, smooth surface. He thought about the
commanding officer who was always crisp and professional, who treated
everyone with fair leniency and was never aloof. He thought about the
man whose righteous conviction was so strong, it drove him to the
depths of recklessness, pain, and triumph. And he thought about how
the brevity of a casualty report was all too unfitting of whatever had
been Gene's final act.
After a very long moment, he smiled.
--
NRPG: Ken: I'm a bit late, but I was compelled to respond in character. By
the stroke of a pen (or I guess a key), a man lived and died, and a
galaxy was changed. Thank you for the brilliance that was Gene; I'm
sad to see him go. - Justin Chow
--
Justin Chow (wenstarfleet_at_gmail.com)
variously personified by:
Lieutenant J.G. Zachary Wen
Ship's Counsellor of the USS DISCOVERY
Commodore Deks Grayson
Starfleet Chief of Communications
___________________________________
"You mean I'm drunk? I feel strange, but also good."
--Wesley Crusher in "The Naked Now"
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Tue Oct 07 2008 - 03:11:01 PDT