" Anger "
(Previous post was Francois' "Completing The Circle")
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, CO's Ready Room
Stardate: 60325.2230
The young woman sat behind her desk... her body locked away in the office of the CO while her mind raced light-years away to a different place and time. How had it come to end this way? Alone the redheaded woman had survived the cold emptiness of space despite everyone's belief that she had perished during a freak accident that had separated several decks from the ship she had been assigned to at that time. Together, the 2 of them had survived countless encounters with unimaginable foes which had included amongst others Species 8472. So how had it happened that Enaii had met her end as she had.
The words of wisdom provided by the ship's Cns had been most welcomed and in the end they had pointed the redheaded woman in the right direction… that of a long and painful emotional recovery that would likely centre around those members of the crew who had been fortunate enough to be on their way home.
As the young woman watched through the window of her office the stars fly by, her thoughts went on one particular member of the crew who had returned with them but whose career would more than likely end the moment they would reach NEW ALEXANDRIA… David Dawson.
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Dawson's Quarters
Stardate: 60325.2235
David sat motionless as he looked at the duty roster since returning to the ship. The ANUBIS was traveling at warp 4 due to the damage sustained in their battle and it would put them back inside the GIZA NEBULA in just under 16 hours... 16 long hours.
As he sat, he tried his damnedest to put the missing pieces of the puzzle of his memory gaps into place. As much as he tried, he couldn't. He sighed and worked on his report for Koneki, who he believed would finally have his head on the proverbial titanium platter once they reached NEW ALEXANDRIA, but he couldn't concentrate. He needed to talk to her… to explain why he did what he did, so he tapped his comm badge.
"Dawson to Captain Rikar."
No response. He tried again and this time she answered, Her tone of voice was different.
=/\= *What* can I do for you Lieutenant? =/\=
"Captain… I need to talk to you. And since it seems that I can't leave my quarters…"
=/\= For good reasons, =/\= Sabrina replied coldly, obviously not having forgotten the incident in which the CEO had stolen the SPHINX and nearly dragging her and everyone else in the cargo bay into space with the small craft.
David sighed. "Sabrina… I…"
=/\= At my convenience I will come see you, =/\= and the channel abruptly closed.
"Odd," David thought as he went back to working on his report.
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Corridor outside Dawson's Quarters
Stardate: 60325.2315
The young woman did not have the intention of going see David when she had left her office. All that she had wanted to do was to return to her quarters, embrace her daughter and cry until her eyes ran dry, but when she had arrived at her quarters the soft music that could barely be heard from the corridor had made the redheaded woman think otherwise. As a former CMO and Cns who had worked with the giant, the CO of the ANUBIS knew just how private this act had been and that although Elan would have probably not minded her walking in, the redheaded woman decided to allow her daughter to have that special moment to herself. Hopefully this pleasant memory would give Talia the strength to face the universe around her, a universe that had been far from the one she had known only a day before.
All during the trek from Deck 7, where Enaii had demanded their quarters to be, to Deck 2 where the quarters of the rest of the senior officers were located, the young woman thought about what she would say to David. So many things had happened in so little time that the redheaded woman could barely cover them all while when walked.
As she stood in front of the secured door, the young woman nodded to the 2 armed security officers positioned on either side of the closed opening. Obviously the ExO had felt the same way as the CO and had not wanted to take any chances with their CEO, but despite the feeling she had begun to harbour for David, Sabrina proceeded as she had said she would… responding to his wishes to see and speak to her as the ANUBIS' CO and nothing more.
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Setting: USS ANUBIS, Corridor outside Dawson's Quarters
Stardate: 60325.2320
There was a chime and David looked up from the book he was reading.
"Come," he replied and Sabrina entered.
"Lieutenant… you needed to see me?"
David looked at his former lover and she didn't look the same. The sparkle in her emerald green eyes was gone and he could tell she had been crying.
"Are you alright Captain?"
"I'm fine" she replied tersely, "say what you need to say because I'm busy."
"Sabrina… I wanted to apologize."
"For what?!" Sabrina snapped unable to contain the sudden burst of anger that had rushed to into her mind, "being the self-centred and self-absorbed brute that you're accustomed to being?"
"I did what needed to be done," the CEO replied as Sabrina walked up to him and pointed her finger directly in his face.
"*You* blatantly defied *my* orders! You put yourself, the rest of the MERCURY survivors lives in danger, *and* Lea's life in danger for what?! Revenge?! Bloodlust! Well, you dug your grave David. *This* time I'm *not* saving you!" The young woman unleashed, not realising at that moment in time that she held him directly responsible for what had happened to Enaii. Had he been on the ship instead of on the planet surface maybe he could have done something to stop the transporter from losing the ILO's pattern during that very difficult beam down attempt.
David's eyes narrowed. "I did what I thought was best… of what I can remember…"
"DON'T GIVE ME THAT!" Sabrina snapped, "we've played the memory loss game David! We've played the, 'I don't remember what I did or why I did it' game and I'm *SICK* of it!" the CO added as she paced back and forth, "what you did was *completely* unacceptable and if they so happen to drum you out of Starfleet for it, then as far as I am concerned you will have gotten what you deserved."
David looked at his CO and she was more red in the face than he'd ever seen her. Her breathing had increased and it looked like she was about 2 seconds away from ripping the massive CEO in half.
"So this is all my fault. Is that what you're saying?"
"YES IT'S YOUR FAULT THAT SHE'S DEAD!" The young woman screamed as she stopped dead in her tracks and faced the much larger man fighting back her impulse to reach out slap him across the face where he stood.
David appeared stunned for the next few seconds as he desperately tried to figure out *who* had died. The current state of his memories had made it impossible for him to know anything for sure so the CEO had to be content with allowing his imagination to provide countless possible ways that he could have been responsible for the death of a female member of the crew.
"I really don't want to talk about this right now… all I know is that because you were on your self-indulging crusade you were not here when Enaii tried to beam down. Maybe things would have happened differently and maybe things would have gone exactly the same way, but your place was here on the ANUBIS and not down there doing things your way without giving any thought about anyone else. So do I blame you for what happened? YES! Am I right in doing so? I don't know, but what I do know is that now is not the time for us to talk about it," the young woman unleashed against the motionless engineer before storming out of his quarters leaving the CEO to grasp the meaning of what he had just heard.
Enaii had died leaving the ANUBIS without its ILO… Sabrina without a mate… and Talia without her biological mother… and the worst part of it all was that the CO blamed him for it.
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Julian Knight (d_dawson_1@yahoo.com)
as
Lieutenant David Dawson
Chief Engineer
USS ANUBIS NCC 18501
AND
Sabrina Jones {sabrina_sweet@hotmail.com}
Captain Sabrina Rikar
Commanding Officer
USS ANUBIS, NCC-18501
"We are Grey, we stand between the Candle and the Star, between the
Darkness and the Light" 2005 post #384
-Entilza Delenn, Babylon 5
