From: rneces@mastnet.net (Lynnaea AelCaymarth ) Date: Wed, 23 Apr 1997 23:20:10 -0500 (CDT) Subject: USS CHESAPEAKE: Aftermath, Part II
SD 90424.0430 GMT
MD 05.1505
Scene: Observation Lounge after Mission Briefing --> SECCEN
____________________________________________________________
After the Mission Briefing Ensign Keyrin stopped momentarily to gaze
at the streaking stars in the main viewscreen before heading back to SECCEN.
Their brilliance reminded her of long nights spent staring out her bedroom
window back on Calyx, dreaming about the stars, of being aboard a spaceship
one day.
And now she was here. The little girl's dream come true, she
thought, but then why did it all seem like such a disappointment? What had
gone wrong?
She shook the thoughts from her mind. As she strode down the
twisting corridors of the Chesapeake, her thoughts reeled with activity.
She found herself uplifted once again by her work, reminded of *why* she'd
joined Starfleet -- the thrill of the mission, of being useful, of doing
something that was truly worthwhile.
Truth to tell, she couldn't wait to sink her teeth into this one.
Normally, (normal equating to her days at SFA) she would have been
full of questions during a mission briefing, clarifying this, playing
devil's advocate on that. Today, however, she had been silent, and had
simply absorbed everything.
She didn't have all the information she wanted, still, so she made a
brief stop into her office to put in a request to the Counselor and
Commander Brennan to please forward to her *all* information they had on the
Corellis situation. Just as quickly, she was heading to SECCEN again, to
set up a briefing, in turn, for her own department.
She really wasn't expecting to walk into the security complex and
find Dana and Damien in an embrace.
Part of her, that small semireasonable area of her cerebral cortex,
noticed that it wasn't a particularly *passionate* embrace; it was rather
more reminiscent of a friendly supportive hug. In light of recent
circumstances, however, the much more dominant, stressed, unreasonable area
of her mind took over with a vicious authority.
"GET awayfromeachotherrightnow," she barked, glaring balefully at
them as she slapped some files sharply down on the desk edge. The two
jumped as if electrically shocked, and Dana paled considerably.
*I've had it with this. I cannot afford this in my department right
now.*
"Both of you get down to the Counselor's office right now and
explain to her what's been going on. I'll be sending a written report his
way in a moment. She can decide what the appropriate disciplinary actions
will be." After Keyrin's own rather unpleasant run-in with Tats-Marush,
she could easily guess what might be the conclusion of the Epic Romantic
Saga of Chesapeake Security.
With a beaten sag to Dana's shoulders and a resigned look on
Damien's face, the two left the room. Aelyria sat down and quickly tapped
out a terse report of what she had witnessed and sent it off to the
Counselor's mail file with an URGENT and CONFIDENTIAL notation on it.
That done, and the room empty, Aelyria stopped to breathe.
And that was when she noticed the crushing headache that threatened
to make her skull implode. She winced, massaging her temples, and felt the
flush of her face. *God, I really do not feel well. I've got to start
getting more sleep... but I'll worry about that tonight. I need to get this
briefing organized...*
She tried to get the information down in a presentable format, but
the sentences kept scrambling themselves, the words fleeing underneath the
weight of her migraine. Relentlessly, Aelyria kept pounding at the keys,
determined to get the report out, until she looked up at the screen and
realized she'd been hitting random letters for the last two pages.
A sob broke past her lips before she could catch it, but she covered
her mouth with a fist and shoved everything back down -- the tears, the
pain, the stress, the headache, the lack of sleep, Torr, Damien and Dana...
she shoved them all back down...
... and the point came to where she thought she might have control.
She wasn't crying. The headache was there, worse than ever, her face was
still flushed, and her hands had begun to shake, but she wasn't crying, and
that was what mattered.
Or so she thought. Everything she had bottled up, stored, pushed
back, had now lodged in her heart and throat, and she could feel the
consuming emptiness of it in her. She knew she wouldn't be able to speak
without her voice cracking.
She remembered the exhaustion after the diagnostics run that
morning. Remembered thinking she couldn't continue like this. She even
thought that maybe that was the way she felt now. Oh, but God, she hated
to admit it. Hated ... HATED it. Yet, she remembered... so many things.
"Get a grip on yourself, or I resign." *the seconds ticking by...*
"You also have a bit of an overachieving complex, the drive to
succeed and to give more than your best for your department. You are also
quite bitter about some aspects of your life, and there are subjects to
which you react with hatred, almost violence..."
"Our heroine, now cured, goes to Starfleet Academy to bring order and
justice to the world. The end. Roll credits."
..."I'm worried about you...."
"... I'm afraid your security crew is going to burn out. ...
I've had four people complain to me already .... 'unreasonable expectations'
... keep cracking the whip all the time..." *gripping the arms of the chair,
tight, so tight*
"...look at yourself. You look tired. Exhausted. Like a steel cable
bearing too much weight. If you keep going at this pace, you'll snap, and
lives will depend on what you do for the rest of your Starfleet career..."
"...things that you don't want to hear."
She slammed her fist into the wall, taking an obscene pleasure in
hearing the joints groan beneath the pressure, wrapped up in feeling the
pain crackle up her arm. "Dammit, if that's what you .. all .. want, then
that's what you'll _GET_," she hissed between her teeth. "A nice...
little... shrinked up... GIRL."
She slapped her combadge. "Keyrin to Tats-Marush," she bit out.
"Yes, Ensign?" came the deceptively friendly reply, with the
everpresent undercurrent of alertness.
"I'd like to see you when you have a few moments."
There was the feeling, deep inside, of hunkering down inside a
bunker, of digging in for the coming onslaught.
Respectfully submitted,
Lynnaea AelCaymarth
NRPG: Thanks goes to Masako, for this one. She knows why. *big hugs*
05.1520 Keyrin finds Damien and Dana embracing in SECCEN
05.1610 Keyrin cannot write report; breaks down, contacts CNS
ENS Aelyria Keyrin - CSO, USS CHESAPEAKE
ENS Elesse Lyscarta - CNS, USS CHARLEMAGNE
LT Joshua Brighton, MD - CMO, USS DAEDALUS
ASR Reference: http://www.oocities.org/SoHo/2878/asr.html
Go to messages for April 1997 or Main Archive Page