The Right Stuff

Posted on 06 Aug 2019 @ 3:02am by Lieutenant Commander True Keading & Captain Jonathan Reynolds

Mission: Mission 1 - In the pale moonlight ...
Location: Reynolds quarters
Timeline: MD6 really early
1477 words - 3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON:

True put her head down on the pillow and was instantly asleep despite wanting to argue with Jon earlier that she wasn't tired. It wasn't a restful sleep though. True was standing on the bridge. Not the bridge of Andromeda, not even the bridge of the Rhea. This was the Yorktown. An older excelsior class ship still in service for Starfleet until fairly recently when it was torn apart after a battle.

The Captain turned back to face True, blood trickled down his face and over his dark skin and eyes. He didn't have to say anything, she knew she'd let him down. She hadn't been able to save him. She hadn't had the right equipment and it had been too long since she'd taken those medical courses at the academy. Those were just excuses though. His eyes told the story of her failure.

Fire ripped through the bridge engulfing him and the others. Suddenly they were chained to the walls and she was the only one free but she couldn't move past the flames. She could hear them screaming but she couldn't get to them. A voice in the background spoke clearly. "We are coming."

True was on her feet before she realized her body was moving. She didn't even think about it but she put on a robe and slippers and left her quarters heading straight for Jon. She couldn't stay in that room any longer.

It took a few moments to wake up and a few attempts to work out his door chime was ringing but once he did Jon was up, pulling on pants and yelling lights as he walked out of his bedroom. He really hoped no one else was in a coma. As he got closer to the door he could sense fear and panic and it was someone familiar. "Open," he ordered the door.

True didn't let out a breath until she was standing really close to him in his quarters. Then it dawned on her that it was the middle of the night, she was in her pajamas, he was wearing less than that and she was centimeters from him. "Sorry," she said blushing. "I had a dream, I just had to get out of there."

Jon had been worried she would end up having one of these horrible experiences. He didn't care about wearing less than she was. He just pulled her into a reassuring hug, which she clearly needed right now. He just held her for a moment hoping it helped. "Its okay, its over now. Your safe," he reassured. "Lets sit you down. I'll get some tea and you can tell me about it. Well if you want too."

Having been surprised by the gesture True was nonetheless grateful for the warmth. It had been a long time since she'd been wrapped in a man's arms like that. She found it relaxed her more than she would have thought. "It was certainly intense," she said. "Sorry, I know I shouldn't have come barging in here like this in the middle of the night."

"No don't apologise. I said if you needed me," Jon said. "Besides I did it to you yesterday morning. What happened?" He returned back and handed her a mug of tea.

"I don't know if you're familiar with my service record. But little over a year ago I was stationed on the USS Yorktown. It was lost and I was in command at the time. The Captain was incapacitated during the battle and died from his injuries. The XO was knocked out and I was the ranking officer left on the bridge. I dreamed about it. The Captain was looking at me like it was my responsibility to save him. And then the bridge was on fire and I heard a disembodied voice."

Jon had read her file and although he was aware the Yorktown had been lost with True in command, it was a lot to process in one go hearing it out loud. How counselors ..... how both True and Liam did this day in day out with hundreds of people he had no idea. He handed her the tea, sat down next to her and pulled his arm round her. "You stepped up True and you did what you could. It wasn't your fault he died."

His thumb stroked her shoulder in a slow calming manner as another thought occurred to him. "What did the voice say?"

"I know that. We did the best we could with what we knew at the time, which really wasn't much since nothing on the ship was working." True took the tea from him and held onto it like she'd done in his office. "I can't be sure exactly . . . but it sounded like. We are coming."

"Its a warning," Jon said suddenly. "What if the object is a warning placed by someone else to warn us about these dark ones. Look at yours and mine, destruction, fire and they are coming. They were coming in my dream too. To destroy and conquer."

True looked over at him. "Thanks a lot, that makes me feel so much better." Then she couldn't help but laugh at his expression. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. I know you're perfectly serious and I'm worried too. People don't just dream the same thing without some kind of outside influence. What do we do about it?"

"We complete the mission. We get a sample, so they can work out why nothing can see it on the sensors and scans the Federation has. And we feed back that information to Starfleet," Jon said. "If these dark ones are so destructive we need all the information we can get. But we have to be smart about it. We are nearly in range. We send an unmanned probe for the last lap getting there. If its getting worse, like you said we don't want any more crew getting comatose.

Maybe when we enter the sector tomorrow we could give everyone something so they don't dream for a bit while we do that? I don't know how safe that is or how long someone can go without dreaming and it be safe. Also I'm not a big advocate of drugging everyone unless completely necessary. I will take it under advisement from both your department and medical on the drugging. You and Syvar talk it over tomorrow.

I mean we might get to that thing and it scan us and then magically be able to communicate in Federation standard for all we know and all this stop? What if its just there way of trying to communicate beware theres some bad guys out there? What is its the dark ones themselves basically saying this is our territory. "

He growled softly to himself frustrated it wasn't straight forward.

Jon still had an arm wrapped around her so True leaned her head on his shoulder to offer support. "We'll figure things out. Everyone on the ship is in this together so don't feel like this rests solely on your shoulders. A common problem among commanding officers." She might have said more but after telling him about her dream she was actually feeling a bit sleepy again and just wished to remain where she was, thinking things over.

"You're tired. Stay?" he said softly. He wanted to be there if she had another bad dream. "No funny business. I'll put a top on."

True nodded. She didn't think he'd really ever try anything, not without knowing she wanted to as well. He was half Betazoid after all and could sense her emotions. "Alright." She agreed. "Maybe I can actually get some sleep."

"Me too," Jon replied. It wasn't how he had seen tonight panning out but this felt so right.

He stood up and helped her off the couch taking care to put the tea cup down. Leading her to his bedroom he pulled out a t-shirt and spoke to the computer. "Computer schedule the senior staff for a briefing at 09:00. And set an alarm for 07:00."

If she'd been more awake and less tired she might have found this awkward but as it was she just tossed her robe aside, slipped out of her slippers and climbed into the side of the bed that looked less used. Her pink penguin pajamas clearly standing out amongst the rather muted colors of the bedroom.

Jon turned back and got into his side smiling widely as his eyes laid on what she was wearing. "Penguins. As if you couldn't get any cuter." If ever there was a sign this was right, that was a pretty big one from the goddesses.

OFF:

●●● Commander Jonathan Reynolds
Commanding Officer
USS Andromeda


●● Lieutenant True Keading
Chief Counselor
USS Andromeda