Location: Starbase Odyssey
IC Date: August 1, 2397 @ 19:36:54
Star Trek Stardate: 74583.06
“Have you taken a look at this yet?” A bit of amazement could be heard in Elianna’s voice as she peered through the microscope at the specimen on the slide beneath.
Vott nodded with an excited grin, “Yes and I could hardly believe my eyes; it looks like the cells are replicating at five times the rate we anticipated! It’s astounding!”
Elianna looked up from the microscope at the Bolian with a delighted smile, “This could make a huge difference in the rate of production for the medicine, this is incredible! How did you accomplish this?”
He shook his head, “I thought it was something you did…”
Her brow furrowed a bit at this revelation. “This might be some kind of fluke, let’s check against the other specimens and the control and see how they look. Identify any differences in handling.” Her gloved fingers rapped thoughtfully on the sterile metal countertop as she considered what might have caused these results. Finally she looked again at her medical officer and added, “Let’s also be sure we don’t have any contamination in this specimen.”
“Dr. Kestran?”
Elianna looked over to see Ensign Carmichael was poking her head in the door, “Yes Julie?”
“Didn’t you say you had plans tonight?”
“Oh no, what time is it?” A glance at the time elicited a groan from Elianna. She jumped up from the lab stool and called back to Vott as she hurried out past Julie, “Finish checking up on the specimen and get the report on my desk by the end of the day tomorrow please!”
Julie gave a sympathetic shrug to Vott and ducked back out of the lab to leave him to the tedious work. He sighed and peered through the microscope again, muttering, “Wish I had plans tonight instead of working late on a lab specimen...”
Meanwhile Elianna was rushing through the main sickbay, giving out some duties to the various staff members she passed. She pulled her gloves off and tossed them into the recycler and shrugged off her jacket which she handed to a bewildered Emily, “Could you put that in my office for me?”
“Uh, sure. Is everything ok?”
“Yes, I just lost track of time. I’m supposed to have dinner with the Captain when he gets back on the station, and his transport should be arriving at any moment.”
Emily chuckled with relief, “That’s good, I thought for a minute there might be an emergency I should know about. I hope you didn’t promise to cook it yourself?”
It was Elianna’s turn to chuckle, “As if I have time for that! No, it will be replicator food for dinner tonight.”
“Well, have fun Doctor!” The only response from Elianna was a wave in the air as she disappeared out the sickbay doors.
Oliver watch through the front viewscreen on the runabout as the stars streaked and turned into pinpoints once again as the vessel dropped from warp. Ahead of him was the welcome sight of Starbase Odyssey. While it had only been a few days, it nearly felt like an eternity away. He keyed up the communications system with a quick few buttons. “Odyssey station this is Runabout Mogami requesting permission to dock!” he said.
“Welcome back Captain, Dock bay four, Pad D please.” Torin’s voice called over the vessels speakers.
“Good to be home, Mogami out.” he said and went about the task of guiding the craft towards the indicated docking port. It didn’t take long to settle into the vessels landing pad and secure the ship.
He picked up his bag and a case sitting by the door as it slid aside to admit him to the station, he glanced down at his chronometer and noted the time. Seeing he still a little time before he was supposed to meet Elianna, he wound his way through the station to his quarters setting the box down on the table, and took only a moment to toss his bag on the bed and grab a change of cloths. He had been in that Runabout for hours and a quick sonic shower was certainly in order.
After taking a few minutes just to relax in the sonic shower, he steps out toweling off the little water there was, pulling on a pair of standard Starfleet issue under garments, black sweatpants and a urgundy colored long sleeve shirt, and some slippers. He nodded taking a quick look in the mirror noting he needed to shave before going on duty, he had a bit of facial hair going. He took a quick look at the clock on the wall and then walked over to the case on the table pressing his thumb to the locking mechanism.
Lifting the lid back on the case he surveyed the contents to ensure nothing had broke during the transit, nodding in satisfaction that everything was fine. He opened up another small container within and withdrew a bottle full of amber liquid and an old wax seal. The label was nearly unreadable but it was still good, he had the bottle checked to ensure that it was since the stock had been in storage for a good long while.
Exiting his quarters he headed to the turbolift he stepped in taking enough time to punch in his destination into the panel by the door, then move to the back of the lift. It was one thing to be on a starship, but another on a station. They were much larger, and had a lot of ground to cover and he still found himself forgetting that from time to time. Not to mention getting lost, but that wasn’t something he would admit to anyone consciously. Stepping from the lift a few moments later he started walking down the hall from door to door until finally coming to Elianna’s. He took a deep breath and then hit the call button on the door panel.
Elianna finished setting the table. She hummed to herself as she set the oven roasted chicken and garlic parmesan red potatoes down. She surveyed the table with satisfaction, it was a very Earth type dinner. Elianna stopped humming as she suddenly felt something was terribly off. She focused for a moment on it, quickly realizing it was Oliver. A wave of strong emotion caught her off guard and she leaned against a chair. The emotion felt very familiar to her and she tried to steady her own emotions in response as the door chimed. Quickly crossing the room to open the door she found Oliver standing there, holding a bottle of something and wearing sweatpants and… slippers?
“Oh Oliver…” his pain was palpable to her. She stepped aside and motioned for him to come in.
Once the door had shut behind him she asked gently, “Do you want to tell me what happened or would it be easier for you if I… pry?”
It wasn't a fitting way to describe reading his thoughts, but she couldn't think of a better way to ask if it would be a more comfortable way to communicate whatever was going on. She had learned that humans sometimes felt great difficulty discussing things that brought them deep grief. Other times it seemed therapeutic for them. In the end, whatever was easiest or best for him was the course she would take.
Oliver felt his chest tighten suddenly, but he quickly quelled the feeling with a deep sigh. “You know, it's hard to hide things from you when you use that radar of yours.” he nodded to the table. “How about some food, and something special.” he said holding up the bottle. “Little something I picked up from home. Granted it’s been in the cellar for some time, but it’s bound to taste amazing. We’ve got plenty of time to talk, and I’m starving!”
She nodded slowly, inwardly frustrated with herself for jumping so directly to the point, it was a very Betazoid thing to do. All these years living among mostly humans and she still wanted to address any elephant in the room straight away. She could only hope it hadn’t made him too uncomfortable. “I’m sorry, though I assure you I wasn’t trying to get any secrets out of you using my abilities. I generally try to keep walls up to avoid invading anyone’s privacy. You are sort of,” she struggled to think how to describe it, “telegraphing.”
Deciding it was best to leave it at that for the moment she said, “Dinner’s ready, so we might as well eat while it’s still warm. Though now I feel a bit overdressed,” she said as glanced from him down at the dark green dress she was wearing. It wasn’t overly fancy or anything, but she rarely got the chance to dress up a little so the excuse to feel a bit more normal and feminine was one she couldn’t pass up. Lately all she ever seemed to wear was her pajamas and her work uniforms. Now she thought with some amusement that her pajamas might have been more in keeping with the situation, given his attire.
He smiled, “You look great Elianna. Sorry I guess I wasn’t thinking about what I put on.”
With a light laugh she shrugged it off, “It doesn’t matter what you wear, it’s not like you have to impress me. But I couldn’t resist giving you a hard time about it.”
He smiled. “Smells great.” he had yet to visit her quarter’s since they had arrived on the station, then again he didn’t normally make house calls. He took in the place as he moved towards the table. “How have things been while I was away, I take it since I didn’t get a subspace message that the boy’s have behaved themselves?” he was of course referring to his favorite two dysfunctional twins, Johnny and Sully.
She sat down and passed him the chicken first, “They aren’t so prone to misbehaving anymore, if you hadn’t noticed. There was a time I was afraid of where we were headed, but now I wouldn’t choose anyone else for crewmates. While you were gone, Sully kept things running pretty smoothly, and Johnny has managed to avoid making Lt. Idaris consider harming him for at least a week now,” she grinned jokingly, “I think it’s actually a new record for him.”
“I haven’t seen Cam for a while, he’s been working on something in the science department. I’m not really even sure what, but he seems excited about it. Truth be told, I haven’t done a very good job keeping up with anyone lately. Just too much work and not enough time.” She took a bite as she thought about this and then said, “It’s not a good excuse though, I know I need to make time for people.”
Passing him the potatoes she added with a grateful look, “Not everyone takes it upon themselves to make sure I don’t disappear for all eternity into the Sickbay quite like you do. Even this dinner, if you hadn’t planned it with me before you left, I’d probably still be staring at cells under a microscope with Lieutenant Oromar.”
She stopped at this realization and looked at him quizzically, “Why did you?”
He stared at the potatoes a moment pondering her question, ‘why had he’ he put some of the potatoes on his plate and set the bowl aside. “In the last several months we’ve had little time to catch up. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about some things, but every time I think either of us had the time duty has gotten in the way. I think this last few days has been a reminder that life is out here waiting for us to do something about it and while duty is important…” he stared down at the bottle of amber liquid. “Life needs to be a priority too.” he shrugged taking a moment to take a bite of chicken, then set his fork down.
“I have noticed a change in all of us, including the wonder twins. I’m very happy to see them growing, and part of me knew it was an eventuality, or so I hoped. Believe me I’m relieved.” he said shifting a little uneasy in his chair.
“But I’m also worried about you. I had noticed that you had been more reclusive, and distant.” he paused a moment. “More than any other time that I can recall. I can’t help but think that it was something I did, but I also realized that with all that’s happened you’ve had your own things to deal with. So I thought I would throw out an olive branch. Dinner just seemed right.” he smiled, if at least half heartedly.
“Perhaps part of it is for selfish reason too. Since I’m being honest I’ve had a hard time talking to Eldrida as much as I would like to, and while I appreciate her skills and the friendship I’m just not there with her yet. You're the easiest person to talk too that I know, and if it’s one thing that Eldrida has been trying to hammer into my thick skull is that talking is important.”
Elianna set her fork down and stared at her plate, her emotions once again rising. It was difficult to identify them all save one, an oppressive feeling of grief. It was hard for her to tell where hers ended and his began. She picked her fork back up to try and regain some control before she finally raised her gaze back up to meet Oliver’s “You have not done anything to drive me away from you. I don’t even understand why you think that is the case. Or could ever be the case,” her expression softened as she said this. How could she adequately express what he meant to her in a way he could understand?
The best she could do right now was to try to explain where she was at the moment, so she drew a deep breath and said, “If I have been distant, it has certainly been through no fault of your own. I can admit to having been reclusive, but it has been because I’ve been immersed in work,” she gave him a knowing look, “I don’t need to use my telepathy to know what you’re thinking. Life should come first. But honestly Oliver, what life? I mean, outside of this; outside of my work what life? Not only am I a widow, half of my family is dead, what family I have left resent me for not being here while they went through hell, my homeworld was a battlefield, and now I am thrust into the middle of a war I barely understand. What life am I supposed to be living exactly? Frankly, I don’t know who I am or where I belong anymore.”
She shook her head, “I’m sorry if I’ve been reclusive. And I am even more sorry I’ve made you feel somehow responsible for it.” Elianna couldn’t help feeling that it was in fact her that had let him down, not the other way around. “I told you I would be here to help keep you grounded when we first found ourselves here, and then I disappeared into my work, because I didn’t know what else to do. I’m sorry.”
He nodded knowingly. “If we bury ourselves in our work life will certainly just slip on by, I think we’ve both gotten stuck in that same place. Maybe in different ways.” he leaned back in his chair pondering something. “I sent a request to Admiral Walker asking for more personnel, the station’s population is expanding and it’s clear our staffing isn’t expanding to completely cover it. We can’t become just our work.” he said with a shrug. “Otherwise who know’s what’s going to pass us by?”
“We're building a life here. I think it’s important that we have good things to remind us of that.” he stood, and picked up the bottle. “Come with me, I want to show you something. Call it a step in the right direction, and my contribution to this wacky existence we’ve got going here. It’s not finished just yet, but I’ve been wanting to show someone for a while now and I’ve managed to thus far keep people at bay, and spread enough rumors to keep it’s true nature a secret.” he offered her a hand. “Maybe it will help you as much as it started to help me.” There was a twinge of pride and accomplishment in his voice.
She lifted an eyebrow in mock surprise, “So you are able to keep secrets from my ‘Betazoid Radar’ as you so like to call it.” Elianna gave him a joking grin and took the hand he offered.
He slowly helped her to her feet, and walked to the door and when she joined him started towards the turbolift. “I promise it won't disappoint.” he said stepping into the turbolift. “Central Core, Deck Twenty Eight!” he said, and leaned against the side of the lift.
Studying him as the lift took them to their destination, she held a couple glasses that she grabbed on the way out the door for whatever was in the bottle he was carrying. “So I’m getting a sneak preview of this secret project?” She smiled with a bit of satisfaction, “I think I kind of like that idea.”
He grinned, “Yup, more like a personal project. Something I was hoping that would make us stand out from other stations. Something that I think we could all use.” he said as the lift arrived moments later. “You’d be surprised how hard it is to keep something this big a secret on a space station.” he said and lead the way down a corridor full of equipment. “I started working with the engineering department on this some time ago, started moving offices and some quarters temporarily to make room for it.” he stopped at a large set of double doors, large enough to fly a scout ship through. “So we can do the whole eyes closed surprise thing, or rip the bandaid off and just open the doors. Your choice.” he said walking over to the panel next to the doors.
Elianna could literally feel the excitement Oliver was feeling. It was like a kid on Christmas Day, all the anticipation of sharing this with her. The feeling was actually kind of amusing, it was the first time she had sensed something like that from him. Staring at the doors she hadn’t the first idea what she might be in for. She gave an uncertain shrug and then said, “I guess just open the door.”
He smiled, and punched in the code. There was a hiss, and the sound of some mechanism throwing inside the doors, then slowly they began to part and a sound, something you wouldn’t expect to hear normally on any space ship or station came rushing out, the sound of lightly blowing wind, rushing water, and the scent of pine. The doors opened up into a cavernous room, it had to extend up and down several decks, in the center a good distance away rose a spire and a huge waterfall surrounding it. Wooded areas were visible as far as you could see of a large variety of plants. While the sky was unfinished you could see that a holographic matrix had been added to the ceiling to simulate sky, there were clouds rushing by in places. “Haven't given it a name yet. But there are thousands of plant species, all safe for most species.” he walked in heading towards a balcony edge. “There are several community gardens spread out all over the place in here.” he said pointing to one that could be seen from where they were.
She was completely speechless for a few moments as she took all of it in. This was quite possibly the last thing Elianna expected him to show her, though if you asked her what she had expected she probably wouldn’t have had an answer anyway. Following him out onto the balcony, she was overwhelmed with the enormity of the project. Everywhere she looked she found something different to catch her eye.
Finally she looked at Oliver again, “All joking aside, I’m shocked you were able to keep this secret from anyone, most of all me. You’re probably lucky I have been locked up in Sickbay so much because there’s no way I wouldn’t have noticed something was up, even if I wouldn’t have known what exactly you were doing.” She shook her head in awe as she stared at the waterfall, “This is astounding Oliver, truly.”
He grinned, “That’s what happens when you tell everyone that asks there is a super top secret thing happening. It kind of helps curtail the questions. I’m surprised no one started asking questions we we started having the quartermaster move people and some of the offices and equipment around.” he looked out over the vista, leaning on the balcony. “I needed a project, and I wanted something fun that everyone could share in.”
“Well you sure found quite the project,” she replied, resting her hands on the edge of the balcony and looking out over the vast space. She watched as a breeze caused the trees to rock gently, their leaves rustling.
“You know,” he gestured towards a ramp leading down towards the wooded area below. “My sister was a lot like you, in many respects. She was a great doctor, loyal to her crew. We were all blown away when she decided to go into the medical field. She was a scrapper, put more people in the clinic when she was younger than any of us care to admit it. But she chose medicine as her profession. She could have been wrestling Klingons, fighting the borg. She chose healing over what everyone thought she should be.”
Elianna glanced at him as they walked down the ramp, noting the past tense reference but saying only, “Your sister sounds like quite the individual.” She decided it might be best to leave it at that and let him talk.
Oliver was quiet for the rest of the walk down, he led her into a small park not far from the base of the ramp, it was right next to one of the river which was slowly moving past them, he settled down onto a bench staring at the water. “She was assigned to the USS Bellerophon, they got Ambushed while in transit from Deep Space Nine to their assigned patrol route near Cardassian space. It was one hell of a fight they put up. In the end they won and were able to limp back to Deep Space Nine but took considerable casualties. During the fight my sister was treating wounded down near engineering when one of the primary EPS conduits burst, she shielded her patience with her body and suffered grievous injuries for it. But she kept fighting the whole time, survived the ordeal and it took time for her to stabilize. They kept her in a medically induced coma for a long time, the burns to her body were severe, spent most of that time in an anti-gravity ward. They eventually got her back to earth, she died and came back four times during that entire ordeal.” he took a deep breath.
Elianna sat down next to him, listening without speaking. Truth be told, it would have been difficult to do so. And it wasn’t what he needed right now. She watched the water slip by them lazily as she listened.
“She lost her fight, but she lived so much longer than anyone would have expected. Continued complications due to her injuries.” he felt his chest tighten and closed his eyes. “Passed away in her sleep.”
“She was an angel of mercy to those in need, now she’s an angel in heaven.” his chest heaved as his emotional floodgates began to fail. “She’s gone Elianna.” The bottle he had been carrying slipped from his hands dropping to the grass below. He wiped the tears in his eyes away, but more followed.
Grief stabbed through her as she listened, this time clearly his, and Elianna felt her own eyes begin to tear up. She took a deep breath, trying desperately to be stable for him now. In that moment, it wasn’t her captain that she saw. It was someone she cared about who was hurting deeply. She slipped one arm around his shoulders and rested her other hand on his arm, saying softly, “I’m so sorry, Oliver…” She knew from personal experience that there were no words that would make it better.
Oliver leaned on her, he was quiet for a long time save for the occasional sob. He still had not learned that he didn’t need to be a rock all the time, he was able to stay composed through his sister’s funeral, and what came after. He had to be for his mother and remaining family. Finally after calming, he reaches down and picks up the bottle. “Have a drink with me.” he said peeling away the wax seal around the top of the bottle. “I need one.”
Elianna offered a faint smile and picked the glasses up from where she had set them down, replying, “I think we both do.” She held the glasses out so he could pour the drinks, and waited for him to take his. “May I ask why you didn’t tell me? I would have gone with you, you know? For moral support? You shouldn’t have been alone…”
He proceeded to pour some of the liquid into the glasses, then picked one up swirling the liquid in the glass. “It kind of happened fast, and I realized after I had gone how stupid it was not too. I wasn’t thinking exactly I suppose. But I also know you’ve got your own things you're trying to work though. I figured I could get through this, and I did. Well…” he smelled the contents of the glass, it had hints of vanilla, honey, and cedar. “Until now.” he took a swallow, rolling the Whiskey over his tongue.
“I feel like we're two starships orbiting a planet of late, we both have cargo, and no place to put it.” he frowned realizing that the analogy was proper but also weird. He looked up at her finally, meeting her eyes. “I’m done circling. I’m not really ready to dive into all of the things that are in my head right this very moment, but we should do this again. Maybe we both can get some things out that need to be said.” he swallowed the last bit of Whiskey in the glass, looking back out at the river. “Think they’d get upset if I named this Park after my Sister? Or is that Selfish?” he asked glancing up at the simulated night sky above.
“I don’t think it’s selfish, I think it’s perfect.”