Playing His Cards Close to the Vest

Posted on 01 Aug 2023 @ 2:38am by Lieutenant JG Rafe Caradec

692 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Episode 18 - Cold Station 31
Location: Lt. JG Rafe Caradec's Quarters
Timeline: MD 11, 2314 Hours

[ON]

Rafe was restless. He couldn't get comfortable. He turned over and fluffed his pillow and laid back down on his back. He still should be exhausted...and he was. The absurdities of the situation would not leave him alone. "Computer, lights." His bedroom illuminated with low lighting. He sat up and scooted to the edge of his bed, putting his head in his hands.

Just then a light was shining into his cabin...from outside the ship! He got up and started to approach the window. The sickle's blade sliced through the porthole, slicing through his side. Rafe sprang backwards from the blade, falling to the floor as the wraith spread the breach wider, the air leaving the room.

Rafe shook upright from his sleep, drenched in sweat! He began to weep uncontrollably, heaving. His body managed to get on the floor, kneeling, continuing to weep. "Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!", Rafe yelled, his hands pounding the floor, in the dark, alone. The images, so many images. Starfleet comrades in uniform, but with nothing behind their eyes. They were no longer them, just killing machines with no memories of who they were, what they accomplished, people they had loved...nothing. He weeped for a good five minutes, at least. He sat up on the floor against the bed, exhausted. "Computer, lights." The red memory chip lay on his end table...just sitting there, but holding information that could blow Starfleet wide apart if it got out in the open.

When the away team, or what was left of them, got back to Galileo, he had stayed behind briefly, making the excuse to examine the shuttle before heading to the cargo bay for decon. He made another copy of the data for his records. He had no idea how important it would later become. It wouldn't leave him, the sacrifice his brothers and sisters in arms had made so that Starfleet would be protected, so they could go on. And the images, always the images. It was like the empty-eyed beings were mocking him from beyond the grave. Even when he walked the corridors of the ship, greeting coworkers, going through the motions, answering to those above him, the images played on a screen behind his eyes in his head on a loop.

He picked up the memory chip. His breathing had slowed. Shivering from the cool air touching the perspiration on his body, he turned the chip in his hand, just looking at it. His hand dropped to the floor as he closed his eyes. He needed to allow himself to move on. He was such a small cog, not even in a great big machine, but in a system of great big machines. And some of those machines just had to be high level admirals with ulterior motives and massive secrets to keep. If they didn't have secrets before, they sure did now, based on what he had seen.

He had to realign himself to the purpose his wife made him promise to keep. Make the most of this opportunity, stay true, protect his family, even from afar, and not allow injustices he would most undoubtedly face to change him. "I'm not sure I can stay silent my sweet, sweet Danielle." He turned his face towards the picture by his bedside, showing his wife. For all intensive purposes she was a beauty queen. But it was her heart that made him fall head over heels for her. She was his light, his anchor.

He got on the bed and grabbed her picture, looking at the one who told him to chase the stars. It was only because of her strength that he could keep going. Not married even two years, he couldn't imagine himself being with anyone else. She completed him. "I'll try, baby." He put the memory chip in the back of her picture for safe-keeping. He couldn't imagine that he could make any impact, but one never really knew.

[OFF]

Lt. JG Rafe Caradec
Conn Officer
USS Galileo

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