When the World is Pressing Me to my Knees, You're Yelling at me to Just Get Up

Posted on 15 Apr 2014 @ 11:28pm by Commander Andreus Kohl & Commander Norvi Stace

1,517 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 4, Chief Science Officer's Office
Timeline: MD 01 - 1444 hours

[ON]

"Just for a minute, let's put our inner-scientists in the corner, and take off our Lieutenant pips," said Andreus Kohl. The placid Argelian was seated at the conference table, but he had his legs extended, and his heels resting on another desk chair. Looking down at the controls, Kohl double-tapped a contact on his PADD. On the other side of the office, an large LCARS panel was displaying his daily summary of the findings from the Planetary Science division. Today's report included the department's analysis of raw data about Lyshan III that had been shared with them by the Bajoran Centre for Science. At Kohl's command, the display screen went dark.

Kohl pushed his PADD aside, and he looked over at Norvi. He looked her right in the eyes. Kohl asked, "What do you hope it is?" and then he grinned like a guilty child.

The Trill craned her neck to the side and placed her cold hands on the back of it, cupping her alabaster skin that striped between the spots. She rubbed, sighing loudly and returning to her coffee as it sat steaming in its cup. She plonked heavily into the chair and threw her legs up on to the desk the same as Kohl's.

"Honestly?" she asked, not waiting for a reply, "who knows?" She leant forward snatching her coffee from the table top and took a swig. "I mean, ideally, something that we can explain away with Science." She raised her cup up to him in an almost cheers-like fashion whilst raising her eyebrows knowingly. "We'd be out of a job otherwise. But who knows what they've uncovered with the terraforming." She went silent as a delicious thought crossed her mind. She leant in further and almost whispered. "If this were MY holonovel, the Cardassians would have uncovered some priceless material, or a river of Latinum that runs deep through moon, and in an attempt to scare off the Federation, began poisoning the water supply with hallucinogenic toxins to force everyone to flee so that they'd be free to reap the full reserve."

"Not a fan of Occam's Razor, huh?" replied Kohl. And yet, his grin had turned gleeful and his sapphire eyes glittered at Norvi. He reached to the replicated tea pot on the table, and poured himself another cup. "I like it. I like it a lot. The Cardassians would be faking their own hallucinations, pretending to see whatever the Humans are seeing to fuel that fear," Kohl remarked. His voice turned grim. "That would mean the Cardassians will need to poison us too."

"Nah," she stopped him, continuing the farce as she shook her head in the clear dissatisfaction of where he was going with this narrative, "we'd be the stars of the novel." She gestured with emphatic hands to increase the dramatic effect. "Secretly - and without alerting any of our crew for fear of a mole amongst us- we'd inoculate ourselves against the toxin, merely 'acting' when the other crew members start feeling the affects." She now jarred up from her relaxed position, clearly setting the scene for the plot as it unfolded in her mind. "We'd manage to covertly record the Cardassian diplomat responsible, synthasise a cure for the effects, expose the treachery and save the day." She now returned to her relaxed demeanour, placing her hands behind her neck underneath her sweeping ponytail. "I'd be fast-tracked and promoted to captain, gain my own command again - an Akira or something with a bit of attitude - and you can become my XO. I'd see to it that you wouldn't be full commander right away, of course. I'd imagine the lieutenant staple would do you good for a while. Stop you from rising above your station, you see."

She smiled widely and raised her eyebrows to him in jest.

Through her elaborate story-telling, Kohl had been nodding and grinning, but that last point sent him barking with laughter. "You're right, you're exactly right," Kohl said breathlessly, before descending into another cackle. "I do have a tendency to rise above my station." And then he wasn't laughing, and his face was twisting into a perplexed expression. "Wait. What do you mean again?" Kohl asked. "You're younger than I am."

"I might look to be younger, Kohl," she replied, a smile sweeping across her speckled features, "but that worm in my belly certainly isn't. I think I stopped counting when I reached two hundred. It starts to get a bit confusing after your third host." She paused for a moment and then furrowed her brow. "Didn't you know that I was joined?"

"Ohhh," Kohl said in the universal expression of dawning understanding. "That doesn't count as again," he said petulantly. Although, there was no real intent behind his words. He grinned at Stace. "New body, new rules."

Stace blurted out a snort in a mock 'you have no idea' sort of way. She shook her head still smiling and then pursed her lips. "I can assure you, Lieutenant Kohl, my memories of captaining are just as vivid as cleaning my teeth this morning. As are the ones of death. But I take your point." She relaxed again and inhaled. "It's good, you know, that have that feeling of starting over. Regeneration and all that. And it's comforting to know that a part of me lives on after I, for lack of a better word, perish."

She took another drink and drained the dregs of her cup. "What about you? Any memories you wish you didn't have? Any regrets? Any broken hearts?"

Kohl pointed out imaginary points on the ceiling, as if they were stars in a constellation, when he replied. "You could map my career through the Fleet by the trail of broken hearts. Half of them my own," Kohl remarked, he sounded wistful and amused at the same time.

He regarded Stace. "I would say I have made plenty of decisions I wouldn't make today, but I try to accept that they were the right decisions for me when I was in the time and the place where I made them. I wouldn't want to forget any of them." --He smiled nervously-- "It's the exact opposite. Without a symbiont to continue for me after I'm gone... I'm not afraid of being forgotten. I don't need a legacy; a Kohl particle or a Kohl medical technique." --As he continued, he was speaking slower and slower, quieter and quieter-- "It's the idea, the notion... I'm terrified of my consciousness coming to a stop."

Stace's eyes glared in intrigue. "It's really not as bad as it sounds. But then," she paused casting her attention elsewhere, "my mother was joined and so I was raised with the idea of the finality of death somewhat marred." She smiled warmly, snapping out of the maudlin tone they had both managed to create. "We do good work here in the Fleet. And I'll tell you what... the next universe-altering discovery I make, I'll let you take credit."

"Whyyyyyy?" Kohl asked, his voice full of taunting suspicion. "Do you-- has there already been a universe-altering discovery named after Stace?" he asked, his excitement building with each syllable.

"Not yet. But I still have a few lifetimes ahead of me with which to do that in. My mother always told me I was a genius." She chuckled, flaring her eyes at him to betray her jest. "But in lieu finding the next discovery, I think we should just have a beer instead."

"I could do with a beer," Kohl said, nodding in a slow, but determined, manner. He lifted his tea cup to his lips, and he slurped at it, but it didn't really do the trick. "Or that fine scotch you mentioned before." --He held up an index finger, a gesture of wait-one-moment-- "Well. But I should be careful. I only drank sythehol while I was practicing medicine, and the last time I really got into the genuine article, was on the transport ship over to Galileo. The whiskey hit me hard. I ended up beating up a bulkhead on Starbase 152."

Stace's features took on a concerned and disappointed expression as she shook her head. "I don't know whether I've made the right decision," she said in a serious tone. "I mean, I'm a little worried, I have to admit." Her eyes widened. "I'm just not sure that I can trust an assistant I can't drink with!" She smiled widely and winked. "Am I going to have to train you?"

Kohl snickered at that, and shook his head. "Yes," he said, in mock defeat. "Yes, you're going to have to train me. My Academy days are too far behind me. My poor, old body has become deconditioned and unacclimatized to heavy drinking."

Stace flashed a grin and raised her eyebrow. "I'm sure that I can get you there, kid."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Andreus Kohl
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant Norvi Stace
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed