What Happens Now?

Posted on Sat Feb 11th, 2017 @ 10:39am by Captain Alistar McKeon & Commander Isabella dei`Silvisi
Edited on on Sat Feb 11th, 2017 @ 10:44am

952 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Transitions

Alistar sighed as he walked quietly to his guest quarters. He felt the need to talk to someone about the situation the Endeavour and her crew were in, but who? The ship and the surviving crew were stuck in this time line, and although their Starfleet commissions and enlistments would be honored by this dimension's Starfleet, it would be different. Everything was different. For Alistar, he felt confused and he felt that he needed to talk to someone. The answer he kept coming to was Commander Silvisi. His first officer would be the best person to talk to. Changing his direction, he started off towards her location.

Isabella had found herself a nice quiet observation window alcove near her assigned guest quarters and had been spending a lot of her spare time sitting at one of the tables and staring out at the distant stars. The nearby replicator had an excellent recipe for a lightly sweetened tea, but her glass had long since lost its coolness and was now at least at room temperature. Still, she occasionally took a sip and sighed as she pondered the recent events that had stranded the Endeavour and her fellow surviving crew mates where they were now. Things might have ended differently if she had given different orders during the situation with the anomaly, but then again, she would never know. The very fact that she never would know bothered her, perhaps even more than the fact that there was no going back.

Alistar found his first officer in the same spot he usually found her these days. She was sitting at a table in one of the residential area's observation alcoves, looking like she was deep in thought. Walking up to her table, he sat down and leaned back in his chair, taking a good long look at the stars that were now the stars they would call home. He finally turned towards her and grimaced. "I just talked to both Commander Rhodes and Commander Adams. The Endeavour will be ready for launch in roughly two months, during which that time we'll all undergo retraining for this timeline's history," he said.

"That makes sense. It gives us enough time to adjust," Isabella said with a nod as she slid her glass away. "Any idea where we'll be assigned when we are released for duty again?"

"I've been told that we'll be assigned to exploration duties like before. I put in a request for frontier regions in the alpha quadrant. Whether we'll be assigned near DS9 or DS3 is still unknown," Alistar said. "Either is a decent assignment, from what I can gather."

"Two months, though. It's quite a bit of time to do nothing more than sit around in a classroom and study refresher courses," Isabella said.

"I know. I might be able to get us assigned to a training mission or something. Anything to let us keep our edge," Alistar said with a shrug.

"We'll also need to have replacement officers and crew assigned, and we're going to need more people than I really would like to admit. I'm not looking forward to that," Isabella sighed. "And then we'll have to train them alongside our current crew."

"Again, that's what training ships and missions are for," Alistar said. "If you want, I can deal with the crew assignments for now. I need something to do anyway."

"I'd appreciate it. I'm not really in the best frame of mind for doing my job correctly, and I must apologize but there are a lot of things on my mind right now," Isabella said with a sigh.

"I had noticed. Do you want to talk about it?" Alistar asked.

Isabella thought over the offer for several moments before she nodded and turned towards her commanding officer and friend. "The last time we were at Earth I visited my family. I've never had a close relationship with my parents, but we've always managed to reconcile before I leave on a mission. This time, I left in anger. I kept telling myself that I could always give them a subspace call when things calmed down, but I never did and now I'll never be able to. It's not how I wanted to leave, and now I feel shame for not taking the time to set things right with them," she said.

Alistar stared at Silvisi for a long time before he nodded slowly. "I can understand that," he said. "I had hoped to ask a woman I knew to move in with me the next time we were close to Earth. It's not the same, but everyone has unresolved issues. All you can do is try to find a suitable peace and come to terms with it. If you need some time, please take all the time you need."

"Thank you," Isabella said with a friendly, welcoming smile. "I'll report to the class tomorrow on time. I just need a day to really come to terms with this."

"Take your time," Alistar said as he stood. He started to walk off, but instead he paused and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder for just a moment. "Seriously, Isa, take all the time you need. If you need someone to talk to, please feel free to talk to me."

"I will. Thank you, Alistar," Isabella said, realizing that she had rarely, if ever, used his first name before now.

Alistar gave his first officer a parting nod before he started off. He had a few more stops to make, one of them being the crew who were all helping out with the repairs on the Endeavour. He had a feeling that this was going to be a rough day.

 

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