Alone?
Posted on Wed Mar 28th, 2018 @ 1:30am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke
Edited on on Thu May 31st, 2018 @ 9:34pm
693 words; about a 3 minute read
Mission:
Episode 2 - The Enemy Within
Location: Captain's Quarters - Deck Three
Timeline: MD006 0100 hrs
Tags: SD 71384.0100
Tyler had taken a couple of laps around the ship to sober himself up after he let his hair down with Elloma and Chloe. That time at After 11 really got to him. It was the first time in his entire life that he had almost forgotten himself and almost forgotten Kat.
He sat on his bed and rubbed his face to stay awake as he wanted to think and not succumb to sleep just yet. He sat there and thought about what had to be done. But, his thoughts kept lagging back to what happened.
"Tyler, you have stepped into it now. You have a wife what are you thinking and an Ensign no less." He said to the empty room as the rules governing fraternization with those under one's command came streaming into his mind. The silence in his quarters was deafening, the only sound being the ever present hum of the warp drive.
He had been staring at the floor when he looked up and thought he saw a woman moving through his quarters. "Who's there..." he called out. Even in his semi sober state of mind he had the wherewithal to not summon security. Besides with the way his luck was going she would probably be the one to respond.
Instead he rose and followed the apparition from his bedroom into the living room. There sitting on his couch was his wife... It couldn't be he knew that she was on Empok Nor or was she. Kat Malbrooke sat there and smiled and motioned her finger for him to come sit down next to her. He rubbed his eyes and when he opened them again she was still there.
"What are you doing here?" he said. She just sat and smiled and continued to motion for him to sit down next to her. He took two tentative steps toward her. He wasn't sure if it was the Badlands, his thoughts, or if his wife figured out some sort of new holo-projection system. But he practically flew to the couch when she did not disappear.
He sat down next to her and embraced her, when the embrace was broken Kat had been replaced. The image of Kat had been replaced by Ensign Essu. For a moment, one that seemed like an eternity Tyler did not know if he liked or disliked the change, or what was going on for that matter.
The image of Ensign Essu simply smiled with arms outstretched for another loving embrace. However, rather than take the embrace which he wanted Tyler dropped his head into his hands and sighed deeply. "Mom, you have guided me through everything and your guidance has gotten me this far what am I to do now." He spoke aloud to the empty room although the apparition remained.
After a few minutes of utter silence where he sat trying not to look at the visage next to him, the hum of the warp core dropped away in his mind. The words of his mother Debra came flowing in. The life of one in the fleet is as expansive as the universe. With relationships blooming and dissolving like stars. If you are true to yourself, and your feelings as she is to hers then all will be okay. The words sounded in Tyler's head in his mother's voice. For the life of him he could not remember her ever saying them, but there they were.
When he raised his head from his hands the images of his wife, and that of Ensign Essu had vanished. He was alone again, and Tyler walked back into the bedroom. "Sleep is what is needed, sleep to prepare for what is to come, to sleep off the drink, and to rid himself of these thoughts." he spoke aloud.
Tyler slipped into his bed and closed his eyes and the last image in his mind's eye wasn't any battle plans, or his wife, it was that of a certain Ensign, and a smile crawled across his face...
Commander Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
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