A Talk by the Docks

Posted on Tue 11th Jul, 2017 @ 2:51am by Lieutenant Ricardo Shepard

1,289 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Unity Week
Location: Café au Quai
Timeline: Directly follows "A Walk on the Docks"

Addams nodded approvingly at the young Ocampa waitress as she set down the banana split between the Doctor and ChEng. As the young lady moved away, Addams said, "Computer, establish a level four forcefield one meter from the edge of the table. Blue tint, twenty percent, coruscating effect." The computer beeped and complied, and Addams continued, "establish a level four forcefield one meter and ten centimeters from the edge of the table. Red tint, twenty percent, coruscating effect. Evacuate all air from between the two forcefields."

Addams turned her dark eyes on her companion. "Now our conversation is private," she asserted. She picked up one of the long-handled spoons with her left hand. "Do you have an opening statement you'd like to make, Lieutenant?"

"No Doctor. But tell me what you know already and I'll fill in this gaps and tell you the rest of the story." Shepard replied

Addams took a careful spoonful of banana and dark chocolate ice cream. "I know that you feel responsible for many deaths; I deduce from this that you took control of at least a department, possibly the entire ship. Beyond that..." she shrugged, and introduced the spoon to her encarmined lips. "So let us start there," she continued after a moment. "Of what did you assume responsibility?"

Rico took a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds and then let it go. "OK, you already know that I got pulled from Vanguard for a top secret mission aboard the Tempest. Well, after our mission was completed we came under attack from......" Rico trailed off for a moment. Making sure not to give any mission specific details.

"Well let's just say we were under fire from some non friendly folk. Anyways, I was on the bridge per the Captains request." Rico looked down into the candle that was sitting on the table. He let the flame of the candle hypnotized him for a few seconds as he tried to keep the tears from running down his cheeks.

"And it's a good thing that he had me on the bridge, or else I wouldn't be here today." Rico looked up and into the gaze of Chlamydia.

"No, no, mon ami. I do not want the story; the story is incidental. I want the facts, and only the facts." Addams took another bite, this time from the jackfruit ice cream scoop. "May I presume you took command of the bridge, and thus, the ship?"

Saddened, Rico continued to look at Addams and stated, "Yes, I took command. The damage to the ship was significant. A warp core breach was imminent and we weren't going to last much longer. Another major hit and we were dead. I had to complete our mission. So, I ordered a saucer separation and then ordered all souls in the star drive to abandon ship. Once the saucer separation was complete, we hightailed it out of there.

Rico again slumped his head down, gazing into the candle. "As we were running away, sensors indicated that the drive section of the section exploded from the warp core breach. I don't know how many made it, or how many made it to escape pods."

Addams shook her head. "Ricardo, two strikes against you. One, you are not eating your share of ice cream." She tapped the crystal bowl with her spoon, making a slight ringing noise. "Two, you are still trying to tell the story. Here, let me demonstrate: Querry: You took command of the bridge, and by extension the ship?"

Addams dropped her voice in imitation of a man's deeper tones, "Answer: Yes, I did." She went back to her natural speaking voice, "Querry: Why did you do this?" And gruff again, "I was the senior functional officer on the bridge." She paused, and took another spoonful of dark chocolate and banana. "Do I have the correct gist? You were the senior surviving line officer?"

"Yes." He said as he finally picked up the spoon to dive into his portion of the banana split. "I know what you're trying to get at. About the facts. Yes, I was the senior officer, so I had to take command. Yes, I had a duty to save who I could. An yes, I had to finish my mission."

Rico took a big swipe at the banana split and place the spoonful in his mouth. "Gracious this is good!" He commented as he gulped down another bite. "I get that I did what I had to do, Doctor. And honestly, I would do the same thing over again. I just feel some kind of way about those who might have survived that might not get help."

Addams shook her head. "Perhaps you're looking at this from the wrong angle, ChEng." She watched him take a bite and smiled faintly... as much as she ever smiled. "You are castigating yourself for those you did not -- could not -- save. Tell me: if you had not survived on the bridge, how many of those who lived might have been lost?"

Rico took a moment before replying to let the question sink in. "I don't know. The ship might not have made it out at all."

Addams nodded. "Ricardo, everyone dies. An ancient philosopher said, 'no one here gets out alive.' A different philosopher said, 'you get what anyone gets -- you get a lifetime.' It's what you do with that lifetime which makes the difference. So. Let me ask you another question: you wear a Starfleet uniform. At what point in your career did you accept the possibility that you might be required to die in the line of duty?"

Without hesitation, Shepard answered the question. "The day I took the oath and put on this uniform. The same as you." he replied.

Addams spooned up another bite of the dark chocolate ice cream. As she conveyed it to her mouth, she closed her eyes and savored the flavor, giving Shepard time to consider what he'd said. When she opened her eyes again, she said, "and the people who died? When do you suppose they accepted the eventuality?"

Shepard took another bite of the banana split. Making sure he took the time to savor the delectable flavors of the bananas. "I can't say when they accepted they eventuality, but I know they too took the same oath as we did. And they probably knew the end was coming."

Addams nodded. "As an engineer, how quickly did you realize that the failing antimatter containment was not repairable? If another officer... say the ship's tactical officer... had been in command, would they have wasted time determining that fact?"

Rico contemplated the Doctor's question a moment before answering. "I knew instantly the state of the ships anitmatter containment was a no go. And honestly I don't regret the decision to save the lives that I did. I just feel for the lives that I couldn't save. But it really bothers me to think that had I been down in engineering, I would have been one of those souls."

"Ah," Addams temporized, taking another bite of banana and ice cream to give herself a moment to think. "I once had a discussion with a young lady who had visited a parallel timeline where I was a command officer, and apparently had quite a different temperament. We can't be paralyzed by peering through the gate of alternate histories, Rico. We accept that what has happened is what it is, and that we will never know all the reasons why. We learn what we can, and we go on doing the best we can with the information which is available to us."

 

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