Matthew's Day Out

Posted on Thu 9th Jan, 2020 @ 5:01pm by Lieutenant JG Artyom Mikhailov & Lieutenant Nalani Emmiad

1,976 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Resolution
Location: Personal Quarters
Timeline: MD 13, 0900

Matthew was bored. He'd been bored almost as soon as the voice in the ceiling had said something about numbers, which caused his daddy to get out of bed, take a shower -- (because he was dirty; but apparently Matthew wasn't dirty because he didn't need a shower) -- and then make pancakes for breakfast because that's what Matthew said he wanted. They ate their breakfast, as daddy asked Matthew different questions. There were some questions that Matthew didn't want to answer for one reason or another, so he'd laugh or just tell daddy that he didn't want to talk.

Just as it looked as though they were about to go out and spend some of their day on the station, daddy did something that Matthew hadn't expected nor desired. He laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.

Daddy yawned and said something about still being tired, but Matthew wasn't. Then again, daddy had picked him up from school MUCH later than he usually did. And daddy had been looking tired a lot over the past few days.

On the days that daddy didn't have to take Matthew to school, they'd usually spend time walking around the station where daddy would show Matthew things he hadn't seen before. Sometimes he'd even show things Matthew HAD seen before, but only because Matthew asked to see them again. But today, daddy wasn't taking them anywhere. He was just laying on the couch. He had made Matthew's puppy, Laika appear, and told them to play for a bit. But even that got boring.

It didn't matter though. Because daddy told Matthew that they couldn't go outside right now.

Matthew looked at the door, which was always locked. There were numbers that daddy pushed each time they were supposed to go somewhere, and usually daddy was carrying Matthew when he pressed those numbers. What were they? Suddenly, Laika perked his ear which told Matthew that he should try to see if he could remember them. Using a chair that daddy had given Matthew along with a small table for him to draw on and eat, Matthew managed to reach high enough to touch the numbers.

Laika barked quietly, and Matthew smiled with a whisper. "That's right Laika. Six."

He looked at the box of numbers at the door for the number six. There was one that looked like a six, but daddy had said before that it wasn't six... or rather that it was an upside down six, which he was supposed to call a nine. Nine was not the number he wanted, so Matthtew looked for six and found it. He pressed the number down which turned green, making a soft chime that Matthew thought would wake up daddy. Peaking behind him, it didn't look like daddy had heard the sound. So Matthew continued. Next, he found three, which also turned green. When he pushed the number one, the pad went red all at once before making another, less happy sound, and flashing several times before it went away. "That was the wrong number." Matthew said, emphasizing the word "wrong" in a childlike way. He found six again and pressed it. It turned green. Three also turned green. Matthew remembered that one was after seven... not before it, and when he pressed seven it turned green, as did one. A better sound came and this time the box of numbers flashed green.

Matthew that meant that the door would open.

Hurrying down from the chair, Matthew stood in front of the door but it did not open. He jumped. Then he jumped higher. Then he jumped as high as he could, which made the door open for him. Grabbing Laika's "collar", Matthew hurried out the door before it could close behind him. He giggled as he ran down the corridor. There was a game that he and daddy would play which was rather ironically called "Don't Wake Daddy!". Matthew realized that he could play Don't Wake Daddy without the board or pieces that they usually used to play, and that meant he won!

Daddy would probably laugh and tell Matthew how smart he was when he wakes up. But for now, while daddy was asleep, Matthew wanted to go find the trees.

They usually went a certain way whenever daddy took Matthew to see the trees. But Matthew couldn't remember. No matter, he thought. If he walked around long enough, he'd find them. He was sure of it.

Nalani was not paying attention to her surroundings at all, walking from the office she'd been working in and into the corridor. She didn't notice the child that was flying down the corridor at breakneck speeds. He collided with her at the knees, and the force was enough right at the knees to cause her to sprawl onto her side. The PADD went skittering down the hall and cracked against the bulkhead. "Ouch."

Matthew had landed on the carpeted flooring a few feet away but not before bumping into a bulkhead. Laika came up to him and started giving him pretend licks, but Matthew couldn't stop himself from doing what most three-year old did did under the circumstances. What first began as an occasional whimper escalated into blubbering as he lay on the ground.

"I."
"want."
"my."
"daddy!"

From that moment on, the boy cried incorrigibly.

"Where are your parents?" she asked no-one in particular as she looked at the child that was laying on the ground beside her. He didn't appear to be injured, though he may be a little scraped and bruised just as she was. It felt, from the raw sort of burning pain in her elbow and knee that she might also be a little skinned.

When he continued to cry, she chewed her lower lip for a moment and sat up. "Hey there little man."

***

Despite having fallen asleep rather quickly on the couch, Artyom couldn't ignore the telltale hiss of a doorway opening and closing. He'd shaken himself awake and paused for a second or two for the mental fog to clear. "Matthew?" He asked, looking around all the usual spaces in the living room where he liked to play with his toys. Everything looked to have been untouched, however. But Laika was gone as well.

Artyom jolted up from the couch once he recognized that the sound of the doorway hadn't been a part of some dream. He found one of Matthew's chairs laid up against the wall, which would have allowed the three-year old access to the door panel. But how did he get it open? Certainly not on his own. He wouldn't have known the code!

That didn't stop Artyom from leaving his quarters at a brisk pace -- (once he had verified that Matthew was nowhere in their quarters). Without having a good idea as to which direction Matthew would have gone, Artyom picked one and started moving. He felt his heart rate accelerate at the thought of his missing child.

Suddenly, there was a sound like a bump quickly followed by crying. What had happened?

Artyom picked up his pace, turned a corner, and very nearly collided with Matthew and a woman sitting up across from him. "Matthew!" Artyom rushed to his son's side and collected him in his arms to check for signs of injury. There were none aside from snot and tears. "Kak ty stal khudozhnikom po pobegu?" Artyom asked, which the universal translator clarified as something to the effect of "when did you become an escape artist?".

Artyom picked Matthew up in one arm and looked to the small woman he'd found Matthew with. She was wearing a Starfleet uniform at least, which helped him to lower his guard a bit on what might have occurred. She also looked a little sore herself. "I apologize , it appears that my son can read numbers better than I thought." He said, reaching with his free hand to help her up. "Are you alright?" Artyom would wait to hear about what had happened.

"I am fine, little bruised from your little guy taking me out at the knees." She laughed softly as she let him help her up and went to collect the pieces of her PADD.

Artyom chuckled, although the it sounded a bit forced. When he had Nalani standing up, Artyom was a bit surprised at just how short she was when compared to him. She couldn't have been taller than five feet. "Speed times mass equals force, correct?" He joked while considering just how fast Matthew must have been running to make up for the difference. "I always have the door to our quarters locked with a code, but it seems he has found a way around that." Artyom realized he hadn't introduced himself. "I'm sorry for what happened. I'm Artyom."

"Nalani" she answered gazing up at him. "And you don't need to apologize, if I hadn't been a trillion lightyears away lost in my own thoughts I would have seen him coming. " Her mind continued to process the sound and feel of the words he'd spoken that were not Standard. "Was that Russian?"

Artyom nodded. Even with the universal translator to assist, there was the way the original accent followed it in a way that made it possible to tell what language was actually being spoken. Possible, but difficult except for those with well trained ears. "It is." He nodded with a smile. "You could tell?"

"I'm a linguist. I.." she blushed gently "I tend to recognize the languages that I don't speak yet. Old earth languages fascinate me, there's so much diversity in one small area."

Artyom chuckled with another small nod. "Well, in my case the language carried its way many light years to a small star system called Saga-Prodigy. Earth natives mostly from Russia migrated there in the late 2200's and developed a syncretic relationship with the natives there. There was peace for a very long time... until there wasn't."

"I think I heard a news bulletin about that when it happened. It was my understanding that all Russian colonists left the planet. Is that not correct?" She smoothed a wisp of black hair back behind her ear as her tie had come loose and the braid her hair had been in was coming undone.

"Most of them. A few stayed. Including my parents and relatives." Artyom filled in. The truth of the situation was that had it not been for the injuries he sustained while helping Federation citizens to evacuate, he would have never left Saga-Prodigy. As often as he had regretted that for a time, now that he had Matthew... it was easy to believe that his near-death experience was a benefit. "Of course, it is difficult to know what their situation is these days."

"I suppose it would be. You're not exactly in the position to check in on them from here." her smile faded a little bit as she gazed up at him. "I am sorry you're missing your family."

It was a kind thing to say. Artyom smiled in return. "Thank you."

Matthew began to tug at Artyom's uniform. "Daddy." The three year-old whispered. "I need go potty."

Artyom hadn't realized that Matthew had been squirming in his arms for the past few minutes or why, but now it was clear that they'd need to get back to their quarters before Matthew had an accident. "Well, I suppose we should get back home then." He looked to Nalani. "It was nice to meet you, again. I am sorry as to the circumstances, however."

Nalani chuckled and waved his apology away as she glanced at the mess on the ground. "Im sure Ill see you again." Crouching she gently swept up the mess of her PADD onto the top of it, and continued on to her quarters.

 

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