Relaxing and drudging up bad memories

Posted on Fri Sep 25th, 2009 @ 1:42pm by Lieutenant JG Lucas Jameson & Lieutenant Commander Abigail Valera

Mission: Into a Devil's Heart
Location: Crew Lounge
Timeline: MD04 (You can pick the time, it just needs to be after 1500 hrs)

ON:

Lucas strolled into the crew lounge and began to give the room a quick look as he looked for the replicator. He'd never spent much time in the crew lounge during his previous assignment, always being either in bed with some girl or working. He partially wanted to avoid that dynamic, but partly saw it as a working one, so had decided to check it out at least once.

He finally clocked onto it right behind a dark haired woman. He walked over to the replicator, simply saying "Scrambled egg, bacon, sausage and toast," quickly adding as it materialised and he picked it up "and Klingon blood wine." He took the drink and sat himself down opposite the young woman.

"Hey, I'm Lucas, my friends call me Luc, I'm the new chief engineer." He said "So, who are you and what's your job around here. And by the way, I hope you don't mind my joining you, I just couldn't spot any other free seats next to anyone who didn't look as if they'd punch me in the face, and I think one bar room brawl a month is quite enough, don't you?"

Abigial looked up startled. She had been looking over some reports from Bonnie and a few others when a voice brought her out of her reverie. She set down the padd and said, "My name is Abigail Valera. I am the Chief Science Officer. Sit. I need a break from my padds anyway." She waved a hand over the four small devices, "So your the new Chief Engineering Officer? That's good news. We needed someone there."

Abigail smiled, "So how are you liking the Iapetus so far? Meet anyone new yet?" She lowered her voice and said, "Have you met the captain yet?" She picked up her fork and took a bite of her pancakes and sighed. She stopped a passing waiter, "Can you please bring me a hot plate of food? I'll pay for all of it." The waiter hurried away with the cold plate and Abigail turned back to Luc, shaking his head, "You see? I am always busy and I never end up eating hot foods. There will be a lot of days where you will be so into reports that you'll forget about the food and by the time you get to it its stone cold."

Abigail sighed and pushed her padds away muttering, "There's more to live than just a few padds anyway." she smiled again at Luc, "Sorry things have been hectic around here. Ask the captain for the details, he may tell you." Abigail held out a hand, "I am so rude. Its nice to meet you Luc. You can always dine with me anytime, but when I am in my quarters or in my office then it is not the right time to talk. I'm usually working and I have rarely had time to myself."

"Wow, you talk fast." Lucas said with a smirk "And I understand the lack of time for ones self. I spend a lot of time working, even after hours. I love taking stuff apart and trying to make it better. And as for have I met the Captain, he's the only person I've met. He was less than pleased that he was having me forced on him by the admiralty, and seemed not to be my biggest fan."

Abigail shook her head, "Captain Krace is not mean or rude. He's just got a lot on his plate. Things have been strained recently and Captains tend not to like things, people or otherwise, shoved upon them. Once things settle down and he sees how efficiant you are then he will seem like the big brother or best friend that you didn't know you had." Abigail had a slight dreaminess to her when she said the last bit.

"Why do I get the feeling it's a good thing if you don't have a brother?" Lucas said, noting her tone "You don't have a brother, right?"

"Eh yes and no. My mother divorced my father and married another man. I have two brothers from my mother's second marriage. Their names are Kyle and Andrew Jenson. I haven't seen them for a few years now. I speak to my mother now and again, but not my brothers."

"Hey, at least yours are still alive." Lucas said "My older brother died when I was eight and my younger half brother was killed on an away mission, due to my own personal cock up."

Abigail tilted her head, "What do you mean? Besides my brothers wouldn't dare to leave home. Their father is a buisness man and needs his sons at home."

"Well, he and I were sent to repair an orbital platform." Lucas said "I failed to recognise a system designed to delete all files on the array. Unfortunately, it did so using a cascading pulse. He was vaporised instantaniously."

Abigail winced, "That's bad. What did your parents say when they found out?"

"My father died when I was three, and it wasn't his son anyway. As for my mother and step-father, I haven't spoken to them since I was fourteen years old." Lucas said "I ran away from home when I was fourteen years old after my step-father beat and, uh, assaulted me. Kinda gave me reason not to go home too often, or at all."

Abigail shuddered. At least she had had a decent childhood. She spoke again, "Things are different here. If someone did that to a fellow crewmember than they would be in big trouble."

"What, the assault or the accidentally killing their brother?" Lucas said "Because trust me, I get enough punishment from that every day. I need to look in the mirror and accept that the person looking back at me is always going to be the guy that killed my brother."

Abigail reached out and took Luc's hand, "Stop it!" She commanded, "Don't you ever say your brother's death was your fault? Did you try to stop the shut down that cascading pulse? If so then your brother died knowing you tried. Don't you ever, EVER blame yourself. You need to move on and remember all the good things about your brother."

"I didn't have time to try. And as for good things, do you mean how he used to pick on me when we were kids? In case you're wondering, my childhood ended when I was fourteen." Lucas said coolly, before grinning lightly "And you have a bit of a bossy streak there, don't you?"

"Yes I do. Sometimes thats a good thing. And if there wasn't time then it was not your fault. Your stepfather cannot blame you for your brother's death. You cannot always save someone you love. I know for a fact that siblings have their own ways of loving each other. Your brother's way of loving with you was making sure he picked on you. My own siblings have said they loved me, not to me personally, but I overheard them telling our mother, father, and stepfather. Other times they would make me mad, but deep down I will always know that they love me. I would die for my brothers and sisters."

"I didn't get that option." Lucas said "My sister killed herself when I was four. She was only fifteen. That's way too young, and it was my step father's fault. He put her through the same kind of abuse he put me through when I ran away. My brother died of a genetic defect aged seventeen when I was nine. And then I killed my half brother two years ago due to my own failure to recognise a trip switch. I have one last thing that needs to be done before I can put that to bed. Someone put that in place, that's not standard issue. When I find out who, I'll deal with it, on my own. No starfleet, no federation. No rules."

Abigail hissed, "Luc that kind of talk is not allowed here! I have to go to Captain Krace with this. I don't want you in trouble too!"

That was it. The point where he couldn't stop himself from laughing any more.

"OK, you need to learn when people are joking." Lucas said, calming himself down "I'm a lot of things, but I'm no murdered. But you better believe I'm bringing 'em in, and I hope they get the longest sentence possible. They're lucky I'm not that vengeful, or I would be wishing it went through the Klingon justice system."

Abigail shuddered at the mention of the Klingon justice system. Everything was already decided before the trial began... or so it seemed. Abigail shook her head and said, "Murder is not a laughing matter Luc. Don't ever say that in a playful tone again. Someone may actually think that as true and run out of here as quickly as they can. You are lucky that I gave you the chance to say you were joking." She gave a pained smile and said, "Sorry. Death is a touchy subject with me."

"I'll be sure to bear that in mind." Lucas said "So, any thing you want to talk about on that, or are you just one of those pacifists? I was, until I had a year in a penal colony, they're dog eat dog worlds."

"As long as I don't do anything stupid I should be fine." One of Abigail's padds beeped. She looked at it and sighed, "I spent too long here. I must get back to work." Abigail smiled at Luc and said, "It was nice meeting you. We must get together again soon." She dispensed her plate and glass and grabbed her padds getting ready to head out of the Lounge.

Lucas sat there and took a sip of his drink. He let his mind drift back to his siblings and his step father's abuse of him, crushing the still half full glass in his hand, cutting it on the shards. He just looked at it for a moment, sighed and walked out, headed to sickbay.

OFF:

Lieutenant Abigail Valera
Chief Science Officer
USS Iapetus


&


Lieutenant (JG) Lucas Jameson
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Iapetus