Late Nights

Posted on Fri Jul 1st, 2011 @ 1:49am by Captain Vorn Krace

Mission: The Fate of the Swiftsure
Location: USS Iapetus - Captain's Quarters
Timeline: MD02 0104hrs

As Vorn hobbled through the doors into his dark quarters, he reached up and pulled the zip on the front of his uniform jacket down, allowing the garment to hang open on his torso. His body language made it clear that he was tired, and he knew that he was as well as he murmured for the lights to come on at ten percent. The room needn't have any more lighting, what with the effect of the Nebula and the system's sun outside. He imagined that a dark night on Camelot must be a very rare occurrence.

As he glanced around, realising that something was missing from this picture, he noticed that his small beagle pup - who had made his way down from his ready room earlier (Vorn had no idea how the animal managed it; he didn't believe the turbolift's universal translator understood canine, and he doubted that the animal's frame made the jeffries tubes a likely option - was curled up at the foot of his bed, sound asleep. "Christ, it must be late," he muttered to himself.

Tonight had been one of those many nights where one knew that tiredness was creeping relentlessly in, but that the work that occupied your mind was so interesting that you wished you could simply work on it through the night. Vorn had become almost entranced by the latest data transmitted to them on The Round Circle; the wealth of new data that had been added to the library after just a week since their last dispatch was not only staggering, but fascinating as well. Under almost every rock and star system in this region there seemed to be a new discovery; a new species, culture, stellar phenomena or energy signature. And Vorn was eager to get out and explore it all first hand.

He'd spent the last hour before his visit from Drex nosing through the various star charts that the Federation had bought from local information dealers, and had been contemplating his ideal first cruise in the region. Perhaps a survey of the Solaria Nebula - though the nearest attraction in this explorer's theme park, the majority of it was still uncharted, and none in the sector could match the Iapetus' sensors. Or a study of the Peloras Formation. Though not a scientist by natural profession, Vorn was nevertheless fascinated by these thoughts; science had been a career choice that had been open to him at the Academy, and he had not let the eagerness die down any in the intervening years.

Ultimately though, he was an explorer, and the one thing he found himself most drawn towards was a voyage out into the true unknown; into completely uncharted space, out away from the region that Starfleet had already explored in the region, and out into the far reaches of the Jathlin Arm.

Despite the temptations and ideas running rampant in his imagination - or perhaps in spite of them - Vorn's body still required sleep, and so he had opted finally to return to his quarters to get the rest his body so desired. As he removed his jacket and threw it on the back of the nearest chair, he began stripping down to his underwear - leaving his clothes in a trail where they fell - and climbed under the covers, nudging the canine ball at the bottom of the bed a little as he did so. Soon. Soon he would be able to get out there, into the Delta Quadrant and explore!

But tonight, he would sleep.

"Computer, polarise the windows, turn off lighting."

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Captain Vorn Krace
Commanding Officer
USS Iapetus