Star Trek: Cayuga
08 - ‘Passing Ships’
By Jack Elmlinger
Being thrown into the Brig was a pain in the ass; no matter how many times everyone apologized to you afterwards. Captain Pozach scowled as her console rejected her access codes for the third time before she twisted around in his chair to face the stars. The Cayuga’s starboard rear section stretched out before her and beyond it, the almost antiquated hull of Starbase Three-Five-Nine.
Beside her, the door chimes rang for her attention. She touched the bruise on her cheek before turning around in her chair to address the door. “Enter.” The doors pulled themselves apart and Weynik stepped inside.
“Captain,” she said, rising from her chair,” I hadn’t heard that you were aboard.”
“Yes, I asked your transporter chief to let me surprise you.” The Roylan shifted his weight from one foot to the other, grimacing. “Can we talk?”
“I have a dozen officers to see off on their trip back to Starfleet Academy and I want to welcome their replacements as well as a new operations officer aboard personally.” She gestured with a hand to one of the chairs opposite her deck. “Please, speak quickly.”
She knew that she was being brusque and she knew it because she was also tired of being apologized to and of being told that the thousands of Cardassian deaths had been for no reason. She had heard enough of that when they had released her from the Starbase’s Brig.
Weynik reached down and plucked a guitar pick up off the floor. Pozach raised an eyebrow at it. “You play guitar?,” he asked her before dismissing the question with a wave of his hand. “Never mind.” He cleared his throat and added,” Captain, I was wondering if you would marry me.”
Pozach leaned over her desk to take the pick from his hand. “You and I have worked together before. I wouldn’t call us friends. I certainly don’t appreciate you, asking me to marry you.”
“I didn’t mean --- You met Wintamba while we were dealing with the black marketeers.”
“Captain of the Atlantis,” she replied. “A telepathic Roylan.”
Weynik nodded. “She and I agreed that after the war, we would get married. If we both made it out alive.”
“Why?,” Pozach asked him, flipping the pick over in her hand.
“Why? Well, she’s intelligent and -- ,” Weynik began to say but Pozach shook her head.
“No, Captain. Why me?” Sitting back in her chair, the junior captain allowed her irritation to flash through her eyes. “You’ve made it quite clear that you don’t respect me or even like me.”
Anger clouded Weynik’s face and he opened his mouth to argue his point. “No,” he said, at length. “No, I deserved that. Before -- I had decided that you weren’t the kind of person who should be in command of a starship.”
“The person I am hasn’t changed,” she snapped back at him.
“I understand that, but my … view of you has. Your actions in the Norgo system -- you stood up for what Starfleet is supposed to be, and that’s something that a lot of us wouldn’t have done.”
Pozach felt her ears warm up. “I only did what I felt that I had to do.”
“I know,” Weynik said,” and for that, you have my respect.”
They sat in silence for a moment before Pozach said,” I only met her once but Captain Wintamba seemed to be a delightful woman. You’re a lucky man.” She pursed her lips thoughtfully. “I guess I need to learn about Roylan weddings if I’m going to do this properly.”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
The dim lights made the Starbase’s hospital seem smaller than it was as if the shadows had become solid. “Can I see her?,” Sam Dixon asked, reaching into his pocket to reassure himself that the ring was there.
The doctor led him into the recovery room where its sole occupant was lying in bed, her golden hair scattered around her head. At the top of the bed, a LCARS display beeped in time with her pulse.
Sam sat down beside Aimee and took her hand. “We tracked down Keitsev’s transport,” he told her. “The coordinates that he set into the transporter system were twenty thousand kilometers below the Cayuga. Since we didn’t find a cold body out there, we think that he beamed onto a cloaked ship that had been keeping pace with us.”
Aimee said nothing.
“There’s a part in the Starbase lounge,” continued the security officer,” for Polcheny, Sayvok, and the rest of us. I was going to go down later and put in an appearance.” Aimee continued to stare at the ceiling and he sighed. “Come on, Aimee. The doctors fixed the bleeding and the concussion.”
“I’m sorry,” the engineer whispered back at him,” if getting the shit kicked out of me has made me any less than cheerful.”
Sam stood up, one hand reaching into his pocket. “I’ve got to go now.” He leaned over and kissed her lightly on the forehead,” but listen, when I get back from the Academy… will you marry me?”
* * * * * * * * * * * *
“Do you always wear that uniform, Davi?”
Commander zh’Tali looked up from her plate in surprise before she glanced down at the black and gray over red that covered her body. “Well… yes. It is comfortable and I have few other clothes.”
Across the table from her, Thanadysehn sh’Diaar laughed, her long white hair shaking around her shoulders. “Of course, I’ve forgotten how focused that you are.” The Admiral’s small quarters seemed to fill with her mirth.
zh’Tali raised an eyebrow. “I am what I was trained to be.”
“I think you’re more than that. After all, you were trained to combat the Borg. Yet you still fought in the Dominion War.”
zh’Tali nodded at her. “It’s not the war that I prepared for, no.” She considered her food. “My zhavey would have been proud of you, Thana.”
“Don’t start that.”
“I’m serious,” the zhen snapped at her. “You’re an Admiral in Starfleet with … endearing bondmates.”
“As if she’d be disappointed in you,” sh’Diaar countered. “You’re the First Officer of a starship. You’re doing what she and your charan always wanted you to do.”
“What I do, Thana, is kill. No matter what position you assign me to, no matter how you dress it up, what I do is kill. Neither of our parents or our bondmates would be proud of that.”
“You do other things,” the admiral insisted. zh’Tali frowned at her, confused, and her bondmate laughed outright. “Davi, you’re that little girl who slept with a stuffed ko’lar bear under your arms until you turned thirteen. You’re the teenager who turned bright red when Aedevalyn th’Rhys asked you out on a date.”
“I’m also the woman who has dedicated the last eleven years of her life to vengeance,” Davi said, putting down her silverware. “One of my officers … the traitor… came to me, a few days before the incident with the Fafnir. He asked me to teach him, to fill him with stories about the glory of war.” She shook her head. “I am no one to be proud of, Thana.”
sh’Diaar stood up and in zh’Tali’s view, she did a very odd thing. She stepped around the table and wrapped her arms around her bondmate, kissing her on the lips. “Don’t tell me,” she whispered into her ear,” who I should be proud of, dearest.
zh’Tali relaxed… if only for a little while.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
They walked around the last corner in the corridor and entered the transporter room. Alice dropped her bags on the floor. “Well,” she said,” here we are.”
Sean adjusted the strap of Alice’s duffle bag which was slung over her shoulder. “The most lasting memory that I have of the Academy is getting beat up during combat training by a big feline guy from Cait,” he confided in her.
“That sounds like fun,” she said with enthusiasm. “I hope that I get to try that too.”
“Actually, I’d prefer that you avoid it.” His fond smile slid away from his face. “How long until the Gihlan reaches Earth?”
Alice leaned against the corridor bulkhead and tried to look casual while she did the math in her head. “Well, Earth is about forty light years from. A Constellation class starship can cruise at high warp indefinitely so… at Warp Eight, fourteen days.” She smiled nervously and shifted closer to the wall so that a gaggle of crew members could pass by them. “Then it’s back to class.”
“The once and future cadet,” Sean said, forcing another smile.
Alice stepped up closer to Sean. “Listen, Sean, I just wanted you to know that I’m going to miss… talking with you.” She swallowed, her eyes darting left and right. “Um… a lot.”
Sean reached out, tentatively and took her hand. “Tell you what. Every day that you’re gone, I’ll write you a letter.”
Alice bit her lower lip and grinned through her teeth. “And I’ll write to you!
He grinned back at her. “I’d like that a lot.”
The End…
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