What We Leave Behind

Posted on Mon Sep 14th, 2020 @ 1:13pm by Ensign Lucas Miles

Mission: By Odin!
Location: Quarters
Timeline: Current

The message from his mother had been short and poignant. Hard to believe such devastating news could be delivered with such few words.

"Lucas, I just received word that your father's freighter crashed on a planet in the Erps-Kwerps system." He could still picture her mother's somber look and the tears streaming from her face. He wondered who she mourned more for, his allegedly deceased father, or her son, whom she knew would not take the news well.

"I'm still trying to get more details," the holographic message recording continued, "but early indications are that all hands were lost."

"All hands were lost," Lucas muttered, wiping the tears coming out from his eyes.

He could not believe it...would not believe it.

His last memory of his father was hearing the boisterous laughter of the lanky Freighter Captain on the deck of his ship, the Vallum Aelium joking about how he had a sexual tryst with a Vulcan friend.

It seemed only just yesterday when his father had transported him through the first leg of the journey that was bringing him to his first assignment on board the Independence. He could still remember's the parting words of his father - the wisdom of a civilian freighter Captain to a green Starfleet recruit, fresh off the boat.

There was no way he could be dead, Lucas mused. It was impossible.

His father was larger than life. He had been through rough scrapes...Klingons, Dominion, Cardassians...I mean you name them all. He had run into them at various points over his nearly three decade run spent as a freighter hand.

And he had always survived.

"Please sweetie," his mother's message continued. "Call me when you get this message. Please, I'm begging you, don't do anything foolish. I don't want to lose you too."

As he rejected the message that his father could be dead, Lucas had likewise rejected his mother's pleas. It was not out of spite, because he knew she meant well and in fact knew him well enough to know that the current path he was on was what he would do.

Lucas slung the last of his belongings, which was housed in a small duffel bag, across his shoulder. He glanced at his barren quarters and touched the bulkhead as a way of contact to the ship.

"In another life, perhaps you and I stayed on this journey a little longer," he whispered. "I would have liked that. But in this life, my father needs me."

He paused. "Maybe, after I find him...no, rescue him, maybe I can come back to you."

He patted the bulkhead, not quite sure he believed he would be able to rescue his father, and that thought distressed him greatly.

At a huge personal cost, he had managed to secure a small shuttle with the necessary gear and equipment along with a crew of two to mount a rescue mission for his father in the Erps-Kwerps system...or if it came to it, the retrieval of his body.

He had subsequently learned that Starfleet was only just tasking a ship to go out to the system. It was not surprising, the region was remote, and on the edge of Federation space. Additionally, his father's freighter was independently operated and was not connected to the likes of the Earth Cargo Service. Therefore, in terms of priority, his father's distress was at the lower rung of the totem pole.

That there was even a starship heading there was a miracle in and of itself, no doubt the desperate plea of his mother that happened to land on some sympathetic ear.

For his part, Lucas estimated, it would take him and his crew of two three days at maximum warp to get to the last known coordinates of his father. It was far too long of a time he knew, but he was told the Starfleet vessel would be there in just over a day.

He hoped his father was alive somewhere there, trying to buy time. It was what he knew the man would do should he have survived.

It was for this reason that Lucas had submitted a request for an extended leave of absence, which he was pleased to see had been granted. He had been prepared to resign his commission had it been rejected.

As the doors out of his quarters slid open, Lucas wiped the tears from his eyes hoping that his eyes were not too red. He would steal away from the Independence without as much of a word to anyone. It was...less painful that way, he thought.

Steeling himself for what were very likely the last few footsteps he would be taking on board the Independence Lucas Miles headed out his quarters and into the hallway on his way to the starbase where he would promptly boarding his chattered shuttle and heading for the Erps-Kwerps system.

As he walked, he wondered if he had made any difference on the Independence in his remarkably short time on the vessel. He knew the ship and crew had changed him, and he was only just beginning to find his bearing here...just beginning to make a home for himself...

He was reminded of a famous quote by Pericles, a prominent and influential Greek statesman and General of Athens during the city state's golden age, "What you leave behind is not what is engraved on stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

He hoped that was true for his relationship with the Independence and her crew.

"Until we meet again," he muttered as, now off the ship, he glanced at the ship through the starbase's viewing port.


Ensign Lucas Miles
Flight Control Officer
USS Independence

((OOC: And with that, I bid adieu. Thanks to all for a fantastic but short time spent exploring this exciting world of Star Trek. I truly enjoyed my time simming with you guys. It was my plan to stay on longerbut as they say, life is what happens when you are busy making plans. It has truly been my pleasure and honour and I wish you all well and hope, if you will have me, perhaps one day I can return. Take care. Mav))

 

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