A Family Tragedy

Posted on 22 Jan 2014 @ 4:57pm by Captain Rebecca Post
Edited on on 22 Jan 2014 @ 6:29pm

889 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: M11: Feet to the fire
Location: Captain Rebecca Post's Quarters, USS Achilles
Timeline: 0300hrs, Day of Arrival at Earth

It was still very early in the morning but Rebecca was still awake… after the news she had just received it was understandable really. Her world had just been turned upside down more so than any other event she could think of, except of course the Attack on Kavalis. But in a way this was actually more traumatic. It had been Harm who had got her through the aftermath of that terrible time, he who had stayed at her bedside and held her hand through the nightmares, who had helped her walk again and had fought her corner when the Corps had wanted to kick her out. She knew that she wouldn’t be here today in a marine uniform if it hadn’t been for him… and now he was gone, she wasn’t sure how she was going to get over this. But there was one person she could turn to and know that he would be there, her father, who had been away on long-term long-range deployment after Kavalis but had hurried home as soon as the news had reached him, but of course that had been nearly a whole year after the fact. But he was still in Federation Space at the moment, meaning he was easily contactable.

And despite it being late she knew that she would only be looking at the Starfleet logo on her screen for a few moments, sure enough after less than thirty seconds the screen changed to show a older looking version of her brother in a Starfleet uniform, wearing command red and three pips inside a box.

“Rebecca,” Vice Admiral Thomas Post said gently. “You’ve heard....”

“Yeah,” Rebecca nodded. “Dad… I…”

She didn’t get anything else out, bursting into tears there and then. On the screen her father looked sorrowfully down at his daughter, it was obvious that he wanted to do more, to be there to hold her close until she stopped crying, but despite subspace communications he was still hundreds of lightyears away, and Rebecca was very much alone.

“Rebecca, if it’s any consolation I’ve done some digging, and some not too subtle demanding,” Thomas said after a short while, and Rebecca couldn’t help but smile slightly at that last bit, albeit still through tears. “Based on the reports of the USS Winston S. Churchill there is nothing to indicate that the Gladiator was destroyed, that means that there is a very good chance that wherever she is, Harm is still alive.”

“But he might not be,” Rebecca replied angrily. “Hell, they all might be dead.”

“Starships that have gone missing before have made it back alright, sometimes years after the fact, think about Voyager,” Thomas reasoned, desperate to keep his daughter from entering a self-destructive spiral. “We have to hold onto that hope, even if we never see him again we can hold onto that knowledge that out there Harm is alive and living his life.”

Rebecca nodded slowly, it was a difficult lesson to take but one that she knew she had to. She couldn’t stay like this, she was the Commanding Officer of a Marine Detachment aboard a Federation Starship, even if she couldn’t ignore her grief she couldn’t let it overpower her like this, she had to gain some sort of control.

“You’re right dad,” Rebecca admitted after a few more moments and wiping as many of the years from her eyes as she could manage.

“As always,” Thomas quipped, despite his own personal grief he had to try and stay strong for his daughter.

“You wish,” Rebecca smiled weakly.

“I say, did you hear about Harm’s new girlfriend?” Thomas smiled.

“No!” Rebecca replied, suddenly outraged. “The sneaky bas-, he didn’t tell me anything about it.”

“Not surprising, given the circumstances, she’s the CO of the Gladiator,” Thomas commented, then raised a hand to forestall her comments. “To be fair on him, they did fall for each other when she was CMO and XO, so that’s better at least, but when I last saw them they were going fine, looked like it was pretty serious, even if it had only been for a short period.”

“Awwww, well he certainly deserved it, after all the crap the women in his life have given him over the years,” Rebecca smiled wistfully, her brother had, up until this point it seemed, had an atrocious track-record when it came to choosing his partners. “I hope she survived too, that’s all he’d need.”

“I’m sure she did,” Thomas replied and glanced off-screen. “Look Becca, my flagship is approaching the site of Gladiator’s disappearance, we’re going to do a sweep ourselves, but I’ll be heading back to Earth after that… hopefully see you there?”

“Sure thing,” Rebecca nodded. “And… thanks dad.”

“Anytime my girl,” Thomas smiled. “Chin up there, the world goes on.”

Rebecca managed a weak smile as her father signed off before turning away from the screen and looked out the viewport at the warp trails speeding past, somehow it didn’t feel like the world was going on, not hers anway.

Captain Rebecca Post
Marine Detachment Commanding Officer
U.S.S. Achilles

 

RSS Feed