Timeline: Set during the story break in Session #08
Post by Lt Elli-Navine (also featuring Calliope Zahn of Obsidian Command)
Obsidian Command
1478 words

Seeking out a particular business, Calliope wound her way slowly along the Promenade, reading signage, occasionally observing people, and generally just soaking in the scene. Curiously, there seemed to be something more going on than usual in the broad concourse. Her interest was piqued and she diverted her course to follow the activity. There were far more vendor carts, for one thing. And little performing musician arrangements just far enough apart from one another to be distinct, but not so far you couldn’t get a sense of cacophony of the unrelated music in the distance from the last musical act. Besides the food carts and the trinkets and the musicians, there were games. As if it were something of a fair. When had it gone up? How long would it be running? She wasn’t sure.

Her mind wandered as her feet did. It had been a very long recovery sleep following her adventure with Kensforth. Calliope felt a little badly about totaling the Seventeen when she’d come up with the unconventional plasma cambering which had ignited to give them the in system warp hop they needed to break clear of the enemy fighters. But in the bigger picture, scrapping a shuttle was a fairly low cost to pay for all that they knew now, not to mention worth the exchange for having saved their own skins. There was protocol and then there was just getting out alive. Sometimes you had to roll with the punches. Rest In Peace, Seventeen.

She knew all of those reports and recordings would be accessible to Lance now, as well they should be with his being in senior leadership of the Starbase. For years she and Lance had sort of an unspoken knowledge between them. He knew full well that her day-to-day often included away missions, risky exploration, and unplanned encounters, but she generally said very little about them— or at least was selective in her re-tellings. She was afraid now that he could know all the details that he would worry. Would Lance understand the kind of peril that was sometimes par for the course when blazing ahead in command red? On the one hand, she wished she could flat out ask him how he felt about it. On the other… what was there to be said? She didn’t plan to slow down. If she weren’t leaning on a cane, in fact, she’d be standing on the bridge of one of the support vessels herself, routing out the criminals in the outer reaches of the Loki System.

One way or another, she knew she and Lance had to find a new normal. She just wasn’t sure how to—

Calliope’s train of thought was derailed as her elbow was jogged.

“Sorry! So Sorry!” A young man blustered, looking to be sure she was still upright and not upset. Calliope noticed he wore the uniform of the Civilian Affairs unit which managed the matters of accommodations for travelers and facilitation for business operators. Aside from his name tag reading David Minton he had a pin that denoted he was a Concierge with the Help Kiosk and another that he was an Events Coordinator. Seeing as he was currently not in the Kiosk, Calliope supposed Mr. Minton was currently on a task for the latter responsibilities. “Are you alright?” He checked.

“Yes.” She self-assessed to be sure. “It’s okay, I’ll be fine.”

Calliope watched him pause, regather himself and look back at his oversized planning padd. She heard Mr. Minton read to himself under his breath. “Hiroshima, Vesta, Ardeshir, Theseus, Imperator, Mercutio, Apollo…” It made her ears perk to hear the names of familiar 9th Fleet ships being ticked off. At a little bit of distance behind him, she followed David as he continued “Athena, Nightingale, Potemkin, Alexander, Pathfinder, Elysium, Arcadia, Eagle…” They turned down another avenue.

Calliope paused at a most unusual display. The ships of the line were… bouncy castles? Highly detailed ones, but inflatable children’s party entertainment, none-the-less. The Alexander seemed fairly worse for the wear, cordoned off with security safety fields, and lolling half on its side as if battle damaged, but children were still running circles around the rest of the inflatable entertainment. While little ones toddled between play equipment, older children were racing one another between holographic computer displays with Admiral Avatars assigning them missions for scavenger hunts, action challenges for racing or obstacle courses, or mystery games. Some of the ships incorporated slides or climbing walls or neon scaling nets stretching in the space between them, looking much like cartographic readouts, and illuminated holographically so that they seemed to create an illustrated spacial astrometircs display.

Her free hand went over her heart as if to catch it as it melted involuntarily at the play and laughter of all the little ones. It was like a disruptor shot to the chest, slagging her feelings. How the hell was she supposed to ask Lance if he wanted children? Did she even want children? The doctors were waiting for answers to the questions about fertility in order to tailor her upcoming treatments. She still had no answers to give.

As if to check her wistful melancholy with reality, a knee high terror of a boy rushed Calliope head first into her calf from behind and Calliope reflexively arched her back and jerked, re-fixing her cane for firmer balance.

“Velroy!” A dark haired Grazerite lady snagged him up under one arm and gave him a swat. The chastisement didn’t even seem to register as he squealed and squirmed, turning his head with its little devil’s horn buds to ram into her side repeatedly until she was forced to set him down.

Calliope watched the boy take off like a shot as soon as his feet hit the decking.

“Sorry,” the Grazerite apologized, dusting herself off. “Velroy is a handful!”

“I can see that! I don’t know how you keep up with him.”

“Oh, I’m just helping out while I visit.” The Grazerite pointed out an older, hardy Grazerite woman with an oversized calm aura to match, sitting cross legged under a planter tree while nursing twin todlers, one currently suckling under cover of her tunic and the other trying to gnaw through her upper arm, making a great deal of slobber in the process. “That’s my Aunt Zolette, Velroy’s mom. I’m his cousin, Elli.”

“I’m surprised he hasn’t popped an inflatable ship with those horns.”

“Oh they’re little and still blunt. That was me.”

Calliope looked a little confused by that statement and had to clarify. “What was you?”

Realizing she had to explain what she meant, Elli looked a little sheepish. She pointed to one of her own horns. “I was jumping with Velroy and ripped the Alexander play house. They’re patching it now.”

Calliope chuckled at the misfortunes of Admiral Sepandiyar’s imitation vessel. She felt a little bit like Universe was on her side even if no one else would ever appreciate this literal ‘jab’. With a bit of a smirk, Calliope directed a little thanks for caring thought up into the universe. “I’m sure damage control will have it set to rights in no time… flat.” She snickered.

“I’d effect some diagnostics and systems repairs myself, but I’m off duty. Also, I don’t have an air compressor handy.”

“You’re an engineer?”

“On the Potemkin,” Elli affirmed, crossing her arms and surveying the scene of happy children on the space themed play area. “Yeah, I’m glad my aunts and uncles have lots of kids. It’s fun to play, but I could never have any of my own, what with being deployed and all. All of the excitement involved in exploring the galaxy? I’d just be worried all of the time about them, or about what would happen if I couldn’t get back to them, or about them resenting my being away… Cousins are a better way to go.”

“You’re probably right.” Calliope bit her lip, thinking about how on edge Dr. Minka was about her own family. “Having kids seems to make people want to play everything safe.”

“Maybe, yeah.” Elli agreed, but then tilted her head in thought, as if she were having some internal monologue. “On the other hand though. I mean, it’s a reason to do what we’re doing.”

“What’s that?”

“Making sure the future is safe for everyone that comes after us. Uncle Lex says having kids makes his job feel even more important like that. He says having kids is why he keeps re-upping. To do his part for their sakes. So. Who knows, right?”

“Who knows…” Calliope echoed thoughtfully. “Who even knows if—”

“No-no! Velroy, no!”

Her new Grazerite friend was off on the heels of her rambunctious young cousin again, and Calliope remained alone in her uncertainty.