Posted by Civilian Melaia Reez (Scientist) in Lounge - Side Sim

Posted by Captain Willow Taylor (Commanding Officer) in Lounge - Side Sim

Posted by Civilian Melaia Reez (Scientist) in Lounge - Side Sim
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

The telepath sensed the shift in Willow and immediately understood the complicated set of emotions that some people like them experienced. It should be an exciting thing, but it wasn’t for some. “I was the XO of the Apollo, an Academy ship. We were on a mission and suddenly we and another ship found ourselves stuck in a minefield and badly damaged. During this time, our CO is injured severely and our Chief of Security is out of commission. We manage to finally find ourselves free of the field and Command goes and give me a field promotion to Captain and tells me I’m officially in Command! So we limp back to Earth, only to be attacked randomly in the Sol system by unknown assailants. Next thing we know the warp core injectors are locked up and we can’t eject the core. And then I’m giving the order to abandon ship. It was fortunate we were so close to Earth because we were able to get help pretty quickly after corralling the cadets in the pods. We get to safety on the USS Goliath only to find myself also down a Chief Medical Officer and a Counsellor. The moment I gave out the orders and had a second to myself, I stole away to a meeting room and tried to compose a message to my then-fiancee slash partner and just crumbled into a hot mess. Days into being a new captain and my ship was destroyed and I lost four crew members. Not exactly how I imagined being promoted to have gone.”

Willow nodded slightly speechless.

Mel then smirked. “Incidentally, the counsellor to the Goliath came into the room to see if I was okay. He was transferred under my command to help with trauma counselling. That counsellor was Jonathan…”

~Melaia Reez

A smile then. “Well that’s certainly one of the most…exciting meeting stories for a couple.” She sighed.

“It definitely makes for a good, if dramatic, story at a party,” Mel said with a tiny chuckle.

“I waited a long time to get promoted to XO. I was careful you know, trying to think about Cai I didn’t want to keep moving around so I didn’t go for promotion above JO, I guess I kinda resented him for that ruining the whole promising career I had going from the academy. But I had to look after him after our parents…no other family and we weren’t getting on really well, so I stuck it out but when a post came up on the starbase as CMO i went. It was stability I told myself. And for a while it really was, he had friends we were in one place and I loved my job again. When the. o retired the CO offered me his post and a few years later a new ship was boarding from our base, like brand soaking new…and I remember thinking I’d love that, love to go chase the stars again. I didn’t know they were going to offer it to me, I didn’t even stop to think I was so excited.”

Mel nodded, knowing that feeling, though in a different context.

She paused to sip her drink, “long story short it didn’t last, couple months in, Cai and one of his friends caused an accident. An experiment went wrong, we lost power and three people were killed in a turbo lift.” She shrugged as if this explained a lot. “ he was only 11…nearly 12. The friend was 13…I was court-martialled.”

Willow Taylor

“Oh shit,” Mel said seriously. “What happened at the court-martial? she asked with deep concern. Even then she could feel how deeply those events weighed on her friend and knew that this whole thing was a key event in her life.

~Melaia Reez

With a sigh Willow replayed events in her mind trying to make sense of them in an order that she could articulate without descending into a rant. ‘I took responsibility, Cai and his friend were warned and I lost my command, I was reassigned to Starfleet Medical and had to sit a command competency assessment but spent 5 years there. When the Ogawa was recommissioned and I was asked, honestly I thought there had been an admin error.” She laughed, a mirthless sort of sound. “I didn’t think again I guess…fatal flaw apparently.” She looked at Mel and shrugged. “I couldn’t say no, not when I know that this is the sort of second chance that most people don’t get. But as you know Cai didn’t take it well and my Fiancé didn’t want to come. We had a fight and instead of dealing with it I walked out, got drunk and left the next morning, he was at work. We haven’t spoken since.”

Willow Taylor

Melaia nodded slowly, absorbing the rather huge tidbits of information that Taylor had just dropped. “Cai will understand at some point, if he chooses to. But there comes a time when you just have to make the best decision under the circumstances. Following your instincts is not a bad thing, Willow. Trust me. It’s saved my ass more times than I care to count, and that includes letting a holographic character fire a phaser rifle at me at point blank range with the holodeck safeties off. I shouldn’t even be alive! Over and over again I wake up in Sickbays wondering how The Four Deities managed to let me live. But I’m here and so are you and Cai. And you’re not alone. Jon and I aren’t going anywhere and we can stumble through together. So, one day at a time, okay?”

~Melaia Reez

Willow smiled again. “I’m really sorry. I don’t normally just…offload like that. You are ridiculously easy to talk to you know.” With a tilt of her head she blinked. “Hold on, back up, holographic character…what?”

Willow Taylor