Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton (Scientist) in Ships In The Night No More (Tag Dalton)

Posted by Commander Dr. Royal Sinclair (Executive Officer) in Ships In The Night No More (Tag Dalton)

Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton (Scientist) in Ships In The Night No More (Tag Dalton)
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“Makes perfect sense.” he said. “I did kind of the same. My first year was really hard. I lost my granddad three days before I started. So I was pretty reserved the first year or two. But I do have a couple of friends I still talk to. But I went through the motions of socializing… at least until I wasn’t going through the motions anymore.” and he chuckled.

Royal

She smiled. “I’m glad you have people you still keep in touch with. Those connections are important.” Cori drew circles with the tip of her fingers in the condensation on the glass. “I was just started to figure out socializing on the Saracen when I… disappeared again. It’s hard to wrap my mind around the fact that that is no longer a concern. Or at least not in the same way as before.”

~Corinne Dalton

Royal leaned back and crossed his arms on his broad chest. “So tell me something, Cori… are you happy? Not right now specifically… but are you happy to be flesh and blood again? Or do you miss the computer core?’ He smiled at her and said “And no wrong answer. I just want to know.”

Royal

Her eyes went wide and for a moment Cori didn’t have words. But she knew the answer, the truth. She nodded. “A little, yes. It’s hard to explain how extraordinary it feels to be connected to something in such a deep way. To feel so… expansive.” The shock disappeared and she her gaze became softer, awed. “I had everything about the Saracen at my figurative fingertips. I was the Saracen. And I was also me. And I miss having the database accessible at all times. There’s a great deal in my memory, but it’s not the same.” There were many things that had been complicated and difficult about being trapped in the system, but there had been a few gifts. Not everything had been terrible.

~Corinne Dalton

Royal nodded and said “Well… finding connection, especially for humans, is one of our primary psychological and biological drives. We look for it in how we live, how we work, who we spend time with… it’s all about connections. So to have such an intense and all-encompassing connection with something, even a computer, would be a feeling not easy to forget.” and he took a drink, watching her face

Royal

She drew more lines through her glass’ condensation, watching the subsequent drips slip down the side. “Sometimes it feels like I’m so exceptionally tiny now. I feel like I don’t fit in my own body. I know that will pass but for now I’m trying to not fixate on it. At least focusing on my physio and getting ready to do all my testing for duty gives me a way to be in my body.

~Corinne Dalton

Royal looked at her for a moment and then said “You still hungry? Or would you like to go for a walk?” and he smiled at her. She knew him well enough that she could see that he had something in his head… and it was probably going to happen either right then or when she was done eating.

Royal

Cori eyed the platter and then looked up at him. “I like the sound of a walk. There’s only so much I can eat in a sitting, even though this was a lot of fun.” She took a final sip of her drink and wiped her hands with her napkin. “I’m ready whenever you are.”

~Corinne Dalton

Royal nodded once and stood and went and grabbed a tray. He came back, cleared their dishes from the table (even though someone from the lounge staff would have handled it), and he took the tday to the recyclers. He then came back and smiled. “Okay. Let’s go. I want to show you something.” and he gestured to the doors.

Royal

Cori fell in step as they moved out of the lounge. “Well, you definitely have me intrigued. And thanks for dinner. That was nice. No pressure,” she said with a grin.

~Corinne Dalton

“None at all.”he said with a smile and another slight flush of his cheeks. “I’m saving all the pressure for our third date. Rhat’s when things get serious.” and he chuckled. They stepped into the turbolift and Royal said “Deck two.” The lift began to move. Depending on how familiar with the deck layouts of the Ogawa Corinne was, she may or may not have remembered that there were very few things on Deck Two… VIP quarters, the CO’s Quarters, an observation lounge…

And the XO’s quarters.

As the doors opened on to the empty corridor, Royal reached over and took Cori’s hand in his. He led her down the passageway, past the CO’s door… past the guest quarters.... and then past his door and to the observation lounge.

The lounge was smaller than the crew lounge by a lot. The doors slid open to reveal a room set at the fore of the ship; with the far wall made entirely of transparent aluminum. The wall curved gently following the arc of the primary hull and rose up so that anyone standing or sitting and looking out had an uninterrupted view of where the ship was heading. Right now they were at warp, so everything was streaks of light in an unlimited amount of color.

“You said earlier that you feel very tiny now.” He led her right up against the window and looked out as the colors washed over his face. “But that is how most of us out here feel all the time. Look at theses streaks of light. Stars… stars with systems of planets around them and on those planets are countless civilizations and individuals who we may or may not ever meet. An almost infinite number of beings… and you and I are just two of them.” He turned and faced her fully and set his hands lightly on her waist. “Physically, you are small. You don’t have the mass of a starship, or the ability to instantly summon up any fact or figure like you used to. And I’m sure that is a hard change, especially with as sudden as it was. But Corinne… you are not insignificant. I told you that you matter, and you do. You may not be the Saracen anymore… but you are Corinne Dalton. And I, for one, would trade all the Saracens in the galaxy for just one Corinne Dalton.”

Royal Sinclair