Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton/SARAH (Ships AI/Avatar) in Saracen Holosuite: Knight and Dalton/SARAH

Posted by Captain Dante Knight (Commanding Officer) in Saracen Holosuite: Knight and Dalton/SARAH

Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton/SARAH (Ships AI/Avatar) in Saracen Holosuite: Knight and Dalton/SARAH

(snip)

She searched his face, for what she wasn’t sure, but Cori looked out over the horizon towards the water down below. “I know,” she said softly. “And I fought it for awhile. Some days I think it would have been easier for everyone if I had just ceased to exist on that holodeck and not woken up in Sickbay as”-she gestured to her body-“this.” She looked back at Dante. “But I can’t change what I am or the circumstances of my new existence. There might be a way for me to have a different sort of existence in the future, but this is what we’re both stuck with. I stopped wanting to die properly somewhere along the way and now I’m just trying to figure out how to live. It’s… more than a little bizarre.”

~Corinne Dalton

At that, Dante grinned gently. “Of that you have my full agreement and sympathy,” he told her, but made no effort to continue riding, just looked at her as he sat on Cash and from time to time glanced at the scenery as well. Although what seemed to be a long time was really only a few breaths.

“It’s a beginning,” he told her, “for us both. You might be tired of proving yourself to people, but flesh or machine that is what we do every day anyway. If you had your body you would still be proving yourself, in different ways yes, but it doesn’t stop. It won’t if you find that different sort of existence you talked about, either. Where to next? Do you want to ride along the beach?” Dante nodded towards the water and looked back at her. He hoped she wouldn’t miss his question, his giving her the choice. It was small and insignificant in the scheme of things, but it was his way of letting her know he understood and recognized her as a being, at least.

Captain Knight, CO

Cori returned her gaze to him and then gave something of a small grin, nudging Lacey forward towards the winding path that went down the embankment. “Careful, parts of the dunes are less stable, shifting,” she warned as she took the lead, but made rom for him to ride alongside her.

“Noted,” he said, and moved Cash to catch up to her, then returned his eyes to the path ahead of them.

After a few moments, she looked appraisingly at Knight. “If you couldn’t do the things you always do, what’s the one thing you would miss the most?”

~Corinne Dalton

Dante scratched his jaw in thought for a moment, then took a deep breath as he juggled the options. “One thing, that’s not as hard as it sounds to me. Things I’d miss are coffee, starting my day with music or relaxing at the end of the night with a whiskey and a movie. But the one thing that I’d miss, every single day without fail, waking up next to Natasha.” He looked at Dalton and shrugged a little. “I did that for more than 15 years while I was posted places she wasn’t, now, we are together. Everything is empty without her, I’ve been there, although I always had the knowledge it wouldn’t be forever.”

Their pace staying steady, he looked at Dalton and paused slightly. “What was it that you missed the most?”

Captain Knight, CO