Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: Honoring the Ardent
Posted by… suppressed (2) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“Mr Wyvern is not a devil snake,” Roman said. Rand was definitely the only one allowed to insult the snake judging by the look Roman was giving Randy just then. Roman seemed to nearly physically flinch at the name of his old ship. “They… They’re both environmental studies of the same kind.”

~ Roman

“Oh come on you can’t tell me his fangs don’t remind you of a pitch fork. And that red color.” Randy noted the flinch and least he didn’t walk away this time. “So they both are studies of Aldaria III? I thought Aldaria III was a more recent discovery. What planet was this other one?”

Randy

“They don’t.” Roman’s tone was less than friendly. He might’ve walked away except he felt very cornered. When Roman walked away, he came to his lab. Now Randy was here, in his lab. Roman felt like he had nowhere else to go. “What is the relevance of that question?”

~ Roman

“Curiosity. You said they were being evaluated for colonization. New colonies always need medical professionals. Might join one when my tour is up. Thought I would do some research. What is the relevance of you answering a question with a question?”

Randy

“Aldaria III will be a colony site. The other planet’s location made it a poor place to settle a colony. Instead it was to be an outpost.” Roman couldn’t imagine Randy settling on some colony world, especially not without Rand. “If you want research on colony worlds, Starfleet’s logs are open for your… ‘research’.” He didn’t bother with an answer to Randy’s last question.

~ Roman

Randy chose not to take offense and the condescending tone of the word ‘research.’ He was a medical professional after all and had advanced degrees, he knew what research was and how to go about it. Even on a topic of a personal nature. But Alden was lashing out because he was angry. Randy knew he felt trapped, but at least they were in his office rather than the lab. And really, if Alden would stop avoiding, Randy would not have had to resort to tracking him down. “Oh! An outpost! Now that’s a novel idea. I bet they need volunteers for stuff like that.” He bet Rand could make quite the name for herself in the Yeoman corp working an outpost. Not that he wouldn’t try to stop her…they were dangerous, but he didn’t say that. Of course it would not matter, Rand wasn’t going to leave Alden. It had been on Randy’s mind for awhile. He was loosing his sister to the man sitting before him. And by all things sacred and profane Alden was going to take care of himself so he could take of Rand when Randy was gone. “So where was this outpost supposed to be?”

Randy

“Not that outpost, don’t you dare.” The answer was immediate. Roman knew it was hypothetical, Randy couldn’t possibly really be thinking about that, because Rand would never leave him and Randy wouldn’t leave Rand. But the outpost Roman had been researching for… It was right on the border between Federation space and the Klingon Empire. It would be a high danger location with a good chance of getting blown to bits by angry Klingons who didn’t want humans making homes of any kind that close to them. And even Randy didn’t deserve that fate. Roman would never, ever, let Rand go there. “It was supposed to be nowhere you or Rand ever need to be.”

~ Roman

The answer was immediate and forceful and carried all the weight a commanding officer could put into it, and of a man terrified of loosing the only thing that mattered to him. Rand and he were Star Fleet officers just like the rest. They went where they were told, whether they wanted to or not. Of course a dangerous outpost like that probably needed medical personnel. And there Randy could make a real difference in the outcome for officers dealing with severe psychological problems. Randy put that aside. If he did something like that he wouldn’t tell Rand or Alden before hand, and this wasn’t the time to be thinking about his own career. Alden was worked up enough to be responding now, so Randy turned the subject back to relevance but also something safer than Rand going to a dangerous outpost. “So you were studying venom to create an antivenom on the Ardent as well? What was the name of the animal the venom came from? Or animals if it was multiple.”

Randy