Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Civilian, Former CO) in A lonely corner of the engineering deck
Snip

Posted by Lieutenant Mike Stone (Chief Engineer) in A lonely corner of the engineering deck

Posted by Civilian Kara Nakuto (Civilian, Former CO) in A lonely corner of the engineering deck
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Mike heard Peo yell. “What are you yelling about?!” He almost yelled back.
It wouldn’t be the first time he had tocheck up on a NE who was terrified of some shadow in jefferies tubes caused by a blinking light. Or monsterous sound caused by a leaking pipe or some kind of other malfunction.

“This better be......good?? GOD!” It’s not an easy task to shock Mike, the CE of a derelict ship called USS Viking. A ship even scavangers don’t want to turn into old metal.
He thought he’d seen it all. He realized just how wrong he was, when he saw the zombified body of Nakuto.

Slowly he aproached the NE “Where did this come from? Is it a hologram or… living? Kara is that you?” He asked, recognising his old CO.

Lt. Mike Stone, CE

The half-Klingon turned to face the speaker, tormented eyes desperately studying his face for a thread of recognition. Of hope. It came only fleetingly, but the shadow of a smile remained on her lips.
“Stone?” Her voice drained of the strength it once possessed and yet still commanding. “I…was it you who did it? Was it you who brought me back?”

Her focus shifting erratically between Poe and Stone and eventually finding purchase between the two, Nakuto’s features deepened into a frown.
“I don’t recognise the rest. Who are they?”

Poe’s own eyes followed hers out into the empty space then retreated towards Stone, his own expression one of silent pleading towards his Chief. What the hell is she talking about? What ‘rest’?

But now the former Captain was moving on weak, unsteady feet, as if the act of walking was a wholly new sensation to her. Moving towards a console, her fingers moved of their own accord, muscles yet retaining precious memories that her damaged mind had lost. When the status report was presented in reply, Nakuto leaned close and studied every word.
“What in the name of Gre’thor have you done to my ship, Stone?” she barked, although if one were gifted with sufficient optimism they might suspect a trace of humour battling through the ragged tone. “It was in excellent shape the last I saw it.”

For Stone’s eyes only, Ensign Poe turned towards his superior and made a ridiculous face, a silent accusation that their ex-Captain had lost her marbles.

“I saw that,” came the voice behind them, spoken by one whose eyes could not possibly have seen.

Mike gave Poe just a slight nod, but didn’t make any other gesture.

But now she was returning to the two men and, one crooked hand reaching out for Stone as if he represented the only safe harbour in this churning, tumultous sea, she whispered, “How long was I gone? What events have passed in my absence?”

Kara Nakuto

“Kara Nakuto…” Mike started, as if asking if that was indeed her name, “..you have been gone for over a year. Viking is more or less as it was, we’re keeping it afloat.” He turned to Poe. “Go get help from the sickbay, guick, go.”

“Aye, aye Sir,” Poe replied, a wave of gratitude sweeping over him at this offered chance of an escape. Not allowing even a second for the CE to change his mind, Poe turned and tore at breakneck speed across the deck, lingering only momentarily at the doorway to cast one final glance back in the direction of the pair. And then with the blink of an eye he was gone. Like a ghost.

Turning back to his former captain, he supported her so she wouldn’t fall. “Take a seat and rest. There will be enough time to tell you everything that has happened on the ship. But… do you know where you were? We didn’t know, so I don’t think it was us that brought you back.”

USS Viking was a large ship and almost a third of it offlimits due to bad mentainance and malfunctions. One could wonder there was weeks without meeting anyone. Somehow he had a bit of doubt, that Nakuto wandered the halls there all alone.

Lt. Mike Stone, CE

“The corridor, Stone,” Nakuto replied desperately, her hands seizing Mike’s shoulders as her brown eyes bore into his own, as if with a look she could locate the memory in the engineer’s mind and force it to the surface. “Do you remember the corridor?”

Finally releasing him, the half-Klingon stepped back, her body finding a workbench and leaning against it for vital support.

“If you do remember,” she continued, a hint of hesitant embarrassment dancing across her features, “then you will also no doubt recall that we had attempted to seal it, to block all access before we lost another soul.”
No need to vocalise her shame at breaking her own order. If Stone was now mentally with her then he understood the full gravity of what she had done.

“I…I entered the passageway. Ordered Guerin and Loki to accompany me.”
Wretched enough that she admit to her own transgressions, but she had forced others to commit the same crime at her side.

She fell silent as her eyes dissected the man before her. Lieutenant Mike Stone. He had been on the Viking far longer than she, had been offered an escape during the last exodus but instead chose a promotion and the weight of responsibility that came in its wake. Mike Stone had chosen to stay.

But of more immediate importance in the former Captain’s mind - Mike Stone had also been present on her last away mission. He had walked by her side on that strange, fungus-covered planet, had seen the twisted, sentient statues and terrifying inverted pyramids with his own eyes. And he had known the Romulan, Decius. The one she had left behind, had abandoned to a fate none of them possessed the strength to even imagine. If any man or woman on this vessel could understand why she had chosen to enter the void against her own instructions, it was Mike Stone.

“Navidson. Parker,” she spoke aloud the names of the two engineers swallowed by the portal. “I…could not abandon them. I could not block the corridor and leave them inside. I could not…consign them to the same fate as Decius.”

Silently she pleaded with him for a sign. A sign that he remembered. A sign that he sympathised. A sign that he understood the things that she had done.

Kara Nakuto

“I remember the corridor and the mission.” He nodded to her “You know you shouldn’t have gone in there. You were still the acting CO of USS Viking. Guerin, Loki, Navidson, Parker…” he shook his head “..none of them are present on the ship. But if you managed to return, then perhaps so will they. “

He then smiled warmly. “Welcome back, captain. We missed you here.”

Lt. Mike Stone, CE