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

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! 👻
Snip
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻

“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. “

She gave no reply to his confirmation of her crimes, merely nodded her head in chastised agreement.
But the suggestion that others too might escape was too powerful and jarring to ignore.
“Perhaps you are right,” the half-Klingon offered. “I hope you are right.”

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

Lt. Mike Stone, CE

“You did?” Kara replied, seemingly taken aback by the statement. In the agonising tread of neverending days in the darkness, she had often attempted to distract her mind by imagining a theoretical return. Those hopeless daydreams had painted a myriad of emotions onto her former crewmembers; relief, incredulity, anger…but never to have been missed. Somewhere, in a distant corner of her soul that Nakuto had believed consumed by the dark, she felt…touched by the knowledge that she had not been forgotten.

“Thank you, Stone,” the former Captain replied, before adding, as her eyes scanned the cavernous space around her, “I have missed you too. I have missed all of you. And I have missed our ship.”

A sharp stab of pain in one injured leg tore her abruptly from her reverie, silently demanding that she present herself at sickbay forthwith. But before taking her leave, she cast one final glance towards Mike Stone then, with a frown clouding her ridged brow, leaned in and whispered, “I would watch him, the one who walks behind you. He does not like you at all.”

Kara Nakuto

OOC: Edited because I keep messing up the inline posting on this fancy, new-fangled board! :P

“Errr…” Mike said quickly making a glance behind him but not seeing anyone there. One year missing…Kara mentioned darkness and loneliness. If she was indeed all alone in a darkness somewhere for a year.... halucinations were probably the least of the side effects. Physical and mental health must have taken quite a toll.

”…let me help you get to the sickbay. I’m sure you can recal the way, but I think it would be better if I come along. We can catch up on things.” He smiled warmly.

Letting her wonder all alone on the Viking, no doubt she’d scared anyone unprepaired to meet her.

Lt. Mike Stone, CE

She had no strength to argue and, in truth, after so many months wandering alone in the dark, she was glad of the company.
“Very well, Lieutenant,” the half-Klingon agreed, moving to Mike’s side and taking hold of his arm for vital support. “Let us go to the sickbay.”

Slowly she began to walk, practically dragging Stone along beside her, despite her current lack of strength. Out into the corridor, her eyes took a moment to re-adjust to the gloom. Conditions on the Viking appeared reassuringly familiar, the lack of lighting and pervading chill almost comforting after her recent ordeal.

“So,” she continued to talk as they moved along the corridor, “let us catch up. Tell me, Lieutenant Stone. What have I missed?”

Kara Nakuto

“Well you haven’t missed much. The Viking is still fighting to stay floating. It’s managing somehow. We even brought Stellar cartography online, though do watch your step if you go check it out.. the floor is a bit wobbly. Other then that we still get all the shitty mission no one else wants. The last one, we had to shorten our refit…again.. to go on a research station and reply to a distress signal. When we got there we learned they developed an AI there which.. went a little rogue and killed all adults. Luckily we got the kids out of there.” He shook his head. “Was quite a mess. I still wonder if it wasn’t intentional sabotage…but that’s not my job to find out. Well other then that we’ve been doing quite ok.” He said with a smile. “You returned.. I think that’s definately a reason to celebrate. Maybe our luck is turning at last?”

From his experiance, this was just the calm before another shitstorm hits the fan.

Lt. Mike Stone, CE