Wheels of Fate

Posted on 30 Sep 2012 @ 11:21pm by Commander Scarlet Blake

538 words; about a 3 minute read

ON:

"...I missed him," Scarlet continued as she watched the computer screen recording her log. "Jeroen Adlar. It's so much better now he's here. And I know he's alive."

She frowned as she leant back in her chair, pulling a leg up close to wrap her arm comfortably around it. "I'd assumed he'd died. When the Maquis base was stormed, back when I was still a teenager. So many people died. I thought they all were killed."

Scarlet sipped her coffee idly, hardly noticing she was doing it. She didn't notice how cold it was either. "There were so many voices, and shouting, and explosions, and weapons firing. Choking smoke. And this overwhelming scorching smell. I was badly injured by the time I managed to hide, but it wasn't good enough. A Cardassian still found me."

She rubbed her forehead gently with the palm of her hand. "I thought he was going to fire, but he didn't. He just looked at me. Hiding there, virtually a child in the middle of it all. And he grabbed me. Just pulled me along, dragged me. He tried to push me in a shuttle, but I wouldn't go in. I kept telling him I had to wait for Jeroen," she laughed softly at herself, shaking her head.

"He wouldn't let me. He just threw me in the shuttle, locked in the route to Federation space and sent me out," she tilted her head, watching the screen. "A Cardassian. Ruthless, cold Cardassians. Saved a teenage girl in the middle of a Maquis slaughter."

Scarlet sighed, shaking her head as she rubbed the back of her neck, stretching it out. "I didn't want to leave Jeroen. And I assumed all these years he was dead. I mourned him. With great difficulty. And there he was, as handsome and clever and warm as ever. Right here, on this ship," she shook her head, looking down with a gentle laugh.

"He taught me pretty much everything good that I learnt growing up," she leant to the screen, smiling as she rested her hand in her chin. "How to fight back. What his experiments were about and why. About literature and music. Keeping calm and thinking things through. He taught me the basics in science, although I wasn't very good," she laughed at that. "I'm still not. But he tried, and it was just enough to scrape through selection. I wouldn't be here now if it wasn't for him. He pretty much took over looking out for me when my parents were off playing silly buggers and stupid war games."

Scarlet shook her head firmly, looking away as she sat back. "And now he's here again. Alive. Well. Doing something he enjoys. A free man. Lily adores him already of course, but that doesn't surprise me."

She paused, shrugging lightly as she looked down. "Lily doesn't have a father. Never has. Maybe...maybe he can be that kind of figure for her. Maybe he can do the good for her that he did for me. I don't know what force sent him back into my life. All I know? I have to be the luckiest person in the universe."

OFF:

Ensign Scarlet Blake
Counsellor
USS Galileo

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