Layered Nostalgia

Posted on 24 Feb 2015 @ 2:13pm by Commander Norvi Stace

393 words; about a 2 minute read

Stace walked onto the quiet bridge alone. She stood just out of the biosensor of the turbolift doors and paused, looking about her with a familiar wonder that she hadn't experienced in this lifetime. The circular room was much updated from the Galaxy class she was used to. Darker, with more muted tones of the now familiar control panels subtly flashing, and, in her taste, more comfortable chairs speckled about the grey carpeted deck behind the consoles. Across the way directly opposite was the door to her new temporary office and, in between, was stationed the commanding officer's chair. She took the step down to the main level of the bridge and stood just before it, teasing her fingers across the armrest. She turned and then lowered herself into its unfamiliar support, crossing one knee over the other as she sat back.

Stace had only done this once before, delighting in her command and indulging in its prowess alone on the bridge. Only that time it was different. After the decommission of the USS Gilmore, Janel Stace's previous command, he was granted one last look at the bridge he had become so familiar with. Sitting there alone in the harsh lighting and peach surrounds blinding his weary eyes, he wept. Not for the pain he was then in, nor for the loss of his ship, but for the useless feeling that now welled in his belly from having his command removed. The brass had offered him a future command, that was a given, but he knew, sitting in that beige leather chair alone, that his space-duty days were now over. The searing pain in his abdomen was a familiar indication that his life in this host was coming to an end: a dreaded thread that weaved its way from memory to memory and host to host. He inhaled, stood to his feet and then left the Gilmore for the last time.

As Norvi stood to leave, she brushed the armrest one last time as a tear rolled from the corner of her eye. She took a breath and then broke into a crooked smile: one of nostalgia and pain. She was looking forward to her new assignment as the acting commanding officer of the Galileo and wondered what doors it would open for the future. Her future.

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