Back to Basics

Posted on 22 Mar 2016 @ 4:52pm by Captain Jonathan Holliday

542 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Episode 10 - Symposium
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 1 - Ready Room
Timeline: MD90 - 0600hrs

[ON]

Holliday sighed as he finished collecting the last of his personal belongings that had gathered in the Ready Room during his tenure as Commanding Officer. The Captain hadn't expected to step down from the role quite as quickly as he had found it pulled from under him, and as such there had been rather an extensive amount of packing to do ahead of the Admiral's return to the Ready Room.

A grey box sat atop the desk, a few paper books, a small statuette from ancient Earth and a PADD poked from the top as he searched through the last of the drawers in the CO's desk. Most of it was simple detritus that would be returned to the replicator - PADDs, old isolinear chips that had once contained orders, the occasional rank pip left from a promotion or demotion he had performed. Rummaging amongst the last few items, he gathered up the pile and headed towards the replicator.

With a low grunt as he deposited the armful into the repository, John heard something fall to the floor. Looking down he watched as a small item rolled away from him and disappeared under the small coffee table.

Grumbling once more knowing that Lirha would make it very clear she was not happy if the office wasn't returned to her in a pristine state, the XO dropped to his knees and went searching. It took only a moment for the object to brush the palm of his hand, which he quickly retrieved and returned to his feet.

Opening his hand Holliday looked down, taking a deep breath as he saw what exactly he had picked up. Taking a moment he moved towards the small sofa that the CO used to entertain visitors and let his weight drop down onto the chair.

The item he had found was small, almost cylindrical and crystalline in nature. It hadn't taken long for him to remember what exactly this was.

"Coleman..." he muttered to himself as he remembered his former crewmate who had been reported as deceased some time ago. The tiny crystal was originally meant to have been some kind of sleep aid - she had explained what exactly it did and how it worked, but after reports of her death, the-then-Commander Holliday had chosen to simply keep it as a memento of an ex-shipmate, colleague, and almost friend.

For another moment the Captain sat in silence, simply looking down at the item in his hand and remembering those early days aboard Galileo when she was still the newest ship in the fleet. The smallest, but definitely the newest.

After a moment of quiet contemplation, John stood up and headed towards the box of effects and held his hand above the collection of goods, ready to tip the crystal in to join it's fellow trinkets. It took a moment, before eventually he instead took the crystal and dipped it into the pocket of his uniform trousers. A memento of a fallen colleague deserved something more than just being discarded into a box for storage.

Perhaps he would think of those that had passed on one more time before consigning them to old history, and memories....



[OFF]

CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Executive Officer
USS Galileo

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