In Memoriam

Posted on Jul 28, 2014 @ 10:49pm by Captain Michael Turlogh Kane
Edited on on Jul 28, 2014 @ 10:54pm

Mission: http://thefrpg.com/sim/missions/id/9
Location: USS CENTURY

"IN MEMORIAM"

(Continued from "Enemas, Cows, and Suicidal Mission")

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"My love is a flower that lies among the graves. My love is the thousand souls that it saves."
- Jeff Buckley "I Never Asked To Be Your Mountain"

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Captain's Log, Supplemental - Bound for Earth, the Century is still cloaked and running silently through the heart of the Federation. We cannot make our existence known until we are in a position to ensure our safety. That hour has not yet come.

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Location: USS CENTURY
Stardate: [2.14]0717.1700
Scene: Hydroponics bay


Michael Turlogh Kane found her in the rotting hydroponics bay, standing amongst the forest of dead sludge. Growing plants in mineral-rich solutions without the use of soil was not a new science, but it had been given something of a new lease of life aboard the Century a decade ago, when Starfleet Science decided to test the possibilities of feeding a large crew complement in such a fashion. Accordingly, one of the smaller cargo bays had been converted to a hydroponics bay. In its prime, the place had been a teeming verdant garden of flora.

"Erika," said Kane.

The girl started. Turning around, she stared at him a little fearfully. "I didn't touch anything!"

Kane stepped forward, and the bay doors rumbled shut in his wake. "It wouldn't matter if you did," he said, looking around at the mess. The thousands of varieties of plant species here were all dead, had died along with Dupree and all his crew. Once the atmosphere had been vented, the mineral solutions that the plants lived on evaporated, and they had all starved to death in this room, turning into viscous brown sludge as the years passed. The sludge had hardened over like a shell, solidifying into strange edifices and shapes that seemed to retain some memory of what they had been when they were alive. Monuments to other lives. "Everything in here is dead."

Erika was still unsure if she was in trouble or not. "Oh."

Kane approached her. "Do you know who I am?"

"You're the captain," she said.

"Yes. But do you know who I am?"

Erika looked confused.

Kane put his hands behind his back. "We met once, you and I. It was almost ten years ago. You were a child. You looked very different then." He smiled sidelong at her, but it was true. Like her mother, Erika had grown up tall and tottering, but aside from the height, Kane nothing of Daisy in her. She was wearing a hideous pink top with bright blue pants, and had some sort of yellow flower in her hair, over her right ear where a Bajoran might wear a d'jarra ring.

"I don't remember," said Erika apologetically.

"I do. It was during the Discovery's exploration voyage in the Beta Quadrant while your brother Jason was being born. You figured out how to use the ship's communications system to call for your mother. I let you come on to the bridge and sit in the centre seat. I called you Admiral."

"Oh." She looked downcast for a moment. "Jason's dead."

"I know. I've read your mother's personnel file, properly this time. But you have other brothers and sisters, do you not? The ones who came aboard from the Apparition?"

"Yes. Jake's not my real father."

"I know that too." Kane reached out and touched a spear of hardened sludge that had formed from the dying plant biomass. It was like a desperate finger reaching hopelessly into the dark. "When we met in the Academy, your mother's surname was Byrne. That's still how I remember her. I never met any of Daisy's lovers. There were too many to keep track of," he grinned.

Erika looked like she was going to die, like she didn't know whether to get angry or laugh out loud. "You know my mother well?"

"No," said Kane ruefully. "I knew your mother well. We've not been friends for a long time."

"Why? Did you have a fight?"

"Not at all."

"Then wh -"

"Because, Admiral, people change. We're always changing. In five years' time you won't recognise any of the children that are in your quarters today. Every day you wake up a little bit different until one day you wake up and you're someone else. That's what happened - who I became was not compatible with who your mother was. It meant that we could no longer be friends. Do you understand?"

"Yes." Erika's eyes brightened. "I think I do remember you now."

Kane smiled at her.

"All the people on this ship died, didn't they?" she said, looking around. "This room, these dead plants, they all died too. Like the people on your other ship." She shivered involuntarily.

Kane's smile faded.

Erika took the flower from her hair and pierced the hard sludge with her finger. It gave way with a light crack. She placed the flower inside it and stood it up straight. "When we get home I'll tell my mother I met you. Do you want me to give a message to her?"

Kane thought for a moment. "Tell her - tell her that I remember her."

As Erika left, Kane looked around at all that dead mulch, a mass of brown illuminated by a sunburst of yellow.

He reached out and touched the flower.

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NRPG: I was going to write more, but it seems fitting to leave it there for now. Next post from me will be the next story opener.


Jerome McKee
the Soul of Michael Turlogh Kane
Commanding Officer
USS CENTURY


"He speaks an infinite deal of nothing!"
- Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", Act 1, Scene 1.117

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