Place Setting For One, Part One

Posted on Mar 23, 2017 @ 10:23pm by Commander Jacob Crichton & Ambassador Xana Bonviva
Edited on on Mar 23, 2017 @ 10:30pm

Mission: In Place of God

= Place Setting For One, Part from “The Torment of Her Heart and Soul”)

LOCATION: USS PHOENIX
SCENE: Corridor
STARDATE: [2.17] 0323.0735

TIME INDEX: Just after the scene in Sarah’s “There Is A Disturbance On The USS PHOENIX…”

Jake rounded the corner, and saw Aerdan Jos and Eve Dalziel, standing with a tall, azure-skinned beauty with a shock of long, white hair, combed back. She was holding the tiny, wriggling form of the PHOENIX’s resident therapy pug, Captain Smooshy, who was busy giving her nose a vigorous tongue bath. Her face was scrunched up in a laugh, wrinkling her nose and the corners of her eyes, and for one fleeting instant, Jake was not aboard the PHOENIX, but back on Earth, in the Bonviva Villa’s large kitchen, watching as his wife laughed with their children. The memory was so vivid that it was almost like being back on the holodeck again, surrounded by the shadows of the life he’d walked away from.

Then she was looking at him, lowering the pug slightly. Their eyes met.

“Hello Jake,” Xana Bonviva said.

Jake stood there, not moving or speaking, for longer than was probably appropriate, based on the glance exchanged by Eve and Aerdan standing nearby. Remembering where he was, Jake tried to put on his best “command” voice, though now he couldn’t help but hear it through Xana’s ears, and imagine all the ways she might have teased him about it, in those quiet moments they shared together when they weren’t each working round the clock to hold the galaxy together.

“Xana,” Jake said. “Welcome aboard the PHOENIX.”

Jake thought she might look a little disappointed at the forced formality, but she didn’t say anything about it. Xana gently handed the pug back to Eve, then smiled thinly at Jake.

“The accommodations are quite adequate,” she said, and Jake recognized her tone; it was her “politician” voice. It hurt, but there was comfort in it; the formality of the occasion was something they could both cling to when the reality of their personal relationship threatened to overwhelm them.

“I’m glad you find them so,” Jake said. “You still know your way around?”

“There’s a lot more people on board now,” Xana said. “If I get lost, I’m sure I’ll find someone who can help me.”

“Good,” Jake said, a little more sharply than he meant to. “Of course you’ll let us know if you need anything.”

“Of course,” Xana said - almost snapped - right back.

Eve and Aerdan were now doing their best to look at something, anything, as long as it meant they didn’t have to look at Jake. Jake could feel the heat rising in his cheeks.

“Well then,” Jake said. “If there’s nothing else…”

“Nothing at all,” Xana said.

“Good,” Jake repeated. He gave a single, curt nod to Aerdan and Eve, then turned and retreated to the nearest turbolift.

***************************

A Joint Post by…

Sarah Albertini-Bond
Xana Bonviva

And

Shawn Putnam
a.k.a.
Jake Crichton
Executive Officer
USS PHOENIX