[Raiser, Ready Room]
After Williamson has asked his questions, Cathy nodded and replied,
"If that is all, you are dismissed, Ensign."
She waited for the young ensign to leave before looking at the last of her paperwork. She had done as much as she could given the time frame and her mind was struggling to focus on the task any more. Getting up from her desk, she moved to the replicator again, replicating the same dark liquid that propelled her through most of her career. She took a moment to reflect on it, wondering if it had become a crutch that she relied on to get through the day - or a harmless distraction to the tasks at hand. Like a drug, it was probably likely that, sub-consciously, she had increased the strength of the coffee over the years... but she was not sure, not without querying the computer about such an irrelevant thing.
Taking the cup of coffee, she took a sip and closed her eyes momentarily - letting the dark liquid revive her slightly. A small smile crept onto her face as she imagined the liquid powering up her brain cells. Taking a deep breath, she thought about a poem her mother had once made her study,
...You never knew that I had gone
A million miles away, and stayed
A million years. The laughter played
Unbroken round me; and the jest
Flashed on. And we that knew the best
Down wonderful hours grew happier yet.
I sang at heart, and talked, and eat,
And lived from laugh to laugh, I too,
When you were there, and you, and you...For a moment, she was back in the family house, reading out poetry to her mother and two sisters - all of them exchanging what they thought was the 'best poem ever'. The laughing and smiling, the jest and playful arguing still rang in her mind as clear as it was a few days prior. A lot had changed since those days; her older sister had moved to Vulcan, her younger sister was back on Mars and her parents were still floating somewhere in the ether... space dust. The thought made her clench her jaw tighter, remembering the day she had heard the news. Now, more than most times, she wished she was still with Jack - she could have done with his voice to settle the ocean of her mind as it started to get turbulent.
The only one, except her sisters, who had ever been close enough to the aging captain's heart. Jack Langmir; former soldier, engineer and off on some mysterious mission that she would mean she would never see him again. Sighing, she opened her eyes and moved back to her console - she had a few minutes to spare to send a message to her sisters; she missed them sometimes.
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OOC: Poem is Dining-Room Tea by Rupert Brooke
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Capt. Catherine Raiser, USS Victoria (ret.)
Cathy Knights
