“You have to let him go, son. I’ll miss him,
too. The world is going to miss him. The world will never forget him.”
Jonathan
couldn’t let go of his father’s hand. As soon as he did it would be over, it
would be real. His best friend, a man he looked up to, respected, was taken by
the simple malfunction of a single, selfish gene more than 50 years in the
past.
“Allow him
the dignity to pass before he has nothing left of himself, Jonathan. It’s the
last gift we can give him.”
Jonathan
awoke in a sweat, looking around to orient himself in the dark. He hated that
dream. Forty years gone by and it still
came back now and then.
“Honey?”
Jonathan realized he was on a ship at warp. A dim light clicked on and Riaan’s
sleepy face regarded him with concern.
She put a hand on his head. “Are you alright? You’re sweating, you have
a fever.”
“No,
I’m fine, really.” He sat up slowly. The little timepiece on the desk showed
04:06. “We should arrive in sector 001 today sometime.” A wave of vertigo hit
him and he lay back down quickly.
“Let
me get you something.” Riaan sat up.
“No,
I just need to breathe a little.” Jon closed his eyes and took a few deep
breaths. Riaan watched him do his best to return to a sleep. Shortly he rolled
to the right away from her. Then back over to his left to face her. “Why are
you so sweet?”
“You’re
the ‘honey’.”
“I’m
so glad you’re here.” He reached to touch her and pull her back under the
covers. “I have this bad dream about my father’s death; it comes now and then,
pieces of it. Has Brannigaan been having disturbed sleep?”
“No,
not quite. Getting to sleep, but not staying asleep.” Riaan shifted a little
into the bed, bumping up against Jon and laying her head on his arm.
“Check
in with him now and then.” They both changed their positions until they met
like two spoons in a drawer. Jon wrapped
his arms around her waist to keep her from sliding away, not that she planned
on doing so. He burrowed his face in her silky hair and kissed her neck a
couple of times. If she hadn’t been so tired from being awakened so early she
might have returned to face him and kiss him back. Instead she wiggled as close
as she could and closed her eyes.
Jonathan
woke and saw 07:00 this time. Riaan was up and out already, probably in sick
bay by now. Branni was also missing; Riaan usually took him to the mess and
then he was on his own to find the classroom. He knew the ship inside and out
already and no one seemed to mind his curiosity since they showed him all the
dials and switches and view screens he asked about.
He
reached for the intercom. “Archer to the bridge.”
“Good
morning Admiral.” He recognized French’s voice on the comm.
“Any
sign of Earth?”
“Not
yet sir, about 8 hours.”
“I’m
looking forward to it. Can you tell me the date on Earth?”
"October
9th, sir; 2163, of course.
“Thank
you, French.” And happy birthday,
Jonathan. “Archer to the galley,” he signaled again.
“Galley;
good morning, Admiral.”
“I’d
like breakfast in my quarters this morning, oh seven thirty.”
“Yes,
sir.”
Archer
didn’t have much to do except pack up to go home. It was almost a day off, not
that he had a lot of experience with that kind of time. His admiral’s uniform
was not his favorite, but after Akalli clothes and duty blues it was nice to
have something a bit more formal for his arrival at Starfleet. It had been so
long since he’s tied a Windsor knot he’d almost forgotten how.
After
all his belongings had been stashed in a duffle, he straightened up the room.
Leaving a ship was not Archer’s idea of happiness, but this time he brought
with him a bit of a family, for lack of a better word. More than four months
had passed since he left for Akal, which was supposed to be a 30 day assignment
outside of the travel. Earth was still a few hours away, so he made his way to
sick bay. Back in the uniform, he began to get nods from all the crew members
on his route again. The officers were less formal among each other, but Admiral
Archer was known by every person in Starfleet the way every American knew of
Abraham Lincoln or every European knew of Queen Elizabeth II. You didn’t ignore
this man.
The
Endeavour had been fitted with automatic doors to some rooms; sick bay was one
of them. The doors slid open with a familiar shoosh. He looked around; sick bay
was remarkably quiet. No one in bio beds, no labs on the shelf. Riaan appeared
from behind the curtains.
“Hello,
Handsome.” Jonathan smiled and shook his head slightly.
“Where
is everyone – did you cure them all?”
“No
one seems to be ill, they’re all happy to be coming up on Earth. I’m excited to
see what it looks like.”
“A
lot like Akal. Where’s Branni?”
“He
and Mia are somewhere. I don’t worry, where can he go?” Riaan leaned against a
bio-bed, taking the weight off her feet a bit. Jon leaned against another
facing her.
“Excited?”
he asked. She nodded short and fast. “I am too. I haven’t been home in months.”
“How
much longer until we’re there?”
“A
few hours. We can see our sun at 30 AUs, and then it’s just 5 minutes to go.”
“And
you told me an AU is…”
“Originally
it was 93 million miles, and then it became 150 million kilometers. It’s about
the distance from our planet to the sun, give or take half a million.”
“It’s
fascinating, the last few moon cycles, weeks, are better than going to school.”
“You’re
an amazing student. Are all Akallis as quick a study as you?”
“I
don’t think it was really fast, Jon. But I think Akallis are faster at picking
up languages and absorbing information than what I’ve seen of humans. But look
at us, we are still on the ground burning insect wax and oil, and there’s
barely any running water outside of the city. We certainly don’t have star
ships.”
“Vie
la difference,” he said, and stepped over to press his body to hers. After a
quick kiss he backed up a few steps. “You should get out of all that doctor
stuff and go put on something for San Francisco. Think 25 degrees and near the
ocean.”
No comments:
Post a Comment