Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen - Final fifteen yards (END)

[CPT Arianus]

(( Albionshire University, Thidia ))

There are things in life that don't change. The position of the sun as it rises each morning and sets as night falls. The gravity that holds you to the planet you are walking on. The color of the eyes you were born with, and the eyes you will close for the last time when the time comes. Some constants are always there as they were yesterday... and will be there tomorrow.

Ollie Bergman had no idea whether he would find him where he had met him seventeen years earlier, but it turned out that Dr. Leon Marks' life was a similar constant. Same floor, same doors, same office. As if time had stopped there. Yet, Dr. Marks himself was unmistakably different. The years had etched deep lines across his once youthful face, and his hair, once a rich brown, now resembled, in what was left of it, wisps of silver. He had grown old, very old. If not for the worn name tag that hung on the door, Ollie might not have recognized the man.

Bergmen: Doctor Marks?

The chalkboard spanning one wall, a canvas of complex physics formulas, was another thing that never seemed to change. Seventeen years had slipped away, yet Dr. Marks would still stand in front of the board, erasing segments of the chalk-dusted board, just to fill those spaces with somehow more refined and precise mathematical representations of the function.

Leon: Yes? Just a moment… I need one moment, please.

Dr. Marks didn’t even glance at him; he simply continued with his work. He filled the last empty space at the end of the vector calculus formula, and in the middle, turned it into a larger motion formula that Ollie did not understand the context of.

Leon: There… Thank you. ::turns to Ollie and glances at him with a probing look:: Ah, Hannah’s husband to be. (beat) Ollie, right? (beat) Was I expecting you?

Ollie averted his gaze, the weight of the remark pressing on his chest. It pierced the veil of time, dragging forth vivid memories of a different era—his laughter, Hannah’s bright smile—seventeen years ago, gathered around the dinner table with her family. They had shared dreams and laughter that evening, their conversation swirling around hopes for the future: marriage, children, family bliss.

Now, as the years unfolded, it felt like an aching void, a stark reminder that none of those cherished visions had come to pass. Seventeen years of unfulfilled promises lingered in the air, suffused with bittersweet nostalgia.

Bergmen: No. I… I wanted to see how you were doing, as you weren’t at the meeting. Losing your daughter, I can’t imagine what that must be like.

Father nodded, as if his feelings didn't matter. He shrugged, turned to the board, and began erasing it, entire equations and years of work disappearing right before Ollie's eyes.

Leon: Have you put her into the ground already?

Bergmen: Tomorrow, sir. Will you come?

Bergmen was puzzled by the disapproving glance that came his way in response to that question.

Leon: Someday, yes. I was her father. She was my daughter…

Doctor Marks turned back to the chalkboard and continued erasing additional mathematical-physical formulas.

Leon: Although even if I come tomorrow, I'm sure her mother wouldn't see me that way. Hannah leaving for Starfleet was something she never forgave me for.

Ollie had no good answer to those words. Just days earlier, a bombshell revelation had shattered his idyllic view of her life: her parents had divorced. It felt like a jarring blow, dismantling the image of the once-harmonious family he had admired during his visit after his and Hannah's graduation from the Enlisted Academy... which was probably a lie he just hadn't seen at the time.

But he didn't seem to see or know about more things that now seemed to be... explanations for things he didn't understand and didn't want to know then.

With a heavy sigh, Bergmen gestured towards the erased chalkboard and tried to steer the conversation away from the painful topic.

Bergmen: Why didn’t you finish what you were working on?

Father carefully folded the rag he had been using and tucked it under the chalkboard.

Leon: Constructing an invariant measure of the warpfield bubble arranged in the phase space folded by the cosmological temporal variants is not that important.

Bergmen: It sounded clearly very important…

Leon: Not anymore. (beat) The galaxy will be no poorer for me not finishing it.

With a slight sigh, he made his way to his desk and began rearranging PADDs and objects from one side to the other.

Leon: My wife, Elaine, sh-she was the true parent. (beat) I loved Hannah. Love her. ::sobs:: But she was the one, more often than not, taking care of me. Even after she enlisted, she always called, making sure I ate. Making sure I got to work on time…

Bergman reached across the table and placed his hand on the book that the professor was trying to pick up and rearrange, forcing him to glance at him.

Bergmen: And now you blame yourself for learning your daughters to dream. About stars. About beyond. About life they can have, instead of the life they had. ::pauses and pulls his hand back:: It’s a logical extension of your reasoning. Although I believe that contemplating abandoning everything that connects you with Han is an emotional rather than a rational choice.

Leon: Excuse me?

Bergmen: People like us… We’re nothing without our work. Hannah mitigated that. With her gone, if you abandon your work, you’ll have no reason to live.

Leon: That sounds like a supremely rational thought.

Was it, really? Ollie knew the professor was right, yet it was words he needed to hear.

Bergmen: Follow the logic. She took care of us both so we could keep working. Not everyone understands someone like us. Inertia demands that we keep going. For Hannah.


(( Albionshire University, Thidia ))
(((Next morning)))

When Ollie discovered that Hannah's father was not at home to give him a ride to the funeral, a knot of worry tightened in his stomach. He couldn’t help but fear that their conversation yesterday had failed to resonate as he had hoped. But there weren't many places he could find him, and the university was his next stop. As he approached Doctor Leon Marks's office, he noted the door ajar, allowing a glimpse into the room. Hesitant to intrude, Ollie paused outside.

Through the doorway, he could see the professor standing at the chalkboard, once again immersed in a world of swirling math and physics formulas. Ollie smiled.

Bergmen: Doctor Marks?

The professor paused, leaving the last formula incomplete as he turned to follow the voice.

Leon: Lieutenant Bergmen? Is it time already?

Ollie nodded and stepped inside the room.

Bergmen: I see you’ve been hard at work…

Dr. Marks stepped closer to the formulas at the beginning of the chalkboard and stopped next to Ollie.

Leon: You may find this difficult to understand… but… Yes. I took your advice.

Ollie tilted his head as he examined the patterns and stepped closer to point out their origin.

Bergmen: I think I understand. ::smiles and points at chalkboard:: This one, this is Hannah. At rest?

The doctor followed his steps, and his finger followed the brackets and the signs of the equation’s result.

Leon: In her crib, yes.

Lieutenant pointed to another he recognized.

Bergmen: Here. She's crawling… ::chuckles as he recognizes the continuation of that one:: Her first steps…

His words followed a sigh, as he did not immediately recognize the next formula.

Bergmen: This circular motion…

The professor stepped in and pointed his finger to indicate the meaning.

Leon: Somersaults, yes.

Ollie nodded to indicate he understood, then moved on to the next equation.

Bergmen: Okay, this is a smooth, stable velocity, in a gradual curve, on a single plane… Ice-skating?

Leon giggled and nodded.

Leon: Good. Yes!

Ollie glanced at the next formula, trying to understand it.

Bergmen: Here. She is being carried.

The professor nodded once more and underlined the part of the equation.

Leon: Yes, on my shoulders.

Bergmen: This one… she’s running… There… Swimming… Climbing…

Ollie stopped, as the last equation didn't make sense to him. He recognized that it involved some kind of motion, but the way the energy of that motion was divided into two sub-equations was puzzling him.

Bergmen: I’m sorry, this is beyond me.

Father pointed to the energy division to emphasize the point.

Leon: Oh, uh, the birth of Ty. The equations of acceleration and twisting, division of two energies from one… Those are much harder, I know.

Ollie smiled and nodded. Now he understood. He glanced at the last set of formulas and pointed to those.

Bergmen: Those I know. This is her journey among the stars.

Professor nodded.

Leon: Impulse and warp velocity. Subspace travel. Starlight. Planetary rotation.

Bergmen: Her life in movement. ::tilts his head to see the equations better and sighs:: This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

The doctor was looking at the chalkboard in silence for a moment, before he glanced back at Ollie.

Leon: Thank you.

Bergmen: Better than any speech… Any holophoto… ::sighs as trying not to cry:: This is absolutely… Perfectly… Beautiful.

Leon: ::tears in his eyes:: She was… beautiful…

Ollie turned his gaze toward him, and his eyes sparkled with empathy. The corners of his lips lifted gently, as if to wrap her in an invisible embrace of understanding and support.

Bergmen: She flew through space while moving through the lives of many. ::tears were rolling down his face:: Perhaps that’s what people mean when they… they talk about angels…

The father stepped closer and slowly wrote the infinity symbol in parentheses to complete the last equation on the chalkboard.

Bergmen: ::exhales:: At rest…

He took a step forward and reached out to grasp the chalk. He glanced at the father, no longer trying not to cry, then back at the board. Paused for a moment. Then his hand rose to the equation, and he traced it with a rectangle.

Bergmen: Hannah’s at rest again…


// ESCORT TRIP REPORT
1. DETAILS
ESCORT:
a. Olliver Kimmi Bergmen
b. Lieutenant Junior Grade
c. Operations
d. USS Artemis-A

DECEASED:
a. Hannah Emilly Marks
b. Senior Petty Officer
c. Engineering
d. USS Tennessee Williams

POINT OF ORIGIN

a. Trill, Trill system, Alpha Quadrant

POINT OF DESTINATION
a. Thidia, Alpha Leonis system, Beta Quadrant

2. TRAVEL

…Hannah Emilly Marks was wearing her St. Christopher medallion when she was killed on the first Monday in November. Twelve days later, I handed the medallion to her family. I watched them carry her the final fifteen yards. I felt that, as long as she was still moving, she was still somehow alive. When they put her down in her grave, she’d stopped moving.

I found I didn’t know Hannah at all through those seventeen years she was a part of my life…
But I still miss her today, having found true her along, even for just twelve days…

//

THE END

–

Lieutenant JG Ollie Bergmen
Operations Officer
U.S.S. Artemis-A
A240009JC1