Lt. Nathan Richards - Drinks On Me
iamhighgroundyt
((Crew Quarters, Deck 03, USS Artemis-A))
Nathan found himself on deck 3, looking at each of the doors in search of the name O’Connell. He didn’t seem to be having any luck when he came across an open door. He looked inside to see a figure standing at the desk, placing things into a crate. Talos. The other man didn’t seem to notice him approaching, so Nathan knocked on the door frame to announce his presence.
Richards: Uh…mind if I come in, Commander?
Nathan’s question seemed to pull Talos out of a daze as he placed what appeared to be a small ship model into the crate.
Dakora: Oh, uh… sure. ::He gestured to the crate.:: Just securing the personal effects of…
Nathan entered the room cautiously, looking around. The life of a Starfleet Officer contained within those walls. A life that he had taken. He slowly moved up next to Talos, looking at the objects on the desk and the crate that Talos had been packing them into. He couldn’t help but feel the tug in his chest at the closer sight of the personal effects of –
Richards: Sarah O’Connell…
Nathan picked up a holoimage of the JG and, who Nathan assumed were her parents. He felt the obligation to get ahold of them and tell them what had happened. To tell them he was sorry. To tell them…He didn’t know what. Just something.
The room hung in silence for a moment as Nathan watched the images in the holoframe slowly slide through different pictures of Lieutenant O’Connell and her memories.
Richards: I’m…I’m sorry. Sir.
Dakora: Yeah. I’m sorry too. ::Beat:: I’m sorry that this happened to both of you. But you did what you had to do, and I think you know that.
Nathan opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. The next image on the holoframe was Sarah with some children. Her children? Her siblings? They appeared to be young. Much younger than Nathan’s own siblings. Was it what he needed to do? Was it really?
Dakora: If anything, Nathan, it’s my fault. I’m the one who put us in that position. ::He paused and let out a long sigh.:: If you wear that uniform long enough you’ll have more of these moments– where doing what you must feels like doing something wrong. And, yeah, it feels like shit every time.
Nathan glanced up at Talos as he stood up and leaned against the wall, crossing his arms. Is that what wearing the uniform really boiled down to? Having to make those hard decisions? Who lives and who dies?
Richards: Yeah…
Nathan set the holoframe into the crate as the image switched back to the first he had seen, Sarah and her parents, as Talos resumed his work of cleaning up the personal effects.
Dakora: But here’s the thing: in the end, we have a choice. We can beat ourselves up over it and let it consume us until there’s nothing left, or we can accept that what happened here—Sarah’s death, and all the others we lost on F-Day for that matter— will not be for nothing.
Nathan pursed his lips. A bunch of people whose names had been reduced to engravings in some memorial. With his thoughts, Nathan felt Talos’ hand on his shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze.
Dakora: If we find the strength to persevere, to rebuild, then we honor them. That’s how we make it matter. That’s how we move forward.
Nathan nodded slightly, looking out the windows. Pieces of debris lazily floated past, the drifting husk of Sol Station surrounded by ships making rescue attempts. There was so much.
Richards: That’s what we always do, right? Find the strength and rebuild?
Nathan let out a sigh as he took his eyes off the windows and looked back towards Talos.
Richards: We can do it again.
Nathan felt almost like he was trying to convince himself of that fact.
Dakora: Response
Richards: Just…so many lives. ::Sighing:: I guess we can’t really dwell on it for too long, huh?
Dakora: Response
Nathan offered a half hearted smile to the Commander. He and Talos had relied on each other to make through everything, and that’s just what they did. He felt like he owed him something. If not his life.
Richards: What do you say, after things have settled a bit, I buy you a drink?
Nathan used the term “buy” very loosely. He couldn’t remember the last time he actually had to buy anything.
Dakora: Response
TAGS/TBC…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lieutenant Nathan Richards
Chief of Operations
Amity Outpost
A239905NR1