JP: Captain Addison MacKenzie & Lt. Cmdr. Alexander Brodie - Picking The Bones Out Of It - Part 2
Addison MacKenzie
((Starfleet Medical Campus, Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, Earth))
MacKenzie: All I can offer is that there’s no question in my mind… but I also don’t think I know up from down any more as far as Starfleet Command is concerned.
The perceived deception as a result of the Changeling infiltration left many members of Starfleet with a feeling of discontent, unsure whether the interactions and orders they were receiving from the senior leadership were being given in good faith. …or by the people it seemed were giving them.
He knew what she was saying - and time would tell just how they would approach matters but if he and MacKenzie were aligned then that was a start. He made an attempt to lighten the mood a touch.
Brodie: So…nothing has changed that much then?
She exhaled a small snort and offered a soft smile. They walked together in silence for several moments, still trying to receive and process the destruction around them of a place they both viewed as sacred.
She seemed to stop suddenly and the next sentence came out softly…but also quickly…like it couldn’t stay behind her lips a second longer.
MacKenzie: How many people did you lose?
He wasn’t to just reply ‘Don’t’ but she deserved more than that..
Brodie: Thirteen…we were running really light. Given the circumstances we got off lightly...
He paused…he didn’t want to ask but he needed to. Not for him, but for her. She brought it up for a reason and he suspected she needed to say it out loud.
Brodie: ::Calmly:: …You?
Addison took a slow breath in through her nose, held it, and then released it equally as slow, as if her reservation in speaking the number aloud meant it wouldn’t be true.
MacKenzie: 84.
He nodded solemnly. What could you say to that? A ship the size of the Artemis - that must have been…a quarter of their compliment?
The worst part? They’d seen larger casualty tolls…Addison had been there during the Hammerfall Incident on the Thor, led the evacuation efforts to Deep Space Nine, but that still didn’t bring back the one-hundred and eighty-three souls lost that day…but this was different.
This was her command, these were her people. It was her ship…ergo, it was her fault.
Except, of course, it wasn’t. He knew you could do everything right and the outcome would still be bad…it was just…the least bad option. That didn’t mean it wasn’t horrific.
Brodie: I’m so sorry, Addison.
It sounded cliche but he meant it. She might be wearing command red now but she was a skilled surgeon and a healer at heart. It was never easy losing a patient. That feeling that you had failed in a duty of care didn’t leave you just because you were now wearing a different coloured shirt.
She raised her arms slightly with her palms to the ceiling, almost in resignation.
MacKenzie: What can you do?
Brodie: I know you won’t thank me for saying this…but it isn’t your fault. This was an unprecedented situation…against insurmountable odds.
MacKenzie: Even still, one has a responsibility-
Brodie: No - that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is…
He tried to find the right words to frame his comments.
Brodie: …Okay, you and I have been in and around the medical world a while now. I assume you’ve presented at, or even chaired, the occasional Morbidity and Mortality Conference?
MacKenzie: I’ve been. (beat) What an abysmal place.
She chuckled.
Brodie: Then, in what’s left of this hallowed teaching hall, I’ll skip to the main question. Given the known factors at the time and the situation ‘on the ground’, what, Captain MacKenzie, would you have done differently?
MacKenzie: Oh, there’s nothing to be done differently, I suppose. But the weight of responsibility… Each name. Each face. It’s a lot of calls to a lot of loved ones.
She’d done it for each of her officers, and she’d done it for many more for those serving on Earth Spacedock.
Brodie nodded. He’d not held a command but he’d been involved in those calls…and comforted those whose worlds had just imploded..everyone mourned the dead…but really, he wondered if it should be the ones left behind.
Brodie: And that, unfortunately, is what keeps you human…the day you stop feeling that tugging on your soul…you call me.
Their trip down memory lane brought them to the main lecture hall - it was the largest room on the medical campus, but as the pair stepped inside, it was a shell of its former structure. There was a gaping hole in the ceiling that destroyed the stage’s proscenium and replaced it with bright sunlight.
MacKenzie: What a mess.
Alex looked up at the sun starting to peek through both the clouds and the roof and burn off the morning haar. Once more, he tried to make a little light of the scene before them.
Brodie: I don’t know…I quite like a bit more natural light coming in…maybe a bit less natural drizzle.
MacKenzie: Who knew a skylight was just what this place needed…
He turned to Addison.
Brodie: I do mean it though, you can call. Obviously you’ll have people back home, and on the Artemis, but…if you need that ‘stranger on a train’ who’s not involved and can give you some impartial advice I’m only a subspace call away…assuming they don’t throw us all in jail of course.
She nodded slowly, her eyes surveying the large space in all its damaged glory once more, until finally her concentration was broken by the sound of footsteps on rubble elsewhere in the complex. Their coveted time in this sacred space had come to an end.
MacKenzie: We should go.
It would seem that, as the world had turned…they’d lost the advantage of the dawn and the world was starting to wake with it.
Brodie: Duty calls?
MacKenzie: Something like that…
Broide: You know I do wish, every now and then, duty would lose my number…but you’ve got mine…use it any time you want. ::Smiling:: We Celts have to stick together after all.
MacKenzie: The feeling is mutual. Good to see you, my friend.
[End]
---
Captain Addison MacKenzie, M.D., Ph.D., FASFS
Commanding Officer
USS Artemis-A
Captains Council Member at Large
V239601AM0
&
Lt. Cmdr. Alexander W. Brodie
Counselor
USS Chin'toka (NCC-97187)
Writer ID.: A239005BM0