Lt.JG Taelon - Un-Usual Happenings

[Alison Hardwick]

((Astrometrics, Deck 17, USS Gorkon))

Pace: I really am sorry about the gravity, sir. I didn’t mean to add more stress into an already stressful situation.

Taelon: Wha - oh, um, that’s - it’s alright. It just surprised me and I had an, um, a moment.

Pace: ?

Taelon: I’m El-Aurian; we can feel distortions in time, so everything’s a bit… ::He waved a hand vaguely.:: A bit, um, tilted at the moment.

The fact that even in the ‘correct’ timeline his race’s home planet had been assimilated for two centuries went unsaid; he wasn’t letting himself brood over that. Even if some of the hopeful comments from others twisted his stomach as the whispered them. They all wanted to go back to the world where their home planets were free and prospering. For El-Auria, there was no such salvation, in this timeline or the other.

Not for the first time, he looked up at the planet’s display and wondered if that was what had become of El-Auria. He’d only ever seen the ‘before’ in detail, the planet a blue and green gem surrounded by their expansive orbital platforms, the transwarp gateways, the little glittering specs of starships. Long-range photography of the planet’s modern state showed a dark world surrounded by cubes and spheres, the ornate stations dismantled, the atmosphere clogged with pollution.

No, he wasn’t going to think about that. Here and now. Focus. He changed the subject, pushing those old sorrows away for later.

Taelon: How, um, how fresh are you? From the Academy, I mean. You said you studied the Borg - did you, um, take the electives, or…

Pace: ?

Taelon: Oh, I’m, um, also new here. Not to Starfleet, I mean, to the, um, the ship. This is my first day here…

Pace: ?

His gentle voice got a bit happier, even if by force.

Taelon: It’s only upwards from here, right?

Sevo: Trust me, you’re in for a wild ride.

Taelon jerked in surprise, having not really registered Sevo coming in. Given the light gravity, this little jump of his was a lot more obvious. He recognized her as the Trill who’d had a bit of a moment back in the Lounge; she certainly seemed to have recovered.

Pace: Response

Ayiana pressed her foot against a console as she passed it, gently stopping her in the air near the two. The coffee in her mug barely sloshed with the limited inertia.

Sevo: Sorry for intruding, I didn’t know anyone would be here.

Taelon looked up at her, eyebrows raised.

Taelon: You - um, you look better than before, Miss…?

He realized he’d not really caught her name. Someone had said it, surely? His mind had been thoroughly occupied by the planet outside at the time.

Sevo / Pace: ?

Taelon: Ah, Taelon - nice to meet you both. I just transferred, so - this is, um, hopefully not the norm…?

He looked at Sevo hopefully. The crew seemed oddly willing to take the danger on, but surely this was beyond what the ship normally faced. Surely..

Sevo / Pace: ?




Lt. JG Taelon
Science Officer
USS Gorkon