Ensign Vesela Pace - The Gravity of the Situation
C Souers
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.
Vesela studied Taelon carefully. She’d never met someone who’d reacted to low gravity like this before. Usually it was a physical sensation, not something that affected a person’s whole being… soul and all.
Pace: Um, a moment, sir? ::Beat.:: Forgive me for prying, you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.
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.
Her exoskeleton felt a bit more constricting than normal even with the lower gravity. An El-Aurian… In both universes this man’s homeworld was overrun – conquered – by the Borg. Those infernal, never ending, Borg.
She wondered what she should say, what she could say, to help Taelon. She was a scientist, not a counselor! Factually, there wasn’t anything she could say that would save his planet from the Borg. She settled for a slightly bewildered nod and what she hoped was an empathetic look.
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: Oh, um, very fresh, sir. This is my very first tour, very first mission. I actually just arrived on the Gorkon. And I did take some electives. My areas of specialty are astronomy and cell biology. At the Academy I thought… I thought it would be interesting to study the Borg in a cytology context, but, um, I never imagined that I would ever, ever come close to seeing them.
Vesela looked away. How silly she sounded. Admitting that to her, the Borg were almost a fantasy. Taelon didn’t have that luxury. And now she didn’t either. She swallowed the frog in her throat, cleared it, and looked back at him.
Pace: Um, how – how about you, sir? How fresh are you?
Taelon: Oh, I’m, um, also new here. Not to Starfleet, I mean, to the, um, the ship. This is my first day here…
Vesela beamed at that.
Pace: I’m glad to be in good company, sir. It’s my first day too!
Taelon had a very soft voice, but the timbre changed a bit when he next spoke. A joyful tint colored the words, even though Vesela knew that the feeling itself didn’t make an impact on Taelon. Though who was feeling joyful at this moment? Surely not a single soul on the Gorkon was having anything close to what could be categorized as a good day.
Taelon: It’s only upwards from here, right?
Sevo: Trust me, you’re in for a wild ride.
Vesela yelped. She didn’t even hear the doors slide open. She saw a Trill Lieutenant Commander dressed in command red standing close to the door.
Pace: Ah, um, I-I’m sure we are, sir!
Ayiana kicked off of a console and came to a stop closer to Vesela and Taelon. Vesela could tell she had experience with low gravity situations. That was oddly comforting.
Sevo: Sorry for intruding, I didn’t know anyone would be here.
Vesela opened and closed her mouth like an Elaysian Giant Koi Fish. And she was very thankful that Taelon had recovered enough to speak.
Taelon: You – um, you look better than before, Miss…?
Sevo: Response
Pace: And I’m Ensign Vesela Pace! Very new here, just graduated, happy to be here despite… everything.
She mentally kicked herself. She wished she could stop making poorly timed jokes, but that day would obviously not be today.
Taelon: Ah, Taelon – nice to meet you both. I just transferred, so – this is, um, hopefully not the norm…?
Taelon looked to Sevo hopefully, just as Vesela had to Taelon a few minutes earlier. She followed his lead. When Vesela had gotten her assignment, she tried to read up as much as she could on the Gorkon’s history. This ship had been through so much already, and it seemed like fate had even more planned for both ship and crew.
Pace: Well, Starfleet is all about exploring, but I agree that I was… not entirely prepared for the mission to take this particular turn.
Sevo: Response
Vesela hadn’t gotten a chance to see the 413 Memorial yet, but she couldn’t stop herself as her thoughts drifted to it. Apparently, there was nothing like a first mission to make one incredibly aware of their mortality. She tried to shake the thought from her head and found herself actually shaking her head a bit.
Pace: S-sorry, I was just thinking about… ::Beat.:: Well, about how we can get out of this, I suppose.
Sevo / Taelon: Response
Pace: Although, from what I’ve seen so far, there’s no other crew I’d rather be stuck in a Borg-dominated-universe with… so there’s that at least.
She tried to offer the other two officers a grin, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
Sevo / Taelon: Response
—
Ensign Vesela Pace
Science Officer
USS Gorkon (NCC-82293)
G240106VP4