MSNPC The “Admiral” — Being a Needle in a Haystack
Nolen Hobart
((USS Ouachita, adrift in the Lagoon Nebula))
The Admiral fixed her gaze out the transparent forward view panels. Every twinkling of light through the swirling, sprawling gas cloud around them taunted her. She blinked away the strain.
Admiral: Remind me of your confidence on this? Place and time?
Tori: Response
When Semara was done prevaricating, Ohnari-Dewitt jutted a thumb in approval towards the scientist. Semara was a great deal like her mother, and even more like her before she secretly joined Starfleet Intelligence. It was like she was in the compartment with them already.
Kael: Oh my confidence is in her. Wherever she goes, I go.
Admiral: Noted.
She shrugged off the survival blanket and leaned forward in her seat. The runabout was gently rocked by an invisible gravitational eddy, a reminder of events that were both a lifetime ago and very nearly yesterday.
Tori: Response
The others gravitated towards the craft’s windows, each searching a different swath of the dim, swirling, stellar soup. Soon their trap would spring, and their salvation set in motion. In the quiet, the half-human voice’s filled the Admiral’s ears. Her mind wandered away from their conversation.
Kael: I don’t know. It seems like what my Father would call a ‘hail mary’. :crossing over to Tori and holding her hands: But I believe in her, and whether this works or doesn’t work I’m not letting her out of my sight, not now; not ever.
Tori: Response
The Admiral said nothing. Well into her sixties, she was more than capable of procuring a heaving helping of cold water when the need for it arose, and wise enough to know when to keep her bucket in reserves.
Kael: Well perhaps I take after my Father.
He didn't. For all his expertise in the technical fields, the Admiral found Kael to be much more an Ohnari than a Dewitt, having known both of them fairly well. Dewitt was diligent, dedicated to his work, often at the cost of his own personal relationships. His devotion to his partner—walking it right up to the line of professional malpractice—seemed to the Admiral a far more Ohnari-like trait.
Tori: Response
Admiral: There!
Her arm lurched forward, index finger rigid and pointing out towards the cloud. She'd seen a spark of light, different from the twinkling of the infantile stars in the nursery. She saw it, she was sure of it. Someone had come.
Kael / Tori: Response
Admiral: Eleven o’clock, up twenty degrees.
She squinted, unable to make out any features. The flash was all she'd seen and she was sure it was there. Her eyes weren't everything they used to be, but they hadn't completely failed her yet.
Kael / Tori: Response
Admiral: There's a blue glow. Faint. Do you see it? Is it a deflector?
Kael / Tori: Response
TBC
——— ? ———
The “Admiral”
as simmed by
Lt. Commander Nolen Hobart
Executive Officer
USS Khitomer (NCC-62400)
A240001NH3