Lieutenant Jack Kessler - Angels Landing

[Joel Cannistraro]

((Angels Landing, Zion National Park - Holo Suite 04, USS Ronin))

Spanning a 1,488 elevation gain from the base of the trail to the top of Angels Landing, the trip of 4.3 kilometers one way took the average hiker four to five hours round trip. The trail was steep and narrow and although the real Angels Landing featured safeguards in modern times to prevent hikers from falling to their deaths, the history of the trail was heavily stained in blood. The Holo-suite had been programmed to simulate Angels Landing's current weather on Earth and this time of the year it was hot. The average temperature was 40 celcius (104 degrees fahrenheit) and Jack was already sweating pretty heavily as he pushed up the trail at a pace that was almost sprinting when he could. 

When he needed to clear his head or focus on a problem, Jack found climbing Angels Landing one of his favorite places to be. Although the Holosuite did an incredible job at simulating the vista, there were subtleties that were different and Jack knew them well, very well. He leaned forward as the trail gained elevation and pushed into the ground with the toes of his boots while his fingers gently pushed on the slope ahead of him allowing him to maintain a steady and brisk pace. He carried a pack on his back weighing nearly 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds) as did his climbing partner who was starting to lag a little behind.

Winters: ::breathing heavily:: Hey! Why are you pushing so hard? I thought you said this was going to be fun?

Kessler: ::coming to a halt and looking back:: This isn't fun? 

Michele's face was covered in perspiration as she too paused and looked up to Jack. Brushing a strand of hair from the side of her face, she glared back at him and threw him a knowing look. He only pushed this hard when he was working out a problem that troubled him and right now the Ronin was on shore leave, no one was in the brig. Although scuttlebutt around the ship suggested that two of the crew almost landed there. So what was troubling him so much that he was literally trying to run up Angels Landing?

Winters: ::catching her breath:: Look, I like a good workout just as much as you do but you are setting a pace that's going to get one of us hurt and considering you are the better climber, that means it's most likely me.

Jack grinned and turned a little more to face her. The ground beneath his feet grinding as he shifted his weight to keep from slipping. 

Kessler: ::grinning:: Wait. Did you say I was the better climber?

Michele pursed her lips together in a tight narrow ring and narrowed her brows. As she took a few steps up closer to him.

Winters: No, that must have been the wind and your imagination.

Michele pushed past Jack and then started climbing again at a brisk pace, carefully making sure her footing was firmly placed as she reached for the next step. Jack almost laughed as she took off a head of him knowing that she did so deliberately. The trail was too narrow to pass each other while on the move. One literal wrong step and at this point it was over 274 meters (900 feet) to the canyon floor. She now controlled the pace and there was little Jack could do without just tossing her off the edge. It was a fun thought, the Holosuite safeties would prevent her from falling but they would not likely stop her from taking a swing at Jack for trying it. 

Kessler: Would you rather be horseback riding on Bajor? Would that have been more fun? 

Winters: ::keeping pace:: You know I am far superior on horseback. You'd lose in a moment. 

Michele never looked back. Her focus was laser locked on staying ahead of him and not losing her footing. She knew that if she did Jack would ding her for distraction and allow her focus to wander. But she did not allow that to keep the smirking grin off her face. She knew that comment would gnaw at him. Michele was raised on a horse ranch on Earth. She grew up riding horseback and was more at home in the saddle than anyone she knew. She also knew that Jack loved horses and although he had only on occasion ridden before he met her, his skill had developed fast and he was formidable in a race. She loved and hated that about Jack. when it came to the outdoors, so much just seemed to come naturally to him. But the one area she still had him bested in was the one area she would never relinquish. She could out shoot him with any weapon you placed before them. 

Kessler: You think so? ::breathing heavily:: is that a challenge?

Winters: ::grinning to herself:: Sure, if you don't mind losing again?

Jack looked up to see Michele rocket up a few more meters and then lunged over a small outcropping. He knew this outcropping all too well. It was the final step before reaching the summit of Angels Landing. As he realised that she was there, the ground beneath his left boot gave out to his side. His entire leg shifted quickly and his balance was thrown to one side. A heavy inhale was slowly let out as he clutched a purch with his right hand and steadied himself. 

He made the last few meters up the trail and pulled himself over the outcropping to find Michele laying on her back. Feet, flat on the ground and breathing heavily but slowing. He slumped down on the ground next to her and pulled a water bottle from a pouch on the side of his pack. He opened the bottle and passed it over to Michele who aptly sat up and took the container from him and smiled.

Winters: Your focus faltered back there. Not only did you let me get past you, then you lost your footing. I think that's a double whammy. 10 points to me.

Jack eyed her for a moment and then looked over his shoulder to the outcropping edge. 

Kessler: There is no way you saw me lose my footing.

Winters: ::handing the water bottle to Jack:: And yet you did. 

Kessler: ::taking a draw of water:: Fine, 10 points to you. ::beat:: What is the score now.

Michele held up a hand and pretended to start writing out a mathematical formula in the air. 

Winters: Well, after the whole debocial on the Compass Rose, then you got space sick on the Runabout......

Kessler: Hey, no. Wait, that cannot be counted against.....

Winters: Oh yes it can and that puts me up by 50 points now.

Jack sat there shaking his head as Michele grinned ear to ear. 

Winters: So you gonna tell me what's eating you?

Jack paused and took another drink of the cool water before handing the container back over to Michele. He looked out of the vast canyon below and slowly started to pull his pack off. Sitting it on the ground next two him, Jack eyed it for a moment. Trying to put his thoughts in place so that Michele would understand. 

Kessler: Kel's recent promotion to Commander got me thinking and coming to a realization that I am not where I need to be in my career and at the same time if I pursue that career, it is going to take me further and further away from Nesre.

He knew that last piece would sting a bit. Michele and Jack had been extremely close before graduation from the academy. Close enough that Jack had proposed marriage to Michele. she almost took him up on proposal but at that time she had a career path she wanted to follow and so did he. Marriage was not on the table really for either of them. After several years apart and different assignments Jack was in love with Nesre Salo. He had come to terms with Michele's decision and never fought her on her desire to follow her path, but when she forced her way back into his life because his parents went missing, he had an issue with that. Now it seemed like she was his personal security, wherever he went, she wanted to tag along to keep him safe.

Winters: Can I make an observation that you are not going to like?

Kessler: If I said no, would it really matter?

Michele eyed him for a moment and then leaned back against her pack, allowing it to serve as a back rest.

Winters: You've always put Starfleet first in everything you say and almost everything you do. ::beat:: That is your father. 

Michele was careful to always use the current vernacular when speaking about his parents. She had known then very well and they would have accepted her as a daughter should she have agreed to marry Jack. To this day, their disappearance in the Gamma Quadrant haunted them both but deep down, Michele never once thought they were dead. 

Winters: Our relationship and the path it took, ::beat:: and now the path it takes with Nesre shows who you truly are under that uniform. It's not the command chair you want Jack...It's the family that you want. 

Jack shifted, tucking a leg over his pack and looked from Michele out to the sky, the canyon below and then back to her. 

Kessler: Who doesn't want to be part of a family? ::beat:: I just got side tracked and I need to get back on track to the command chair.

Michele sat up sharply and turned to face him. Her voice raised an octave or two as she spoke up.

Winters: Jack, you had Nesre back on the Butler. You had your sister back on the Butler. You're now on the Ronin. ::beat:: Are you chasing the command chair here on the Ronin? That's what you told Nesre and Krystal. 

Kessler: Yes, this position will get me closer to what I need to continue to the command chair. I need this experience.

Winters: Then why didn't you take the Mission Specialist role on the Butler? ::beat:: For that matter, why didn't you take the Chief Tactical officer position on the Thor and stay in the Gamma Quadrant with Nesre and Krystal? 

Michele stood up and grabbed her pack. Taking a few steps aways she laid it back on the ground and opened it. Inside a bright teal fabric shimmered as she began pulling her wingsuit out of the pack. Jack did not answer, he sat there and watched the sky and thought about her questions. Why had he chosen the Ronin? V'Len was his best friend and the invitation to join him was the driving factor of course but was Michele right? He had left Nesre and Krystal on the Butler to come here to the Ronin. Was there a reason he did not want to admit too? 

His thoughts drifted from the Landing's peak to the day aboard the Oumuamua when the Commodore brought the news to him that the USS Caboto had been lost with all hands. In that moment he did not know how to feel or react. He had immediately compartmentalized everything and went straight to work on looking for the Caboto as did the entire crew. During that mission Nesre had told him there would be a moment when he would face the realities of what this meant and it would change him. Then, in that same mission he discovered his sister and she was alive. Everything took an entire different direction and Jack never looked back. It was lead after lead and clue after clue that he hunted and turned over. So why had he jumped at the chance to come to the Ronin when V'Len called, rather than stay on the Butler? What had Michele seen that he had not or was not willing to see himself?

Getting to his feet, Jack stepped over to Michele who was almost fully suited up and helped her pull the last of the top part of the wingsuit over her shoulders.

Kessler: So what am I running from?

Winters: ::affixing her airstream goggles on her face:: Get your wingsuit on. ::beat:: You knew the answer to that question before we even got up here. 

Michele stepped to the edge of Angels Landing and dove off. Jack was still lost in thought as he worked to get his suit on and then would follow her down to the canyon floor. Maybe she was right, maybe he did already have the answer. If he did, it certainly was not something he wanted to acknowledge or say aloud. He'd just keep that thought tucked away for the time being and see where it led him to.

[[END of SCENE]]

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Lieutenant Jack Kessler

Chief Tactical/Security Officer

USS Ronin

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