Civilian Sh'eik | "Dreamscape" Part 2

Posted on 241503.16 @ 9:31am by Cadet Sh'eik

Mission: Holy Cow
Location: Kitty Head
Timeline: The Past

=/\= Starship Persephone - Crew Lounge - SD240901.22 =/\=

The four of them sat together, munching away on Caesar Salad topped with cashews and cranberries. Sh'eik and D'Triiq had run into their brother and sister at the replicators.

Seeing the family of young Caitians together was the kind of treat that made most of the crew smile. Persephone wasn't the kind of ship that was designed with families in mind, let alone ones that reminded people of childhood pets or characters from Saturday morning cartoons. It brought a sort of warmth to the reality of the deep space science mission, the Oberth class ship was on.

Rn'ehk made a face at Sh'eik and D'Triiq, "I dunno how you two can eat that stuff."
D'Triiq stopped and looked down at his meal, "what? Fish?" He said, spearing another anchovy with his fork and waving it at her.

She waved him off, "eww! Yes. Turns my stomach just watching you!"
D'Triiq made a show of chewing and savouring the salty fish, "a proper Caesar has anchovies. And mother says it's not bad for us."

"I don't know why..." Sh'Aniq piped up, "I've never seen her eat them."
"She says it's too much like eating meat, for her." Rn'ehk added.

"So? They're good! And dad eats them all the time." D'Triiq said, having another mouthful.

"Actually, come to think of it, have you ever seen dad eat a salad?" Sh'Aniq asked, looking pensive.

"Well... No, I guess not. But he doesn't eat with us very often anyway..." D'Triiq replied, also looking pensive, his meal forgotten.

"Sh'eik? What do you think?"
Sh'eik hadn't touched his food, he'd been staring out the view ports at the moon below.

They'd been orbiting for a few weeks now, the cataloguing had been intense and samples collection quite busy. His parents' work load was high. They'd found something interesting here for sure, he just didn't know what. But that wasn't really what was on his mind, rather him trying to distract himself from-

"Sh'eik?"
He knew exactly why his father seldom ate with them, and ate little to no vegetation. What eluded him was why his parents felt the need to keep it secr-

"Sh'eik!?" A dried cranberry bapped off the side of his muzzle. His handpaw shot out reflexively and caught it before it hit the table.

Sh'eik stared at the cranberry a moment before refocusing his attention on Rn'ehk.
"Mrow?"

"What's wrong little bro?" Rn'ehk asked, looking at his untouched salad.
"Yea? I thought you said you were hungry?" D'Triiq asked.

Sh'eik smiled sadly, musing at the irony of being called little brother. He was the first born of the litter.
"I guess I lost my appetite..."

"See? He doesn't like fish either!" Sh'Aniq said jumping to his sister's defence.

"What are you talking about? Sh'eik eats fish all the time!" D'Triiq retorted.

This was growing tiresome and really Sh'eik just wanted some time alone.

"I like fish fine. What does it matter?"
Sh'eik asked with disinterest.

"You're just saying that cause you're dad's favourite!"
Sh'eik just rolled his eyes.

=/\= On the Bridge =/\=

Sarah sat back with a cup of tea, sipping quietly. She loved the back shift, even if being XO meant she only got to do it once a week.

She brushed a stray lock of her brown hair out of her face as she idly looked over a report on their stocks.

Her mind wandered. She'd been serving with Captain Webb almost thirty years now. Mostly on front line or patrol duties. From day one they'd got on well and over the years they'd both turned down promotion after promotion, opting to stay together as a team.

This was one of the longest missions they'd had together, with another 5 years left yet, and still their camaraderie held.

A chirp from the helm brought her out of her reverie, however.
"Commander Findley? You might want to look at this..." The tellarite at the helm said looking back over his shoulder.

Sarah got up, with casual grace, "What's up, lieutenant?"

"It's impulse reactor 2, ma'am. It doesn't look right?"

Sarah peered over his shoulder. Despite the ship being nearly twice her age, she was actually familiar with it, as she'd served her first post here, as helmsman, after graduating the academy.

She'd never seen a reading like this though. She tapped her commbadge.
"Bridge to Engineering. Anyone up?"

"De Soto here ma'am." Came the reply.

"Charlie? What are you doing up at this hour?" It was indeed unusual for the chief engineer to be up at this hour of the evening.

"My bunk didn't feel right. Ran a diagnostic, low and behold, the port side dampeners were out of sync."

The XO and helmie exchanged a silly look at the chief's eccentricity, but both smiled.
"Can you check the port side impulse reactor? We're getting odd loop pulse readings up here."

"Uh? Really? ... ... Yes, yea! Wow those are weird! I'll check into them right away, and get back to you Sarah." There were some sounds of rustling as De Soto left the line open and headed off to investigate.

"Should I go to yellow alert, ma'am?" The tellarite asked, looking twitchy.

"Not just yet, let's let the Captain sleep for now."

"Aye."

=/\= Crew Lounge =/\=

"This whole conversation is stupid! Mom and Dad don't have a favourite. They love us all!" D'Triiq was incensed now.

"Right. Sh'eik just gets in less trouble because he's tiny." Rn'ehk retorted.

"Enough!" Sh'eik shouted standing up and scowling down at them. He opened his mouth to say something else, right as all the power in the lounge went dead.

"Wha-?" Sh'Aniq started as the solid metal deck beneath them flexed and then rippled, groaning in complaint.

For a few moments only the natural light, reflecting off the moon they were orbiting, lit the lounge. Then everything was bathed in a red glow as emergency power came on.

The Caitian youth looked at one another, ears set back as fear set in.
"We should go back ho-" no sooner had Sh'eik started to speak when all was layed to chaos.

In a flash that blinded him and cinged his fur, the entire port wall of the lounge simply disappeared, and as soon as the concussive wave finished blowing in, the room began blowing out into naked space.

His ears were ringing, and he felt an unnatural urge to exhale, Sh'eik reached out blindly for the only thing that mattered, his siblings.

He caught two furry paws, as he felt his legs hook under the table he'd been sitting at. Which was, mercifully, bolted to the deck.

He clung, for all he was worth, as his vision resolved into each of his brothers clinging to his handpaws.

A loud -VOIP- was heard as the emergency force field lit up, preventing anything else from leaving the ship. The three Cait children fell in a heap to the deck. All inhaling sharply as the air recyclers kicked up from the emergency power packs.

While the other two trembled, gasping for air, Sh'eik felt his adrenalin rushing, it overwhelmed him, consumed him, erased his fear. All that mattered now was...

"Rn'ehk!?" Sh'eik scampered across the warped deck, finding her just inches from the invisible shield between them and a cold painful death.

She was unconscious, and he could smell burnt fur and flesh. Her tail and legs were badly burned, she'd barely stayed on the right side of the shield, but she was alive, and breathing.

And then he looked past her... The corridor, the turbo lift, the Jefferies tubes, dozens of meters of the hull he'd just been running through not two hours ago... Were just gone.

=/\= End Part 2 =/\=

Civilian
Sh'eik
USS Enterprise

-=/\=- United Confederation of Interstellar Planets -=/\=-