| 1:43p |
The Enterprise's Replacement
The shuttle had gotten in an hour earlier and it had taken her that long to go through the inception process. All the questions that had been asked had been clearly in her record - but Irina Kessler wasn't holding it against anyone. Procedure was procedure. And she had some big shoes to fill...
And it wasn't that she took it lightly, but she knew that she had to get things moving. Her papers in her case, sitting on her shoulder, she made her way to the Captain's Ready Room like she'd been instructed by her advisor before she left. This wasn't a confusing set up but a group of ensigns had dragged her off her course. And she was only now getting back to where she needed to be.
Spock speck the hour of the current star date and gracefully stood from his station, noting that it was time he meet Lieutenant Uhora’s replacement. He walked out of the bridge, peering out the windows as he traveled at the docking station below. He held his head high and his hands clasped loosely behind his back. Outside, the half-Vulcan’s stern, angular appearance accurately masked his inner guilt and turmoil for having lost the Enterprise’s best Lieutenant and his first true love. Just two nights before, he pleaded for Nyota Uhora to stay but she had explained that her recent absence from position was a combination of not being able to preform both physically and mentally. She had said she was unable to cope with Spock’s sporadic lack emotions and that she no longer wished to be romantically involved with him. She had not been feeling well and was going to be taking a short leave before requesting reassignment, away from the Enterprise. He couldn't agrue with that... it was logical for her to leave if she was feeling this way- if she thought her emotions jeopradized her work.
Ironically, the second the automatic door hissed behind her, leaving Spock alone in the command room, he cried for the second time in his life (the first being when he lost his mother, family and friends in the destruction of his home planet.) All of the years studying human lore and trying to familiarize himself with his half of his culture, did not prepare him for the anguish he felt. Over and over he had read the term “broken heart” but it was not until now that he truly understood what it felt like.
Regardless, Spock walked on with his head held high, ever-prepared for his duty, submerging himself in his work to ease his pain. Arriving a good fifteen minutes early in the captain's ready-room (just as he intended), the First Soldier patiently waited to meet the new Lieutenant in the discussed designated area. His angular eyes scanned over the crowd where he stood near the overlook, watching the young Star Fleet trainees bustling about to their respective stations. It was then the door opened and he turned to greet the Enterprise's newest recruit. But a young woman with bright red hair seemed to make her way over to him. At first he had overlooked her, assuming she was another one of the young trainees but then she stopped directly in front of him. He stared down at her with a pointed eyebrow raised, inquisitively waiting to hear what she had to say... |