Over and Out

Posted on Sat Jun 20th, 2009 @ 7:02pm by

1,125 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Behind the Mask of Familiarity
Location: Executive Officer's Office
Timeline: Current

ON:

Dr. Catherine Halsey strode down the halls of the Archimedes, her heart filled with a sorrow that had not left her, even though she had yet to see the cold and dour Executive Officer, the woman she had walked out on so long ago, and who she would be leaving for good very soon. She gripped the PADD in her right hand tighter – contained within it was the contract that she had made with the young Arkham so many years ago.

When things were different, Catherine thought, winsomely, a frown crossing her pale and delicate features. When she was different. But that was long ago…far, far too long ago.

Catherine still remembered those first nights so clearly. She had loathed Rowena Arkham once. Rowena Arkham, the rich young Lieutenant, the proud and arrogant young defender of the United Federation of Planets. Though unpleasant according to all the hospital staff and warned against going near the bitter woman, Halsey, a fresh new attending physician at the time, had ignored them. That first night in the trauma ward, she had seen the young officer – the bone of her splintered exposed, delicately wrapped, mottled flesh covering little of the left side of her face. The empty socket that had once housed her left eye was covered with a dry sterile dressing. Even as a surgeon, Halsey had seen only a few scenes that could even begin to compare to the sheer stomach-churning awe that this had provoked. Seeing it, she’d fought the urge of to sob for this stranger. She’d heard enough about this patient to know that for some reason she had refused any sort of interventions to halt the pain.

She’d looked up when she’d heard the tapping on the tray of the bed. The young officer rapped gently on the tray with her mildly burned right hand, gesturing with a stylus to a nearby PADD. Picking it up, Catherine Halsey managed a slight smile, looking into that young officer’s cobalt eye before looking back to the PADD.

This war has taken everything from me…but for what it’s worth, it doesn’t hurt. Don’t cry.

After that night, the young doctor was fascinated by the tales the officer spun of different worlds and people, of the things she’d done – first simply with PADD and stylus, until months later when she had fully regained the ability to speak in fluid sentences with her new prosthetic.

Tales of battle and of intrigue…and of Megan Ellard, the love she’d lost. Or murdered, depending on how you looked at it.

That young officer had posed a contract one night. And it had stood for ten years, an agreement that had made Catherine Halsey her primary care physician and had given Catherine the excuse to follow her to distant foreign shores and ships, that had given her the greatest view of the universe with the reluctant tour guide of the century, and had given Rowena her commission back.

And tonight it would end. There would be no more memories. No more crazy love songs.

No more making strange women breakfast while Rowena goes to meetings, Catherine thought. No more silent tears. No more gazing across the wasted years…

Pausing before that forbidding door that lead into Arkham’s office, Halsey heard a familiar voice and felt her blood run cold. Hugging the wall, she listened, trying desperately to keep herself out of sight – she loathed Captain Harwood, and did not want to draw the younger woman’s attentions.

“…things are going well then?� Halsey heard a man say. His voice was low and rough – she was certain she’d met the man before, but she could not place the voice to a face and name.

“As well as things can go,� Harwood said smoothly. “I am handling the situation. Captain Lane has proven…strong willed, but I don’t think he’ll keep fighting. He is a man alone, and he knows it. Besides, the threat of losing Altair Kerr is proving…strenuous. His attentions are diverted.�

“And Arkham?�

“Arkham’s loyalties lie where you assumed they would, sir,� Harwood said quietly. At this, Catherine felt a little piece of herself die, as it had when the old officer had raised a hand to her so many days ago. “She knows her role. She knows what she must do.�

The man chuckled a little. “Do not insult me with faint little lies, my dear. I taught you how to lie, and I know I taught you better than that.�

Harwood sighed. “She’s deteriorating. She’s…not always oriented to place and time. She…sundowns; she starts out all right, but seems to get worse as the day goes on. It’s as if something very heavy is weighing on her mind, it drags her back ceaselessly to the Sparta. Do you think that she…?�

“I think,� the man said coolly, “that your old handler had finally lost her mind.�

“Do you think that she�“ Harwood began, fidgeting in the XO’s chair; she swore she could see something in those deep and sinister shadows, but returned to the conversation at hand as Catherine shrank away from the dim office light.

“Have you told her the truth, Agent Harwood?� the man said, his tone somewhat wry. “Have you told her what you did? The truth? Or are you too afraid that you’ll lose the one thing that keeps her close to you, the one thing that keeps her coming back, bending you over the desk as you tell her you love her, one grunted syllable at a time?�

“That is hardly your concern,� Harwood said coldly, as Catherine edged away from the door, trying desperately to avoid being seen. “What do you recommend?�

“Arkham will be dealt with,� the man said coolly. “But right now, she’s useful. Keep her mind together for now. Agent Smith out.�

Catherine slipped away, wracking her mind for an answer. Arkham was in over her head – she was about to be double crossed by an organization and a woman she trusted, and Catherine was powerless to stop it. Just as she was with everything else it seemed.

Dropping the PADD, the small machine clicked on. As she picked it up off the floor, Catherine looked at it in puzzlement and awe. Though she’d taken it from Arkham’s room, gone was the contract between the two of them that had once inhabited it.

If you’re reading this, things have gone sour. And I’m sorry. I know this situation is crazy. But you’re going to have to trust me on this one.

-R.A.A

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