Consoling a Friend... and a Former Captain
Posted on Tue Jan 18th, 2011 @ 10:25am by Captain Elsie Halliwell & Lieutenant JG Lucy Carter
1,200 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Looking for the Future in all the Wrong Places
Location: Halliwell's Ready Room/Kerr's Guest Quarters
Timeline: Backpost
ON:
Halliwell returned back to her ready room and finally sat down in her chair that was stationed behind her familiar desk. She sighed, not out of frustration but sheer and utter physical exhaustion. She had now been awake for twenty hours straight and her agenda looked no clearer or complete than it did in the morning. She picked up her PaDD and then accessed her personal console. Awaiting her was an updated list of professional objectives submitted by Andrews, her yeoman.
She smiled at the meticulous detail... and at the futility of its completion. But then something more urgent came to her mind. Something that was not listed by her administrator.
Tapping her combadge, she called Lieutenant Carter to her ready room.
“Halliwell to Carter. Report to my office, please.â€
Since the EMH's visit to her miserable holodeck programme, Carter had stopped running it. The futility of actually building a well out of light just so that she could sit in the dark had suddenly hit her, as the sunlit raft bobbed up and down on the EMH's own sea programme. Time to stop wallowing. Time to get a grip. Time to .... her commbadge beeped and she heard the Captain asking her to report.
Carter got to her feet and walked over to the sink in her quarters. She viewed her reflection - same hair, same face, same old Lucy. "On my way, sir," she responded and quickly made her way to the Captain's ready room, going in through the door as soon as the Captain asked her to.
As the counsellor sat down, Elsie inhaled, bracing herself for the awkward conversation ahead. “As you know, Lieutenant, your old commanding officer is aboard... as a guest. However, Captain Kerr seems to have experienced a loss, what with the kidnap of his companion, Ms Sonaata.†She paused and looked at Lucy softly. “I believe that the captain could use some comfort... and from a familiar face.â€
Carter regarded the woman in front of her carefully. She had not yet spent enough time with her to work out her character but she did give off an air of authority. How did she know what Captain Kerr had gone through? She smiled and replied "I will be happy to help the Captain in whatever way I can, sir. Where is he at the moment?"
“On Deck Two,†she replied quietly. “He’s in VIP Guest Quarters 37 Alpha.†She lowered her voice eve further and then added, “You can’t miss it, Lieutenant. Just follow the smell of alcohol.â€
There were numerous reasons not to disclose Kerr’s condition to several members of the Ranger’s and especially the Archimedes’ crew, but Elsie’s own Chief Counsellor, and someone who knew him before his joining or his distress, was not one them. “He’s vulnerable, Lucy.â€
Carter nodded but said nothing to that. It was clear that Kerr had experienced something of a trauma but until she was able to sit with him, she had no idea what.
Kerr lay prone on his bed, the muffled sounds of the ship turning over lingering at the edges of his mind. Suddenly, through the darkness, a striking yet familiar sound struck to his core. As he came around into consciousness, it repeated itself.
Carter stepped into the room and the doors quietly closed behind her. Captain Halliwell had not been exaggerating about the smell of alcohol and Carter was surprised that Captain Kerr was actually drinking something so damaging to his health.
“Lucy,†he said, as he stood from his bed and stumbled across the room. “What... what are you doing here?â€
Carter sat down on one of the easy chairs in the room and he did the same, rather more heavily. She looked at him, smiling. "How are you, Captain? It's so good to see you again. I have been worried about you."
She noticed he was moving all the time as if he had lost his internal balance mechanism and was constantly having to right himself. "I am on the Ranger now, serving under Captain Halliwell. I escaped from the Archie with Nurse Traho and the EMH - thanks to you - and have been here evr since." She waited for him to say something but there was silence. "So, Captain," she paused, not really knowing how to start, "what's been happening with you?"
He looked at her familiar face as his face began to crumple under his own emotional strain. Wobbling, both physically and emotionally, he reached out for Lucy’s hand and clasped it with a tenderness that appeared foreign to such a frame of a man, and with tears of sorrow whispered with a subtle notion of joy, he wept silently before regaining somewhat of his usual character.
“I’ve lost her, Lucy,†he managed, speaking her familiar name like the old friends they were. “They took her from me and vanished.â€
He waited for a moment, felt the loaded and brief pause between them both and then continued. “I don’t know how to cope without my Sonaata. Without my heart.â€
Although a counselor, Carter did not like personal contact at the best of times and was shocked that Captain Kerr had reached for her like that. She withdrew her hand after leaving it in his grasp for what she considered was a reasonable amount of time. She noticed that his own hands were swollen and had dry skin.
She looked up at him and placed a soothing hand on his shoulder. "I am sure we can find her again, Captain. Where did you last see her?"
Through the muddle, he smiled. The image of his daughter flashed through his mind instead of Sonaata, he was now thinking of Rory and how much she meant to him. His smile broke momentarily but then reformed into a clearer, more defined smile. “Rory. She’s here. She’s on the ship, isn’t she?â€
Carter was not sure how best to respond. He was on no state to see his daughter. "Captain, I think you need some rest." She did not add that he also needed to sober up. "When was the last time you ate anything?" She looked over at the replicator, which had some very old, dirty plates stacked on the floor underneath it. Then she glanced round the rest of the room and saw what could only be described as squalor. Dirty blankets and clothes lay everywhere.
"Perhaps I can give you a hand to tidy up," she said, getting to her feet and bending over to pick up a sock.
He nodded distantly but yet seemed to hear her words as they washed over him. But then, as Lucy moved away from him, he slumped heavily back into the cradle of his chair as the blackness of sleep gripped at his throat and squweezed.
OFF:
Coltan Kerr,
Relieved Commanding Officer, USS Archimedes
AND
Lucy Carter,
Ship’s Counsellor, USS Ranger
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