Setting Ghosts To Rest

Posted on Sat Jan 13th, 2018 @ 8:47pm by

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Quarters
Timeline: Morning After A Time For Reflection

Calypso had promised and she wasn't going to make herself into a liar, so the morning after Temperance had left her to her miseries with the promise to look up Shelly's husband and Jerry's parents, she'd slid into the chair to the console and activated the screen. There was only so much she could see, but she did have access to the general service files and she had Hailey's override just in case, so long as it was needed for important things, like this.

First she looked up Michelle Terrbina's file and co-located the file for the husband. This was the one that would be the worst: Shelly had been pregnant, barely, with their first child, month and a half, but had wanted to make this drop before heading off ship to a starbase assignment running regular personnel shuttles.

Cally's heart dropped into her gut and looked over at the replicator, wanting desperately to order her first drink in nine days. She knew she couldn't even if she wanted to, but she wanted to badly. His file was rounded with the red border of a deceased file. She punched up the details:

Harold Terrbina had won a posthumous gold star on board the USS Josef Stalin. A collision with an asteroid had punctured the hull above the engine room and sent the warp core into automatic shutdown and activated the auxiliary fusion generator, not knowing the plasma conduits had also been compromised. Harold, a junior Lieutenant, had been on watch and saw the problem even as it had started. He had the fusion drive already going into its own emergency shutdown procedures when the first wash of plasma took him out. He hadn't even known what hit him, but his fast acting had saved the lives of three hundred and eighteen people.

Grief hit Cally even so. Yes, he had done something that mattered, saved lives, but he hadn't known. Hadn't known outside of the initial report about what had actually happened, cold, clinical, 'Sorry your wife and child are dead from combat actions.' Type letter.

She closed that file, then did the same for Gerald Rackham, her eighteen-year old copilot that fay. This time, the blue 'active' border came up for Captain Benjamin Rackham. Current assignment: USS Artemis. Cally's heart sank as she recognized the name of another ship in the Delta Quadrant.

She took a couple minutes to replicate and don her uniform before sliding back into the chair and hesitated before hitting the comm button. Within a handful of seconds, a familiar face came up on the screen, "Captain Rackham, USS Artemis." He announced.

"Sir, I'm Lieutenant Calypso Skyie.. Can I talk to you for a few minutes?" She heard the sound of others behind him, "In private, sir?"

The name sparked something in his eyes and recognition followed by sadness, "Of course, Lieutenant. I'll be tight back to you." His hand reached out, "X, I'm-" the background wallpaper of the Artemis, a female archer superimposed over the Federation crest, the ship's motto 'Who Dares, Wins' came up on her screen. It was a few minutes before it vanished, replaced by a split screen, one of Captain Rackham, the other of a blue-clad Lieutenant Commander who Cally assumed must be his wife. "Sorry about the delay, can I call you Calypso?"

"Cally, sir," Calypso suggested.

"This is about Jerry, isn't it?" The woman asked, then as Cally nodded, tears started to form in her eyes.

"Sir, ma'am, I'm Lieutenant Calypso Skyie, I was.. Your son's pilot five years ago, when he died." It hurt her to day it, "I'm sorry it took me so long to-" She was cut off by a slightly raised hand front eh Captain.

"Was it fast?" He asked, "Did he go fast?"

Cally nodded, "He didn't know what hit him, none of them did. I don't know how I survived, I was the only one who did... There was one person who lived for a few seconds, but no, Jerry was on the side that got hit. It... It was supposed to be a warm landing, small arms fire only, maybe hand-held SAMs, but nothing serious. We didn't expect the artillery to be there, much less in the numbers there were. I'm sorry, I should have done better, I should have brought him back alive."

The woman wiped tears away, "We know it's not a safe job, none of the Fleet or Marines. When we put on these uniforms, we assume the risk that we may not return one day. We tried to get him to go Fleet as an officer, but he just wanted to get in and make a difference as soon as possible, so he enlisted in the Marines."

"He actually chose to be a pilot because it was better than being a troop with a gun." Harold remembered, "Then he called us on one of those couple times he had the chance to tell us that he'd met this pilot, a very pretty pilot that he was going to be training and flying with. The day before he.. Died, he said he was probably going to ask her out when he got up the nerve." His smile was sad, but fond of remembering.

"That would explain his nerves that day... I was going to give him the controls, but he was jittery.. He was a bit younger than me, though." She laughed quietly, "Only a few years. But we won't know now..."

"No, we won't." The woman smiled softly, "But, Cally, I'm Jeanine, not ma'am, and Harry isn't sir. You were there for our son and we both appreciate everything you did for him, and that you haven't forgotten him? That means worlds to us."

"I never could forget him, or Shelly or anyone else that was on the shuttle. But they were the only ones I really knew. I just... Couldn't talk to you before, it was just too painful. But I'm glad I have, now."

"And you have to come over to Artemis for dinner. Soon." Harry said, "Tell us some stories of what you've done, show us what our son saw in you?"

The heartbreak in Cally hit her like a mac truck, whatever that was. These were the parents of someone she had gotten killed. And they all but wanted to treat her like a daughter. "I'll try, Harry, Jeanine. I don't know when we're heading out on a mission, but I'll work on finding some time to meet up with you."

"Thank you, Cally, you take care of yourself, and... Thank you. For caring." Harry smiled, "Artemis, clear."

Calypso exhaled deeply, that... Felt good. She wasn't hated by them. That was one less ghost.

OFF:

Lieutenant Calypso Skyie
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Wellington