Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Rovan Moor (Engineer/Pilot) in Rovan Moor: Arrival to the Athena

Posted by Commander Luka (Executive Officer) in Rovan Moor: Arrival to the Athena

Posted by Civilian Allison Fleet (Civilian) in Rovan Moor: Arrival to the Athena
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

The next message had been sent on September 12. Allison was in her bedroom once more, the pinkish light filtering in again. The perspective of the shot had changed once again, and Allison was sitting on a chair facing away from the room’s window, which had pink curtains - that would explain the colour of the light in the first video of the room. Like in the previous videos sent from earth, the quality was lacking, but he already knew why that was. Allison was dressed in what looked like comfortable track pants and a tank top with an image of the Firefly on it and the quote, “Find a crew, find a job, keep flying” pasted on the front. Her hair was damp, and she had a towel around her neck to catch the moisture.

“Hey you.” He said, and his frown broke slightly as he looked at her, wet hair and relaxed. His frown broke completely when he noted her tank top, and he smiled again as he recognized what it was. They had just begun to watch that old Earth show, late at night after their shifts and either in His quarters or hers, normally after a game of paper/scissors/rock to see who’s quarters it would be. It was often hers, he never told her of her ‘tell’, the way she bit her lip or raised an eyebrow before a certain choice. Rovan had taken full advantage of that so he could lose to her usually. That way, he could return to his quarters after making sure that she was sleeping soundly, or stay the night and watch over her if she was unsettled with her dreams.

“Hey, Rovan. Allison here once again. I hope you’re doing alright. The house has been a lot quieter these past few weeks, with most of the kids off to school. It’s just me, Lillian, Laura, and Wanda and her two kids left at home right now. Most of the family is on the farm, running the business and all.” She smiled slightly. “I hope one day I can introduce you to all of them,” she chuckled. “It took me a few weeks to get all the names down, honestly. I’m only focusing on the ones here, they’re all descendants of one of Kenny’s great-great grandsons, Orville Fleet. Kenny’s third son was David, and his only kid was Patrick, and Patrick had a son named Immanuel who had a son named Orville. Orville had Alfred, Brendan, and Maryanne, and the rest of the crew is either the children or grandchildren of Alfred and his siblings,” she explained, listing off people on her fingers. “Which means that Laura’s baby will be my brother’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson. That’s seven greats!” she laughed, pushing back her chair and balancing on the back legs for a moment before letting it fall back on four feet.

He found himself smiling as she spoke, he was already lost when she was going through all the names and people. He would get there, but he knew that it was going to take a long time. Rovan himself was an only child, had no cousins and no parents or grandparents still living. For all intents and purposes, he was the end of his line. The thought of having a multitude of cousins and family honestly scared him, but at he same time he was pleased beyond expectation that Allison had so many of her family around her. “I’d love to meet them,” he said, as if she could hear him, “although it sounds like it would get awful crowded in my sky over there.”

“I’ve been working on the farm… it’s really relaxing, actually. Working with plants. I’ve been doing a lot of weeding. There’s still plenty of work to be done for the next few months before winter shows up, so there’s that to look forward to…” There was a voice that cut into the video, but the exact words weren’t clear. “Oh, that’s Lillian, she wants me to help out with making supper. All the kids included, there’s…” she started counting on her fingers. It took a while. “Forty-one of us in this big house. Don’t worry, it’s a really big house, it can fit everyone. There’s a couple side-houses too. There’d be a few more if Adrien’s sister’s kid was still on Earth, but he’s on the New Canada colony with his family. I think one of their girls is in Starfleet, I keep meaning to look her up. Jennifer Wallace…” she trailed off. “Anyways, gotta go!” she reached up to press the button to turn off the recording. “Oh, love you,” she added, almost as an afterthought.

He grinned and shook his head slightly. Forty one, that was more than the crew and families on the Jagaar as he was growing up, even when they took passengers. He had still never quite gotten used to the sheer number of people around him in Starfleet at either the Academy when he joined or the ships he was posted to, and had felt the most at home either in the pilots seat, or with Allison. “Love you Allison” he said quietly, after the video finished, with a smile and a small bite of his lip, he played the next one.

The next message was from a few weeks later, September 27. Allison was holding the camera in her hand and leaning against the big tree. The sunlight was diffused by the green leaves, and her eyes were half lidded. “I’ve been trying to record this message for two days,” she said with a deep but happy sigh. There was some genuine meat on her bones, muscle gained from working on the farm, and her face was beginning to look a little browned. It wouldn’t tan much more, given the days of summer were nearing their end, but she had a genuine farmer’s tan from just two months on earth. Her face had a smattering of dirt, streaks that showed she had evidently wiped a dirt-covered hand across her forehead. “It’s so nice to be back in the dirt and the growing things. More than I could have imagined. I know I spent two-hundred years farming, but there’s a certain feeling to farm-work that really can’t be equaled by any other kind of labor…”

“Looking a little tanned there.” Rovan said, and suddenly found himself wanting more of the chocolate pudding. “You know for all your old fashioned tech, you better be able to do a good Ktarian chocolate pudding when I get there.” He said, once again talking to her like she was listening. He knew she wasn’t, but it made him feel all the more relaxed to do it. Pulling the bowl towards him once again, he took a spoonful and kept watching.

There were some laugh-screams of children in the background, prompting Allison to chuckle lightly. “There go David and Summer again. Those two are quite the handful. I Imagine Allie, Josh, and David were similarly playful when they were that age…” she trailed off quietly, thoughtful. “I miss you. I’m sorry about my message that I sent about a month ago… I was in a dark place around that time. I’m better now! Well, mostly. I mean, the faces are still there in my dreams, but I’ve been sleeping better at night. I only wake up once or twice, and I can usually get to sleep again within half an hour. Days I’m working really hard, sometimes I don’t dream at all,” she said with a small shrug.

Rovan had been watching and listening to her message with his grin in place at the sound of the kids voices in the background, it was a happy sound that felt good, made him smile and wish he was there. He nodded and smiled wider when she said she was doing better, “I miss you too, Allie, so damn much.”

“I’d love to know how you’re doing…” Allison closed her eyes, shaking her head. “No, I can’t worry about that. You’re watching this message, and that means you’re fine. You’re safe, and alive,” she took a deep, shaky breath. “Dammit Rovan. Why did you have to settle so deep inside my heart. I can’t let go of these memories, and I don’t want to. You better not die, Officer Moor,” she said with a small frown.

As he watched and she began to get a little deeper with her conversation, he felt himself wanting to reach out and just take her in his arms. “Allie I’m here, watching this. I’m safe. I’m loving your messages. It’s not going to be long, and we will talk again, I promise.” He said to her image, “I’m not going to leave you again Allison.”

“I love you… you know that? I hate to have to tell you this by recorded video, but… I love you. Like, you’re my heart of hearts, love… I want nothing more than to see you again, so you better not f*cking die!” She exclaimed, then slapped a hand over her mouth. The recording ended.

Rovan had watched this part in silence. Maybe she wasn’t quite as good as she had let on? Maybe despite everybody she was more lonely than she was letting on? Those thoughts ran through his head but he knew they were simply excuses that were being thrown up. She was worried about him, missed him and loved him. She had said it, and he knew he felt it. He had for a very long time. However when the last part of the message played, then ended, Rovan had no choice but to break out in laughter. Real, loud and genuine laughter.

Allie hardly ever swore, she didn’t like it generally but the combination of her opening her heart and feelings to him and then ending up swearing because of it, and the reaction and look of almost horror in her eyes at what she had said, made him laugh honestly and for several minutes. He could never be totally sure her hand slapping over her mouth was because she said she loved him or the swear word, but he cheekily though it was likely both. He sat for several minutes, toying with his chocolate pudding and despite the underlying guilt he felt for leaving her for so long, being without her and Allie not knowing if he was even alive, he felt the warm and comforting feeling of love through all of it. She loved him, she had just said it, even if she hadn’t meant to. The swearing she did just served to underline it for him.

“I love you too, really really.” He said to the dark screen, “I never told you, but I do. I’m going to make that right next time we talk. I promise. I love you too.” He kept toying with his pudding as he spoke to himself, biting his lip in thought, then had the console continue playback.

The next recording was from October 10, which was an earth holiday called Thanksgiving. Attached were several, one might even say many, photographs. They were all labeled, giving the names of the people pictured within. The first several were archived photographs of Allison and her family from when she was a child - photos of her parents and brother and her, photos of her with both branches of cousins, photos with grandparents, and more. The next set of photographs was of Kenneth and his family over the years, showing all three of his kids - including a young girl who was the spitting image of her Aunt Allison. The next several photographs were ones from this year. One photo was of the Wallace family minus the one who was in Starfleet. A man, his wife, and three of their children. The youngest and the oldest had their arms around the shoulders of spouses, and there were 4 grandkids between them, one of which was in the arms of the eldest’s husband. One photo was of Adrien’s brother Kelvin and his family of four generations (which ended with David and Summer, who had been mentioned by Allison earlier), and one was of Lillian and her husband and their five children ranging from 25 to 13. The eldest two were boys, each with a young woman standing next to them, the eldest had one child and his wife was pregnant and looked just about to pop.

As the photos came up on the console, Rovan began to sort them into groups on his PaDD. Mostly, the photo’s with Allison were transferred to the PaDD but the others, from what he could make out with the who was who, were shuffled into groups so he could try and learn her family better. It was going to take time, He was not used to many Human names even though he worked with many humans, and there was also truth that beings of a different species you didn’t know well, often all looked similar to each other. It would take some time before Rovan could be sure he wouldn’t be calling David ‘Summer’, and Summer ‘David’. The photos he did recognize somewhat were the ones with Kenneth, he had been one of the first members of Allisons family that she had shown him, when he had shown Allison the PaDD image of his parents.

The next photo was of Michael’s family (Michael being another Starfleet officer and not able to attend the festivities on Earth), Mary and their three children. Then came Adrien’s cousins, the children of Brendan and Maryanne. There was only one photo of Brendan’s offspring, his son and three grandsons standing with their wives and the four great-grandkids in front. All of this family had pronounced farmer’s tans. Maryanne’s two children were next, one photo showing them with their children and grandchildren. It was an impressive collection of people, and one final photograph showed all the Earth-based family sitting at an absolutely massive table to enjoy a meal together. And yet, the furthest connection was third cousins.

Rovan kept sorting the photos as they came, making sure that any and all with Allison went into a folder that he could access easily. By now he was largely lost and he chuckled, he was going to have to get Allison to write all this down.

Finally, Allison’s actual message was played. It was dim in her room, lit only by a small light on the wall. Her posture was that of someone sitting up in bed, with her pillow supporting her back. She looked rather tired. “Hey, Rovan. Happy thanksgiving. This is one we got to celebrate together last year, before my accident, so I don’t think I have to explain it,” she chuckled. “We got a video call from New Canada so I could formally meet the family out there. It’s funny, it reminded me of the crazy technology we have these days. On the farm, they like to avoid most of the more modern tech, I’m not sure exactly why, but they’re actually in a technological era that’s before my own time. I mean, they don’t deny that stuff exists and they own it, but it’s mostly used for enhancing the kid’s education and for communication with others. It’s really neat…”

‘Neat’ wasn’t a word that Rovan would have settled on, he might have used ‘quaint’ if he knew what that human word meant. He was of course familiar with people who preferred ‘real’ food over replicated, he was one of them, and he was also familiar with people who did things the ‘old fashioned’ way in many places he had been as a Starfleet Officer. However, none of that had been by choice. It had all been because the people had to make do with what they had, either because of lack of supply or distance from support, or disaster had struck. The lifestyle choice her family chose was an interesting one and Rovan wouldn’t deny that Allison was looking fantastic with it, nor would he deny that she looked happy, content and except for the few messages where she had expressed that she missed him, and loved him, Allison was exactly where she needed to be. “Happy Thanksgiving Allie,” he said to her image, remembering the Thanksgiving they had spent together. They had ended the night much the same way as she was now, although it was on a couch as they spoke about the day, and he had held her close, both of them feeling content, relaxed and bloated with food, too tired and full to move off the couch so they had cuddled up on it. “I’m sorry I missed this one,” he said to her, “what do you Humans call it? Oh, I’m going to be fashionably late.”

Allison exhaled slowly, leaning her head back and looking at the ceiling. She grabbed the camera and pointed it up, turning off the lamp on the wall and letting the camera adjust to the dark room.

“Computer, lights off” Rovan said in response, and watched the screen as a series of glowing spots appeared.

Above her, pasted to the ceiling, was a small collection of glow-in-the-dark stars. There were about eight of them in different sizes, and one looked like a shooting star with a trail coming off it, but it was cute. “David thought I should have the stars in my room to remind me of the Genesis… he has a whole constellation map in his room, the kid is obsessed,” she chuckled. “That kid will make a great officer one day if he keeps at it… Anyways… goodnight Rovan. Love you,” she murmured in the dark, and the video ended a few moments later. Although, it didn’t end before she could be heard mumbling annoyedly, “Now where’s that off switch?”

The list of messages displayed again… six more.

October 26, November 17, December 8, December 25, January 1, and January 10

Recordings of Allison Fleet

“I love you too, Allie,” Rovan said, and yawned despite his wishes. “When I visit, this David and I are going to have a discussion about the stars,” he told the screen, “I’ll give him some pointers about how to be a great officer, I got this.” He grinned as he said it, knowing nobody was listening and finishing his pudding. Standing once more to stretch, he returned the empty bowl to the replicator and then came straight back to sit down, rubbing his eyes slightly.

He would have given anything right then to slip into bed, turn the lights out and wake up beside her. He knew that wasn’t going to happen yet, maybe not for a long while. Knowing that there were still more to come, he began the playback of the rest, and selected his favorite picture of her that she had sent him and displayed it on the PaDD next to him. With a start, he realized that he had nothing to show her for the last months he had been away. No photos, and he could hardly talk about a classified mission. Allie would understand, she was still Starfleet really, but he felt guilty again for having nothing to send to her while he was getting so much joy and relief from her messages.

Lt (j.g) Rovan Moor
Engineer/Pilot

The next recording had been sent on October 26. Allison was leaning against the old tree, and there was dirt on her face. She wore some ratty old jeans and a light green tank top with the Cavendish logo embroidered on her left sleeve. She looked tired. Not sleepy tired, but worn out. Given the work she’d been doing over the past few months, it wasn’t unexpected that she might be somewhat worn out. Her hair, however, was in a state Rovan might be shocked by. The long blonde hair was simply… Gone. She had cut it drastically and now had what looked like a pixie cut, with most of her hair cut within a few inches of her skin and the bangs pulled over to rest sideways across her head.

She smiled. “Hey, Rovan. The trees are losing their leaves,” she commented, grabbing the camera and pointing it around, giving him a better idea of the property. She pointed the camera at the big house, and for once Rovan might get an idea of this building. It was three or four stories tall, built like a Victorian mansion. Even at that glance, he’d see that the whole building was probably larger than the ship he had called home, growing up. “Pretty big, eh? They have it split into a few smaller sections for each family to live in, like apartments, kinda, and the entire family helps on cleaning days.” She played around with the camera direction until it was facing her again. “In other news, it’s almost Halloween. It’s one of my favorite holidays, and this year we’re going to drive out to the nearest neighborhood so the kids can do some proper trick-or-treating. Trust me, it’s fun!” She grinned. “I’m going to dress up like River. I know it’s old, but I love Firefly. I heard they’re thinking of making a tenth series. I wonder if it’s going to be a reboot like the last one…” She chuckled. “I’ve caught up on all the Firefly shows they made while I was gone. Sorry, I didn’t wait for you… I was too impatient, I guess. Anyways, I’m eager to get washed, so I’ll be saying bye now. Love you,” she smiled, and the message ended.

Five more messages.

The next message had been recorded on November 17. Allison sat in a new, unfamiliar room. Although, it wasn’t totally unfamiliar as some of the photos had included shots of this room. It seemed to be a small living room, with a fireplace mantle on one side of the room and several nice couches scattered around the walls. Allison was curled up in one of the arm chairs with a fuzzy blanket wrapped around her body and holding a steaming mug in her hands. The sound of a crackling fire was audible, and she had a quiet expression.

Allison glanced up at the camera and took a long sip of her drink. “Hey, Rovan,” she said softly. She slipped one leg out of the fuzzy blanket to reveal that it was encased in a cast. “So, apparently, if your foot stops moving forward while your leg keeps going, it’s bad. We were playing this game called European Handball, me and a few of the older kids. And I… tripped. Badly. So… I’ve got a broken ankle.” She grinned sheepishly. “I’ll bet you there’s no scar by new year. It kinda sucks to have no records of my physical history. I don’t even have my childhood scars. I broke a few things in the original crash, so I think the beings roided me up with something to heal broken bones real quick. It’s kinda bizzare. I’m lucky I was able to set my arm decently. Can you imagine couple centuries with a badly healed arm bone?” She trailed off quietly, then pulled her leg back into the blanket pile. “So it’s a few weeks off my feet. See you… Whenever you manage to get a message back out to me. Love you,” she said, and the message ended.

Four more messages.

The next message was from December 8. There was a soft, cold lighting, and Allison wasn’t in the initial shot. The camera showed the view out her room, which included the big tree. There was a faint layer of snow over everything. “I wish you could have grown up with seasons like I did,” was the first thing Allison said. “The winter is cold, but it’s beautiful. I guess you don’t really miss the seasons, not having grown up with them, but still… They’re amazing. You’re pretty amazing too… Heh. I got news of you. I know I shouldn’t have anything, especially now that I know what I know. I went into Toronto this past weekend, and I talked with a few people from Starfleet. I entertained them with first hand accounts of some old heroes from their history, and when I mentioned you, one of them recognized your name. He was an Admiral of some sort. He recognized your name and said he knew you were alive and doing good work for Starfleet. He said a couple other things, but not something I can say. I just wanna tell you… Stay safe out there…”

The camera was still facing out the window, and he could hear her shuffling around a chair for a few moments before the camera began to jitter and was turned around to face her. Her hair was getting a little longer, but it was still very short. “I’m considering going back to Starfleet. Not right away, I just got my cast off. But, you know, eventually. Maybe in the New Year, I’ll send a message to the big wigs. I don’t want to go back to the Genesis… There’s too many memories there. I’ll ask for a new ship. Maybe we’ll end up in the same place, eventually. Once you’re finished your current mission…” She glanced away. “Anyways… Love you, Rovan. Stay safe…”

Three more messages.

Ooc: D25, J1, J10

Recordings of Allison