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

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

Posted by Civilian Allison Fleet (Civilian) in Rovan Moor: Arrival to the Athena
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻

Snip

It took a few moments, but the call was eventually answered. His console showed the signal of being connected to the other side of the call. It blinked for a moment, then an image came into focus. It was of a fairly modern looking room, the walls of the room made of paneled wood. In front of the screen was a middle aged woman, dressed in what was obviously nightwear. It was winter. As tree farmers, they had little to do but wait for spring, so waking up early was only an artifact of the rest of the year.

The woman stared hard at the stranger on the other side of the line, then a flash of recognition seemed to come over her. “You’re the man in the photograph, aren’t you,” she reflected softly. “Well, then. Hello. I’m Lillian Fleet. You must be Rovan Moor, if I’m not mistaken,” she leaned back slightly, watching the screen.

There was a slight question in her eyes. Why had he called, especially at this early hour? She could guess, but she’d hear it from the man’s mouth before assuming anything. He might want to buy a tree.

• Lillian Fleet

“Good morning, I’m sorry if I woke you.” Rovan said, and gave her an honest smile. Maybe he had rung too early, or maybe the people who didn’t go out to work on the farm still rose early with those that did. He didn’t know, there wasn’t much farming done on a freighter in space after all.

“No mistake Ma’am,” he told Lillian. For all the world, he couldn’t place her from the huge list of names that Allie had told him. He guessed he would learn eventually. “I am Rovan Moor, yes, Allisons” he paused slightly, just imperceptibly before continuing, “friend. I’m so sorry for calling at this early hour, I thought it might be the best time to catch her before she went about her duties on the farm. Is she, still there? Her messages said that she was returning to Starfleet?” He leaned forward into the screen slightly, and while he was smiling, there was a hint of worry in his eyes. “I’ve been, away, for a long time. I’ve only just got back and found out that she was awake from the coma.”

Lt j.g. Rovan Moor
Engineer/Pilot

“Yes,” Lillian said with a nod of understanding. “She’s been on leave from Starfleet for the past few months, spending time in the big house. She sent quite a few messages to you,” she commented.

“Yes she did.” He told Lillian, “I’ve just been watching them. She has an amazing, and huge, family. I’m more than happy that she was able to connect with you. I know how lost she felt on the Genesis when she arrived.” Rovan bit his lip slightly as he watched Lillian, “Is Allison home? Or did I miss her to the farm?”

“I’m afraid she’s not on the Farm at the moment. She’s in San Francisco, in the process of getting tested to make sure she’s ready to go back into space. Her time displacement and all. They’re testing her ability to cope with modern technology, and you know, the other stuff they usually test Cadets for. I remember my brother going through that stuff right before he graduated. Oof. Anyways,” she seemed to realize that she had been rambling somewhat. “I’m sorry I can’t get her to you. Maybe you should call her there in a couple hours? It’s a bit early at the moment…”

Lillian Fleet

“Of course, San Francisco.” He nodded, “It’s about 3.30am there just now, she likely would have been awake when I got back from my shift.” Rovan leaned back in his chair and ran his fingers through his hair, the action showing the slight ridges above his eyebrows and running vertically from the bridge of his nose to his hair line more clearly. He wasn’t one of the Ktarians with large forehead bulges, his part human ancestry seeing to have toned them down along with his family line tending to have a different ridge structure. “If you could let me know where I can contact her, I would be grateful.”

“Thank you for letting me know,” he said to the woman, “I am sorry for disturbing you at this early hour, I’ll try to get in touch with Allison later on in the morning.” Rovan moved to end the call but then paused, and looked at Lillian.

“Thank you, and your family. For looking after Allie, I mean.” He said softly, “She mentioned in the messages how alone she had felt when she woke up. If I had known she was going to, if they had told me there was more of a chance. Well…” he trailed off slightly in thought, then looked at Lillian and smiled. “Then maybe she wouldn’t have come home to you when she needed to the most. Oh, and the gingerbread Galaxy Class Starship was by far the most deserving of winning the competition, good choice.” He broke into a grin as he said it.

-------------- A short time laterrrr--------------------

Rovan sat back from the console and yawned, with a few hours still to go before Allie would reasonably be awake, and knowing that she was in the middle of testing for reassignment he didn’t want to wake her or make her late for anything so, he had sent a few messages to people he knew and recorded Allison a message just for her. When she woke up, she would have the message on her console and if there was time, she could let him know to call. If not, she would have a message from him to let her know he was back, and missing her like mad. It was the least he could do to let her know he was alive and thinking of her.

Rovan pressed send, and smiled to himself. It was a tired smile, but he was content that he had done everything he could. The likelihood of Allison being assigned where he was, was remote, the odds staggering with the number of ships and destinations available. The Athena might not even need more scientist currently. But, Allie would know he was there, now.

Standing again, he made one final pass of the window that looked out into space and fell comfortably onto his bed. Setting the alarm, Rovan drifted into a deep sleep, far more settled than he had been when he had tried to sleep earlier.

----------------- Message to Allison Fleet--------------

The message to Allie was unnamed, but marked important and urgent. He hoped that would get her attention enough to watch it, something simple but a surprise nonetheless. Once it was played, it would display the Starfleet logo for a few seconds before the screen would change to the message from Rovan, of him sitting in his seat, late at night and smiling at her gently through the screen.

“Hey you. Gosh I have missed you Allie, so darn much.” He paused now, and there was a silence for a few seconds as he appeared to be collecting his thoughts and figuring our what to say next.

“It’s harder than it looks you know, this messaging thing,” he motioned around himself to where, on her screen, were the edges of the display. “I have so much I want to tell you, so much to let you know that I want to get it all out right now, none of my thoughts are straight so, forgive me if I ramble OK? I’ll likely ramble more than your Aunt Lillian just did, but she was lovely. Hopefully I didn’t wake her up though, was 6.30am too early to call?” he bit his lip as he looked into the camera, making sure he looked very innocent. “They live on a farm, right? It can’t have been too early.”

His face grew serious for a moment, not sad or angry, just reflective perhaps. “Allison I’m sorry, for leaving and for taking on that mission. If I had known you were going to wake up, I would never have left your side. I mean I hoped, and I asked whatever divine power from any race I could to bring you back to me. But then they came to me with a mission the needed me for. There were many reason’s that I took the mission, but we can talk about that another time. I’m sorry for not being there when you woke up and, I was out of.. contact.. while I was away. Nobody told me that you were awake, I guess that was because they couldn’t take the chance something might go wrong if, anyone else found out.” Rovan spoke quietly as he looked into the camera, not once letting his yellow, catlike eyes drift away from the screen and looking straight through and into hers.

“I’m back now Allie, and I’m OK. I’m safe, and I miss you more than you know. Far more than you know. When I returned I tried to get back to the Genesis, and you, but they wouldn’t let me and rushed me through debrief and reintegration. Nobody would tell me anything and after about two weeks, they assigned me to another ship. I’m on the Athena, Allie. I’ve been assigned to Engineering and Helm/Shuttle duties. Oh and I got a promotion as well, I am now a Lieutenant, junior grade, but still a Lieutenant.” He held up his Starfleet uniform to show the yellow of Operations and the pips on his collar. “One of those Galdorians, the race from the book you got for Christmas, is the Athena’s Executive Officer. I haven’t see her yet, I’ve been down in Engineering mostly so far, it’s a big ship Allie. Huge, big enough for your family even!”

Dropping the uniform back down, Rovan reached over and picked up a cup of coffee, taking a big drink before he placed it down, outside of the camera shot and looked at her again, grinning. “I got your messages, tonight. They all came through at once. I think that once my file came active again, all my mail they were holding was released and all your messages popped up when I came back from my shift. I was so excited, so happy to see you and hear you that I could barely wait to call, so I watched all of them.” Rovan let out a long and low whistle “you sure do have a lot of family, it’s huge. I’m not even sure they would have fit in my parents old freighter.”

“So, I hear that you are in San Francisco undergoing testing for return to the fleet. I have to say, I’m a little nervous you are going to be assigned somewhere I can’t reach you. OK not nervous, Allie. I’m scared, terrified of the possibility. I’ve sent a message to, a friend. That Admiral you said you met? His name is Admiral Harris. He’s based in San Francisco as well at the Starfleet Headquarters there, maybe you should get in touch with him, if you like? He owes me, us, a few favors. If you want, maybe we can call in a few.” His grin got slightly wider and he had now lost all of the pretense of innocence.

He was silent for a few moments, and his grin dropped back down to, oddly, a shy smile and his eyes dropped slightly before they lifted and looked straight into the console again, the shyness replaced with something more determined. “I miss you, Allison Fleet. You don’t know how much. I watched every one of your messages. I loved your hair short, it suited you but I think I might miss your hair being long, just so i can curl a stray lock behind your ear and look into your eyes. I’m going to try everything I can to see you again, you spoke in one of your messages, about us. I don’t think I ever thought of us as us back on the Genesis, did you? It was always just so easy, so right when I was with you that I only realized what we had when you fell into the coma, when I lost you. I sat with you every night, every morning and wished I could trade places with you, fix it, bring you back to me. It was then that I think I realized that us was what we had become and what I needed.”

He sighed softly and smiled as he looked into the camera, obviously imagining that Ally was looking at him too. “I miss you Allie, I need you. There wasn’t a single day for the last, however many months I was away, that I didn’t go to sleep thinking of you. Finding out you were awake, and you were safe, and that you remembered me meant so much to me, it sparked something in me that I never knew I was missing. You don’t know the relief that I felt, the happiness when I opened that message and heard your voice, saw you. Thank you for making me those messages, I loved them and we have something now to watch on a new anniversary, the day you came back to me.”

“So, Allie. I better let you go and get ready for your exams and tests. I better get some sleep. If you have time when you get this, send me a ping and I will call you. If not, I know that you are going to do amazing today. You’re that kinda girl, my girl. I love you Allison Fleet. What was it you said in your video? Heart of hearts?” He placed a hand over where his heart in his chest was, looking at her and smiling. “My heart beats for you, Allie. I do love you. We will talk soon, you know where I am now. Bye Allison, love you.” With a final smile, Rovan reached forward for the screen. Just before he turned it off he paused, and looked back at her again. He grinned, then winked one of his yellow, catlike eyes, then the screen went dark.

Lt j.g. Rovan Moor
Engineer/Pilot