Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) in The Odyssey: Among the Stars

Posted by Lieutenant Revna Edman (Counselor) in The Odyssey: Among the Stars

Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) in The Odyssey: Among the Stars
Posted by… suppressed (3) by the Post Ghost! 👻
(snip)
“I know the forward view is a little restrictive,” Nash said as their shuttle turned to follow the curve of the hull, “but the Odyssey has a neat little trick,” he glanced at her and smiled. His hand moved from the control to the console and he activated a few keys in sequence. All at once, the walls of the interior of the Odyssey vanished, and in their place was nothing but the space around them. It was like the interior had become one giant view screen and Revna and Nash were sitting in chairs in the middle of space, a console in front of them and an unobstructed view almost all around them. To the rear the view tapered off and they could still see the shuttle interior behind them, but the view now was something stunning.

Revna started to tell him that the view was fine as long as he could see to pilot it and then....she was sitting in the middle of the nebula, or it felt like it. She was taken totally by surprise, and grabbed his hand. The shock made her heart race, or maybe it had nothing to do with the Odyssey’s little trick. Either way, she was in awe. She spoke softly not really aware she was saying exactly what she was thinking, “If this is what happens when you tell me to trust you, I think I’m in trouble in a very good way.” Revna just watched, the view was incredible. The lights just weren’t outside the window now they were inside the shuttle, dancing across the interior.

The Atlantis was revealed in full unobstructed view, and Nash piloted the shuttle close to her, following the hull. The two of them could even see people in Ten Forward looking out the view ports at their small shuttle. “So, how about that picnic?” Nash grinned, “I know a good spot.”

Lt Cmdr Nash

She watched the Atlantis go by, struck again by the sheer size of her. The Atlantis was impressive, but she preffered the Odyssey. She nodded in answer to Nash’s question, too busy watching the nebula.
Lt. Edman

The sound of the Odyssey’s engine changed slightly as Nash turned her away from the Atlantis and straight towards the Nebula. It was still a long way away of course and the Odyssey only flew on impulse, but even so the power of the little ship was barely contained by the inertial dampeners and they could both feel the acceleration as the little ship sped away from the huge Starship and into the void between her and the expanse in front of them. The ship was clearly made to feel like she was accelerating, she was designed to fly or as it were at that moment, to sail between the stars in the depths laid out before them.

Nash flew in silence for a few moments as the Odyssey quickly left the Atlantis behind them, very soon just Nash and Revna sat in the middle of space in front of a cloud of colours as the Nebula pulsed and shifted before them. The walls of the Odyssey allowed the colours to reflect on the inside as well, and even though they were nowhere near it in real terms, it very much felt like they were sitting in a small boat rocking on an ocean of purple and copper star stuff as the Odyssey powered down to a stop and held position.

Revna gazed out at the color and light. Her voice soft, the view too incredible to interrupt with loud voices, “I know you said you never really visited Earth. This like the Northern Lights over the North Sea. It makes me just a bit homesick.” She looked over at him and smile, “In a good way though.” She took in his profile while he piloted the shuttle. “In case I neglected to tell you, you look rather dashing tonight.” She glanced back out the window…view screen, who cared. She loved it.

“You got me on my good side,” Nash quipped and glanced at her as he moved his hands over the console, locking everything down so the two of them could relax. Then, he folded the console forwards and in its place slid out a small tray. Clearly designed for refreshments.

She didn’t think he had a bad side. Nash might want people to think he was scary, but she knew from ten-forward, his eyes told a much different story. But she left it alone, for now.

“Here we are,” Nash turned and looked at her, the colours dancing off of her skin and the coppery tone of her hair blending with the lights. “Best seat in the house, luckily I knew the guy who had these front row tickets.” He reached behind him and took hold of the basket, pulling it back onto his lap and opening the lid slightly, looking inside. Reaching in, Nash pulled out a can of drink, just one of the ‘delicacies’ inside. It was nothing fancy, no wine, no cocktails. Just a can of soda with the word ‘Solo’ written on the side of it.

Lt Cmdr Nash

“Well how lucky for me, that you knew a guy,” she smiled, it reaching her eyes and lighting them up. She watched him open the basket, when he set the Solo can out she started laughing. It filled the little shuttle, but didn’t last long and ended with an “ow.”

“You don’t miss anything, do you?” she asked.
Lt. Edman

“Not much,” he laughed lightly. “It’s all in the details, at the bar you asked for the drink I suggested or a Solo. You clearly like it so, that’s our drink for the evening.” Still going through the basket he took out a second can of Solo and two small tubs of ice cream, and spoons. The labeling on the side identified the tubs as chocolate chip cookie dough, and he set them on the small tray and slid the basket back behind the two of them.

“I’m assuming you like chocolate?” Nash said as he passed her a tub and a spoon. “Everybody likes chocolate, right?” His tone was light, but the question sounded slightly like he was asking something that was critical, he even had an eyebrow slightly raised to emphasize how important it was, along with a very slight, almost imperceptible smirk.

Lt Cmdr Nash

He looked so serious about the ice cream. She LOVED chocolate, who didn’t? Seriously it was desert perfection, no matter how you made it, but she just couldn’t resist. She shrugged a single shoulder. “That’s what people say. I’ve never understood how it’s so popular.” She opened the tub he handed her and picked up a spoon, “I’ll just have to suffer through it.” She was trying really hard, if she looked right at him, she was going start laughing again. She scooped a large spoonful out and glanced over at him and grinned mischievously. “I’m kidding. I LOVE chocolate. I could eat it at every meal. And it’s cookie dough. Which happens to be my favorite.” She ate some of the ice cream off the spoon. “What did you do, look at my replicator logs?” She chuckles a little because if he did, he’d know she ate it WAY too much.
Lt. Edman

“Not in the slightest,” Nash grinned, “everybody loves chocolate and cookie dough is the best. If you didn’t like it, I’d likely have to emergency transport you out of here and claim self defense.” He deadpanned the last part, but pulled the cap off of his tub and stuck his own spoon into the chocolate. He paused a moment though as he inspected his one for the biggest lump of cookie dough he could find.

Revna looked appropriately shocked, “You wouldn’t, would you?” She chuckled and took another spoonful of the ice cream. “It’s a good thing I love this stuff then.” The ice cream was cold and rich and perfect. And an abundance of cookie dough chunks. She was going to find out exactly which file this was in the replicator so she could get more.

The words ‘self defense’ echoing in her mind. She took ate a spoonful of the ice cream, pulling at the neckline of her dress a little. She rolled her shoulders back and then took a few breaths, finding she didn’t feel short of breath, she relaxed a little more.

“Do you see that cloud arm there?” Nash pointed to one of the numerous clouds in the Nebula with his spoon, a chunk of cookie dough on it that he noticed after he pointed, then paused and ate before continuing. “That one looks like Admiral Perkins after Mardusk squeezed his hand too hard in a handshake.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Revna hadn’t met Mardusk yet, but had seen him in passing. She smiled softly, “I have no idea who Admiral Perkins is, but Mardusk is rather intimidating. I’ll have to remember to avoid his handshake, or did the Admiral do something to deserve that?” she waved her spoon towards the “Admiral Perkins” cloud arm. She pointed to a cluster of stars flashing below them, “The way the light up in that arm, looks like the cluster of islands I grew up on.”

“Perkins is an Admiral,” Nash said and his voice took on a hint of disgust. “He deserves everything he gets.” That last part was a mix of disgust and smugness, as if Nash knew something was up his sleeve that Perkins didn’t know about yet. Pausing, Nash looked over at the cluster she had indicated and watched it for a few moments.

She hadn’t meant to upset Nash with her question, and she knew it wasn’t really anything she said. She would love be to be the proverbial fly on the wall when Perkins got whatever surprise Bash thought he deserved.

She looked around the view her ice cream temporarily forgotten. She sat back and just watched. “It really looks like the waves on the sea.” Revna was obviously totally enchanted by the view. She watched for a bit longer. Absently, she started to get another spoonful of ice cream and found that holding the ice cream had numbed her already numb fingers more, and the container slipped. She barely managed to catch it, and placed it back on the tray. She started rubbing her hand trying to move the circulation into it and her fingers. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to my hands going numb like that.” She smiles sadly.

“It’s funny the events that lead us to the places we end up.” She looks over to watch his reaction, “I think, Nash, I may steal your bar stool from you.”

Lt. Edman

“If you want to be a grumpy cynic who hates the world, go ahead. I have a table set aside for me as well,” Nash spoke quietly, and stabbed his spoon into the ice cream to find another chunk. Ice cream didn’t judge, it was about as cold as his own emotions had become most of the time. Ice cream understood. Nash wouldn’t have described how he ended up where he was as ‘funny’, but he knew that wasn’t what Revna had meant.

Revna reached over and took his hand squeezing it gently. She had been trying to tease or flirt a little and she had gone about it horribly wrong. “I only meant that if I hadn’t sat on your stool, I wouldn’t have gotten your attention and we wouldn’t be here. And since I’m enjoying your company so much I’d have to sit there again.” She nodded towards the nebula. “I didn’t mean to be insensitive. I’m sorry.”

“What happened to your hands,” Nash asked her, “something you can’t have medical treat?” His eyes didn’t leave the clouds.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Revna shook her head. “Medical is working on it. My hands are okay, but my lung capacity is not. My lungs were…are very damaged.” She rubs her chest a little. “I have 8 stab wounds in them. The dermal regerators can only do so much. So I don’t always get enough oxygen. It makes my fingers and feet numb. If it”s really bad my lips will turn blue.” She picks the ice cream back up carefully and digs for a chunk of cookie dough. After taking a bite she adds. “I did a spectacularly stupid thing.”
Lt Edman, Counselor

“Well, that’s not unusual for people to do,” Nash said and he turned his eyes away from the nebula and onto Revna now. “We’ve all done stupid things, some clearly with more consequences than others,” he put down his ice cream and stabbed the spoon in so it stood upright on it’s own. “Question being of course, was it the right thing to do? Just because it was stupid doesn’t mean it wasn’t right.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

“It was the right thing, well A right thing. There were probably better options, though I didn’t see them at the time.” She glanced out the window at the nebula again. It was beautiful. Surprising and peaceful, much like the man sitting next to her in that small shuttle. She turned her gaze back towards Nash, the story slowly coming out, as if having been mentioned it insisted on being told. “I was stationed on the USS Centurion. That’s where I was before I came to Atlantis. I was on duty in the mess hall. By that, I mean we always ate with our patients, someone was always there. We were a hospital ship, and it was always a good idea, for lots of reasons, to have medical staff wherever the patients were. We tried to allow the patients to go about their normal routine as much as possible. We had to eat too, so we always had staff and patients eat together. It was very casual.” Revna scooped another bite of ice cream, enjoying the richness of it for a moment, collecting her thoughts.

“I was talking with another officer, she had been given clearance to go home. Her husband was coming to the ship, to travel with her. She was so excited to see him again. I’d walked her out to the hallway while we finished talking.” She smiled remembering Lissa. Revna had spoken to Lissa, after she, Revna, had been released as a patient. She’d been doing well at home with her husband and family. “I…I don’t know where the rest of the staff was, but when I turned to go back in, there was a lot of shouting, and Walker was standing over another patient, who was confined to a chair. I don’t know why Walker was there, I don’t know what his diagnosis or treatment was. I’d never worked with him. I’d never spoken to him before that. But he’d gotten a hold of a chief knife from the kitchen.”

Revna pauses seeing the events unfold in her mind. “The other patient was terrified. Everyone was yelling, trying to get Walker’s attention. It just added to the noise and confusion. I called for security, but…I don’t know where they were.” Revna glances out the window, absently digging at the ice cream with the spoon, but never scooping any, her motions very agitated, “It’s hard to know how to help someone when everything they see is all inside their head. It’s real, but you can’t see it with them.” She glanced over at Nash, “Walker was having some kind of flashback, and no matter what I said to him, he couldn’t hear me. I don’t know who he thought we were, nothing he said made sense at the time.” Her eyes were sad and she shook her head. “How do you help someone who doesn’t even know you are there?” It was a question she asked herself a lot over the weeks and never came up with even a bad answer. She finally ate the spoon of ice cream she’d been stabbing in the container and then set it down. She pulls one knee up and hugs it to her for several moments before she has to put her leg down again, the position making it hard to get a decent breath.

She takes a few slow shallow breaths, “And that is when I did the spectacularly stupid thing. I got between Walker and the other patient. And that’s when this happened,” she waves a hand towards her chest and the stab wounds there. She wasn’t ready, just then, to face the memories of the ripping, tearing, and the world going black. She would, she would have to, but just not in that moment. “I was told, it wouldn’t have been so bad if he hadn’t twisted the blade as he pulled it out each time.”

Lt. Edman, Counselor

Nash listened without saying anything as she spoke. Sometimes nods and grunts were acceptable to show you were still involved in a topic, other times, you just stayed silent as the person spoke and revealed things. Sometimes there was nothing you could say, and Nash had learned a long time ago that there was nothing wrong with that. Nobody could fix everything and sometimes, fixing something was never the point. People had to deal with things in their own way as they were ready to deal with it, sure you could help them, if they wanted help, but most times that help was just in listening and being there.

“You’re still alive, and so is the other patient. It wasn’t stupid, it wasn’t even heroic,” he said quietly. “You did what you were supposed to do and there were consequences you have to learn to live with,” he shrugged slightly, then pointed at the nebula in front of them. “Now, your sitting in a shuttle eating ice cream and looking at that,” he smiled slightly. “I can think of worse places to be right now.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Revna listened as Nash spoke. She appreciated his silence while she talked. It didn’t bother her, sometimes words, a verbal response weren’t needed. Revna didn’t need more words. She’d heard them all. And there was a time for them. She appreciated what her friends on Centrion had meant, what they had tried to do, but the words were for themselves and not for her. She understood that too, and that didn’t bother her either. Her mouth twitched in a smile. Nash would make a decent counselor, she wouldn’t say it though. He’d never forgive the insult.

She glances over at him, “They are BOTH still alive.” She didn’t blame Walker. He wasn’t after her, he was just lost. “And I’m alive too, and the consequences are of little importance.” She shrugs, “they are what they are.” She lets out a breath she’d been half holding. “Thank you for that. If you had told me I was brave and heroic, honestly” she chuckles, “Your hand would end up like Commodant Zabarts. The sharp end of a medal shoved through the back of your hand. But he couldn’t spare two minutes to check on the person who really needed it.” She looks at the ice cream, picks it up and picks out a large chunk of cookie dough. “I hate brass. I never thought I could despise another living being that much.”

“Oh that is entirely possible,” Nash agreed. “The trick is to make sure you don’t begin to hate yourself in the process, but a strong dislike of shiny brass is healthy in my opinion.” He seemed entirely serious when he said it as well, and maybe he was.

“To despise myself for the way they are, would be letting them win, and,” she glances at Nash, “I do not like losing. Not to cowards and cheats anyway.” And suddenly her mischievous streak decided to show itself. Revna seemed to consider a moment his opinion of shiny brass and she smirked at him. She lifted one of her braids woven with copper and brass beads, “So I guess you’d prefer I take the beads out?”

Revna looks out at the nebula and then looks back over at Nash and returns his smile. “Are you sure we’re actually in a shuttle right now?” She’s still a little in awe of the view Odyssey is able to give. “I’m pretty sure we’re in the middle of the nebula instead.” She considers his last statement and watches the lights of the nebula dance across him and the inside of the shuttle. “I can think of lots of worse places, but right now, in this moment, I can’t think of any that are better.”

Lt. Edman, Counselor

“I’m pretty sure we are in the shuttle still,” Nash teased her. “The ice cream is melting, after all. Aside from radiation it likely wouldn’t do that if it wasn’t in here, but I can check,” he said, and his hands moved over the controls for a moment. Seconds later, and the small ship shot forward, the inertial dampeners kicking in a fraction of a second later so that both of them felt the push into their seats from the acceleration.

Her face looked horrified for a moment, “My ice cream is melting?!” She grabs the tub and looks inside of it. “Oh it’s fine, it’s only a little bit.” She scoops another large spoonful, and puts the tub back down while she eats the ice cream. She had heard the teasing note to his voice a moment before and as he suggested the he would check to make sure they were really in the shuttle she glanced back at him wondering what he was up to. The sudden jump startled her, and the pressure from the push back hurt her chest slightly forcing her to take more shallow breaths.

With the view from the little ship now making it seem like they had no walls around them, the Nebula slowly began to expand before them as they approached and they did indeed appear to be in space rather then in the shuttle, which was the whole point of the little ships design of course. Nash didn’t slow down, instead he adjusted the angle of the ship a little so that they would enter the nebula faster.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

The view from Odyssey amazed her, and it showed on her face. Eventually the acceleration and inertial dampeners caught up together and Revna relaxed in her seat as the pressure against her lungs released some. She watched in front of her as the nebula got closer and seemed to engulf the inside of the shuttle. The colors swirled and crested like actual waves across the inside of the shuttle, creating, in Revna’s opinion, a magical light display. Revna’s fingers trailed absently along one of the side panels, almost as if she was dipping her fingers into the North Sea as her father’s langskip ship, the Tranen, flew across the waves. Alright so now Revna could think of something better than just a few moments ago. As Nash adjusted the angle the shuttle sped forward into the nebula and Revna laughed, though it was soft and weak, “Sail it like you stole, Nash.”
Lt. Edman, Counselor