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

(snip)

“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

“Maybe I did,” Nash replied, and spun the small craft over slightly so they were looking at a different part of the nebula. There were no obstacles or physical objects to dodge or avoid, so Nash simply turned the small craft in graceful arcs while the colours changed and pulsed around them. He paused in his turns to look over at Revna, she seemed to be enjoying the view so he smiled, and let her look. There was time for talking on the ship, for now watching was why he had brought her out her, away from the hustle and bustle of the Atlantis.

“Oh, so that’s what you meant by ‘you knew the guy who had these front row tickets.’ You pickpocketed the tickets from him,” she winked at him, “I won’t tell.” Revna sat back watching the nebula as Nash piloted the shuttle around in sweeping arcs. She’d been on one star ship or another for a long time now, but never had she actually had time to look at the beauty of it. She’d always been to busy with the dynamics inside the ship to take the time to notice. The arcs Nash was making gave her quite the view and from several different perspectives. She relaxed back against the seat, lost in watching the lights and swirl, letting her mind wander to no particular direction. She turned in her seat at one point to look back, which was possible due to the nature of Odyssey’s view screen, and watch a particularly rich flow of colors that had started in front of her, but they had passed, and she wanted to see it before it was gone. Nash was a skilled pilot and she enjoyed every moment of the show he was providing her with. “You are a man of many talents, Nash.”

That didn’t last long and he began a slow turn that eventually had them heading back in the direction of the Atlantis although the colours still reflected from all around them. “The ship isn’t going to hang around forever,” Nash smirked, “we should head back, unless you want to be stranded out here in a two person shuttle with me and no Warp drive.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Obviously they couldn’t stay stranded in the shuttle in the middle of the nebula. So his comment left Revna wondering, again, was he serious, well as much as he could be, or was he messing with her? And then it occurred to her that it might be both. “Well if the shuttle is already stolen, might as well take advantage of it.” She paused as if considering his proposal, ” Hmmmm well unless this ship can provide an endless supply of cookie dough icecream…probably we should go back. I can’t live without it.” And before she really thought about what she was saying, “Well if I do have to be stranded, I’d rather it be you.”

Lt. Edman, Counselor