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Five Forward: atten: Ael Khev

Posted March 7, 2020, 12:20 p.m. by Lieutenant Ael Khev (Pilot, Red Squad Leader) (Sage Pennington)

Posted by Commander Jason Harn (Executive Officer) in Five Forward: atten: Ael Khev

Posted by Lieutenant Ael Khev (Pilot, Red Squad Leader) in Five Forward: atten: Ael Khev

Posted by Commander Jason Harn (Executive Officer) in Five Forward: atten: Ael Khev
Posted by… suppressed (7) by the Post Ghost! 👻
SNIP

“You ever find yourself not missing it for a day? Whatever you left behind. It just doesn’t seem as… real as everything and everyone here.” Ael had a bizarre feeling growing that the XO understood him perhaps more than most on the ship. One could explain these things, but it never led to true understanding.

-Ael Khev

“Oh gosh, yes,” Jason nodded painfully. “There are times when my old life just doesn’t seem real… and times when this one seems like a dream that I’m going to wake up from any time now. You learn to move on but your past remains a part of you, even though you can never go back.”

Jason Harn, XO

“Sometimes I can’t for the life of me remember little things. What side of the street a shop was on, the names of all the kids my brother used to play with. Details. But I knew them all.” Ael chuckled. “I genuinely don’t know why I’m sharing so much. I’ve never met anyone else who had lost what they left behind.”

-Ael Khev

“We’re probably not as special as we think we are,” Jason shrugged with a bitter grin, “but yeah, I’ve met lots of people dispossessed by the Dominion War, but nobody who’s lost everything and had to start all over like we did. Hm, maybe we really are that special. So how are you fitting in?” Or not fitting in, Jason added inwardly. “Are your shipmates going with the racial slurs card, keeping their distance card, or being sickeningly polite card?”

Jason Harn, XO

“Depends on who. Pilots… just need to know you have their back. Don’t have time for mistrust. The rest of the crew does tend to give me a wide berth. No one trusts a Romulan. Sometimes it seems a little tense between humans and Vulcans. Maybe that’s just me.”

-Ael Khev

“Yeah, I can relate,” Jason nodded. “I spent a year aboard the Qapla’ as part of the Officer Exchange Program and fitting with the Klingons was rough at first, but eventually I won them over. When they gave me the business I offered to help them work on their material, gave them the ‘c’mon fellas, you can do better than that can’t you?’ Of course I always volunteered for every mission I could so they’d know I could pull my weight. Had to volunteer for everything, no matter how risky, to show them I wasn’t a coward and could be counted on. That backfired once when I used the excuse that I was expendable because the other officers had families. I didn’t know about the ‘die in battle with your eyes open’ ethic back then and one guy thought I was trying to insult him. Really blew up in my face.”

Jason Harn, waxing nostalgic the way old f@rts often do

“It might shock you to learn that I haven’t encountered many Klingons on good terms. I met one… at the Academy. When I was doing my pilot’s certification. I think she tolerated me because she was fairly confident she could kill me.” Ael chuckled. “Ok I have to ask. Why does the first officer of a ship as big as this go for beers with a fighter pilot?”

-Ael Khev

That wiped the casual smile right off the first officer’s face and for a brief moment it was replaced with a look of sorrow that made Jason appear a decade or two older. It was as if the big man had died inside or as if someone had just informed him that a dear friend or close relation had passed away. “Everybody else on this ship is young enough to be my child,” he confessed sadly. “You’re the only one aside of the skipper who’s the same age as me. And I know what it’s like to lose everything and start all over. I guess I just… started feeling my age, that’s all. It’s not like I’ve got a family to write home to.”

Jason Harn, suddenly vulnerable

Ael looked like he saw someone who finally got it. “My brother, I was the oldest of three, he would be 44 right now. And he was the youngest. There’s a phrase we all repeated to ourselves, hoping for comfort; it translates to ‘life moves on.’ Everything around us was bleak for a long time. Then something truly awful happened… and I left. Sailing to Federation space was almost meditative. I’m sure I’ll always miss going to my family home on shore leave. But flying for this crew… it’s better than anything I had in the Imperial Navy.”

-Ael Khev

“Yeah, we live in amazing times,” Jason nodded, thinking about his first experience with the Federation and how amazingly cosmopolitan it was. Back aboard the Challenger, there was only one alien but aboard a Federation Starfleet vessel you could even meet… a Romulan.

Jason didn’t ask about the “awful thing that happened.” That was too personal for a first date. Jason had been itching to talk about his time travel experience but again, it was too soon. It was time to move on…

“‘Life moves on,’” he repeated thoughtfully. “Now there’s a loaded phrase if I ever heard one. After what I… what we went through, it takes on a whole new meaning.” He paused as he remembered he was speaking to an alien, a man who was foreign even to the all inclusive United Federation of Planets. “A new meaning for me, anyway,” he admitted. “Maybe that’s what it always meant, I dunno. All that talk about your siblings got me thinking about my son and my ex-wife. I could simulate them on the holodeck, but I don’t dare. Once you go down that rabbit hole, it’s hard to come back out again,” he muttered without checking to see if Ael had ever heard of a rabbit or not.

Jason Harn, XO finally losing that annoying friendly lighthearted façade and giving Ael a peek under the mask

“Absolutely. I never simulate Romulus. ch’Rihan, if you’ll forgive me. Saying these words in Federation basic… still sounds so strange. But I think it’s better if I’m accustomed to speaking this language.”

-Ael Khev


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