Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay

Posted by Commander Roman Alden (First Officer & Chief Science Officer) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay

Posted by Ensign Rand Farquharson (Yeoman First Class) in side - sim: In Memory of Jay
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)
“No,” he said, lifting his head. She explained to him the parts she’d have trouble with and he knew she understood, he wasn’t worried about her confusing it. He was just being his typical stubborn self. Without reading the label he stuck the next disk in.

It would be the last video on the disk that was taken on the day of the attack, the two before it would be filmed just a couple of days earlier and the day before. The file named were marked with the date. Roman was familiar with about when the videos were taken, and he knew they were getting close, but he hadn’t realized how close. Rand was doing most of the notes, after all, she was dealing with the dates. The first two videos on the disk were short, four and seven minutes, the last one from the 19th was longer.

~ Roman

Rand didn’t think he would let her just go through and get the information. He had to be part of it. The first two videos didn’t take long. They wrapped up several of the studies that bad been conducted. There was the venom antidote left and the life cycle studies, but the animals didn’t survive the attack. The attack! What had been bothering Rand suddenly became clear. The final entry was the day of the attack. She ejected the disk suddenly, “We’re done,” and took the disk with her as she left.

The videos had been upsetting as they always were for him, and they’d only been more difficult the further they’d gone. He wasn’t crying as much anymore, as if he’d simply dehydrated himself out of tears over the last week, but he was quiet, and Rand would be able to tell it was hard for him. He was lost in thought in between videos when Rand jumped up and made him jump. She ejected the disk and left with it. “Rand? We’re not done! What’s wrong?”

She had to find Randy. She didn’t care how mad she was at him, she couldn’t do this. She couldn’t watch it, she couldn’t watch Roman watch it. No. Enough. She found Randy still on shift in sickbay. She marched right up to him, “You, now,” and dragged him to an out of the way to a quiet corner. Randy stamped his foot and glared at her, “Rand I’m working. You might get to be lazy this week and goof off taking your leave time, but I still have things to do.”

Rand slapped the disk into his hand. “Yes work, this work right here.” She grabbed his arm and her voice dropped very low. “It’s recorded…the attack, it’s on this disk. I can’t…he can’t.” Randy pinched his nose, “And you just snatched it away and disappeared with it.” It wasn’t a question. He took the disk, dragging Rand with him and marched her right back to Alden’s quarters. “Alright, so Rand I want you back here in an hour, go play with Nibbles or something.” He looked at Alden and then sat down. “You know why she stole the disk?” He was pretty sure Alden did.

Randy

It had taken a few minutes after she’d marched off without a real word why, but yes, he knew. The realization had set in when he looked to see which disks were left: none of them. And they’d gone by date. That meant she had the last disk, and Roman… Well, he was never able to forget.

He knew what exactly they’d been doing that day and that meant he knew what was on the disk. It had to be, to freak her out like that. But he wouldn’t have guessed that the final video would’ve been saved. He’d have assumed that with the ship damage it would’ve been corrupted, like so many other files had been.

But somehow, it wasn’t. Of course it wasn’t. Roman’s face gave it away to Randy. He knew, and he couldn’t believe it. That that was on video. After all he’d been through trying to finish the project, he didn’t think he could handle it. He was upset enough at the knowledge of its existence. The fact that Randy was here, and that he was sending Rand away, confirmed it. He nodded slowly to Randy’s question.

~ Roman

Randy saw the emotions chase across Alden’s face and then shook his head. “Let’s start with, we don’t actually know how much information is there. All we know is there is some data from that date. The only way to know for sure is to look. Now there are a couple of options. You don’t watch that file at all. I’m sure every minute of that day is vividly clear to you. You let me watch it, like fast forward, not listening not really playing, just so I can tell you whether or not it’s intact, or we just dive in and watch it and be surprised. Professionally I am not a fan of the last option. There is quite a bit of proven benefit in retelling the events from your own words. To get them out, to practice saying it, and facing it. Watching it is not the same thing. It’s too traumatic. And since we haven’t even broached the subject in conversation I highly advise against it.”

Randy

It took Roman a long moment to respond. “We don’t… we don’t know how much data is left intact. But I do know what what filmed that day, it was the only thing we planned to video that day.” It was supposed to be exactly what Rand thought, a summary of their life span observations and expectations. Obviously his animals were mostly not even close to living out their natural life spans but the video was talking about what life stages they had seen and judging by how long they were how long they expected the full life span to be. But they’d barely started the video when the attack happened and Roman didn’t know how much the of the attack the camera caught, how long it recorded for.

Roman knew he couldn’t watch that video. He already saw it, in bits and pieces, every night when he went to bed. He already relived it every time the ship shook. Every time there was a sound that reminded him of that day. To actually see it again… Roman wasn’t sure what it would do but it wasn’t good. So he shook his head again. “I can’t. I can’t… watch it. No. It… The direction the camera was pointed… It likely caught most of what happened, depending on how long it recorded for.”

~ Roman

Randy waited while Alden processed, found his words, his breath. Randy was relieved Alden wasn’t going to be stubborn about it. One day maybe, but he wasn’t ready.

“Alright, so let’s back up just a moment to the work.” Always a safe topic. “Had you already written the notes of what you were going to talk about? Did those notes survive?” Randy pointed to the PaDD.

“We wrote the notes after we shot the videos. Jay… He preferred it that way.” His voice was strained, this was still difficult for him. “They survived in parts. Everything from the last month or so worth of notes had corrupted sections.”

“I think this disk should be put away not to be examined. That said, do you need whatever data might be there or can you reconstruct it? If you absolutely without a doubt need it…I can watch it for you. Otherwise let’s aknowledge you have reviewed the project to full extent of what data was recovered and you are finished.” Randy didn’t think Alden or Rand should ever watch what might or might not be on there.

Randy

“I need that data. When Starfleet decides they need this study, there won’t be time to repeat the life cycle studies we did. The notes are vital to the project. It must be watched.” But not by Roman. He’d rather do it himself, but he valued his ability to do his job more. And he’d never, ever, let Rand see it if he could be sure of that.

~ Roman

Randy nodded. “Alright, walk me through what I need to be watching for. What data I’m getting.” He tapped the PaDD, “because I do not want to mess up the work Rand has done. She’ll do worse than punch me.”

Randy

Roman looked at him, “You were my yeoman, you’ve done the job. You know how to do the notes.” Then he went over the type of data they were looking for and how to link the time stamps to what was in the video. The explanation was impatient and rushed, which was unlike Roman. It was the stress of the videos, of the memories. “What should I be doing?” He still hated that he was handing the last bit of this off to someone else. He should’ve been able to just get it done himself. Not needed help. But if Randy was watching it and he wasn’t, he ought to be doing something.

Yes he had been, and he remembered. Randy would never say it, but there were days he missed being Alden’s yeoman and irritating him just because. However he wasn’t familiar with the study so he preferred to be briefed. At his question Randy fought the urge to say sleep because that wouldn’t happen. “I know you don’t want someone else to do this, but consider on any other project you would record and a yeoman or jo would transcribe the video for you. This is no different than that. You did the hard work, this is just paperwork and you hate that. As for what you should do…go find Rand. Go to the gym, I’m sure you haven’t been very physically active the last couple weeks. Do a walk of the decks. Get a feel for what is going on across the ship while you have been busy. That has always been part of your XO routine.” Randy took the PaDD and disk and left, going back to his quarters and sat down at the computer.

No, he hadn’t, in fact he hadn’t been to the gym since before all this started. He hadn’t done much of anything lately. He was technically still on duty so he did his usual deck rounds as Randy had suggested. He stopped briefly in the lab at the end and spotted Rand there still, but didn’t stop to talk to anyone instead heading back up to deck 3.

The video started out like all the others. Roman and Jay sat in what almost appeared to be a single chair. They started out the video talking about the project so far and summarizing which animals they’d studied so far and at what approximate life stage they were in. Then they took the camera around the lab and began talking about each individual animal extensively. It would have been a long video even if it hadn’t been interrupted.

They were in about the middle of the lab against the back wall, talking about Rand’s favorite: The chamelobunny. Its fur was currently a dark green/brown, trying to match the soil and plants in its terrarium. “She’s quite territorial, once she got used to her terrarium, she’d guard it with her life,” said Jay in the video. The slightly younger video Roman nodded and held up his forearm to show scars that looked a couple of months old from the vicious rabbit’s wickedly sharp claws. Randy may not have noticed them because Roman was always wearing a long sleeved uniform shirt, but they were still there, faintly.

“Huh…no wonder I annoy him so much,” Randy grinned as he watched Alden and Jay. He liked Jay immensely, he was a kindred soul, and obviously kept Alden grounded on the happier side of life. Randy had to rewind parts of the video several times. He wasn’t distracted, but he was not as quick as Rand nor did he have her eidetic memory. He didn’t want her or Alden to have any reason to go back and watch this (not that he was giving the video back), so he wanted to make sure he got it all.

The ship shook violently without warning and Roman and Jay both grabbed the lab counter for support. The Red Alert alarm was easily heard in the video though the light panel wasn’t visible. When the ship stabilized, Roman returned the camera and its tripod to its post by his desk. “Battle stations, all officers, battle stations. Battle stations.” It was the standard comm message when the ship was under attack. “We’re under attack? From who?” Jay asked. Roman shook his head, “Bold pirates? Not much else in this region of space.” The ship shook violently again, power fluctuating and causing lights in the lab to flicker. “We’d best secure the terrariums, unless we want to have a bunch of deadly animals on the loose.” There had been a sudden change in Jay’s body language, a quick change from goofy and relaxed to suddenly dead serious. From the camera’s location near Roman’s desk, most of the biology lab was visible. The door was just behind the camera, the layout was a wide open square with several lab tables laid out in a grid pattern. The terrariums were along the edge of the room, separated by prey/predator and diurnal/nocturnal. The lights on the nocturnal side were typically dimmed. There was a wide open space in the middle of the lab.

Roman and Jay moved about the room making sure the terrariums were secure. Most of them already were, but it was Roman’s protocol to avoid an animal caused emergency amidst another emergency. It was harder to hear what they were saying when they were further from the camera, mostly talking about the animals, what could be going, mundane things like that. The ship shook again, and both of them clung to the lab tables to avoid getting knocked over. Jay was near the corner of the lab in front of the digging devil’s enclosure, Roman was near the middle of the back wall. There was seemingly little warning for what happened next.

Randy listened carefully Incase either of them mentioned anything else important while they secured the cages. He doubted it, their focus would be safety not making reports. He didn’t intend to watch the attack itself, but it happened so fast.

The sound blew the camera’s microphone, and it was hard to see what was going on at all. It was hard to tell if the camera’s lens had been hit by something or if there was too much movement, but it was unclear precisely what was happening. There was a lot of shouting and screaming when the mic started picking up sound again. The camera’s tripod had fallen, leaving the video sideways, but when the view cleared there was still a view of most of the lab. It was chaotic. Part of the ceiling had caved in, there was damage to the walls, and a fire started by the explosion near the corner of the lab. Debris was strewn about the lab, bits of metal and plastic and whatever else might’ve been near the lab. Several officers lay on the floor of the lab, others rushing around. “What happened?” “I’m not sure, get Engineering in here! We need that fire put out, now!” “Where’s the Lieutenant?” “Call Medical! We’ve got injured officers!” There were a few other voices drowned out by other noises in the lab, yelling and screaming, the screeches of animals. The film was a bit in and out, some parts were fuzzy, but one could tell what was going on.

Roman was visible in the edge of the frame, on the floor of the lab near one of the lab tables. He didn’t seem fully aware of what had happened, laying on the floor with no effort to move. His leg was obviously injured, and there was quite a lot of visible blood, but the camera was distant enough and angled enough one couldn’t quite see the gory details of the injury. There was blood on his shirt, too, but it was barely visible on the camera, that injury was more impact and burned than laceration. One of the standing officers knelt down by Roman, so his leg was no longer in view at all. “Lieutenant! Hang on, medical’s on their way.” But Roman wasn’t looking at the officer in front of him, his eyes were focused at the other end of the lab, only partly visible in the video, several feet from where Jay had previously been standing. “Jay!” He started to say something else, but he cried out as he tried to move, and then his hands went to his leg. “Jay, no!” He was quite obviously in a lot of pain. The audio cut for about thirty seconds of film. Jay was only partially visible, the upper half of his body, the lower half out of frame. He wasn’t conscious. He was alive and breathing, but he wasn’t conscious. His shirt was scorched, badly, but it was difficult to tell what his injuries were actually like. There was blood on Jay’s shirt, but that was about where he was out of frame.

Medical officers started to flood the lab with stretchers. Roman and Jay were some of the first loaded to go. That was about when the audio cut back in. “Sorry we’re late guys, medical’s had some casualties, too.” The ship shook and everyone in frame who could grabbed hold of something, did. That was when the power to the section cut out, the lights turned off and the red alert siren was gone. It would’ve been eerily quiet if there weren’t still such a ruckus by injured and panicked officers. There was another loud, explosion like sound, and more debris went flying. The film was a bit in and out again, but there was a lot more panic and screaming, and anyone who could move started to assist anyone who couldn’t to get out of the lab. Some of the animal enclosures were just gone. Some were broken, but the animals that had been inside were injured or dead. “Hull breach! There’s a hull breach! Get away from the opening!” There were several voices chiming in with the same sentiment, and a few names shouted. The video cut out before the audio as the lab was quickly evacuated. Then the video cut dead entirely.

~ Roman

Randy stared in horrified silence as the camera caught. it. all. He visibly jerked when he heard Alden scream out for Jay. He knew that sound, had felt it issue from is own throat at the same time it closed and refused to work. Except the doctors had managed to save Rand, Jay had not been so lucky. Randy’s gut wrenched painfully.

Finally the video ended and Randy rolled it back, he inserted a second disk, copied the first two videos to it and then spliced the last, moving only the study related portion to the new disk. The original he ejected and moved over to his bed side table, unlocked it and dropped the disk inside. He took the second disk, labelled it and set it with the PaDD. Then he went and cleaned himself up. Yes he cried for Alden and Jay both, but it would not help Alden for Randy to be a blubbery mess when he returned.

Randy

Roman returned to his own quarters first, and seeing that Randy wasn’t there, he went next door and knocked softly, waiting for an answer. Even accidentally he didn’t want to see what was on the disk. He did want to know if Randy was done, it had been about forty five minutes.

~ Roman