High Level Bridge
Lethbridge, Alberta
Earth
─•~:~•─
The search of whatever facility that Alesha had sent Mark and Five Tribe didn't reveal anything of use. Medical supplies, some chemicals, meaningless research notes.
The property was registered to a shell company, under the umbrella of another shell company, which was in turn registered to yet another shell company that belonged to a shell company owned by a Ferengi that had been dead for fifty years.
The sky above had turned dark blue as he came out of the laboratory, and Mark was likely joining billions of other people suddenly looking at a second moon in the sky.
His wrist-comm had been blaring for hours with urgent calls, but he was ignoring the device. Everything could go wrong today had gone wrong, and he just couldn't bring himself to care anymore.
So as he tossed a second empty Moosehead into the almost frozen Oldman river and emptied a third, he found himself wondering if Dougie didn't have the right idea all along, and contemplated resignation.
But a voice that he hadn't heard in fifteen years stopped his train of thinking.
"Well, I had to see this for myself. You're standing around like a miserable little shit and throwing perfectly good beer bottles into the river. Glad to see that your maturity hasn't improved a lick, Marcus."
The ex-Commander Victor Castle limped his way between the ties of the CPR bridge and leaned down to retrieve his own bottle from Mark's open case.
"Did I fucking tell you that you could have one of my beers?" An armed Mark asked in annoyance.
"Makes up for all mine you took when I wasn't home."
Victor opened his bottle, and looked up in the sky at the huge, black sphere of metal that had appeared in the sky, "I don't suppose you know what that is?"
"To be honest, I don't fucking care anymore."
"I figured you'd know out of everyone. You know I start my mornings, Son? I wake up around seven, I'm out of bed by about nine. I put my false leg on, walk into the sonic shower, get dressed, have my coffee, check my vid mails, then I move on with my day."
Mark rolled his eyes as Victor continued, "On the weekdays, I'll beam over to the VA club, play a few bridge rounds with the boys, watch the news, normal shit like that. Wednesdays I'll go over to Gunn's Pool Hall in Canmore and play snooker with Engineer Kingsley. Every other Friday, they do nine ball tournaments. I won last week's actually, got a certificate to Ricky's Lounge on Risa."
"Saturdays, weather depending, I'll play thirty-six holes on St. Andrews. Usually William Riker plays with me when he's near Earth. Other times it'll be people from the Bajoran Embassy. Hell of a golfer that Kai Kira is. And of course, every Sunday, Ms. Peterson from Drumheller has me over to cook a Turkey for her and the grandkids. The youngest, Elvira, wants to go to Starfleet Academy when she's old enough, so I pass along my knowledge to her."
Mark drained the third bottle, tossed it in the river, and opened the fourth, "Wait, don't tell me. Elvira is the daughter you wish your son could have been and actually pays attention to all your bullshit stories on Essex about how Fishie officers are supposed to be prim, proper and strait-laced. The same bullshit stories that made Mom move all the way to Betazed, and the very same bullshit stories that made you drag me into the fucking Academy, right?"
Victor tossed his own bottle into the river, "Don't give me that shit. The Academy did you a world of good. You won a blue ribbon on the debate team. And you met your lovely future wife there. Jessica was a remarkable woman. You really couldn't have done better for yourself, Marcus."
"Oh fuck off, Vic!" Mark shouted, "Jess two timed me with Hawkins and Justin Reams, to say nothing of the fact her other husband spent fifteen years trying to put me in jail! And all thanks to you dragging me into the Fishies, something I never once wanted any part of. That was your life, not mine."
"Is there even a point to you being here, besides just to tell me what a fucking disappointment I was to you all these years?"
Victor opened the second bottle, "You're a smart kid, Marcus. I don't need to you remind of your pre-existing truths. But you missed something in my daily activities. No matter where I am, the VA club, St. Andrews, Gunn's Pool Hall, or even Ms. Peterson's kitchen table, there's always one question people ask me."
"What's that? 'Why are you such a fucking asshole, Victor?' 'Why do you think you can be an asshole to everyone you meet, Victor?' 'How many hole in ones did you score today, Victor?' and whatever other assorted shit I don't care about?"
"Nope," Victor replied in a sip, "They say, 'Commander Castle, that's really your son that's in charge of the Federation Marine Corps?' and you know what I tell everyone that asks me that?"
"Don't fucking care," Mark said before he threw another bottle into the river.
"I tell them, 'Why yes, yes, it is. My son is the Officer Commanding of the Federation Marine Corps.' And that's usually it. But other times, I'll tell them how good of a job you do running that show. Or how it could only be you to do that job. And I'll say one thing at the end, something I choke on every time I say it, but I say it anyway."
Victor tossed his own bottle in before putting his hand on Mark's shoulder, "I say that I'm proud of my boy."
Mark suddenly lost his composure, and sobbed into his sixth beer, contemplating shooting himself, or simply jumping off the bridge into the cold river.
"How the fuck did this all happen?! I mean, shit. Two days ago, I was on Repulse watching a science show. Now two of my only friends are dead, the woman I actually loved tried to kill me, my little niece is in Chinook Regional right now, and her mom, who's the sister I never had, will want me dead for it too…"
He pointed up at the Iron Star, "And this fucking thing just shows up out of nowhere! I can't fucking do this anymore!"
Victor was quiet for a long moment as Mark stared in the sky. Finally, after the eternity of thirty seconds, he opened two more beers and passed one to Mark.
"I don't have an answer for that one, Marcus. No one does. But I'll tell you this. Ten hours ago, I was at the Nadion Pulse station in town there. I'm still a registered reservist, so I was in command. Everyone was in panic. They thought the Borg were going to get us. But I kept everyone cool."
"Because I told them, 'We got nothing to worry about. My boy's Marines are on that ship, and they'll get this taken care of. Just man your stations. He won't let us down.' And you know what? It worked. You took care of this problem."
Victor stood up, "So get off your ass and stop moping like a little bitch. You've got a job to do, General Castle. Get up!"
Instinct took over regret, and Mark stood up. In another shocking moment, Commander Victor Castle stood at attention and saluted him.
"Commander Victor Castle, standing by for orders, General Castle, Sir!"
Mark returned the salute, and replied, "At ease, Commander. And uh… thanks Dad."
Victor shook his hand, firmly and truly, "My pleasure, Son. Now, are you gonna do something about that damn beeping thing on your wrist there?"
Suddenly remembering he had his wrist-comm on silent, Mark threw his last beer into the river and opened the device, with Anna's message being the first to break through.
"Mark, where in the fuck are ye?! I need ya up here on ESD right fuckin' now!"
Mark sighed before replying, "Sorry, Madam President. Personal Business. I'll be up shortly, Overlord 1-9 out."
He then selected another frequency, one that brought him hope and pain in equal measure, "Overlord 1-9 to Reaper 1-9, report location."
Rain answered quickly, "I'm stopping for a moment in Algiers to get a friend before I head to your city. If anyone, and I mean anyone, approaches my Daughter, I'll kill them stone dead!"
"Don't worry, Rain, Kayla's safe. Five Tribe is with her now, and…" he paused, considering the moment, before a nod from his father confirmed his thinking patterns, "And a Commander Victor Castle will meet you there. Can you get Repulse to vector me up to ESD?"
"Thirty seconds. Stand-by for transport, Overlord."
Mark looked at his father one last time, "You don't mind, eh?"
Victor waved his hand, "I'll take care of it."
And as Mark beamed away, he left with words in his mind he never thought he'd speak again.
Thanks, Dad.
