Dylan's Flaw (tragic)
"Beka do it! Do it now!"
"Normally Dylan I would trust your plan, but this time you've gone beyond crazy. You have to stop this now before..."
Dylan pounded his fist on the console in fury as he cut Beka off. "I've had enough of your arguments Beka, this is the last time! You are officially relieved of duty. I'll do this myself."
A thin stream of energy passed from the Andromeda to a large ship in a dangerously low orbit around the planet. A smile began on the captain's face, but before it fully appeared a huge flash of light engulfed the other ship and it plummeted rapidly towards the planet's surface.
Hours later Rommie tried to stem her Captain's raging guilt. "Dylan, you couldn't have guessed that the energy stream would have that effect. It should have worked to recharge their engine core and saved them from crashing into the planet. And the Caridians would have been very impressed and thankful and you would have had another signature for your charter."
"That's just it Rommie. That's exactly why I did what I did. I wanted to impress the Caridians and get them to sign my charter more than I wanted to help all those people in that transport ship. Harper tried to tell me that ship engine design had changed too much in the last 300 years for my idea to work. And Beka tried to get me to see that I was being unreasonable and dismissing Harper too quickly. Even Trance implied that it wouldn't produce the best possible outcome. I ignored everyone. And since when did it become my charter? How can I claim to be working for the good of the Commonwealth when I make unilateral decisions and claim all the successes for myself? In the space of a few hours I have managed to strip the best first officer I have ever had of her position, insult and alienate the only engineer capable of caring for you, get a tourist ship carrying over 100 people from a dozen worlds destroyed, and ensured that the Caridians will never join the Commonwealth. They are so angry with me that they have not only cut off all diplomatic ties with the Commonwealth they have also banned this ship from all their territories on pain of instant destruction. All because I needed to add another world to my commonwealth." Dylan had been pacing and gesturing the whole time but finally sat down, almost collapsing.
Rommie knew that this could fester in Dylan's mind if she didn't help him work through it quickly. "Captain. Dylan, even Harper didn't know the ship would blow up, he just said it wouldn't restart the engines. He'll get over it quickly, he loves fixing me too much to stay mad for long. And Beka never even took your relieving her of duty seriously. Normally that would be a bad thing, but as you want to take it back anyway, it's all for the best. And the others are all worried more about how this affects our goals than about your command. Dylan, our goals, our hopes. The crew has faith in you Dylan, you just have to have faith in yourself. You are a good captain and we can recover from this. We will restore the Commonwealth."
Rommie fully expected this little speech to have the intended effect of cheering her captain up. She had addressed all his concerns and pointed out his duty; to continue to work for the Commonwealth. But she could tell it had had no effect on Dylan at all. Instead of getting back to work as he usually did after setbacks he stayed seated, still. He hung his head a little, no longer meeting Rommie's eyes.
"But Rommie I never even came up with a plan B. I always have a plan B, but I never even considered one this time."
Rommie had no answer for that.