Just a little quicky, to remind us that no matter where we come from, we're all only human after all.
Chapter 8
Admiral's ready room TCS Mastiff: Admiral Douglas sat at his desk, and kept looking at the speech that he was trying to write. How do you tell almost 4700 people that they can never go home again, and that you are going to be putting them in harms way again. In his own universe, he wouldn't have had to worry about this, because defeating the Kilrathi meant keeping the human race alive. But this wasn't their universe, and this war wasn't truly theirs. But the outcome of the war was the same, the end of all-human life in this universe. He now got up and left his ready room. He needed to think, and he found that he thought better when he was walking. As he walked about the ship, with no particular destination in mind, he saw his people busy at work doing their duties. These were his people, his responsibility.He still wondered, "How could he ask them to risk their lives to help a people that were not their people?"
The Admiral just kept walking, and kept thinking about everything that he had found out in the last few days. After an hour, he found himself at sickbay Alpha. As he went inside, the staff looked at him and he just smiled. Most of them went back to their duties, except for one of the nurses.
He came up to him, "Can I help you Admiral?"
"No Lt, I'm just checking on our guest's."
The Lt just shook his head, and then went back to his duties. He could see the people in the beds around him, and he wondered. "I know that their humans, but they aren't my people."
As the Admiral walked about the sickbay, he saw a young woman frantically feeling all over the bead she was in. The woman had bandages over both of her eyes, but the Admiral could see that she looked very worried.
He walked over to her bed, "Can I help you miss?"
She turned toward his voice and smiled. "If you wouldn't mind, I seem to have lost a letter, I know it should be here, but I can't seem to find it."
The Admiral looked, and saw that it had fallen on the floor. He reached down, and picked it up. He then handed her the envelope, and she thanked him. As he turned to leave, she spoke to him.
"Excuse me?"
He turned around. "Yes."
"I know that we just met, but could I ask a huge favor of you?"
He smiled, and looked at her. She reminded him of his daughter back on New Detroit. "What can I do for you miss?"
She smiled again, "Petty Officer Charles. I know that we just met, but do you think you could read this to me. Please."
She was holding the envelope out to him, and he could see from her expression that it seemed important to her. He looked around, and then reached over and pulled a chair up next to her bed and sat down.
The Admiral took the envelope from her, and looked at it. It was hand addressed, and the penmanship was almost like calligraphy. He carefully opened the envelope, and took out the letter inside. He opened it and found it was a letter from her father.
"My dearest Terry…"
As he read the letter to her, he would glance at her, he could see her smiling. When he had finished, he carefully folded the letter and replaced it in the envelope and handed it back to her.
She smiled at him whispered, "Thank you."
"It was a pleasure Miss Charles. And thank you."
The Admiral got up slowly and before he left, he leaned over and kissed her gently on the top of her head. Then without another word, he left sickbay and went back to his ready room.