Sunset At The Solaris Amphitheater

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2019 @ 1:11am by Christopher Byrne & Dixoho Saa (*)

Mission: Mission 9 - Daucina
Location: Daucina
Timeline: MD 12 22:00
1191 words - 2.4 OF Standard Post Measure

Dixoho couldn’t believe that Michael had just decided to up and leave the ship after everything that had happened without a word. He hadn’t even taken his shuttle leaving it half finished in the cargo bay, to say that Gregnol was unhappy was an understatement but Dixoho couldn’t do anything about it, it wasn’t her fault. “Stupid man.” She muttered to herself as she climbed the Solaris Amphitheater to get a good view.

Knowing that he was not the topic of the conversation, Dr. Byrne replied, "I'd make a pretty bad doctor if I was stupid." The smile crossing his face clearly showed that he did not mean anything bad by it. "Dare I ask?" he added, unsure if he wanted the whole story.

"Our Chief of Security has left." The woman murmured as she spotted that the man stood next to her was Christopher. "You are a pretty good doctor. I dare say the best one we've had on board." She mused thinking over the bunch that they had, had on Rosie in the past three years.

"I can imagine," Chris joked back. "Left?" he echoed, just realizing the scope of what Dixoho said. Scrunching his eyebrows down in thought, the doctor asked, "Did he give a reason? A better job?"

"A bounty he couldn't resist. He left us to go chase someone." The woman commented on with some annoyance that he had literally packed up with barely any new leaving the shuttle behind. If it had been a woman the navigator would have been less hurt but the fact his bounty was a man just annoyed her.

“Must have been some target,” Chris stayed as he shook his head. Realizing that the woman in front of him was hurting from what had to be a traumatic realization, the doctor asked, “Are you going to be okay?” He was not sure what else to say at a time like that, but there was sincerity in his voice.

She looked at him once and then twice before she softened her gaze at the man not looking quite so tough and annoyed. "I don't know but I am not going to do anything stupid or abrupt. Nowhere else to go." The woman added as she looked around and saw no more crew members hanging around.

Nodding his understanding, Chris was not sure what to say. Before he could open his mouth, Dixho asked him a question.

"What brought you here tonight then?" Dixoho asked knowing what had brought her but everyone was different.

"The same," Chris responded. As if admitting something that he would have rather not be known, he explained, "Since I was dishonorably discharged from the fleet I... this just seemed like a good place to forget it all." The planet was a tropical paradise, but the doctor still could not leave his depression behind long enough to enjoy it.

Dixoho indicated some stone seat that was free that they could sit in. As soon as she sat down the woman looked at him. "I didn't realise you were discharged that way." She admitted realising that they had never spoken like this before. "What happened if you don't mind me asking?"

"An impossible choice," Chris stated. "Do we follow the Prime Directive to the letter or do we save a primitive culture from their own star?" he asked letting the question answer his question. "I made the wrong choice for Starfleet."

"Ah, moral dilemmas. I believe you made a very good choice. I would have made that choice." The woman nodded not revealing that she had a bounty on her head for a similar situation. She knew a good man when she saw one and it made her wonder what Starfleet was thinking sometimes.

"Then we would still end up on an old Connie, scouring the quadrant for work," Chris laughed a bit as he joined her on the seat. He let out a little sigh as he scanned the area with his eyes. "It lacks on the side of comfort, but it feels more free."

"Certainly feels like home to me and I've never lived on a planet or a base." The woman revealed relaxing more as the laugh sounded out. "I don't know it is more comfortable that the cargo vessel I grew up on and we can drink."

“I’ve been moved around so much, ship to ship,” Chris began. “Home is where you make it and the Rose isn’t all that bad,” he said with some affection in his voice for the ship.

"Certainly isn't. Some of the crew I dare say have become closer to me than my bloody family so there is that. I just wish that maybe it wasn't my double who took over the ship and murdered people. The looks I get sometimes." The woman murmured. She was nothing like that woman at all.

"That wasn't you," Chris tried to reassure her. Having been captured and not involved in violence it was easy for him to take that viewpoint, he tried to imagine what those who had been around during that time felt. "Everything takes time, which is always the most difficult treatment."

"It has been six months." The woman commented on. It was hard to try and detangle herself from the woman she had met and who had killed at least three of the Rosie's crew in her kidnapping of the ship scheme.

He was certainly not a counselor, so his advice was rather limited. "All you can do is be you," Chris replied, a bit of sorrow in his voice. "People like to have something to blame, and you just happen to look like their fear," he added, unsure if that helped.

Dixoho nodded and turned to look at the sunset. The sun, like a large, grandeur orange fireball in the distance was partially cloaked by the hanging clouds, which were all splashed with the random colours of hot pinks, reds and even hints of purples and blues. The sun was so large that she felt he could almost touch it. It seemed to look at her with a dull glare, knowing that it's beauty and the planet's dependence on it for survival made up for it. Maybe the sun setting was just another sign to her that things were changing like the setting of the day. "It is beautiful."

Sunsets were always beautiful, especially on the water. There was not anything that he could add to that statement without ruining the moment. Instead of describing its splendor, Chris simply replied in a low almost whisper, "It sure is."

"Sometimes makes things worth it." The woman said not entirely sure if she was talking to him or her but it seemed to fit in with what they had both discussed. Sometimes the simplest thing in the galaxy made everything else pale in comparison and looking at that sunset for a moment Dixoho couldn't remember what she had been sat over.

OFF::

Dixoho Saa
Chief Navigator
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)

Dr. Christopher Byrne
Doctor
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC McIntyre)