Blessing Of Memories

Posted on Sun Mar 1st, 2020 @ 7:24am by Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson (*) & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein

Mission: Mission 10 - Temperance
Location: Deck 7 - Labs
Timeline: MD 10 - 21:00
3017 words - 6 OF Standard Post Measure

Cassie didn’t go to the crew bar often. It was normally to much hassle with the sad looks in her direction or the fact she just wanted to be by herself. But that night she wanted the noise of a possibly busy crew bar even if it was a birthday party or something as random to celebrate the day. As she stepped in she was surprised to see that it was neigh on empty apart from the barkeeper who pulled down her usual bottle and passed it over without comment.

She quickly made her way to the comfy chairs in the corner and sat down people watching. It was not often she got to do that anymore, she did not allow herself to do it. She glanced up as the door opened and someone familiar came in, she offered a quick nod to the man before looking away.

Burnie wasn't the most social person in the universe, but over the last year or so he'd gotten used to having a companion around, and even if that companion was an irritable, sassy, difficult Romulan, she was still company. But Liha had been occupied with her new hobby of annoying the ship's doctor, and while he wasn't precisely jealous - in fact he was considering sending the doc a bottle of whiskey out of sympathy - it still left him more on his own than he'd been accustomed to. So he'd taken to dropping by the bar after hours, just to relax with a drink and be around people.

On seeing one particularly familiar face as he entered, Burnie collected his drink and went over to her. "You know, if you got that bottle to make a Molotov cocktail, you're doing it wrong," he joked with a smile.

Cassie smiled as the man approached her. It was usual with his jokes and she appreciated the fact he did joke with her about the fact she tried to blow stuff up. "I decided to change my MO." She admitted pushing the chair opposite her out to allow him to sit. "Join me?"

"Glad to," Burnie said, sliding into the proffered seat. "Even if you're not going to blow anything up," he added with an exaggerated mock pout.

"Maybe next time I can amuse you better." Cassie teased just a little. "I would offer to go grab something flammable but I have just sat down. How has your day been?"

"I may hold you to that," Burnie said with a wink. "Because this day was disappointing - no earth-shattering kabooms." He gave a dramatic sigh, then flashed a grin. "But pretty standard otherwise. Plus, I got through another day without having the Doctor come punch me out for bringing Liha aboard - so not so bad I guess. How about yours?"

Cassie just relaxed and smiled. He had never forced her to talk or do anything other than tease her about her want to blow up her now ex husbands stuff. “You can hold me too it no problem.” The woman assured quickly. “I could them arguing in the corridor yesterday. Not sure which one seemed to be enjoying it more.” She joked before shaking her head. “Nothing really to be honest. Exploring labs over on Temperance. Nothing useable there yet.“

"I hear both those voices ahead, I just turned and go other other way," Burnie laughed. "But they seem to have had some luck scavenging the medbay over on Temperance, which I guess is better than the rest of us. I certainly didn't find much left in the weapons systems." The corners of his mouth turned down a moment, but he looked over toward the derelict ship, just visible in the bar viewport with admiration. "She must have given everything she had in whatever battle left her like that."

Cassie chuckled just imagining the man scuttling away as he heard the pair. “Scuttling alway. How very brave.” She laughed finding his laughter infectious before following his gaze looking out side. “I have the computer data to look through if you are bored of Engineering work and want something different.” It was boring work for the woman wanted to investigate and see what was going on.

"Yep, that's me, Brave Sir Robin: 'When danger reared its ugly head, I bravely turned around and fled...'," Burnie sang with a laugh. He knew she probably wouldn't get the Sir Robin reference - that was one of those oddities he'd picked up because of his mother's academic specialty, but figured the snatch of song would get the idea across. "I wouldn't flee 'something completely different' though and I admit I'm curious to see what's in those computer files."

"I do not have a clue about your little tune there. Being from 150 years ago does have its benefits I guess." Cassie bit her lip from enquiring more about it when he agreed to look at the files to quell his curiosity. "Wanna go look now? Can bring your drink?"

"Oh, that song's twice as old as you are. My mom's an art historian, and she specializes is media from 21st century earth, so a lot of my references are waaayy more out of date than yours," he explained with a grin, and picked up his drink. "I can absolutely bring my drink. Let's go."

"Ah," Cassie said with a shrug. Human's were so interesting it was almost a shame that she had spent more time on Vulcan that she did on Earth. Even on Earth, she had been living in the middle of nowhere with her mother. "Lab or my quarters." She was not going to admit that she had been reading it as some light bedtime reading.

Burnie glanced down, lips pressed against a wry smile - first time in months a woman invited him to her quarters, and it was to read data files. But Cassie was a friend, and given where she was emotionally, he wouldn't actually want it to be anything else.

He was still going to joke about it. "The lab's fine," he flashed a grin. "Wouldn't want to damage my reputation following you into your quarters, drinks in hand."

“Better than drinking alone there.” She countered without hesitation picking up her bottle to head to the door. She did not care what scuttle butt happened but maybe the man did.

"This is true," he said, taking his glass and following her. "It was a joke anyway," he added, sensing she might not have caught that.

“Well I do not care either way. I do not care for rumours.” Cassie assured with a nod at him. She looped her arm through his tugging him out into the corridor. She had been a figure for rumours in the ship far to long to let them bother her.

Burnie shrugged. "The only rumors about me are that I'm hopeless ....well, and a mad bomber," he added looking a bit cheerier at the thought of that one.

"Well one of them is not a rumour. I am not telling you which one though." She pointed out taking a swing from the bottle she had as she led him towards the turbolift. It was easy talking to Burnie, he was smart and he did not care than her husband had upped and left her to follow a bounty hunter. She was free to be almost her again.

"Gonna make me guess, huh?" Burnie looked upward, rubbing his chin in mock contemplation. Then he snapped his fingers. "It has to be - the one where you're only claiming to be part Vulcan so no one's too upset you drink them under the table."

"Oh, I am 100% part Vulcan. You can run a DNA test or see my old Starfleet record if you want." She moved her long hair aside to show him the pointed ears as the turbolift stopped at the assigned deck to allow them to go to the lab that Cassie had calmed as her own.

Burnie shook his head. "I don't know whether to give up guessing or give up trying to make up joke rumors," he said, following her in. He glanced around the lab. "Wow. Not a single scorch mark." He flashed a teasing grin at her. "You're slipping."

"I would be ashamed if my lab had scorch mark seeing I am a biologist." It was not often that anyone came to visit so the place was pretty bare apart from the equipment she had dotted around the room. "Maybe I am just getting better?" She offered smiling back at him.

"Nothing to scorch in a bio lab? Surely there subject isn't that devoid of flammable potential?" Burnie shook his head with mock sadness, then switched to a smile. "But if it means you're getting better, I guess fewer conflagrations are worth it."

"I am a Geneticist deep down. I do not believe my area of biology would have much need to venture out." She admitted leaning and squeezing his hand at the mocked sadness then smile. "Maybe we need one last big hurrah before I get completely better?" She offered thinking it would be nice to hang out more with the man. He was smart, funny and he made her laugh even where she was at rock bottom.

"Surely you could genetically engineer a phoenix or something?" he joked, but broke into a smile when she squeezed his hand. "I do approve going out with a bang. Let's see... I have some incendiary rounds for an old 22nd century rifle... or maybe we can get the folks raiding booze from Temperance to grab some bottle of synthahol - they're no good for drinking, but they go up in flames pretty well."

“My research is a lot out of date to be fair. I would need to go back to school.” She admitted sadly. A 150 years had passed since she had been a leader in her field. It was impossible to gain that back but she enjoyed enough of what she did now. “I don’t mind synthahol. It all works the same way. But that is another plan for another date.” She let go of his hand as bf moved around to her console pulling up the files she was still downloading.

"A future date it is," he said with a grin, and followed her over to the console. "So, what do we have here?"

Cassie sat on the stool and started to bring up the information. "A lot of it has not downloaded but the ship was only active 18 months and was lost by the looks of things on April 27th 2375." She was still trying to catch up with the universe so she was pretty sure that was before the Victory of the Federation in the Dominion war.

"April..." Burnie thought back over his history. He'd only begun middle school when the war ended, but like most people on earth, he'd followed the news closely. "That was nearly six months before the end, also before 2nd Chin'toka, so she was out of play before the Breen unleashed that energy dampening weapon."

Cassie frowned feeling like a freshman again in Starfleet. "I am nowhere near caught up on the last one hundred and fifty years of history. The Captain was a woman called Isissi Zh'ashrevok." She admitted blushing as she looked back at the screen to see what else the data brought up.

"Don't feel bad. I only know it because I lived through it. Honestly, I barely remember any history from your era. It's kind of weird - I know all these bits and pieces of weird cultural trivia from the 20th century, but almost nothing in between then and my lifetime except tech related stuff," Burnie mused, looking at her thoughtfully. "Actually I'm kind of surprised a team of historians hasn't tried to collect you as a prime resource for 23rd century studies."

His kind words made the normally cool woman smile more. She had been smiling so much more since they had fallen out the transporters. Maybe they had changed something about her? "Why do you think I stayed here." Cassie wondered. She had had the opportunity to leave when they were all rested up. "Gregnol offered to drop us anywhere we wanted to but we all stayed as Starfleet had not got us out despite some engineers knowing we were there."

Burnie back, shocked by that. "They knew were in there and didn't try to recover you?!"

"There was no time," Cassie said staring at him. "It was a time of war when the recovered ship was needed. I do not feel bitter towards them. They sealed the trasporter up and hoodwinked the systems to keep the transporters running and us safe."

He shook his head, marvelling at her magnanimity in not feeling bitter. Maybe it was past association with Marines having rubbed off on him, but the idea of leaving people behind like that maybe him feel indignant on her behalf. "Even so, I can't recall any war in that era that lasted so long that you'd be forgotten." Though even as he said it, he cringed inwardly. He knew the transporter buffers on Temperance had been checked, but what if they'd missed something else...?

"The ship was lost in action... again. And then during a mission to help colonize a small moon a lethal infection was contracted by several members of the crew, who unknowingly bought the disease on-board. The ship was quarantined immediately, however less than quarter aboard survived. Lots have gone on, we were a foot note in the ship." Cassie murmured with a shrug. The ship under Starfleet had been cursed.

"Wow, guess I should have done a background check before signing on," he deadpanned. Of course given his own string of being in the vicinity of disasters, maybe there was a reason he felt a connection with the ship? But he was firmly agnostic when it came to concepts like fate and curses - maybe they existed, but people could often see any pattern they decided to look for; and just as often overlook evidence that contradicted it. He switched to a smile. "But she kept you alive all that time, so she can't be too cursed, I'd say."

Cassie shrugged a little as she looked back at the data being displayed. "I do not know. She has tried to kill us a lot since we woke up as well." The woman was not sure what to think but SS Mary Rose was the only home she had in al time and space now so it was the best she had.

"I'm sure she wasn't trying to kill you so much as getting run down in the constant battle against vacuum, absolute zero, and all the other threats space has to offer," Burnie objected. His great-aunt had never tried to kill him - not that too many people might have blamed her if she had; he'd apparently been a hyperactive terror as a 4year old - but she had gotten so worn out trying to keep up with him that she hadn't been paying close attention when he seemingly settled down to play on the computer... "Or shot up like the Temperence." He pointed at one of the data entries. "It looks like she had took multiple hits to her aft ventral section, leading to cascading EPS failures across the lower decks."

"You are such an Engineer." She whispered mostly to herself as she shook her head and took a sip of her drink before looking at where he pointed. "Would explain all the damage we saw on the lower decks." Cassie had wondered why there was more bodies down there than the higher decks. "The Dominion obviously boarded and got caught up."

"Why, yes. Yes, I am," Burnie agreed with a chuckle. He scanned further through the log. There were possibly surviving security vids in there that would show the action, but he could see it well enough from the sequence of damage reports. A flicker in the shields was all the Dominion needed to get Jem'Hadar aboard and from there to engineering, the bridge, and auxilliary control. "Once the crew was fighting boarders, it was all but over. And they must have realized it. Look here," he pointed at the logs. "They'd emptied everything they still controlled into the enemy, and with nearly every system failing they made a last ditch effort to ram the Dominion cruiser." He whistled softly. "That took guts. We should send these records on to Starfleet. If they don't know how this ship went down, they should. and so should whatever family the crew left behind."

Cassie was quiet for a few long moments as she thought about the peace that just sending those records to Starfleet would bring to families of the people who had died on board. It would be the right thing to do, she could not do it for her own family but she could for someone else even twenty years after the fact. It was the natural order of things, she told herself. Each life begins, each life ends but the not knowing would be painful. "You are very right." She finally said.

Burnie nodded, glad she understood and retrieved what was left of his drink and lifted it in a toast. "To the 'ghosts' on that ship. May their memory be a blessing."

Cassie knocked her bottle against his glass gently before downing the remainder of the drink. His words were enough and she could not remember anything that was better or equal. "I do not have any better words." She admitted with a small shrug. Nothing not human or Vulcan was coming to her.

"Just a memorial toast - no need to add anything," he said. "We'll make copies of this and get it to Starfleet, but for now we can see what more there is to learn."

OFF::

Michael Burnstein
Chief Engineer
SS Mary Rose

Ka'see 'Cassie' Anderson
Biologist
SS Mary Rose
(PNPC Gregnol)