Log_9

SD: 1130.02

Where was I?:

It’s been a while since I last updated this thing. In my defense, it’s been a hectic few weeks and I’ve had a lot to catch up on.

Let’s see, oh yes the last time I was saying that I was called to the sickbay. I’d had a bit too much to drink, so finding my riffle and the sickbay wasn’t all that easy.

When I got there I discovered that the Captain was infected with some sort of virus like intelligence that made him act like one of the vampires from the old 2D movies.

The thing that had inhabited him called itself Count Eisenkiester and had taken total control of him by time I’d started getting sober. We eventually discovered that we could burn it out of Captain Lee with ultraviolet light just like sunlight did in the old legends, but thankfully Lee lived through it. More than likely if this life form was responsible for the old vampire legends of old, the unfortunate victim only had a limited time to be freed from them before his or her own life would be forfeit.

On a personal note, Klynxyl seems to be very upset at Captain Lee. I almost laughed when I discovered that Lee had bitten Lera when controlled by Count Eisenkiester and she took that to be his marking her as a mate. I doubt that the little airheaded Rom had any idea what was going on, but it hurt the cat girl. Oddly, it brought me no real comfort to see her crying and hurting, and that frightens me.

A few week of hard study and boring mapping later we had a really bad encounter, and I got my first look at the Borg. Thankfully for us they were almost as screwed up as we are. They seem to have been infected by the Huges Borg and were not at their best. In fact, they were they were BoReD.

We fought them and I managed to blind their sensors, but damaged ours in the process. Seems that some of the components have changed from what I was use to.

(I’ve got to say that the cat helmsman did a wonderful job of flying. He handled the ship like it was a fighter and gave me some wonderful shots at the cube.)

Demian worked a miracle and managed to get the sensors back on line after I nearly cooked them, but he had a disagreement with the Captain and became most pissy with him. I tried to help, but it was to no avail.

Anyway we ran like hell, but a scout cube chased us down. They were just as nuts as those on the big ship and talked crazy too. The commander was, now get this, Unit Seven of Eleven. I almost asked if I could get hot coffee with my donut! They actually came to us in a ship that we could have swatted like a fly, well more like swatting a mad dog, but we could most unquestionably have destroyed them.

Cat girl wanted to invite them over for a party, but I guess that wouldn’t have been such a bad thing really. What they wanted was of all things entertainment! They were quite literally bored.

How we finally got them off our back was quite interesting. Lott found some tribbles somewhere and we gave them to the Borg. Hopefully they will somehow destroy them in the future, but hopefully we will never hear about it.

I did have an interesting conversation with Captain Lee later. I found that he is a true believer. He truly thinks he is making a difference and is proud to be here fighting the good fight. He is also very afraid of the admiral, not that I blame him for that. He is one frightening lump of gristle and bile, but he does seem to have the Federation’s best interests at heart. Likely he is just mad at being stuck out at the ass-end of the universe.

We were rerouted to the colony of New California after the Borg incident, and I used the time to sharpen my skills on my station.

It was during one of those sessions that I was on the bridge working and the Captain came to find me. Because of my actions with the Borg and the rescue in Kzin space I had received a promotion to Lt. JG. At this rate I will make it back to my old rank in much less time that I though!

We talked for a time and I found out that will Lee had never been to New California, but he was very apprehensive of the place When I asked him if he had ever been there he wouldn’t say, and wouldn’t tell me why. Could this be a clue?

I checked later and the computer corroborated his story, and that of the admiral. Seems that Captain Lee appeared on the Freedom-D and all the records of what happened to him and how he got there were lost during a computer malfunction, something that I find most suspect.

I got off the turbolift at 10 Forward and it sound like a war was going on in there, that was when it stuck me that someone had said something about transporter psychosis and I remembered that Flare had transported just after the rescue!

I tried to explain to catgirl, but I think she was ahead of me there. Maybe she is not such a crappy doctor after all. I went to the transporter room intending to use point to point transport to move Flare to a containment cell in sickbay, but Klynxyl had a better idea.

Apparently she had some sort of babysitting program running in the holodeck and had me transport him there. It worked like a charm! By the Goddess’ many arms I hate to say it, but we make a good team.

I went back to 10 Forward and found that it looked like a bomb had gone off. I found Captain Lee under a table. Flare had broken his nose and it was bleeding very profusely. It’s a wonder that Lee has lived this long considering that he seems to be the target of almost every sharp object or fist that comes near him!

I helped out with the wounded and ended up walking down to sickbay with Demian and Lott.

Klynxyl was doing a good job, and seeing her work calmed me somewhat. She even asked me to collaborate over dinner to figure out what has happed to Flare. I was actually touched by her invitation.

Likely I may have done something that I shouldn’t have then. I’d been thinking of how to open a dialog with her as the admiral had requested, and that had made me think of M’Rander and the good times we had before, well in the beginning. Before I knew what my mouth was saying I said, "You did good. Your Mom couldn't have done better in her good days."

For a moment I didn’t know if I’d screwed it or not, but she asked me into her office and we talked a bit. I must admit I was frightened, terrified actually when she gave me that stare.

She was upset that I would say something that she wouldn’t like, but I figured that I would tell her the truth. Less likely to screw up that way. She listened and I told her a bit of the good days when M’Rander was a good friend and had helped me with my problems. I also told her a bit about what had happened later, but not much. I just couldn’t bring myself to. She truly loves her mother, almost as much as I did before…..

Anyway she shocked me by asking if we had been lovers. What was I going to say "Yes, I was in love with her and if things had been different I could have been your daddy?" By the Goddess I wasn’t going to do that! Anyway Randy never knew how I truly felt about her, and I was so conflicted about her and my failed attempts at falling in love I still don’t really know what I felt for her. And after the… well lets just not go there!

I talked to her and I fell back in time to the Tang. I remembered Randy calling to me "It’s nothing personal Milton, but I need to feed for myself, and the new life I carry. If you come out I’ll make it quick for you. If you make me hunt you, I will show you some of the things the Kzin taught me."

Is it selfish to want to live so badly that you are willing to let a friend and her child die for it? That is what I dream at nights her pleading and cajoling me as she hunted.

Klynxyl asked me something then that had been in the back of my mind for some time. She took my hands and said "My mother was hurt, and she hurt you. I was born of this. Then I brought you back to the world. I think there is... karma... there."

I’d considered this from the time I awoke and found out who she was. I though at first that the karma was for me to destroy her and take back the life that her mother had taken from me. But in the intervening days, reading the reports, I had started to wonder if it wasn’t the other way around. Could I have been placed here to aid her? I just didn’t know.

She did something then that shocked me to core. She called me Milton, just as her mother had for so long. I think if the captain hadn’t commed her then, I might have started to cry.

Our conversation ended as she vaulted over the desk and ran into the next room. Flare had collapsed!

She worked him over and tried to help, but it was far to late. He’d had a massive stroke and was just barely clinging to life. What had been Flare had been snuffed in a moment by exploding blood vessels.

There was noting I could do but offer support to them. I didn’t really know Flare, and unfortunately I didn’t really like him because he had tried to kill my friend Demian. I just worry for his children knowing that Lera was to be their only support now. To me she seemed to be about the worst possible choice for a mother, other than my own that is.

Klynxyl seemed to take the death heard and to see it as a reflection on herself. She looked so bad off, my heart went out to her. I tried to offer her some comfort, but it was mostly rejected, as was my attempt to make helpful suggestions.

After some words and placing Flare in stasis, she fled the room.

I found Klynxyl in he hallway as I left intending to go to 10 Forward for a drink after our conversation. I didn’t really know what to say, so I just patted her on the shoulder and went to the ruined lounge. I found a bottle and had just taken a few pulls off it when she came in.

We talked for some time and got drunk just as Randy and I had many times in the past. Goddess those were good memories! We talked of her cubs and she showed me a picture of them. They were really cute too. Little balls of fluff.

I don’t really know what all we talked about, but one of the two things I do remember clearly of the encounter was that she showed me a necklace of ears she keeps around her neck. One she pointed out was her father’s. Seeing proof of his demise lifted another weight from my shoulders and I think I really saw her for the first time then and it shocked me. She wasn’t black and orange, she didn’t have stripes, and she didn’t look all that much like Randy. She was someone else!

The second thing I remember clearly was her suddenly in my lap! I think the adrenaline rush cleared all the alcohol from my body for a few moments because I remember seeing her head towering over mine and feeling the crushing weight of her pressing down on me. I also remember the smell of her and the feel of her fur.

I held onto my cool and asked her to get out of my lap. Likely if I’d been sober I’d have just passed out, but as it was I felt stronger and more able.

She became embarrassed and tried to walk out with some dignity, but fate robbed her of that. She passed out in the doorway on her way out.