Mementos

Posted on Fri Sep 15th, 2023 @ 9:55am by Lieutenant Commander Rin

Mission: Season 6: Episode 3: Far From Home
Location: Rin's Quarters
Timeline: MD 1
577 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Rin stepped into her quarters for the first time since the accident. It was much barer now, much simpler. Elysium didn’t have enough power to replicate all the standard comforts of home. Like many, this room had been reappointed according to templates, bearing the same carpet, the same color walls, the same desk and chairs as many other living quarters.

As a senior officer, she had been given the opportunity to make limited requests, but she had declined. There were better things to do with what power the Elysium had to give. She had lived in far poorer quarters than this, even if was cookie cut.

The walls no longer had shelves. There was no point, as she had nothing to put on them. Everything had been ejected into space. A few things had simply been decorative, so their loss was of no consequence. But most of the things she had kept had sentimental value.

Her ceremonial sword from Tavara was gone. Once upon a time it had hung on the wall behind her desk. That was the one she missed the most. She had scans of it. She could eventually replicate a new one. And it would have the same memories attached to it, would it not? Still, it wouldn’t be the same. It wouldn’t be *hers.*

The Rin shrub was likewise gone. Her namesake, a plant she had carted halfway across the galaxy, now scattered over a few light years.

Rin herself had come very close to joining it.

And Ebi had.

She took a long, slow breath at the thought. They had never found a body. She had never understood why people found it so important to have a body to say goodbye to. Dead was dead. Why were physical remains important? But she was starting to understand. She knew he was dead, but still…. she wished there was a body to give her closure.

And she wished she had pictures. All she had were the official photos taken when he joined the Elysium as a civilian. There was nothing casual. Nothing personal. Possibly she could pull up images from cashed communications between them before he joined. She hadn’t yet tried. Half the computer systems were still trashed.

She set the block of transparent aluminum on her desk, her decades old broken combadge still safety suspended within it. Myne had called it, what, her good luck piece? But it had nothing to do with luck. It didn’t have magic powers. It was just a bit of bent metal and twisted wires, dug out of her chest almost two decades ago now. Not lucky, but it did get her home. They had survived a lot of things together: the Collective, Tavara, a quantum filament. Just her and this broken little gadget.

She moved to the bedroom. Her template-built bed sported one important modification: the ability to recharge her Borg implants. On the ice planet, she had been forced to use a crudely built alcove, something she had not used in years. It had felt…dehumanizing. She had never realized how much the bed had actually done its job, helped her to feel more like… everyone else.

She wasn’t sure how she felt at the moment. This room wasn’t home. It had started to be, before the accident. Now it was just a bed, a desk, a couple of chairs, and one broken memento. She was starting over. Again.