Just a Few Distant Memories

Posted on Wed Oct 25th, 2023 @ 4:31am by Lieutenant Danica Kovitz

Mission: Season 6: Episode 4: Memory Lane
Location: Danica Kovitz's Quarters
597 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

The door to her quarters slid shut with a soft thud. Almost immediately, Danica let her posture relax. She moved sluggishly through her quarters before settling onto the small couch. Today hadn't been that bad, at least comparatively. But the bar had been set low as of late.

Her gaze drifted toward the viewport and the foreign stars that dominated the space beyond. It was odd. In a strange way, the situation they were in was likely to be the greatest adventure of her career...assuming that career ended back home on Earth and not on some desolate world in a distant galaxy. Circinus was a new frontier, far far away from even the most ambitious Starfleet expeditions. Every single pin prick of light reaching her eyes was a star in an unknown place, with a history waiting to be discovered.

Perhaps, the longer the stayed here, she might find a way to be more fascinated by that concept. At the moment, it was beyond overwhelming though. Her own Milky Way wasn't even one of those pin pricks. The nearest coffee shop, other than the replicated stuff aboard, was so far away that the light reaching them predated the dinosaurs.

Everywhere she'd ever been, everything she'd ever done, everyone she'd ever known. They were static on the distant backdrop of the universe. The concept was enough to drive a person's mind to madness. But oddly, slumped on the couch, body heavy with fatigue, Danica found the first silver lining in weeks. As her eyes gazed out the window, she realized that so many of the things she'd regretted were just as far away too. Just a few distant memories, which couldn't even reach here if they tried. The idea was strangely cathartic enough that Dani rose to her feet and looked at her room anew.

It was a chance at a reset, a way to redefine herself in ways she couldn't in the trappings of her old life. Sure, she was back on a ship she'd served on months ago, but it was different. Many of the faces were different. Hell, she was different. And the changes meant new opportunities had room to grow.

"Well...reinvention requires a blank slate, and a blank slate means taking care of the damned laundry," Dani said with a laugh. "Computer, put on some music. Something gentle, reed based maybe."

As the computer replied, she got busy collecting her scattered garments. Several discarded uniforms, a boot she didn't recognize, and a shirt with stains that she assumed had to have come from some of the repairs in the access tubes she'd helped with days ago. She also discovered an abandoned mug, which she was more than happy to recycle into the replicator.

An hour later, her quarters practically sparkled. Which was good, because she was about 3 times more exhausted now. But she'd managed to make something. Some fresh ground to plant new roots in perhaps.

If they were going to be stuck here, she'd do her best to make this something worth experiencing. There were other science officers who would have killed to be stationed aboard Elysium alone. The idea of being on a ship like this and seeing the sights that she was casually ignoring out the viewport? No, it was time she found a way to enjoy what they'd been dealt. She owed the blue on her uniform that much. She couldn't just mope when the greatest discovery of the century might be drifting right past her nose.

But...for right now, sleep sounded like a pretty good idea.