01-14-2026, 11:57 PM
It really is beautiful up here, Jaein thought as he looked out at the park. He had arrived early so he could utilize one of the hiking trails before the party proper kicked off. He stood on a little rise, looking down across the lake, and was glad he had done so. He needed the time to decompress and try to come to terms with what was going on. His one regret was that Mary Ellen hadn't come with him; she had grown up here on Earth, and it would have been nice to have her with him.
Face it, he thought, you also just would rather have the company than be alone with your thoughts. He'd spent hours talking with her after they got back, as well as a counselor and even a ranjen. His face darkened as he remembered the camp, the dead and dying clones, and who they were supposed to have been. He felt his gorge rise again, and fell back on what they had been able to help him realize: his anger may have been old, but it was no less real. Entwined with that was still his disgust at what the Klingons had done to them, and his own horror that he had felt the urge to finish them off himself.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and feeling the sun on his face, the wind as it shook the chain of his earring. Birds he couldn't identify sang in nearby trees, and he remembered that the Prophets had set him on this path. They hadn't promised that it would be an easy one, or free of roadblocks and obstacles. His anger and hatred for the two tyrants of his past was natural, but misdirected at the clones who had done nothing other than suffer at the Klingon's hands. He was... still coming to terms with that, but he had at least moved on.
Instead, his current dilemma as he walked down the mountain, was coming to terms with what he actually had decided on, namely joining the crew of the Artemis full time. Several more long hours had been spent with Mary Ellen discussing that, but she had agreed with him that it would be good to do, despite the problems this first mission had given him. She had decided to stay with their son Polda at the family farm back in Rakantha, at least for now as he was still getting set up, but encouraged him to get back to starship duty. "You love the shipyard," she had told him, "but you've always wanted to be out there."
She wasn't wrong. He ducked under a tree branch, remembering his time in the militia doing patrols. While the shipyard had been rewarding in its own way, the problems he had faced had been rather the same all the time, and usually administrative - Are we getting the parts we need? Do we have the people we need? Why isn't this process working like it's supposed to? And he had gotten good at solving those issues as they arose.
But that couldn't hold a candle to the variety you experienced on a starship. Sure, some of the problems to be faced were of the 'why are these people shooting at us?' variety, but there were also many engineering problems that you just didn't encounter in the yard - a fact that starship engineers were never shy about telling shipyard engineers. He had taken a short trip to Vulcan and closed out his time there as best he could, formally passing his position to his second and congratulating him on his promotion, as well as getting their home packed and shipped off. He'd been back at Earth for a couple of days, getting settled in on Artemis as well, and was glad for a moment on the surface.
He smiled as he came down to the shoreline, seeing some crewmates already gathering. He picked up a plate and gathered a salad before taking a seat at one of the tables. Famished, he started eating as he listened to the conversation.
==Tags all! Thanks for having me==
Face it, he thought, you also just would rather have the company than be alone with your thoughts. He'd spent hours talking with her after they got back, as well as a counselor and even a ranjen. His face darkened as he remembered the camp, the dead and dying clones, and who they were supposed to have been. He felt his gorge rise again, and fell back on what they had been able to help him realize: his anger may have been old, but it was no less real. Entwined with that was still his disgust at what the Klingons had done to them, and his own horror that he had felt the urge to finish them off himself.
He took a deep breath, closing his eyes and feeling the sun on his face, the wind as it shook the chain of his earring. Birds he couldn't identify sang in nearby trees, and he remembered that the Prophets had set him on this path. They hadn't promised that it would be an easy one, or free of roadblocks and obstacles. His anger and hatred for the two tyrants of his past was natural, but misdirected at the clones who had done nothing other than suffer at the Klingon's hands. He was... still coming to terms with that, but he had at least moved on.
Instead, his current dilemma as he walked down the mountain, was coming to terms with what he actually had decided on, namely joining the crew of the Artemis full time. Several more long hours had been spent with Mary Ellen discussing that, but she had agreed with him that it would be good to do, despite the problems this first mission had given him. She had decided to stay with their son Polda at the family farm back in Rakantha, at least for now as he was still getting set up, but encouraged him to get back to starship duty. "You love the shipyard," she had told him, "but you've always wanted to be out there."
She wasn't wrong. He ducked under a tree branch, remembering his time in the militia doing patrols. While the shipyard had been rewarding in its own way, the problems he had faced had been rather the same all the time, and usually administrative - Are we getting the parts we need? Do we have the people we need? Why isn't this process working like it's supposed to? And he had gotten good at solving those issues as they arose.
But that couldn't hold a candle to the variety you experienced on a starship. Sure, some of the problems to be faced were of the 'why are these people shooting at us?' variety, but there were also many engineering problems that you just didn't encounter in the yard - a fact that starship engineers were never shy about telling shipyard engineers. He had taken a short trip to Vulcan and closed out his time there as best he could, formally passing his position to his second and congratulating him on his promotion, as well as getting their home packed and shipped off. He'd been back at Earth for a couple of days, getting settled in on Artemis as well, and was glad for a moment on the surface.
He smiled as he came down to the shoreline, seeing some crewmates already gathering. He picked up a plate and gathered a salad before taking a seat at one of the tables. Famished, he started eating as he listened to the conversation.
==Tags all! Thanks for having me==