Ghosts of War

Posted on Wed Dec 23rd, 2020 @ 11:03pm by Senior Chief Petty Officer Jonathan Stoun & Ensign L'johk Adams

849 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 2 - Echoes Of An Empire
Location: Engineering Bay
Timeline: After the department meeting

Stoun watched as the Engineers dispersed before he called over the the operations officer.

"Adams, a moment of your time sir if I may." The engineer almost grabbed another muffin from the table before he remembered the EMH chided him on his food intake.

"Yes Chief!" still feeling an uneasy sense of foreboding after his moment during the meeting L'johk stopped in his tracks and turned to face the chief, pushing his feelings down to his first, forcing them into tight balls of compressed anxiety, fear and anger at his own inability to process those emotions. Up top he put his usual jovial smile on. "What can I do for you?"

"First off, thanks for volunteering to take a look the struts. Shouldn't take too long." The chief motioned for the Ensign to follow him off to the side of engineering away from the team that had fanned out to start working on their duties. He pulled up the . "Second, how are you doing Ensign, till we get an ops chief, you'll probably roll up to me for a bit I'm guessing and I just want to check in on you."

"I worked with Commander Haistro before so this won't be that big an adjust for me..." his own words sounding somewhat hollow, knowing he had issues with the attack. 'You are Klingon' he repeated in his own head as if the saying in and of itself would strengthen his resolve and fortify his mixed feelings about still being on Copernicus.

"Good! well, I promise I'm not hard to work for either." The engineer smiled and patted the Ensign on the shoulder. "Well, I'm going to rely on you a bit for the moment, I know that you have history here on the ship and sometimes these old ships have ghosts in their halls." The Chief reached up and patted the bulkhead above him. "I've heard without you there would have been a lot more hull damage and casualties, if the Captain hasn't yet I was going to put a letter of commendation in for you."

"No need for that Chief" the idea horrified the L'johk. So many had died, so many of his friends and extended family on Copernicus gone. Profiting from them like that seemed wrong, he hated to say it but it seemed more than appropriate. "I don't feel any honour in receiving accolades for what I did when so many lost their lives... It is right Chief!"

"Yeah but old admirals like to decorate people like Christmas trees. At the very least, I'll put a note in your file." He looked at his empty cup. "Was that your first combat?"

He didn't want to admit it to himself let alone someone else, call it Klingon pride even though he wasn't your typical Klingon. Instead he turned away from the chief, hiding his face a little, his usual mirth and joviality had evaporated.
"Could you even call it combat? To be in combat one assumes you are able to fight back".

"Ehh" the engineer shrugged. "A chunk of my Dominion War fighting was below deck in a ship, never saw them, just blown out bulkheads and burned out systems and the mop up afterwards. I guess that is the crazy thing about what we do, there were a few times that I was deployed to a planet or was out in space clearing mines that I got to actually fight back, but most if it you never get to see, which is what our job is, we're the hands, the neurons, muscle. Just as an important part as they eyes and the brains." Jon paused for a moment, "When you punch someone in the face or look them in the eye as you fire a phaser, it's all ghastly business that better be personal if you ask me. From what I've read in the reports, what y'all went through is a part of the job. Keeping the ship going is fighting back, this time we got licked pretty good, next time we'll be ready."

"I think you'll find we didn't do much... we didn't have chance" L'johk placed his hand on the bulkhead and ran it down the wall slightly. "If anything we owe our lives to her... She was the one that proved herself far beyond her capabilities".

"Ehh, that is why old engineers take care of these ships so well. Anyways, let me know if you need to take a few things out, I've already been signing people up for boxing, might be good to get some of it out. I'm not one for counselors, I find going a few rounds with people gets anything I'm holding in out." He smiled and the Ensign. "Glad to have you on the team Adams."

"Thanks Chief... Now, if you will excuse me I have a date with four landing struts!"
Adams just wanted to escape, feeling uncomfortable with the entire conversation and more at odds with with waring Human and Klingon halves. One wanting to talk, the other wanting to find honour in combat.

 

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