By Mellice Cem, Mellice Loriel and William Lindsay
100219.1439
Some time after: Consider The Possibilities
=/\=Guest Quarters Aboard The USS Serendipity=/\=
100219.1439
Some time after: Consider The Possibilities
=/\=Guest Quarters Aboard The USS Serendipity=/\=
Cem sat in his guest quarters aboard the Serendipity, reading over the PADD for what seemed to be the hundredth time since O'Sullivan handed it to him and made the offer.
He still couldn't believe it. After sitting at Star Base 54 overseeing the redesign of the Revolution's brig, he had been looking forward to testing the new design himself to see if it really was escape-proof as the engineers claimed it was. If it worked and held the cagey Bajoran within the cell, then it'd be incorporated into a new starship design and Cem would be satisfied that he'd left his mark in some small way on the future of the fleet.
All the work he'd done over the years; good work, was work to be proud of to be certain. Still it left him wondering now if the work that he was meant for- that would really constitute leaving his mark on this time in history- wasn't the work that was described on the PADD he was holding in his hands.
He had so much to think over.
He moved from the chair he'd occupied over to the desk, plunking down in the chair and accessing the comm. The question now was, who in his family should he contact? His older sister Mellice Jun? The two of them didn't quite see eye to eye on many things so she was out of the question.
His brother Kij? More than likely, Kij's ship was out in the vastness of space somewhere, out of communications range.
His mother? Even as pleased as she'd be to hear from him, at this time of day she was most likely out of the house, working in the fields of their homestead and wouldn't even hear the comm.
With all other choices exhausted that left only one member of his family left to contact: his baby sister, Mellice Loriel.
He knew exactly where to find her, and so punched in his security clearance code and sent a message to Deep Space Nine. As he did he thought of how she always did try to emulate her older brothers and that was probably why she wanted at the age of 5 to try and help them make their tri-cobalt bombs. Of course Cem was first to remind her back then that at her age, she shouldn't even know what a tri-cobalt bomb was.
There were so many things the children of Bajor knew that no child ever should.
*Well, she's more than old enough now to know,* Cem thought, and from the reports of some of his friends in the Bajoran Military, she'd made quite the impression on her training camp commanders in not just firearms proficiency but also bomb making and diffusing, sniper training, and sharpshooting. Her skills in diplomacy and hostage negotiations however were where her true talents lie considering she has three older siblings who after their father died, were at each others throats twenty-six hours a day.
Just as he was about to turn from his console to get into the shower, it beeped to notify him he’d received a response. Turning back to it he switched it on and found the smiling face of the baby of the family staring back him.
[Good to hear from you bubby, it's been a long time since you've sent word back home on how you were doing,] Loriel said, in the usual cheerful voice that always seemed to get the oldest of the four Mellice kids calmed down enough for their mother to talk with them after a verbal brawl.
"Glad you replied as quickly as you did, I was about to get myself a shower and head on to bed."
The youngest Mellice picked up on right away on what he’d left unsaid and chose not to pretend she hadn’t.
[Alright Cem, quit mincing words and get to the point already because I know there is something on your mind or else you'd have talked to either Jun, Kij or mom about it by now so start talkin'.]
It had become so clear to them both by this point that Loriel always knew when her older brother was on the verge of indecision and the way he looked so lost in his own thoughts. So with pretending being a hopeless cause he just gave it all away as he then let out a sigh.
"Alright, I need some help. You know about the crews aboard the Alchemy and the Serendipity having war games on Sibalt, right? Well, I was sent by Starfleet to act as a saboteur for their games but managed to help them thwart an attempted murder of both crews, and you know where I'm currently posted aboard the Revolution? Well, I've been offered a post here on the Sera. As you can see sis, it's left me with a lot to think over." He finally explained as she stared at her monitor for a long moment while pondering her brother’s dilemma.
[Do they trust you?] She eventually asked him.
"Well, if they're offering me a post here aboard her then they must have trust in my abilities," he answered.
[I know how bored you've been at SB54 while the Rev is down for refits and upgrades. And in all honesty, I think you should take them up on the offer, but that's just me.]
Cem simply nodded his head and he then placed his right index finger to his chin and tapped it a few times. "Their liaison did say I came highly recommended so, I just might give them my answer in the next few days, you know, let them sweat it out before I do give them an answer."
She then smiled wider.
[That's my big brother, always thinking.] She said proudly, before chuckling as she realised it was time she should really close off the channel she probably shouldn’t have opened in the first place [ Now, I gotta get back to work before Major Arros throws a fit that I'm not at my post. Love you bubby.]
"Love you too sis." He answered in parting just before the screen went black.
Then for several seconds Cem found himself still looking at where her image had been. He realised not that he was even more lost to his thoughts than before he spoke to her. Now he was smiling to himself at how happy Loriel seemed where she was and that got him thinking. It was always good to see his sister happy and after a childhood like theirs it was never something he just took for granted.
It was an experience that had taught him to leave his options open because you always had to be prepared that tomorrow everything you’d committed to in your life could be gone. It was however also an experience that taught you not to let go of those things that could give you a moment of happiness unless and until it was absolutely necessary. It all too often had been necessary.
His sister was right that he had become bored. As a child fighting for your life you’d dream of boring days but he hadn’t been a child for a long time now. This Serendipity, such an appropriate name given how unlikely the chances were that he’d ever find it, could and apparently would bring him relief from that boredom as well as giving him a greater sense of purpose.
That sense of purpose always could make him happier and so could a sense of belonging. Looking at these people though many of them he was yet to know, he could tell this was somewhere he could belong.
Still very much in his own thoughts he stood up slowly from the chair and moved to pick up the PADD again. Then without returning to sit, he simply held and seemed to weigh the small device in his hand. He wasn’t trying to access the data now, merely to get a feeling or to fuel his instincts for something so intangible and uncertain.
He was no longer studying this information but merely considering what it represented. It represented a lifestyle; a future. It was a future that held so many promises of adventure and simultaneously so many warnings about the dangers those adventures could bring. No one ever claimed the life would be easy, or even that their lives would not all be ended tomorrow, but this PADD did promise it wouldn’t be boring.
Above all else though it said it would be different, so very different, which meant he could be moving in a new direction to avoid stagnation or he could be taking to a new path which once entered he could never get back from.
As he pondered this choice once more it became clear to him; stagnation was by far the more frightening alternative. It took him no more consideration before he’d made up his mind and set the PADD down again where it had been.
He wasn’t going to wait anymore.
So after he straightened out his uniform he set off with steps taken with a purpose. When he decided not to wait for something he really meant it just as he knew he meant it now. As he considered this fact he found himself smiling.
His quick but not hurried stride led him out the door and towards the nearest turbolift, the location of which he had already quite quickly committed to memory.
Though being new he was not exactly informed of the ship’s activities in the way he could be as part of the crew he was a man who believed in keeping up to date and so knew that Zanh Liis, Salvek and that both the security chief and the security liaison would not be found on board at the moment. That meant that the choice of whom he should officially report his intentions to was clear and Mellice had no doubt of where he could find the man.
“Main bridge,” He ordered, as he stepped through the doors into the lift which he didn’t even have to wait for as it opened immediately as if it’d been waiting for him.
There was no one else on board and no requests were made to stop it on the way which meant he arrived very quickly at his selected location.
Then when he stepped off, he quickly spotted the man he’d come here for whose eyes had already turned to him as if questioning the reason for his arrival as Mellice approached him.
“Commander Blane, sir,” Mellice answered him with perfect military posture as he arrived before him with a slight but certain smile. “I’d like to officially accept the offer of a position as a security officer on board the USS Serendipity.”
Seeing Mellice’s eagerness for a job he couldn’t possibly fully grasp yet, TC couldn’t help but almost crack a smile as he rose up and extended a hand in something between greeting and congratulations. He expected some great things from this one.
“Welcome aboard, Lieutenant.”
-----------------------------
Lt. (jg) Mellice Cem
Security Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Private Mellice Loreil
Bajoran Militia
DS9
NPC
and
Captain William Lindsay
Interim Director
Temporal Investigations
Lt. (jg) Mellice Cem
Security Officer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Private Mellice Loreil
Bajoran Militia
DS9
NPC
and
Captain William Lindsay
Interim Director
Temporal Investigations