#* trek

[gaerlhoss]

@starstcff / christopher pike / continued.

❛ well, consider my lesson learned. no more sharing notes with the rest of the class. what's mine is mine. ❜ at best, it is a ridiculous suggestion, and elizabeth cannot help but shake her head at the ramifications. ❛ I can imagine the strongly-worded communiques I'd receive from the diplomatic corps and the federation council for that. an even faster way to make myself obsolete: cease to be useful. a catch-22... unfortunately, it seems I may be stuck. ❜

it is scarcely he who has dragged her so far, yet elizabeth has little desire to turn around, re-board a transport ship, and consign herself to further weeks of travel. it will come, all too soon, and with luck the federation will have a new assignment for her, something to occupy her hours with research and preparation. ❛ dinner sounds lovely. though, I should probably contact my superiors first and let them know my presence here is no longer needed. ❜ if he has already informed starfleet, word will get to them through bureaucratic channels, but she would rather expedite the process. ❛ I'd like to get them started on figuring out what to do with me. the last thing I need is to travel half-way back to earth, only for them to decide to send me back the way I came again. ❜

[gaerlhoss]

@nursc / continued.

elizabeth's eyebrows quirk. ❛ is which a good view? your file, or the window? I will say, after a few trips, the stars all start to look the same. ❜ on earth, growing up, elizabeth's eyes had rarely turned skyward. her attention focused upon studies, upon music and dance lessons, upon becoming an accomplished young woman, she had been left with little enough time for flights of fancy. the constellations, though vaguely known to her, would be indistinguishable in the night sky to her.

❛ and as for your file... well... ❜ yet she does not finish that thought, allowing a faint, wry smile to come to her lips. a knowing, teasing smile, one that said clearly that she knew very well what she was doing in leaving her sentence hanging. ❛ as you said, could be worse. ❜

[gaerlhoss]

⤷ ✧ @nursc said, ❝ i’d like to hear your truth. ❞ for talia.

don't laugh, talia, she tells herself, yet her efforts do little good. in the end, near half a minute passes before she can manage words. ❛ the truth? no, sorry... not the truth. my truth. what does that even mean? what constitutes a person's truth? is this some everyone has their own truth, everything is subjective philosophical thing, or some profound tell me who you are as a person thing? ❜ in the end, talia's not sure which would be more deserving of her laughter.

❛ what if ❜ — and here talia leans forward eyes alight with the prospect of some mischief — ❛ I were to say that I don't beleive in truth? ❜ if it is true, who can say? certainly none on this ship. but that is, after all, rather the whole fun.

[gaerlhoss]

@doctordonovan / continued.

his laugh is bitter, though he'd never aloud share the reason why. better, easier to pass it off as twisted humor found in the prospect that rumors on this ship might not be carefully kept from their captain's ear. though a lie ( he harbors only pangs of remorse that his crew cannot trust him, at the necessity of preserving that distance ), it is far safer than the truth.

he does not think to live long enough for future-him to owe him any gratitude, nor does he care to meet future-him, to know where this road leads. hard to look back, and harder still to look ahead.

dark thoughts he sets aside, and in an effort to avert his own focus, he reaches for a rare glimmer of humor, setting aside irritation at his many problems and forsaking, if only for a moment, the grumpiness that permeates even a discussion of hypotheticals. still, he does not smile, nor give any true sign that his words are meant in jest. ❛ so, what you're telling me is that this is stamets' way of informing of that we have flesh-eating bacteria onboard: sending you to break the news gently in 'casual passing.' ❜

though, that such news could be relegated in truth to casual passing bewilders him more than the refusal of his crew of scientists to accept the reality of their times and the shift of attitude that reality demanded.

[gaerlhoss]

@doctordonovan / continued.

negotiation is, at its core, communication, or so jeff has come to feel over his time here. it is, however, a communication that is as much between the lines as it is overt. some are content to ask for what they desire up front, but so many others conceal their true intentions, masking them as something more palatable while secretly working towards other ends.

for all he desires to know, however, to see through that facade and recognize true motivations beneath that he can safely navigate the tumultuous waters of diplomacy, he remains fully aware — painfully so — of all he does not know.

still, jeff shakes his head, making no effort to restrain his laughter. it quickly fades, but his amused smile lingers in its wake. ❛ philosophers have been attempting for millennia to determine how people tick, and somehow even fully contradictory beliefs can seem simultaneously accurate. I don't expect to ever crack that mystery. ❜ but there are individuals, perhaps, whom he believes he may be able to define. yet that presumes an inability to change, and jeff's not sure he's willing to accept that possibility and all the implications that come with it. ❛ and if I did? I guess the universe would become a lot less interesting. you're a scientist. isn't the fun in the discovery, not in the knowing? ❜