"Maybe That's What Life is... A Wink of the Eye and Winking Stars"

Posted on 12/22/2020 @ 9:24pm by Lieutenant Commander Kiernan Gallagher VII
Edited on on 02/23/2021 @ 3:30pm

Mission: S3E1: Time of Change
Location: Somewhere on Earth
Timeline: Day 95 at 1920

Kiernan Gallagher hissed through a clench jaw and gritted teeth.

The spray used to ward off bacteria had stung, but there was no way of getting around it. The gash on his forearm was long, and deep but manageable. It would need to be wrapped up, it would need to be watched, but he was told his survival training would go on.

At least he didn’t die.

His blue eyes drifted upward at the rock face he had attempted to climb. He swore under his breath at the sight. He was an avid rock climber, he had to be in order to do his work, so when he fell, he had been more surprised than terrified. He fell several feet before he landed hard on his back, the air pushed out of his lungs upon impact. It took several minutes to catch his breath, and it was then his brain registered the sharp throbs of pain going up his left arm. He looked down to see an ugly red gash, the blood pooling.

“I can’t believe you survived that fall,” Katy Buckner said. She was just one of four that made up the group that was doing the survival training. She had been designated the medic in the group, and Kiernan was put in charge due to his rank. Not that rank meant jack squat in these survival trainings, but it was what it was. She had picked up a hypospray and pressed it against Kiernan’s carotid artery and trigged the device. “That should help with the pain,” she added. She then removed the vial and replaced it with a new medication and repeated what she did only moments ago. “And this will help keep infection out.”

She knew Kiernan would need a medical facility to patch his arm, but for now, all she could do was damage control. It meant hyposprays, anti-bacteria spray and clean bandages. To her amazement, nothing was broken, though she knew the smaller man would be sore in a few hours. She had hoped she had headed off some of that by giving him a strong dose of pain medication. They still had another couple of days of this, and she needed to make sure Kiernan could stay upright. “Maybe we should make camp, relax, have some food.” The sun had no peaked and was on its downward drop toward the horizon.

Kiernan shook his head; he just needed another few minutes and he would be good to go. Though, he still was pissed off he had fallen. Maybe he had lost his touch? Maybe starship life was making him too complacent. When he was assigned to Vallaria II, it had been a dream assignment, especially for a geologist. Survival training was a bit harsh, but nothing he couldn’t overcome. However, the two others in the group, Mark Kristofferson and Tay Zora, agreed with Katy on this one.

“We can all use a break, lieutenant,” Zora replied. “It is crazy hot! My Bajoran body is not used to anything that is beyond temperature-controlled starships.” She put her pack down and sat on it. She was the female version of Kiernan, small in stature and underweight in body composition. She was quick and agile like him as well, and they both were in the sciences – the differences, however, were in their jobs. He dealt with all things earth sciences and she dealt in all things stellar sciences. She had also been the second highest ranking person in the group. Even though her rank was the same as Kiernan’s, his promotion to full lieutenant came much sooner than hers.

Mark laughed at that. Even though he was human, his father was the Earth ambassador to Vulcan. He lived on Vulcan nine months of the year, so he had grown accustomed to the heat and dry air. “This is nothing, try spending the summer months on Vulcan. I have never seen a sun so bright during those months.”

“Or August in the Midwest,” Kiernan pipped up. He had recalled sweltering summers in Milwaukee, especially during August. He had always hated it when his parents decided to drag, he and his sister to the State Fair on one of the hottest days each year. Heat and humidity were never a good thing for his pale, Irish complexion. On the flipside, the Midwest would see big thunderstorms, ice storms, and lightening storms. Though the weather control system helped predict storms better and control the more major events Mother Nature wanted to throw at them, for the most part, Earth’s weather was left untouched to do its natural thing. Which meant hot summers, cold winters, and everything in between.

“Or August in the Midwest,” Katy echoed her agreeance. She too grew up in what was known as ‘Middle America’ back in the day. She came from a long line of ranchers, who to this day had huge ranches in Oklahoma and Kansas. She too recalled the extremes, though what once was known as tornado alley, had been a thing of the past due to the invention of a global weather control system.

Kiernan got to his feet slowly with a bit of help from Katy. He looked off to the west and saw that they didn’t have many hours of sunlight left. He then turned to the group that had become fast friends during this experience. “We can make camp,” he said. He was going to need some food in his belly and a good rest if he was going to work through the aftermath of this fall. He surveyed the flat surface of this part of the mountain. It had stretched several hundred feet in all directions, over the course of thousands of years, grass and trees had popped up and thrived. There were softer patches of grass and soil that they could put up their popups and make camp. They would be safe from predators, but more importantly, safe from falling off an edge.

The three nodded and began to unpack their things, and Mark came over to help with Kiernan’s things. Soon, popups were up, and a fire was made, and the four sat around the fire, eating rations and having conversation. Kiernan looked up, despite the ache in his neck and spine, his blue eyes followed the embers of the fire that flitted up into the clear night air. It was truly the perfect evening, the temperature had cooled, and the moon and stars were bright. There were thousands of stars, and even to this day, a sky fully of stars still took his breath away. He thought about those who came before him, the ones who lived in this region of the planet, who were here before the trees and grass that populated this outcropping.

He wondered how in awe those people were when looking up at a night sky. Were they thinking about the possibilities? Or were they thinking about their place in the universe? Space travel wasn’t always a thing, but there had always been someone who looked up and wondered. The stars, those wonderings represented the human nature of curiosity. Was there more? Even now, Kiernan would lose himself in that question. His experience and career were new in the scheme of things, but it was his curiosity and wonderment that brought him to this moment. It was also the reason he took this assignment, giving up a Starfleet career to transfer over to the Exploratory Corp. The EC was going to offer him possibilities that Starfleet was not going to offer, at least for now. No one said he couldn’t go back if things didn’t work out, but this new assignment tickled his exploratory senses, and he to at least take that leap.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Katy asked.

With a small ache, followed by a wince, Kiernan dropped his gaze back to the group. He sighed happily. “Just thinking about all those who came before us who got the privilege to see this night sky.”

Zora looked up, her green eyes gazing into the Earth’s night sky. “I would think about that stuff as a child on Bajor, especially toward the end of the Occupation when things were falling apart.” The smile that formed was a sad one, but her gaze refocused on the group. “I went into the stellar sciences because of the night sky.”

“So many of us went into Starfleet because of the night sky, we wanted to explore the possibilities,” Mark replied. “There was something romantic about it, right? That we not only explore but do good as well. Somehow, that didn’t come to fruition…”

“We were naïve,” Kiernan said.

“Hmm maybe,” Mark replied. He didn’t know if it was naivety or not, he had been around diplomats and ambassadors his whole life just about. He had seen very little in the way of helping others, in fact, his father would come back to their high-rise apartment and complain and curse out some ambassador or diplomate from another world. “Transferring into the EC will be our second chance to explore and do good.”

Kiernan didn’t know about that. Unexplored didn’t mean that things were safe. It meant they had to be cautious as they peeked around each corner they wanted to round. More than likely, they would come back more or less in one piece, but that didn’t mean everyone would come back. It was always inevitable to lose people on missions like these. “It is an exciting prospect, so we shall see what happens.”

He got a round of nods from the group. After a bit more conversation about this, that, and whatever, Kiernan announced he was going to turn in. Katy gave him another dose of pain killer, checked his would, and gave the go ahead. He crawled into his popup carefully and once inside, he shut the flap and laid down on his back. He brought his good arm over his eyes, and right before he drifted off, he thought of Oskar and of Otis, and how much he missed them.

One last yawn escaped him, his eyelids grew heavier and before he knew it, he was out for the evening.

**

A post by...

Lieutenant Kiernan M. Gallagher VII, PhD

Lieutenant Tay Zora, PhD (NPC)

Lieutenant J.G. Katy Buckner (NPC)

&

Lieutenant J.G. Mark Kristofferson (NPC)