She was a beauty

[CdrDeGenza 0]

Saul DeGenza entered the San Francisco Star Fleet History Museum.

He figured this would be the best way to catch up on History.

 

They let him in for free, ofcourse, because he had a uniform on with credentials, not because he was a living exhibit...

 

He saw the journey's of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew. The marvelous diplomatic works by Sarek of Vulcan. Klingon wars, the assassination of Gorkon, the signing of the Khitomer Accords. He looked through the computer to catch up on the many known alien races, members of the federation, and he even watched the videos of The NX-01 Decomissioning ceremony, the warp 7 trials, the founding of the federation speach by an old acquiantance, Jonathan Archer.

 

He walked around the Museum. A replica of the phoenix was there. a mock-up of first contact. It was truly amazing. Something he wished they had when he was a kid some 160 years prior.

But here it came, a special room. It was a Tuesday afternoon, about 1400 hours. no one was really in the museum. Saul walked in, the signs on the door saying "DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING IN THIS EXHIBIT"

As he walked in, the ceiling came to life, displaying a video. He saw two NX class ships, several corvettes, a few destroyers, Andorians and even Vulcan craft all fighting Romulan vessels.... As the camera panned in on one of the NX class ships, he recognized it before the ship's registry was visible.... Challenger. Saul's heart sank. But here it was, before him, the final battle of the Romulan War playing itself out.

 

Challenger, severely damaged made a pass by the more heavily damaged Atlantis. He remembered this is where they beamed the crew of Atlantis to safety and had her towed by the Sh'rann to block against incoming nuclear missiles from the Romulans.... Explosion... Atlantis errupted in a fireball.... Challenger sped on, continuing to fight what Romulans she could. several volleys of torpedoes were taken to the ventral side moments before the ship lost power... Saul remembered this part. He watched..... A red torpedo slammed into the ventral side of the Challenger. This is the impact that killed Aaron, and almost killed him.... Red, the romulans fired green torpedoes.... he went to a view screen and backed the video up... A stray torpedo from the Pride had missed a Romulan ship and landed on the Challenger. "Friendly fire," muttered Saul, "go figure... but whats done is done no changing the past"

 

Saul went further into the exhibit, and noticed a few very familiar items. One of his old uniforms was displayed, he recognized the spaghetti sauce stain on it that no one could get out from the right leg, a photo of him and Kimiko, and his paper-bound journal... Saul crossed the line marking the exhibit and reclaimed his photo and journal. When he turned, he saw a board with the names of those lost in the battle. He walked over to it, and saw under NX-05 Challenger that his name was there.... He grabbed a knifre he kept in his pocket and etched his name out.

 

As he walked away, a security guard ran up to the board, saw the crossed out name, saw the backside of DeGenza and the articles he had in his hand...

 

"Hey! You! you can't take those!! those don't belong to you! stop now!!" screamed the guard. He moved quickly to DeGenza.

 

Saul turned around holding the photo in his left hand and the journal in his right. "First, this is my picture, son. Second, this journal... I'm not done with it. And about your board... I'm not dead....." with that, Saul turned and walked out of the Museum.... He was sure he would hear about this from Admiral Therilis, but it didn't matter. He had the two most important things to him right now. His journal, and the picture of the girl he could never have...