Thoughts of Mortality

[Sheng-ji 0]

Lt.(Jg.) Sheng-ji Marish

AENG | USS Reaent

SD 0412.10

 

>Begin<

 

The whole of engineering seemed on edge as the Reaent hovered in the Neutral Zone. Not that Sheng-ji blamed any of the humans for being—what was it he was sensing—anxiety. He wasn’t telepathic—thankfully—personally he didn’t want to be bouncing anyone else’s thoughts around his head, but his people seemed to have a knack for perceiving fear and angst in others. Perhaps it was some ancient predatory instinct that hadn’t been lost.

 

He had never met a Romulan, never had any reason to. Nor did he fear them. He read about them at the Academy, masters of deception they had been called; able to manipulate almost any situation to suite their needs.

 

But as he sat looking over the status monitors, he couldn’t help but wonder why everyone was so anxious. The nervous chatter and tepid speech of his fellow shift mates getting to him as well, and it wasn’t long before the hair along his neck had began to stand slight, his ears we pinned back at attention and he was jumpy as a teran frog. It was as if the entire engineering staff expected a fleet of Romulan warbirds to decloak at any moment and blow them all to the next life.

 

He shook off the ever growing angst, and continued watching the situation monitors. The warp-core’s soothing murmur helped. Times like this were the worst. The waiting, not knowing what would happen next.

 

Your gripped by the unknown and powerless to control whatever is waiting for you behind door number one. One moment your like a snake crossing the road, blissfully unaware a car is speeding towards you—then whack—your road kill.

 

Sheng-ji accepted the inevitability of death long ago. Only fools dream of immortality. He just hadn’t dwelled on death lately. But with the immediate future cloudy and hazy, he could not help but think thoughts of his own mortality as he watched the consoles flicker.

 

His time would come some day—he just hoped that that time was not today.

 

>End Log<