Second Guess Once More

[Craven 0]

Craven felt the familiar tingle of the transporter rematerialization as his body formed on the Ardent's transporter pad.

 

The last thing he heard was someone muttering about leaving Commander Corizon on the asteroid, and he could see some grim looks on the faces of the away team as they felt the Defiant-class ship jump to warp once they were aboard.

 

I suppose this is one of the few luxuries I have as a junior officer. Craven thought to himself.

 

He was of course referring to his minor sense of detachment that came with not having any relationships of speakable depth on the Camelot-Excalibur crew. The closest he had gotten to anyone was a few casual conversations with the new Andorian Science Officer, Quelsar, whom he supposed was not all that new at all anymore. In fact, if his memory served him correctly, he had seen a message in the science office during shore leave at Camelot saying something about a theoretical specialist joining the science staff. So now there were even more people on the crew whom he was unfamiliar with.

 

Still, this detachment allowed Craven to look at the Ardent’s situation a little more objectively than he supposed a senior officer might see it. If the Ardent was in fact under attack, and Corizon was indeed on the surface - presumably injured - then leaving him would have been the correct decision, as far as procedure went.

 

More than that, Corizon's orders had outlined the importance of this mission. Failure was NOT an option. There was no doubt in Craven's mind that, given his present limited experience in Starfleet, he would have made the same decision to depart, but he could see in the eyes of his crewmates that such a decision, while not necessarily different, would have been a bit more belabored.

 

Still...a part of the young Ensign enved them.