Everything Has Two Sides...Even On A Piece Of Toast

[DaveJohnson 0]

Everything has two sides, and every side is different…even on a piece of toast.

A Toast Themed Log by Lt David Johnson

 

This log has been written especially for Admiral BluRox since it has become clear to me that she has an affinity for toast

 

 

David and Rebecca sat at a table at McKinley Station eating breakfast with their parents. They were having what would be their last home cooked meal for at least a week as after breakfast they would be boarding a shuttle and heading for the Republic which David had found out was luckily in one place for the moment. Even better was that Admiral BluRox had approved Rebecca’s transfer to the Republic. Since their journey to the ship would take a while David planned to use some of the time making sure Rebecca knew how not to make the same type of impression on Lt Commander Robinson that he had. Then again, he figured that as long as she didn’t shoot him, she would be just fine and hopefully Lt Commander Robinson would recognize Rebecca’s qualities just as the Chief of Security aboard the Rhode Island, Lt Commander O’Hare had.

 

As they eat and talked about various things like where the couple would be living and what mission Rebecca’s parents we’re going on next David picked up a piece of toast. One side of the toast was white, while the other was clearly burnt yet David began spreading some jelly on the burnt side. His father looked at him inquisitively and asked, “Why are you putting the jelly on that side?” David smiled at him and replied, “You of all people should know that, don’t you remember that story you told me, about when you were on that away mission to Virgo 4?” The others stopped whatever conversation they had been having and turned their attention to the one David was having with his father.

 

David’s father looked at the group and said, “While I don’t exactly understand what it has to do with toast I think I know why my son brought this up. When I was serving aboard the U.S.S Lincoln as an Ensign I went on an away mission to Virgo 4. We had gone down there to investigate some strange readings our ship had detected coming from a federation outpost thought to be long abandoned. When we arrived, we were amazed at what we saw. There were people still living at the outpost who had obviously found some way of masking their life-signs and it was one of their replicator’s that had been giving off power signals just strong enough for us to detect. Now our Chief of Security who was leading the team made the assumption that they were squatters, and that we should just removed them from the outpost if nothing else, for their safety. But I wanted to find out why they were there, get their side of the story. So discretely I walked over to one of them and asked him why they were there. He told me that they were the descendants of the people who had originally settled the outpost, that it was their home but that they had no evidence to prove it. I told my security chief and he informed the Captain who now had a decision to make. Which side should he believe the side of one of his most trusted advisors, or the side of the people? Rather than contacting Starfleet command the Captain decided it would be best to continue to allow the people to live there, because descendants of the original settlers or not they were not harming anyone, they were not a threat to any species in the area and they could barely be detected.

When he made his report to Starfleet they told him he had made the right decision and even arranged for some food, supplies and shelters to be transported to help re-build the outpost. By choosing to side with the people rather than with one of his subordinates the Captain had taken a risk, but he knew that in the end he had done what was right and that made it a risk worth taking.

 

When David was a teenager I told him that story in the hopes that when he had to make a difficult decision he would remember that every story has two sides to it and every side is different in some way which is why even if one side seems, “better,” or in the case of that colony more trustworthy, it is not always the side that one should choose when making the decision.”

 

David’s father picked up David’s piece of toast and showed the group both sides. “Now I think I do understand why he put Jelly on the burnt side. The white side may seem more appealing but by putting Jelly on the burnt side he is making it more appealing than the white side. Like the situation on Virgo 4 so many years ago, the gains, outweigh the risk. Because anyone that eats it is going to have to eat both sides, but with the Jelly on the burnt side I suppose it makes both sides tasty. The group laughed as David’s father handed his son his toast back who took a bite of it with a smile.

 

As he had been all his life, David was fascinated at the way his father had explained things. It was almost exactly what David had been thinking when he had made the initial comment about the toast. And, just like the toast and everything else, the decision he and Rebecca had made to serve aboard the Republic also had two sides. On the one hand, they were going to be together. On the other, Rebecca had to say goodbye to all her friends and the only ship she had ever known. But in this case she was sure that the benefits of that decision outweighed the harms. And even though a healthy relationship was infinitesimally more important than a piece of toast with jelly, in the end, they were both good.

[STSF_BluRox 0]

This log has been written especially for Admiral BluRox since it has become clear to me that she has an affinity for toast

 

Hey! It's not me....it came with the ship! It came with Holly.

 

I place total blame for the toast on Kraf and Erinna and their predecessors .........

 

I only inhertited the futuristic toaster we fly in....

[DaveJohnson 0]

Well I've only been here for 6 months but I came to that determination because it said in your profile you like eating toast, you have mentioned toast in several sims, and there is an award for creative use of toast in a log. When I put all the pieces together it equaled you liking toast. :P

Edited November 28, 2006 by DaveJohnson