"Logic and Emotion"

[Dox Maturin 0]

"Logic and Emotion"

Initial Log

0704.15

 

The following log takes place just prior to the sim on 0704.15.

 

He touched his hand to the glass, so transparent that it could have easily fooled his mind into believing there was nothing there at all. Goosebumps pricked up along his forearm as the shivering cold ran through his fingertips. The solid windows of the docking hatch were always ice cold, exposed to the vacuum of space and absent of the heating elements embedded in all of the other exterior view ports. The cold felt so real and he believed for a moment that he could reach out and touch the scarred surfaces of the ships drifting by; ships so ravaged by war that aesthetic repairs were the farthest priority. So they decayed, running in top shape but looking pathetic with an antique quality.

 

It was far different from the gleaming surfaces and clean floors of the starship he was in. As a science ship, one that he had served on for many years in a sort of - probationary - tour of duty, it had laid low in the fighting and kept far out of harms way. Only when the wormhole was forcibly taken and they were stranded in the Gamma did the feeling of danger befall them.

 

"Penny for your thoughts, ensign?" the young quartermaster smiled, flashing a glimpse of her perfect white teeth and offering a genuine interest in the quiet man who she had been assigned to escort onto the Camelot station.

 

"What?" Dox Maturin turned, as if he had forgotten she was there and was awaking from a sleep.

 

"I'm asking what's on your mind. You're awfully quiet for someone who's about to begin their first real Starfleet assignment. This is what you've been here for isn't it? To prove yourself?"

 

"Is nothing on this ship a secret?" he sighed, tugging down on his tunic.

 

She suppressed a giggle and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "It's a small ship, sir. And when you're assigned for five years on a ship with a mentor who is, shall I say, so unique, it's expected that people are going to be a little more curious."

 

"I was just thinking to myself, that I never seem to be able to escape this quadrant. I served on this ship as a civilian, and before that so long as something else."

 

"The war?"

 

He nodded silently. "I cannot even remember England, it has been so long."

 

The room lurched a bit and the walls reverberated from a loud metal clang as the starship tucked itself into the docking arm of the station. An indistinct voice made several comments about the docking, the orders throughout the ship, the leave scheduled and the return time; things heard so commonly at a docking that no one bothered to listen to it anymore, just another noise that followed the hissing of the power conduits latching together.

 

"Is that an emotion I detect?" a computer generated voice called out from behind them, and the young quartermaster jumped unnoticeably. Her body stiffened to attention as the retired Starfleet officer, their lead scientist and Maturin's mentor, drifted into the docking room with only the faintest hum of an anti-gravity generator.

 

"Only the smallest trace, Mr. Xiang," Dox assured him, turning with a faint smile.

 

"I had thought perhaps," Xiang acknowledged the young woman and rolled slightly towards Dox, "you intended to leave without a word." Xiang was a large non-humanoid alien that looked quite similar to the Earth bottlenose dolphin. He hovered in the air, as if he were swimming in water, with the aid of an anti-grav and water-filled field system.

 

Dox smiled, gripping his carry pack. It was a small pack, containing nothing but a few credits, an extra uniform, and a few duty supplies (a tricorder, PADD, and other miscellaneous tools that no officer could do without). Indeed, Dox appeared just as he had when he first came on board. He owned nothing, aspired to own nothing, and carried not a trace of any family or friends he may or may not have. He was a curiously troubled soul, and perhaps that was why Xiang offered to take him under his, well, flipper so to speak and prepare him for a career in Starfleet. A career he had abandoned in his youth to defend the Federation. It was a decision that ultimately destroyed his faith in life.

 

But Xiang had prepared him well. Dox had grown, enough so that he could be sponsored to rejoin Starfleet and be assigned to a starship. A real duty; without the protection of a mentor.

 

"It is the Excalibur," Dox reminded him as he had a dozen times before, "are you sure you will not come with me if only for a while, to see it again?"

 

"Some things you cannot return to, Mr. Maturin. And our ship has other obligations. We will see each other again soon. I may take you up on that offer when you have settled in, and when there is more time. You will be on your own. Remember what you have been taught."

 

"Logic and emotion are stronger together than apart," Dox quoted the first delpin rule of conduct. "I will miss you, sir. I cannot thank you enough for the opportunity you have given me."

 

The hatch slid open and only now did they again acknowledge the quartermaster, who had been forgotten and was trying to make herself invisible.

 

"You will make a fine science officer," Xiang assured him as Dox bowed, swiveled around on his heel and marched out of the ship with the quartermaster by his side. "Give the Admiral my regards," he requested as the two turned the corner and vanished from sight.

 

"Is that it?" Dox asked his companion moments later as they passed a huge set of view ports. Outside they could see the distinct glowing nacelles of a Sovereign Class starship.

 

"Yep, that's her. Isn't she a beauty?" she exhaled with a hint of jealousy. How lucky she thought he was to be serving on such a large starship.

 

Dox Maturin breathed in the station air. "Absolutely," he said with his eyes fixed on Excalibur's silver hull. He had been through so much in his youth but this, this was new.

 

He told himself silently, tuning out the noise of the crowds and listening to the clicking of their boots as he and the quartermaster made their way to the security office for check-in, this was going to be different. He had a fresh start. And, he knew, the real adventure was just beginning.