"Stepping Out Of The Closet"

[Aidan Driscol 0]

"Coming Out Of The Closet"

A Log by Ensign Aidan Driscol

 

 

 

 

After Lexia had left to go back to business as usual Aidan, still sitting in the closet, leaned back and closed his eyes. He was confused and devastated. Being a scientist had meant to him looking through microscopes and using a whole lot of fancy equipment. The death of people usually only reached him through statistics. It had been bad enough when the Gareem had died, because there had been nothing he could have done for them despite all his efforts. But Burne's death was was different altogether. It wasn't so much that he had died right in front of his eyes, or even that the procedure had killed him, Aidan had known that the chance of this working had been slim.

 

Now that Aidan was sitting in the closet all by himself he realised why he had such a problem with all of this. They were all stranded in the Perseus Arm together and all that made the difference between survival and death were the efforts of every single crew member. He knew that if he had been in Burne's position he would have trusted blindly in the proficiency and dedication of science and medical. Aidan had let him down, a man had died sacrificing himself for the ship, the crew and the chance of everybody else returning to Federation space.

 

The conversation with Lieutenant Commander JoNs came back to his mind. Burne had been in her department. She had been his chief and she felt just as guilty of letting Burne down as he did, if not more. But it was all part of the job, wasn't it? All the training missions that had seemed like a game back in San Francisco had become real out here. Death was just around the corner for all of them. He had the choice of either hiding in this closet for the rest of the journey or getting out and contributing his share to getting back home.

 

Aidan got up and stood up straight as he exited the closet. If he would have to die and wouldn't make it back home he'd at least be able to do so with his head held high and the knowledge of having done the best he could.

 

Now, where were his theories on artificial wormholes?