Nature

[Travis Kroells 0]

“Nature”…Kroells’s logs (Log 43)

 

Off line.  Just perfect, the holodecks were offline.  O’Connor hissed in annoyance, and if Travis could have done the same he probably would have.  He stood silent for several minutes, considering his options.

 

He could head back to his quarters, and pick up the pieces of his life, but that wasn’t very appealing to him.  He could go to the crew lounge, have some hot coffee and at the same time avoiding his quarters.  And of course he could see if he could head back to the bridge and actually get some work done for once.

 

All of the options sucked but it wasn’t like he had been hoping for some perfect solution any ways, he sighed and gently taped his commbadge.

 

“Kroells to Smith” Travis sighed while waiting for his response.  While his family had been in Starfleet for countless generations, Travis had spent his life before the academy working on the family farm causing him a great unfamiliarity with most technology when he entered the academy.  He knew how to use every thing, but sometimes using something as simple as his commbadge felt, odd and unnatural.  

 

“Yes lieutenant?”  Travis couldn’t help but become instantly annoyed.  

 

“Do you think I can be cleared to return to duty, there’s not much to do here but work?”

 

The doctor quickly responded, “I cleared you for duty yesterday.”  The idiot!  He had cleared yesterday already!  No wonder he sounded like he was waiting for him.  Yesterday…he must have cleared him almost immediately after he left sickbay!  Travis tried to calm himself down…But still Smith had cleared him almost 24 hours earlier and hadn’t even bothered to inform Kroells.  Had Travis not have called in he would have simply returned to his quarters and went to sleep.

 

Travis simply tried to chuckle and ignore the doctor’s ignorance, “thanks for telling me that doc, Kroells out.”  He quickly walked away, O’Connor in his arms and quickly headed back to his quarters.  O’Connor was quickly dropped off, and he once again entered the turbo lift to head to the bridge.  He still couldn’t get over why Brian annoyed him so much, or what his problem with Ridire was, he was a nice guy; he just couldn’t understand why he could stand his executive officer. Then like a sack of bricks a theory hit him.  He remembered the old fable about the scorpion and the frog, or at least the important parts.  

 

The scorpion had to get across this raging river, but couldn’t due to the fact that he couldn’t swim and would drown.  There was a frog near by, which could surely swim him across.  The scorpion walked up to the frog and asked him if he would swim him across the river, the frog replied that he would, only if the scorpion would not sting him after they got across.  And so they set off, it was about half way into the trip that the scorpion did what he promised not to, he stung the frog right on the back.  The toxins quickly surged through the frog causing him to lose strength and drown.  

 

The frog looked up to the scorpion as he went under, “Why’d you do it?  Now we’re both gona die.”  The scorpion looked back at him, his voice as if one who embraced death with happiness.  “Because.  It is my nature.”

 

Travis’s mind chuckled at the meaning of the story; people don’t change no matter how hard you try.  The scorpion couldn’t help but sting the frog, even if it meant his death.  Commander Ridire and doctor Smith weren’t going to change, Travis wasn’t going to change, and for some reason that filled him with a new found respect for the too.  He wouldn’t change for them and they diffidently wouldn’t change for him.  Some times things were better left as they are, even if they look as if they need improvement.