If you don't want to know the answer. . .

[Vakhtang_Dalsazashvili 0]

...then don't ask the question.

 

 

Petty Officer 2^nd Class Aloysius Soandso had made his way to the crew mess on the USS Pensacola. He was off to share a lunch with dear friend of his, PO1 Lorenzo Ruiz, engineering crewman aboard the Pensacola. The two had been in tech school together, and had kept in touch over time, especially with both men being stationed on Black Ops vessels. It had been a few months since the two of them had caught up, and this tow back to Maturin was a prime opportunity for that. Plus, Al was curious about something. . .

 

He spied his friend already in mid-meal near the back of the mess. He smiled and gave a friendly head nod of acknowledgement as he approached. "Lolo! How you doing, buddy?"

 

"I'm doing great, my friend!" Ruiz said standing up to greet Soandso, giving him a friendly hug. "Grab your self something to eat and have a seat" he said as he released his friend, sitting back down.

 

Al waved him off. "That's alright, I ate before I beamed aboard." He said, taking a seat across from his friend.

 

"We thought we had lost you guys." Lorenzo began. "We searched for about a month, they called it off. Then all of a sudden, you guys just seem to pop up out of thin air here in the middle of nowhere." He said, taking a bite of his lunch. "I know I'm not supposed to ask you what happened, so I'm not going to. I'm just glad you guys are back."

 

"Thanks, Lolo. It's good to be back" Al told his friend. "I'll be sure to tell you all about it one day."

 

"I look forward to it." Ruiz said in reply, "I'll bet you're not looking forward to that debrief you guys have coming though."

 

Al just shook his head. "Nope." He told him. "One of the joys of being enlisted though is that I probably won't get the worst of it, like some of the other guys on board". His mind immediately raced to Tang, one of the newer arrivals on the Manticore. More accurately, one of the Manticore crewmen that had arrived while the Manticore was still in the parallel universe. He was most likely to receive on of the harsher debriefs. He was also one of the reasons he had come over to the Pensacola in the first place.

 

The other enlisted man raised his glass in agreement. "I hear that" he said in reply, taking another bite of his lunch.

 

A silence settled in has Ruiz chewed his food. Soandso thought it as good a time as any to bring up his new found friend on the Manticore, or at least, this universe's version of him.

 

"Hey listen," Soandso began, leaning forward. "Could you do me a favor?" he asked, his voice lowering so as to not carry through the small mess hall.

 

Ruiz's gaze hardened a little, as if sensing that his friend was about to ask him something that could get him into deep trouble. "Depends on the favor" he said, the volume of his voice matching Soandso's.

 

"It's nothing big, I just wanted to see if you could check on a buddy of mine" he said, his voice still low, but casual.

 

Ruiz, eyed his counterpart carefully, as if trying to catch any deceit in his eyes. "I probably shouldn't access records of anyone," he said after a few seconds of silence. "For both our sakes."

 

Soandso raises his hands up in a gesture of apology. "You're right, Lolo. You're right" He told his friend. "Just forgot I asked." He said, leaning back in his seat.

 

Ruiz, took another bite of his food. "Let's do it this way," he said mid-chew before swallowing. "Tell me his name and I'll see if I know of him just off-hand without accessing any records."

 

"Okay," Al replied, amenable to this option. The last thing he wanted to do was get someone in trouble for satisfying his own piqued curiosity. If, Lolo knew of Tang, then Lolo knew of him. If he was questioned about it, he could say he was just a passing question from an old friend and place it right back on Soandso's shoulders. "His name is Vakhtang Dalsazashvili."

 

It was just the slightest of tells, but Soandso knew that the name had somehow registered. "You know that man?" Ruiz asked.

 

Soandso nodded. "Yeah" he replied. He had to tread carefully now, just to keep from revealing something that could be used against is fellow enlisted man. "Our. . .um. . .paths crossed a while ago," he said, almost coming up a little too cryptically. "We hit it off, and try to keep in touch with him. . .Or at least how his career's going anyways" He said, scratching the back of his neck in a slight fit of inadvertent nervousness.

 

Ruiz nodded. "Well, its going pretty well, I'd say. He was on a holocast on Federation Public Broadcasting a few days ago."

 

Soandso's eyebrows raised. "Really?" he said with slight surprise. He wondered why in the universe a Starfleet engineer would end up on FPB, which normally tended to shy away from military types.

 

Ruiz nodded in response. "Yeah, I've got it downloaded on my personal PADD, I try and catch all of their interviews". He took the last bite of his lunch before standing up. "You want to see it?" he asked his friend. "It's in my bunk, just down the hall from here."

 

Al nodded. "Sure." He replied, standing up, still trying to figure out why exactly Tang would be on an FPB broadcast.

 

"Its funny." Ruiz said as the walked towards the exit of the mess. "I thought you didn't like classical music."

 

'Wait, what? Did he just say classical music?' "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Soandso said, trying to make his friend repeat what he said.

 

Ruiz angled his body back towards Soandso as they walked down the narrow corridor. "I said its funny because I thought you didn't like classical music." He repeated. "Yet here you are asking me about the conductor of the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra."

 

It took everything Soandso had not to stop dead in his tracks. "Well, yeah. . .yanno. . .like I said. . .um. . .our paths crossed, and he. . .umm. . .we talked a little bit. . .and uh. . . he seemed like a. . .um. . .a nice guy and all, so. . .um. . .I've been keeping tabs on what he's. . .uhhh. . .been doing" he managed to get out as they reached Ruiz's bunk.

 

Ruiz pulled out the PADD. "Hmm, let me see here," he said as he went sifting through his downloaded media. "Ahh, here it is," he said as he found it. "Yeah, it was less that a week ago." He said pressing the start button.

 

"Greetings and welcome to the 'The First Chair'. Your destination for the best access to the Arts! My name is Anton Weiss" the man said as the playback started. "Today, I am backstage at the Mariinsky Theatre with Vakhtang Dalsazashvili, the current music director of the famed Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra, and youngest person ever to hold that title."

 

 

The camera panned out to reveal the guest, and Soandso's eyes widened and his jaw dropped to the floor. It was Tang. Slightly smaller and carrying a little less muscle than the one he knew, but it was unmistakably him.

 

"It's a pleasure to be here, Herr Weiss" he heard Vakhtang reply. He even -sounds- exactly like him. Soandso thought to himself. He immediately thought back to the conversation he had had with Vakhtang. . .the Tang he knew. . .about a week prior. There was no doubt he would find out sooner or later about it, and Al wondered just how he would respond. He knew that this was exactly what he wanted to do with his life, but fate had chose differently for him. . .Yet at the same time, here he was, right before Soandso's eyes, living that life out. It was beyond his comprehension, really.

 

"So how did you come to the decision of musician?" Soandso heard the interviewer ask Vakhtang as his attention snapped back to the broadcast

 

"I flipped a coin."

 

"You flipped a coin?"

 

"Yes," Vakhtang said, with a smile "I flipped a coin. . .Heads I'm an engineer, tails I'm a musician. It came up tails, and here I am."

 

Soandso almost fell as he tried to sit himself on the bed. His mind was still unable to process everything as he saw. It was the same story he had heard a week earlier, just a different outcome. It was one of the most incredible things that he'd ever seen. There was a part of him that was extremely happy for his friend. He had saw the hidden pain in his eyes when he talked about what could have been, and how he wished that this was the life he had chosen for himself. Yet at the same time, he knew that the man whose image he saw on the PADD was not Vakhtang that he knew.

 

". . .a sit down with famed clarinet player Eidur Eidursson. Until then, we bid you farewell." The broadcast abruptly switched off, and Soandso sat there in silence.

 

Ruiz turned off the PADD and stashed it under his bunk. "So yeah, his concert was a few days ago and from what I read in the Classical Music Newsletter before we left Maturin to fetch you. It received great reviews."

 

Soandso managed only a nod at first. "That's great, that's great." he said, his voice trailing off. "He's a good guy, and. . .uhhh. . .I'm happy for him. . .very happy" he said. He suddenly realized that he needed to exit the premises quickly before Ruiz started asking questions. "Hey. . .so listen," He began, standing up off the bunk. "I've gotta get back to the Manticore, but. . .uhh. I was great to see you again, and uhh. . .Hey, lets see if we can catch up some more at Maturin. . .Sound good?"

 

Ruiz nodded in agreement. "Yeah that sounds good, Al." he told his friend. "Its just good to see you alive, buddy" he said with a smile and a pat on the shoulder.

 

Soandso forced a smile to the edge of his lips, which, to his credit, looked somewhat natural. "Its good to be alive." He said, making his way towards the edge of the bunk. "I'll see you around." He said, exiting as quick as his unsteady legs would let him.

 

Soandso walked down the hall back towards the TL. He needed to get back to his bunk and lie down for a moment. He knew one thing for certain. The next few days around Vakhtang would be awkward. He wanted to tell him, but he knew he couldn't. It was something that Tang would have to figure out for himself, on his own terms. He had to keep it a secret from everyone else, too. Not only did he not want the information to get back to Tang, but he didn't need the fact that he was spreading temporal related gossip across the ship either, especially with a debriefing up ahead.

 

As he walked, Petty Officer 2^nd Class Aloysius Soandso suddenly wished he hadn't come here to the Pensacola at all.