"The Void"

[Eli Zhu 0]

Ensign Eli Zhu

Assistant Engineer

Log entry

 

 

 

Eli got off duty an hour ago and now he was in his quarters, he tapped upon a light panel and switched on all the lights in his bedroom and kitchen. This created a creepy stage two lighted areas and an conduit of darkness in the middle. Eli had not idea why he does this; everyday, get off duty, get to his quarters and create this strange creepiness in his own home. He was worried, something was on his mind.

 

He sat on the couch in the darkness and slumped into it. Two new engineers were assigned to this station but where were they? Where were they when the sensor array melfunctioned? He knew this sort of delay had always occur but he was still worried.

 

Eli closed his eyes and laughed. He hadn't worried about any thing since academy finals, about how to finish his academy years with flying colors and he did. He flipped through the past. He worried when his brother wandered off into the woods during the summer. But nothing else. In his entire life, he hasn't worried about any thing but why now? why did he worry about new arrivals that seems to be missing?

 

He thought about this and he began to piece together the puzzle. He remembered a certain Trill cadet telling him something about life, he remembered it clearly as yesterday's lunch. "Thats the trouble of life, it can end when you least expect it. And i'm not just saying this because itis said everywhere else. I say it because its from the heart and mind that is still true." What did she mean? Eli was confused.

 

But he knew what she had meant. Maybe that was why he was concerned about the new arrivals. The roster may have their names in it. Biographies may have their image and character in it. But in reality they weren't here, not in flesh and blood. Perhaps that was why it scared the heck out of him so badly. Or perhaps it was that he had no friends aboard his new home yet. An epiphany strucked his conscience, that was it, he was lonely.

 

With the cardassians bickering about power and government, station systems falling apart plus a murder case and change of command, He never realized it. He had no friends at all, what about chief Demor? Chief Demor scares him to death whenever that voice calls out "Report to my office".

 

Eli looked around in the darkness, only two sources of light blinked in the distance, it resembled his soul; his quarters resembling Aegis, the kitchen resembling his family on earth and he was in between. In the darkness without friendship. In the darkness guided only by voices spoken from his past. He doesn't know how long he would stay in this darkness but for now it seems like an lifetime but only 20 hours had past since the last.

 

Eli stood up and reached for the light panel again and switched on the remainder of the lights the darkness vanished, the hole plugged. He looked up at the photon emitters.

 

Artificial, it was only technology producing this light, the darkness in his soul remained to be filled. With various emotions, for the most part, courage and friendship. He tapped again and his surroundings ceased to exist.