"Memories"

[Aaron_Westler 0]

"Memories"

A log by Lt. Aaron Westler, Ph.D.

 

>>>BEGIN LOG<<<

 

"Happy Birthday Dear Aaron, Happy Birthday to you!"

 

Aaron jolted back into reality, squinting for a second in the bright lights of Sickbay. Realization came to him, and he remembered why he was sitting on the ship, instead of down on the planet like he should be. He streched his neck and took a look at the computer screen. Nothing new from Earth yet. The tune wouldn't budge from the back of his head, and Aaron thought back in time.

 

It is Aaron's 7th Birthday, and his family circles around him as he blows out the candles. Clapping, more clapping...

 

...snap....crack...Aaron is climbing a tree not soon after...coming dangerously close to falling...

 

...Aaron and his dad walking through a museum, many exhibits about Space and starships...

 

...a branch snaps under his weight, and falls to the ground, almost loses his balance...

 

..."How old are you now? How old are you now?"...

 

...the branch Aaron is standing on cracks and falls away, taking him with it. He lands on his arm, breaking it in 17 places. Girls nearby, oblivious to his fall, sing "Ashes, Ashes, we all fall down!".

 

Aaron snapped out the daydream, sitting staight up in his chair. He knew he had been dreaming, but the fall had felt so real, and there was a split-second of pain in his arm when he "fell" from the tree, to when he awoke. And those girls....that song...

 

A chill rolled down his spine. He knew that the children's song was about the Black Death, a plague that had decimated Europe in the 14th century. Ashes...his family home...

 

He held back his emotions, which was hard to do, and looked back at the screen, getting back to work, waiting for data from the away team.

 

>>>END LOG<<<