Company and Loneliness

[Ron_Lunn 0]

Company and Loneliness

 

Midshipman Ron Lunn

Assistant Engineer

USS Agincourt, NCC-81762

 

 

At five years old his mind was beginning to think about deeper things. "Daddy, where's mommy at?"

 

James cast the line into the lake again, they never caught much of anything, but he enjoyed being here with his son. "She's with the prophets, Ron."

 

"Does she like it there?" The young boy didn't quite understand the idea of being dead, yet.

 

James thought for a moment of how to answer the question, "Why don't you ask her yourself?"

 

Ron looked confused, "How do I do that?"

 

"Ask her in your prayers..."

 

"Hey there Mr. Starfleet," the woman's voice was smooth and soothing, Ron had learned early to beware of those ones.

 

He sat at the bar on Starbase 234, sipping a glass of whiskey. "Hello," he answered simply.

 

"Mind if I take a seat?" The woman sat down without waiting for an answer, obviously she didn't care what the answer was, this one was aggressive.

 

"No, not at all," Ron answered with a small hint of sarcasm in his voice.

 

"So you just stopping at the Starbase? How long have you been away? My name is Janice." The woman placed a hand on Ron's arm, he didn't pay any attention to it, just kept sipping his drink.

 

He knew she didn't care about how long he had been away, or what ship he was on, she probably didn't care what his name was. She looked like freighter crew, probably not used to the polished Starfleet kind in her line of work.

 

"You looking for some company?" The woman was attractive, she expected a yes.

 

Ron sat his drink down and looked into her eyes, "I already had some company today." He got up and walked away, leaving a hurt looking woman behind, but that was quickly washed away as she moved on to the next young Starfleet man. Ron had been referring to his date with Mia, he thought it went pretty well, and there was something about her that he really liked. Perhaps, if he hadn't went on that date with Mia he would have taken the woman up on her offer, but Mia was on his mind now and the thoughts of what would happen on a second date preoccupied him. They were both so different but yet he somehow felt she was familiar, something that both of them held was connecting, was similar...

 

"Ron, I baked some cookies for you," Grandmother Baryl swung the bedroom door open, her Bajoran ear piece swinging a bit as she stopped. Ron was sitting on the edge of the bed, "Who were you talking to," his grandmother asked, "I heard you speaking to someone."

 

Ron smiled, the eight year old boy was more than happy that his grandmother had made him Bajoran chocolate chip cookies, nobody made chocolate like the Bajorans. "I was talking to the man that was in here, he's very nice."

 

"Ron," Grandmother Baryl's voice lowered, "Aren't you a little old to have imaginary friends?"

 

"He's not imaginary," Ron looked a bit angry and he grabbed a cookie from the tray his grandmother was holding, "I talk to him a lot, he says he knows mommy."

 

The tray of cookies fell to the ground, scattering broken cookies and crumbs everywhere. Grandmother Baryl put a hand to her mouth and walked out of the room. Ron never said anything about the man again...

 

Ron had went back to the Agincourt and heard that they had recieved new orders. He was happy and excited, he didn't like sitting around not doing anything. Even in school, if they had time off he had to have something to work on, if they didn't have an assignment then he'd make something up, just to keep himself busy.

 

He found himself trying to think of excuses of getting to medical, it hadn't been long since the date but he already wanted to see her again. He hopped that a power cuppling would need adjusting or a replicator would break in sickbay, then he'd at least get to see her for a little while.

 

Ron was panting as he ran and ran, what was he running from? He didn't even know, it was an odd sensation. A laser blast struck a tree beside him and he ducked down behind a rock. He had a phaser rifle in his hands and fired back in the direction the shot had come from. He jumped up from behind the rock and ran behind a tree, he could hardly see in this thick fog. He peeked out around the large tree, he could see three figures moving in the distance, they drifted in and out of vision as the fog swirled and changed position. Flank them...

 

He ran with all the speed he could muster, keeping behind cover as much as he could. His feet spent more time in the air than they did on the groud, nothing here was level and he leaped from mound to mound, root to root. He stopped, the aggressors hadn't seen him. He aimed, they were much easier to see, he fired, one figure fell down. Before the other two had time to figure out what had happened and where the shot had come from Ron charged out from the behind the tree. He thought his lungs were going to collapse, how had he been running so long? He swung his rifle like a club and struck one of the agressors in the temple, he crumpled to the ground as his weapon wildly shot off into the fog. The other one saw Ron and raised his weapon to fire, he shot but missed, Ron dropped his weapon and was on top of him like an animal as he twisted the person's head, snapping their neck. He raised the lifeless body to see who it was... Cardassian.

 

This wasn't something that had happened to him, where did this memory come from, it seemed like it had actually happened to him, not just a fantasy he had concocted on his walk to engineering. Maybe it was one of those strange dreams he had been having lately and he was just remembering it, it seemed like the same place in those other dreams. But this seemed more like a memory, as real as any other memory...

Edited May 25, 2005 by Ron_Lunn