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[USS Pegasus] A Mirror Shattered #205, 206 - "Mirror Mirror on the W-=On=- [Main Engineering] Kitty had been putting it off. She didn't want to have to make a request so soon after getting 'grounded'. She had tried to compose a message several times, and never managed to do it. What made her so nervous? She had to admit to herself, it was mostly a fear of getting a sarcastic response. Finally she took a deep breath and decided to just do it. So she brought up a message and typed away. ::I know I need to stay at my post, but I wanted to ask a favor. There is someone who agreed to meet with me if we passed by the second planet and I could find the time. Is there a way that I would be able to do this?:: Being the nervous person she was, Kitty closed her eyes before hitting Send. Caelen frowned as his chair's armrest console bleeped notifying him of a message, he glanced over to Jennifer but noticed she was rather occupied so he opened the message, it was from his Chief Engineer. He read the message, and then again as he thought he had misunderstood, but finally he realized that what he read was real. He sighed a bit and hit his combadge =/\= Lieutenant Black, please report to my ready room =/\= he ordered her before closing the channel again. Kitty frowned as she got his message, instantly becoming even more nervous. She closed her eyes for a moment before tapping her commbadge to reply. =/\= Aye sir, I will be right up. =/\= She took another deep breath before rising from her seat, taking one last look at the latest Engineering reports, and heading right for the Ready Room. She hoped dearly that nobody on the bridge could tell how nervous she was as she strode to the door and activated the doorbell. Caelen had just stepped inside the Ready Room when the chime rang, he walked to his chair and then spoke a monotone "Enter" Kitty took another deep breath and stepped into the Ready Room, letting the door close behind her. The look she directed at her captain betrayed a nervousness usually shown by a newly graduated crewmember on her very first posting. Caelen knew how nervous Kathleen was so he didn't press on protocol "please sit down Lieutenant" he stated motioning her to the chair. He then folded his hands and leaned forward a bit, "So... please explain" he broke the silence again. "Sir..." Kitty said, sitting down and taking another deep breath before continuing. "I contacted another Starfleet officer, one from this 'universe'. He's the closest I have to family in this place. Uhm... he's my father... Or... he would have been. Because in this place, I wasn't born." Caelen shook his head a bit "Nobody has family here, Kathleen, it's another universe... they are as close to us as we are to Cardassians..." he looked down a bit, he knew he had been wondering what had happened to the mirror him after he left Starfleet but he realized they were nothing alike "What are you hoping to gain by this meeting?" Kitty frowned, glancing down, but his direct explanation didn't sting, it wasn't a response she'd feared from him. So she listened and thought and then answered. "My father, the real one.. didn't like to talk about... well... him and my mother. I didn't know much about how long they stayed together, or why they didn't marry. This one... he said he'd talk to me about it, about what happened Here. He said he's not as arrogant as he used to be, that the war changed him." "The way I hear it... he is a totally different man... right?" Caelen asked, intrigued by the fact that somebody could be so blind to the fact that the people here had Nothing to do with the people they knew back in their universe. "I don't think he's very much different," Kitty said softly, thinking back to the bit of correspondence they'd shared. "When I sent him my picture, he told me what my mother's name was, and he was correct. He said she'd died in battle... that she was a fighter pilot. My mother is a fighter pilot. Maybe some people are totally different, but is everybody?" Caelen sighed a bit "Look, we're on a pretty routine mission in what appears to be the last remains of Federation space, we are going to pass the planet relatively close in a matter of hours and I won't stop you if you want to go..." he rubbed his temples and then placed his hands on the desk "But do you really think it will get you anything? Will it answer any questions?" he then shook his head before answering his own questions "no you won't and there will only be more questions... the man here is not your father... he is not even the father of a Mirror-Kathleen Black..." "And that," Kitty responded quietly, "is why I need to talk to him." She sat up a little straighter, her tone turning a little more normal. "Evans said he'd be willing to go with me, to make sure I don't run into anything I can't handle." "Very well..." Caelen sighed "...if this is what you must do then this is what you must do..." he grabbed a PADD and wrote her an order on it "...this will get you out of the shuttlebay without setting off every single alarm on the ship..." he rose from his chair "...good luck with chasing your Ghosts, Lieutenant" Kitty rose from her seat and reached for the PADD. "Thank you, sir," she said in relief. Part of her inner mind voice added, Wow, I think I'm seeing a realer side of him than before. Caelen gave her a firm nod "And don't die on me Lieutenant, you're the best Engineer I've got and from what I've heard I'll need you before long..." he stepped closer to her and tapped her shoulder friendily and motioned her to step out of the Ready Room first. Kitty gave him a true smile at that. "I don't plan on it, sir. I've got a sailboat race in a couple months, and the cello section of a string concerto to master." She exited the ready room first as directed. "Give your men some orders to keep them busy and useful in your absence and then get ready to depart..." Caelen walked back into the 'pit' on the bridge and walked back to his chair "...we'll give you a sign on when we are closest... will be in about one and a half hours" "Engineering will remain in top shape, sir," Kitty said confidently, stepping into the turbolift. Her last words, said to the computer as the doors closed, were "Main Engineering." -={Off}=- Cmdr. Caelen LaBrie Commanding Officer USS Pegasus Lt. Kathleen Black Chief Engineer USS Pegasus |
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