Day's End

Posted on Mon Sep 24th, 2018 @ 1:47pm by Lieutenant Commander Jennifer Matthews
Edited on on Tue Aug 6th, 2019 @ 7:40am

Mission: Episode 1 - One Arrow Does Not Kill the Serpent
Location: Personal Quarters
Timeline: MD00 || 2100

Jenni wondered whose idea it was to adjust the corridor lighting during the graveyard shift. To her, it always had seemed odd. Looking out any viewport over ninety percent of the time, all one would ever see was the black velvet of space. Except now it was the darkened interior of a makeshift dock. Hermitage Station was rather Spartan, and though Jenni had made plans to explore for the evening, there was not very much to see. In fact, the self-guided tour was so dull, she found herself wishing for a viewport to just look at the stars.

She was no stranger to the stars. After all, she grew up seeing mostly stars. At least she had Sol to provide daylight, though lunar day and night were far different than that of a calendar day. The New Aries Colony took the Unification's approach to maintaining calendar days in a different manner. Buildings contained shutters to block out the sunlight when it needed to, and the lighting grid would constantly shift from cool to warm temperatures to simulate the sun for the same reasons.

Bright sun light. Dim corridors. Artificial gravity. Seemed like the perfect recipe to breed a Starfleet officer, and in Jenni's case, it worked just fine.

What she truly struggled with at the moment was the lack of life in the corridor. Perhaps they'd all came to the same conclusions about Hermitage Station that she did; simply nothing to do. She'd been around a lot of people the past few days, both in tight Jeffries tubes and in various Engineering sectors around the ship. Thanks to the corridor lighting, those who were awake were manning their stations, leaving not a soul to pass by her in the corridor. Jenni was a loner, but being around people once in a while, especially on duty, had begun to weaken her resolve.

When the door to her quarters closed behind her, Jenni instantly backed up against the door and slid to the floor. She heaved a heavy sigh, eyes fixed on the viewport across her quarters. And, it was exactly as she expected, star streaks whizzing by over black velvet.

Jenni glanced up at the ceiling, noting her own lights were dim. It was only then that she realized that she hadn't seen her ceiling for the last couple days. Repairs, tweaking, coordinating with the station's personnel. One would think she could take a break in port, but it really only meant she had to work harder, lest someone make a modification to the ship that she didn't know about.

Pushing herself off of the floor, she walked to her bedroom, undisturbed as she'd left it the day before. Jenni leaned against the doorway. Had she really been on duty for the last thirty-six hours or more?

Alpha shift started in a few hours, but she was far too wired to go to sleep. Jenni opened her dresser and removed an oversized gray T-shirt. She took a minute to undress, then put on the t-shirt. Deciding that she could be lazy, she left her soiled and crumpled uniform on the floor. She'd get a new one from the closet in the morning.

Jenni sat on the bed, cross-legged and placed her violin case in front of her. Carefully, she opened the fragile case and removed her prized possession. It was just as she left it, clean and fit. She picked up the bow and placed the violin under her chin. Jenni closed her eyes as she began to pull the bow over the strings, releasing a tender melody. Memories spilled out with each motion as Jenni recalled life as a child and the events of the last year. The Consortium had shown her the unpleasant side of Starfleet, and though that side of things seemed to be done, the Unification visiting the spartan station did little to calm her nerves. Jenni continued to play until the sound of serenity finally replaced the whirring of life support and the reverberations of the warp core through the deck plating. Long, low and sweet came each note, more soothing than a infant's lullaby, each one bringing Jenni closer to relaxation and sleep.