The Path

Posted on 18 May 2021 @ 1:36am by Captain Corvus DeHavilland

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: Environmental Ring
Timeline: MD04 - 0440HRS
1149 words - 2.3 OF Standard Post Measure

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Corvus heaved for breath. She gulped the cool air into her lungs and pushed her legs a little harder than before. It felt good to run again, to breath in the fresh air - the relatively fresh air at least. It might not have been fully fresh air, but at the very least a portion of it was. She was certain one of the folks in blue could tell you exactly how they’d managed to get fully grown pine trees into the Environmental Ring so easily, because she certainly couldn’t. All she could say was that she was glad they had.

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone for a run somewhere other than the holodeck or the crew gym. It felt strangely liberating to say the least. Corvus was already expecting that this would be a regular ritual; she needed an outlet that wasn’t destructive. She’d seen too many offices unable to handle the stress load of their positions crawl into a bottle or holodeck addiction. She could see why; the last few weeks alone had been enough to push her to her own breaking point.

With all the work to do to get the station online, the drills, the planning and the steady influx of personnel, Corvus hadn’t had to dwell too much on the darker parts of the last few weeks. But in those moments of quiet she felt the oppressive weight of everything that had happening settling down on her shoulders. A quick cup of tea and another report to distract her mind usually did the trick, but even that was starting to be less effective. What was more frustrating was the headaches creeping in. Corvus knew it was her body telling her she needed to deal with the issues she’d been avoiding. She just wasn’t ready to yet.

Corvus just wanted to put her head down and push on. There were so many other, more important things for her to be dealing with and dwelling on the past wasn’t going to get any of those things done. Things in the entire quadrant were off kilter, not just with the remaining Romulan’s but with just about everyone else in the area. Even right here on Obsidian, things weren’t going well.

Of course, things on Obsidian hadn’t really ever gone all that well. Their relationship with the locals had always been tenuous at best, even when their orbital protection grid was functional. Now, after eighteen months without the support of the station and the grid, things on the surface were worse than they’d ever been. On top of everything else, that was her job to manage too. Corvus DeHavilland, a Tactical Officer and Pilot. A seasoned First Officer was now expedited to be a Diplomatic genius, bringing the people of Obsidian not only together with one another but together in supporting the Federation.

It only made her madder and she pushed her pace a little harder as she pounded along the dirt paths of the Environmental Ring, glad that she was the only one on the paths. The crew knew the ring was operational and open for access but at this time of morning, no one else was there. At least, no one that she could see. There’d been a Vulcan man she’d not recognized when she got off the lift, pacing slowly through the arboretum, but other than him she’d not seen a soul.

She needed it to be that way. Every day was a constant stream of people that needed her attention. Reports needed to be handed off, reviewed, signed off on and resubmitted. Everyone had some finite detail they needed to discuss with her and, as was becoming the case more frequently, the Admiral wanted her attention too. It was as if she was a bit of human taffy being constantly tugged and pulled, back and forth, every which way until at the end of her shift all she wanted to do was collapse into her bed.

Obviously she knew this would be a part of the job - having an Admiral on her six. She’d taken the job knowing and expecting that, but now that she was dealing with it she wasn’t sure if she’d made the right call after all. For a man of few words, Admiral Sepandiyar kept her buried in reports and requests for information. The only good thing that she saw was that at least he didn’t stand over her shoulder and tell her how she should do it - he just didn’t stop telling her what needed to be done. The frustration of that just made her pick up her pace even more, now nearly running at a dead sprint.

She was determined to run the stress out of her. To push herself to the point her body just sweated out all the bad. Corvus could feel her heart pounding, her feet were starting to hurt and her thighs were burning but she pushed on. Harder, faster, gritting her teeth with the effort, ready to just spill it all out. She rounded the bend in the path that opened to a straightaway and pushed with everything she had.

Her commbadge chirped. “Grumman to Captain DeHavilland,”

Corvus drew to a sudden stop, resisting the urge to let out a guttural, primal scream of frustration and kicked the dirt instead. She pantomimed a scream and then tapped the badge on her chest.

“Go ahead,” she snapped as softly as she could manage.

”Captain, the USS Jupiter just dropped out of slipstream. They’re requesting immediate diplomatic access for the Ambassador’s aboard,”, the Ops Petty Officer on duty explained.

Ambassadors? Corvus wasn’t aware of there being any ambassadors inbound. Had she just missed the report in the sea of information she’d been sifting through lately - she may very well have. Shaking her head with frustration and once more letting out a silent scream, she answered the Petty Officer. “Understood, Mr. Grumman. Have them escorted to the diplomatic suites in the ring. I’ll meet them there.”

”Understood, Captain,” Grumman answered.

Corvus leaned forward, hands on her knees to catch her breath and felt that headache starting in again. Slow and dull at first but growing with intensity. At the same time that weight she’d managed to kick off for her run had caught its breath and caught up to her, happily taking its place on her shoulders where it had been before. She didn’t know whether she wanted to scream again or curl up and cry. It just didn’t seem to stop. It was her against the world and, at least for the moment, the world was winning.

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