One Last Look Around

Posted on 21 Sep 2024 @ 6:23am by Lieutenant Commander Dresden Cage

Mission: M4 - Falling Out
Location: Administrative Building, Starfleet Academy, San Francisco, Earth
Timeline: 1200-1300 Hours, 24 Hours Prior to Arriving at Obsidian Command
579 words - 1.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Four Days Later.

Dresden stood in his office, a place that had become more of a home than just a workspace over time. The room was quiet, and the hum of activity that usually filled the office space was absent here. He was alone.

Lake, Cortes, and Ansol weren’t around for obvious reasons. The thought of them filled his mind with conflicting emotions—anger, and betrayal. But this wasn’t the time for those thoughts. Today was about moving forward.

He opened a drawer and pulled out a small box and began to collect his belongings. A few personal effects, some datapads, and mementos from his time with the Academy. Each item told a story—each item was a memory, a piece of the life he had built here.

As he moved through the office, packing the last remnants of his time here, Dresden’s thoughts drifted back to the beginning of his position here at Starfleet Academy. It felt like a different lifetime now, when everything was new, and the possibilities seemed endless.

He paused for a moment, pulling out an old Starfleet Academy pin from the bottom of the drawer when he first started the position. He had almost forgotten he still had it. The small silver insignia glinted in the dim light, a symbol of the idealism and hope that almost everyone feels when they receive one.

His mind drifted to the first time he met Cortes during their training exercises on campus. The memory stung now, knowing how things had ended. Cortes had been an assistant who he trusted even though he wouldn’t have admitted that to him.

Dresden placed the pin in the box with a sigh, the weight of the past heavy on his shoulders. He turned and saw the framed picture on the wall, a photo of his meeting Commander Lake for the first time and being accepted for the position.

But along the way, something had changed. Lake’s descent into fanaticism, Cortes’s betrayal, it was hard to reconcile the people they had become. Dresden had to believe they had been good once, just as he had to believe in the person he still was.

As he placed the photo in the box, he couldn’t help but wonder how things might have turned out differently. Had there been a moment when he could have stopped it? Could he have prevented Lake or Cortes from falling so far? It was a question there will never be an answer to.

As he packed the last few things, Dresden glanced at the empty desks, the bare walls. It was strange how quickly the space had become devoid of meaning—just four walls, a door, and a few desks. He couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness as he prepared to leave this chapter behind.

He took a final look around the room before sealing the box. Now, it was time to move on.

As Dresden hoisted the box under his arm and turned toward the door, he couldn’t shake the sense of anticipation and apprehension that hung over him.

When Dresden reached the front doors of the building, he paused and took a deep breath. The bright early afternoon sun in his face.
The sky was clear, and the city around him buzzed with life, a stark contrast to the quiet uncertainty he felt within. He walked toward the crosswalk on the way back to his apartment.