EXETERRPG: (16 - 1302) MS - CSO Lt Jg Erin Cortez

[Jaclyn Smith]

Mission: The Flames of Purity

Day: 16

Stardate: 2445.09.16





(USS Exeter  – CSO office – CSO Lt Jg Erin  Cortez – 1302)



After the shuttle had docked and Ensign More had been taken to medical,
Erin had not spoken a word. Simply walked from the shuttle without so much
as a backwards glance and headed straight for the science labs.



She knew that she wasn’t looking her best, covered in dirt and dust from
the planet. Her jaw had been clenched since the confrontation with Doctor
Vespers and it hadn’t eased up. She knew that she had a look of hardness
about her and she didn’t care.



As she entered the lab that held her office, she was thankful to see that
her staff had had the foresight to disappear to the satellite labs that
were on this deck. As the door to the lab closed behind her, she felt her
shoulders relax slightly.



Taking a second to just close her eyes, she could feel the weight and the
enormity of what had happened begin to bubble and boil within her. Her
breath caught in her throat as she opened her eyes and realised that a tear
was forming.



Wiping her eyes, she walked the short distance to her office, closed the
door and locked it behind her. As she leant against the closed door, she
closed her eyes and just took a deep breath.



The strange thing for her was that she knew that the adrenaline of the
mission and the shock of seeing her crew mates, her two best friends and
the others injured, close to death, was something that she would probably
never get used to.



She wasn’t sure when, but as she opened her eyes, she found herself sitting
on the floor with her knees up to her chest. It was in that one moment she
realised what had been bothering her about the confrontation in the
shuttle.



As she closed her eyes again, she saw the flashes of memories, images of a
time that had been the worst moment of her life. She saw him. Both of the
two men that had brought so much darkness to her life and her mind and knew
why she was shaking.



The two people that she counted on, depended on for her support, the two
that she could be totally open and honest with, they were beaten down,
injured. The almost loss of her two rocks had hit her hard, harder than she
had realised.



Shaking, she pulled off her uniform top and threw it to one side, wiping
her eyes and resting her head in her hands for a moment.



~You need to get up off this floor, wipe off the dust and dirt and take a
breath.  I know that I can survive, I would walk through fire to save them.
And I need them, I want them in my life so bad and I'm doing everything I
can.



I need to do something. I can’t break like this every time something like
this happens. It’s not right. I think i did okay on the surface. But now,
here i am, hiding away. Get up off the floor, go take a shower, change your
uniform, put your game face on and do what you do best.~



(Reply none)

(Posted by Jackie)
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