EXETERRPG: (3 - 0600) CO Cpt Trip Williams and Dir R&SE Ashlyn Williams

[Mark Howard]

Mission: Murder on the Exeter Express

Day: 3

Stardate: 2445.12.03



(USS Exeter – Personal Quarters– CO, Captain Trip Williams and Dir. R&SE
Ashlyn Williams  – 0600)

After a short night sleep, Trip woke up on the couch. He did not want to
wake up Ash when he got home, so he just grabbed some blankets from the
replicator and slept on the couch. At least one of the two of them would
get a good nights sleep, he wanted it to be her.



He looked around and sat up, sighing.

~What the %$#@ happened yesterday? I mean #$%&, I’m glad we stopped the
visitor, but….I guess I need to plan the funerals. #$%&~



Ash had woken a short while earlier, to an empty bed. She’d sighed sadly at
the vacant pillow next to her, and once the morning confusion dissipated
she pulled herself out of bed and stepped quietly to the bathroom, where
after her morning ablutions and a shower, she pulled on her underwear and a
clean uniform. ~getting a bit tight again.~ Ashlyn thought to herself,
~must remember to get the computer to rescan.~



It was then that she heard Trip moving about in the lounge, and she peeped
her head round the door and saw him just sitting up, dropping the spare
blankets as he did.

“Morning sweetie.” She said as she entered the room. “You didn’t need to
sleep here, I was up and down a lot of the night anyway.” She reached him
and kissed him warmly. “Your son keeps punching me in the bladder.” She
laughed gently. She regarded her husband. She’d known Trip for such a long
time, but it was only since they’d started dating that she felt she’d
really got to know the real him, the one that not many saw. She could tell
by a single glance sometimes how he was feeling, and he likewise knew her
at the deepest level, what to say, and when not to.



"Honestly, just needed the couch. Had I crawled into bed, well you and I
would be staying in it all day today." Trip got up and stretched.



“Go and wash.” She said hugging him, resting her head on his shoulder,
“I’ll put the machine on and make some coffee. Then you can offload if you
need to?”



"No coffee for me please. Coffee gives me the jitters. I need the
adrenaline to go down."



Ash nodded, “Okay. Bad night? You never sleep on the couch unless there’s
been trouble.”



"Five deaths last night. Some answers. But Bult and Thorn and…" Trip
paused, "and Green. We don’t know why they went rogue."



Trip knew the real Maxine was dead. Whoever the visitor was, they saw to
that before putting their plan in motion. But why Bult and Thorn went rogue
Trip couldn't say. What he did know was the knowledge of the visitor was
classified. Only he, Bracken, Merek, Ravok, and Corsica knew the truth.
Which meant Maxine, the real Maxine would be vilified for things she didn't
actually do.



“You’re kidding me...Oh Trip...How?” She shook her head irritably. “You
can’t answer that, I know. Five deaths though?” She was truly horrified.

"I think Im going to petition Starfleet for the Exeter to have a week
ported somewhere for R&R." Tril said as he began walking towards the
bathroom. "We need it. I need it."

“I think that we all do. “Who were the other two? You named three.” She
replicated herself an orange juice and a bowl of granola clusters that she
picked up one by one and ate dry with her fingers.

"Clarke in science and Ravok’s cousin Nesha."

“Oh Trip that’s awful, poor Ravok. Clarke I don’t know, but Nesha...Oh the
poor dear.” She was genuinely upset. “How is he?”

"He…." Trip paused. "He'll never admit it, but I could feel his intense
grief. And Ire...intense apathy. I think the vi...Maxine broke his psyche."

Ashlyn’s eyes flicked up toward Trip, “the vi...Maxine?” She drew breath,
She understood the need for operational secrecy. “It isn’t simple, is it.”
Ash knew that she wasn’t as highly qualified as her husband, her mum,
sister, or niece, but she wasn’t daft.

"There was such cruelty. The whole room reeked of it. Not actual smell. But
the psychic residue. The lingering emotions. The stench of cruelty of pain."

“Have you felt it’s like before? Is it in anyway familiar?” She sipped at
her juice, her heart going out to all the pain that Trip must have felt.

"Yes. As A kid at the playground. A bully was burning squirrels because he
could. It was like that but worse."

“I can’t imagine that kind of sociopathy, especially here. Just how? I
can’t begin to comprehend this. How is everyone?”

"Broken. Which is why I need to be unbroken for all of them. Im the ships
dad. I need to be Broken beyond belief in here. So I can be strong out
there"

She nodded, and put her breakfast down. “You can be as broken as you need
to be in here honey, you know that.” She sighed, hugging him again.

"Thankfully babe, you make me whole. "

Ashlyn found herself glowing. “Flatterer.” she winked, “Counselling team is
going to be busy in the days ahead then.” Ash said gently. She drew breath
gently, her mind deep in thought.

“I knew that it’d be like this, and I accept the danger, but is there a
point where there’s too much trauma, too much death and we just...settle
down somewhere?”

“Just say the word my love. And I will leave tomorrow.”

“I wasn’t suggesting it, this is your career, what you’ve dreamt of and
worked for.”

“My career is my job, it gives me joy. But you, our family.” Trip placed
his hand on her belly, “Is my rai·son d'ê·tre, my calling. I’d give this
up, for you.”

She rested her hand on his, and moved it to where their son was gently
kicking. “I know, I’m happy here, I love the adventure, and I’ll always
support you, be here for you to lean on. We can’t quit that easy.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be quitting. I’d just be shifting priorities.” Trip
said with a smile.

“Besides, If you quit, then Ailynn would probably become Captain, and she’d
hate you forever for that at the moment.” She winked at him, and giggled.

“She’d forgive me in time. I mean she forgave me for all the times 13 year
old Trip got….handsy. She’d forgive me for making her Captain.”

“I supposed she would at that.” Ash answered.

“But your sister would flip.” Trip paused and then began initiating Aimee.
“Trip, I swear, if my daughter dies because you made her captain, well, I
know 1001 ways to castrate you, and I will do it.”

Laughing openly, She looked at him. “You’ve been practising that. That was
totally Aimee.” She laughed again. “Seems like so long ago that we saw
everyone, I know that it isn’t, but it feels like every step we take is
away from what was comfortable. You remember the chinese place we used to
go to before we realised that we were dating? And the little community hall
where I did the children's reading club?”

“Yes.” Trip said. He missed those places. He thought he would be in charge
of the Flight Wing for years. He had made roots in the New Ares community.
He missed it. Mars was home.

“One day...We’ll go back there, but for the moment, it’s you, me and bump.”
she smiled happily. “However wherever the Fleet sends us next, can it be a
bit less kidnappy please?”

“I’ll do my best dear.”

“Hmmph.” she sulked. “We’re related to half the Admiralty and we don’t get
pick and choose of the cushy jobs.” She stuck her tongue out at him
playfully.

Trip took his shirt off and sat on the bed, remembering he still needed a
shower. “Did I make a mistake?”

“With?”

“Coming here, instead of staying on Mars, staying with the fighter wing.”

Ash shook her head. “You know you didn’t. You’re feeling reflective because
of loss, grief, and the same emotions that you are feeling second hand from
others. You know that you did the right thing, and if you think about it,
you’d understand how bitter you’d be if you’d have stayed on Mars and
watched this ship go off with someone else.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“And it’s okay to think about things like that, but don’t dwell on it.
Therein lies the path to madness.” she smiled, kneeling behind him and
massaging his shoulders.

“Your sister would have been happy though. If I stay on Mars, so does
Ailynn. I think. Maybe she would have been on the Illuminar. But she’d
still be in medical. So at least one person would be happy.”

“I’m not sure, perhaps she’d have stayed on Mars and finished off building
her hospital there, who could tell.”

“No one, that’s why its speculative.” Trip said with a laugh.

“So despite the grief, the sadness and loss that surrounds us now, and
possibly always will, I genuinely feel happy here, and I think that you do
too. Sure, we’ll go back to our house on Mars one day, but for now…” She
leant forward and kissed his back, dropping her hands from his shoulders.
“Feeling a bit better?”

“Yeah.” He said softly. “We should invite Ronnie for dinner soon.”

Ash nodded. “I haven’t seen her for a couple of days. Does she…” She
paused.


“Does she what dear?”

“You know I adore her, and I can’t imagine what she went through, but do
you feel that she’d told us, you, everything that she could have?” Her tone
was gentle, but puzzled, almost wary.

“Well I mean she never mentioned anything about someone hopping universes.
But I guess that intel is classified so its not like she would know.” Trip
paused. “#@$%! I wasn’t supposed to tell you that part.”

Ashlyn sighed. “Trip honey, you didn’t need to tell me that, I’d sort of
wondered that anyway. Only logical way that she could be here yeah?”

“It slipped. I didn’t mean to tell you. But I guess I can’t keep secrets
from you.”

She smiled, “Don’t worry, I know how to keep my mouth closed.” She leant
her head on his back. She opened her mouth to ask about her mum, but then
closed it again, the question unanswered in her mind. “Love you you know.”
she said gently. “Give it a couple of days for things to settle a little,
we’ll then have Ronnie over for dinner. It’ll be nice.”

“Yeah. Do I have to go to work today?”

“I could write you a note to hand in to teacher?” she chuckled. “Sorry
babe. You’re the big cheese, you’ve got to go to the office. Now...go
wash.” she kissed him again, then sighed slightly.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Trip smiled and stood up and headed to the bathroom.
He was going to shower, get ready, and start the day. He felt better, at
least on the surface, and he needed to be. Ash was his rock, and she
steadied him. Now he needed to go and be the rock for the rest of the ship.

Ash stayed sat on the bed for a moment, a bunch of things still on her
mind. She watched Trip go into their bathroom to prepare for his day, she
herself had life a whole lot easier than he did, and she loved being able
to shoulder his burden, at least in part. With a slightly heavy heart, she
stood up, wishing that they could just spend the day relaxing, and helping
Trip unburden. Peeping round the door, she bade her husband a good day, and
went on her way, her burdens considerably lighter than his.

(Reply none)
(posted by WIll and Mark)
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