EXETERRPG: (1 - 1210) Security Ensign sg Roger Harmon

[Roger Harmon]

Mission: Space Was Cool Before it Mattered
Day: 1
Stardate: 2446.04.25

(Exeter, Deck 2, Mess Hall, Security Ensign sg Roger Harmon, 1205)

After running several phaser training programs, Roger went on his duty shift. Most of his time was walking rounds and checkung secure areas. He hoped he would get a few hours bridge time. On lunch break, he sat by himself at a small table in the corner, eating a very large cheeseburger, fries, and drinking root beer. He purposed to workout an extra thirty minutes later in the day.

Roger thought about the last few weeks. He had adjusted to not being on night shift and was getting to know more people. Still the new guy, he could clearly see there was a closeness among the crew that started together on Mars. His mind drifted back to the day he left Earth to begin his Starfleet duties.

(The recent past.)

Roger sat on a sandstone rock that seemed much smaller than it was when he was growing up. He was in the woods behind the group home for orphaned children of Starfleet officers where he lived from the time he was age four, remembering the many days and hours he spent there thinking, dreaming, wondering, and crying.

Roger's Rock, as he called his special refuge, was at the edge of a stream gently flowing down a small hill. He could hear the occasional croaking of a frog, with birds chirping in the branches above.

There was nowhere else in the universe like it, which was why he was going to miss it.

Roger was twenty-two now and a graduate of Starfleet Academy, commissioned as an ensign in the field of security and tactical. He would be leaving Earth later that day for his first duty assignment, so he wanted to spend time on his rock before going. It would be a very long time before he would be on Earth again, possibly never again and he couldn't head out without saying good-bye.

"Do you remember the first time I was here?" It was as though Roger was speaking to an old friend. In some ways, he was. "One of the other kids got adopted and it made me feel terrible. I was jealous because I wanted someone to want me. So no one would see me screaming and crying, I snuck out, ran into the woods, and found you. I was just eight."

Roger sighed and tossed a stone into the stream. It kerplunked, the circles of ripples expanding outward until they disappeared back into the water. He wondered if that was symbolic of what his life had become: a simple beginning, expanding in every direction, with so many possibilities.

Whether it was or not, he chose it to be.

A few minutes passed and Roger got up, brushing off his clothes. Staring at his rock, a lump in his throat, he set his hand on it.

"Good-bye, old friend. Stand strong until we see each other again." Wiping a tear from his eye, Roger started walking away.

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(posted by Allen)