Mission Possible

[Bill Kruse]

"I don't know what to make of them" said Kruse.
How soon they forget, he thought, watching the screen Christine had set up.
"I can probably briefly establish some kind of physical presence there for you now, if you wish," said Christine, from where she bent over an array of knobs and dials so complicated that it looked like, well, it reminded Kruse of the deck of the Enterprise.
"You won't actually be there, of course, but you'll appear to be mostly solid - will that do?"

And so the crew of the Majesty, squabbling half-heartedly about the advisability of actually going on the next mission, were shortly surprised to see a ten-foot high (and, it has to be said, mostly solid) apparition of their beloved Commodore appearing in the air before them.

"One, Two - is this thing on?" it said.
And then,"Ahem...

why is it, that we are all here - or, there, in your case - and what did we surrender when we all signed up? We surrendered safety - wasn't it Q who said "It isn't SAFE out here?" - well he was right and I will not have it said that my ship -"

"Formerly your ship," muttered a silken, female voice from nowhere in particular...

Kruse disdainfully continued "- that my ship ever lost sight of this... after all, who knows? Perhaps during the mission you'll find... that it's better to travel than arrive, perhaps... who knows? Give yourselves time over these and other trifles and and it'll all work itself out as you go.
Remember when Ramsden blew up the ship? We got out of that one ok, didn't we? What is my old ship in the business of these days, writing safe endings? Hey, that was just the one mission, the one where you began at the end and worked backwards/forwards/whatever! And that's over now."

The apparition visibly took a deep breath.

"Take a hint from your Commodore and always remember that your mission is, was and will always be to Boldly Go! Let it not be said that it was my ship ever abandoned Star Trek's original credo!"

And then he vanished.

And then, just his head reappeared.
"And stay out of my rooms." it said, firmly.
Then it vanished again.

"Was that ok?" Kruse asked, stepping off the small stage at the rear of the diner.
"More reverb might have been nice" said Death from deep in its cowl.
"Next time we'll go for that then" agreed Kruse.
"More coffee?" asked the waitress.
Christine continued to gaze out from the window as the sun baked the endless desert outside the diner.

BB

[Kaylana Cornette]

And then, just his head reappeared.
"And stay out of my rooms." it said, firmly.
Then it vanished again.

With the others, Kay watched as the ten-foot head dissipated into nothingness. They all stood silent for a while, each lost in their own musings, gleaning their own meanings from this apparition's wise words.

TEG leaned in close to Kay and whispered in her ear, "How'd he know you were thinking of moving into his old quarters?"

Kay swallowed hard. "He obviously has powers beyond what we already knew."

[lizjaneway]

Liz had been release from the brig, upon signing an agreement to no longer hurt the Majesty crew. She was still not healed, and wondered what to do. She decided to talk to the captain.

Liz arrived only to find the crew was watching some kind of being. She could feel something tugging at her mind, but she wasn't sure what it was. She listened like the rest of the crew.
When the being left, she collapsed to the deck.


Trish rushed to the biobed when Liz materialized. "Check all readings," Trish said to a nurse.

About twenty minutes later, the captain contacted Trish. "She is okay for now. I don't know what to make of this captain. She is in a deep coma, but it is nothing like I have ever seen. We will keep a good eye on her, but there is nothing I can do to bring her out of it. I will contact you if there is any change in her status."


Liz opened her eyes and looked around. "I thought you would never come around," she heard a male voice, but it took a minute for it to register. ~He's the being from the ship!~

Liz looked around, and noticed some female, a robed being, and the huge guy from earlier.

"Where am I?"

[Bill Kruse]

"I can't hold this for long" said the female, a very attractive female, Liz noticed. " I must still have some leftover male in me," she thought.
The female bent over, and her arms disappeared. Her torso waved a little. "I can't keep us here" she said, "not for long, anyway. Bill, maybe if you were in somewhere where you had more presence... somewhere more associated with you personally" Her torso wiggled some more.
"Perhaps the bar?" suggested the cowled figure, in gravelled tones.
The commodore apparition bent down toward Liz. in fact, he bent, and bent, and kept on bending. Then he said,
"Christine, maybe if I was my normal size again, would that help?"
The torso Liz assumed was called Christine did some more waving, then straightened up, arms reappearing as it did so. "I don't believe so" said Christine to the now normal-sized Commodore (for it was he!), "I think it's a case of us here, or her there."
Liz became aware that monitors were beeping furiously around her and there was a flurry of activity as white-coated nurses poked at shrieking alarms, though there were no other patients present and none were paying attention to Liz herself.
Kruse and Christine both looked accusingly at the cowled figure, which appeared to shrug elaborately. "I've still got it!" it said cheerfully.
"I should have known better than to try and materialise you in a sick bay", Christine muttered. her arms vanished again, and at that moment so did Kruse and the cowled figure. Alarms subsided immediately and the frenetic activity around them subsided also.
"There," said Christine,"that helps for now". Turning to Liz, she said "So, you want to meet the Commodore, do you? Crisis of faith, is it?" She looked blank for a moment. Liz wondered what she was thinking. Then Christine spoke again.
"I can't get you to where we are,"she said," and anyway you really don't want to be there. But at the moment everyone here thinks you're in a coma, most likely because you are, Bill says it's one born of indecision... "she looked doubtful all at once and suddenly Liz realised that she herself was far older than the being before her," but anyway... " she paused, and tilted her head to one side, eyes wandering,"Bill points out that while your Commodore is not dead, his shade may sometimes be found wandering in his old quarters... and now I really must be going" and with that she started to fade.
"Wait," cried Liz," how can I get there if I'm in a coma?" and how can I be talking to you at all, she wondered to herself.
"Just go there, the others can't see you," said the fading vision, waving a hand around expansively. Just before it vanished entirely, a giant coffee-pot appeared. Liz was sure she heard a voice say"Coffee?" and then she truly was in a coma again.

[lizjaneway]

Liz looked around and sighed. For a minute she thought she saw a little cafe looking place, but it vanished as soon as it came.

Liz sat down in this unknown place, and realized she was alone. "Not again, why must I be so alone?" She put her head in her hands and started to weep.

"Now now, no need to cry. You are not alone, not even in life, so don't try to tell me that is why you went crazy." Liz looked up hearing a voice she hadn't recognized. In front of her was a Human male.

"Who are you, and what is it you want of me?" The man smiled.


Trish was in the office when she heard someone cry out. She rushed to see what was going on, and realized they were losing Liz. "I need a hypospray of.." she started to say when one was pushed into her hands. ~Good nursing.~ Trish thought.

It took a minute after Trish administered the hypospray, but Liz returned to somewhat normal.
"Geesh, don't scare us like that doctor," she said even though she knew Liz wouldn't wake up and respond. Part of her hoped that Liz would just sit up and start barking orders like she had a few missions ago.

[Bill Kruse]

My old quarters, Kruse thought. How long has it been? How many have passed through these portals - hopefully none?
He walked in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the ship. This is my home, my real home, he thought. Will I ever see it again?
"All endings are beginnings," Death said quietly, guessing his thoughts.
"This isn't over yet", said Christine firmly, guessing Death's thoughts. How long since I was here?, she thought. I was happy here, she realised, no other times in my life were as good as the times I spent with Bill on this ship. I was born here, she realised. And now Death wants Bill, and Bill doesn't seem to care either way but I care, she thought fiercely, I care about what happens here! You'll never have him! she thought furiously at Death, who remained apparently unmoved.
She hates me, it thought. They all hate me, but they're all mine, every last one of them. Except that odd one, that one from long, long ago... how may thousand years was it? But no matter, Death consoled itself. I can wait, it thought.
"Shall we begin?" Kruse asked.
Christine waved a small buzzing instrument over the sleeping form of Liz, seated on a small sofa.
"I can bring her out of it but we'll have to leave," she said, indicating herself and Death, "maybe not immediately but very soon. She nearly came back with us to the diner, did you know that? - "
"Really?" asked Death conversationally, "I had no idea."
"- and there's no way I could keep her there beyond the second course." she finished, meaningfully, glancing first at Death, then at Kruse, who nodded.
"What ails you, child?" was what Liz first heard when she awoke in the Captain's Quarters.

[lizjaneway]

Liz opened her eyes and looked around finding she was back on the Majesty. ~Now maybe I can get that pesky doctor to let me get back to work.~ She thought, then she heard it.

"I am alone, and I will always be alone," she said knowing of the problem, but not knowing what to do about it.

"I'm sure some guy would be interested in you," she heard, and sighed.

"That's not what I meant. I have no family, and I am the only one of my race in the whole galaxy," Liz said as she sat up feeling like there was a big hole inside of her, but she couldn't figure out where it was. She couldn't bring herself to look at the speaker, and she wondered why.

"I have no reason being a Star Fleet officer," Liz said and was in awe that she even said it.

[Bill Kruse]

"I think that's called adolescence... in my experience it can strike at any age" Kruse said.
He stretched out, and raised himself up from his old favourite chair. He walked to the window, gazed out across the stars.
So long since I saw the stars, he thought, nothing but the bright of day outside the diner. In a moment, he guessed, she's going to tell me she she's always felt this way. He sighed.
Liz noticed that she could see the stars through Kruse. It didn't seem important somehow.
"I think I've always felt this way," she said, "ever since I was a little girl".
Kruse sighed again. I must refrain, he thought, from pointing out that she is no more than a little girl now...I've already dealt with all this with Christine, he thought, already had one companion who was the only one of her kind in the galaxies we know, watched her grow, helped her learn.. and she helped me to learn too, I suppose, he thought wryly.
And so the worlds turn, serving endless processions of doubt and uncertainty, garnished with fear and side-ordered with foreboding. Through us and around us, he thought. And on.
"Being a Star Fleet Officer is the same as anything" Kruse said,"it's the same as anywhere. There is you and there are other kinds of beings, and that's all there is anywhere. If you don't fit in here, you won't fit in anywhere. When you do fit in, it won't be because you've suddenly found a place, an environment, outside yourself. It will be because you've come to terms with who you are within yourself. Remember the motto of the Majesty..."
"Xantcha von Bismark, is that a real name?" Liz asked hopefully.
"Er, no, not that one," said Kruse, a trifle disconcerted, "That's our battle cry. I meant One War. It's on the ship's plaque."
He faded, then brightened again. Liz saw the bulkhead behind him clearly for an instance, then it was obscured by his form. Someone said "Oops," and she smelled coffee.
"She's a bit like you used to be" said Death, suddenly conversational, back in the diner.
"Also medical" said Christine. Perhaps it's because we're from outside life here we cherish it so, she thought.
Liz listened, not knowing how she could. She hears us, our thoughts, Christine realised, not knowing at first how she could. She's near Death, she thought, too near, and she's in danger of crossing over.
"Where she's not like me", she said twiddling knobs and watching dials, hoping to distract Death while she sustained Kruse's partial presence on the Majesty, "is that she was never a small ball of energy turned into a small girl by monks".
"That was Buffy's sister," said Death accusingly.
"Ah yes, so it was," said Christine, smiling a small smile to herself.
"Who's Buffy?" asked Liz, not knowing how she could ask. He has the original triumvirate, she thought. Kirk had McCoy the humanitarian and Spock the logician, and Kruse has Christine the life-giver and Death the life-taker. It wanted me, she realised, it nearly had me then but Christine stopped it. She cares, Liz thought, she cares about what happens to me.
"When you wake up," Kruse said, "you must go and read the ship's plaque." I can't even tell her where it is, he realised, I don't know. "When you read it, just remember, none of us really know which is our side. we just do what we can. Remember that when you wake up."
I'm awake now, thought Liz, puzzled.
But she wasn't...

[lizjaneway]

Liz didn't understand, but noticed when he disappeared. ~Alone again. It isn't that bad.~ She thought wishing she knew what was going on.

Suddenly she felt like she was trapped, and she opened her eyes. Liz tried to sit up, but found she was restrained by something over her. She then noticed her surroundings.

"Welcome back doctor, we thought we might have lost you," Trish said when she realized Liz was awake.

"How long was I out?" Liz asked finding her voice was very shrill, as if she hadn't used it in a couple of days.

"Its been two days. I am sure glad to see you awake. I'm hoping you are ready to yell at all of us, and come back on duty," Trish said and winked.

"I don't think you would allow me to come back just yet," she responded, which made Trish frown.

"I wish I could help you."

"No one can help me, but I would love to get out of here. I will make a lousy patient," Liz said and chuckled. Trish chuckled and shook her head. She ran a few scans and smiled.

"Yes, Liz, you can leave. The minute you feel horrible, I want you back though," Trish said warning her. Liz thought about giving a smart remark, but decided to let it go as she left sickbay.

Something stuck with Liz, and for some reason she wanted to find the ship's plaque. She decided the bridge was a good start on where it might be.

Liz noticed the eyes when she stepped of the bridge. She saw the captain in her chair, and walked on over.

"Captain, may I speak to you alone?"