A Key That Can't Be Broken

Posted on Wed Nov 22nd, 2017 @ 6:23am by Zado Kasmir

1,103 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: S1: These Are The Voyages...
Location: USS I Knew I Forgot To Tell You Something, Chief Engineer's Office
Timeline: MD 2 9.30, T- 5 Hours

Arivek sighed. If it was possible for a hologram to feel tired, he would certainly fit that description. Luckily his tactile subroutines were easily modified and he had removed the ability to feel tired years ago. Unfortunately, modifying his matrix could do nothing to ease the mental strain he was feeling after working all night on the Traveller's backup systems. But he wanted them to be at 100%, or at least as close as possible, before the launch later that day.

He rounded a corner and his destination came into view. His office on the USS I Knew I Forgot To Tell You Something. This was the closest thing he had to a home for the past three years. He did have a set of quarters...somewhere. But he only went there once, and that was only because the Computer kept reminding him to unlock his quarters. And there are few things that upset Ari more than repeated reminders to do things, even things he never intended on doing.

But as he passed through the doors, his body tensed up and his breath quickened. In his seat, behind his desk, sat Zado Kasmir, the lead designer of Project Long Jump.

"You're in my seat," he simply stated, his eyes wide with shock and horror as he stared at the woman.

"I...wasn't going to be," Zado said slowly through pursed lips, her fingers hovering just above the input controls. "Could have sworn I was told you were going to be at least another hour on the Traveller getting things in tip-top shape before returning. I wanted this to be more of a surprise than, well, than it is now."

Arivek walked into the room, "You know how it bothers me when people sit in my seat," he said, obviously waiting for the woman to move.

"Ergo why I was trying to sneak this in without you finding out about it. Your office is like a faraday cage sometimes Ari, and if I'm honest I'm never sure if you read the Long Jump Project newsletter that's circulated," she finished typing and stood up, brushing the chair down and presenting it to Ari like a gift. "I want to make sure you read this when the time was right."

The man's eyebrows furrowed as he stepped towards his desk, his eyes moving from the defiled chair to the console. "What is it?" he asked, stepping past the woman.

"The very least that I can do for you," she said with pride in her voice. "It's only a letter of recommendation, but my family has connections across the Federation. Whatever posting, or project, or ambition you have...this letter should get you it. Ari I-"

He cut herself off, her voice choking a little.

"I...I came up with the theory of phase-space travel because my professor at the Bolian Collegium told me it was impossible. There was warp speed and then methods via some sort of subspace effect: conduits, short duration wormholes, punch drives. But travel took time, and travel across great distances still took longer. The idea of instantaneous travel across megaparsecs of space was, in her words 'farcical'. But the math was there, the numbers aligned. I had my theory, and no way to meaningfully test it outside of ambitious computer models," she said in a rush, using her hands to speak as much as her lips. "I took my theory everywhere I went, every symposium, every lecture, every conference on theoretical physics I could-...I spent a good two years being the person at the conference people avoided because I was crazy. Because I wanted to re-write physics. Didn't matter what my math told the universe, I couldn't be right. The machine needed to make it happen could never be built."

Tears were in her eyes, sapphires welling up atop cheeks the colour of a tropical ocean.

"You made my dream come true. You built my impossible thing. And...and I can't think of anything I can do that will even come close to matching it," she said, her words now trembling as she spoke them. "A-a-and I really want to hug you Ari but I won't because that would make you uncomfortable. So I made you a letter, so you can have whatever dream you want."

"Emotional gestures and grandeur also make me quite uncomfortable," Arivek said, his eyes scanning the document that had been written.

Zado let a short, sharp laugh that went some way to dispelling the pent up emotional baggage she was carrying around.

"Well I'm going to be leaving the Milky Way in a few hours, so you are going to have to allow me this. I will not leave without giving you this gift, I even made sure to file a copy with Starfleet to ensure there was no way for you to lose it. I want your dreams to come true, just like mine," she said with a smile. "Have you...thought about what comes next?"

"I have," Arivek said, his hand brushing over the chair, as if he could wipe away Zado's indiscretion. "I've actually accepted a position aboard the Traveller."

"You-...You have?! Ari that's wonderful!" Zado cried out, her body shifting as though to throw her arms around him once more. She did not, though. "I...I mean the letter still, I mean I thought...well now I get to make sure you always have work to do! And we, not I, we will have much to do."

Arivek pulled a PADD from the side drawer of his desk and set it atop the large LCARS display that set into the wood finish. With a few taps of the controls, a download commensed. "Thank you for the letter," he said. "I won't need it now, but it will, no doubt, come in handy someday."

"Are you kidding? When we get back we'll be heroes. You'll be lucky if you don't have a school named after you," she said with a smile, her hands reaching out and patting the back of his chair. "I...well I think there's probably something for me to attend to before we launch. Only 5 hours away now. I'll...I'll leave you to it."

As he watched her leave his office, Arivek raised an eyebrow as he wiped his sleeve over the polished glass surface of his LCARS display. "I already should have a school named after me," he said to himself. When he was satisfied that her fingerprints no longer plagued his vision, he turned off the display and shut down his program.

 

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