A Boy and His Bear

Posted on Mon May 20th, 2024 @ 4:28pm by Lieutenant Commander Caradan Eunidas
Edited on on Mon May 20th, 2024 @ 4:34pm

Mission: The Only Thing Left Was Hope
Location: Earth: Longyearbyen, Svalbard
Timeline: A Few Days Prior

The teleporter pad lit up and did its thing; materializing, upon its surface, a pair of feet. As the light faded and the teleporter powered itself down, that pair of feet carried its owner down a step and away toward the front counter.

The welcome station had some business going on. People were spread about, some drinking coffee or other hot beverages, some looking at cold weather gear, talking about this and that. It was a quaint little place, known as a getaway location but still not highly visited. Outside the windows, all could see snow lightly falling and only adding to the white horizon. Down the slope outside, the sea gingerly washed the shore with its blue hue. There was no swimming however, unless if the population was brave enough for that kind of thing; sub-zero swimming.

“No thanks.” Turning, the owner of the pair of feet stepped toward the front desk. He attracted the attention of the clerk.

She stood from her seat and started working at her computer terminal. “Mr. Miles Edward O’Brien, arriving?”

Miles nodded. “Yes ma’am.” He arrived at the desk and put his hand on the scanner.

“Is your visit, business or pleasure?”

“Business, ma’am,” he said.

“Oh yes. I see.” The lady continued pouring over the information displayed on her computer. “I see your allotted time is only 12 hours.”

“That is correct. I know Longyearbyen is a fascinating place. Just, too cold for me. I am here to meet someone. Should not be here more than 6 hours.”

“Then you must be here to see the Changeling.”

“Kiri. Yes,” he said. “That is her name.”

“Of course,” replied the clerk. “We do not get many Starfleet personnel here for any other reason.” She finished inputting her information. “They all want to go see the Changeling.”

“Kiri,” repeated Miles.

“Well, you are checked in,” the clerk said as though Miles hadn’t said anything at all. “The industrial replicator outside is working on your snowmobile now. Just return it when you are done and the replicator will take it from there.”

“Snowmobile?” Miles asked. “We can’t just use a shut…?”

“Starfleet shuttles have those nacelles that produce that sound. You know…” and she started making an awkward sound through her teeth

Miles waved her to silence. “Yes. I know the sound shuttle nacelles make.”

“Well, that causes some irritation among the bears; throws off their sleep and sometimes their equilibrium. So we made it law that only power-cell snowmobiles are used for travel. Shuttles are for emergency use only.”

“I understand.”

“Do make sure you locate the rifle attached to the side of the snowmobile. Just in case a bear comes at you. You won’t kill it. Just bruise it. It should leave you alone.”

“Should?”

Miles was outside, bundled up in his jacket to protect him from the negative temperatures of Longyearbyen. He could feel the cold still. The door of the industrial replicator opened and a conveyor delivered him his snowmobile, but Miles was fixated on the rifle attached to the side. It was not a phase rifle but an archaic bullet projectile weapon. He thought briefly about it, knowing that phase rifles were effective against bears but then Miles remembered where he was; Longyearbyen, Svalbard. The bears here were polar bears. And those things tended to also go on murderous rampages when hit with phaser fire, even set to maximum stun.

“This thing,” Miles picked up the rifle and inspected it, the ammunition. The bullets were rubber and not designed for skin penetration. The rounds would definitely get through the fur and leave a bruise. “This thing ‘should’,” he repeated the clerk’s words, “turn one around.”

He followed the directions the clerk gave him; up the slope, following the serpentine path up to the summit and then a ways to the east. Miles felt rather warm in his gear; almost to the point of wanting to shed something but he knew the negative temperatures would certainly get to him and fast.

He felt a vibration in his jacket, an additional vibration other than and separate from the running snowmobile. It had no engine as it ran on an alternate power source but it still had moving parts. This time, though, it was his tricorder vibrating away in his chest pocket. Miles stopped and retrieved his tricorder. Looking at it, he noticed a something, a large something just ahead, obscured from vision by the crest of the next hill. The large obscured something did not stay obscured for long as it moved itself to the crest of that hill. Though it stopped being obscured, it certainly did not stop being large.

“Blast,” said Miles as he dismounted the snowmobile and quickly grabbed at the rifle. He made a quick inspection to ensure it was loaded, safe was off, and brought it up, aiming at the large monstrosity of a bear before him. “I’ll be like John de Somerville,” he said to himself, “facing down and felling the Linton Wyrm.” Then he remembered the rubber bullets the rifle held. “Blast,” he said.

The bear pawed at the ground, locked eyes on Miles and then started forward. Miles did not hesitate and, one squeeze of the trigger later, a bullet was sent flying forth connecting with the bear in the shoulder.

The bear winced, looked at its shoulder, then back at Miles with a yelling growl.

“Hey,” he yelled back, “the lass back in town said you should turn back once I shot you.”

The bear growled again, pawed the ground, kicking up large clumps of snow and appeared as though ready to move forward again. Miles did not give it the chance as he let loose another shot, this time connecting with the temple above the bear’s eyes. The bear shook, winced and let out a painful whimper.

“Yeah,” Miles said, “ready to turn back now?”

The bear looked at him and gave a low growl. It cocked its head sideways as though trying to get a better look at him. Or was it trying to give him a better look at it? The bear whimpered again then stepped back a step or two before stopping and just looking at him.

Miles felt something off about this whole thing. This scenario should have played out far different. Either him dead or the bear retreating. Neither, however, happened. This bear though, showed some kind of intelligence as it stood there, looking at him.

Through a pinprick of awareness, Miles lowered his rifle and lowered the hood of his jacket. He removed his goggles as snowflakes had peppered the lenses, giving him pause to trust his own vision. Removing the goggles, the monstrosity was still a bear but he suddenly had second thoughts.

“Kiri!” he called out. The bear slowly turned and started toward an exposed rock where it stepped atop and sat down clearly leaving room for Miles to do the same.

Dumbfounded, Miles shrugged and went back to the snowmobile where he replaced the rifle. “Blast it all. Keiko is going to kill me if I get killed by this bear.” He turned and looked back at the resting bear. With hands raised before him, Miles slowly stepped forward. “Easy there bear. I’m just a harmless human. Well harmless now. Just wanting to make friends.”

The bear made no movement but was obviously aware of his presence as he stepped up, worked himself onto the rock and worked himself into a seated position beside the large monstrosity. Miles realize he was the size to maybe fill the bear’s stomach for the day, but he also realized, “I know that is you Kiri.”

Miles looked out at the scene. Before him was a steep slope gliding down to Longyearbyen. A crystal clear blue sheen of sea calmly spread out and north from the shore. Next thing he knew, the bear beside him melted and shrank in size to something more humanoid.

“You could’ve given me a heart attack, you know that?”

There came no response as the Changeling beside him took on a familiar shape and appearance.

“I am glad you are able to mimic things larger than you now.”

“I only had the outward appearance of a polar bear. Internally, I filled myself with air. I was hollow.” Caradan looked at her hands. They looked almost like human hands, but not quite. They remained a bit pasty. And though having taken on her more familiar form, she still felt hollow. An empty shell of a Changeling with nothing inside. “I can mimic things slightly larger and smaller than me, but that is it. I have not figured out yet how to grow or shrink exponentially without leaving part of me behind or…being hollow.”

Miles allowed a brief stretch of silence stretch between them. “It is good to see you Kiri. How have you been keeping?”

“Don’t do this Miles,” she said. “Just tell me what you want.”

Miles sighed. “What I want…is to know how you have been keeping.”

Caradan finally looked at him. “You came…all this way…to Longyearbyen…to ask me that?”

“For starters, yes. I have more to talk about…”

“Then get on with it.”

“I have more to talk about…after you tell me how you have been keeping.”

Irritated, she said “Alone. OK? I’ve been here. In this place. Keeping to myself. Daily I speak to…maybe…five people. And that is on busy days. I like it here.”

“Dr. Lauda tells me you have not been back to see her since your return. It’s been…what?...”

“I was not getting anywhere with her. Each visit became the same. ‘How are you feeling?’ ‘How does this make you feel?’ ‘How does that make you feel?’ ‘I want you to try this and that.’ ‘What image do you see?’ If I had a human brain, she would have given me an aneurysm long ago.”

“Anastasia worries about you Kiri. I worry about you. You were my star pupil.”

Caradan mimicked a singular nasal sarcastic laugh. “Only because I had no friends, I was shunned by any and all. Even in the dorms. So, I stayed behind to continue work and study.”

“And that made you a miracle worker of an engineer. You, of course, know how proud I was of you for making Chief Engineer so soon into your tenure aboard the Tornado. Second Officer, later XO. You even captained the ship. On your first assignment.”

“Only to limp back to Federation space. The ship was done.”

“And you brought her home. The crew too.”

“Not everyone.” Caradan thought a moment. “And I thought returning to the Academy would be different. That people would have gotten used to a Changeling in Starfleet. But, no. It was only more of the same.”

“You were the first Changeling in Starfleet, Kiri. Some people have a hard time with change.”

“Correction,” she broke in immediately. “All people simply do not trust nor like Change…lings.”

“You know better than most that I worked closely with one for many years. Odo became a good friend. So, don’t group me in with ‘all.’”

Caradan did not apologize. She simply sat in silence.

“Besides the School of Command has a different breed of cadets. Some up and coming captains came to me with questions about you. Of course I had only good things to say about you. And then you disappeared…after speaking to those two…” and Miles’ words broke off as Caradan looked at him sternly. “Yeah, I had dealings with them as well. So, I know. Upon your return you immediately entered the School of Security.”

“I’m not allowed to expand?”

“You can Kiri. You can do whatever you want.”

“I originally came to Starfleet wanting to fix things. That is why I became and engineer.”

“And you did fix things. In my book, you fixed everything. There will always be those who hold on to brokenness.” Miles looked at her as she looked blankly out at the frozen horizon. He did not have to be a counselor to know what was going on inside her. “Don’t you hold on to brokenness too.”

“That is why I came here,” she nearly shouted. “To get away…”

“No, Kiri. You came here to…”

“Stop running. That was what the great Anastasia Lauda said I should do. ‘Stop running.’ I did just that.”

“You stopped running alright. But not away from your problems. You stopped running so you could come here to embrace your problems.”

“My brokenness?” she finished what she felt was his thought.

Miles decided not to answer that question. “You came here so you can stew. Stew in this frozen landscape. Stew, and hold on to what is holding you back.”

“Hold on to what is holding me back,” she nearly laughed. “Back from what?”

“From getting back out there.”

“Getting back out there,” Caradan said sarcastically. “Is that why you are here? To kick me off of Earth?”

“To stop watching you become frozen within yourself. You have so much potential. Engineer, Command, and now Security. You could be out there now, continuing what you originally came to the Federation to do, fix things.”

Caradan was looking at her hands again. “How can I hope to fix things when I hold on to my own brokenness?”

“People lift each other up, Kiri. Broken people can help other broken people. We leave no one behind. Everything can be fixed. And you are no less broken now than when you first came to Longyearbyen.”

Caradan did not like that sound of it, but, “And I need fixing?”

“Yes. We all do. Recall me telling you about that dream that was forced on me?”

“It was a one minute jail sentence, Miles.”

“But it felt like a decade. Ten years of memories of being in prison…killing my cellmate. And that was what woke me up.”

“I was…raped…and beaten…and stabbed…fitted with a device to lock me in my form. I was dragged around that Klingon ship for days. I…” Caradan stopped her words. “I do not want to compare our pain again Miles. I…” and she leaned against him.

Miles put an arm around her in return. “I understand Kiri. I don’t understand, but I do. I cannot understand your pain, but I understand we all have pain that no one else can fully understand. Again, we leave no one behind. We help each other when we can.”

“You were my first friend on Earth, Miles. I...I trust your judgment. What can you do,” she said with a small crack in her voice.

“I can pull some strings. I found a ship in need of your skills. Admiral Picard trusts me and will back me up when I put in a good word and you…”

“Can get back out there.”