Not The Same

Posted on Sun Dec 29th, 2024 @ 9:04pm by Commander Mindo & Lieutenant JG Aeryn Jameson

Mission: The Only Thing Left Was Hope
Location: Scoop City, near Starfleet HQ
Timeline: Current

"Hi Aeryn!" Mindo said on the monitor to Aeryn. He had just called out of the blue. The last time the two of them had been around each other was the cramped transport the crew had used to get back to Earth three months ago. They'd hardly said anything to one another in the few days they'd been there.

“Hi Mindo” Aeryn offered a smile, but the usual sparkle behind her eyes wasn’t there. “What can I do for you?”

Mindo smiled back, though the feeling he got from Aeryn wasn't quite the usual. Her question felt somewhat impatient, so Mindo decided cutting to the chase would be the best option.

"I heard you might be leaving Starfleet," he said. "When I heard about you and Owen, I was saddened. You two were so close. Well, Owen was probably my best friend on the Pandora. Shortly before I left Starfleet I applied for Chief Engineer on his ship. My request was flat-out denied. I guess I wasn't surprised, though. After his coma he started acting really strange. So, since you lost a lover and I lost a friend, I thought we could mope about it together over a scoop of ice cream. What do you say?"

Aeryn offered a more cheery smile. “I think I’d like that Mindo, it’ll be nice to talk. Where would you like us to meet?”

"How about Scoop City? Best frozen custard in town," Mindo said. "I can be there in thirty minutes."

“Sure!” Aeryn nodded. “I’ll see you there.”

< Scoop City - Thirty minutes later >

Aeryn walked into Scoop city, looking around to see if Mindo had arrived ahead of her. Not seeing him she picked a nearby table and sat down to await his arrival.

Mindo arrived less than a full minute later and after ordering a cookies and cream milkshake at the counter and grabbing a booster seat near the entrance, headed over to where he spotted Aeryn.

"Hi!" Mindo said, climbing onto the booster so he sat at even height with Aeryn. "It's good to see you."

“Likewise Mindo” Aeryn smiled warmly motioning to a woman who was clearing a nearby table to order a milkshake herself. “So how does it feel to be in command?”

Mindo laughed. "In command of what?" he said, chuckling. "Sorry, I guess no one's heard yet. Our mission is strictly 'off the books.' All of us are listed as Pandora crew now, but the Pandora is lost. We have to find it."

Aeryn grinned. “I guess you have a point there, but once we find the Pandora she’ll be your ship until we find Captain Temple.” She paused. “You were right by the way, I was considering resigning my commission if I couldn’t get assigned to Owen’s ship, but Owen being Owen, he talked me out of it. He wanted me to stay onboard the Pandora, to watch out for all of you.”

"I'll miss Owen too," Mindo said. "But I'm glad you're staying with us. I don't know what we'll find out there, be it the Pandora or our Captain or both, but I need people I trust in this mission. It's likely the ship we get will not have advanced shields or weaponry, unless we can get a Romulan or Klingon ship, which we won't. It hopefully won't be as cramped as the tugboat that brought us back from Risa three months ago, but don't expect much luxury. This voyage is going to be very risky."

“We’re the crew of the Pandora, risky is what we do day in and day out.” Aeryn offered a smile. “I’m not going to abandon you, or the rest of the people I’ve come to think of as family. I have faith that we’ll find the Captain and the Pandora, as you said let’s just hope we get a decent ship in the meantime.”

Mindo smiled. "Let's hope," he said.

“I’ll admit, I wish Owen was here to help us, hell I wish he was here because I...” She paused. “I miss him. I don’t seem to be lucky when it comes to long term relationships, something always happens and I end up on my own again.”

Mindo was silent for a second, and it was clear what Aeryn said had put him deep in thought. His mind went back three months, onto the transport. He hadn't talked to anyone about the mind meld, not even Dr. Lauda during their breakfast the day before.

"On the transport home," he said at last, "I went through a mind meld with Aenardha, Ensign Sh'vastarth. She had collected some intel that could potentially help us locate the Pandora. But as you know, with a link like that there can be shared emotions--unless of course you're melding with a Vulcan. After a sense of urgency and panic brought on by a Ferengi she had melded with, I felt... alone. Alone, cold, and sad. I don't know if those were my feelings, or hers. I've never been one to suffer from depression, though I have been misdiagnosed with mental illness before, during my early Academy days. I think the cold I felt was attributed to the fact that Aenars live in very cold temperatures, hence the reason her quarters on the transport were the walk-in freezer..." For a moment, he reflected on the influence Aenardha had on the technology Mindo invented to keep the Pandora cold during their trip through the Rentaro nebula. "...but I'm not sure about the lonely feelings. So about what you said about being on your own again, I think I understand how you feel. It was a rude awakening after three years of non-stop partying on Risa."

Aeryn nodded her understanding. “It’s not much fun, but it’s made me realise just how much my friends aboard the Pandora mean to me. You’re more than friends, you’re family, we’ve been through too much together to be anything less.” She smiled. “Maybe we’ll both find the person for us one day, but for now we have our large Pandora family to keep us company.”

"It took me a while," Mindo reflected. "Not just the last three months, but the last three years... took me a while to realize the Pandora is where I need to be too. But I never fathomed I'd be Commanding Officer of her crew, right out the gate. I'm not the commanding type, Aeryn. Down in the core they call me 'Chief,' but even there everything I do is from following orders. I'm not the guy people follow, I'm the guy people use. It's just always been that way, whether I've liked it or not." Mindo recalled being framed for actions done by his Commanding Officer on the USS Rhys, but didn't bring the matter up.

Aeryn nodded. “Right now you’re the man holding the rest of us together. That and the hope that we’ll be able to find the Captain, and the Pandora. I’ll do anything, and everything I can to help you. We all will.”

"I don't know what we're going to face on our journey," Mindo said. "But I'm glad you'll be there with us."

Aeryn smiled warmly. “So am I, besides do we ever know what we’re getting into? We normally manage to work our way through whatever is thrown at us.”

"Lord knows we've been through it all," Mindo said. "I don't think there's any crew in the fleet who is more prepared for their mission than us. Three years ago, we barely made it out of the Expanse alive and intact. I kept wondering when we'd run out of luck!"

“Hopefully it won’t be anytime soon!” Aeryn grinned. “What do you really think Mindo? What does your gut feeling tell you about all of this?”

"All of this bothers me," Mindo said. "What no one is saying, and what scares me the most, is our mystery man has been directing us all from the get-go, as if he were arranging a chess board. Captain Temple disappearing, Caradan and Keith joining us, everyone's exodus to Risa, me taking command... all of that has been part of his objective. I think he finds this fun. What happens when we're no fun anymore? Everyone has faith in me that I'll get us to the Pandora and to Captain Temple. Where does mystery man's faith lie? What is his motive? My gut is telling me this adversary will be the hardest we've ever faced. We're going into this with a transport that has no shields or weapons, no tractor beam, no maximum warp... and no Captain. What does your gut tell you?"

“My gut? I try not to rely too heavily on my gut instincts as they tend to be unreliable” Aeryn smiled. “To be honest it’s one side of me that I never really learned to fully reintegrate with after being liberated from the Borg. I could give you any number of Borg driven answers, just none that would be of any use to you. Everything in their view was worth assimilating, I don’t have any recollection of the collective ever having encountered anything like this though. It was a very long time ago.”

Mindo cocked an eyebrow. "Aeryn, why wouldn't Borg type answers be useful? As your CO I need everyone's answers, from all sides. It helps me give the orders I need to give. Don't ever feel like your gut instincts are useless. I know and respect you as an officer, and I'm very fond of you as a person. You have my full trust. All I ask is yours."

Aeryn smiled and nodded. “You have my trust Mindo, you always have. I respect you and besides you’re my friend. As for my past I’ve learned to live with being an ex-Borg I’ve just never tried digging into that part of myself for fear of what I might remember, although if it’s needed to help in any way I’ll do it.”

"I don't want to order you to do anything that would make you uncomfortable," Mindo said. "Sometimes though, we all need to face our past." Mindo was thinking of his own, how he'd been humiliated on the USS Rhys, and then having it come up while serving on the Tornado.

“I know” Aeryn nodded. “If that’s what I have to do then so be it.” She offered a smile. “I’m not afraid anymore. Years of being aboard the Pandora have taught me not to be afraid.”

"We can either face fear, or hide from it," Mindo said. "I realized that leaving Starfleet and moving to Risa was just a way for me to hide from my fear. Now I feel different. I refuse to be knocked down again. I will face my fear."

Aeryn nodded. “Good, I’m glad you’re still with us. It definitely wouldn’t be the same without you Mindo.” She smiled warmly.

"And I can't imagine life on the Pandora without you as well," Mindo said, matching her smile.

OFF