| Author | Message | ||
     Captain Daren |
“Love is a four letter word” Daren grabbed the small, crystal globe of Earth that sat on his Ready Room desk and threw it against the wall in an outcry of rage so strong it nearly shook the entire ship! The small, fragile reminder of what they had all be missing so much shattered instantly upon impact and fell to the deck in several hundred if not thousand pieces. Had the doors not closed behind him, Daren would have be sure the bridge crew would have heard the crash and grunt that accompanied it and come to investigate. Luckily, he was still by himself. “Damn it!” Daren’s face was full of rage and hatred. Asking for an update on the situation in the Longshot system seemed like such a routine request to make of is tactical officer. Hearing that Gryphon had been one of the first ships torn down by the Pfhor assault was something he did not need to hear now. She was gone. It had happened again! Commander Mishelle Singer, Executive Officer of USS Gryphon, gave her life in the ongoing defense of Xanadu. She was more then just the XO. She had become so more in Daren’s eyes. The effect she had on him was astounding. On several occasions Daren had been amazed himself at how this woman could get to him so deeply. They had been seeing each more or less in secret. They both had high profile jobs in the grand scheme of things and didn’t want to make too many waves that didn’t need to be made. Being on two different ships helped, but it also made it very hard. Being separated was hard on the heart, but he needed just close his eyes and she was there with him. Not only had their relationship been secretive as far as the powers that be knew of, it had also been unsteady to say the least. Daren repeatedly stepped away from making any kind of long-lasting commitment to her. They enjoyed each other’s company when they were together, but there were sometimes weeks when they would hardly speak. It was an intimate distance, but a distance nonetheless. It took a long time for Daren to admit it to himself, but he was scared. That was the one and only reason he had strayed from giving himself totally to her. He had a bad history when it came to these kinds of relationships. Ungtae Brie immediately came to mind. Coronado’s Bajoran Chief Medical Officer had caught his attention for sometime. She was looked after him very closely following the incident that took his right arm and something beneath the surface developed that again Daren hid from. When he finally came around to telling Brie that he felt the same for her, the very next day, she was taken from him in an attack so crippling that Coronado was out of commission for several months. And now in its truly horrifying way, history had repeated itself. Daren thought of the heart-felt apology he made to Mish via holographic recording just before leaving for Lh’owon. He had told her he love her, that she was everything he ever wanted or could possibly need in this life, and that he would no longer let anything in his past stand in their way of being together like they were meant to be. ‘Love’, Daren thought about the word. Others used it to express desire for another, an emotional attachment to the other. Daren wielded the word like a weapon. Apparently the word’s ‘I Love You’ when spoken from his mouth can kill any female he’s the least bit interested in ten light-years of less! Daren slammed his fist against the desk and pushed off any PADDs that had been waiting for his approval in another violent display of his anger and range. The Pfhor had the most devastating weapon of all, the ability to cripple his life by taking away those he truly and deeply loved. He needed to stop himself. He was a Starship Captain for god’s sake! He took several long, deep breaths and stared out the windows to the planet below and thought back to that bright sunny day on Reorsa when he had met her for the first time. That bright sunny day that he could only see through briefing room windows when he so very much wanted to be somewhere else. She had walked into his life that day, and today she slipped out of it… [Cue hazy flashback sequence, and stay tuned for ‘At First Glance’] Musical Inspiration: - We’ve got a lot few of’em here: “Downfall” – Trust Company “Bother” – Stone Sour “The Red” – Chevelle Captain William Daren Commanding Officer (IC) USS Coronado NCC-97901 Sim Executive Officer http://www.jestertrek.com/coro2400/bodies/depts/command.html#co ******************* As portrayed by: Chris Catterson Long Island, NY ccatt@optonline.net |