| Author | Message | ||
     RAdm. Dev Wallace |
OLD STARDATE 56840 SAN FRANCISCO SHIPYARDS, EARTH U.S.S. CORONADO NCC-63100 "Commander Wallace reporting for duty, Captain. It's - good to be home." His rakish grin and deep Georgian accent gave Commander Dev Wallace an exaggerated boyish charm about him. Damien Maxwell Cash, commanding officer of U.S.S. Coronado, shook his head with obvious disgust. "Wallace, let's get one thing straight - you're here because Brian Aldur vouched for you and got you cleared of those charges. Now, I'm willing to accept the Captain's judgement in a great many things. But clearing your name is not one of them. If you step so much as a foot out of line, you're gone. You'll wind up back at New Zealand so fast that you'll thin you never even left. Are we clear?" Wallace allowed his grin to fade slowly into a dark, unreadable expression. He nodded solemnly. "I was told that you needed an XO. Captain Aldur briefed me on everything, including the fact that Mr. Narque is in command of the ship when you are not available. Believe me, sir, I don't like being a token Exec anymore than you like having a token Exec." "And the murders? Did you like those, too?" The darkness of Wallace's expression seemed to deepen. His eyes grew distant for a moment before they filled with a passion Cash had not expected. The younger man's jaw clenched tightly, and his brow furrowed. "Sir, those 'murders' as you call them were an accident that resulted from one of the worst choices I ever made eight years ago. If you want to remind me of them at your leisure, then do so by all means. Just remember that whatever it is you think you can do to me by reminding me of them, I have done to myself a thousand times over every waking moment - and most of my sleeping ones - since that day. So, with all due respect, sir, you can - " "I hate it when people say 'with all due respect' because it usually means that what follows is intended to be completely without respect." "As I said, if you insist on bringing this matter up, you can take it up with my lawyer. I'm sick and tired of it, personally. I'm still here because exactly ONE man believes in me. Do you know what that feels like? Even my own gawddamed family has lost faith in me." Cash and Wallace stared at each other for what felt like an eternity. "You should know your way around. Not much has changed in the last refit. Welcome back aboard Coronado, Commander." ====== NEW STARDATE 240304.21 ALEXANDRIA, XANADU THE GREAT LIBRARY 24 YEARS LATER... Wallace had found his way up the ranks thanks to his solitary benefactor. After more than a quarter of a century of serving with Brian Aldur, Dev Wallace had found that still there were few who considered him trustworthy. That didn't matter much to him. He had his work, he had his duty. And he had the trust of one man. The desk at which he sat was of a polished material Wallace had never seen before Aldur had introduced him to the Xanadu facility. He ran his hands along the black surface and grimaced. Reality shifts were not completely unusual for him. He had travelled through time and across parallel dimensions on several occassions. But for some reason, the Catapul Effect had caused him a great sense of distress. In all his journeys, he had never before encountered something that REPLACED reality in the way that the Xanadu Catapult Effect had. The fact that the Defenders had barely manged to survive their first encounter with the Effect probably had something to do with Wallace's unease. Colonel Master's idiotic attempt to investigate the Crystal Spire Control Room had nearly ended what he thought of as his own reality to replace it with yet another variation. He had heard reports from several people - including his own adopted daughter Commander Tal - that they had simply ceased to exist in that replacement reality. He didn't know how he had known, but he had known when the rumblings had swept across Xanadu, when the nausea had threatened to bring him to his knees, that his existance had been threatened by the foolish actions of Coronado's crew. Clearing out everyone had been the only solution that had made sense. His own reality - and maybe that of countless others - had come close to being replaced with nothing. The fact that it had been an accident had heightened the sense of urgency he felt to clear all unauthorized personnel from Xanadu. Since he had approved the request filed with both himself and the incompetent Captain Daren, even his own Velorna Tal had fallen under his order for the near-total evacuation of Xanadu. He had known. He had known his reality had been ending. Those eight officers on Hunter 27 years before - had they known then that there realities were being destroyed? Had they known that he was the one giving the orders for Pegasus to fire on their ship? Had they ever wondered for what they were dying? However often he tried to rid himself of those thoughts, they were never far from the surface of his consciousness. Not a day went by where he did not think about what Section 31 had done to him and what he had done to those men and women. Wallace wondered absently if they would have forgiven him if they could. He wondered if he would ever forgive himself. === Christian D. Clem '01, aka "Aggie" RAdm. J.D. "Dev" Wallace, CO Taskforce 85.2 "Defiant", Xanadu |