A Letter Home

Posted on Wed Jan 31st, 2024 @ 4:10am by Lieutenant Pharos Ventari

940 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Mission 1: Campor III - Resupply
Location: Personal Quarters
Timeline: Current

It was well into the wee hours of the night when the doors to Pharos' quarters opened with a gentle hiss, and the Ventari kind of stumbled inside, stifling a yawn as he did so, and punching up a large fruit cocktail from the replicator menu. Then, tall drink in hand, he walked over to climb up onto his desk -the chair was a bit too big for his particular stature- and sat down cross-legged beside the computer.

Since getting the go-ahead for the lab from Commander F'Rar, he'd been putting in some long hours of his own time, first in getting the designs worked up, and then in scouring the new workspace down to the bulkheads and starting construction from the ground up. Working with Ensign Sar in particular was oddly... nostalgic, and the memories it kept bringing up of his years aboard the Vulcan Cruiser Sekell. It was familiar, comfortable, working with a Vulcan again, and had prompted him to reach out to his old captain.

"Computer, begin recording." He paused, savoring a short sip of the fruity drink, before continuing. "Greetings Father..." His antennae gave a slight twitch, and he gave his head a shake. "Stop. Delete and start over. New recording." He waited a beat. "Hi Dad.

I realize it's been a minute since I last reached out, and I thought I would take the opportunity to say hello. I know, you have the pull to keep track of my career from afar, but I wanted to send this anyway." Pharos shifted to the side, swinging his abdomen around ahead of him, then leaned his back into the corner, still on the desk with his computer sitting between his feet.

"Last time we spoke, I was a damage control specialist aboard the Poseidon, and I enjoyed the posting, though it was relatively quiet. Well, since then, I've been promoted to lieutenant junior-grade, and received a transfer to the USS Columbia as an engineering officer." Though he'd already been aboard the Columbia for a while, he still felt a surge of pride just at saying the words out loud. Pride of course, was an emotion, and not one that the stoic Vulcan would ever admit to, though Pharos knew that even he could experience approval for personal accomplishments, and he hoped his father might feel that on getting the news, even if he never said it aloud.

"She's an Odyssey class, and if you don't mind me waxing poetic.... she's gorgeous. A ship of beauty -and huge! I always hoped, but never expected an assignment to a ship of the line, but I'm here, and so far it's.... been everything I'd hoped it might be. It's a bit of an eclectic crew, and I feel like that just makes it a little easier for me to fit in. The ship itself was recently launched, and it's all still new and largely untested, so there's normally not a lot to do beyond tweaking and trying to get things optimized. My boss though, has given permission to start building a new prototyping lab onboard, and though there's still a lot of work to do, I'm happy with the progress so far. I won't be the only one to use it of course, it will benefit the entire ship, but I'm happy I can at least help get it off the ground."

Eyes closed, Pharos took a deeper drink of his juice, while picturing the old familiar faces from the Sekell. "I still don't know if I ever really want a command of my own, and I daresay it might be hard for someone like a Klingon or a Bolian to take orders from someone hardly more than a meter tall, but I think if I can at least distinguish myself as an engineer, that'll be enough. At least, for now. Have to start somewhere, right? Gotta walk before you can fly.

"Listen, Dad, when you have the opportunity, could you send me the EV suit concept designs that I used to work on with the engineering staff? Once this lab is operational, I think I may finally have the means of manufacturing some of those suits without it turning into a cumbersome monstrosity."

In truth, Pharos' spacewalk training during the academy had been something of a nightmare, as the space suits had been improvised for his anatomy, and while they'd worked, they were also uncomfortable and ill-fitting. Whenever he was reassigned, he made sure he had at least one of the suits on hand to work with if needed, but on the rare occasions that he had to put it on, he always knew that there *had* to be a better way to do it. He might finally have the opportunity to make that suit himself.

"When you have the time, and your mission allows, let me know how you and everyone else is doing, and tell the bridge crew I said hello. I'll let you know when the lab is operational. Until then, Live long and prosper." Pharos nodded. "Computer, end recording. Address to Captain Tokar of the cruiser Sekell, and transmit once okayed by security."

Leaning back, the Ventari gulped back the rest of his drink, then gave a satisfied belch as he slid back off of the desk and returned the cup to the replicator to be recycled. He paused, glancing between the door and the bed, then decided that a match of 3D chess might be a pleasant way to round out the evening, and headed off toward the main lounge to see who might still be up and about and looking for a game.

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