Moving Day! (Part 1)

Posted on Wed May 26th, 2010 @ 4:24pm by Commodore Samantha York & Colonel Damon Raine
Edited on on Wed May 26th, 2010 @ 4:29pm

1,192 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Transitions
Location: Captain's Quarters
Timeline: Current

ON

Samantha York pulled the last stack of books out of the packing crate. All six were Romulan and very old. She placed them, one by one, on the wooden bookshelf in the 'ancient history' section of her library.

It had originally been set aside as an office or a spare bedroom. Sam was using it as her library and second office. Or would, now that they were on the Calypso and she was truly the commander of the ship.

She'd stayed in her old quarters on the Orion, the ones she'd been assigned as Chief Science Officer, as she never really felt like its commander. Every day she expected to hear that Captain Montgomery was returning. But now... now the Calypso was hers.

When she finished shelving her books, she stepped back to look over her handiwork. The quartermaster had lined two walls of the room with bookshelves. She'd spent 30 minutes convincing him that she really DID need that many shelves. But now, they were filled with books from her old office and her old quarters.

The third wall held her 'office,' so she could work from here if she needed to.

Sam enlisted the help of Damon to pack and unpack the boxes. Fortunately she was able to transport them all to her new quarters.

With a happy sigh, she took the last empty box and walked out into the main living area. She dumped the box in a corner to be recycled and walked over to the sofa where Damon sat. He'd just returned from taking her other boxes to the recycler. "Thank you," she said softly, bending over to kiss him. "It was a lot of work and I appreciate it."

"It's never work when I get to spend time with you." He said smiling. He patted the seat next to him "Come on, you deserve a rest."

Sam plopped onto the couch next to Damon, wrapped her arms around his arm and hugged him. "I'm glad you're here." The more time she spent with him, the deeper she fell in love and the more she found herself turning to him.

She laid her head on his shoulder and sighed happily, looking around the room. "I still can't believe I'm here. I mean, I'm an archaeologist..."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head as she rested it on him. "What you are is a leader. You may be an archaeologist by training, but you were born to lead others. Starfleet was smart in letting you have your own ship."

"I never bothered with command -- unless it was commanding a classroom or a dig site. I'm still amazed that Captain Montgomery put me in charge." She lifted her head and looked at him. "I don't know if I could have done this without your help and support. I mean, who would listen to a scientist?"

"I have a feeling that people would listen to you no matter what field you were in. It's hard not to notice how special a person you are."

"You, my love, are biased," she said, chuckling. "Besides, it doesn't take much with a crew like this one."

Damon nodded thoughtfully "It really is a remarkable crew. Some starships try so hard to achieve what seemed to happen organically here. It is certainly one less thing you will have to worry about going forward."

Sam nodded and cuddled up to Damon again. "Yep. I'm glad we'll be staying together." She was enjoying the moment.

"I am too." He agreed. He allowed a silence to hang in the air, somehow feeling that words would only serve to ruin the moment. The simplicity of it all was what really impressed Damon, how easy it was for him to be happy with so little else involved but Samantha's presence in the room.

After a few minutes his eyes fell upon the bookcases in her office. A thought popped into his head that he wanted to ask about earlier. He risked breaking the peaceful silence to satisfy his curiosity. "By the way, I noticed one of those books you put away was from the University of Culat on Cardassia. Would you mind if I took a look at it?"

"Not at all. You're welcome to look at any of the books I have. Most deal with history, culture or folklore." She grinned. "Occupational hazard."

He laughed a bit at the truth of it. "I would prefer it if it was about the culture actually. I was stationed on Cardassia as part of the rebuilding effort after the war." He motioned to the bookcase "Mind if I go grab it?" He was more asking permission to leave her alone on the couch for a moment.

"I don't mind at all," she assured him. She slipped her shoes off and curled her feet under her as she watched him browse through her books.

Damon sat up from the comfort of the couch and began his search of the bookshelf. He remembered what the book looked like when he initially saw it, however, that information would do him little good now. The binding was made from a local leaf on Cardassia which was prized for it's interesting properties. Unique to a small region on the planet, the leaf was wrapped into a weave and sold in a variety of fashions, though often it's price was so extravagant that only the very affluent could ever hope to purchase such items. Much like the "mood rings" found on earth the leaf had a very similar chemical reaction similar to thermotropic liquid crystals, meaning the temperature of the readers skin would change the colour of the binding. The plant, now thought to be extinct, fetches small fortunes on post war Cardassia.

Damon remembered the book was a dark brown, closer to mahogany, when he first saw it in the box. When he finally located the book, it was almost black in colour. He only recognised it at all by the odd texture of it. With a smile he relieved it from it's place in the bookshelf and flipped to its index.

"No kidding." He said under his breath as he walked back to Samantha. The book was indeed from the University of Culat and it dealt primarily with the cultural magnificence of Cardassia at the time of writing. He quickly flipped through the pages of the rare book, the binding of which was starting to turn amber, until he found what he was looking for. "City of Culat." He said with a grin as he sat back down.

Sam had watched Damon with interest. She liked watching people as they browsed bookshelves. It said a lot about how a person felt about books in general. You could always tell a person who valued literature in general and books specifically. She was pleased to see that Damon treated the books with respect. As he sat down she returned his grin. "City of Culat?" she repeated, wondering what the significance of the city was.

(To be continued...)

Captain Damon Raine
Marine CO
USS Calypso

Commander Samantha York
Commanding Officer
USS Calypso

 

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