Chapter 7 - Changes Of Direction
Two days later, Jack and Mei-Wan stood at the port side gangway waiting for a shuttle from the Balthazar to arrive. Mei-Wan had a small bag slung over her shoulder with the few personal items she decided to take with her for however long she'd be assigned to Starfleet Headquarters on Kel-j'na.
Jack had spent the last two days trying to think of the right thing to say that might allow them to rebuild their marriage when she returned--- if she returned.
As they heard the clang of the shuttle against the outer hull of the pressure door Mei-Wan breathed quickly and looked at Jack.
"Jack, before I go I thought you should have an answer to your question about me and Kyle," she said.
"Mei," Jack began, "I don't think this is the best time for that."
"There might not ever be a best time for it," she said as the shuttle finished docking.
"You asked me more than a week ago if I still loved Kyle and if I'd ever sleep with him," Mei-Wan stated.
Jack stood silently, expecting the worst.
"The answer to both is no."
Jack let himself breathe again and it was hard for him not to smile. He actually let a brief moment of hope slip into his mind.
"I never have and never will sleep with Kyle Hoffman," she said. "I know that as certainly as I know my name."
She waited before saying more. She tried not to smile at his obvious happiness. She didn't want him to get his hopes up higher than he should. "I don't know if I ever loved him or even knew who he really was," Mei-Wan said while avoiding eye contact with Jack. "I think I wanted him there so I'd feel I had the power to make my own choices."
"You've always had that, Mei," Jack said softly.
"Have I?" she asked now looking directly at him. "Did I have a choice about us? We're together because of the whims of that bastard, Abolas, in that prison camp."
"I've always thought we fell in love and that's why we're together," Jack replied with growing irritation at the implication she was making.
She reached out and took hold of his hand. "My dear Jack, I love you more than I ever thought I'd love anyone, but you can't deny we would never have even gotten to a first date on the Beaumont. If Abolas hadn't put us in the same barracks, if he hadn't…" her words trailed off as she hesitated. Mei-Wan held his hand tight. "We wouldn't be together at all."
Jack took a long breath and looked down. "Then what are you saying?" he asked. "Do you want a divorce?"
Her grip on his hand tightened as she fought back her tears. "If you had asked me that a couple of days ago, I might have said yes, but not now," she said with more conviction than he'd ever heard from her. "I want the chance to come back to you of my own choice, not to be thrown together by the whims of a maniac or the bureaucracy of Starfleet. I want us both to decide when I'm done on Kel-j'na if we really want to be together."
"I know that already," he said, still not looking at her.
"I need time to be sure," she whispered while the airlock behind her clanked and its seals opened. "That's all I ask, Jack. Please, just give me time enough for that."
"How much time does it take for you to realize that, Mei?" he asked, now looking directly at her, his eyes piercing and demanding.
"If you love me, as much as I need."
The airlock door slid open and Mei-Wan leaned toward the man she knew she'd always love and gently kissed him for the first time in over a week and the last time for a period neither of them knew the extent of.
Jeremiah McCall strolled through the airlock doors and approached them.
"Sorry to interrupt," the admiral stated softly. "But, we really don't have much time to waste. I just received a message from Simmons that those entities have been sighted at high warp near the Tzaka system, just this side of the Fashod Empire."
Jack smiled at his father. "If we're lucky, they'll go clear across the Galaxy and give the Borg a couple of centuries of trouble."
Jeremiah gave Mei-Wan a quick hug. "How are you doing, Mei? You all set?"
She smiled at her father-in-law. "Not really, but I guess we have to go."
Jeremiah held out a PADD. "Oh, this is for you, Jack. They've finally made a decision about your science officer."
Jack took the PADD, but decided he'd read it later. He couldn't take his eyes away from Mei-Wan.
They had done their best to avoid each other for not just the last week, but much of the last six months and now when they were finally being separated, neither of them could bear it.
Jeremiah turned to his son. "I'll probably be back out here in a couple of weeks or so, Jack. We can talk then."
"Sure, Dad."
"Don't worry," Jeremiah said with a smile. "I'll take good care of her on the trip back to Kel-j'na."
"I know," Jack replied as his father walked back into the airlock, allowing them a last moment together.
Jack took Mei-Wan in his arms and held her tight. He leaned his mouth down to her ear. "I'll be here, Mei. Take all the time you need."
Mei-Wan finally couldn't hold her tears off any longer. They fell down her cheeks and she hoped that in the end she'd find her heart leading her back to this man she loved so dearly.
"Goodbye, Jack."
Several seconds later the door sealed behind her and Jack McCall was alone.
He listened as the shuttle departed and tried to get his mind distracted with other thoughts, but found it hard. Then he remembered the PADD. He was glad Starfleet had decided not to leave Timothy Blackwell hanging. He'd proved himself as more than capable to fill the task as the Chamberlain's science officer. He deserved to have the title.
Jack read through the text of the orders on the PADD and his eyes went wide. "Son of a bitch," he whispered through clenched teeth.
***
Jack McCall stood in his ready room, a very disappointed Timothy Blackwell standing before him. Jack had just given him the bad news.
He decided not to prolong his agony. "Dismissed."
Blackwell turned quickly and exited the ready room. Jack walked slowly over to a window and watched the Balthazar as it turned and moments later streaked away at warp speed carrying Mei-Wan to her new assignment.
Jack spun about and found Kyle Hoffman waiting for him. He glared at the man. Not only did he detest the ground Hoffman walked on because of the situation concerning messages to the families of his dead crew from the Ravenscroft, but now he had a whole new reason to hate the little bastard's guts.
"Mr. Hoffman," Jack said as he walked around to take his seat behind the desk. He didn't offer the former CO of the Ravenscroft the option of sitting. Jack didn't feel he deserved it. "You have been reassigned, but I guess you knew that was coming, didn't you?"
Hoffman grinned with a smugness Jack wouldn't have minded smacking off his face.
"Let's get this over with," Jack said doing his best to hold back his own bit of justice just a little longer. He read from a PADD, "Commander Kyle Hoffman has been transferred from duty on the U.S.S. Ravenscroft to the position of science officer on the U.S.S. Chamberlain, effective immediately by order of Admiral Patricia Olanski, Chief of Starfleet Personnel." He set the PADD down on his desk. "So, how'd you do it, Hoffman?"
"Does it matter?" the younger man asked.
Jack leaned back in his chair. "Oh, I'm just curious, since you obviously disregarded the chain of command and bypassed me entirely."
Hoffman hesitated, but obviously couldn't resist shoving it under McCall's nose. "Admiral Olanski is a friend of the family, sir."
"That so?" Jack asked. "I get the impression you had some real important reason you pulled this many strings to get assigned to my ship. You didn't even try for another command."
Kyle shook his head. "Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"For the moment, go ahead."
Hoffman took a full load of air into his lungs, he apparently wanted to savor this. "Why not stop with the games, McCall?" he asked with a derisive tone in his voice. "You know damn well why I pushed for the transfer."
"Let me see… my wife perhaps?" Jack asked sternly.
Kyle only raised an eyebrow momentarily in response.
"Well, I think you'll find you've made a terrible mistake, Mr. Hoffman," Jack said.
"Your mistake is thinking you'll ever have Mei again, McCall. She and I belong together. You can't win against fate."
Jack's eyes widened. He did his best to remain calm. "I think your permission to speak freely has now expired, Mr. Hoffman."
Kyle stood at complete attention once again.
"As I said, you've made a mistake," Jack began. "Lieutenant Mei-Wan McCall just left this ship aboard the U.S.S. Balthazar and has been assigned to Starfleet Headquarters on Kel-j'na, until further notice."
The impact took a few seconds to hit Kyle Hoffman's consciousness.
"What?!" Hoffman shouted. "She can't be transferred!"
"While this might be the only time you and I ever agree on anything," Jack said. "I'm afraid that my wife is no longer aboard this vessel."
"I can't believe this!" Hoffman said under his breath.
Jack leaned forward. "Oh, and I wouldn't suggest trying the same trick to get off the Chamberlain."
Hoffman looked at Jack and frowned. His resolve was back at least a little. "And why not?"
"Because most times a favor like the one you pulled comes at a cost. And after having to move who knows how much heaven and earth to get you assigned here, it isn't likely the same thing will be done again to get you off. It would indicate that a favor was being done and someone like Olanski usually likes to keep that sort of thing below deck as much as possible," Jack said with a grin. "Any request for a transfer will now have to come across my desk for approval and I think I can guarantee, Mr. Hoffman that any such request will be quickly stamped 'unapproved'."
"You sent her away, didn’t you?" Kyle demanded. "You selfish bastard! You think you can keep us apart like this?"
Jack leaned back and took a deep breath. "That's your one shot, Hoffman. Rest assured, there won't be another. You refer to me that way again and you'll spend the next several months in the brig."
Kyle fought back his anger. "Yes, sir. Captain, sir."
Jack smiled. "Better. As to my dear wife's reassignment, you can be sure that was the last thing I wanted," he said. "Sunita Mahajan will replace Lieutenant McCall as Chief of the Archaeology Section. I want you to go over all the relevant data and see if you can find any more information concerning these attacks. Lt. Mahajan will coordinate with Lieutenant McCall back on Kel-j'na. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir," Kyle mumbled.
"You wanted to be assigned to the Chamberlain, Mr. Hoffman. You got your wish, now live with it," Jack said.
Kyle fumed but remain silent.
Jack stood, but didn't extend his hand. "Welcome aboard, Mr. Hoffman."
Kyle gave a short nod.
"Dismissed."
Kyle turned around and left without even noticing Hank Evans walking up the steps into the ready room. Hank strolled up to Jack after Kyle was gone.
"It looks like the kid isn't very happy with his assignment, Jack."
"Too damn bad," Jack replied as he returned to his seat. Hank sat in the chair across from the desk.
"Negev has laid in a course for Corvanis," Hank said. "We're supposed to leave what's left of the Ravenscroft there. I hear Starfleet intends to go over every square inch of the ship for clues about these entities."
Jack only nodded, lost in his own thoughts.
"It's okay to miss her, Jack."
He shook his head at Hank's comment. "No, it's not Mei I was thinking about."
"The entities that attacked Ninaz?"
"Yeah," Jack said. "It just doesn't make sense--- an obviously advanced lifeform, so powerful it threatened the entire Galaxy and a simple thing like a static warp shell fends them off?"
"I don't buy that either," Hank said.
"What, you think some divine force came and pulled our asses out of the fire or something?" Jack asked with a grin.
Hank chuckled. "No. It's just all of this struck me like a weak and starving man let loose at a banquet," he said. "He'd run to the first plate he saw and gorge himself. Then the next plate, and the next one, until finally he'd reach one more and realize he'd filled his stomach and couldn't eat anymore, and his sense of reason would return."
"You think the Galaxy is their banquet table?" Jack asked with a wide smile.
"I guess it depends on your point of view and what you consider food," Hank replied. "I just can't accept that some 'evil' force goes rampaging around wiping out planets for no reason. The Universe doesn't work that way."
Jack listened intently to Hank. "Then what's the reason?" the captain asked.
"I don't know," Hank said. "But there always is a reason. We might not see it at first, or maybe we can't understand it, but it's always there, trust me."
***
Thirty minutes later, down in the Officer's Lounge on Deck Nine, Kyle Hoffman sat staring at a full glass of some bright pink liquid with a couple of pieces of ice swirling about each other at the top.
Hank Evans walked in and looked around the room as if searching for someone. He glanced at the chronometer near the front of the lounge and shrugged his shoulders. He walked over, taking a chair several down from Hoffman.
Hank got the attention of the Edoan behind the bar. After giving him his order Hank sat back as the bartender used all three of his arms to prepare his drink.
"Thanks," Hank said with a nod as he took a sip of a bubbling green liquid. He turned to look around again and saw Hoffman. "You look like someone just smashed your left nut with a ball-peen hammer, son," Hank said with a grin.
Kyle turned slowly to glare at Hank. "I'm having a really bad day, so if you don't mind."
"Sure," Hank said. He purposely misinterpreted Hoffman's meaning and moved a chair closer to the Chamberlain's new science officer.
"I'm waiting on my lady friend, so I've got a few minutes," Hank said as he took another sip of his drink.
Kyle shook his head. "Are you stupid or something? I said leave me alone."
"No, you said, 'so if you don't mind.' That's a whole different thing."
Kyle let his breath out. "Is everyone on this ship insane?"
"No, but we try to give that impression," Hank said.
"Well, this is one officer who isn't going to join in the craziness."
"Yeah, I'd heard you had been assigned to us."
"I'm surprised news travels that fast on a ship this size," Kyle said.
"It travels faster," Hank said. "With a crew of three thousand it takes only about a half hour for gossip to travel from bow to stern."
Kyle turned his glass around nervously. "Lucky me, I got assigned to this ship. So what?"
"The scuttlebutt is you used some powerful connections to get yourself assigned here just so you could have a chance to make a move on the captain's wife."
"People talk too much about things they're ignorant of."
Hank shrugged his shoulders. "Could be, but I heard she told you to drop dead."
Kyle stared at Hank. "Don't you have someplace to be?"
"Like I said, I'm waiting on somebody."
Hank took a long sip of his drink. "You know what really pisses me off about what you did, sonny?"
"I really don't care."
"There was a good man up for the science officer's slot, Timothy Blackwell. He's a smart resourceful guy. And he deserved the position. He'd earned it. He took the mess the last jack-ass left and made it work. That department loves him because he's a nice guy and he knows his job."
"Well, I feel for him," Kyle spat sarcastically.
Hank frowned. "That attitude won't help you much. Like I said, the science department used to be run by a jack-ass. In fact, he was a murdering jack-ass. Killed a real sweet girl. So, his department is used to seeing the guy at the top as the enemy. You go into this with your attitude and they'll quickly shift that 'us versus him' mentality straight to your arrogant ass."
"I outrank you. I expect the proper respect, Lieutenant Commander!" Kyle shouted.
Hank laughed. "I'm not much of one for ranks, kid. You keep this up and your stay aboard this ship will be a living hell."
"You'll be on report for insubordination by tomorrow morning," Kyle said with a smile.
Hank finished his drink. "And that report will never see the light of day. Trust me on that one."
He started to turn away but stopped and leaned toward Hoffman. "And sonny," Hank whispered. "Once she comes back to this ship, if I ever hear you've bothered Mei-Wan in any way, you'll be dead within six hours."
Kyle chuckled until he looked into Hank Evans eyes and saw not boastfulness, not bluster, but the cold steel glare of a man who had killed hundreds of times before. Kyle Hoffman's hand started shaking so much he almost knocked his drink over.
Hank turned to the Edoan bartender. "Thanks for the drink, Praz. I think I'll go wait for Loftus in the corridor." He frowned at Hoffman. "I don't much like the company in here."
Hank walked out.
Kyle picked up his glass and could barely hold it still enough to get a drink from it. It wasn't every day he was threatened with certain death by a man who seemed all too eager to dole it out.
***
Jack McCall sat in his command chair brooding. There was no other word for it and he had spent the last day doing nothing else. Mei-Wan's departure had not angered him or made him shed tears like he might have thought he'd do. It just left him listless and depressed. Hank Evans had suggested he find a hobby. Jack had told him to go suck the exhaust out of the impulse manifold.
The boredom of their approach at warp six to Corvanis didn't help his mood in the least. He'd debated trying to contact her and talk more, but she had asked for time to herself, so he decided against that idea.
Jack exhaled his breath slowly and looked again at the chronometer. It was exactly two minutes later than the last time he had gazed at it. In seventeen minutes, Commander Negev would arrive to take the next shift and Jack would spend a half hour in his ready room going over reports with Commander Purcell. Then he'd have nothing at all to do.
Melissa Vargas walked up to him and grinned. "Captain, I was wondering if you'd like to have dinner this evening with Kristen Bishop and me."
"No, I think I've got a previous appointment."
Vargas raised an eyebrow in typical Vulcan fashion, but the addition of her smile just didn't look at all right to Jack. "Do you intend to do nothing but sulk around this ship the entire time Mei's gone, sir?" she asked.
"I'm not sulking," he replied.
Melissa shook her head and was about to say something more when Arthur Conrad's communication station let out a wailing alarm. He quickly attended to it and began checking his displays.
Jack turned to him. "What is it, Mr. Conrad?"
"A distress call of some sort," Conrad said.
Jack sat up in his seat. "Yellow alert," he ordered. A second later he returned to Conrad. "Another planet under attack?"
Conrad's eyes widened as he turned to Jack. "No, sir. It's from the Balthazar."
Jack looked down and his mind raced. He leaped to his feet. "Red alert! Alter course to arrive at their last known location. Maximum warp, Mr. s'Felis!"
In seconds, the alarm klaxon blared and the ship was turning about to head off in search of the source of the distress call.
***
Twenty-one hours later the Chamberlain streaked across space, straining its engines.
Jack had only left the bridge briefly since they had received the distress signal from his father's starship. He tried to keep his mind off what might have happened and focused on what he had to do. They already notified Starfleet, but no other ships would arrive in the area for another three days.
"Coming out of warp," Lak Negev announced. "Main viewscreen at maximum magnification."
A few seconds later, Jack McCall's worst nightmares became reality. He stood and looked at what was displayed before him. All he or anyone on the bridge could see were bits of metallic debris scattered through space, tumbling about chaotically. A few chunks of a ship's hull floated past their view as the Chamberlain slowly moved through the field of destruction.
Then they saw a body. It was a man in a Starfleet uniform, his skin burned to pitch black, like the soot found around a hot fire that had died days before.
Jack stumbled backward, almost falling into his chair.
"Mei… Dad…" he whispered. "Oh god, Mei!"
Jack McCall in that moment wished he could take back every cross word he had ever spoken and every demand he had made of her. He would have sacrificed everything that had kept them apart the last six months if he could just find her somewhere among the scattered wreckage, alive and well.
But what he saw unfolding on the viewscreen before him could not be erased with a wish. It was the reality of his life and the abyss of torment he had just fallen into.
TO BE CONTINUED…
***
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Dark Horizon Story and Characters Copyright ©2003 Michael Gray
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