Chapter 3 - Friendly Encounters
Jack McCall strolled across a green grassy plain. The bright sun above lit the lush ground, giving everything an emerald glow he found disheartening and even frightening. But he couldn't figure out why.
He took a deep breath of the fresh air being pushed about by a breeze so slight to go almost unnoticed except for the smells it brought to his senses.
One of those smells made his heart stop.
It was the fragrance of Mei-Wan's hair just after she had taken a shower. He would always hold her tight, pressing his face against the nape of her neck where the damp hair touched her silky skin. During those moments, time stood still for Jack. Nothing else in the Universe mattered to him, but the eternity of joy he experienced during those times.
Mei! his soul cried out. Where are you?!
Jack stopped in front of the largest bed of flowers he'd ever seen. The variety of plants was enormous, but what caught his eye was the odd pattern they were planted in. Instead of rows, they appeared to be arranged in strange diagonals that made little sense.
"It's dying, Jack," a female voice said.
Jack turned to his right and saw a nebulous figure. He blinked his eyes and the figure coalesced into his mother.
"Mom?" he asked.
She turned to him with a sad look. "You can't let it die. Not after all the work we've put into it. Please, Jack."
"Mom, where are we?" he pleaded.
She turned to face him and suddenly Jack was frightened. His mother's warm eyes were gone, replaced by completely black orbs.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
The figure became older--- far older than his mother. The only constant was the pitch black eyes. This woman's hair had a cadaverous look that Jack didn't like at all.
"You can still save it all, Jack," she said with an odd accent he couldn't place.
"Save what?" he demanded. "Tell me who you are!"
"The accident can be avoided," she said. "You and your wife can survive it, if you do as I ask."
"Mei..." Jack whispered to himself. He turned to the old woman. "Mei is dead."
The woman smiled wide.
Jack took a step back. "Are you a Vedala?"
The woman shook her head. "The Vedala have been gone for a long time. They never understood."
Jack closed his eyes, but he could still smell Mei-Wan's hair.
"Yes," the old woman said softly. "Think of her, Jack. Remember her. She is the reason you'll do as I ask."
He opened his eyes and peered into the woman's bottomless eyes. "Tell me how to get her back, please!"
"I'll do better than that," she replied. "I'll tell you the truth like you've never had it told to you before."
"Yes, please tell me about Mei! Tell me where to find her!"
"On the day of the accident you will be given a choice," the woman explained. "You will have a last opportunity to..."
A loud thumping sound filled the grassy plain around them.
Jack turned to the woman, who appeared frightened. "Hurry, tell me about Mei!" he insisted.
More thumping.
---
Jack opened his eyes and found himself in his quarters aboard the Chamberlain. Someone was knocking at his door.
He shook the drowsiness out of his head. "What is it?!" he yelled.
The door opened and Melissa Vargas walked in.
"I was beginning to worry, sir," she said. "I've been at your door for two minutes."
He slowly sat up in the chair. The PADD he had on his lap fell to the floor. Melissa reached down and picked it up.
She smirked. "Personnel reports?"
He nodded as he reached for the glass of juice on the table next to him.
"I thought Purcell took care of this for you?"
Jack took a sip from the glass. "Having been on leave for a while, I wanted to review all of it."
"Well, here's something else for your reading enjoyment," Melissa said as she handed him another one of the devices.
Jack reached up for it. "What's this?"
"It's classified," she said. "Your eyes only."
Jack scanned it quickly.
"Uh hum," the blonde half-Vulcan uttered.
Jack grinned. "You know better than that, Melissa."
"Come on, sir."
He shook his head. "Take a seat."
She sat in the couch across from him. She noticed a picture of Mei-Wan on the table next to him.
Jack continued to read through the report she had just given him. "Nothing much really," he said. "Just some rumblings about something odd with the Romulans."
She frowned. "When isn't something to do with them 'odd'?"
"Melissa," he chided her.
"The whole bunch of them are strange," she insisted. "Like Vulcans from a parallel dimension or something. And Vulcans aren't a whole lot of fun to begin with."
He looked at her, his expression softened. "Mei always said you were fun to be around."
Melissa smiled. "Well, I'm not exactly anyone's idea of a Vulcan, so I don't count."
Jack leaned back in his seat and relaxed. He handed the PADD to her. "Mei told me you don't get along with your mother very well."
Melissa shook her head. "I guess neither of you were very good at keeping secrets."
"I'm sorry," he said.
She smiled. "No, it's okay. I kind of figured she'd tell you about that."
Both of them sat in silence for nearly a minute.
Melissa looked at Jack. "So did you used to tell Mei about classified reports like this one?"
He grinned. "Sometimes, when I didn't think it would endanger her to know something."
"What kind of things did you tell her about?" Melissa asked.
He thought a moment. "When we got back after the war I had a pile of classified materials I had to catch up on," he said. "Some of it was pretty scary stuff."
"What, the Federation President has a mistress?" she asked with a wide smile.
"Nothing like that," he told her. "There was one about the Borg attack on Earth that..." He stopped.
Melissa shook her head. "You mean them going back in time to stop Cochrane's flight?"
"How do you know about that?" Jack asked with narrowed eyes.
"That rumor was flying around about a year or so after their attack," she said.
"Oh," he said. "I guess being a prisoner of war does have the advantage of keeping you isolated from gossip and rumor."
"You told Mei about that?"
"Yeah, but for some reason it always bothered her. She never really said why."
Melissa chuckled. "It was her obsession with little details and things making sense that made her a great scientist."
Jack looked warmly at Melissa. "I'm glad the two of you were friends."
She smiled. "Me too."
Jack's door chime sounded. Melissa stood to her feet.
"I should be going," she said. "I've got midshipmen evaluations to finish up this afternoon."
Jack stood up from his chair. "Melissa?"
She turned back to him as the chime sounded again. "Sir?"
"Whenever you feel like..." he hesitated then took a breath. "Whenever you want to talk about Mei, feel free to come by."
She nodded. "Thank you, I will."
Melissa walked to the door. It opened revealing a man in his late thirties with short cut, dark hair. He wore the rank of lieutenant commander.
"Uh, hello beautiful," the man said to Melissa.
She rolled her eyes and turned to Jack. "I believe you have a visitor, sir."
She tried to get past the man at the door as Jack approached. "The words you’re looking for Lieutenant Commander are 'excuse me'," she said, a bit irritated.
"Not the words I had in mind," the new arrival said with a raised eyebrow.
"Well, I'll be damned!" Jack shouted. "Garth!"
Melissa smiled at Jack's reaction to the dark haired officer, and stood aside as her captain rushed to embrace the man at his door.
"You crazy son of a bitch!" Jack laughed. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"Came by to see you, ya old fart!" Garth answered.
Jack turned to Melissa. "Melissa, Garth Fuldrom."
Melissa gave a quick nod.
"This is our Operations Officer, Melissa Vargas," Jack said to Fuldrom.
"My pleasure, Lieutenant Commander," Garth said with a hint of interest.
"Garth was a first year cadet my last year," Jack told Melissa.
"And Jack did his best to teach me everything I needed to know to make it through that place," Fuldrom added. "Things like where to find real alcohol and how to get..." He stopped a moment. "Let's just leave it at 'other things'."
Melissa turned to Jack, with a raised eyebrow. "I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about."
Jack nodded as Melissa turned and left.
Garth watched her leave. "I'd ask what she was doing in your quarters, but I think what my imagination can come up with has got to be better than the reality," Garth said. "So, I'll just mind my own business."
Jack shook his head and held up the PADD Melissa had brought. "Reports."
"Is that what it's called these days?" Garth asked with a smirk.
Jack smiled and pointed to the couch. "Sit down you degenerate."
"Finally some hospitality!"
Jack laughed and sat down across from his friend. "So what brings you all the way out here?"
"I'm the tactical officer aboard the transport, Namtar. We just got in with a bunch of supplies for the Corps of Engineers," Garth told him.
"Weren't you were on the Corlis?" Jack tried to remember.
"I was until Starfleet decommissioned her last year."
"The Namtar, huh?" Jack asked with smile.
"But only for a few more weeks," Garth said. "I just got new orders. I'm being transferred to a perimeter action vessel."
Jack tried to hide his displeasure. He developed a solid dislike for those ships after he'd realized the effect serving on one had had on Hank Evans.
"Dangerous duty," Jack said softly.
"Ah, not these days," Garth replied jovially. "You're one to talk from what I hear. Five Borg cubes all by yourself."
Jack chuckled. "Not exactly."
Garth's jovial attitude faded. "I'm sorry about Mei-Wan, Jack."
Jack looked down. "Yeah… me too."
They both sat silently for a half minute. Then Jack came out of wherever his mind had taken him for that time.
"How long you going to be around?" he asked his friend.
"That's the part that stinks," Garth said. "We ship out for Kel-j'na tomorrow."
"Damn," Jack whispered.
"But assuming the captain of this bucket can spare a few hours, I figured we could make a night of it," Garth said, his happy demeanor returned.
"I know just the place we should go," Jack said with a grin.
***
Three hours later, Jack and Garth sat at a table, sans uniform jackets and rank pins, in the make-shift bar located in Section D-Three on Deck Thirty-three. Members of the Chamberlain crew knew it affectionately as "Deep Thirty-Three."
A large crowd filled the small room this evening and as usual, Chief Engineer Kristen Bishop was holding court in front of one of the walls where hand-written equations from General Relativity, Topology, and Warp Dynamics were scribbled and then argued about energetically.
Jack sat with a full glass of scotch while Garth downed his second glass of Kentucky Bourbon.
"Guess who I ran into eight months ago," Garth Fuldrom baited.
"Who?" Jack asked, playing with the rim of his glass with one finger.
"Fariha."
Jack took a deep breath into his lungs. Fariha Sahami's name brought back a lot of memories to his mind. Most of them were good, except those at the end.
"How is she?" Jack finally asked.
"She looked good," Garth said. "But she did always look good." He grinned a moment. "She's Exec on the Addanz, but I hear she'll get her own ship soon."
Jack remembered Fariha's golden skin, dark hair, warm smile, and...
He stopped himself. He saw no point in dredging up those memories.
Jack and Fariha had come close to getting married six years ago when they had served together on the U.S.S. Vander, but he backed out just before going to meet her parents. She hadn't responded well.
"I asked if she'd seen you," Garth said. "She told me what I could do with a phaser rifle."
"I imagine it was an unpleasant suggestion," Jack responded with a smirk.
"I doubt I would have enjoyed it." Garth poured himself another glass from the half empty bottle on the table. He stared at Jack's still full glass.
"You waiting for that to ferment more or something?"
Jack grinned and took the drink in his hand. "I haven't been a very good drinking companion this evening."
"You've been fine," Garth said as he downed more alcohol. "I don't ever complain about free and real bourbon."
Jack set his glass back down on the table.
Garth watched him closely. "You okay?"
Jack nodded.
Garth leaned closer to the table. "Hey, I can understand how tore up you must be about losing Mei-Wan. I'd guess it'll be something you'll carry around with you for the rest of your life, but if you'll take just a little bit of advice from someone who should never offer any..."
Jack tried to smile, but found he couldn't.
"You've got to pull yourself out of this."
Jack sat silently turning his glass around in his hands.
Garth frowned. "When's the last time you had a date?"
Jack's eyes darted to his friend. "Don't push your luck, Garth."
Fuldrom took another drink and lowered his voice. "I'm not suggesting you go fall in love with anyone, damn it. Just spend a nice evening kicking back and relaxing with a member of the opposite sex."
"For the... " Jack began far too loudly. He stopped and lowered his voice to a whisper. "She's only been gone four months, Garth."
"I'm not implying you should have sex," Garth replied. "Though, it would probably do you some good."
A scowl came to Jack's face. "I think you need to change the subject, Fuldrom."
Garth leaned back in his seat. "You know I'm right."
Jack picked his glass up. "You're right about one thing."
"Yeah?"
"You shouldn't ever give advice."
Garth saw the anger in his friend's eyes and decided he'd pushed too hard.
"Well," Garth started as he raised his own glass. "It's good to be right about something."
Jack's scowl faded. "I think you've caught your limit."
"Probably so," Garth answered back.
He brought his glass near Jack's and a serious look came to his face.
"To Mei-Wan," Garth offered. "A woman as intelligent as she was beautiful."
Jack touched his glass to Garth's. He took only a small sip while Garth downed his completely.
***
Later that evening, as the ship's chronometers slid to 2300, Jack walked back to his quarters, alone, down the empty corridor. He had said goodbye to Garth Fuldrom who had returned back to his ship. The Namtar had received new orders to proceed to the Karta system immediately.
Jack regretted getting angry at Garth, but the idea he could start dating again was...
"Good evening, Jack," a sultry voice spoke.
Jack looked up and saw Kristen Bishop standing outside his door, a bottle of wine in her hand.
"Lieutenant Commander," Jack said. "We're no longer in that bar of yours."
"Good," she said with a wide smile. "Where'd your friend go?"
Jack tried to get to his quarters, but Bishop moved to block his path.
"He had to return to his ship," Jack said.
Bishop's eyes narrowed. "I'm sorry to hear that."
But it was clear to Jack she was anything but sorry.
"I thought you could use some company," she said, still blocking his door as she stood rather seductively.
"Kristy, I really don't think..."
"Don't think, Jack," she said softly as she inched near him.
He shook his head as she looked up at him with an obvious willingness in her eyes.
"I'm not after anything permanent, Jack," she whispered as she ran her free hand down his arm. "I know you're still hurting. It's okay to forget for just one night."
Jack looked into her eyes and touched the smooth, dark skin of her face.
Kristen closed her eyes and leaned toward him. Their lips touched gently.
A moment later Jack pulled away and closed his eyes.
He felt more guilty than he ever had about anything before.
"No," his voice came forth as if from a phantom fighting for its very soul.
Kristen opened her own eyes again and took his hand.
"Jack, it's okay."
"No, it isn't," he told her, trying not to let the anger he felt toward himself erupt onto her. He figured she was at least a little drunk, and might regret what she was doing afterward.
Realizing his turmoil, she took a step back. "I'm sorry."
Forcing a smile to his face, Jack opened his eyes. "No, it's not you."
"Listen, I just..." her voice broke. She was near tears.
"Kristy, it's okay. Just bad timing."
"You sure?" she asked as her eyes begged for a sign of forgiveness from him.
He smiled. "Yeah, I'm sure." He kissed her on the cheek and hugged her tightly. "I just need more time."
"Okay," she said, finally accepting he wasn't angry with her. "I'll see you tomorrow, sir," she said as she stepped away and began down the corridor.
"Kristy," Jack said.
She stopped and turned back. "Yes?"
He smiled wide. "Thanks for the offer, and..." he took a step toward her. "Try me again sometime. After I've had more time to..."
A smile spread across her face. "You can count on it."
Jack watched her until she disappeared around the curve of the corridor.
He shook his head and went into his quarters, wondering if he'd regret passing up her offer the next morning.
