Chapter 2 – So Shaken As We Are
“Which ship is it?” Jack asked, peering nervously over Melissa's shoulder at the PADD. He could feel his heart beating away inside his chest. He tried to hide the emotional reaction storming through his mind.
Melissa smiled, playfully pulling the PADD away so he couldn't see it. “If you’d let me read it, I could tell you.”
Jack took a long breath and leaned away. He wanted to be excited for her, but the dread building in his soul flowed over him.
“It's the Morrison,” Melissa said. “NCC-13473, an Ambassador class, refitted last year.”
Jack remembered the Beaumont, his ship of the same class during the Dominion War.
“All new systems, practically rebuilt from the ground up,” Melissa said, scanning the PADD quickly. “The ship hasn't been out for two years.”
“That's quite a refit,” Jack said. He did his best to stay in the conversation with her.
“Part of that time was spent refining the new systems.” She read further. “The mission plans are cartography and first contact about a hundred light years beyond Klingon territory,” she said with a wider smile. “God, this is going to be good.”
Jack put his arms around Melissa, pulling her to his side of the couch. “Congratulations, sweetheart. I am so happy for you.”
Melissa set the PADD aside for a moment. “They expect us to be away from the Federation core for two years or more.”
Jack’s heart nearly came to a stop.
Her smile faded. “Are you really happy for me?”
“Your first executive officer assignment is an important milestone,” Jack said, doing his best to sound positive. “It's the last step before taking your own command. I know that's been a goal of yours for a long time.”
She grinned. “I'm doing my best to focus on this promotion rather than looking ahead to the next one.”
“I've been there,” he said. “I know it can be hard not to look ahead. But once you're there and actually are the first officer of the Morrison, you'll spend all your time focused on the job at hand.”
“Do you really think I can do this?” she asked, a moment of indecision filling her eyes.
Jack could see her need for validation. A part of him wanted to tell her that she wasn't ready just so she'd turn it down. But that would be a lie. She was ready, and had been for some time. Melissa was stagnating here, and Jack was part of the reason for that. She needed to keep growing as an officer and as her own person.
“You've been ready for over a year,” he said, a part of him screaming inside. “It's past time for you to move forward and take the next step.”
Melissa smiled and kissed him. She leaned into him, placing her hands on his chest.
But she stopped.
“Your heart... it's racing.”
“I'm excited for you.” He was, but that wasn't the reason his heart was operating like a hummingbird's wings. “You're going to grow in ways you never imagined. It's going to be an exciting time for you.”
She frowned. “That isn't it. You're afraid.”
He looked down. He couldn't hide it any longer. “I just...”
“Worried about what happens to us?”
He nodded without looking up at her.
Melissa gently pulled his chin up so that his eyes met hers. “I know we're going to have to make some adjustments to our relationship. And I'm aware you're going to have a difficult time with this.” She sat back on the couch. “I want our marriage to continue, and I want it to work... for both of us.”
Jack had a sudden urge to cry out, but he buried it deep. “I am afraid.”
Melissa pulled him into her arms. “I know. I am too, but not of the same things as you.”
“What are you afraid of?” he asked.
“That you'll ask me not to take this promotion,” she said. “That you'll ask me to stay here.”
Jack took a deep breath, doing his best to fight the temptation to do just that. “Why would you be afraid of that?”
“Because if you ask it of me, I'm going to do it,” she said. “Out of my sense of duty to you, and to our marriage.”
“But not out of love?”
“If I'm acting out of love, I wouldn't say yes. I know what it would do to us.” Melissa looked away a moment. “I turned down a promotion a couple of years ago because I wanted to spend time with you, but I can’t do that again. My life has to be about more than only being your wife.”
Jack pulled her close. “I won't ask.”
“I know.”
***
Jack McCall...
The voice drew Jack out of the fog of his mind. It had a lure to it, directing him by some means he couldn't understand. He recognized the voice, but from where, he could not remember.
Jack, focus on your mission, on your duty.
“What mission?” he called out to the woman's voice. “What duty?”
You are being distracted from the true course for your life.
Jack kept hoping the voice would leave him alone. A part of him identified it with his mother, but he knew it was not her.
I am more your mother than the woman who bore you.
“You're talking to me in riddles!”
You are afraid. You know you have forgotten, and that my voice can sooth the fears. I have the answers you seek.
“This is crazy,” Jack said. “You're manipulating me.”
I have brought you to a destiny which was sealed away from you. Before I brought you here, your life was filled with rage and had no meaning.
“Where is here?” he asked.
Even though you fear the truth, you seek the knowledge which will continue to point you in the direction you are embarked on. You want reassurance.
“Of course, I want reassurance,” he said. “Show yourself!”
You must return to Geryon IV, you must end the Cylithians. They are a danger to the entire Galaxy.
“Show yourself!” he howled into the darkness.
Out of the gloomy void surrounding him, an old woman stepped forward, at first as if from a far distance, but soon, she came close enough for him to make out the face.
“I do know you,” he said. “But I can't remember.”
You have chosen not to remember.
She was now close enough that he saw her black in black eyes.
His memory stirred. “I saw you before in a never-ending field of greener than green grass. You appeared to me, and told me...” That part, he couldn't remember.
I have appeared to you when you needed help staying on the path I have set before you. Return to the path and your life will be as it should.
“No… this is all wrong.”
If you return to the path and destroy the Cylithians, you can keep Melissa. You can grow old together.
“Tell me who you are!”
I am Nekbet.
Jack bolted up out of bed. Only the faint light from a nearby comm panel illuminated the bedroom. He turned and looked at Melissa next to him in the bed.
“Are you here?” Jack whispered.
Nothing.
He had seen the woman with black eyes before. She had appeared to him in a dream several years earlier. He wondered if she was one of the Q, or perhaps another entity.
Jack knew he should report this to Starfleet.
No... came a whisper upon the silence in the air.
It had to be one of the Q, perhaps the same one he had dealt with several years earlier. But they had run away when the Vedala had appeared to Jack. Why would they be bothering him in dreams? Their standard arrogant operating procedure was to come by personally and gloat over how his bacteria level mind hadn't figured out some cosmic conundrum.
No, this wasn't their style at all.
Then who? That old woman… Her black eyes were distinctive, and he remembered the chill he'd felt the last time.
“Who are you?” Jack whispered, careful not to wake Melissa.
He'd have to report this, but he wanted to do it face to face with someone from Starfleet.
Jack walked into the living room of their quarters, and sat at the comm panel.
“McCall to bridge,” he spoke into the device.
“Lieutenant Anders here, sir,” came the male voice out of the speaker.
“How long before we arrive at Yed Post IV?”
A pause. “Twenty-two hours, seven minutes, Captain.”
“Thank you.” He touched a control, waited a moment, He touched another at the comm panel. “Computer, connect me to the Starfleet Operations office on Yed Post IV.”
After several minutes of going through the chain of command list on Yed Post IV, Jack discovered the highest ranking officer on the planet was an Admiral Jean Vogt. After a moment, he was connected to her office.
A thirtysomething female commander appeared on the screen.
“Commander Bolano here,” she said with a slight Spanish accent. Her eyes widened. “Captain McCall?”
“Yes, Commander,” Jack said. “I need to speak to Admiral Vogt.”
“Uh...” She appeared far more nervous than Jack would have expected. “I'm not sure she would be willing to do that at the moment, given the situation... that, uh...”
“Situation?” Jack asked. He wondered what in the world could be going on there on that planet. “I have been contacted by an entity which I believe might be a danger to the Federation. Per standard protocol, I am contacting the senior officer in the sector and inquiring as to how I should proceed.”
“An entity?” Bolano asked. She turned to look at a PADD, quickly scanning through it. “Okay... Uh, what message do you wish to relay to the admiral?”
“I need to speak to her one on one via a secure channel. I believe this is urgent.”
Bolano again looked at the PADD. “Captain, I think I understand. According to my information, your ship should arrive in less than a day.”
“Yes,” Jack said.
She turned away a moment, the sound on the channel going dead. But Jack was used to that. The staff for an admiral often had to get guidance from a more senior officer, or the admiral themselves. He could wait.
Bolano returned. “Admiral Vogt will meet with you upon your arrival. Please come to her office when your ship makes standard orbit. Be sure to turn over command to your executive officer at that time.”
Jack nodded. They were taking this seriously. Had others been contacted by this same entity?
“The admiral thanks you for your cooperation and your discretion with this matter.”
“My pleasure, Commander.”
She hesitated a moment, then nodded. The signal switched off.
There was a lot more going on here, and Jack was glad to see Starfleet was already mobilizing to handle the situation.
