Chapter 4 – Banish All The World
As Jack and Melissa got into bed, his head was still spinning a bit from the alcohol he had imbibed down in Deep Thirty-Three.
“I saw Kristy and Loftus talking to you during the party tonight,” Melissa said as she pressed up against him.
“Officers tend to do that with their captain from time to time.”
Melissa frowned. “I know what they were up to. I encouraged them.”
“You what?”
“You’re going to need companionship while we’re apart,” she said. “I’m okay with that. More than okay.”
He turned to her. “I'm…”
“You're a human male who has needs both physical and emotional,” she said with a warm smile.
“I don't want to talk about this.”
“We’ve put off this discussion far too long,” she said, placing her hand on his chest. “We need to settle this. I’d like our last couple of days together to be happy, and...” She leaned over and kissed him. “I want to give you some reminders of how much I love you.”
Jack felt his heart melt for Melissa all over again. They were supposed to share a life together.
But now...
“We may end up being away from one another for several years,” she said. “I want to know you're going to be okay, and that you won't feel guilty for being human.”
“I went five years in the nineteenth century without...”
“And how was that for you? Did you enjoy it?”
“No,” he grumbled, looking away.
“You told me you were tempted to start up a life with a woman back then.”
“Yes, but it would have meant altering the timeline, and I just...”
“But this isn’t like that,” Melissa said. “If you get involved with another woman, or man for that matter, it's not going to change the space-time continuum or rewrite history. Our marriage shouldn’t put you in a cage where you’re miserable for years.”
“Do you want a divorce?” he asked, immediately regretting it.
She pulled him into her arms. “No. That isn't the only alternative.”
“I don’t see another one,” he said.
“Is this about you or me?”
“What?” he asked, perplexed by how this conversation had turned.
“Is your problem with you seeking fulfillment elsewhere, or me doing so?” she asked. “I need you to be completely honest with me on this.”
“I think we should discuss this with the counselor.”
Melissa’s jaw tightened. “That’s what I’ve been saying for months. You resisted.”
“We’re married. There’s nothing to talk about.”
Melissa sat up in bed, her back to him. “You’re asking me to pretend for two years that I don’t have needs.”
“No, I’m not,” Jack insisted. “How is this being turned back on me?”
“It’s always been about you, Jack—your insecurities and your fears.”
“No, this is about our marriage.”
“Our marriage can, like most other couples, have whatever rules we decide it has,” Melissa said. “But you’re not even willing to discuss it. You assume I want the same rules you do, but you knew when we met I didn’t see things the same way.”
“Are you saying we shouldn’t have gotten married?” he asked, near tears.
“No, but we need to work this out quickly. I ship out to my new assignment in seven days.”
“Can’t we just leave things as they are?”
“We won’t be together,” she said. “I have to be able to live over the next two years.”
“You’re asking too much.”
“I’m only asking that you treat me as a person who sees the world differently than you, and accept that I still love you no matter what I engage in with anyone else while we’re separated by hundreds of light years.”
Jack shook his head. “I don’t think I can do that.”
Melissa took a long breath, then got up from the bed, walking into the outer room.
“Melissa…” Jack called out to her, but she didn’t respond.
“Damn it,” he muttered to himself.
***
An hour later, Jack stared at the ceiling unable to fall asleep. He couldn’t let this fester between him and Melissa, but outside of divorce, or her capitulating to his point of view, he couldn’t see a way out of this.
Jack got out of bed and put on a robe. He walked into the living room of their quarters.
Melissa was on a couch, wearing a robe she had evidently put on after leaving the bedroom. She rolled over to face him as he entered the room, and stared at him.
Jack knew he had to be the one to start a new conversation.
“I’m sorry we didn’t talk this out more before we were married,” he said, standing a short distance away from her.
“Me too,” she replied. She rose from the couch. “I guess we both assumed we weren’t nearly as far apart on this as we are.”
“I knew you viewed this differently, but since we were assigned to the same ship…”
“I know. And I think I’ve come to realize this is far more important to me than I originally thought,” she added. “Most married officers don’t get assigned together for near as long as we have. We’ve been very lucky.”
“Or Wakernaggle was responsible,” Jack said. “This could have been another one of his manipulation games.”
“Maybe,” Melissa said with a nod. “But where do we go from here?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said, looking down.
“Most other people in the twenty-fourth century don’t have a problem dealing with this,” Melissa said.
“Can you please stop making this about my outdated mindset?”
Melissa hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Okay, that wasn’t fair.”
“Thank you.”
“Your parents had an arrangement like I’m suggesting,” Melissa said. “It seemed to work for them.”
“Other people can do whatever they want,” Jack said. “This is you and me.”
“That’s not true,” Melissa said. “You weren’t at all willing to allow your mother to do whatever she wanted. After you found out, you wanted to ban her and Alan from our wedding.”
“I seem to remember you overruling me on that.”
“Because she’s your mother.” Melissa took a step toward Jack. “And because keeping your mother from our wedding would have caused too much damage to your relationship with her. I couldn’t let you do that, just like I can’t let you sequester yourself away in your ready room for two years, consumed by reports and ship’s business when you should be living.”
“I’m only interested in living with you,” Jack said.
“That’s not going to be possible when I transfer to the Morrison.”
Jack shook his head. He didn’t want to believe they were so far apart on something so important to him.
“I need you to give me the room to live for the next two years,” Melissa said. “And know that you’ll do the same for yourself.”
“What you’re asking is…”
“What I’m asking is that you stop treating my sexuality as if it were something which belongs to you,” Melissa said. “It isn’t yours.”
He stared at her for several seconds. “I can’t make the same choice my parents did. They were wrong, they…”
“They maintained their marriage so that when they did have time to together, their love could still flourish.”
“I can’t,” Jack murmured.
“This isn’t can’t. It’s won’t.” Melissa walked back the couch she’d been in when he’d come into the room.
***
Mei-Wan watched out the main viewport as the Athena came out of warp near Yed Post IV. The blue-green globe filled the sky, and her mind.
“See? We made it,” Harold said at the controls.
“I never doubted your piloting skills,” Mei-Wan replied.
“We’re being assigned a port station,” Harold said. “Ninety-four.”
“Take us in.”
***
The Athena came to a rest and the back ramp opened.
Mei-Wan’s team strolled out of their ship into the bright sunlight of Yed Post IV.
“You want to investigate restaurants tonight?” Dani asked Mei-Wan as they walked away from the back of the ship.
“No,” Mei-Wan replied as she took Dani’s hand in her own. “I’d rather prepare for our presentation tomorrow.” She took a breath. “And I’d like to find out when Jack and Forcas are arriving.”
“You still think there’s…”
“There has to be a connection,” Mei-Wan said. “My worry is if I find it, what do I do about it?”
***
Jack watched on the main viewscreen as his ship entered a standard orbit of Yed Post IV. He never got tired of seeing a planet come into view, its atmosphere glowing along the curve of its surface.
“Standard orbit established,” Zaylie Burton called out.
Jack turned to Kadan Loftus. “I have a meeting with Admiral Vogt which may take some time. I turn the ship over to you.”
“I'll try to not break it,” Loftus said with a grin.
“Not one scratch,” Jack chided playfully as he headed toward the doors to the bridge. “I expect to find this ship in the same condition I left it.”
“There goes my idea of painting the corridors bright purple,” Loftus said.
Jack let out a snort as he passed through the doors.
He quickly made his way to the turbolift, and from there to the main shuttlebay. He had decided to take the shuttle out himself for a change.
But much to his surprise, once he had arrived at the doors to the shuttlebay, Zaylie Burton was there waiting for him, a wide smile on her face.
“How did you...”
“Don't ask,” Zaylie said, as she turned smartly and went through the doors into the bay. “You wouldn't like it.”
“Now I'm more curious than ever,” Jack said.
“That's what I've always liked about you,” she said, marching next to him to the shuttle.
“You know, I can do this myself,” he said. “I'm a pretty good pilot.”
“I'm aware of that, sir. But the commander of a starship shouldn't have to handle mundane duties like that. You've got more important things to occupy your mind.”
He stopped. “Did Melissa ask you to do this?”
“No, sir.”
“Commander Kadan?”
“No, sir.”
Jack's frown widened. “If they had would you tell me?”
“Of course, Captain,” she said, her grin wider than before.
“I don't need taking care of,” he said, resuming his walk to the shuttle.
“If you say so, sir.”
Jack grumbled all the way down to the planet.
