Last Day

Posted on Mon Dec 26th, 2022 @ 9:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Seven Zhaan

Mission: Preparing for Launch
Location: Malibu, Earth
Timeline: 47044.3

The beach house was small, built with a minimalist's eye, which was decidedly true of its owner, Deschaine, who had preached his philosophy whenever he could find a friend willing to sit still long enough to listen. Seven, hearing the story for the first time, didn't believe that he never possessed more than 44 items at any one time. And because the cry for proof went up around the table, the party unanimously voted to move to the beach house where everything was counted (including the house) over a good bottle of wine and an impromptu meal.

About the time that Seven started counting the silverware in the drawer, the boast was amended to include only personal items. And with that limitation in place, it was proven that he did in fact only own 44 items. Being a clever crew, who had listened to those boasts often over the years, attempts were made to increase his wealth which meant that thereafter, Deschaine only received gifts that came in multiples. Socks reigned at the top of the list for more than a year until he pointed out that two socks equaled one item.

The house held many such stories, and the minimalist count was just one of a hundred reasons why this place was special. Treasured. The beach house had become the Earth-side home for crew members of the Faraday; Seven could look at any part of the house and remember a story, a snippet of conversation, or a particular face. And she wasn't the only one.

Endings were hard and the weight of those memories made this particular weekend all the more bittersweet. The Faraday crew was being dispersed, folded into other crews, and it felt as though they were being punished for doing a good job. She'd been the Acting "X" after the First Officer had been killed defending the ship and had managed, for two years, to straddle that line between department head and second in command with grace and a sense of humor.

Dawn found Seven sitting on the deck wrapped in a blanket with her bare feet tucked up beneath her. She was waiting for the sun to rise over the water with her hands wrapped around a mug emblazoned with the number seven on one side and the ship logo on the other. Lost in thought. Her gaze dropped to the PADD in front of her and then to the deck itself. A week's shore leave on Earth and they'd ended up spending the entire time building the deck and learning to surf while Deschaine presided over the barbeque.

The thought came to her as she read her orders for the hundredth time that she was leaving home ... again. New ship. New crew. Tonight, they were going to gather around the firepit, as family does, and share their orders. But not yet. Silently, they all came out to join her, sleepy, unwilling to waste even a minute of what was left, and waiting together.