FIC: Parallax, ST:TOS
Parallax
ST:TOS, Janice Rand
For the_avril_game
It was supposed to be a five year mission.
Janice quits after 389 days. She gets a leave of absence and books a ride home on a Capellan freighter.
The braided beehive is gone by the time she boards because she doesn't want the reminder or the hassle. She's packed one uniform, just in case, but left her boots and everything else with Uhura, who seemed to appreciate the gesture. She curls sideways on her bunk and tries not to brood about what it must be like to be Uhura, sitting quietly on the bridge and opening hailing frequencies like nobody's business while she manages the flow of thousands of messages that speed through the ship each hour.
Mostly the Capellans leave her alone, and she doesn't do anything to change that state of affairs. Even though the mess hall crew stare at her the whole time, she feels less naked than she did on the Enterprise.
*
Officially, it's a transfer. Her approval from Captain Kirk lists her reason as wanting to be closer to her family. Her letter of recommendation lists in glowing terms all of the things she did that made his job easier. She doubts he read either before he signed.
*
Her new job is better -- Captain Cartwright gives her a measured smile when she arrives in the mornings and makes a point to wish her good night each evening. He thanks her for her diligence and grins at the spring in her step the first day Starfleet's uniform protocols change. Nice pants, Yeoman, he says as she leaves that night, and she wants to bound down the corridors from the sheer joy of it.
She trusts him implicitly without stopping to wonder if she should.
*
When Decker gets the Enterprise a few years later, Cartwright smiles wistfully and offers her a transfer and promotion to transporter chief even before she works up the nerve to ask him. She gets as far as opening her mouth to ask how he knew, but changes her mind. Of course he knew.
The day she leaves, Cartwright walks her to the transporter room and gives her a hearty handshake and a bottle of his best Saurian brandy as a going-away present. Be careful out there, Chief, he says. Starfleet needs you in one piece. She doesn't hug him because the transporter technician is not-at-all-subtly staring at them, so she settles for squeezing his hand as hard as she can. Thank you, sir, she says fervently, hoping it's enough. Cartwright smiles and ushers her onto the platform.
In the instant before the sparkling gold of the transporter takes hold she sees unshed tears in his eyes, and she wonders if she's making a mistake.
*****
A/N: Awww, my very first fandom. I was introduced to ST by my father when I was five or so, and although I understood that the stories were made up and played by actors, I thought that the Enterprise was real and that it orbited earth and they filmed the series there. (This was shortly after I realized that Mister Rogers did NOT live in the television and that breaking the screen with a hammer would not allow me to climb in and meet him.)
ST:TOS, Janice Rand
For the_avril_game
It was supposed to be a five year mission.
Janice quits after 389 days. She gets a leave of absence and books a ride home on a Capellan freighter.
The braided beehive is gone by the time she boards because she doesn't want the reminder or the hassle. She's packed one uniform, just in case, but left her boots and everything else with Uhura, who seemed to appreciate the gesture. She curls sideways on her bunk and tries not to brood about what it must be like to be Uhura, sitting quietly on the bridge and opening hailing frequencies like nobody's business while she manages the flow of thousands of messages that speed through the ship each hour.
Mostly the Capellans leave her alone, and she doesn't do anything to change that state of affairs. Even though the mess hall crew stare at her the whole time, she feels less naked than she did on the Enterprise.
*
Officially, it's a transfer. Her approval from Captain Kirk lists her reason as wanting to be closer to her family. Her letter of recommendation lists in glowing terms all of the things she did that made his job easier. She doubts he read either before he signed.
*
Her new job is better -- Captain Cartwright gives her a measured smile when she arrives in the mornings and makes a point to wish her good night each evening. He thanks her for her diligence and grins at the spring in her step the first day Starfleet's uniform protocols change. Nice pants, Yeoman, he says as she leaves that night, and she wants to bound down the corridors from the sheer joy of it.
She trusts him implicitly without stopping to wonder if she should.
*
When Decker gets the Enterprise a few years later, Cartwright smiles wistfully and offers her a transfer and promotion to transporter chief even before she works up the nerve to ask him. She gets as far as opening her mouth to ask how he knew, but changes her mind. Of course he knew.
The day she leaves, Cartwright walks her to the transporter room and gives her a hearty handshake and a bottle of his best Saurian brandy as a going-away present. Be careful out there, Chief, he says. Starfleet needs you in one piece. She doesn't hug him because the transporter technician is not-at-all-subtly staring at them, so she settles for squeezing his hand as hard as she can. Thank you, sir, she says fervently, hoping it's enough. Cartwright smiles and ushers her onto the platform.
In the instant before the sparkling gold of the transporter takes hold she sees unshed tears in his eyes, and she wonders if she's making a mistake.
*****
A/N: Awww, my very first fandom. I was introduced to ST by my father when I was five or so, and although I understood that the stories were made up and played by actors, I thought that the Enterprise was real and that it orbited earth and they filmed the series there. (This was shortly after I realized that Mister Rogers did NOT live in the television and that breaking the screen with a hammer would not allow me to climb in and meet him.)