Guilt

Posted on Sun Jan 21st, 2024 @ 3:35pm by Commander Kevin Lance
Edited on on Mon Jan 22nd, 2024 @ 3:20am

Mission: Deep Space Nine
Location: In Deep Space
Timeline: Current

on:
{Shuttle KL-237}

Kevin was screaming. He couldn’t open his eyes and his body was wrapped in something that constrained his ability to move. The more he struggled, the more restricted he became. He screamed louder.

After a moment, a light came on that nearly blinded him. A woman came to stand over him as he lay tangled in a blanket on a wooden pallet that served as a bed. She had dirty blonde hair that was cut short. She was barely into her thirties but the lines worn into her face bespoke a harder lived life. “Jar’hann,” she gently scolded, “you need to keep quiet. I don’t want you to wake your Uncle Kor’raan.”

Kevin recognized her almost immediately. “Mama?” he asked in disbelief.

The woman pursed her lips and the corners of her mouth tugged back. It was the closest thing to a smile that Kevin had ever seen her display outside of her professional duties. “Who else would put up with your nightmares?” she asked.

Before Kevin could answer, a man’s voice roared, “Kathia I told you to keep your brat quiet.” The man who stepped into the room had less pronounce cranial ridges and a paler skin tone than a full blooded Klingon. One in a long line of his mother’s boyfriends that he had to call “Uncle”.

“He will Kor’raan,” Kathia pleaded, “He only had a nightmare. He will be quiet from now on.”

“That’s what you said last night,” Kor’raan accused, “and the night before, and the night before that! He needs to be disciplined!” Kor’raan advanced on Kevin’s prostrate form.

“Kor’raan, no!” his mother begged as she tried to press the Klingon-hybrid back. Kor’raan slammed her against the wall with a might sweep of his arm and continued to advance on Kevin. Kevin struggled against the blanket that constrained him but it was too late. The world black out as Kor’raan’s boot landed on his head.

****************************************

“Go back home Jar” a girl’s voice called to him. Kevin’s vision was swimming but he forced himself to focus on the source. Eventually a dark haired girl of fourteen years came into view. His elder sister by six years, Corrine. She was wearing one of their mother’s old hand-me-downs but it had been altered to be more revealing than either Kevin or their mother would approve of. “You’ll mess up everything for me,” Corrine continued as she walked.

“But he doesn’t love you,” Kevin whined, “I heard him tell his friend that he is only using you.”

Corrine slapped Kevin hard across the face. The blow knocked him to his knees and brought tears to his eyes. “That’s for spying you little shit,” Corrine yelled at him, “You don’t know the first thing about the ways between a man and a woman.” People passing by paid little attention to the teenager and child arguing in the street. “Now, go home!” Corrine shouted as she turned and left him in the mud.

“Corrine!” Kevin call out but she did not turn back or respond.

Willing the tears to stop, Kevin stood up and followed his sister covertly, ducking out of sight when she turned to check if she was being followed. He continued to follow until she reached her destination and knocked on a door. The door was opened by a man at least five years her senior who was clearly happy to see her. The two shared a lingering, intimate kiss with their bodies pressed close to each other. When they broke the kiss, the man handed Corrine a small bag that caused her to shiver with delight. She walked through the door with the man slapping her behind and following her.

Tears welled up in Kevin’s eyes and his vision faded to darkness once again.

****************************************

When his vision cleared again, Kevin was aboard the Dorcas James in the ship’s cargo bay. He was happily cleaning a piece of machinery at the makeshift workbench that Captain Jaxx had set up for him. The ship was on a cargo run to the planet Risa and the crew had been mercilessly, but kind-heartedly, teasing him about a ritual known as jamaharon. From what little he could gather, it involved the display of a Risan cultural artifact.

As he was reassembling the gear box on a subcomponent, he became aware of another presence in the cargo bay with him. He was seated with a clear view of the hatch to the cargo bay, the only interior access point, but hadn’t seen any of the crew enter. Grabbing a large spanner on the workbench, he called out, “Who is there?”

The voice of a small girl called out, “Jar? Why did you leave?”

Kevin nearly jumped out of his skin. He stood and turned toward the sound of the voice, the spanner gripped tightly in his hand. As he approached the stack of crates from which the voice came, the sobbing and sniffling that had first alerted him became louder. When he rounded the corner of the stack of cargo crates he found a little red-headed girl. “Ashla?” he asked incredulously, “you can’t be here.”

“No,” Ashla wailed, “You left me behind! You said that you would always protect me but you left!”

Kevin rubbed his eyes with his fist but the vision of Ashla persisted. “I had no choice,” he equivocated, “I was in real trouble and you were sick.”

“Liar!” the girl screamed, “You couldn’t wait to get away! Regardless of your promises! Regardless of what would happen to me!”

Ashla’s words stabbed as his heart like a d'k tahg. She wasn’t entirely wrong. He had tried to figure out a way that they could both escape but she was so young and frail that she would not had been able to keep up. Taking her along would have ensured that they both would have been gotten caught. Her illness had come at the perfect time and he had sacrificed her to make good his escape to the starport and aboard Dorcas James. Kevin let the spanner fall to the deck and he buried his face in his hands.

“You know the kind of men that mama consorted with,” Ashla accused, “You know what they will do to me.” Kevin’s heart sank at the realization of the truth of her statement and the guilt gnawed at him.

“I will come back for you,” he insisted weakly.

The girl stopped crying and fixed him in the eye. “No,” she replied flatly as she began to fade away, “No you won’t.”

Kevin screamed as he reached out for her but it was too late.

****************************************

Kevin was still screaming as he opened his eyes. He was in a room that he did not recognize but the arrangement and the bunk that he was laying on had the feel of a ship’s cabin. His hands and feet were bound together and he was strapped to the bunk with safety restraints. There were two others in the room, a Cardassian male and a Bajoran female.

“He shouldn’t be awake,” the Cardassian argued, “If he gets free, he’ll spoil our plans!”

“I must have gotten the dosage wrong,” the Bajoran replied as she worked the setting on the hypospray, “Hold him down and I will readminister.”

The Cardassian moved to grab Kevin as he flailed ineffectually against the restraints. “Hold him still,” the Bajoran admonished.

“I’m trying,” the Cardassian responded through gritted teeth, “but he is very strong.”

The Bajoran, satisfied with the setting on the hypospray, pushed down on Kevin’s shoulder to immobilize him as she applied the hypospray to his deltoid. The medical device hissed as the injection went into him and after only a couple of moments, Kevin felt his body start to go limp.

Then darkness took him once again.

:off

Lieutenant Kevin Lance
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Chuck Norris