Family Matters

Posted on Thu Feb 24th, 2011 @ 7:00pm by Ensign Matthew Lessly

Mission: Episode 1.4 - "Confusion in the Cluster"
Location: Junior Officer's Quarters

ON: [[Junior Officer's Quarters, USS Pandora, Mission Day 02, 2300 hours]]

Matt collapsed onto the small sofa nestled between the bunk beds and the desks. It had been a long day of preparing the sensors and lab equipment for anything that the Pandora might come across inside the cluster. He had replicated a small dinner, which sat on the nearby side table, nearly untouched. Sinking into the padding of the couch, Matt closed his eyes and began to drift.

=^=Incoming message from Earth.=^= the computer announced, arousing Matt from his semi-conscious state.

Matt sighed. There were only a handful of people on Earth that would have any interest in calling him, and the fact that they were calling at 2300 hours ruled out all but two of them. Which, Matt thought, was the worst part, because had it been any of the other possibilities, he would have simply ignored the call.

Slowly standing from his seat, Matt rubbed the last remnants of near-sleep from his eyes and ran his fingers through his hair. "Computer, answer call, authorization Lessly two-two-delta-five." he said as he sat down at his desk.

A brief moment later a young woman of approximately twenty-three years old, with long, black, curly hair and a moderate skin tone appeared on the screen. Her face brightened up upon seeing Matt, as did his at seeing her (even if it was a tired brightness). "Hey Liz, long time no see." Matt said, still trying to sweep away his tiredness.

Liz (NPC) shrugged slightly. "Yeah, I'm sorry. The magic mirror broke over winter break and nobody I took it to could fix it."

Matt frowned. The 'magic mirror' Liz had referred to was an old video transmitter she had found and salvaged in order to talk with Matt after he had been thrown out of their house. It had meant a lot to her, even though some of the parts were likely over a century old. "I'm sorry, Liz. I know it meant a lot to you."

"I suppose, but that's not really the reason I called." Liz said in a more sombre tone.

Matt, easily being able to read his sisters vocal and facial expressions, knew that there was something bothering her and that, whatever it was, it was the reason that she had called. Ever since she was fifteen, she had never been willing to confide in her parents because of what they did to Matt, and so she would often call him whenever something came up that she wanted to talk to family about. "What is it?" he asked, figuring it was something along the lines of her most recent pottery attempt had failed... again.

Liz took a few moments to come up with enough courage to tell her brother what was going on, because she knew that he would likely go into 'overprotective brother mode.' "I'm dropping out of the art academy." she said, so fast that Matt almost didn't hear it clearly.

Quirking an eyebrow at the same time he leant forward. "What? Why?" Matt asked.

"I'm tired of all the rhetoric." she responded. "They go over the same things day after day, semester after semester. I've decided I'm going to go out and paint the galaxy. Who knows, maybe I can land a job doing those big portraits of starships all the captains put in their offices."

Matt, not entirely happy with the idea of her dropping out a year before moving on to apprenticeship but knowing their parents probably already had a fit about it, smiled warmly and nodded. "I'm happy for you, Sis."

"Are you sure?" she responded, a somewhat puzzled look on her face. "You were always pushing me to finish, so I figured you'd be against it."

Matt shook his head slowly. "No... no, as long as you're doing what you want to do, then I'm happy for you."

Liz's smile broadened. "Thank you, Matt."

Matt yawned, he was starting to lose ground in his fight against sleep. "Liz, I'm sorry, I had a long day of work today and I've got an early shift in the morning."

Knowing that Matt didn't really want to say it, Liz said it for him. "You had better get some sleep then. I'll call you in a few days to check up on you. Love you."

Matt smiled slightly as he reached for the control panel on the base of the screen. "Love you too. Night." he said, adding another quick smile just before cutting the transmission.

Matt walked slowly over to the bunks and looked up at his bed. He thought about just crashing on the sofa for the night, but slowly climbed up the small ladder to his bed anyway. As he fell into the mattress, his thoughts were of his sister, his parents, his childhood friends, and of all the memories that he never got to make with them. As he did most nights after talking with his sister, he slowly fell alseep, tears dripping down the side of his face.

OFF:

A Post by:

Ensign Matthew Lessly
Science Officer
USS Pandora

&

Elizabeth Lessly (NPC)
Civilian
Earth
Played by Ensign Lessly