Looking to the Future

Posted on Thu Feb 4th, 2010 @ 3:53am by Vice Admiral Iluvar

Mission: Episode 1.1 - "Now Boarding"
Location: Iluvar's Quarters, USS Tethys
Timeline: MD02, 1030

ON: [[Iluvar’s Quarters, USS Tethys, MD02, 1030]]

Two large, half filled cargo containers stood open in the middle of the room, surrounded by a few smaller cases. The quarters of the Tethys’ former commanding officer were in a state of what could be considered organized chaos. Personal belongings were half packed; some were already secured for transport while others were still waiting to be retrieved. In the adjacent room, Aris (NPC) was finishing up the last of his own packing. He had brought little with him when he had left his home in the Mirror Universe and hadn’t collected many new belongings since being on the Tethys.

The young man emerged into the main room to see Iluvar seated at his desk, a framed photograph in one hand. “I’ve nearly finished,” Aris said from the doorway. His statement caused Iluvar to look up from the picture toward his adoptive son.

“Good,” Iluvar said, still pulling himself out of his thoughts and back to the present, “I am…” He looked around the room and gave a short laugh. “…still working on it,” he continued, “I guess I’ve been getting a little side-tracked.” He raised the photograph in his hand and set it gently on the desk so that he could wrap it for protection. Once he had finished, he got to his feet and crossed over to one of the open cargo containers and found a safe place to secure the item.

Iluvar wondered how Aris was taking the move. On the surface, he didn’t appear all that shaken up by it. It had been a rather abrupt transition for him to come to the Tethys in the first place, especially after learning of his father’s death. Aris’ father had been Iluvar’s mirror universe counterpart. In a desperate attempt to protect the Ba’ku of that universe, he had switched places with Iluvar and tried to use the Tethys to start a devastating war between the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and the Romulan Star Federation. The attempt failed and the mirror Iluvar was mortally wounded. His dying request had been that Iluvar take custody of Aris, hoping that the boy could have a better life than he had lived. Now they were undergoing another transition and it wasn’t clear whether the young man was accepting that or not.

“Looking forward to seeing the Pandora,” Iluvar asked casually as he crossed back over to the bookshelf and began removing the books to pack them away with the rest of the belongings.

“I guess,” Aris replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

“You know, there’s a lot more room on the Pandora than we have here,” Iluvar said, carrying a stack of books over to the container and placing them inside. The first thing he had done after announcing the transfer to the crew had been to pull up the details on the USS Pandora and start reading them over. True, he wouldn’t know the Pandora as well as he knew the Tethys, but that would come with time. “There’s a lounge,” he added, “and a library.”

“A library,” Aris repeated in surprise, “You mean like the computer library?”

“No,” Iluvar answered, “A real library…with books. You could spend all day reading and there’d still be more books to read.” He saw Aris’ face light up a little at the thought of having an actual library on board a ship, rather than relying on PADDs all the time. In the short time that Aris had been with him, Iluvar was surprised to find that the boy had read a number of the books in his own, small collection. It was an activity that Iluvar had encouraged, hoping that Aris would learn more about the nature of life in the prime universe through literature.

“That’s a lot of books,” Aris remarked in amazement, “What else is there?”

“Well, you’ll probably see more civilians aboard,” Iluvar explained as he continued to move back and forth between the bookshelf and the cargo container, “The Pandora is primarily a science vessel, so there will be more scientists around too. Oh…and then there’s the arboretum.”

Aris’ face really lit up when he heard that. Having grown up amongst the Ba’ku, even if it was in the mirror universe, he had a healthy appreciation for the natural world. Aboard the Tethys, there hadn’t been much chance to interact with actual natural environments, only the holographic ones in the database. Seeing the anticipation in his son’s eyes, Iluvar had a sudden thought. “You know,” he began slowly, “We’re probably going to need a caretaker for the arboretum; someone to keep an eye on things, make sure the plants have enough water and nutrients, take care of things, and keep it spruced up. You wouldn’t happen to know where I could find someone willing to do that, would you?”

“I would,” Aris exclaimed, unable to control his eagerness.

“I thought you might,” Iluvar said with a smile, “but we still have some packing to do. Don’t forget that we’re supposed to be meeting the shuttle at 1330. We wouldn’t want to be late, would we?” Iluvar chuckled as he watched Aris dart back into his room to finish packing. As much as he was going to miss the Tethys, he had a pretty good feeling about this change. The Pandora was a fine ship and she held a lot of opportunity, not only for his crew, but for him and Aris too. Hopefully, the environment aboard the Pandora would give him the opportunity to continue to get to know his son better.

Carefully, Iluvar lifted another photograph from the shelf and looked down at it for a moment. This one was of Aris and him on a recent camping trip in the holodeck. Both of them were smiling and looking like they were having a great time. It was the first time that the two had really connected and was a moment that Iluvar would cherish for a long time. With a smile, he began to wrap the photograph for packing. It was time to see what the future had in store.

OFF

Aris Ibanya (NPC)
Crew Family Member
USS Pandora

Played by

Rear Admiral Iluvar
Commanding Officer
USS Pandora