Bravery Comes in All Shapes and Sizes Part Two
Posted on Wed Jan 25th, 2017 @ 7:31pm by Ensign Jonathan Forrest
Edited on on Wed Jan 25th, 2017 @ 8:58pm
Episode:
Out of Sequence
Location: USS Venture
Timeline: Dominon War both boys age 6
=/= USS Venture, 2374, 12 Years Ago =/=
The children played together for hours: first dolls, then Jonathan ran Calley around as a horse while Alex cheered them on. Then the kids watched one of Calley's videos, the three of them passing out in a pile on the couch. That was the condition Jennifer and Marcie found them in when they returned.
"Thank you so much," Jennifer whispered to Topher and Will. She had only just met both men but she gave each a hug anyway. "We really appreciate it. We have a transport to catch soon. Will one of you and Calley be joining us?" She assumed the answer was yes. Children and most civilians were being evacuated off of any starship that would be on the front lines.
"Yes," Topher said, "Will will be taking Calley with you. She'll be staying with his parents on Luna. I'd love for him to stay there too, but he's our ship's communication officer, we can't get by without him, so he'll be doing a quick turn around. There are a few other families leaving with you."
Will came into the living area from the couple's bedroom, carrying two large bags. "Hey Calley," he said, "It's time to say goodbye to Poppa. You and daddy have to go see grandma and grandpa. I've got a special holovid for you to watch while we go."
Calley looked up suddenly from her spot on the floor. She stood up, then started to cry. She ran towards Topher and put both arms around his leg, clinging to him as tightly as she could, now crying louder than ever.
Marcie, blinking back a tear, walked towards her sons and hugged them both. "You be good," she said to them both, "and know that your mother loves you."
Alex hugged her back tightly. The little boy wasn't crying, but that didn't mean he wouldn't miss her.
Jonathan hugged held onto the hug just a little longer than his brother, then took Alex's hand
As Marcie walked the boys over to her, Jennifer hugged her wife and kissed her. "You call me every chance you get and you be careful," she told her. Gently, she took the boys' hands from her wife.
"I will be careful," Marcie responded. "Take care of the boys for me. I will see you soon.
Topher was finally able to pry Calley off his leg and handed her over to Will with a final hug. "It's okay, you go with Daddy now," he said to her. It won't be long before we're all back together. Remember Papa loves you."
Calley now clung to Will's neck as tenaciously as she'd been holding onto Topher's leg, as he carried her out into the hall along with Jennifer and the two boys.
Since her and Alex's bag were already aboard the transport, Jennifer slung Jonathan's bag over one of her shoulders and helped Will with one of his bags, since an arm was occupied by Calley. She then took a hold of Jonathan's hand and told him to hold tightly to his brother. Then they moved as a unit down to the transporter room.
Jonathan did hold tightly to Alex's hand. The two boys had vastly different complexions but their hands were almost identical in size at that point.
Calley calmed down slightly and five minutes after they had transported over she was asleep in her daddy's arms.
The transport was crowded with families fleeing the front lines. It would be a five-day trip back to Earth. Five days with Starfleet field rations, and multiple families crammed into a single room. Will and Calley ended up in the same room as Jennifer and the boys. The adults would let the children sleep in the cots assigned to them, while they took the floor, protective of their charges.
Alex didn't much care for the conditions of the transport but knew they didn't have a lot of choices. The one good thing was his mom let him have Francine from his bag. He clung to his stuffed elephant more during the journey and even shared her with Calley when the little girl was scared and played dollies or patty cake, and other games often to distract her. Likewise, he tried to help with Jonathan. They played a few games of shuttlecraft, even getting Calley to take part, although she wasn't very good according to Jonathan.
Jonathan for his part did his best to be brave. After all, he was the older brother and both of his mothers had reminded him of this. All the games they played not only served as a distraction to Calley and his brother but to him as well.
After two and a half days, with everything, at least for the kids, seeming calm and normal, he began to feel not only normal but bored.
Calley had asked about her papa a couple of times and wanted to sleep on the floor with her daddy, but otherwise was unperturbed.
Early the next morning, around 0400, long before any of the passengers should have been awake, the red alert klaxons began to sound and the ship could be felt to start taking evasive actions.
No stranger to such actions, Jennifer woke up immediately. Her natural response was to head to a battle station, but she quickly realized she had no such thing aboard the transport. Not knowing what was happening outside of their quarters ate at her, not being able to help.
Alex woke up as well and fumbled around for his glasses, knocking them to the floor. "Are we under attack?" he voiced the concerns of everyone around him.
"I think so, baby. It's okay, though. The captain and the crew are going to get us out of danger," Jennifer promised. She sat down on the cot with her boys and clung to them both.
This was not the first time that Jonathan had heard a klaxon either. It had happened several times on the Venture, but his mother's ship had been bigger and he'd felt safer there. He tried not to show it too much, but he welcomed the hug from his mom.
Calley sat up in bed holding her hands over her ears and calling for her daddy and her Papa. Will took hold of her holding her close and whispering reassurances in her ear.
The wail of the alarm slowly faded and Jonathan had just started to relax a bit when the ship shuddered and shook, then began moving evasively.
Jennifer hugged her kids tighter. "It's okay, those are the shields. They're holding," she assured them, wishing for the life of her there was something she could do, somewhere they could go.
The ship shuddered violently again and a new klaxon activated, one Jennifer knew well.
The hull had been breached in this section. Emergency force fields were the only thing preventing depressurization. The Starfleet officer in her said to organize the people calmly out of the room. The mother in her told her to get her children out first.
But it wasn't just her children who were in danger.
"Jonathan, Alex. Come on, get up. We need to go," she instructed. She tapped Will on the shoulder. "Will, this section's not safe anymore. We need to leave."
Alex fumbled around for his glasses on the floor, holding tightly to Francine the elephant as he did so.
Jonathan let go of his mom's hand long enough to help Alex find his glasses and handed them to him. He didn't know what was going on but could sense something different about the people around him. They somehow, at least the adults seemed more scared than they were before and some of the kids started screaming. He wanted to scream too, or maybe cry like he heard other kids around him doing.
But, he just bit down on his lower lip. He wasn't a baby. He had to be strong, he had to be brave. He didn't feel either strong or brave, but he could at least pretend to be.
Calley had stopped her crying, she'd stopped making any noise really, her eyes wide with a fear she didn't really understand.
Will appeared calm and collected, but he was far from both. "Calley, you go with Jon Jon and Alex's mom, daddy just has to help someone."
Calley spoke then, "No Daddy, don't leave me please, don't leave me. I Luv you, Daddy."
"I love you too dear. It will just be for a minute." Then turning to Jennifer. "People are starting to panic. I'm the ranking officer here. You take Calley and your boys, get them to an escape pod. I'll be there in five minutes."
Jennifer understood. She had felt the same pull, but her boys had no one else waiting for them on Earth, she was all they had. "Hurry."
Knowing she'd put up a fight, Jennifer scooped Calley clear off the ground. "Hang on to Katey, sweetheart. You don't want to lose her. Your daddy will be right behind us," she soothed. She grabbed Jonathan's hand. "Hang on to Alex," she instructed. "Just like we did back aboard the Venture." Then she led them out of their room and into the corridor.
Alex's mouth fell open when he saw the gaping hole where the corridor used to go. Stars flew by and a bug shaped ship could be seen firing blue beams that shook the ship.
Jennifer didn't stop to admire it. She continued to move forward, pulling Jonathan along, checking behind her every few seconds to make sure Jonathan still had Alex.
"Don't look, don't look, don't look," Jonathan was saying. He was looking right at his reflection in Alex's glasses, but he was talking to himself as much as his brother.
Calley took one last look at her daddy before she lost sight of him as the woman holding her and her two friends turned the corner.
Will's voice though could be heard, yelling out instruction and calling everyone to be calm. The noise was abruptly cut off as the transport pitched violently to one side knocking Jonathan and Alex to the decking and Jennifer against the bulkhead.
Jennifer shielded Calley as they slammed into the bulkhead. The klaxon went off and the transport went eerily quiet in the wake. Jennifer Samuels was an engineer and she realized with horror what had just happened and intimately knew what was going to happen to the transport in the next few minutes. "Get up!" she yelled at her boys, grabbing a hold of Jonathan's arm and hauled him to his feet. "Run!" she ordered as she reached for Alex.
Calley wiggled free and started running back in the direction they had come from, calling out for her daddy at the top of her tiny lungs
Jonathan's heart was beating faster and harder than he could ever remember it beating. Unlike his mom, he was no engineer, but the look on everyone's face told him more than he needed to know. His mother had yelled at him to run, and he had never willingly disobeyed either of his mothers, not when it really mattered, before, but when he saw Calley running back the way they had come. He followed her, grabbing her just before she reached what the entrance to the room they had so recently been in. The door had been vaporized and Jonathan could feel was a searing heat. The entire room, what was left of it was engulfed in flames.
Calley uncaring about the consequences was just trying to find her father. Jonathan grabbed her, picking her up as he turned around and began running back towards his mom and Alex.
Jennifer yelled at Alex to run forward and started back after Jonathan and Calley. Alex stood paralyzed, his little mind unable to process everything that was happening or how to continue on on his own.
Jennifer grabbed the struggling Calley from Jonathan and hoisted her up again. The little girl's favorite doll dropped to the deck. "Go, go, go! Grab your brother!" Jennifer ordered, seeing Alex frozen in place. "Follow me." She ran to the end of the hallway ahead of her children, taking stock of their options. She looked back at her boys. "Hurry!"
Calley struggled to get free for several seconds, especially when her doll dropped. Neither boy saw the doll drop to the ground and one of the other fleeing passengers kicked it farther down the hall.
Jonathan grabbed Alex's arm, "COME ON!" he shouted tugging his brother urging him to follow their mom towards the escape pods.
Jonathan half-dragged Alex behind him as he ran to catch up. Once they were within arm's reach Jennifer took a left and ran down the corridor until she found an open escape pod. "Get in! Get in!" she ordered the boys.
The problem was dozens of civilians were just as desperate to leave. A man in his twenties ran into Jennifer from behind, dragging a woman around the same age behind him. He forced his way past the Starfleet engineer and climbed into the escape pod. "I have children here!" she yelled, immediately frustrated and now trying to block off others from entering the escape pod otherwise there wouldn't be enough room for all of them.
Jonathan and Alex were both thrown against the wall as three teenagers came rushing by shoving and kicking at anyone in their path. Jonathan hit the bulkhead first just above his left eyebrow. He was able to keep hold of Alex, but not his mom.
Calley had stopped trying to fight Jennifer and was now clinging to her.
Alex hit the bulkhead hard on his shoulder, the blow knocking him to the ground, stunning him for a moment, and causing him to drop the stuffed elephant from his grasp.
Jennifer tried to take a hold of the situation. She needed to get the kids to a pod now, but couldn't carry all three. "Everyone stop! I'm a lieutenant commander with Starfleet. We need to reach the escape pods in an orderly--" a loud metallic screech echoed through the ship. The deck beneath them rumbled like an earthquake, throwing everyone about and it didn't stop, just grew more intense.
The teens bounced and fought their way, even knocking Jennifer out of the way as they climbed into the escape pod, the door shutting behind them. Jennifer stood there furious and flabbergasted, but her anger would do her no good.
Calley's little fingernails dug into Jennifer's neck. She was crying hysterically and starting to hyperventilate. Her screams, calling for her daddy and her papa had turned to incoherent babbling.
Jonathan's left eye hurt and was beginning to swell. He wanted to just sit down on the deck and give in. The situation seemed helpless and impossibly chaotic. Adrenaline kicked in, then, fight or flight. He still had a hold on his brother. "I'm not leaving without you," he told him, "get your pet and let's go."
He looked desperately around as the screeching grew louder, spotting something as he frantically looked around. "Momma," he said grabbing at her pant's leg with his free hand.
Once he had or thought he had her attention, he pointed to a small alcove where two, unused, escape pods sat. With everyone in the corridor in such a state of panic, they had, up until that moment at least, not noticed them. He wanted to shout out, "Over there, over there," but something caused him not to say anything.
"Good boy." Jennifer placed a hand on Jonathan's back and gently moved them over to the escape pods. Alex followed his brother's instructions exactly. He grabbed up Francine and took his brother's hand again, following his lead over to the escape pods.
Jennifer popped one of them open, gathering quite a bit of attention from the surrounding, panicked civilians. She urged Jonathan and Alex inside and then passed Calley to Jonathan, her little nails leaving scratch marks on Jennifer's skin as she didn't want to let go.
"There's room in this pod for a few more, does anyone else have any children?" Jennifer called back, standing in front of the pod entrance protectively, ready to fight if anyone tried to rush their way past.
"I do! Wait! Please!" Out of the crowd came a woman with a boy a year or two younger than Jonathan and Alex, a girl around Calley's age, and a baby held tightly to her chest. Jennifer ushered them inside and was pleased to hear someone take claim over the second escape pod and start to organize who else would board it.
Jennifer stepped inside once of the last of the kids was aboard, sealed the door, and pressed the launch button.
Alex sat in shock, hugging tightly to Francine with one arm, to Jonathan's arm with the other. He stared out the small porthole as they saw the transport grow smaller, one of its nacelles completely separated and the body of it cracked down the middle. The Jem Hadar fighter flew back around and fired a series of blasts. What was left of the transport exploded, breaking into a million pieces?
Calley, still in a state of panic and shock was flailing her little arms around wildly. One of her hands raked Jonathan's face. There was a tiny flare of pain; but her nails, were too short, her strength too little, to break his skin. He whispered soothingly in her ear, or at least that is what he thought he was doing, he couldn't really be sure and five seconds after he spoke, he couldn't remember what he had said.
She grew still then and stopped screaming, but his efforts had little to do with the change, and it was a hollow victory. She had become catatonic.
Jonathan forgot he was supposed to be the brave older brother when he saw the transport ship vaporized and he recognized, at least at some level, what had just happened. He wasn't big, he wasn't brave, he wasn't the heroics starship captain, he was just a very scared little boy. With hot tears sliding down his face, he clutched at both his brother and Calley as tightly as he could.
Jennifer turned back to the kids and wrapped her arms around the whole trio as well as she could. Calley's tears and panic broke her and her eyes began to water. The little girl had just lost her daddy. Such a huge trauma at such a young age.
Alex didn't cry at all. He sat very still, squeezing his brother's hand. The bespectacled boy watched the transport explode and almost coldly said. "Will is dead."
Calley didn't hear him, she didn't hear anything, she didn't even respond to the hug, she was as motionless as the doll she had dropped in the hallway of the now disintegrated transport craft.
After the group hug ended, Jonathan turned to his brother and replied hotly, "They're all dead, stupid."
Alex was shocked out of a daze. He turned to his brother and shoved him. "Don't call me stupid!"
"What do you want me to call you, genius? Everyone over there is dead. Everyone, don't you understand that?"
"Not everyone! Other pods were launched!" Alex argued.
"Boys," Jennifer spoke gently, laying a hand on Jonathan's shoulder. "I know it's a lot to take in but don't take your fear out on each other."
Jonathan had been about to come back at Alex with a sharp retort, but his mom's words stopped him. "I'm sorry, Mom. Uh, Alex, I'm sorry too. You aren't stupid. I just never, uh I never..." Then turning back to Jennifer he said, "I don't want to be a captain anymore, I don't even want to be in space. I just want to go home. I just want to be with you and Mother. Why can't we all be together?"
"Because there are bad people out there, Jonathan. People who want to hurt us, who destroyed that transport. Your mother is out there to protect people. And if she wasn't....then one day the bad people will come to Earth or wherever we go. The only thing evil needs to succeed is for good people to do nothing," Jennifer said.
As if on cue another shape cut through the blackness of space, a large saucer-shaped ship with a pair of nacelles at the back. The ship engaged the fighter, exchanging several volleys before the bug-shaped craft that had destroyed the transport exploded.
Jonathan looked up at his mom. "May--maybe I can be a Captain after all. You're so brave though mom. I don't think I could ever be as brave as you."
"I'm going to tell you a secret, Jonathan. You can't be brave without feeling fear. Bravery is doing what needs to be done even though you're afraid," Jennifer told her son. "You were very brave on the transport. You protected your brother, ran after Calley, and it was you who saw the escape pods that saved us. You are incredibly brave."
Alex thought about everything his mother said and felt guilty. His brother may have been brave, but he wasn't. He froze. He didn't know what to do aboard the transport. Everything happened so fast and he had been so scared. He was a coward.
"I barely remember doing any of that mom," he said, "it is all just kind of a blur. I love you, Mom." He looked over at Alex not liking the look on his brother's face but not really comprehending the reason for it. "I love you too, Alex."
Alex's only response was to take his brother's hand again.
Jennifer concentrated on Calley now. Whispered reassurances to the girl, that she would look after her and get her to her grandparents. That she was safe now.
In the distance, the Federation starship started to retrieve escape pods.
Ensign Jonathan Forrest
Marcie Forrest
Chief Helm Officer
USS Highlander
Kathrine Chester As Alex and Jennifer