It's Part of the Job

Posted on Tue Apr 19th, 2011 @ 4:34am by
Edited on on Tue Apr 19th, 2011 @ 11:13am

Mission: Renegades
Location: Various
Timeline: Hours after "Search and Rescue"

Death. It was part of life, but no one said it was fair or even easy.

Marc found himself in the corridor where he had found Ensign Tadesco. Paula. She had a name and she had been his friend at Starfleet Academy and he hadn't even known that she was aboard the Arizona.

Once more, he saw her face; pale and lifeless and he moaned, tossing and turning in his bunk. Lieutenant Lischka's face turned to him. "It comes with the job."

He screamed and threw himself out of his bed, his chest heaving with exertion, gasping for breath as he sat on the edge of the bunk. "It comes with the job....my god, you callous bitch," he whispered.

He sat there for another minute before deciding that he had no desire to go back to sleep and return to his nightmare. Looking across the room, he saw Ensign...Paula's PaDD laying where he had left it. He had forgotten to turn it in. Swallowing, he got up and went over to it, hesitating before picking it up and activating it.

She had been assigned to Engineering as an Assistant. Twenty-two years old. He sat down heavily on the edge of his bunk again, remembering meeting her at the Academy. She hadn't been a flirt and wasn't impressed by looks. She was dedicated, fun, friendly, and always had a smile on her face.

A tear slid down his cheek and he sniffled. He would never see that smile again and he didn't know how to take it. "It's part of the job." Lieutenant Lishka's voice echoed in his mind. He looked up and shouted "How could you?!" Furious, he pulled up Lieutenant Lishka's personnel file and started going through the parts he had access to.

After ten minutes of reading her Service Record, he deactivated the PaDD. Today..tomorrow..whatever, was her birthday. She had been wading through the injured and dead the day before her birthday. She had seen death up close before. Marc swallowed and another tear slid down his cheek. "It's part of the job," he whispered. She hadn't wanted to see or accept it any more than he had. They were Security and the first line of anyone on the ship to see death.

Getting up, he reverently set Ensign Paula Tadesco's PaDD down on his nightstand and went to the replicator. "Birthday card, balloon print number forty-seven." A moment and the replicator complied with his request. Sitting down with it in his hands, he paused before getting a pen and writing in German on the inside of it.

"Happy Birthday, Lieutenant Lishka. I wish that the balloons could be real and smiling for you on this day. - Ensign Marcus Schenk."

Leaving his quarters, he went up to Deck Five and found the room where she was assigned. He started to activate the sensor to let her know he was there, but changed his mind and slid it under the door instead. He couldn't bare to face her right away. Sighing, he turned and went back to his quarters.