Coffee And Counsel - Part III

Posted on Thu Apr 3rd, 2025 @ 9:48pm by Lieutenant JG Gianna De Luca & Captain Robert Burke

1,047 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: EPISODE 1: SHAKEDOWN
Location: Archanis Orbit, USS Hecate Briefing Room
Timeline: MD030 0800 hours

Burke raised an eyebrow and replied with dry humour, 'I make it a point never to argue with someone who can decertify me for duty. 'A lovely person' will be noted in your personnel review when it comes due.' He smiled rakishly, 'I trust that will satisfactory?'

"Absolutely, thank you." Gia smiled sweetly as she nodded and had one of the vanilla crowns still available. "I have to ask, in the event we were to ever visit it, what's Titan like? Where you come from, I mean."

'Well, it's a pretty inudstrialised world,' Burke began, knitting his brows. 'Its has a methane-nitrogen atmosphere which means we have to live in dome cities on top of the ice layer - Titan is very icy.' He smiled slightly, remembering back to his childhood. 'It has a very cloudy atmosphere, very dense. So for a long time you just wouldn't see the stars or a proper day or night cycle. But sometimes,' he tapped the table, 'just sometimes, the clouds would break and you would see the stars, Jupiter close above. The starships orbiting, waiting for their supplies.' He looked at her, 'it was a good place to grow up, strong community. There's not many Titanians because of the environmental constraints, so we're pretty close knit. We can probably spot another one of us coming from half a kilometre away.'

Her understanding of everything in the universe was starting to become non-existent with everything she'd been learning in Starfleet over the last few years and her mind had been blown multiple times, "That sounds... intense. Is that even the right word for it? Lovely, but intense."

'Lovely but intense was the right word,' Burke replied with a nod. 'I looked up one night and saw a Constitution-class ship come in for repairs, or something, I've never really been sure. But what I was sure about in that moment was that I wanted to be aboard that ship, any ship, and away from Titan.'

"Was it during your childhood you made the realisation or when you were older?" Gia queried.

'It was twenty-two sixty-eight,' Burke replied, recalling the moment fondly. 'So I was about fifteen years old when I realised it. The USS Icarus was in orbit. Up to that point it was the most awe-inspiring sight I had seen.' He looked up at her, and smiled apologetically. 'Listen to me babbling about home, it must be quite tiresome for you.'

Gia simply raised an eyebrow at his last comment and laughed, "You are aware of what I do for a career, right? There's nothing wrong with talking about home and what motivates you to become a better person."

He chuckled, 'I'm not sure about it motivating me to become a better person, but it definitely motivated me to get off Titan. Really fired up my ambition. My parents were political, and we had a lot of people round the house who would talk about Titanian independence and joining the Federation on our own terms. It, uh, had quite the effect on my younger, more impressionable self.'

"So riddle me this then, Robert, if you hadn't seen the stars and seen the Icarus that night and decided to go along the path you're on now, where do you think you would have been right now?" Gia asked in earnest. It was always a fine between a conversation and a therapy session whenever she talked to anyone, and right now it felt like the latter was becoming a possibility. "Would you have followed the path your parents wanted, or something else while being influenced by people you knew?'

He stuck his chin in his hand and leaned his elbow against the table. 'Well, now. That's an interesting counter-factual,' Burke said, gears slowly turning as he recalled his teen years. 'I didn't really have much direction as a teen. Honestly, I was one of those annoying kids who was good at school, and pretty decent at at least one sport. Gridiron football in my case. So that meant I had too many options for the future. In all honesty, I'd probably have peaked at university and gone on to become a phys ed teacher at a local high school trying to relive my glory days by coaching on the side.'

A Phys Ed teacher? That wasn't what she thought he was going to say. "I must say, that was a totally unexpected answer. And you would've been happy enough to do that? Just get a degree, work and coach?" Gia hadn't really had any other plans for her life aside from what she was doing now.

'It's hard to say,' Burke replied as he contemplated it. 'Probably I'd have been satisfied for the first ten years or so. But then I'd get restless and want to find something else to do is the most probably outcome of that life.'

"That's understandable. Maybe settle down, have a family, live the quiet life too?" It was more speculation and humour than anything else.

'Oh, now we're talking,' Burke replied with a chuckle. 'Probably a family, four or five kids. You know, enough to field a small sports team. Probably have married a high school sweetheart. A nice little hydroponics bay to grow our own food - that's like an allotment back on Earth.' He sighed. 'I imagine it would have been a nice life,' he concluded quietly.

"That's really ambitious!" Gia laughed. "I can't contemplate having a family that size, if I'm being honest." She shook her head and finished her coffee.

He raised a hand in a shrugging motion, 'well, anything is possible these days. Especially when discussing counterfactuals,' Burke chuckled. 'I do think about it sometimes, how different life could have been but for that one chance. It seems a far less lonely road than the one I've trod.' He lapsed into silence for a moment, then brightened, 'at least I have good friends. You'll meet some of them before long, I've no doubt.'

[To be continued ...]

::OFF::

Captain Robert Burke
Commanding Officer
USS Hecate

Lieutenant Gianna De Luca
Chief Counsellor
USS Hecate

 

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