Family Musings

Posted on Tue Jun 1st, 2010 @ 11:29am by Captain Benjamin Byrne & Sarah Byrne [PNPC] & Jacob Byrne [PNPC]

Mission: Metronian Diplomacy
Location: USS Endeavour - Commander Byrne's Quarters
Timeline: MD25 2219hrs
Tags: family, illness, sleep, television

Walking into his quarters, where the lights were slightly dimmer than the corridors of the ship, Benjamin reached up and rubbed the palms of his hands along his face, trying to work out some of the stress and exhaustion from the day. His wife and son were sitting on the couches, watching something on the wall computer, which had been positioned so that those sitting on the sofas could easily see what it was displaying.

"What's that?" he said, as the two turned around to greet him, and he inclined his head towards the images being displayed on the screen.

"Something I found in the ship's databanks," Sarah (NPC) replied, as Jacob (NPC) turned back to watching the screen. "It's called television. People on Earth used to watch it for entertainment before holograms were invented. It was all two-dimensional and shown on a screen like this one, so I had the computer play on of their movies on the wall terminal for Jacob while he gets ready for bed." She looked over at their son and ran a hand affectionately through his hair. "Besides, he's not been feeling well enough to go to the holosuites today. He was so poorly this morning I told him to go back to bed for some more rest."

Moving around the couch to squat down infront of his son, he reached the back of his hand up to press it against Jacob's forehead. "What's up, Jake?" The boy was definitely running a temperature.

"My head hurts, and my stomach hurts, and I feel really sleepy all the time," the boy said, in the 'poorly voice' children were always good at. Benjamin always thought they pulled a sick day while they weren't as a rehearsal for spending a whole day doing the special voice when they were genuinely ill.

"Here, let me get something for you." Standing and heading over to the replicator, Benjamin typed a few commands into its console, and waited while the hypospray materialised. As Jacob got up to come over to him, Ben met him half way, and knelt down to the same height as the eight year old while he pressed the medical device against his neck to transfer the medication into his blood stream. "There, that should do it. Now go on, get to bed. That'll help to."

"OK," Jacob replied, reaching up to rub his eye. It was clear the boy was tired, and he had only been staying up to see his father. Receiving a kiss from both his parents, and assurances from Sarah that she would be in soon to tuck him in, the little boy went off into his bedroom, while his parents watched the door close.

As Jacob left the room, Ben dropped himself onto the couch, and visibly deflated with a sigh. He truly hadn't realised how exhausted he was until he took the weight off his feet and stopped trying to look the professional commander in front of his crew.

"Tough day?" Sarah asked, as she got up and moved around the couch to begin massaging his shoulders from behind.

Letting looks a short bark of a sarcastic laugh, Benjamin replied, "You could say that. Today we started to escort the Obrinkahn delegates towards their meeting with the Arktina. The hard part comes when we found out they had been brutally beating a Starfleet officer - none the less, and officer who was pregnant! We've no idea how she or her shuttle got to this galaxy, but unless she ran into some sort of freak anomaly, I wouldn't put it past the Metrons to have sent her here to add to our 'test'."

"They beat a pregnant woman?" Sarah asked, forgetting the massage for the moment to look at her husband, shocked. "How could they do that? And why would anyone do such a thing?"

"Apparently, the Obrinkahns were convinced she was working for the Arktina, and with her shuttlecraft was going to fly into Obrinkahn space to wreck destruction and havock." Benjamin's voice became more sarcastic as his sentence went on, indicating just how ridiculous the Obrinkahn paranoia was. "And what's worse is that the ship is suddenly coming down en masse with the same illness. I was bent over with stomach pains on the bridge today - I can't afford to be seen to be weak in front of these people, Sarah. If the doctor can't find out what the cause is, and cure it before the negotiations take place, it is going to take some serious planning and work to pull this off."

Reaching her arms around his neck, Sarah hugged her husband closely from behind. "I'm sure you'll get through it. You always do." She kissed his cheek gently. "Go on, go get ready for bed. It sounds like you need the sleep."

Smiling affectionately at her, Benjamin nodded. "I suppose you're right."

"Go on," Sarah repeated, when he still didn't move as she stood, removing her arms from around his shoulders. "I'll go tuck Jacob in, then I'll be in to join you."

"Tell him goodnight from me," Ben responded, finally pulling himself up from the comfortable sofa, deactivating the wall screen, and heading into their own bedroom.


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Commander Benjamin J. Byrne
Commanding Officer

Sarah Byrne (NPC)
Ben's Wife

&

Jacob Byrne (NPC)
Ben's Son
(All NPCs played by Cmdr Byrne)