Vanguard Log | Capt Vokar - "Where the falling Angel meets the Rising Ape."

Posted on Fri Jul 7th, 2017 @ 9:20pm by Captain Vokar
Edited on on Fri Jul 7th, 2017 @ 9:22pm

974 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Resurgere
Location: Apsha, Stenellian Ascendancy

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.”

- Terry Pratchett, The Hogfather

=\v/= Apsha, Stenellian Ascendancy =\v/=

It wasn’t the waiting that was beginning to grate on the nerves of the Vulcan as he wandered through the gardens of the palace for what must have been the hundredth time, it was not knowing when it was going to end. Usually Vokar always found himself in control of every situation and while he had quite a… working relationship with the Empress, he found himself wondering when, if at all, his ship would come back for him.

Utilising some of the wreckage that had been recovered, he’d been able to repair a few items to make his life a little more bearable for the moment, the hastily repaired padd was a poor substitute for his library but he’d found that the Ascendancy had a passable library of human literature at hand although it was getting to the point where he could reel off the title of every book in the computer that he’d been able to access and download.

The ache in his leg was also still very apparent on the edge of his consciousness, the cane was a constant companion as he wound his way through the trees, blocking out the knowledge of the guards who still attempted to hide from him, despite his full knowledge of their routines and their orders from the Empress herself, while he was in favour with her, most people on Apsha still did not trust him in the slightest…

After several minutes, the incessant beeping from one of his pockets pulled the Vulcan from his thoughts, he moved to lean on a nearby tree and fished out an aging comm badge that he had augmented with a range extender pulled from a broken tricorder, the skies began to darken as the clouds began to swirl and were consumed by a huge object that blocked out the sun for half a continent, it was the signal he had been waiting for and he tapped it with his thumb and waited for the release he’d been seeking all this time…

=\v/= VCD Pendragon, Low Apsha Orbit =\v/=

“Signal acknowledged, we have a transporter lock.” the Andorian at the tactical station declared as he began starting up the procedure ahead of the order being given.

“Bring him home.” came the gruff response from the First Officer’s chair in the centre of the bridge, the Tellarite had moved himself over as soon as they had detected a Vulcan lifesign on the planet and had retaken his usual position, “Transport him straight to the bridge, I’m sure he’ll want to get underway.”

A few moments later, while the guards on the planet began making reports, the bridge of the Pendragon was flooded by a blue light as Vokar rematerialised in the centre of the bridge, a slight smile crossing his fast as hooked his cane over the arm of the command chair and lowered himself into it gingerly, his leg still threatening to give out under his weight.

He closed his good eye and leant into the fabric and for just a moment, all of his thoughts melted away and left pure happiness in their place, he was home…

When the eye opened again, he turned his head slightly and caught the grin on the fact of his Tellarite right hand, “Thank you.” he said simply before turning his head to the left and seeing one of the crew approach him, an arm stretched out and presenting him with one of his patches.

Once he’d slipped it over his head and had spent a few moments carefully placing it over his bad eye, Vokar began to feel more and more like himself, more than he had since he crash landed on Apsha.

His remaining eye began to focus and narrowed as he arranged his thoughts, “Our escorts, do they have any information on the dog?”

“Aye sir!” the Tellarite barked as he handed a padd over to Vokar and bared his teeth, “He managed to evade them a couple of times, but we have his last known location and a good idea of where to start looking for him.”

“Recall everyone… and I mean everyone, I want every ship we have, if it flies, it fights” Vokar replied as he scrolled through the padd and committed the information to memory, “The Vanguard are going hunting…”

=\v/= Apsha, Stenellian Ascendancy =\v/=

In place of the Vulcan only remained the repaired padd he had been carrying with him, carefully placed leaning up against the tree, a single passage open from a novel he’d found in their library from 21st Century Earth, one line was highlighted…

“I'd rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.”

(To Be Continued…)

Vokar
Vanguard Commander
VCD Pendragon CO

 

RSS Feed