Lost Opportunities

Posted on Sun Jul 28th, 2013 @ 8:00am by Lieutenant Commander Matthew Horne

Mission: Nothing Stays the Same
Location: Horne’s Quarters, Deck 3, USS Pacifica
Timeline: 22nd of December 2382, 11:00

On:

~~~ Horne's Quarters, Deck 3, USS Pacifica ~~~

Matthew had returned to his quarters following unexpected meeting in his office with Commodore Butterworth and Lieutenant (JG) Santiago. He had been in a bad mood when he left his office, it hadn't improved during the short trip back to his quarters and he was still fuming as he grabbed a strong travelling case out of one of the storage units in his quarters. Matthew had started the day feeling almost bulletproof after the wonderful night that he had spent in the company of the lovely Francine. He believed that there was nothing that could bring him down, not even an entire day spent conversing with Ambassador Kingsley on Starbase 99, but he had been very wrong. The feeling had remained until the Commodore had told him that he was being transferred to Starbase 99 at the request of Ambassador Kingsley, to join the Ambassador's staff at the Diplomatic talks with the Gorn. Matthew had no idea why the Ambassador had requested him to join the talks, he had no experience at all with the Gorn and he had only been following the progress of the peace talks at the request of the Commodore, who wanted to stay up-to-date on the situation as it developed.

In the end Matthew didn't really care about the reasons behind his transfer, he cared about the fact that he was being transferred in the first place. It was going to take him away from the Pacifica days before the ship left Federation space, bound for the large unexplored region of the galaxy that was called the Isis Arm. Matthew considered the mission to Isis to be a once in a life time opportunity, he had invested a lot of time in preparing for the mission and he was now going to miss it, or at least some of it as the Commodore had constantly explained to him. The entire situation stunk and it annoyed Matthew to no end that he was going to be stuck behind on Starbase 99 with Ambassador Windbag. He wanted to go to Isis but he had his orders and Matthew felt duty bound to see them through, he could only hope that it won't keep him away from the Pacifica for too long.

Matthew tossed the case onto the foot of his bed, he hadn't had a chance to clean up in the morning and the bed was still a mess with the white soft sheets splayed everywhere. He unfastened the two latches on either side of the small locking mechanism that held the case closed and lifted it open. Matthew was about to go across to his bedroom cupboard to gathered some of his clothes, when out of the corner of his eyes he spotted a small collection of Francine's things that were sitting in neat pile on the bedside table. With everything that was going on Matthew had nearly forgotten all about Francine and the revealing dress that she had worn. It was still early days in their relationship, but they had just spent their first night together and Matthew had been hopeful that it would the first of many such nights.

Matthew knew his budding relationship with Francine was now up in the air like everything else in his life. He hadn't had a chance to really talk to her about where everything stood between them. Matthew wondered if he would even get the opportunity to do so, he was due to leave the Pacifica for the starship Tranquillity in little over two hours which left little time to have a conversation with Francine. He was resolved to try though as there were too many things between them that he didn't want to leave unsaid.

Off: Just a real short and quick post. Tag Francine got time for a quick JP before I fly out?