Chapter Text
Johannah & Breezie beamed aboard the Fleet Museum, seeing the Excelsior dead ahead. Johannah looks at the ship she used to help work in a museum. It looks wonderful, the paint job looks like it might've when it was first properly launched, every part seems to be in tip top shape. It is like it is in its prime, like a pinnacle of human achievement. Memories come back to her, both good and bad… It's been a long time, starcatcher.
Breezie spotted the transporter pad to access the Excelsior… It was empty. “Hey, look at that. We can go aboard undisturbed.” Breezie points out.
“Oh, that’s good. We won’t freak out anyone else.” Johannah stated as she noticed the lack of people around the Excelsior’s exhibit, walking to the transporter pad.
Breezie did so too and almost automatically upon stepping onto the transporter, the 2 got beamed from the museum onto the USS Excelsior. “Wow. Must be a free day.” Breezie states as the 2 materialised aboard the Excelsior’s transporter room.
Johannah looks around, running her hand on the wall of the ship… it’s just as she remembers it. It’s like she never left. She looks around, curious about what lies in this ship. She walks through the door and around the nearby corridor a bit, looking for any spirits or people to talk to that are native to the ship.
“I don’t suppose they’d be in a random corridor, y’know?” Breezie suggests. “You know this ship, what was a popular hangout spot?” She asks Johannah.
The ewe thinks “We have a lounge, near the front of the ship. We called it The Rec Dec.” She begins going to The Rec Dec, wondering who is there. She enters in, noticing plenty of spirits chatting away, ignoring Johannah before she says “You’re all here… You’re all here!” The spirits notice her and rush over to one. “Carol! I-It’s good to see you again! I can see you, I can see everyone else!” Johannah cries.
The spirits murmur, excited to be seen again.
“Hold on, wait. Jo?” Carol Miller asks.
Johannah rushes in for a hug but phases through. “O-Oh..” Johannah sighs disappointed.
“Oh, don’t worry that happens often.” the junior grade lieutenant remarks.
Johannah begins going to another crew member, excited to see her old friends. Johannah hears a familiar voice. “Johannah?” She turns around to see the now retired Captain Dimitri Valtane sitting at a booth, surrounded by spirits. She runs up to him, giving him a hug. “D-Dimitri… It's me… I’m here!” He hugs her back, shocked to see her here.
“J-Johannah, It’s been so long but you haven't aged a day. What happened?” He asks.
Johannah sits down in an unoccupied space.
The spirits made way for her as they did their crewmate.
“It’s a long story… But I brought a friend!” Johannah explains, indicating to Breezie.
Dimitri smiles, looking at Johannah with nostalgia. “It has been a long time, way too long,” he says.
Johannah smiles, happy to see him again “I’m glad to see you too! Is there anything I missed?”
Dimitri smirks, leaning on the table “That’s a whole new can of worms… still the memories I have here are good. Discovering anomalies, meeting new people… most of them I wanted to know better. To know a few of all those who made this place function, I just wish I knew more of them.”
Johannah looks around at all the spirits as he speaks
“But even though that’s gone now… they are still here with me. A set of good times to relive.” Dimitri states, his hand over his heart.
“I agree, sometimes the flow of time is never as nice as you think it is.” Breezie replies, lamenting the times she lost thanks to Benn.
Johannah nods. “Well… I think you see me as crazy, but I can see them… and Janice wants you to scoot over a bit to your right. You’re in her favourite spot.”
Dimitri nods, he is sitting in her spot. He scoots over and he feels less weight on his shoulders. “Was she sitti-?” Dimitri tries to ask before Johannah speaks up
“The stare.”
Dimitrti knows what she means. “Ah, that one that feels like she is burning a hole through your skull?”
Johannah nods as they both have a laugh, Janice’s spirit rolling her eyes as she observes.
Johannah gets up and looks at Dimitri “It’s good to see you again, Commander.”
He shakes his head “Ex-Captain, I’ve retired.”
Johannah smirks “Well, mostly the whole crew is here, so if you have any stories, they will listen.” She states.
Dimitri looks at Johannah, trusting her as he says “I’ll be sure to tell them everything.”
She asks one last question. “Do you know what happened to Captain Sulu?”
Dimitri shrugs “I don’t know, we drifted apart since I was transferred to another ship.”
Johannah, a bit bummed out, nods. “Well, until we meet again.” She gets to the entrance to the Rec Dec along with Breezie and turns around “I’ll see you soon everyone, especially you Jeremy!” She shouts blowing a kiss at a spirit. She walks off as everyone says goodbye, and one soul yells “I BLOODY KNEW IT!!”
As Johannah & Breezie walk out of the Rec Dec, Johannah instinctively begins walking to a turbolift.
“I’d like to see the bridge. At least one last time.” Johannah says.
Breezie walks in as well, looking at Johannah. “Of course. Besides recreation rooms, the bridge is where all the events happen.” Breezie states.
The two of them ride the turbolift up to the bridge, exiting it to see it empty, but alive. It felt melancholy to Johannah, walking around the bridge and running her hand on the railings. She recalled the place being filled with the senior staff, either going about their daily business or discussing how to deal with the latest threat, but now… the bridge was empty. Despite the spirits & Dimitri enjoying themselves down below, it felt like a stark reminder that those times had gone past and she hadn’t appreciated them before it was too late. Johannah couldn’t help but start to tear up, sniffling as she gripped the armrest of the now empty Captain’s chair. She shivers a bit, gripping the armrest… she looks around, tears in her eyes. All the adventures controlled through here, it was really something.
Breezie goes up next to her, also looking at the viewscreen.
“What am I to do?” Johannah asks, “What am I to do in a new time, knowing I can’t go back.”
Breezie looks at her, a warm smile on the Captain’s face “We remember them for the good times, and use them to look towards the future. I was in cryostasis for 150 years, you’re not alone,” Breezie says pointing at herself.
Johannah wipes away her tears, smiling and remembering. “I would like to go… but first.” She checks the captain’s chair and snickers.
Breezie looks to see a stain in the chair’s fabric.
“One time, Captain Sulu was eating some chicken tenders with some tea.” Johannah explains “And he was clumsy enough to spill the honey mustard sauce and tea in the same place.”
Breezie smiles, laughing with the ewe as they chat on the way out of the Excelsior, and back home to the Unreliable.