James T Kirk: Ds9

The Calm before the Storm

Earth

Pleasington...a city very close to San Francisco

Breakfast was being served at the Mavis Sisko's home. Mavis, who sat at one end of the table, held out both of her hands, as did everyone else, and led the group in a silent morning prayer. While many of those at the table were not religious at heart, they did none-the-less bow their heads, out of respect of Mavis. And, after a soft "amen" the breakfast began.

Mavis was joined for breakfast by Jake and Korena, Ben, Kasidy and Rebecca. And joining the Sisko family was an interesting group consisting of Commander Geordi Leforge, Master Chief Mile's Obrien, and his wife Keiko, as well as Lt. Reginald Barclay.

"Ben," a smiling Geordi Leforge said, from the opposite end of the table, buttering his pancakes as he spoke, "this is one incredible meal."

"And I'll have you know," Ben Sisko said, "I use only fresh ingredients, meaning; none of it was replicated."

"These hash-browns are incredible," Jake said, as he dug into the mound he had served himself, before passing the plate of crispy potatoes on to his wife, who sat next to him.

"Hey," Obrien said from the far end of the table, "I remember how you use to eat on DS9. Save some for the rest of us."

Everyone laughed at Obrien's mock humor.

"How is Lal doing?" Rebecca asked Geordi, who sat across from her. "I haven't seen her since we got back."

"She's doing fine," Geordi said. "In fact last night, when I went by the food court, I saw her sitting there with a nice looking young man."

"Oh really," Rebecca said, as she arched her eyebrows, "I have some dish to use on her then."

"Dish," Reginald Barclay said, "umm," he said with a slight stutter, "how exactly are you using that word?"

"It's an old expression," Mavis said, from the head of the table. "I think I've used it a couple times, and Rebecca is just picking up on it. It means gossip," Mavis added.

"Honey," Kasidy said, as she bit down on some bacon, "Don't be spreading gossip around about your friends."

"Oh mom, I wouldn't tell anyone else," Rebecca said, "just her."

"Girls and their gossip," Ben Sisko said, with a light chuckle, "I guess there are some things that will just never change."

"Oh hush," Mavis said to her brother. "It just isn't us women who do it."

"I second that," Keiko said with a smile. "I remember Miles and Julian gossiping all the time on DS9 about all kinds of things."

"Honey," Miles said, in defense of himself and his friend Julian Bashir, "that was always work related.

"Uh huh," Kasidy added in a sarcastic tone.

Wanting to change the subject, Ben looked over at Geordi.

"Geordi," Ben Sisko said, "what exactly are you and Miles and Reginald doing? I didn't quite catch what you were telling Jake earlier."

"Well," Geordi said, "Star Fleet let me set up a team to go and rummage through Lawrence Thorn's lab to make sure he wasn't doing anything else there that he shouldn't have been doing."

"That's all fine," Kasidy said, "but just keep Rebecca and Lal away from that place. Those two have gotten into enough trouble thanks to that man."

"Now Kas," Mavis said, "let us not speak ill of the dead. Besides," Mavis said, "as soon as breakfast is done we got to be packing up before we leave today."

"That is true," Kas said, "so everyone stop jabbing and do some more eating."

There was a knock at the door, and being the closest to the door, Jake stood up to get it.

"I'll get it," Jake said, as he headed out of the dining room.

"Kasidy," Keiko said to Sisko's wife, "how does Ben keep serving you this kind of food and yet you still look as fit as you do?"

"He only does this on special occasions," Kasidy said, "most of the time I'm lucky if I get toast out of him."

The others laughed.

Jake came back into the room and, from the expression on his face, everyone could tell he had bad news to tell them.

"What is it Jake," Korena said, "Is there something wrong?"

"That was a courier from Star Fleet," Jake said. "He brought this a message from Admiral Kate Janeway." Jake looked down and read from the data pad. "I regret that I must send such news to the friends of Montgomery Scott, of which I know there are so many."

The faces gathered at the table turned to sadness, as they all predicted what the next bit of information would be.

"Montgomery Scott has passed away, here at Naissance. We are all well aware of the contributions he has made to the exploration of space; and especially his invaluable knowledge when it came to the workings of starships. To his close friends he was known as the miracle worker, and I want to express my deeply felt sorrow for their loss. We have lost a great man."

The mood at the table turned somber.

"Wow," Geordi finally said. "I can't believe he's gone."

"You knew him quite well, didn't you Geordi?" Miles asked. "I only knew him for a short time during that Project Diamond caper."

"Scotty was one of a kind," Geordi told the others. "When we first found him, his ship had crashed into, ironically enough, the other Dyson Sphere, the one the Enterprise-D found several years ago. His ship had crashed into it seventy some odd years earlier, and he had kept himself alive by recycling his transporter signal through the ship's buffer."

Geordi continued on with the story, which included several moments of laughter as the story concluded. Finally…

"…Scotty taught us a lesson that I would never forget."

"What was it?" Mavis asked.

"No one," Geordi said, with slight crack in his voice as a tear came down from his eyes, "is ever obsolete."

There was silence, and then, finally, Mavis spoke.

"Let us have a silent thought our fallen friend; Montgomery Scott…"

Everyone joined hands for a moment of silent thoughts. But Geordi's mind was already whirling with a question. He had known Scotty for some time, and in that time, Scotty had never mentioned anything about an illness. It was true that Scotty was an older man, but Geordi couldn't help but think that they were not being told the entire story; and he was right.

Continued….