Bad News Once Again
Posted on August 7th, 1999 by Belle Carver and Andrew Seal

Belle walked down the narrow corridor. She entered her quarters and found a message waiting for her there. It was from her brother back on Earth. She sat back and listened to the message. Her brother’s deep voice gave her some confort. Until he came to the jist of the message. She had to rewind it several times to make sure she heard him right. Tears began dripping down her cheeks as rivers flowing to the sea. She sat back in her high backed chair and let her sobs overtake her. She fell asleep with her legs tucked under her. Her hair was falling out of the neat, tidy bun that it usually was in. A stray piece of hair hung over her left eye and falling on the tip of her nose.

She woke up the next morning all cramped and uncomfortable. Then she remembered what happened last night. She saw the computer on with her brother’s prominent face on the screen in a still life fashion. The tears threatened to come pouring out but she kept them in check. She ran a shower and got ready for her shift. She couldn’t keep her hair back, so she just put half up and half down. She walked out of her quarters, leaving the screen to the computer on. Her long blackish brown hair flowed behind her as she got on the TL. She knew the rest of the crew would know she was crying, for her eyes were red and puffy. She tried to make eye contact with people as she departed the TL but could not. She took her console from the ensign and began to immerse herself in work. Only once in awhile a tear would escape.

Belle walked slowly back to her quarters after her shift. A definite sadness radiated throughout her whole body. Her eyes glanced up once in a while, to make sure she didn’t run into anyone. But for the most part they stayed on the ground. She could her brothers’ voice echo through her head.

“Bad news, Belle…..” He started. “Didn’t survive the attack….” He ended. No ifs, ands, or buts. Plain and simple, no emotion was to be shown except rage, like it was all her fault this had happened. Ever since it was found out that she was adopted, she was treated with such disregard that it scared her. “Don’t bother comming home….” There was an emotion of hatered in his voice that was never there before. She could remember her childhood and now realize that the tension between them was always there. But he never once treated her that way. Like she was no one.

Belle quickly walked into her quarters, not even stopping to say hi to her fellow crewmates that had become like family to her. As the doors slid shut, the floosgates opened. She crumpled to the floor. She could hear him from her childhood. “Higher, push higher”, a four-year-old Belle cried to her older brother. “You really want to higher? You might fall out and break your neck.” Belle stopped and decided she had better not do that. She didn’t want Mommy or Daddy sad like the way they were when Pop-Pop went away. “No, I want down.” Belle stated with an authority only a four-year-old could have.

Belle sat on the floor listening to the sounds of the ship die away as the night crew got ready and the day crew went to their quarters for some much earned rest. It had been some very hectic weeks that lay behind them. She could feel her head begin to pound. Maybe she should have a doctor take a look at that. She shuddered. She didn’t like doctors very much. They tended to stick needles in first then ask questions. As the ship prepared for night, and the sounds were all gone, her quarters were deathly quiet. This had begin to bother her. She really hated to be all alone. The tears had subsided. She began to think of what should she do in this course of event. She began naming them outloud.

“Well, they were gone”, she began. ” I knew this was going to happen one day. They knew it to. I wanted to go to the stars from the first time I could talk and walk. I knew it was my destiney to be up here. To learn of the universe and to let it take me where it chose to. My parents…, errr..my adoptive parents has shown me how to reach and hold on to these stars. Now I must do something for them.” Belle stopped and began to replay the message that was sent to her from her estranged adoptive brother.

Belle began to pace the short distance in her quarters. She has never felt so confined in all her 21 years. She really needed to talk to someone to get this feeling that she was feeling off her chest. Or so to speak. She didn’t want to go to just anybody. No telling what they may make out of these feelings. She thought of the person she had met while they were aboard the temporary home of the Jem’Hadar ship. Andrew. She had felt a connection with him, like another kindred spirit. She began to wonder where he was and if he was busy.

“Computer, please find Ensign Andrew Seal”

“Computer: One moment..Ensign Andrew Seal is in his quarters.”

Okay now she knew where he was, but she didn’t know “where” he was. She grabbed a copy of the communica and asked the computer excatly where his quarters were. She got her answer and was out the door in a flash. She really needed to talk to him.

The most horrible time of the year for Andrew Seal had come…again. Just as it had come for the past 598 years.

The anniversary of the death of the family of Andrew Seal.

The day his wife, and two children were murdered in their sleep by Xatonian forces in the worst massacre in Khenalian History.

It was a day that had plagued Andrew Seal for the past 6 centuries…and continued to plague him that very day.

He could remember very clearly…

—–

The eerie silence of the planet as he, and his team landed after a fierce battle in the Oomari Asteroid Belt. They had been victorious. There was to be a grand celebration. When the drop ship landed in the capital of the biggest Khenalian colony, Melkara 8, the smoke that rose from the ground after warship disruptors had struck the surface, taking out the planetary defense systems…

The smell of bodies charred by phaser fire, blood stained windows, houses, bodies lying in the streets…it was horrible.

There was to be no celebration, then.

Seal looked on in shock as the people he knew, his friends, his neighbors, all lie dead on the ground.

“What had they done wrong? They were but civilians…this was not right…what bloodless animal could have done such a vile thing?!?”, thoughts raced through his mind.

His blood turned cold as he reached his own home.

—–

Seal was jarred from his thoughts as he heard the door chime go off.

He stood up, erasing all emotion from his face.

“Enter.”

The doors slid open to reveal Lieutenant Belle Carver, her eyes red and puffed out, as if she had been crying.

“What’s wrong, Belle?” Seal asked, concern could be heard slightly in his voice.

“I…I need to talk to you…”

She just stood there in the middle of his quarters and began figiting. She raised her arm with the communicator. She handed it to him as the tears began to fall. She just couldn’t stop crying. He took the communicator from her and looked at her questioningly.

“My bro..brother sent that to meee….” She continued to sob. “He nev..never really liked meee be..” She just couldn’t get the rest of it out. She just kept sobbing. Seal put the communica into the computer and began to listen to it.

Belle’s brother’s face appeared on it at what seemed like a funeral. And her began to speak. “Belle, this just happens to be all your fault. If you were here or if my parents hadn’t taken you in, they would still be alive. Because you hadn’t answered in them from their last letter to you, they were planning on comming to see you to make sure you were allright. Their ship was ransacked and the passengers killed. They do not know who did this. I just want to make one thing clear. You are no longer welcome here, so don’t come back. ”

The communication ended and Belle just stood there crying. ” They..They’re dea…” She just couldn’t say that word. Not yet.