Post 485:Alone in a Crowd Part One

Stardate: 71010.2100
Title: Alone in a Crowd, Part One
Author: Ensign Rada Dengar
Scene: Seven
Time: Concurrent with “Welcome to Yensul Part Two”
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“Age can only strengthen him, disease can but empower him, anger can only quicken him and time can not compare to him.” This is what they said of their ally, whose name they never spoke. It was a name however which Rada knew all too well, a name always present in his mind, a name which most men feared to speak, the name. . .of death.

Alas, Rada feared that when they came he would not feel their ally’s touch, he feared that his body would not lie on the field of battle but rather he would march with them into victory. That victory would be the greatest loss.

Rada knew he needed to think with a clear head but unseen thoughts clogged his mind. He had to make things clear. Rada’s mind was never clearer than when alone in a crowd, privacy allows thought and activity creates it. This is how he had found his way to Seven.

He parked himself on a bar stool and surveyed the scene, making sure not to make eye contact less he invite an intrusion. It was an empty time for Seven with a small portion of the Independence’s crew missing on the Alchemy and many others not in much of a mood to celebrate. There remained a small crowd of forgettable faces, but no more.

The room seemed much darker than usual and time seemed to pass that much slower. Far from Rada’s normal concept of enlightened solitude and stress free circumstance, this is where Rada felt for the moment he belonged.

He ordered a drink which he watched slowly vanish. He looked over at Trick and thought to himself about when they had met.

*I asked about alcohol and he explained it was ‘outside the parameters of normal handle’ and like a fool, I didn’t understand* he then laughed softly to himself and continued *There are a lot of things I don’t understand*. Next he ordered another drink and watched it vanish quicker than the first.

He turned to the crowd and wondered *What will become of them? I can only hope that if they live to oppose me they won’t live to join me* he quickly ordered another and was met with a look of concern from Trick.

He explained that it was liquid courage, that he needed to talk to a girl he’d had his eye on for a while. As a result his drink was poured.

*No one can resist helping the poor lonely Ensign in his pursuit of a relationship. If only they really knew you*. Rada knew that people saw him as lonely, for all the confidence on his face people always saw loneliness in the faces of those who don’t seek to connect. At the end of the day out of compassion Rada did not want anyone to know him; you don’t feel the death of those you don’t know.

“Mind if I join you?” inquired a soft voice from beside him. He looked over and he saw a beautiful woman. His eyes were immediately fixed upon her and he knew that they would not move away easily. She had hair of gold and eyes of piercing blue. Rada could not see her age for whilst she had the body of a young woman something about her spoke softly of the experience of eternity.

Rada put on his usual confidence and concentrated all strength and energy on the vision before him, a vision no one else in the room seemed even to notice.

“Sure, go ahead…” he did a pip count andrealizedd that he was addressing an Ensign, strangely he had not evenrealizedd she was in uniform when he first saw her.

She sat down and asked “So, do you drink here often?”

“No, I’m not much for drinking. I just come here to relax,” Rada said without his usual barrage of thought.

“It clearly does not work.” she commented with a smugness Rada found oddly alluring.

“What ever do you mean? Do I seem stressed to you?” Rada asked whilst leaning back with a slight exhale demonstrative of calm.

“Your face shows calm but I know it is a face that lies. You see I know of you Rada, everyone I’ve asked explains you as being this calm relaxed guy and yet a cursory glance reveals it not to be so,” she stated with a wicked smile.

“How so?” Rada asked curiously although he knew the answer.

“I have found that you are always early because you always leave long before you have to be anywhere, your uniform is always kept perfectly straight with every small fragment perfect in every detail and often jobs which would take a quarter of the effort with two you will do alone,” she stated with that smile remaining.

“A cursory glance you say?” Rada asked smugly his voice indicating that he felt this woman to be interested in him.

“For someone with my perceptive abilities, yes,” she stated smugly and then continued on. “All of these things tell me one thing, you’re scared.”

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Ensign Rada Dengar
Engineering OfficerUSS
Independence NCC-90791