Deep in thought

Posted on Sat Apr 9th, 2022 @ 8:40pm by Ensign Elaine Goff & Lieutenant Commander William Gunnison

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Raging Deity

The Raging Deity's doors opened to admit a solitary woman dressed as if she were heading off to a day at the beach. She moved over to the solitary figure staring out at the front windows. "Here you are, Commander. You know, I hear there's a major party down in Holodeck 1."

Will turned to the woman. "Good evening, Counselor Goff. I came here for a bit of quiet. So who ratted me out? Ashe?"

"Well, this is her establishment," Goff replied. "Not much goes on in here that she isn't aware of. But of course I'm not going to disclose who ratted you out. Counselor/patient confidentiality and all that." She added the last comment with a conspiratorial smile. "Anyway, you weren't planning on standing here all night, were you?"

"No, was just thinking of a few things before heading back to my quarters," Will replied.

"Want to talk about it?"

"Caetov," Will said. "I can't help but think of al the lives lost there, and I wonder if we couldn't have done more, saved more..."

"Commander," Goff said, walking up to stand next to him, "what we did is already an amazing thing. I hear you were one of the ones who argued in favor of helping out, even though there was always a possibility of not being able to do anything at all, or, at the very least, that Starfleet Command might not share your interpretation of the Prime Directive if we did try to help."

"Yes, but all the people we couldn't help..."

"Commander, from what I understand, there was no way we were ever in a position to save everyone. Even if we had a hundred starships at our disposal, we could never have saved everyone. But what we did do was ensure that at least some would live, and ensured the survival of the species. Is it very sad that we couldn't save everyone? Yes, but it could have been much worse."

Will went to say something, but Goff held up a finger. "There's a reason that command track officers in Starfleet have to take the Kobayashi Maru test at the Academy. Despite what Kirk tried to maintain, we really can't win 'em all. We did the absolute best we could under extraordinary conditions, and sometimes that has to be enough."

Will nodded slowly. "Yes, I suppose that we did make a good effort," he said after a few moments.

"A great effort," Goff agreed. "I'm not saying we forget the ones we couldn't help, but I like to think that they would have understood that we did what we could." After a few moments, she said, "So, you coming along to the holodeck?"

"No, I think I'll turn in for the evening," Will said.

Goff nodded. "Understandable. But remember, you're somebody who still helped out a lot of people. They may never know that, but you never stuck me as the type who was in it for the glory." With that, she headed out the doors.