A step in time

Posted on Fri Aug 28th, 2026 @ 9:49pm by Lieutenant JG Connor O'Donnel

521 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Mission 01 Shakedown Cruise
Location: On a shuttle bound for return to the Winchester

Connor had taken time off to help his little sister, Lizbet, deal with the loss of the rest of their family. She was only 3 when the transport carrying them to visit Connor has crashed. They lost both parents and his two older brothers. Even though a few years had passed since then, Lizbet was having a hard time; she wanted to remember her parents and her home but only had small snippets of memories. Connor had taken her back to Earth, to Ireland, and the family estate in the hopes of helping her through this. What he hadn't realized was how much the trip would affect him. Oh, he had psychoanalyzed the effects Lizbet might have but never thought of himself.

It was hard going back to the home he grew up in. He had a lot of memories about that time. He and Lizbet had walked through the house for the first time in over 5 years. Everything was just how it had been left the day the family set out for their trip. His brother's rooms were a clutter of clothes and belongings they might have thought to bring along and then left out. His parents' room, always neat from what he remembered, show the evidence of their last night here. Bed still unmade and the indentations in both pillow a silent reminder of what was lost.

He was surprised to find his room had been left alone, save for some award he'd gotten that his mother, probably, had placed on a bedside table. Then there was the nursery. The room that had been Lizbet's during her three years in the house. Cartoon animals were painted on the walls, which had been painted in a light shade of pink. The crip was in one corner, but the toddler bed is what drew his attention. Barely used, but Lizbet had run to it and grabbed a stuffed doll and held it tight. She hadn't let it out of her sight since then.

They were on their way back to the Winchester. His leave time expended and he had to report back on board. And from what he'd learned on the trip back to the ship, there had been a few changes. He wondered how well he would be accepted by the new DH for medical. He was a counselor, and by virtue of that training was also a trained medic. He could hold his own in a pinch, but he would leave the real medical work to those with better training and skills.

He glanced over at Lizbet, asleep and clutching the doll she called Dee-Dee tightly to her small body. At least he was able to give her something meaningful on this trip. He sighed and looked out the viewport at the stars, the USS Winchester in the distance growing larger with each passing moment. They were almost there. He started to get their things ready for the end of the transport.

To be continued on Board the Churchill...

 

RSS Feed