in another time and place, she might have pointed out, in an accusation of her own, that he had nearly forced her hand. might even have dared wonder aloud โ never believing it for a moment โ whether that had not been in part his intention. had he made a different choice, had he not returned, she would have had to cede a ship she was not ready to leave to a new command team or to finally take the sort of offer she'd been refusing for years.
in another time and place. now, she lets a pointed look suffice to inform him that she stands by her words โ without his amendment.
a decade must seem all too short, viewed from any lens a normal person might apply to it. but a decade was more time than his vague one day โ and the sudden signing of a power of attorney โ might have indicated. in her hands, a decade opens uncountable possibilities. it had taken less than three, after all, to completely remake herself. what can she do in ten, to prove time malleable, or to find a loophole, or to otherwise bend the universe to her will?
she does not wish to diminish the brevity a decade must feel. still, she remarks, tone wry, โ for the record, I think perhaps we can add that to the list of things that ought to have come before the power of attorney. โ he has done this all backwards.
โ and you believe you cannot change this because a klingon monk told you so? โ it takes all her effort to keep most of ( but she cannot keep all of ) her disbelief from her voice, to remain as neutral as possible. religious and spiritual practices grounded in true science are few and far between, and una knows where she sets her own faith.
โโ โ i saw it, una.โ โ correction is quiet, not quite a whisper, but it lacks the calm tone he had employed to this point. he had been so matter-of-fact, so calm and soft, that even this slight waver in his voice shook him, and he was quiet for a few moments, staring off into the window.
the memory still burned through him. he could see it, as if it had happened yesterday; it found him in his nightmares, and it burned through every dream he had of the life that was still waiting for him, as if that figure he saw -- that version of himself -- was waiting for him to arrive. before he could see his face again, he always woke up, and he could never tell if the apparition was waiting to welcome him, or if it wanted someone else to share in its misery.
โโ โ i can't say i felt it. that'd be wrong, it's different from that, more complicated. but i can't tell you i didn't, it was something else entirety, i was stepping through a portal and i knew and understood my future in that moment.โ โ he knew the sacrifice that awaited him. and he didn't fear it. just because it was a future he hadn't foreseen for himself, one he would never have chosen, he choose to make it happen. if it made sure that discovery's future was guaranteed, he couldn't act otherwise.
โโ โ it will happen. and when it does... i trust you. โ โ
