A Bond Deeper than Starfleet
Posted on 01 Aug 2026 @ 2:15pm by Lieutenant Ryan Collingway & Lieutenant Commander Steven Remington
Edited on on 01 Aug 2026 @ 2:38pm
862 words; about a 4 minute read
Mission: Time After Time
///Mess Hall///
Ryan analyzed his scheduled tasks for the day. Mostly drills and planned maintenance upkeep on the right nacelle. He also needed to assign someone to investigate a slight power loss in one of the med labs.
No nanobots invading the crew, no mysterious life forms chasing him around the ship, no child of unbelievable power altering reality.
Just...normal.
Ryan found the silence unnerving. He glanced up as Steve entered, and wondered if he felt the same. He nodded his greetings.
Steve lifted his chin in return greeting and mouthed across the distance, “I wanna talk to you.” He pointed to the replicator to indicated intentions to grab food and would join Ryan straight away.
Ryan nodded. He was halfway in his meal but could easily make the time.
With an egg salad sandwich on sourdough and three very small tangerines, a glass of synth-ale beer and a piece of cherry pie, he sat down at Ryan’s table.
“Been anywhere interesting lately?” he asked with a grin.
"Nah, just reviewing the reports I sent to the Commander," Ryan said with a shrug. "As it turns out, there was really no easy way to write 'I had a beer and then decided to test my phaser for a while, drawing the attention of the cops', but I think I was able to make it professional enough. Along with more than a few disclaimers that I had forgotten I was in Starfleet."
How’s the memories? You get a clear bill of health from the Counselor?” Steve asked.
"More or less," Ryan said, leaning back and folding his arms. "I think there's still some lingering concern about us, given that few people have gone through something like this, with an unknown species on top of eveything else. But the examination didn't turn up anything, so they cleared me."
"And you?" He asked. "How'd the talk with the counselor go?"
Steve frowned. “She’s different from what I expected from a counselor, or else her approach to psych-evals is not like anything I’ve had before. You know her at all?”
"Doctor Emerson?" Ryan said, with a faint uncomfortable note. "...yeah. I was on mandated therapy when I first boarded the Arawyn. I'm off of that, but still see her on a regular basis. Except when reality-warping missions happen, I suppose."
Ryan shrugged as he sipped his drink. "I guess we haven't really gotten to know each other, besides a 1984 version. Some of the details were kind of right. Others weren't."
“Such as?”
"Hmmm..." Ryan thought about it. "My dad being an asshole and wanting me to quit my current profession? Almost mirror to 1984. But other experiences from this ship and my last weren't so easy to translate."
"I had a good friend on my last ship who asked me to do something impossible, before he died. I agreed to it, because I was a stupid Ensign at the time and didn't know any better. Lieutenant Flammia sniffed me out. It almost cost me my career, but the Captain gave me another chance. And I've been working on improving myself ever since."
He focused on Steve. "When you rescued me from that jail, I was surprised. I expceted you to find your own way home. I didn't understand why I felt that way, until recently. It was because I had been..." He shrugged. It was still hard to discuss. "Let down before, from someone who put their own interests first. So...thank you for not doing that," he added.
Steve was quiet, nodding in the affirmative, for a long moment as he tried to fathom Ryan’s situation. He examined his own experience. It had never occurred to him to abandon Ryan. Where did that commitment originate? Perhaps from his own tool kit of ethics, or it could have been more muscle memory from Starfleet training. No, it was a very basic code of honor. “I never occurred to me to leave you there. Even as my 1984 self, I knew we … our fate was together, not apart. You don’t leave your allies to the jackals. I honestly believe we could not have made it out without each other. We’d have been erased when it all collapsed. We were like two keys that had to be used in tandem to open the lock. We’re a team of some kind, maybe deeper than just crewmates on a 25th century starship. That’s kind of arcane, perhaps, but we have after all a long history together, dating back to 1984.” He smiled and held out his hand for a shake. “Good to see you again, Collingway.”
Ryan nodded. Now that he remembered he was Starfleet, there was a commitment to each other, the same with any member of the crew. But what Steve did on that mission ensured that Ryan would be a friend for life. He took his hand. "I look forward to working with you again, Steve. Hopefully under more calmer circumstances," he added with a chuckle.
A JL by
Lieutenant Commander Steve Remington
Chief Science Officer
USS Arawyn
&
Acting Lieutenant Ryan Collingway
Acting Chief Engineering Officer
USS Arawyn
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