When God Closes A Door...

Posted on Mon Jun 12th, 2023 @ 11:59am by St. John Talbot & Cadet Freshman Grade Stella Golightly & Cadet Freshman Grade Poppy Koppelman

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Mission 3: The Peace Ship
Location: Deck 5: St. John Talbot's Quarters

It was a good long time before Poppy reappeared again. She looked like a red balloon that someone had popped. A popped Poppy. She slid into the room and tried to avoid Stella's gaze.

"Mr Representative Sir... I've done the report but.. well..." she glanced around at Stella "... could I have a word with you in private?"

"Of course," Talbot responded. He looked at Stella, "You have your orders Cadet Golightly... You are dismissed."

The young woman nodded and headed towards the exit. She didn't give Poppy a look, prefering to avoid the daggers aimed at her. Stella had warned her, but it went unheeded.

"Can I sit down please Mr Talbot?" Poppy asked.

"I'm sorry about the mix-up with the Klingons: Ching, Chang... Chong!!" she actually gave a slightly lightheaded laugh and seemed supremely unconcerned, all of a sudden, about impressing the diplomat.

"The thing is Sir, I just got news..." she had that slightly dazed, almost giddy, look of someone in shock. "... sort of bad news, from SF Medical, they're the results of some tests Dr Slattery did on me the other day and they've confirmed I've got something called Plutonic Di-morphism. Makes your body go kinda funny and your mind go even funnier. I guess it makes you get your Changs and your Chongs mixed up, too. Anyhow..."

She looked up for where she'd been fidgeting with her fingers in her lap and smiled apologetically at him while her brown eyes watered a little now she was saying it out loud "I'm kicked out of the Academy, I'm not a cadet anymore, and..." she gave a helpless shrug "... I'm sorry I wasted your time with all this assistant malarkey."

"That is unfortunate... Unfortunate that they would dismiss you for a medical condition," Talbot responded.

"Starfleet personnel have to be in good health, Sir. It's in the rules." she said simply. She'd been worried about this ever since Doctor Slattery had first discovered that she might be suffering from the syndrome.

"I am not in Starfleet," he added.

Just as well, she thought, the man was a chain-smoking wreck, but didn't say it out loud.

"Therefore your status doesn't bear into this assignment..." He looked down at the replacement report, "The Planet of Galactic Peace is a new idea... An idea that needs the vigour of youth, but tempered by the wisdom to own up to one's own mistakes... To be blunt, I have no staff waiting for me on Nimbus III. I am all on my own at the moment... Would you be willing to join my staff?"

She didn't dare believe it!

"But.. wh...what about Stella, er, Cadet Golightly? She did better in the test than me and... and even got the right person and everything!... she, she did better than me. And she isn't suffering from some stupid disease. I don't want charity, Sir."

"Cadet Golightly has a career ahead of her in Starfleet... Or maybe in fine arts," Talbot explained, "She'll figure it out... There's nothing I can teach her. But you I can... You learned your lesson with this activity. Clearly your path isn't Starfleet and I think your talents are wasted in records anyway..."

Poppy went as red as a poppy, and her scarlet cheeks clashed with her red Starfleet uniform.

"Thank you Sir." she nodded, thoughtfully. "Yes, I did learn a lesson today, and not just about making sure and double checking my tasks. I learnt that as one door closes, another can open. I also... I think I also learned not to be mean to people who i think are in competition with me: I've been awful mean to Stella, ever since she came aboard. I'm going to apologise to her."

The girl stood suddenly.

"Mister Talbot, Sir? I'm going to take my uniform off!" She went red again. "Oh, not here, of course! That'd be... er... well... I mean I'd like to go and get changed into civilian clothes right now and start work for you straight away and... and would that be OK, Sir?" she asked with that doe-eyed, plaintive innocence that made Miss Koppelman so adorable to some people onboard, and so annoying to the other 99.9% of the crew.

A smile broke from the diplomat's grizzled face and then said, "Of course, please take your time to get your affairs in order... Things will go quite quickly once we reach Nimbus III."

Considering that she had just received such devastating news about her own health, Poppy cracked the biggest smile imaginable.

"Yes Sir! I'll take my time..." she said, darting to the door, which swished open at her swift approach "... back in ten minutes!!"

 

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