round 9 WALTAS: Hearts I Leave Behind

[Lupo]

OOC: Going to assume we're home. Also, I wrote this while listening to "Hearts I Leave Behind", which [...] near made me cry. It was in tribute to Chris Kyle, the soldier the film "American Sniper" was made for. It sort of fit's Tyr's situation too.

((Bridge, USS Thunder))

::They were home.::

::Or at least, his temporary home. With his involvement in the rescue mission and the events in the ready room, Tyr knew what he had to do. He quietly left the bridge as the Thunder achieved orbit, heading for his quarters where he packed his meager belongings into his backpack and slung it over his shoulder, his back protesting immediately and just as immediately being ignored. He headed for his temporary apartment on Duronis.::

::Temporary. Like everything here was.::

::Love had been temporary with Hella. Happiness had been temporary with his new duty station. Physical ability had been temporary with his injury. Even friendship; although Parker would never admit it, his new duties as a father and increasing duties as a command officer would reduce their friendship to dust. Duty always did.::

::Usefulness had been temporary. It seemed the only permanence the Ba'ku knew was loneliness. He'd felt that during the birth of Parker's child. And even as he'd held Toni's hand and dared to explore the possibilities that the gesture allowed-he knew that was a dead end too. It had been before, and would be again.::

((Transporter Room, USS Thunder))

::He quietly sighed and stepped onto the transporter pad, nodding to the chief as he realized the Thunder would be the last starship he'd set foot on. He noted, with a pang, that it shouldn't have been. Coming here had been a mistake. The last starship he should have been on was the Discovery, now wasting away in her berth at some forgotten outpost.::

::Wasting away. Useless. Like her Captain.::

((Duronis II Embassy Grounds))

::The Ba'ku materialized on the parade grounds of the Marine CIC and quietly shouldered his backpack with his possessions inside, heading for his quarters to change. He let the Starfleet Marine uniform fall to the floor and pulled on his blue jeans and black Discovery t-shirt-the same attire he'd worn the first day he'd arrived. Grabbing his guitar, he walked out, leaving the uniform lying on the floor.::

((Beach, Duronis II))

::He walked until his aching back wouldn't allow him to walk any further, clad in his casual attire with no communicator and only a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from the bright Duronis daylight. His feet took him to the beach near the Embassy, and finally, either from emotional or physical exhaustion, the Ba'ku sat down in the sand. He stared out from behind the sunglasses at the endless waves that lapped the shore, the ebb and flow of water as eternal as time itself. But nothing, truly, was eternal.::

::Nothing.::

::He withdrew a PADD from his backpack and sent the waiting resignation to Toni, then casually tossed the PADD into the water as well. He watched as the approaching waves tugged at the device, finally gaining enough purchase to pull it out to sea. He watched it bob at the surface, then it quietly slipped beneath the waves. He sighed softly and picked up his guitar. There was no one about, thankfully, otherwise he was sure the Laudeans would protest offworlder music just like his people did on his homeworld. He strummed at the instrument and then quietly picked out a song from his favorite genre, 21st-century Earth.::

::The song bled into him, the words striking his heart. He'd made a mark of a permanent kind..but that was long ago. Now he could only scratch feebly at the surface. And in spite of the help his friends had sought to give him, in the end, it just wasn't meant to be. He HAD to be useful. He HAD to be making that permanent mark, or it would be washed away, like the waves had washed away the PADD. He thought of T'Lea's fury and their confrontation in the lounge, and how right she'd been. He was weak. It was time he'd accepted that. T'Minh, Parker, Pavlova, Lupo..they had all tried to help him and in their own way, they had, but it just wasn't enough. The message was clear. He needed to go.::

::He finished the song, then struggled to his feet and turned to schedule a flight back to Ba'ku. But there was someone waiting for him.::

OOC: No, I'm not really leaving. This is a plot arc. Stay tuned.

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Colonel Tyr Waltas
Resigned