appreciations Commander Jo Marshall - Truces Made of Stars and Silence

[Doz Finch]

In this wonderful solo sim, @Jo Marshall encounters her brother Bear in Sunder Peak, one of many haunts on the asteroid Nassau in the "Johnson Timeline". With theirs being a rocky relationship, they try to navigate a slightly tense conversation, making somewhat of an accord out of a very dire situation. It's a beautifully written sim that gives us insight into the Marshall family and how they're faring in a Borg dominated galaxy.

Commander Jo Marshall - Truces Made of Stars and Silence

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((Observation Deck, Sunder Peak, Nassau))

 

The observation deck was somewhat secluded, overlooking Sunder Peak's abandoned mining operation. Wide open spaces had seen homes built; not the best kind, but prefabricated emergency shelters, built to last a short while, or in their case, for as long as the Kamarov Corridor held off a Borg invasion. 

 

It was there Jo found Bear, silhouetted against the starry backdrop of outer space, each glinting like shards of broken glass in a vast blackness. Here, on the edges of this grim, Borg-dominated universe, the sight felt more ominous than awe-inspiring. 

 

Bear turned when Jo approached, his expression as inscrutable as ever, but softened slightly by the sight of his sister. Jo managed a thin smile, weariness tugging at the edges of her resolve, as if she could think of twenty more places she'd rather be than there, all of them more pressing and prevalent than a conversation that could prompt a heartache. She walked up slowly, stopping a few paces from him, unsure of how to start.

 

Huffing equally, the two turned toward the railing, and leaned their forearms on the ledge. Too close yet too familiar for the distance that had wedged itself between them over the years. Neither shifted, waiting for the other to speak. The chunner of chatter emanated up from the prefabricated settlement; people laughing, people talking, going about their daily lives. 

 

With a slow breath through her nose, Jo ventured forth. Find the thread and let it unravel in her hands.

 

Marshall: George would be laughing at us right now.

 

Trying to ease into conversation, trying to find any footing at all in their rocky relationship. It was a fragile olive branch; not about George at all, but a way to break the silence. Her words only seemed to land like a stone between them. Fluttering wings resting on the surface of the water, barely enough to break the tension.

 

Finally, Bear turned his head, offering a glance before looking straight back out at the settlement below.

 

O. Marshall: I think he'd tell us we're a pair of suliks. Tell us to get over it already. ::His voice edged with something hard, a whisper of wavering vulnerability beneath it far too far away.:: That kid never could stand us fighting.

 

Marshall: No, he couldn’t. He used to bribe us with haluk bars just to sit in the same room without snapping at each other. ::Her nose wrinkled with the memory.:: I'm glad he's not here. Can you imagine him trying to deal with any of this mess?

 

If she laughed, it was a thin thing, barely there, gossamer and gone, and waved her hand behind her in a gesture, knowing Bear would understand. George had a soft heart, an adventurous spirit; the drive, the kind of courage that pushed him headfirst into things. Nothing could hold him back from doing what he wanted to, and wherever he was, she hoped he was fine. She’d often thought that she and Bear were supposed to be the practical ones, but standing there, Jo couldn’t help but feel like something essential had gone missing between them.

 

They lapsed into silence again; dense and heavy, like a Marshall-shaped fog enveloping without thought. 

 

Marshall: How are you? I mean, about… Lena?

 

Wrong or right topic to broach, she could only imagine how she'd be if the situation were different. If Erin was the one missing from the Gorkon, somewhere else entirely and unreachable. The thought alone made her heart feel weak, as if the muscle were a soft thing, not built for that kind of pain. Not that Bear paid mind to that, or considered it, when he answered with a short, sharp reply.

 

O. Marshall: This isn’t the time to get emotional, Jo.

 

She wasn't too proud to say the words stung, but she swallowed down her reaction, looking down at the metal floor beneath their feet. Of course Bear would say that. He'd become an expert at putting walls around anything remotely emotional, sealing himself off from everyone else like it was a second skin. Some things never did change. Some things changed all too often.

 

Marshall: I'm not being emotional. ::A lie, but a soft one, her lips suffering under her teeth.:: I don't— I don't know how I'd be if… if things were… different. 

 

O. Marshall: But they're not, are they?

 

They stood in silence, the words hanging heavy between them. Jo felt the ache of it, the distance that had grown between them over the years. She wanted to reach out, to find something, anything, that would bridge the endless, gaping chasm that only seemed to yawn wider. 

 

Finally, Bear let out a sigh, his voice quieter than she’d ever heard it. His hand felt for the back of his neck, fingers running up into blond hair from his forehead, making it stick up at the front. It was endearing, seeing him in the way she did when she was younger; when they were kids trying to make the universe fit, before he left their quiet home to chase bigger dreams. 

 

O. Marshall: I don’t want us to be like this, Jo. But I don’t know how to fix it, either.

 

His words were so quiet, Jo almost missed them beneath the murmurs of the settlement below. But they were there, and they hung between them like a lifeline. She smiled, a small thing. Tired. Real. It wasn’t a victory, not really. But it was a truce—a pause in the long war of silence between them.

 

Marshall: Maybe we don’t need to fix everything right now. Maybe we just… stop pushing each other away. 

 

The tension in his shoulders seemed to ease. He glanced sideways at her, his lips twitched upward, the expression so faint it might have been imagined. Not the smile he reserved for one who wasn't there, and not the smirk of indifference he'd worn like a shield. The kind of smile that said he remembered, even if he didn’t say it.

 

O. Marshall: Yeah… One step at a time, right?

 

 

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Commander Jo Marshall
Chief of Operations

USS Gorkon, NCC-82293
G239304JM0