round 13 Lieutenant Cayden Adyr - Serendipity

[Segolene LeMarnix]

((Bridge, USS Apollo))

Ra: Lieutenant, do you believe that there is a destiny coefficient on the probability of outcomes?

::The question was quite random, but it caused her to pause and think about it. Was there a such thing as fate? As destiny? Certainly things had come together in her world to culminate at this particular point and time. Why could the same not be true for others?::

Adyr: You mean like, fate?

::He elaborated on the thought as if he’d been thinking about it, mulling it over in his head for some time.::

Ra: What I mean is do you believe that destiny, at times, is the driver of where we are supposed to be? As if some force, some say the universe, is somehow affecting us. Or is it all just coincidence and random chance?

::Alaryc had an interesting view on fate and history, and as his words came to mind, she smiled.::

Adyr: Someone once told me that half of everything is luck, but the other have is the unending need for the universe to balance itself. Perhaps we are part of that balancing process.

::It didn’t seem so easy for the man to agree. He seemed to voice a kind of internal conflict; a conflict that reminded her of days that had long passed.::

Ra: I grapple with the problem of lacking proof. I have never believed in predestination of any kind. I have always believed that we controlled our own futures. I once wrote a paper concluding that even if you traveled into the future to see the future outcome, there was no guarantee of achieving that outcome because of your knowledge of those future events. But throughout this mission, my beliefs have been tested. Your presence on this ship and coming up with the correct solution. The insights from Gondor. I wonder sometimes if someone is writing the script for us. So now if I am wrong, no matter what we do, we end up where we are supposed to be.

::Cayden contemplated that notion for a moment. It seemed like a fairly black and white conflict; either they were set on one path as a puppet that simply played a part in an already predestined play, or they were simply children of chaos who went and did as they wished without any real direction. Neither set seemed to fit her own beliefs on the subject though. Perhaps there was more than just the black and white.::

Adyr: Personally, I think it all falls into more of a grey area.

::Again she smiled and turned in the chair slightly to look at the Efrosian man.::

Ra: So, how does this blend work?

::Now it was her turn to elaborate.::

Adyr: Perhaps the script is not yet written because there are still possibilities. Paths if you will. We can choose the path, which ultimately will take us places and through experiences, and while we think this is where we need to be and when we need to be here, perhaps it is just the universe bending those paths towards balance.

Ra: So you suggest that we all have our own final destination, but that the paths to reach that destination are ultimately up to ourselves. The universe does not concern itself with the finer details, but merely overall vision. Interesting...

Adyr: Maybe there are multiple places and times where we should be. Where we can do the most good.

::Now she shrugged. Thinking about her own situation, she realized that here and now was where she wanted to be with her whole heart, but was that destiny, or was that simply the successful culmination of good choices she had made along the way? In times where coincidence and serendipity seemed to reside, it seemed far more like fate than it did of her own work.::

Ra: Yet it seems that certain events appear to be so well thought out that we end up where we are supposed to be, without option.

Adyr: You’re right; strange coincidences seem to point towards some kind of predestined point in the future, but maybe we’re looking at it wrong. Maybe it’s just that our past dictates the paths we choose to take, and perhaps that is what puts us where we need to be.

Ra: Historical analysis is often the best way to predict the future, however there are exceptions. Case in point, the Dominion War. Starfleet strategists predicted that it was more likely that the Federation was going to lose the war than win it. However, two unexpected events occurred. It was not expected that the Romulans would join the alliance nor the Cardassians to turn on the Founders...or that I would lose my older brother in that very conflict.

::It was an interesting way to turn it around on herself. She could feel Alaryc’s scientific mind tugging at her consciousness as she spoke. Still seeming no closer to the truth, she simply found herself content to mull over the options and thoughts of her now fellow officer. Strange was the road that had brought her back to this, the center chair, but regardless of if it was her or the universe, she knew that she wouldn’t have traded it for anything.::

TAG/TBC

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Lieutenant Cayden Adyr

Mission Specialist/Command Advisor

USS Apollo