Distant Shores - Marco Palmieri [57]
“She sounds nice.”
“Yeah, and she’s probably convinced I’m a complete imbecile.”
“You should ask her out.”
Mark almost choked on his gumbo. “What? Are you nuts? First of all, I made quite possibly the worst first impression in the history of the human race. Second of all, Kath- “
“- is missing,” Dina said sharply. “And she’s been missing for almost two years now. And she’ll probably stay missing, assuming she isn’t dead.”
“Dina- ” Mark couldn’t form words beyond that-it was as if Dina had kicked him in the stomach.
“Listen to me, Mark,” she said, “I just came out of a firefight with two Klingon birds-of-prey that we almost didn’t make it out of alive. Fifteen people, including our operations officer, didn’t make it out alive.”
“I’m sorry,” Mark said softly.
“Thank you, but the point is, life’s too short. I’ve spent way too long moping over Aaron and wondering what might have been, and wishing I could’ve gotten together with him one last time before Voyager went poof. But I didn’t, and we’re fighting Klingons and the Dominion is still a threat and the Cardassians are falling to pieces and the Borg could come back at any moment and I can’t waste my time worrying about what might have been. And neither can you. Ask this Carla person out. Live a little.”
Mark thought over her words as he ate more gumbo. “Okay, fine, maybe you’re right-but that doesn’t address the crappy first impression part of my problem.”
Dina had the widest smile Mark had ever seen, and she favored him with one now. “Ah, don’t worry, most women would think that was cute.”
“Really?”
“Well, okay, I would. But I’m weird.”
“Got that right,” Mark muttered.
“I heard that.” She laughed.
“You also walked right into it.” He sighed. “I promise to think about it, okay?”
“Fair enough.” She ate the last of her fish. “Hey, speaking of not getting on with your life, how’s Honigsberg doing?”
Mark shook his head in dismay. “He cancelled our lunch. He said he had to go off-planet to investigate another theory.”
“Theory about what?” Then she slammed her fork down. “What, about finding Voyager? I don’t believe it. Starfleet has done- “
Mark held up a hand. “I know, I know, but tell him that. I’ve been trying to convince him that if Starfleet can’t find anything, he isn’t likely to, but half the time when I talk to him, I don’t think he entirely registers that I’m there.”
The next day, Mark got two messages. One was from Kath’s mother Gretchen, checking up on him and wishing him well. She’d contacted him periodically to see how he was doing-she hadn’t been able to make Gres’s get-together on DS9, but she had been grateful to hear Mark’s report of it.
Speaking of whom, Gres had sent the other message. He was back on Ktar, having taken a six-month leave of absence. “The worry about my Samantha has affected my work,” he said. “However, I feel it is important to commemorate the second anniversary, and so I am inviting everyone from the first one. Will you please join me, Mark?”
Mark decided to go. Maybe it’ll help me move on like I obviously need to.
Three months later, he was in a large house on Ktar with Gres, Davey, T’Pel, Abhaya, the Kim family, and a few others. Absent were the families of T’Ral and Vorik-according to T’Pel, Selmar married another man three months earlier-Dina, Admiral Paris, Stadi’s family, Epp, Emmett Rollins, and most of the rest of the people who were on DS9.
“Most of them told me,” Gres said when Mark commented on this, “that they have moved on with their lives. For myself, I cannot do that. I just know that my Samantha is out there somewhere waiting for me.” He let out a sigh. “We were planning to have a baby, you know. We had been seeing Dr. Bashir on DS9 to make sure we were compatible, and then…” He trailed off.
Finally Abhaya spoke up. “I wish I had your confidence. It