What Did You Do, Captain?

Momento Mori

When they were younger, the Captain never thought they would be anything special. They were intelligent and capable but in their twenties, they burnt out. They worked too hard and isolated too hard. They didn't do what they were meant to and didn't live up to expectations. If someone had gone to them as a twenty-one year old and told them they would be a Captain on a colonizing ship for a second Earth, they would have laughed at, or hit them. If someone were to go back and tell them that 30 year old them was destroying entire universes and killing the love of their life over and over, now that they would believe.

Mark shook his head, trying to come up with a solution. The Captain stared ahead, just taking him in. Celci stood behind him, rubbing his back. They had tried a few more things, but nothing was working and noone could help.

Lady was terrifying, the crew didn't trust Captain anymore. Actually, the Captain was worried because Mark was even losing hope in them. Mark was the smartest person the Captain had ever met, so if he was doubting them, maybe they should take that hint.

"Captain, what do you think?" Mark asked.

They looked up. Two choices were before them again.

"You know which one I want." He said, holding each hand out.

He was shaking and his smile was unsteady. There was a few things different about this Mark. His hair was longer, his face was dirty. He had been awake and in this universe for some time before the Captain had caught him venting to Celci.

"Captain..." Everything went dark,"...will this ever end?" Marks voice was distorted and growling as they made eye contact with him. There was a flash...

They were stepping onto the invincible 2 and Mark was holding out his hand, now they were in the warp core, now the cryo tanks. His speech was garbled and the surroundings were changing so fast. Everything came at them in nauseating flashes and the Captain teeters in place every time they did.

"Is something wrong..." Mark's voice dropped an octave and he stared right at them with a blank expression, "Captain..."

Captain took a step back and they were in an apartment, Mark walking through with a white jacket on, some younger guy falling him close behind. They were barefoot and carrying things the Captain couldn't see. Mark turned to look at them.

"Come on, we don't have a lot of time to film, it's getting dark. We have to get this filmed so we can edit it and get it up tomorrow." Mark said, motioning for them to follow.

"Mark, how are we going to build this in an hour?" The other guy asked as they all started walking again,"I've never done anything like this."

"Don't worry. Two things. One is they..." Mark pointed at the Captain,"Haven't either and two thing is..." Mark was inturrupted by the other guy snickering.

"Two thing is..." the other guy mocked.

"Shut up..." Mark said, cutely,"I have eleven more months of this."

The scene flashed again and they were standing in a dark room, Mark in a white suit with long hair, the other guy in a black suit, and between them was a coffin.

The scene flashed again and the Captain was back on the ship. Mark was sitting in front of them with Celci rubbing his back.

"You don't look too good, Captain." Mark whispered.

They just waved their hand. Things were just too confusing and too wierd for them. They couldn't figure it out, except for one thing.

Eleven. The other version of Mark had said Eleven. That number was sticking out to them. Why?

They searched and found paper and wrote the number out.

"Eleven?" Celci asked,"Eleven what?"

"Captain, come with me." Mark said. He stood and started to walk, the captain and Celci exchanging glances before following. He looked around feverishly then went into the supply room. It was filled with shelves of food and drink for the colonists. He searched feverishly until he found what he was looking for. He stood in front of the shelves and held his hands up.

"What are we looking at, Asshat?" Celci asked, hands on her hips.

"Well, Celci..." He held his hands up again," Storage Eleven."

"This was your idea? The connection your brain made?" Calci asked, her brows knitted together.

"Nothing else has that number on it and look!" He pointed to the metal letters on the side identifying this.

Eleven M-O

"You're asking what this means, Captain? Well the sections are alphabetized. These are chilled foods starting with M,N, and O." Mark explained.

Just like eleven months. This had to be it, but what did it mean?

The Captain took a few steps forward, running their fingers along the coolers, feeling along the top. They were stacks of coolers four high with three inches between the upper and lower coolers. Each level was flush on top and bottom, except for...

The Captain ran their fingers along the top of the coolers, until they found a seam. There were actually two. If the Captain reached back, they could get their fingers behind the cooler and woth a tug, it moved.

"Captain, scoot over, let me help." Mark suggested.

The Captain grinned.

"What you smiling about?" Mark asked.

Captain per his head then held their hands as if measuring something.

"Are you asking if I'm tall enough to reach the back of the cooler!?" Mark asked. Celci busted out laughing uncontrollably as the Captain grinned wider.

Mark narrowed his eyes at them and they made a fake pouty face at him, laughing silently.

"I bet your laugh was beautiful." Mark said suddenly, changing the mood entirely. He was being serious and whimsical out of nowhere. The Captain had seen a switch in his eyes when they "laughed". He softened and got a dreamy look in his eyes.

They stomped and shook their head.

"No! It's not pity! It's just..." they cut Mark off and pointed at the cooler. Both of them grabbed the cooler and pulled. It took a few tries but eventually it was moved and behind it was a doorway.

"Do you know what's behind this?" Celci asked.

"If... I remember my ships layout... it is The Warp Core." Mark answered.

Shakily, the Captain lifted their hand and placed it on the key pad, unlocking it. What they opened the door up to...

...was not the warp core...

It was The Captain's worst nightmare.