While a mute space ship captain is doomed to repeat the same time loop over and over, they feel they are falling for their head engineer more and more, each life they live together. Captain will never lose hope in fixing the wormhole, but they feel...
As they fell through the wormhole, Mark didn't let them go. They were numb and distant, not registering anything as they were limply tossed, but he held on. They landed harder than usual, Mark making his typically exaggerated and comical grunt sound as he landed on his front, the captain landing in the kneeling position.
They were in the diner and it was growing dark. The Captain had been here once before, but Mark had been much much older.
"I wasn't actually there..." Mark whispered.
The Captain shook their head as he slowly sat up to face them. Where was everyone?
"Who was?" Mark asked, watching the Captain make a few hand gestures.
"Oh, it wasn't me but looked like me...?" Mark asked. The Captain nodded without looking at him. They couldn't stand it,"I caught you... but they didnt?"
The Captain nodded again then looked at Mark, their face tear stained but the tears were no longer flowing. There was something else replacing the grief. It was utter rage.
"Could they have caught you?" Mark asked, fighting the urge to avert his gaze. The Captain made another gesture and Mark winced,"They just watched it happen? What if they were scared, Captain?"
The Captain shook their head again and pointed at their own temple aggressively.
"They... they knew what Izzys ex was planning? They just let it happen?"
The Captain stood up and when Mark tried to do the same, the Captain shoved him back to the floor.
"Captain... why would you do that?" He whined. They didn't want to be around him right now, they wanted nothing to do with him. They wanted to be alone, to clear their head. He made them lose concentration, made them lose focus on the mission they had, the reason they were here.
They hadn't thought of it in a while because even the warmth of the warp crystal had become normal to them.
"Where are you going? Why won't you let me come too?" Mark asked in a pained whisper,"I'm not them. You said yourself, I would never let you down, like you've never let me down."
The Captain turned with an angry expression of disbelief.
"I... I doubted you and went to Cici and pushed you away... but I shouldn't have." He admitted, averting his eyes. The Captain slammed their hands down on a table,"I'm not lying! I shouldn't have done that!" But he still didn't sound convincing.
They pointed at the door, the entrance to the diner, the blue glow, the low hum. It called to them. They went and opened it, ignoring the cries from Mark behind them.
Captain heard him running up behind them but they were too focused on what was in front of them.
Slowly one by one, different versions of Mark started to blur into view, all working in a time lapse.
A memory came to the Captain. The Lady said,"It would take thousands of years to build..."
Mark was building the warp core. He must have come to this room in this universe and built this over thousands of years. He was here for thousands of years. Alone.
His voice started up, started to overlap, calling them, speaking to them. The Captain started to cry as it all fell silent besides the voice of the Mark behind them.
"Captain." They turned to face him. He had a fire extinguisher and before they could comprehend what was happening, Mark hit them with the extinguisher.
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