Beyond the Stars, Beyond the Moon

Part 15: The Interview

Pov: Cassie

I walk into the room and the woman sitting at the big desk looks up and stands to welcome me. "Ah, T'Maire is it? Commander Spock's sister?"

"Yes ma'am." I try to look at her and be polite but I'm struggling to not look at the floor. For once, I wish I was a bit more like Spock. He's so confident when he speaks. I guess it must help he's oblivious to most sarcasm and can't lie. Fortunately for me I have both of those talents at least.

Commander Rowling looks to be in her late 40s, is definitely taller than me, and has short dirty blonde hair. She gives a comforting smile and motions for me to sit. "Thank you" I say as I take the seat in front of her desk.

"Now I hope you don't mind, but I will record you on my PADD here just so I don't miss anything for the record. So how long were you on the Caliber?" She asks.

"I was assigned right after graduation...so about a year."

"And what was your position?"

"I was an engineer." Wow this isn't so bad so far. Pretty basic.

"Were you close with anyone on the ship?"

Here it comes. I can feel my throat tighten up a bit. "Um yes...I had a few friends. I roomed with a girl I worked closely with, Leia Anton. And later my friend from the academy was assigned to the ship, Kane Singer."

"Did anyone seem-...oh honey don't cry it's ok..." She seems like she doesn't know how to handle it. I'm only tearing and she looks around for some tissue. Guess she didn't account for a crying Vulcan. Understandable I guess.

"I apologize. I'm fine. Thank you." She hands me a tissue and I wipe my eyes and nod for her to continue. Crying about Leia and Kane was not something I wanted to do in front of her, although I assumed I would anyway unintentionally. I felt especially weird crying over Kane with all the weird nightmares I had about him recently.

"Did anyone seem suspicious on the ship? Any newcomers or anything?" Come to think of it Kane was on edge it seemed. He was just different from his normal care-free self a day or so prior to the accident. But that could've been anything.

"Nothing truly out of the ordinary, I mean, of course some people are going to be on edge being in space for awhile never knowing what would come at us next. I don't remember seeing anyone sneak around or act too out of sorts. Everything was pretty normal."

"And what about the captain and the bridge crew? Were they good leaders? Trustworthy? Were they acting strange?"

"I really didn't know the captain and the bridge crew very well but we all respected them. If you don't trust your captain, well who can you trust? Being on a ship, you're putting your life into the captain's hands. I trusted them. They were knowledgable and they weren't suspicious at all."

"So no suspicious characters, trustworthy crew, good leadership; what happened on this mission?" She listens intently and I half suspect she expects me to cry again.

"Well not too long after Kane Singer was assigned to the Caliber, we were sent to retrieve mineral samples from planet Alpha Pisces, my guess is to see if we can find a reason for their extinction and or disappearance. The captain announced we'd be arriving at Piscian in just 8 minutes, and before we knew it the ship started rocking. Down in engineering we were all kind of looking at each other waiting for orders because there was no reported damage yet. The chief engineer was trying to contact the captain but we never got an actual response. Static and the captain yelling something unintelligible. The ship continued to shake until someone shouted there was massive damage not too far from us. The ship was already being torn apart and the alarm system started sounding for evacuation. There were several explosions that were now inside the ship as opposed to outside damage. I looked around for Leia but I couldn't find her. I heard another explosion and I actually passed out at that point; something hit me in the head."