The Academy: Ashland

The Contingency Plan

A/N: Pardon my French. Literally. I don't know much French and I suck at sentence structure. So if anyone speaks French and I got it wrong, I'msosorry.

            “You'll be fine,” Seth said to me the next day as we stood outside Captain Crunch's office. “Why can't one of you guys do it?”

            “Because you have something the rest of us don't,” Kelsey said.

            “What's that?” I asked.

            “His respect,” Trip said as he, Kelsey and Seth pushed me into the Captain's office.

            “What? No,” I protested turning around to face the door as the three most evil people I know pulled it shut.

* * *

            'I was wondering how long you were going to stand out there for,” the Captain said, looking up from his paperwork, a few minutes after I was pushed into his office.

            “Yeah, I've been elected to tell you that our kitchen has a “just blown up” look to it,” I said.

            The Captain chuckled, “Oh?”

            “Yeah and it's Markus' fault. He kicked Jack, Seth, Trip and me out of the lab and expected us to cook,” I said. “And if that's all, I'm leaving.”

            “Actually, it's not,” the Captain said. “Taven, Markus and Jack just sent me a message. They want to see you in Taven’s office. It’s down stairs, right below us.”

            I raised an eyebrow, “Why?” I asked.

            The Captain sighed and shrugged, “No clue,” he said. They refuse to tell me.”

            I laughed, “Well, then I shouldn’t keep them waiting, should I?” I said.

            The Captain rolled his eyes, “Go,” he said. “Be smug somewhere else.”

            I playfully saluted, walked out of the Captain’s office and quickly took the elevator down to Taven’s office.

            “Finally,” Markus said, from where he was sitting on the floor outside Taven’s office. “Let’s go,” he said as he stood and walked into Taven’s office.

            “Hey!” Jack said with a grin when he saw me.

            I looked over at Jack who was sitting on Taven, who was sitting on a couch, with a box next to them, “Hey Jacky. Hey Tay-Tay.”

            Taven groaned and rolled his eyes, but was grinning when he said, “Hi Ashland.”

            “What’s up?” I asked as I sat on the arm of the couch, away from Taven and Jack, nd pushed myself against the wall. “Captain Kirk is upset because he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

            Jack grinned, “We have a present for you,” he said. “But you can’t tell the Captain.”

            I raised an eyebrow, “Oh?”

            Taven, Jack and Markus nodded, “He doesn’t know we have it,” Markus said. “It was given to us as a… contingency plan.”

            “Contingency plan?” I asked.

            Jack nodded, “We promised to give it to you.”

            “Promised who?” I asked.

            Markus shook his head and motioned to the box, “Just take the box,” he said. “We promised we wouldn’t tell you.”

            I looked at Jack, Taven and Markus and felt a flash of anger so I kicked the box off the chair and snorted, “What makes you think I want the box?” I asked. “Why would I want anything from you people? You took me from my home, hurt my family and took me away from them. So why do you think I want some goddamn mystery box from the freak brigade?”

            The three men visibly flinched and I felt a surge of satisfaction until Markus gave me a disappointed look, “I know you’ll take this box,” he said. “Because you want answers. You want to know why you and why now. So I know you’ll take that box the same way I know you haven’t thought about your so called “family” since you asked the Captain about them the night you were brought here.”

            I glared at Markus, “You have no idea what goes through my mind and I don’t think you should ever assume otherwise,” I hissed.

            Taven cleared his throat a second later and gave Markus a look I couldn’t read, “Ashland, just take the box,” he said.

            “Is that an order, sir?” I asked.

            Taven gave me a sharp look that was somewhere between a disappointment and a quickly developing dislike for my presence as he wrapped an arm around Jack, “Yes, it is. So take the box and get you skinny, ungrateful white cul out of my office, mioche.”

            I flipped Taven off, “Va te faire foutre garçon blanc, je peux être un âne sans instruction, mais vous êtes le crétin dans cette situation,” I said in French.

(Kids, ask your leaders (or parents) before googling words you don’t recognize because they just might be swear words or insults in French.)

Markus gave Taven another look before turning back to me, “Ash, please.”

I sighed and ducked my head (Markus can make us all feel guilty. I think it’s a dad thing.), “Alright,” I said, grabbing the box.

Markus shook his head at me and sighed, “Just… you may not like what you find in the box,” he said.

I raised an eyebrow, “What’s in it?” I asked.

Taven opened his mouth to say something, but Markus shook his head, “No, we promised we’d never look.”

“Promised who?” I asked.

            Markus ignored me, “Remember not to tell the Captain about it,” he said.

            I rolled my eyes, “Chill, I won’t.”

            Markus nodded, “Good, now get.”

            I hopped off the couch and sighed, “Alright,” I mumbled as I walked over to the door, pulled it open and walked out.

            “Ash, hold up,” Jack said, looking up at me as I was about. “When you… well don’t freak out. He likes to say sometimes he’s wrong about stuff, but other than that he’s almost always right.”

            “Who?” I asked as Taven slapped Jack and Markus shut the door in my face with a loud snap.