Unworthy by Kirsten Beyer

Author:Kirsten Beyer
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Science-Fiction:Star Trek
ISBN: 9781439103982
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Published: 2009-09-28T07:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Ensign Meegan McDonnell sat unobtrusively in the main sickbay of the Galen, reviewing the ship’s inventory of stored medical supplies. They hadn’t been in space long enough for anything to have expired, but there was little else she was permitted to do when the Doctor wasn’t busy with a patient. When she was done with the hypos Meegan moved on to the diagnostic and surgical equipment. Routine, but it allowed her to direct most of her attention to the conversation going on between the Doctor and Lieutenant Barclay.

“Just let it go,” Reg insisted.

“I don’t believe you want me to do that, or you wouldn’t have brought it up,” the Doctor replied.

“It’s a waste of your memory buffers.”

“Reg, I consider you to be a friend. Nothing that affects you is a waste.”

Barclay appeared to be genuinely moved by this remark. Meegan certainly would have been in his place.

Placing a hand on Reg’s shoulder, the Doctor continued, “If your feelings are genuine, and I have no reason to doubt that they are, you should do something about them. Three years may seem like a long time, but believe you me, it will fly by in the Delta quadrant.”

“She would never think of me that way. And why should she? She’s beautiful. She’s accomplished. She’s not at all the type of woman I do well with, unless they’re trying to steal Federation secrets from me.”

“Commander Glenn is beautiful and accomplished,” the Doctor agreed. “But she is also a human being. She has her own set of strengths and weaknesses, her own doubts and insecurities. No one sees themselves the way others do, Reg. You just need to gather your courage, and ask her to join you for a recreational activity. Choose something that will permit both of you the time to talk and get to know each other. The rest will come naturally.”

Reg’s shoulders lifted as he inhaled and began to imagine the scenario the Doctor had just described. Soon enough, however, he crumpled.

“What if she says no?”

“She won’t.”

“She could.”

“She won’t.”

“She will,” Reg finally decided. “And then I’ll have to spend the next three years avoiding her, which on a ship this size won’t be easy. We’ll constantly be running into each other in the halls—”

“Reg,” the Doctor interrupted, ending one of Barclay’s meandering, stream-of-consciousness rambles before he could really get going. “You are a Starfleet officer held in high regard by your peers. You served aboard the Federation flagship, you were personally responsible for establishing communications between Voyager and the Alpha quadrant, and you are one of the most respected designers and developers of holographic technology currently alive. You are fascinating, and I’m sure that in time, she will come to see that. But only if you give her the chance . If you decide now that it will never work, it won’t. Decide that it will, and it might.”

“Won’t I can live with. I’m not sure about might,” Reg said, sighing.

The Doctor shook his head in frustration, grabbed a padd and downloaded selected files from his personal database onto it before presenting it to Barclay.

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