Short Fiction: the Orville - Haunted by our choices

 Part 11: Haunted by our Choices

"Claire?" Ed Mercer touched her face and smiled as her eyes opened. "How are you feeling?"

"Captain Mercer?" Claire found the invasion of her personal space a little too invasive. She didn't remember hooking up with Captain Mercer for a one night stand. "What are you doing?"

"Huh..." Claire looked about and realized she was not in her private quarters on the Orville. "Am I in the Medbay?"

"You are in a Medbay." Ed Mercer nodded awkwardly and looked at her vitals . "We are on a Space station."

"Sargass Nine." Chief Newton interjected. His voice came from the medbay bed next to Claire causing her to turn and look at the aging Chief Engineer. "I'm... I was... building..."

"Its a space station." Ed Mercer interjected. "The point is we are safe and the kids are safe. Everyone is safe."

"Uh..." Claire Finn nodded in apeasment of the God of Genocide. "...huh."

"So..." Chief Engineer Corlis Newton, hard up for anything resembling answers, cut through the approaching pause in conversation with the conversational equivalent of fried chicken and gravy. "What brings you two to my little Space Station?"

...

Alara sat on the floor holding the body of Leel Halstead. She didnt usually loiter. It wasnt the polite thing to do. Not with her Captain. But he had left the comms on.

As she listened to Captain Mercer's explanation of the events that had transpired, the rescue of Ty and Marcus, the Destruction of Kaylon, and his decision to sacrifice the Orville so that he might escape the gravitational pull of a black hole with Doctor Claire Finn and her children, a decision that would cost the lives of all but two of the crew of this space station, Alara stared out at the increasingly distant Star and wished she were in it. He was not the Starship Captain she had left behind when she departed the Orville to return to her homeworld so many years before to be with her family. Her Captain would have never used a black hole on the Kaylon homeworld just because it could bring a swift end to the conflict. Her Captain would have never sacrificed the Orville.

...

"You grazed a Star at Faster-than-light?" Chief Newton tumbled the numbers in his head. "That not good."

"Well," Ed Mercer was pretty much aware that his day to this point had been somewhere on the not good side of things. "How bad can it ge..."

Alara didn't even remember carrying the body across Ops to the lift, or the ride down. Her memory began with Leel Holstead's body in her arms, as she entered the Medbay and walked past everyone now stunned into silence at the sight of a dead crewman in Alara's Arms and, watching her extracate a morgue containment module, place the body of Leel Halstead within.

"Alara?" It was Claire. She would just drag this out longer than it should with questions so Alara shook her head and ignored Claire Finn's attempt at conversation. Instead Alara placed her hand on the firearm at her side and withdrew it from its holster.

"Captain Ed Mercer," Alara pointed her weapon at Ed Mercer causing him to stop, something she was instantly thankful for. "You are under arrest for Genocide."

"This whole day has been a pickle jar." Ed smiled at Alara Kitan, pushing against the grief and loss she was feeling at the sight of him. "Why wouldn't I want Alara Kitan to open it for me."

Alara Kitan fired.

****

"Isaac?" Weapon now holstered, Kelly stood outside Claire Finn's Quarters. "How are you doing in there?"

"I know right now these emotions are new and unexpected," Kelly looked up to see Gordon standing behind Bortus. For some reason he was consuming popcorn from a large metal bowl. Kelly turned to confront Gordon. "...for love of God!"

"Gordon we have a situation here." Kelly stared at Gordon. "Why are you standing there eating popcorn?"

"I was just wondering how long you were going to be..." Gordon needed to pee, but he didnt want to loose his place in the que. "... you know...with the ghost in the machine."

"I'm sorry," Kelly impacted against a brick wall in her reality check of Gordon Malloy. "...the ghost in the what?"

"Isaac's 'Ghost in the Machine' horror experience." Gordon pointed with a thumb over his shoulder and back down the hall as though that meant something. "The program thing Isaac left in the holosuite?"

"It tells you that Isaac is in Doctor Claire Finn's quarters." Captain Kelly Greyson was missing a big piece of the picture and cut Gordon Off. "Show me."

...

"Its best if you experience it alone," Gordon indicated the holosuite doorway. "Just go in and ask for Isaac."

"Okay..." Kelly entered the holosuite and found herself surrounded by wall to wall Isaac holograms. "Isaac?"

"Isaac?" Kelly wondered if she was even doing it right. "Its Captain Kelly Grayson."

"You killed Isaac's Mother." The voice of a young boy came from behind and Kelly turned to find herself confronted by Ty Finn. "Seize her."