Fire In Your Belly

Posted on Mon Apr 20th, 2020 @ 12:49am by Major Ashley Rogers

409 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Prologue: Before the Inferno
Location: Rogers' Quarters; Raven's Claw
Timeline: 238612.15

Ash took off the Romulan uniform as soon as she crossed into the threshold of her sparsely decorated quarters. She had been on board the Claw for months now but it certainly didn't look like it. She walked over to the lavatory and splashed water on her face, almost as if she was trying to rinse off any semblance of order and discipline that uniforms and rank may have rubbed off on her. This new mission sounded insane. Ashley Rogers has had her fair share of insanity in her life, but this was a whole different level.

She walked over to the seating area and looked out at the stars and took a deep breath and basked in the freedom of interstellar travel. Freedom. Ash chuckled to herself as sat down with the weapons inventory on a PADD. For a brief moment, she almost felt herself transported back in time to when she last wore a uniform. "That turned out well," she said to no one. She tossed the PADD back onto the table and went to the replicator and ordered herself a cup of hot green tea, unable to shake her memories.

Ashley Rogers left Starfleet for good after the Mars attack. She had tried for years to be a good Starfleet officer and when the moment came to flip the coin on her soul.... never had doing the "right" thing turned out to be so catastrophically wrong. Both the Section and Starfleet have betrayed her, more times than she cared to think about, her tea would need to be much stronger with less tea and more alcohol. She turned her back on both and ran away to the Neutral Zone. It pained her to call it running away, but that's what she did. She left behind so much, but she couldn't bear to look Renee in the eyes ever again... knowing that it was because of her belief in helping the former assassin redeem herself that Ash betrayed many others. She hadn't even bothered to say goodbye in person. She left like a coward, with a note and no way of reaching her. Ashley Rogers disappeared into the anonymity of the Beta Quadrant, a mercenary for hire.

And now, she found herself onboard a bird-of-prey on a high-risk, high-reward mission. She downed the rest of the tea, letting the liquid warm her insides, a comforting fire in her belly, "There's no place I'd rather be..."

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