Same As It Ever Was

Cedrick finally gets back to her modest apartment, after three days of hard work. She hadn't been home in three days, trying her best to fix what was destroyed in the Trojan invasion. Paragon Corp had lost a substantial investment when both the station and Borg ship were destroyed. Not to mention all those NS-5's.

Sure they could afford the losses, with all the donations other companies had made in way of saying 'Thank you for saving us', but still. Cedrick felt she Needed to get the Earth's space program back on track.

So, to that end, she spent the last three days at Paragon Crop's R&D, working on their next ship.

Cedrick had kicked off her shoes, tossed her purse and jacket off. She lived alone, as usual, so she didn't care about making a mess.

She takes her shirt and skirt off, leaving her in a bra (which she hated wearing), panties (ditto there), and stockings (she could take or leave). She unclips her bra and lets it fall off, before she heads over to her windows and closes the curtains.

The boy from across the street liked to peep in on her when she takes her clothes off. Normally she didn't care too much, letting the kid see her topless, after all he was a growing young man, but she usually closed her curtains before taking everything else off.

After she finishes stripping off, she heads to the bathroom for a nice long shower. While the water caressed her bare body, Cedrick found herself thinking about the events of the past few days. Some of her coworkers had invited her out for some drinks, but she declined. She didn't really like hanging out with others she didn't know.

As she let the water run off her body, she got to thinking. She Really didn't know that many people. At least not well enough to call them friend. Not even Adell and Monica, whom she had known longer then anyone else, except for Ness that is.

She could only call Calvine, Ness, and Anita her friends. Now that she had calmed down a bit, she would have liked to have gotten to know Adell, Amandan and Monica better, to call them friend and do friend stuff, but she knew that wasn't likely to happen. So, she would just do what she does best, and continue to work.

Life was busy and came with a lot of headaches but Calvine tried not to let that stop him completely even though there was a lot of things in the way. At the moment while there was down time he decided to visit Cedrick to check on on them company wise, she was a adult and could live life as she saw fit but he didn't think being a hermit and just working was healthy.

Once he got to the door, he knocked and waited.

Cedrick was still in the shower, so she summoned an imp "Pick up my clothing and put it in the hamper, while I greet our guest." she says as she turns the shower off.

A minuet later, Cedrick opens the front door. She was still, a bit wet and wearing a thin, plain white bathrobe thay was also a bit damp "Calvine. Good evening. Would you like to come in?" she asks as she moves aside.

"As it turns out, there are some things I would like to talk with you about." she says as she sits, which causes the robe to fall away from her smooth, long legs as she crosses them. Her legs, in her opinion, were her best, physical feature "Can I offer you something to drink?"

Calvine did notice but he didn't stare or anything. "Just some water would be fine. I didn't want anything just came to check on you. What did you want to talk about?"

Cedrick picks up a data padd "You have been to Star Fleet Academy, right? So you have likely heard of the USS Enterprise: 1701-D. The Galaxy Class ship..." she says, pulling up a picture of it "I was thinking we should make our next ship like that one. A diplomatic ship where it can handle dignitaries in comfort and luxury, but also be armed enough so that it can defend its self if needs be." she says, finishing up as her imp brings Calvine a bottle of water, while wearing Cedrick's underwear on it's head, which were black and very plain looking.

Calvine nodded slightly. "Sounds like a plan. Like I said I'm mostly leaving the bulk of that stuff up to you but I'll act as a sound board if you need ideas."

He was going to say something else when the imp came back, he never liked those things. Probably a combination of their usual attitude and such. The underwear thing wasn't helping. "You're not exactly helping your case." Not that the Imp would care.

Calvine was correct "I don't care, monkey. I'm not here to impress you, meat." he says in a gruff, British accent.

Cedrick frowns "That was rude. Leave." she commands and the imp disappears in a swirl of fire, taking Cedrick's panties with it.

She sighs "Apologizes for that." she says. She seemed embarrassed by the ordeal, but she didn't seem aware of it.

"Actually, there was something I wanted to tell tou for a bit, but I did not know how to properly explain it..." she starts "Ness has had the remains of the USS Odyssey in subspace storage for some time now." she says as she brings up a picture of a different Galaxy-class starship.

"He has been trying to put it back together for some time now, but never has had the time to do so." she says as she brings up rhe blueprints and technical readouts for the Enterprise-D "The ship is a little less than half way finished. I was thinking about bringing it to the space dock and letting the NS-5s finish reassembling it." she finishes.

Calvine ignored the imp rather used to it, for such weak race of demons, they did like talking a lot of shit to others races. Maybe it was something like the little dog syndrome that led them with a chip on their shoulder or something but regardless wasn't his issue.

The news didn't surprise him, it was a good one. "I got no problems with you bringing it over to get worked on. The NS-5's should be able to get them finished before Too long when all working together. The harder point would be finding a suitbale crew."

Cedrick nods slowly, thinking. With their industrialized replicators thay Zero, a Borg from the far, distant future made for them, and an army of NS-5s, they could have that ship up and running in a month, tops!

Cedrick looks over to Calvine "I will take care of the details." she says "On a different note, how are you doing? I can not imagine being seen as the cause of, and the Earth's savior, at the same time can be too easy on the nerves." she says, something that Seemed to resemble concern was in her voice.

Calvine sighed slightly. "It's up and its down. One part of me really doesn't want all this attention and fame. I kind of miss it when I was just some average Joe lost in the crowd, but those days are over and I need to deal with them."

Cedrick nods "The Humans need someone to look up to and if it happens to be another Human, especially one who had saved the world, it will help them be more... secure with themselves." she stands "I will get us some more drinks." she says "Maybe something stronger."

She heads into her kitchen and gets two glasses of scotch. She liked the taste and while it did little for her, it'll help Calvine's nerves a bit.

As she was walking out,her hands start to shake and she drops the glasses and falls to her knees. She looks like she was in the middle of a slight panic attack. Her breathing was rapid, her hands were shaking and there were tears running down her face. She looks up to Calvine "H-he is... dead... Ness is dead..." she says, her voice catching in her throat.

Calvine worriedly went over to Cedrick as he had Never seen them like this before which really set alarm bells off. But it was what was said that really threw him for a loop, he really didn't want to believe that was possible. "Ness..but..how?"

He really didn't want to believe it and was kind of denial but just her reaction killed any such thing

Cedrick's eyes suddenly go blank and she falls to her side, unconscious. "Sorry for that. But if I didn't knock her out, the sudden surge of emotions wouldn't have been too good for her." Regina says, suddenly There "Poor dear. Let's take her to her room to rest, then we can talk." she suggests.

Calvine picked Cedrick up to take her into her room so she could rest for the given time. He was afraid to ask, but needed to. "..So does this mean Ness really died?"

Regina nods slowly "So it seems. I don't know the details, only Cedrick does, but if I had to guess, he died helping others, as seemed his nature to do so, and his inevitable fate."

Regina didn't really care if Ness was gone or not, but she was concerned about Cedrick. Her daughter seemed to be really fond of that Human and his passing would like hit her harder than when her father died.

Calvine was sad even if he didn't show it was obviously as some others would have. He knew it was coming on top of losing people before...still...

"..I see." Calvine mumbled. "I wish there was some way a lot of his other friends he met could know. Maybe on some netural ground somewhere where funeral services could be held. Too unwieldy for absolutely everyone but at least some.."

"I knew it was coming espeically when I tried to talk them out of his adventuring just didn't think it be in my life time."

Regina smiles slightly "Oh, child. Ness didn't die in your life time. He is likely in a different time all together." she says "But do you think Ness would Want a funeral? Would he want people to mourn his passing or celebrate his life, by wanting them to live Their lives, like he had? Helping others to live better lives of their own?" she asks "I have to get going now. Look after my daughter. She doesn't handle loss very well." she says, then disappears in a swirl of fire.

Calvine watched them leave before having a seat and..sort of just zoning out in his own thoughts at the moment. Funerals were often one for mourning but in some colutures they were for celebration to, so he still wanted to do something.

After about fifteen minuets, Cedrick's gems pulse a dull red, meaning she finally shook off whatever it was Regina did to hern and she starts to stir.

She slowly sits up. Her grey eyes looked hollow, like she had flipped a switch inside of herself and turned off her soul "How did I get in my room?" she asks in a dead voice.

Calvine didn't like that but there was really not much of anything he could do for them really. "I brought you in. After..the news it was a bit much so you passed out."

Cedrick was quiet for a bit, before some life returns to her eyes. She looks at her robe, it was stained with alcohol from when she dropped their drinks "I'm a mess..." she says as she swings her legs off the bed and stands up "I need to take another shower." she says as shevstarts off towards her bathroom as she unties her robe "Wait here for me to return." she says as she closes the door to the bathroom.

Calvine decided to give her a moment and wait, there really wasn't that much else he could do at the moment. He'd try to be by her side and help with whatever she wanted but the rest was going to be up to her in the end. He just hoped it didn't drag her down for too long, but she'd definitely need some time.

After about ten minuets or so, the shower shuts off "Calvine? Could you hand me a towel or something to dry off with?" Cedrick calls from in the bathroom. She was standing there, covering her breasts with one hand, and her lower half with a wash rag. Her face had a very slight pink tint to it.

Cedrick was very attractive in her own right, but considering what happened he wasn't going to try to make moves on them. He got a towel, one of the longer ones and handed them over. "Uh, here you go. If there's anything else I can do for you then please let me know."

Cedrick turns around and wraps the towel around herself, before turning back to Calvine "If it is not too much trouble... would you consider... staying here, for the night?" she asks, avoiding eye contact "I believe the company would do me some good." she says, her face was a bit more red.