Chapter 3

The next morning, the four senior officers of the Ability met on the bridge to discuss the ship, the mission, and the crew. Kathleen had called it, wanting to catch up with her friends. They had all been so busy since they came on board, they had barely any time to say hello to each other, let alone have a real conversation.

"So, what's up, Kat?" asked Maureen, the quietest of the four. "Why'd you call this meeting?"

"Well, I called this meeting-" Kathleen started.

"Bridget!" Heather interrupted. "Don't put your feet up on the console!" Bridget offered a sheepish smile and took her feet down.

"Sorry." she apologized.

"Jeez, Bridge, this is a starship, not your living room!" Heather grumbled. Of course, Bridget had grown up with five younger brothers who had wrecked the house on a daily basis. Order and neatness were not exactly Bridget's virtues. The girls all laughed and that somehow broke the formal atmosphere of the whole thing.

"Anyway," Kathleen continued. "I called this meeting to just...talk, I guess. We're the senior officers. We should discuss the ship and stuff, shouldn't we?" None of them was really sure. They had all received Starfleet training, of course, but very little. None of them quite expected that they would be on a starship someday. They were some of the first disabled people in space. They were pioneers.

"Wait a second." Heather said. "Shouldn't we be having this meeting with the whole crew? None of us knows what we're getting into here. In fact, we're probably the four people on this ship who know the most about what we're getting into."

Everybody agreed. And so that afternoon, the entire crew of the Ability gathered in the mess hall, the only place on board big enough to hold the entire crew at one time.

We certainly are a strange collection of crewmembers, Heather thought, looking over the sea of wheelchairs, crutches, and the occasional assistance dog. Most of the crew had known each other for ages; the few who hadn't must feel so left out.

Like Meagan McCormick, a sly little voice nudged its way into Heather's head.

"Stop it." Heather muttered aloud through gritted teeth. She didn't want to think about the mysterious cadet. Heather couldn't put her finger on it, but something about Meagan made her uneasy.

Once everybody was assembled, Kathleen began to speak.

"Well, uh, hi, everybody." she said uncomfortably. She knew that she shouldn't be uncomfortable. Starfleet captains were never uncomfortable in front of their crew. It was an unwritten rule. But like it or not, she was uncomfortable, and a little scared of this prestigious position.

"I've gathered you all here today just to, uh, kinda get to know each other. I know most of you have known each other for years, but there are some new people here, and I want you to embrace them with the same love and respect that you would give to any other crew member of this ship."

"Starfleet threw us all together here, and I can bet you anything they're thinking we can't do it." Kathleen went on, growing more sure of herself. "They're thinking they made a mistake, throwing all us crips together at once on a starship. They're thinking of contacting us right now and ordering us to come home immediately. Well, I can tell you, those Starfleet people back home, they're wrong, you hear me? We can do this, guys. We can, and we will! We'll show those skeptics out there that we are a strong and capable crew, just as powerful as any starship crew before us. We can, and we will, handle anything that comes our way with confidence and strength. We are the starship Ability, damn it, and don't any of you EVER forget it!" Swept up in the moment, Kathleen was yelling by the end. Those who had the coordination to applaud did, and those who didn't roared their approval. When Kathleen turned back to her friends, she was met with three identical faces of shock and awe.

Heather was the first to speak. "Wow, Kat." was all she could manage. As the four friends stared at the mass of crewmembers, all four of them felt something. It was a feeling they used to get every summer, right before camp started. It was sort of a buzzing excitement, starting in the pit of the stomach, and spreading up and down until it had engulfed your whole body. It was anticipation for the future.

As they left the mess hall, Kathleen turned to Heather.

"Hey, Heath." she said. "Could you do me a favor?"

"Sure." Heather agreed. "No prob." Kat regarded her best friend for a moment before blurting it all out in a rush of words.

"I've been getting complaints from half the crew that Meagan McCormick is slacking off, not doing her job, not cooperating with the other crewmembers, etcetera. I want you to go talk to her."

Momentarily stunned, it took awhile for Heather to regain her composure.

"Me?" she cried. "Why me?" The last thing she wanted to do was to talk to Meagan McCormick. Kathleen shrugged.

"You're the only one out of the four of us who's met her. It would be better for her to talk to someone she's already met, rather than a stranger." Heather considered this for a minute.

"Okay." she finally agreed. "But only for you." So she headed off, alone, towards Meagan's quarters. She rang the door chime twice, and was just about to ring it again when a soft voice could be heard from within.

"Come in." Heather entered and looked around. Meagan's quarters were set up similarly to everyone else's, with the bed against one wall and the computer desk against another. An open laptop sat on the desk, displaying a brightly colored desktop. Meagan lay on the bed, sprawled out on her stomach, looking at a photo in a frame. She looked up when she heard the door slide shut.

"Oh. It's you." she said coldly. Heather gulped. What the hell had she gotten herself into?

"I...I don't think...you should speak to your superior in that way..." Heather began cautiously. Oh great, I sound like a wimp. Deftly, Megan pushed herself off her stomach and stood in front of her bed, eyes blazing.

"Oh yeah? Well, get this, I don't care! I don't care about your stupid rules and regulations, I don't care about this ship, and hell will freeze over before I care about any of this crew. Wanna throw me in the brig? Go right ahead. I don't care. I've had a lot of shitty things happen to me in my life, and I don't need you making things worse by flaunting your superiority in my face. So get out of my quarters. Right. Now." Heather's legs were trembling and she leaned hard on her crutch to keep her legs from doing a jig right out from under her.

"Like what?" Heather challenged. Meagan took a step towards her, ready to fight, Heather guessed.

"Like leukemia?" As soon as the words left her mouth, Heather regretted them. Meagan went pale and took a step back, as if someone had punched her in the stomach. When she spoke, it was in jerky fragments.

"Get out. NOW!" she screeched, then, without warning, she seized the picture frame from the bed and hurled at Heather. Miraculously, Heather dodged just in time, and the frame shattered at her feet. The photo lay amidst the broken glass, and Heather carefully picked it out with two fingers. The photo showed two girls, both bald, although one was starting to grow red fuzz. The two girls had their arms around each other. One had green eyes, the other blue. As she looked closer, Heather realized that she'd recognize those green eyes anywhere. They were staring at her right now. Slowly, she lowered the photo to look at Meagan, who was shaking, whether with fear, rage, or something else, Heather didn't know.

"Who was she?" Heather asked quietly. For the first time, Heather noticed a tear rolling down the young cadet's cheek. Defeated, Meagan flopped back onto the bed.

"All right. Ya wanna know? I'll tell ya." Meagan's slight Southern accent was more pronounced as she went on.

"Her name was Kelly. I met her the first day I was in the hospital, the first day I heard the word cancer. She was my roommate in the cancer ward. She had leukemia, same as me. Before it all fell out, she had beautiful long blonde hair. We became the best of friends, frick and frack, ya know? We never did anything in the hospital apart after that. The nurses started calling us PB&J, we were so tight. Like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We had our chemo treatments arranged so that we'd have 'em at the same time. Afterwards, we'd be sick at the same time. We had a communal basin that we threw up in. We traded CDs, books, and just talked about life. We both wondered why cancer had to happen to us. It was strange, 'cause Kelly told me she was a bit of an outcast in her high school, even before leukemia. I was pretty, popular, and a cheerleader. That all changed when I got sick. Funny how cancer can bring you together with some people you would have never liked before." Meagan took a deep, shuddering breath before continuing.

"That photo was taken the day I was discharged from the hospital, the day I went into remission. Kelly was supposed to be discharged a week later. They thought she'd achieved remission, too." Meagan's voice was bitter. "She never made it out. The day after I left, she went out of remission, got really sick. Within two weeks, she was dead."

"I became a completely different person after Kelly died. I was once fun, bubbly, energetic. Before I got sick, I was hoping to be head cheerleader. When I went back to school, it was like nobody remembered the old Meagan anymore. Everybody was too scared of cancer to have anything to do with me. There were a few of my old friends who tried, but they didn't really understand. I guess I pushed them away. I thought the only person who could truly understand me was Kelly. Maybe I was wrong. I don't know." By this time Meagan was full out sobbing. For the first time, Heather saw Meagan McCormick, not as a nuisance or a problem or mystery. She saw Meagan as a frightened, lonely, confused young girl, barely out of the turbulence of adolescence. Heather joined Meagan on the bed and put her arm around the crying girl.

"And so you joined Starfleet." Heather prompted gently. Meagan nodded.

"And so I joined Starfleet. I didn't want to go to college, be with more people who wouldn't understand me, wouldn't accept me. I had nowhere else to turn. I thought Starfleet sounded cool, so I joined." Meagan swiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. "Never thought I'd end up here, with a bunch of crips." Heather's heart ached for the girl. She understood Meagan's isolation all too well. After she had gone to her first year of camp between 7th and 8th grades, she too had become a different person. She had isolated herself from non-disabled people during high school and ended up making things a lot harder for herself.

"Meagan, it's okay. It's okay." she comforted. Suddenly her combadge beeped.

"Dines to Martinez"

"Martinez here."

"Heath, we need you on the bridge." Heather looked at Meagan before responding. The girl's sobs had eased, but she was still trembling and silent tears still poured down her face.

"On my way." Heather said, a little reluctantly, and then, to Meagan: "You gonna be ok?" Meagan nodded silently.

"Go ahead. They need you." And so Heather left, feeling that while she might not have fully solved the Meagan problem, at least she knew the story behind it.

A/N: My muse completely left me. I am so sorry. It took an extended vacation without informing me. But I think-not sure-but I think it's back now. Read and review please!