"The Valley's Skye Part 1: Spark of courage"

Cecilia ducks quickly before she lunges forward with two quick jabs, followed by her continuing her movement into bringing her right foot up and around to connect with the side of the punching bag at about chest height. Once she lands from the kick, she would suddenly take a step back and crouch down slightly to steady herself before the trainer and the nurse helping with her recovery come over.

"Cecilia, how you doing? If it is too much, don't push your self."

Cecilia takes a swig of her water before she responds.

"I'm fine, just need to catch my breath for a moment then I'm good to go."

The trainer and the nurse exchange a look at this, neither of them sure if she actually is.

"Cecilia, you have come a long way, even from the start of the voyage but are you sure you want to keep pushing your self like this?"

"I'm fine! I need to keep going, I can't let myself be stopped because of the smallest thing or I'll never get better..."

Cecilia trails off before she puts her bottle down and steps back up to the punching bag to resume her training routine. The trainer and nurse watch Cecilia closely for a moment before stepping back to where they were before. The training continues until the hour is almost up, at which point the nurse runs through a series of checks on Cecilia to make sure she is still on track for her full recovery. Once this is done, Cecilia is free to leave, which she makes use of by showering down and then planning to head back to her quarters to relax for a bit.

However, while she is walking through the hallways she brushes her still wet hair out of her face, doing so the water on her hand catches the light and draws her attention to the water droplets. She continues walking while she looks at the droplets when suddenly they seem to become droplets of blood with a red glow of fire about them. Cecilia shakes her hand and head in shock to try and clear the image, but when she looks up to the hallway, she is right back on Deep Space 13 during the Azedi attack reliving it while it played out.

Cecilia climbs out of the swimming pool moments after the yellow alert has been sounded, along with the few other cadets in her class she had been with.

"Wonder what is going on?"

Cecilia shrugs at the other cadet.

"No idea, but would bet something to do with the talks that are currently going on."

"That is probably a good bet."

They proceed to the showers to rinse off before heading for the locker room. Moments after entering the locker room, Cecilia has just opened hers the red alert siren starts to blare, Cecilia glances at the other cadets with a look of fear as they feel the station shake from a nearby explosion. Cecilia quickly pulls her boots on and grabs her cadet jacket, putting it on while they hurry to their red alert station, being careful to stay out of the way of the other Starfleet personnel running to their stations and the damage control teams. They round a corner on the way to the cadet assembly point when suddenly a beam cuts through the hallway in front of them followed by the air rushing out into the vacuum of space. Cecilia dives to grab onto one of the support beams along the side of the hall, reaching out to grab one of the nearby cadets while she does so. She manages to grab the closest but is still forced to watch a few of the other people in the hallway getting sucked out into space before the emergency forcefield comes on. With pressure suddenly being restored, Cecilia drops and hits the ground with a groan before she slowly stands up and looks at the remaining cadets, doing a quick headcount to see that they had lost one out of the six of them.

"Right...we need to keep moving."

The cadets share a look before they nod and start moving again. They had just started moving again, trying to keep them self steady amidst the explosions and rocking of the station when the intercoms and combadges throughout the station activated.

"This is Captain Tau Thiessen to all hands, abandon ship."

With the order to abandon ship given, the automated computer alert repeats the order along with the emergency lighting coming on to direct towards the closest escape pods or emergency hangers. Cecilia leads the cadets at a run, following the guiding lights when they suddenly run into the rest of their class which had been at the meeting point.

"Cadet Skye, good you made it just in time. Everyone lets keep moving!"

The instructor motions for everyone to follow him as they take a detour from the usual route due an Azedi beam breaking through the hull up ahead and an emergency bulkhead slamming down. While they are running for the escape pods, they pass by several casualties just lying along the side of the hall, caused by when the attacks may not have broken the hull but still caused internal damage with walls blowing out or support beams collapsing on people. Emergency systems had started to fail due to the damage in that part of the station, evident by several fires raging and not being put out. On approach to the escape pods, Cecilia is suddenly thrown against one of the walls when an Azedi beam hits the station nearby and causes a wall to blow out and supports to collapse. Cecilia shakes her head, trying to clear the ringing from her ears, pushing the cadet on top of her off so that she can stand up at the same time. While Cecilia is starting to stand, they check the cadet that was on top of her, but they are already dead from the explosion, Cecilia turns to look at the collapsed supports behind her when she sees one of her classmates trapped with their leg under it. Cecilia rushes over to them, their hearing coming back but still with a loud ringing in the back of them. Cecilia tries to lift the support of their leg, but to no avail, as it does not move at all, she glances over her shoulder towards the escape pods and the rest of her class starting to get in them before she turns to look back down at the cadet trapped. The cadet is struggling, a look of panic and fear in their eyes when they look at Cecilia when they realise that they are not getting their leg out. Cecilia looks back towards the escape pods when she notices a dead security guard with their phaser still on their hip, she quickly dives to grab and come back over, Cecilia wipes the blood off her face and out of her eyes while she makes sure the phaser is on the correct setting.

"I'm sorry, I can't cut your leg out...but I can cut you out..."

The cadet looks between Cecilia and their leg for a moment before they brace them self and bites down on the part of their jacket.

"Do it..."

Cecilia nods while she brings the phaser in line with their leg, as close to the support beam as possible before she activates it and starts cutting through their leg. The cadet screams in pain, muffled by their jacket while it happens, it is over quickly though due to the hight setting Cecilia used and the wound cauterised itself as it went. Cecilia slowly pulls the cadet back before helping them up onto their one leg and supporting them while the two of them make for the escape pods. They are almost there when another beam hits nearby causing an explosion, feeling the hit before the blast, Cecilia turns and throws the injured cadet forward, to be caught by the other cadets and instructor at the escape pods before she is launched forward by the explosion. This is the last thing Cecilia remembers about the battle.

Sanping out of her memories following the final explosion to find her self in front of Keri's room, she uses Keri's keycode to open it for herself. Cecilia relaxes once she enters it as the tension she didn't know she was holding exits her body. Keri is sat at her desk typing when Cecilia comes in, she turns her head to look over her shoulder when the door opens. When Keri sees Cecilia standing in the doorway, Keri smiles before she sees the look in Cecilia's eyes, a look she grew to recognise in Fiona's eyes when she had one of her flashbacks or dreams. She starts to move over to Cecilia with her arms out while Cecilia runs forwards, about diving into Keri and the hug, Keri pulls her tight before she slowly guides her over to the couch.

"Whats up Cecilia?"

"I...I don't know...one moment everything was ok...the next it was like I was back on Deep Space 13 during the Azedi attack..."

Keri nods slightly before she leans back slightly to look at Cecilia.

"It's ok, it was just a memory. You are safe now...you know, Fiona used to have similar moments or dreams about situations like that she had been in."

"She did?"

"Aye, she did. Though having those moments do not make you weak, or anything else you might be feeling. They make you human. And it will also be what you use to hold you to the mark later in life as an officer, that is what Fiona used to always say. It was the same with why she refused to have her scars healed."

Cecilia just nods slightly while she thinks about it.

"I know it might not be what you want to hear, but it is from your darkest moments, the moments that will follow you through life, that reveals your true character. And from the reports, I heard of the battle and you trying to save the other cadets, I think we can safely say you have the spirit of a Skye."

Cecilia smiles slightly up at Keri.

"But I am afraid that I will freeze...or that my fear will get the better of me...I feel it every day in the back of my mind..."

"The trick is not to be fearless but to not let your fear control you. Do you really think Fiona was without fear? I know for a fact that every time she went out on a mission she was afraid, afraid of failing her crew, failing her ship but most of all, failing you or failing to come back to you."

Cecilia burrows her head into Keri's shoulder when the tears start coming again, joined by Keri's own when she pulls her tight.

"Then...Then why did she not come home..."

"Because she knew that despite her fear of not coming home, she knew that if she did not act, more people would not be going back to their families. A quote she once told me sums it up nicely. Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear. That is the duty of a Captain to their crew, and to any officer to the people under them, your utmost duty is to them. It took Fiona a while to learn that lesson..."

"She did? How did she learn?"

Cecilia looks up at Keri, waiting for the answer while she wipes her eyes with her sleeve.

"Well...it was after a day that had been pretty bad for both of us, and Fi wanted to go for a drive to escape for a while. So the two of us snuck out of the house and borrowed a car, Fiona was driving, and I was in the passenger seat. Going to say it was starting to get dark while we were driving, we had been driving for about an hour when we noticed a police vehicle was following us to get us to pull over. Fiona glanced over her shoulder to look at it, and in that split second, she lost control of the car, and we went off the side of the road and into a tree. I was thrown out of the car and apparently died for a couple seconds. But the next thing I knew was that I was in a hospital with Fiona asleep at the end of my bed. After that, she changed slightly, not in terms of what she did or her attitude but she became a lot more aware of the risk to the people following her, mainly me most of the time."

Keri looks down at Cecilia when she finishes telling her the story and notices the tired look in Cecilia's eyes.

"Anyway, it's late, you are tired and have lessons in the morning. You can stay here tonight."

"You sure?"

"Of course I am, what type of person would I be if I made you go back to quarters as tired as you are."

Cecilia smiles slightly while she hugs Keri before standing up and heading to the second bedroom since Keri has a family quarters.

"Thanks mum. Love you."

"Love you too, Ceci. Night."

Keri smiles while Cecilia closes the door behind her before Keri heads back over to her desk and activates the holo-picture frame and looks at the photo of her, Fiona and Cecilia on holiday a year ago.

"I miss you, Fi...I really do..."

With that, Keri turns the frame off and turns in herself for the night.