Checkmate and a Cowboy Hat

Posted on Mon Mar 18th, 2024 @ 6:39pm by Captain Rylan Gray & Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox

1,613 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Opening Moves
Location: Grey Cliffs Ranch, Earth
Timeline: MD001 - 1000

Grey Cliffs was a working horse ranch, 6200 acres nestled among rolling hills, with an unobstructed view of the countryside from the Walsh family home. The widow of Captain Josiah Walsh, having no body to bury, had elected to hold a memorial service at the chapel a short distance from the ranch. Josiah had been baptized there, just as his father before him, going back generations. She thought it a fitting place to say a final good-bye and for his son, Adam, to learn something of the man who had chosen to live his life so far from home.

Every available seat was full. The family, aunts and uncles, cousins, his three children and his wife, all dressed in unrelieved black, took up the first two rows. The rest, wearing their Starfleet dress uniforms, filled every remaining seat with some standing in the rear. Many had served on the Ark Royal, others had known Walsh from previous postings or were friends he'd met during his thirty years of service.

One by one, people had come forward to share a story about Walsh and leave a small memento on cloth-draped table set in front of the altar. His cousin had left a smooth stone and talked about skipping stones on the lake, back when they dreamed about being rodeo stars. His uncle had left a lariat and confessed that Josiah Walsh never could rope a steer no matter how often he tried. There were many such stories from the family, each and every one talking about a man that the Starfleet personnel had never met.

Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox stood out in the mass of people paying their respects for Captain Josiah Walsh, not because of his long dark goldenrod dress uniform but because he had paired it with an ivory white cattleman's hat. He looked like he belonged on the ranch, running it, except for the Starfleet uniform.

He stood up from his seat and proceeded to walk up the aisle and towards the podium, with a nodding gesture towards the widow and Walsh's family. Knox felt like they too were family, an extended one to him. Standing at the podium, attention was on him. "Hey all," he said addressing the crowd. "For those of you that are asking who's this idiot with the hat. Name's Harrison Knox, but Captain knew me as Possum."

"I had several years with a great man," he continued. "A man that gave me this." Knox removed the hat and placed it on the podium. "Captain taught me a lot and when he taught me how to lasso cattle, he gave me one of his hats. I kept it home on Earth."

Knox looked out to the rows, a sea of faces. "I was Security Chief aboard the Ark Royal. That ship, that crew, our Captain? It was something special. Y'all got to know Josiah Walsh the family man, but I got to know the leader. He was a fine officer and I'd like to say a mentor and true friend."

There was silence for a moment while Knox walked back to his seat as the weight of loss settled firmly around them all.

Rylan Gray, with his six-foot frame clad in his dress uniform, his dark brown hair skimming his shoulders, rose from his seat and walked to the front. A short walk though it seemed much longer with every eye on him. He placed a chess piece, a black King, on the table, stared at it for a moment, and turned to address the mourners. "My first week on board the Ark Royal," he said in an upper-class British accent, "Captain Walsh invited me to his Ready Room. His office if you will. He asked me if I played chess and, being rather modest, I told him I did, a little."

"As it turned out, very little." A smattering of laughter rippled through the crowd and he nodded. "Perhaps you've had a game with him then. For six months, the last words I heard every evening were 'check mate, good night Commander. I took it as a victory of sorts when he would stop reading his reports and actually pay attention to the game. Didn't happen often but then, one night, I checkmated him and he said, 'huh. Good for you. Now we can really start to play." He reached out to pick up the chess piece for a moment, showing it to the crowd, before setting it back down. "This was his King that night. He gave it to me as a memento and now I give it to you."

"Five years in, we started discussing topics that he suggested. I'd take one side and he would take the other and then the next time, we switched sides. All while playing chess." Rylan, hands clasped behind his back, stared at the floor for a moment, gathering himself, and then raised his black-eyed gaze to meet the family's own. "I served Captain Walsh as his Executive Officer for twelve years. He taught me how to really see an issue. Through the vehicle of a simple game, he taught me about life, about strategy, about so many things. I count myself fortunate for having known him. He was my captain and my friend. And I will miss him."

The seat where Rylan had been sitting was waiting for his return, but the woman who had been seated to his right had left during the speech. Seeing the strategic opening, Possum encroached on the vacant territory, taking the seat before Rylan got back.

When his shipmate and friend of several years came to sit down, Knox removed the hat he had placed there to reserve Rylan's seat. "The 'meuf' left and I seized prime real estate" he said to Ryan regarding him now taking s closer seat to Rylan.

"Good speech. Very funny and sentimental," he commented and patted Rylan's shoulder. "I don't know how you do it. Be up there all those eyes looking at you and keep your charm and sense of humor."

"Her perfume was rather overpowering, I must say," Rylan said, pitching his voice low enough that only Possum would hear, as he settled into place. "The hardest part is right before you move into the spotlight. Whatever sort of spotlight it is. Once you're there, it gets easier. Don't you find that to be true?"

He looked over at Rylan and shrugged. "Being in the spotlight has never been on my to do list," he stated. "If I was ever noticed as a kid it was for getting into trouble. I played football, but all eyes are always on the quarterback or receivers."

Knox had some experience to draw back on. "When I was Chief of the Boat years ago, I had eyes on me but officers paid little attention."

"Perhaps you didn't notice their attention but, I'm sure they saw you. Somebody did," Rylan said. "After all, you're getting a big promotion."

Possum's attention was snagged away fully from the memorial service. It was rerouted to Rylan. "Big promotion?" He echoed Rylan's words. "You've been hiding something..." his eyes narrowed. "What do you know that I don't?"

"Let's just get through this," Rylan answered, maintaining a neutral expression with some degree of effort, "and I will show you. How about that?"

Lieutenant Commander Harrison Knox gave a five knuckle jab into his friend's left shoulder. "One of these days," prefaced Knox "I'd like for once to be able to sense things like a Betazoid. Half or otherwise" he added.

The laugh that bubbled up from his chest was extinguished in the withering glare focused on them by the woman in the seat right of them. She wore a black fascinator with a bit of a veil that extended to the bridge of her nose. To Rylan's mind, she wore enough makeup to qualify as theatrical with exaggerated lashes that made the veil twitch slightly every time she blinked. "Will you two be silent," she hissed. "This is a memorial service." She brought a lace handkerchief out of her sleeve and dabbed the corners of her dry eyes. "That matters to some of us."

"A memorial service for a man that lived a life worth celebrating" muttered Knox. He looked at Rylan. "This place is missing trumpets, trombones, and good beignet," commented Possum. He whispered to Rylan "Any more more 'masquera' and I won't be able to tell her apart from a raccoon."

"'Selebre lavi'," Rylan said softly.

The woman turned and it seemed to Rylan that she was rearing up, like a cobra, but was interrupted by the persistent cough of an elderly gentleman who walked slowly up to the podium. "I want to thank everyone for coming today. Your words, your memories, will be kept forever in the hearts of all of who loved him." His faded blue eyes filled with tears. "Thank you all."

"I'll take that as my cue to get out of here and get ahead of the crowd" said Knox. He placed the hat back on his head and stood making his way to the aisle for a convenient exit.

"Come with me," Rylan said as he walked beside Possum, heading toward the exit in advance of the milling crowd. "There is something I want to show you."

"And that's the story of why you're still single," quipped Knox. The high school locker room humor still there within him lying dormant at age 40, but resurfacing at times. "Lead the way" he added gesturing ahead.

---

Translations:

Meuf: Creole for Woman
Masquera: Mask
Selebre Lavi: Creole for Celebrate Life

 

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