mayachain

Title: would also better be
Characters: David Sheppard
Genre: gen
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~525
Summary: David has this dream he can't shake no matter how many years this separation goes on.
Note: One of many tiny results of

mini_nanowrimo.

David has this dream where one of his scientists approaches him with an idea for a new helicopter component design. The dream is always fuzzy on the details – sometimes it’s a part of the engine, or the fuel tanks, the rotor blades, whatever. It’s possibly why the specs always make so much more sense to him than they tend to do in real life, where he has difficulty following Sheppard Industries’ research department’s explanations even when the scientist in question is providing careful explanations.

Anyway.

In the dream, the new component is shown to him. Sometimes the scientist tells him that it’s an idea inspired by a friend who works for the military and has shown an interest in Sheppard Industries’ capabilities. The point that S.I. would be the perfect company to contract to manufacture the new component for the Air Force (or Navy, or Army) is made every time.

No matter how many times he has the dream, David always starts out saying “No.” It has been company policy to stay away from military contracts ever since Grandpa Malcolm refused to forgive them for the Bomb. The fallout shelters the old man had built underneath the complexes are carefully maintained and stocked to this day. David is not sure whether Dad had agreed with the old man’s decision initially , but… Patrick Sheppard prides himself in not needing the Pentagon to make money.

David’s firm stance weakens whenever the scientist in his dream points out that they are not talking about a weapons system but basically a way to let pilots take off, turn around and get home faster. Awake, he would want to be shown in a simulator exactly how that would work, but in the dream, he thinks John.

His dream self brings it before the board. Dad refuses, but David, who has let Dad make all the decisions since Grandpa Malcolm died, opposes him for the first time in his life and wins by doing what the founder of Sheppard Industries told him to do once he found a matter he really cared about - by laying claim to his absent brother’s votes.

Half the time, Dads disbelieving stare causes him to wake with a start. Sometimes, though…

Sometimes, the scene segues into a montage of the wonder component hitting the factories. The Grandpa Malcolm’s are shipped off to be integrated into some Black Hawk or other already in use. Dream David gets a call that they saved the lives of a special ops squad and some generals invite David to a celebration of some sort.

Men in medal-splattered uniforms are shaking his hand and making him feel guilty by congratulating him on overcoming his grandfather’s military contract phobia. Then the special ops pilots arrive and David turns away from a spluttering general without a thought. He makes his way through the crowd toward the men and the dark-haired one looks up at David with astonished disbelief in his eyes and –

And David wakes up, knowing that he could never bring himself to make the decision that brought them to that point in real life, and hates the entire world.

Title from Johnny Cash's Family Bible. More about Malcolm Sheppard can be learned in A Sheppard Suite in Five Movements