Liquid Musings

Posted on 09 Sep 2014 @ 3:57am by Captain Jonathan Holliday & Commander Scarlet Blake

2,299 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 7 - Calisto Bar
Timeline: MD10 - 0200hrs

[ON]

Report after report had filed their way in front of Holliday's eyes, and by the early hours of the morning his Martian synapses had just about reached saturation point for Starfleet requirements. With a sigh the Captain dropped the remaining PADD onto his desk and made a break for the turbolift.

On the way out of his Ready Room, the Captain politely nodded at the skeleton crew manning the Bridge so late at night, apart from essential stations, the rest of the command centre was essentially deserted until Alpha shift returned to duty in six hours or so.

Resigned to his fate, he Captain took the side exit and headed towards his quarters. As the bulkheads passed by, John eventually rounded the corner to see his door, but not before he spotted the turbolift. After contemplating for a slit second the CO decided on a change and sidestepped into the elevator.

"Deck Seven." He called out, to which the computer dutifully bleeped in reply before starting to move. After a few seconds his journey was complete. Stepping onto the abandoned deck, he could hear the soothing thrum of the warp core through the deckplates, and observed the otherwise perfectly silent nature of the ship.

A brief walk and he reached his final destination - the sign Callisto hanging on the door ahead of him. The ship's bar had been open for a short while, and although the Captain had missed the inauguration ceremony, thinking it an improper place for a Commanding Officer, he had reasoned that this late at night there would be an empty bar and a bottle of scotch left unattended for his privilege. Stepping through the door, he was relieved to find the room as empty as he had expected.

Crossing the room John could see where the design input of several of the crew had revealed itself, noting features that could be attributed to his people's various personalities. His destination however, was behind the bar. Rummaging around in the stores, eventually he found what he was looking for, a bottle of Lagavulin 2365 - one of his favourites. Settling down at one of the empty tables, he grabbed a glass and poured his first.

"Care to give a lady a top up?" Scarlet Blake's voice called from the darkened corner on the other side of the dimly lit room. She'd watched him weave his way to the bar and fish out a bottle with amusement. That made him smarter than her, she'd only helped herself to a glassful when she'd found the place empty. She lifted her glass with a small smile, shrugging lightly. "We appear to be lacking a bartender...."

John had only just gotten the glass to his lips as he heard the voice call out, enough to make him stumble and almost drop the glass to the floor, his grip being just sufficient to keep it under control.

As he surveyed the dark and dingy corners of the room, he eventually clocked the outline of his Executive Officer propping up one of the other tables.

"Commander Blake! I didn't expect to have company this late at night?"

"Couldn't sleep," Scarlet admitted with a half smile and slight, wry chuckle as she shook her head, sighing. She got up and moved over to sit with him, holding her glass out. "I guess coming so close to Cardassians for so long sort of does that," she shook her head, looking to him with curiosity. She'd never seen him in the bar before. Was this how he did it? "What about you?"

Without saying a word the Captain picked up the bottle from in front of him and deftly refilled both his and the Commander's glass before returning it to the table and taking a sip of his own beverage.

"A mountain of paperwork for Command is enough to drive anyone to drink. Plus this place has yet to be graced by the CO's presence. But I know how you feel about the Cardassians - I've loathe to step down from yellow alert any time soon - tribbles or no tribbles."

Scarlet couldn't help but chuckle softly before sipping her refilled drink. She nodded lightly, in approval of his choice. "You know, I really do try and not let people see how I feel about the Cardassians. It's not exactly healthy passing that vibe on to the crew. You, however, I was impressed. That you managed not to use the knives at that dinner for anything other than the food..."

John made a chuckle of his own as he remembered the number of times he would have had no greater pleasure than from breaking that Gul's nose, ribs, arm, and any other appendage he might have been able to get a grip on.

"Maybe that fourth pip gave me some sort of restraint - a few years ago I would have been in the Brig for gross misconduct."

John downed the remainder of his glass, feeling the warming, peaty flavours move through his core as he aimed to forget the rather disasterous dinner he had been forced to host.

"Such are the burdens of command XO - we sometimes have no choice but to hide behind the uniform. But at least we will always have Mr Quinn to make our point for us."

Scarlet couldn't help but laugh at that, covering her face with a hand as she shook her head slowly from side to side. "I'm so pleased I'm not the only one who secretly felt like that about Quinn....that makes me feel a whole lot better about my professionalism."

"Mr Quinn will always be Mr Quinn - his allegiances lie with the ship, just the ship and only the ship - the kind of man I will always enjoy serving with."

John raised his glass in a humerous salute to their CoB as he thought back over the times he had spent shoulder to shoulder with the veteran since they first left Earth.

"You wait until they give you a fourth pip - you'll be begging for a demotion just so you don't have to always tow the party line."

"Is that what you're finding most challenging?" Scarlet asked softly, watching him with honest eyes. She wasn't counsellor prodding, she was genuinely curious, from a CO to an XO. From 'man to man', so to speak.

John took another drink as he thought on his reply. Usually he would have swept the comment aside somehow, but if he couldn't be honest with his own XO, then who aboard the ship could he be?

"Off the record? Definitely. I spent years going toe to toe with flag officers when I thought they were wrong - now that I have my own command, well it's a little hard to stomach sometimes."

"Does it help that I think that makes you sane?" Scarlet said softly, shaking her head with amusement. "No, seriously, I mean...the time to worry is when you completely agree with everything from 'the establishment' right? Not that I'm saying it's good to be a complete renegade Captain or anything," she laughed warmly, knocking her drink back with a sigh at the warmth it gave her.

"Well at least I'm not the only one on my train of thought." John replied as he took yet another drink into his stomach. It was refreshing to hear his XO having an opinion not too dissimilar from his own as far as thinking for oneself was concerned.

"The minute I start agreeing with the Admiralty is the minute you put me in an airlock - that's an order Commander." Holliday laughed as he spoke, before trying at the last moment to make his face appear serious as the whisky coursed through his veins.

Scarlet laughed as she leant back a little on the stool, also warmed with drink as she slid her glass to him with a delicate hand. "You should be careful with your orders, Sir, they might be a good excuse for getting my hands on your ship," she teased lightly.

"Steady XO - mutiny doesn't look good on the career path." John replied with a devious smile of his own, knowing the Commander meant nothing by it, but still he knew that she would one day be a capable Commanding Officer.

Taking a moment he glanced down at the bottle in front of them, realising quite how large a volume was now absent. Feeling the fogginess in his own head, he took another measure from the bottle into his glass, and swallowed.

"Remind me to speak with Engineering in the morning Commander - the environmental controls must be malfunctioning - the contents of this bottle seems to be evaporating."

Scarlet chuckled softly, reaching out to take a hold of it, tilting it one way and then another to study the line moving. "No, Sir...this was all us, I'm pretty sure of it," she shook her head with a fond smile. Maybe a better First Officer would worry about it...maybe it made her unprofessional to think it would do him some good to unwind for a night. She didn't care though. For the moment, they were just two people sharing a drink and relaxing after one damned hard week. "I didn't know you were a whisky man, I'll have to remember that..."

"The one thing I enjoyed about being posted to Earth - real whisky." John replied as he savoured the smell emanating from both the bottle and the two glasses in front of them.

"Other than that - I'm glad to be in space...remind me to have Chief Quinn get some real stuff - not that replicated nonsense - on the ship next time we put in at Earth."

John was hardly surprised however that Blake could handle her spirits - if she had gone through the Marine system then the amount of drinking involved there would most likely have dwarfed anything he was experienced to during his Academy days.

"And I didn't realise you could put the stuff away in the volume you do - well done Commander!"

Scarlet laughed warmly at the unexpected praise, her blue eyes shining with it. She had an image of him writing a commendation in her file; 'good at holding her liquor, even under pressure'. She rather liked that. She leant to him, nodding, her arm resting casually on the bar. "I've had my moments," she assured with a playful smile, shaking her head softly as she crossed her legs, her long, dark hair falling down over her shoulder with the movement. "I'm flattered that you noticed," she teased softly. "I'll enjoy the praise while it's going."

John watched as the Commander's hair draped down over her shoulder - usually he would have simply commented that her hair was beyond regulation length. Whether it was the alcohol in his bloodstream or simply the whisky fumes in the air, he cared less than he usually might have.

"Praise where praise is due Commander. You're my XO - I need to make sure you are looked after."

John took another sip from his glass before his brain caught up with the words that had just fallen free of his mouth before stuttering and slamming his glass back down to the table.

"i-i-i-in a perfectly professional manner of course. As a Commanding Officer to his Executive Officer. Nothing else."

Scarlet watched him with serious eyes for as long as she could manage before she finally couldn't hold a soft laugh back. She rocked back slightly on the stool with it, covering her face delicately with a hand. As it dropped, she smiled fondly and warmly to him. Oh, she hoped he never changed. "Of course....Sir," she leant forward to him with a softened but emphasised tone on the 'Sir', highlighting and appreciating the distorted intimacy of calling each other by such subjugating titles when they were both warmed with whisky and chatting so casually in the middle of the night in an empty bar. "Although, you are allowed to call me Scarlet. Off duty, of course," she assured him, genuinely that time as she finished her drink. It was about time if he did, they'd been working together long enough.

It felt strange to even consider referring to another officer by their first name - Holliday had even made it a habit of referring to crewmen by their ranks and not their first names. It took a moment (and another glass of whisky) before he became confident enough to speak.

"Well then...Scarlet. Ahem I will remember that next time we are off duty. I...suppose that I could stretch to just John off duty - and in private. I don't want the rest of the crew thinking they can refer to me without due respect for rank because they overhear us in the Mess."

Scarlet blinked with surprise. She hadn't expected that at all. She smiled with it, nodding as she watched him, appreciating the significance. "Absolutely...John," she tested it out. 'John' suited him. Mind you, so did 'Captain'. She'd been starting to think that was his actual name. "Although, if it means anything, you don't need to worry about due respect. This is a loyal crew, as loyal as they come, you can take it from me."

"To the crew!" John announced as he poured the last two shots into the glasses in front of them in order to toast their little adventure. The now-empty bottle rolled onto it's side on the bar table as if surrendering to the alcoholic might of the CO and XO.

[OFF]


CAPT Jonathan Holliday
Commanding Officer
USS Galileo

CMDR Scarlet Blake
First Officer
USS Galileo

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