Dinner And Conversation

Posted on Sun Mar 6th, 2022 @ 6:02am by Captain Calypso Skyie & Michelle Erilin & Lieutenant Commander Alexander Espersen

Mission: Pirates! (Or Yo Ho Ho And A Bottle Of Yum)
Location: Hydra Lounge

It was the evening shift at the Hydra Lounge, Michelle was handling most everything while Anara had opted to handle the primary shift, including the mornings and the young waitress was in the groove when she saw the two people walk in a couple minutes apart, but obviously there with each other. The lady had arrived first, wearing nothing spectacular, a pair of well-worn sweatshirts, easy to spot that fact with her experienced eye, plus a shirt that was plunging a bit too much in the front, emblazoned with the logo of the Federation Marine Corps. Michelle’s heart skipped a beat as she recognized her aunt, whom she’d never met before, then she glanced at the man who’d walked in a minute or so after her.

Next to come in was Alexander Espersen. He had been on duty for the better part of the previous two days, breaking only to eat and sleep, but he was smart enough to excuse himself from engineering early enough to stop by his quarters, use the sonic shower, and dress in something that wasn’t a uniform (he wasn’t very fashionable, but could pull off a polo shirt, which tended to accent his shoulders and arms, and black slacks). He also picked up one of his art books, just the top one from the pile as he hadn’t had time to sort them.

It was his first time to the lounge, but he knew the layout and he had guessed where the Captain was likely to sit. The best seats were along the row of viewports, and he was sure she would want that, even if all that was visible was Starbase. He was right.

Calypso smiled at Alex as he found the chair across from her, “Good evening, Alex, I’d say I’m surprised to see you here, but I’m really not, since we kinda planned this out.” She gestured to the surroundings, “The Hydra Lounge, your next stop on the tour of the Chimera. I hope the rest of the ship has been to your liking?”

“It has,” Alex answered as he looked around. “If we’re to be in space, far from amenities, for as long as we’re supposed to be, a place like this is perfect for unwinding. That bar looks well stocked, and the place looks fairly easy to customize for special events, am I right?”

Before Cally could respond, Michelle wade her way up in heels and a dark blue dress, necklace with three Celtic style knots of three different metals hanging from her neck. She swiftly placed menus in front of the two diners with a smile and flourish, “Good evening, sir and ma’am, I’m Michelle and I’ll be your hostess tonight, may I take your drinks order while you peruse the menu?”

He looked at the hostess and smiled. She was gorgeous, and whether or not she knew who they were (for surely she knew the Captain at least, if only by reputation if she didn’t eat here often) she was treating them like anyone else. It was good for ship morale that the Lower Decks types got the same treatment as the CO and XO. Michelle’s three-tone necklace caught his eye immediately, for he had known women with very similar ones back in San Francisco. Ever since Najaat… He cleared his throat, a trick he’d learned to de-rail his train of thought, and decided to speak first. “Very nice to meet you, Michelle. Do any of those kegs attached to the bar contain a nice light Pilsner?”

Michelle nodded, “We have a rather decent Weihenstephaner from the heart of Germany that was tapped yesterday, it’s proving to be rather popular, “And for you, Captain?” She asked with a smile that his most of her nerves.

“I’ll have the same, Michelle, thank you.” The girl nodded and withdrew from the table to draw the beers and Cally smiled at Alex, “She’s rather cute, that one, came aboard at the Starbase, civilian contractor. But, I did get a good look at the pod they’re installing in the morning, and while I’m no engineer, I like the versatility designed into it. Kudos to you and Lieutenant Beauvoir, I may have to put a recommendation for a commendation for the both of you and forward the design as a potential variant for general deployment.”

“Thank you,” he replied. “It was actually quite fun. And I made a friend in the Shipyard, too. Lieutenant Zofia Blaskowicz got the manufacturing done in no time, and helped refine the layout of the internal systems. If ever we come back this way, we might have a friend in a medium-to-high place. Not for procurement, mind you, but for installs, hardware and software upgrades, hull patching, things like that.” He let out a laugh. “And about half of her team is afraid of me, so they’ll work fast, too.”

"Good, because we're going to need to be in top shape. My comm call with the Commodore today gave me a heads up on our meeting with her and her staff Tactical officer tomorrow. Before I left for Dexic, we were supposing to be tapped for a pirate hunt and it looks like we're still on target for that. We're going to have a backup ship, but they're en route at the moment, so it's just us to begin with. I've got an idea that I want to float by the Commodore, but it's not the typical method." Michelle had returned with the drinks, then vanished again as if by magic, reappearing by another table, "Before we hunt pirates, I want to hunt some freighters and get a new paint job on Chimera."

“Now you’ve got me intrigued,” Alex said. “But first things first.” He raised his glass, admiring how the light shone through the pale amber drink. “To our mission. Skål!” He held his glass toward the Captain.

She lifted her own glass in salute, “To Victory.” She tapped her glass to his before taking a deep drink, “May our enemies never see us coming.”

“So, you said a new paint job,” Alex said after taking a sip and setting his glass down. “Are we examining local freighters so we can accurately pretend to be prey? Or are we going to pretend to be predators?”

“Who in their right mind would think a Luna-class could be a freighter?” Calypso shook her head slowly, “Nope, I want something aggressive as a paint job, because we’re not even going to pretend to be predators. I asked the Commodore before Dexic to try to acquire some ships that were expendable. I need to get her approval for this, but sometimes to catch a pirate you have to BE a pirate. We aren’t going to wear Fleet uniforms, I don’t want any of our damage visibly patched, and we’re going to not only do some capturing of civilian ships, we’re going to cut in on a pirate attack on another and steal their prize, then let the pirate go to report to their boss, unless we get lucky on the first try.”

She waved her drink in a complicated motion, “How did we get a Luna? Easy, of course, we sneaked into the boneyard in the Sol system and stole her out from under their noses. What about the Fleet report on reactivating the Luna in there? Ha! Do you think the Fleet would ADMIT to having one of these stolen? Watch for the report about the ship being ‘lost in an accident’, covering up the fact we stole her.” Cally grinned.

“It’s a bold plan,” Alex said, nodding as he considered the implications. “You’re counting on everyone being able to play the part of the scoundrel, but from what I’ve seen so far, it shouldn’t be too hard to get that performance from people. But for the record, if you gave the order, I’m sure I could disguise us as a transport of some kind. Add some external cargo containers and a few other external modifications and I could sell us as a badly damaged Luna sold as surplus to a shipping firm. You’re already thinking far outside the box, Cally, don’t dismiss an idea that’s equally far from the box, just on the other side of the table.” He took another sip of his beer before setting the glass down. “Damn that’s good. Now, what’s good to eat here?”

Cally had opened her mouth to argue with him, to point out that if they turned into something of a Q-ship that ate pirates for lunch, then their ultimate target would be too wary, but she stopped herself. It wasn’t a bad idea, just not as… Satisfying to her. But she took the change in subject gracefully, mostly, “Everything I’ve tried had been good, but keep in mind the difference between the notations of fresh versus replicated. Anara is talented at keeping us resupplied with the fresh stuff, but sometimes she can’t get her hands on it. I think I’m going to go with the grilled steak salad, since I got a look at her most recent import report.” She grinned brightly, “It’s good to be the queen.”

“Oh that does sound good,” Alexander said. “I think I’ll trust the Captain’s good judgment.” He was pleased that she accepted the change in subject. He wasn’t actually advocating the alternate idea; he just didn’t appreciate it being dismissed out of hand. But he let it pass, and so did she. No sense arguing over an idea that no one actually wanted to do.

Cally raised a hand that caught Michelle's attention from behind the bar and the girl swept around with a big smile on her face, "Have you two decided what you'd like for dinner?"

"It looks like we're both going to go with the grilled steak salad, I'll have mine with the peppercorn ranch dressing?" Cally smiled, "And he'll have..." Her eyes flicked to Alex.

“The orange vinaigrette,” he said.

"I'll have that out to you both in just a few minutes, the cook just needs to grill up that steak." Michelle winked at Alex.

The wink caught him off guard. He blushed and instinctively looked away. He looked back to see Michelle walk away, and found himself watching her do so.

Michelle felt the attention on her, being half Betazoid, and put an extra little something in her step while Cally hid a small laugh as she watched her new XO watching the young woman, "Well, there's definitely no regulation against watching a civilian, is there?" She teased Alex, "Not that I'd be inclined to kick her out of bed for eating crackers or anything."

Alexander hung his head. “Was it that obvious?”

“I’m Betazoid, but despite the fact that I’ve got my senses locked down so I’m not reading even extraneous strong emotions, it was obvious with how your eyes kept on her.” Calypso sniggered, “What you do in your off time isn’t any of my business, so long as it doesn’t affect the readiness of the ship. Besides, I stand with what I said.”

“Last time I went out to dinner with a beautiful woman and checked out the waitress, I spent the night alone,” he said. “You’d think I’d have learned.”

That intrigued Cally and she raised an eyebrow slightly. Was he insinuating something? She was quiet for a couple seconds as she considered him, older, sure, but handsome in a rather rugged way rather than the sharp and neat that Tyler had been. Would she kick this guy out of bed for crackers? Yeah, probably, but… “And here I thought this was more a casual get-to-know-you type meal, rather than an actual date, or did I misread the invitation?”

“No, no misreading,” he explained. “Just a man getting to know his Captain, and her getting to know him. But it never hurts to be charming.” He did think she was beautiful, but was sincerely trying to be on his best behaviour.

He picked up the book that he had set down by his feet and passed it over. “You asked to see some of my drawings. I don’t have books for specific types so each of them is a mix of subjects. People, starships, landscapes, spacescapes.”

Cally took her time going through the pages, ignoring even the salad that had arrived but flashing a brief smile and a quick "Thanks" to Michelle as she perused the drawings, before finally looking up, "You ever thought of being a starship designer? Some of these sketches would be good starting points to that sort of thing."

"Thank you," Alex said to Michelle as she dropped off the food. "And yes, I did once try my hand at it. I sold a concept drawing to a shuttle manufacturer about fifteen years ago, and when I was on the Carolina after the war was over, I contributed to the design team for the Stargazer-class. We were trying to see what the next generation of Cheyenne-class would look like and we used my drawings as a starting point. When I was stationed on Earth, an old friend from those days brought me to the Beta Antares Shipyards to see the construction. It was amazing, seeing something I'd once put down on paper as a bit of fun being realized in real life."

She got to the section where there were people drawn in various states of dress, from stylish dresses, to old clothes, half dressed and then the nudes. All were rather well drawn and Cally could appreciate the difficulties that went into the reproduction of just visual views into drawings, something she could never do well. Singing? She wasn’t bad at it, but she wasn’t great either, “I’m assuming the um… More salacious of these were all done of consenting individuals?” She asked after clearing her throat, “Not that it’s any of own damned business, that is.”

"Oh, absolutely," Alexander confirmed. "If the person is clothed or it's just their face, then occasionally it was just someone I saw. Maybe a regular on the hiking trail or someone I'd see on the tram. But if there's any lack of clothing, the person was there and knew it." He leaned forward to peek over the edge of the book, to see what page she was on. "That one on your left was my best friend aboard the Valdemar and the Armstrong. She liked my drawings and asked me to do her--draw her, I mean. There's a few of her in my books. The one on the right is newer; she was a model I hired. It had been a few years since I'd drawn someone like that and I wasn't comfortable asking anyone." He sat back down and got ready to eat, waiting for the Captain to finish looking through the book first.

“I’d say if you ever wanted a new model..” Cally shrugged, “Worse things to do in my spare time, especially for the next couple weeks.” It was grumpy how she’d nearly spat that out. Recovering from wounds sucked as she well knee and it would be nearly three weeks before she would be able to really start pushing herself again, “Far better than reading reports and planning training cycles.”

"I might just take you up on that," Alex said. "A good way to start a new assignment." He watched as she neared the end of the book and was ready to take it back from her.

She flipped through to the last few pages until she came across one of the ones that was of a group of people in uniform, and an assault shuttle. The sight of what was most obviously a company of Marines all geared up for a combat mission and loading onto a shuttle, caused her to pause for a moment and one hand traced along the drawing before she closed the book gently, “You have talent.” She said quietly.

“Thank you,” he said, grinning. He wasn’t shy about sharing his work, but still appreciated any compliment. He did take notice of her sudden quiet shift, but decided not to ask about it just now. Taking the book back and setting it by his feet, he picked up his utensils. “Bon appétit.”

She quickly dug in, mind whirring as she focused on the salad itself, drenched in ranch dressing as she preferred it. But she remained quiet for the longest time, until half her salad was gone, "That last one? Looked like an assault landing.. When did you, as a Fleetie, get to see one of those?"

“It was…79, I think,” he answered after swallowing his bite. “I was Assistant Chief on the USS Marauder. We had been assigned to escort some kind of landing operation. The lead marine ship, the Quantico, some of its assault shuttles had been acting up. My chief engineer sent me across to help. After a few hours, the work was done and the op was ready to begin. They had me stay nearby in case anything else broke, so I sat on some crates, took a book out of my toolkit, and started drawing.” He began to collect more steak and salad on his fork. “I’m told there’s still a copy of that drawing in the Quantico’s officer’s mess.”

Quantico. Cally’s utensil was clenched in one hand now, this didn’t mean anything, the ship had been involved in several landings that year, “Where were you?” She asked softly.

He stopped to answer before taking his next bite. “Todarev? Does that sound right? It’s been a while, honestly. I should write the dates and locations on my work.”

Cally’s fork clattered into her dish as her hand lost all strength. “Todarev system, Todar Two.” Her voice remained soft, quiet, “The day I lost…” She shook her head as she stared down at her plate, “I’ll have to look at that picture again at some point. We lost a lot of good ships, good pilots and troops that day. I was on Quantico that day, too, flew on that landing operation. It was an ambush, they had missiles and guns they weren’t supposed to have.” She squeezed her eyes shut, tears that had been forming dripping down her cheeks, “I got shot down. My troop bay was still full. One moment, I felt them back there,” She tapped the side of her head to indicate her empathic sense, “The next moment, nothing. All of them in the fraction of a second, just my EWO and myself made it out of the crash alive, Jeremy was on his first mission as my co-pilot, he was a good kid, nineteen years old.”

Alexander set his utensils down. He reached across the table to gently touch Cally's hand. A simple gesture, hoping she would find it the least bit reassuring. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize that was the same mission. I'd heard it was bad, but I was gone by the time the casualties came back. Didn't see it for myself."

In a flashing move that shocked even her, Cally’s hand snapped out and grabbed his, squeezing it tightly as if in desperation, “It was only a broken leg for me that time, well, that was the worst of my own injuries. It was too hot for a medevac so I had to E and E for about thirty-six hours before I got picked up by a raider team on SAR.” The memory still pained her, “It was my last drop flying an assault shuttle, I spent my recovery time in an OCS program and then went into fighters, less chance of a relapse. It’s the reason I don’t use my telempathy anymore.”

He listened intently. He hadn’t expected her to open up like that, but he knew it was good that she did. It would help them work well and closely together.

He didn’t think he’d have been capable of telling her such things. Maybe one day, but not today.

“I can’t say that I understand your experience. I’ve seen things as well, but not the same.” He let out a chuckle. “I’m sure most of the engineering students, Jade included, wouldn’t call me ‘empathetic’. And I know some people who would question my listening skills. But I can try. I’m to be your First Officer, the least I can do is this. Have dinner and a drink. Listen. Share my own anecdotes of rough times, if you like. And if I do it wrong, let me know. I can dish out criticism; I can take it too.”

Slowly, surely, Calypso released his hand, face flushing red in embarrassment. "And I fully expect you to dish it out, too." She informed him, "If I'm screwing up, you need to be the one to tell me, don't hold it in unless it'll get someone killed. I'll be doing the same thing, fear not, because that's what a C-O does." She gave a sheepish grin, "Margie always told me that the best way to learn is to screw up in front of your boss and have them yell at you. And I got yelled at a lot, believe you me. Don't try to take a ship through the outer layer of a gas giant without doing a comprehensive scan, I learned that the hard way." She grimaced.

“I think I can agree to that,” he said, resuming eating. “Tell me about Margie. Was she your first Captain?”

"Not even close, Commander Jacob Harrelle of the Spitfire, a Defiant-class ship, was the first ship I was Exec on, but I was also the primary helm officer as well." Cally shrugged, looking down at her meal without much more interest in it, "Defiants are too small for a proper exec and Jake did his best to guide me while we were on system patrols. But Margie was really the best teacher." She thought for a second before picking her fork back up, the doctors would chide her for not stoking her furnace, "She threw me into the deep end of the pool right from the beginning, demanding that I handle scheduling from Day One, having me go over reports from all of the section heads, analyze the morning Intel briefs..." A smile of memory crossed her face, "And finding all the time she could to be there right over my shoulder to make sure I had answers to all my questions. I swear, for a while I thought she'd had a clone hidden on board so she could be in at least two places at once at all times."

"Well, I've been a student, and I've been a teacher," Alexander said. "I must say I prefer the latter, but if I'm to be a decent XO, I'll need to be the student again." He chuckled. "Let's hope that I'm better than a lot of the cadets that came through my class. Apparently I was the instructor with the most complaints against him three years running. But I also helped turn children into competent engineers. I guess that counts for something."

"If Miss Jade is any indication of your students, that does count for a lot." Cally finally speared some steak and nibbled on it, "But you're also going to be getting homework from me, and I expect it to be done. Tactics, situational awareness, Analysis and logical deduction, even some helmwork." She smiled brightly, "And some of the tactical problems will be realtime against me. Don't worry too badly, it's all a learning process."

“So I’m going to be repaid, in full, for everything I’ve ever done to a cadet,” Alexander joked before finishing the last bit of salad on his plate. “This was excellent. A good suggestion, thank you.”

“The variety here is outstanding, the service is amazing and the view is spectacular.” Calypso agreed, exhaling and pushing her plate with a third of the salad still on it away, “We’re going to be going where no one from the Federation has gone before, Alexander Esperson, we have to be a team, you and I, else we’re going to find ourselves in a world of hurt when we run into trouble. Best to do that here, while we have a chance to make mistakes that aren’t permanent, don’t you think?”

"I agree," Alex said, nodding. "The main reason I got angry at students was because they made mistakes that on a real ship might cause injuries or deaths. But it was a safe space where they could learn from their mistakes. I like to think that a lot of them remembered their mistakes from my classes and didn't blow their ships up. Out there...I can imagine the consequences of you relying on me to do something and me getting it wrong. So let's get all of our mistakes out of the way now." He lifted his glass, which had a single mouthful left, toward Cally. "To learning."

“You say that now.” Calypso smiled maliciously as she raised her own glass to tap his before draining it, “Oh Eight Hundred tomorrow morning, you’re going to learn to fly the ship.”

“Understood,” he said, finishing his own drink. “We should make dinners like this a regular occurrence. But for now, care for a digestif?”

“I think I’ll pass.” Calypso smiled softly, “I’ve lost a bit of my appetite. No need to worry, I’ll be fine. But yes, we’ll definitely have to do this again, soon”

Alexander nodded and set his napkin onto his empty plate. “Probably for the best. If I’m to learn to fly the ship in the morning I should probably go to bed sooner rather than after another drink.”

"I'd say so." Cally smiled, a thought planting in her head, "You should get all the rest you can, I'm sure tomorrow will be quite enlightening."

"On that note, then," Alexander said, standing up, "I should probably go. Thank you, Cally. This has been a nice evening." He collected his art book and pushed in his chair. "Until tomorrow."

She smiled softly, "Until tomorrow, then, sleep well Commander, you'll need it."

On his way out of the Hydra Lounge, he stopped by the hostess table and smiled at the woman there. "Thank you, Michelle. And my compliments to the chef tonight."

Michelle smiled brightly at the Commander, "I'll be sure to pass on the good words to him! Was there anything else I can do for you this evening?"

"Not this evening," Alexander answered. "But I hope you won't mind if I ask to sit at one of your tables when I come back," he added with a slight smile.

"Of course, Commander, I would be more than happy to be of service to you on your return." A slight smile raised one end of her mouth even more slightly, "I hope you have a very pleasant evening!"

“You as well.” With that, he left the lounge and made way to his quarters, eager for a good night sleep ahead of his first day of XO training.