A Sniper, a Singer, and a Surprise

Posted on Mon Feb 2nd, 2026 @ 5:07am by Lieutenant JG Kally Kellerman & Captain Calypso Skyie

Mission: Lower Decks
Location: Holodeck

Calypso's eyes opened wide the moment before she ducked her head behind the stone wall an instant before the old-fashioned bullets chipped the top of the wall and flew overhead, then crawled towards the end of the thing on her elbows and knees while keeping her butt down. Why she'd suggested this re-creation of an old Earth war to Kally as a 'fun' idea was beyond her besides that it had taken her back to her own youth when she'd first enlisted in the Marines. She poked the muzzle of her rifle around the edge along with one eye and sighted in on one of the 'Nazis' that their enemy was called and pulled the trigger, sending him sprawling to the ground before doing the same with another charging man before she ducked back behind the stone wall.

She looked over at where Kally was and gave a fake grin to her, "You know, this is a lot like back when the Jem'hadar were coming at us in the D-W, except these guys aren't as fast and don't shoot as well!" She pushed the helmet back forward on her head and glanced around the corner once more, "Looks like it's clear out there."

Kally's heart was pounding in her chest and she felt like a deer in the woods surrounded by hunters. She'd been acting as a 'spotter' for her girlfriend as they progressed through 'enemy territory.' She hadn't been thrilled by the idea, but figured it'd do her well to face her fears, and she wanted to share something Cally enjoyed.

She peered around the chunk of walls he'd been hiding behind and scanned the area carefully. "Agreed," she finally said. "I don't see anyone." She crawled carefully over to Cally's position and sat next to her. "Fond memories of the Dominion War aside, I'm surprised you go for Terran conflicts and not something Betazed was engaged in.

"That's the whole thing," Cally said as she put her back to the wall and reached into one pocket to pull out a couple of spare rounds and set them into the rifle, "Most of Betazed's conflicts were before this sort of technology was out and about, call it swords and bows and the like. 'Modern' warfare with guns had a couple of minor conflicts in it before the planet came together in peace. Every single major conflict with us after we went through the 'Industrial' age has been after we ventured into space and were a part of the Federation. That's why we were an easy target during the War for the Dominion, because our system defenses were mostly about a century old and only starting to get upgraded."

The Captain gave Kally a smile, "Serving in Starfleet was 'violent enough' for most of my people, the Marines were for 'Aberrents' and 'Anti-socials' and very much frowned upon until the Borg started their assaults, but even then it took the Dominion War starting to get more than a tiny tiny number of Betazoids to take up arms and even then it was more into the Fleet rather than combat arms. But I'm not that big a fan of up close and personal, given the D-W, so those old conflicts aren't my cup of tea."

"Well, to each their own," Kally said, her heart rate finally returning to normal as the conflict came to an end. With all their opponents taken out, it was eerily quiet around them. "I never thought of Starfleet as 'violent,'" she admitted. "I generally try to avoid violence. 'Lover not a fighter' as the Terrans say. My idea of physical aggression was...well..." she looked at Cally and grinned. "And past that, the only time I got hostile was on stage if a song called for it."

"Oh really?" Cally smiled back, taking the helmet off her head and tossing it to the side, "I've done some singing myself, I'm not bad at it, but not great at it. Hell, you missed our first karaoke night on Chimera! Jenna's got a good voice herself, but I think you may be able to outdo her, if you wanted to give me a demonstration?"

Kally shook her head. "I walked right into that one, didn't I?" she said. She gave it a moment's thought. There were so many reasons she and Katie would roll their eyes and sigh "Terrans" at the weird things Earthers were into, but one love she shared with them was The Great American Songbook, especially a place called Broadway. She smiled and stood up. "Computer," she said, "load My Fair Lady, Act II, Scene Six."

The computer beeped compliance and the scene changed from World War II to a cozy English study. Kally smiled at turned to Cally who now looked as out of place as Kally did and grinned. "Computer, next song, my key, straight into the first verse only."

Music filled the room and Kally smiled. "I've grown accustomed to your face," she sang softly. "You almost make the day begin...

I've grown accustomed to the tune
That you whistle night and noon
Your smiles, your frowns
Your ups, your downs
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in
I was serenely independent and content before we met
Surely I could always be that way again—and yet...

Kally had been slowly approaching and now looked up, putting her arms around Cally's neck. "I've grown accustomed to your looks," she sang softly. "Accustomed to your voice...accustomed to your face." She stood on tiptoe and kissed Cally softly.

Cally's hands had gone to Kally's waist as the familiar hands wrapped around the back of her neck and returned the kiss ever so gently, "Well yes, I think we can count on you being much better than her in song." She said in a husky voice, "And more than the not-quite delicate that I've got. I tell you what, I'll handle the fighting part of things?"

"Sounds good," Kally said, smiling. "But if you ever need someone to break out into a power ballad while you fire at someone, let me know."

"And to put me back together if I get hurt?" Cally asked, "Well, not that it'll actually happen, now that I'm not really allowed to fly anymore. I did tell you how I got the call-sign of 'Calamity', didn't I?"

"You've danced around it, no pun intended," Kally said as they moved gently together. "But you haven't told me the full story, no."

They continued to dance to the music and Cally smiled back with almost glee. "It was in my initial flight training after I got off the lines. I had the reflexes and the ability to fly fighters, but I had this problem when it came to landing them manually. It was the second crash of an actual fighter, I broke the landing gear, kind of tore off a wing as well, and my Flight Instructor told me that I was a catastrophe waiting to happen, that my flying was calamitous. So the name stuck with me for the next decade."

"Calamity Calypso Calliope hm?" Kally said, grinning. "Absolutely, adorably alliterative." She leaned up and kissed her. "Well, my nicknames aren't as adorable, but nonetheless earned." She kissed her again, giving her a sly grin. "Want to come back to my quarters and see how I earned them?" She grinned.

“If we’re going to do that, then I suppose I should get the official business out of the way, shouldn’t I?” Calypso grinned back, reaching into one of the many pockets in her shirt. “Would you do me the honor of accepting a promotion to the rank of full Lieutenant?”

Kally's brain short-circuited as she saw Cally reach in for something in her shirt and start her sentence with "would you do me the honor." It took her a full minute to process what Cally said, and when it finally registered with her, she didn't know what to say. "I...Lieutenant? Really?" she said, stunned.

"Yes, really!" Cally brightened even more if that were possible, then laughed slightly, "You're the Chief Medical Officer on board a good sized starship, I really need more higher-ranking officers anyways, but you're a bit too junior to give a Commander's rank to." She shrugged, "So, Lieutenant Kellerman, I can now tell you apart from your sister by rank, too!"

Kally jumped straight up into Cally's arms, wrapping herself around the taller woman and kissing her over and over. "Thank you!" she finally said. "I was kinda going to ask if this was because of that thing I did the other night, because if that's the case you'll have me at full Commander by next month," she giggled.

"I've been debating it since the beach we visited before Tial, but really only made the decision a couple days ago and had to figure out how to spring it on you!" She'd taken Kally in her arms and spun her around, "If it was because of the other night, you'd be a flag officer in no time." She gave the other blonde a long kiss, "But they'd call it favoritism."

"Yeah because that's not a thing," Kally said, snarkily. She kissed Call again and dropped back to the ground and took the box, opening it and looking at the shiny new pip. She got quiet and stared at it a moment, her eyes getting moist. "Thank you," she said, sincerely, then looked up at Cally. "I mean that. I...I really never thought this would happen."

"Never thought you'd get a second full pip?" Calypso asked with a smile, "To me, it was never in doubt. You've proven to me that you can handle any crisis that sickbay throws at you, you can deal with recalcitrant officers in unique ways and just for getting me into sickbay whenever you need to evaluate your Captain? Do you know how many times I've willingly come in for examinations in the past? Only since you've been here."

Kally sat down in one of the armchairs by the fire and looked at the box. "When Katie made j.g. I was so proud of her," she said. "Threw her a party in the mess hall. Everyone on the Intrepid was making fun of us, acting like she was the first Ensign to ever get promoted. I didn't care. I was so proud of her and she was so proud of herself." She held back a tear and looked up at Cally. "When I made j.g. ...everyone knew who pushed for it, and why. Captain Belmar couldn't look me in the eyes. He told me...he said affixing that pip to my collar was the low point of his career, and that I should never forget that I wasn't a Lieutenant, I was an Ensign who they needed to promote so they could sweep her under the rug."

She sighed and sat back, looking at Cally. "I'd never really cared about my reputation before that, but for a moment, I felt ashamed. I worried how it'd hurt Katie, how it made the ship look. I knew I screwed up big time. Katie had made me promise to be better when we got here, that this was our chance to prove I could be a serious officer." She smiled at Cally. "And then we had sex within ten minutes of my setting foot on board, and I have never felt so welcomed. Still, I never thought about 'earning' my rank. I just kind of thought my 'A' would be my final mark."

"Well, to be fair, I'd been testing out a new fabric to piss off the Admiral who'd saddled me with Chimera and I'm dead serious when I said you saved my life." Cally chuckled. "I tend to reward people who do that rather well, but that also saved me from having to do an official welcoming on board. But while I never had to be a member of the 'lower decks' because I was a pilot at junior officer ranks, I was typically looked at as an outsider because I was a Marine for so long." She gave Kally a tight hug, "I'd never dreamed about being in command because of that, but what my own last CO did for me made me realize that it doesn't matter where someone comes from or what they've done or been in the past, they can still be valuable as a teammate. I miss Margie, so I've done my best to be like her.. Well, mostly like her."

Kally hugged Cally back, pulling her to straddle Kally's lap. She kissed her and hugged her tightly again. "I never met Margie, but she must be great," she said. "And you'd have made a great lower decker." She smiled at her captain and took a breath. "Okay...we...need to celebrate somehow. We need to go have a dinner, or drink something, or get Petty Officer Kozlowski back to my quarters, or all three I don't know but..." She grinned and let out a squeal. "I'm an actual lieutenant now!" She threw her arms around Cally again and hugged her so tightly she was afraid she'd break something.

"I'm sure we can celebrate appropriately, but Kozlowski?" Cally gave Kally an interested look even as she felt her bones creak, "I haven't had any luck with him yet, he's always been busy whenever I've been in engineering. But I've got a nice bottle of several somethings back in my quarters that I'm sure we could pop open in celebration. But congratulations, my dear, you have genuinely earned this."

"No better time to make introductions!" Kally said. "Doctor Kellerman to Mister Kozlowski."

"Go ahead Doc," the engineer's voice said.

"Meet me in my quarters for that physical we discussed." She glanced at Cally. "And a performance review."

There was a snort of laughter, then, "yes, Doctor." The channel closed.

Kally grinned playfully at Cally and kissed her again. "You get the bottles, and I'll meet you at my quarters in ten?" she said, the excitement of the last few minutes still shining on her face.

“Ten minutes, you got it, babe.” Cally’s eyes glittered brightly, “And we’ll make this a night you’ll never forget!”

For just a moment, the playful bravado evaporated from Kally's eyes. "It already is," she said quietly, then blinked and she was back to her previous self, ready to celebrate.