Dead Men Don't Judge

Posted on 09 Mar 2014 @ 2:57pm by Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin & Alethea Coleman Ph.D
Edited on on 10 Mar 2014 @ 9:35am

945 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 06 - Legend of Souls
Location: USS Galileo - Callisto Bar
Timeline: MD -5, 00:30

[ON]

Since arriving to the Galileo, Dr. Coleman had pretty much done everything alone. She slept alone, she ate alone, and she drank alone. Not always because she wanted to. She was a Human after all; her need for social interaction was just as built into her DNA as any other of her species. She realized it was mostly from her own doing, of course. Though it wasn't as though she went out of her way to make friends. She just always came across as aloof. She had to admit, she did find it hard to sympathize with most people and most of her colleagues tended to be young and extremely boring anyway. So she had decided a long time ago that perhaps friends were just overrated anyway. Now that her shift was over she had an hour in a half till last call and was attempting to make good use of it. She placed her empty glass down on the table and studied it with contempt. She pushed it away from her with a shaky hand. The insufferably happy server was already at her table before she had fully withdrawn her slender arm.

Sigrid reached across the table and plucked the empty glass off the table. "Can I get you another, Dr. Coleman?" She said with a uncharacteristically reserved smile.

Her smoky blue eyes flicked to the glass of scotch she'd ordered. It remained untouched in front of the empty seat across from her. "Yes." She said without looking up.

Sigrid frowned at the empty seat before departing.

Coleman rolled her eyes as she left. The young woman probably thought she'd been stood up. She watched her move from table to table. She flirted with the young man at the table reading a book and nursing a glass of wine. She touched his shoulder a lot and asked him a lot of questions before moving on. At another table where a couple were having a private conversation she quietly slipped in and took their empty glass without a word. As she made her way back towards the bar she stopped at another table with two colleagues chatting animatedly about something. The server chatted and joked with them. She was lively and animated. She made them laugh, she even showed them her nails when they had commented on them. Coleman watched the interaction like she was studying an organism in their natural habitat. After retrieving drinks Sigrid went back the way she came, dropping off orders as she went. She served Coleman last.

"Double vodka, no ice." She smiled and placed the glass in front of the civilian scientist. The blond turned to move away.

"How do you decide the level of interaction to give?" Coleman picked lint off her civilian uniform before she picked the glass up and took a sip. Her eyes stared Sigrid down with a frown.

"What do you mean?" Sigrid stepped closer to the table.

The young woman's smile didn't waver, but it seemed to Coleman as though she caught her off guard. "When you go to the tables you seem to interact differently with each one."

"Well of course I do." Sigrid laughed. "Everyone has their own needs and reasons for coming here. I can't treat them all the same, because they're all so different."

"You're not very chatty with me. What is it that gave you the impression I didn't want to chat?" Coleman's passive, almost bored expression made it hard to figure out what she was thinking let alone whether she was actually offended or not.

"Well, that expression right there sorta says, 'piss off, I don't want to talk'." Sigrid wiggled a painted nail at Coleman.

The older woman continued to stare at Sigrid's face as if studying her behaviour with passive interest. "People tell me that a lot." She nodded agreement.

"I can certainly talk, if that's what you prefer. You just never seem to smile, so I figured you were never really in a talkative mood."

Coleman waved the suggestion away with an open palm. "I was just curious." She took another sip of her vodka while maintaining eye contact over her glass.

"Who's the seat saved for?" Her blond curls fell over her shoulder as she nodded towards the empty seat.

The question seemed genuine enough, but the older woman was always suspicious of the intentions of others and she felt as though Sigrid was just asking to make conversation.

"A dead man." She flashed a quick, almost emotionless smile before her face became passive again. It was impossible to guess if she was joking or not.

Sigrid gave her a sympathetic smile, "Dead men aren't the best drinking buddies."

"Actually they're the perfect drinking partner". Coleman really wanted to smack the sympathy off the woman's face but instead she picked up her glass and swung it towards the empty space. "They just sit there, silently watching you drink. They don't judge you and if they do, they don't say shit about it." She drained her vodka and placed the empty glass down, maybe a little more forcibly then she meant to. She slid out of her chair. "I'd have another, but my 'piss off, I don't want to talk' expression doesn't seem to be working anymore. Good night, Ms. Thelin."

Unphased, Sigrid scooped up the empty glass. "Good night, Dr. Coleman." She watched the older woman go before turning and taking the untouched glass of scotch. She puffed air at the empty chair and said, "you're the most unhelpful dead man ever."

[OFF]

Dr. Alethea Coleman, PhD
Exoecologist
USS Galileo

&

Sigrid Thelin
Bartender/Server
USS Galileo

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