Whisky Dreams

Posted on 18 Jun 2015 @ 10:37am by Commander Norvi Stace & Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin
Edited on on 19 Jun 2015 @ 12:12pm

2,999 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 08 - NIMBUS
Location: USS Galileo - Science Labs, Deck Four
Timeline: MD 02 0206 hrs

ON:

With the Gamma shift now in full swing, Stace, after hearing of her new field promotion to ship's First Officer, felt a need to wander down to the science labs where she'd spent most of her Galileon career to take a moment or two and reflect whether she'd made the right decision to accept. The doors breathed open to an empty, darkened multipurpose lab on Deck four and she crossed the threshold with an emptiness in her heart she hadn't felt for a lifetime. She hadn't slept much since taking temporary command of the Gally but that wasn't what was playing on her mind and keeping sleep away from the edges of her consciousness. First Officer would be a permanent step up but a permanent step away from Science. And that was the love that had brought her back to Starfleet in this lifetime.

She sighed, went to the bottom drawer in the desk in her old office and pulled out a bottle of ice whisky, bringing it back into the bigger lab as it swung heavily about her calves. This stuff had helped her through the best decisions she'd ever made. And also the worst. She poured three fingers of it into a tumbler and took a seat just in the shadows of the room, thinking about this small kingdom that she was about to give up and the bigger land she was on the precipice of taking over when the sound of the doors opening jarred her out of her contemplation.

Sigrid spilled out into the lab. She had wireless headphones in and was bobbing and weaving to music no one could hear. The Denobulan lyrics she sang were choppy but sung well enough. She had no idea another person was in the lab and she danced the way one would when you weren't being watched. Her head whipped her blond curls about seemingly wildly and her arms would shoot straight up into the air as she wiggled close to the floor then back up.

She was clearly off duty, as she wore tight leggings and a flowy Vega colony style blouse that had a wide enough collar that it hung partially off her left shoulder. She danced her way over to a console that had a running experiment going and while she swayed and bobbed her butt to the music she checked over the results.

Stace softly chuckled at the visage that had disturbed her, swooping in and delicately tooing and frowing about the room. Her chuckle arose from a thought of admiration; of appreciation for Siri's spirit which she had come to enjoy. Starfleet, despite its reverence for enlightenment could harbour a darkness, an undertone of work dedication and pressure that could make or break you. And yet here Sigrid was, in the wee small hours of the morning, dancing about the science labs seemingly without a care in the universe. Not wanting to startle her, he gently reached over and using the control panel on the desk illuminated the room with a soft hue. "You've got some moves, Siri," she said, sitting up and gesturing to the vacant seat across from her. "Care to join me?"

Rather than scream out in surprise, Sigrid froze in place at hearing the woman's voice. She groaned in embarrassment, but the lack of red cheeks and the fact that she giggled within moments of groaning, it was obvious that Sigrid had been caught dancing but was not apologetic about it. She covered her face with her hands briefly, more to stifle the giggle fit and turned to peak through her fingers at who was in the lab with her. Her hands dropped suddenly at seeing Commander Stace, and a huge grin spread across her pale face. "Those moves are in the experimental stage." She explained, "I've yet to unveil them on the dance floor." Sigrid took a step closer, abandoning what she was doing at the console for something that looked way more interesting. She took the wireless headphones out of her ears and placed them in the clutch she held in her hand. "I'm sorry, did I hear that right? You asked me to join you?" Her eyes made a point of landing on the ice whiskey. "I would never say no to a little girl chat." It was just like Sigrid to forget those barriers between rank and to be her usual self.

Stace reached into the drawer after a flash of her smile and pulled out another tumbler, sliding it across the desk to her. She stood, unplugged the cork from the bottle and poured a generous amount into the empty glass. Sitting back down Stace then raised a toast and nodded. "To moving offices," she said holding her glass up to clink with Siri. "And no longer being your department head." She smiled widely and awaited the cheers with a jest in her eyes.

After clinking glasses, she took a sip. Before she could savour the flavour, Sigrid tilted her head and wiggled her clutch at Stace. "Wait. You're not leaving us are you? I mean we've had a lot of recent changes around here, and I'd hate to see you go. You were my first department head you know."

Stace scrunched up her nose in her usual fashion and then shook her head, taking a drink as she did so. "Not quite," she replied, savouring the flavour of the whisky in her mouth as she spoke. "I'm staying on board but moving away from the Sciences. In fact, Commander Kohl will be replacing me." She paused and then added, "I'm moving over to Command and replacing Commander Blake as ship's First Officer."

Stace allowed the sentiment to hang in the air for Siri, wanting her to understand that as sideways as the move might be she would still be there to support her in anyway she needed.

Sigrid let out a good Vegan Colony-esq 'woot' as she shot an arm in the air and cocked her hip to the side. "Look at you, moving on up in the world." She took a sip of her whisky, loving the burn and warmth associated with it, rather than appreciating it for it's flavour. She took a seat and crossed her legs, leaning towards Stace in a casual way. "And having commander Kohl as chief is just fiiine by me." She gave her a wink. "Have any of your previous hosts been a first officer? Or is this a 'new' new experience for you?"

Stace's eyes and smirk betrayed the truth. She never knew, since her previous host was also a Fleetman, who knew of her past. But the copied Siri's infectious posture and also folded her legs beneath her on the chair. "My previous host was captain of the USS Gilmore. Oddly enough, he was rather instrumental in bringing these wargames to fruition and before his death managed to attend the maiden one. Even if just as an official observer. It's an odd sensation to be here. So much younger and yet experienced in this. But you weather the storms you happen upon. And how about yourself? You seem pretty new to us."

"New-ish." Sigrid agreed. "I came aboard sometime last year as a bar manager. I didn't stay long, though." Sigrid tilted her head to the side, and gave a mischievous smirk. "I fell in love with science. Well, anything Starfleet really. It's funny, you know? I always figured I'd be a Beautician like my mother." She extended her hands and formed a square with her thumbs and index fingers as if framing a scene. "Ooh or perhaps serving tables in some backwater colony as I hitchhike across the Universe." She dropped her arms, "Which of course, I still want to do someday but," Sigrid looked at Stace with a friendly smile, "I've always liked science. Anything sciency really. When I was a Burlesque dancer I would do correspondence courses, and well, being here sort of just nudged me into enlisting."

"I've always said that Starfleet has something for everyone," Stace pondered slowly. She fell silent for a moment, allowing a subtle yet genuine smile fall across her features. There was something about Siri that Stace enjoyed. It may have been the youthful exuberance or a child-like innocence that she so rarely came across in the Fleet. Or in life. In any of her lives, as a matter of fact. She so rarely was surprised. But Siri engendered in her a sense of wonder and freshness that captivated her.

"You should never rest on your laurels. Hitchhiking across the galaxy is something that we could all benefit from. To be utterly free."

Sigrid crossed her eyes playfully, "I'm not good with Earth idioms." She laughed, though it came out more like an amused lilt. "But I understand what you mean. To be free to go where you want and just experience life." Her expression took on a dreamy look as she imagined the possibilities. "I want to get in a bar fight on Delsovlo 3. I want to be wooed by a Rigellian artist, and slip away in the middle of the night. I want to run barefoot over the fire sands of Jeera Prime. Dance to all hours of the night on Denobula. Oooh!" She squealed softly, "Or go spelunking in the Echo caves of Grunasta 4." She sighed, thinking of all the wonderful possibilities. She waved her hand away finally as if to put said possibilities behind her. "But for now, I'm enjoying this wonderful new moment in my life. It isn't as exciting as the nightclubs back home on Vega, but it still seems to be...satisfying in a way, ya know? Like maybe I can make a difference in the Universe and not just simply ride it's beautiful waves."

"It sounds as though your bucket-list can use the benefit of a few more lifetimes," Stace replied, patting her belly in jest. "Just be wary that not all of life's treasures can be found on the highest mountain or in the deepest cavern. Sometimes the true gems of life; the most utterly beautiful and worthwhile of gifts and experiences can turn up just out of the blue when you're busying yourself with other pursuits." Stace looked upon Siri and, upon seeing yet another bemused expression, clarified herself with a beaming, honest smile. "You don't always have to go searching for excitement. Sometimes excitement finds you."

Sigrid chucked, before scrunching up her nose and issuing a soft mock scoff as if the last statement vexed her. "Don't I know it. Sometimes that excitement just pops out of nowhere and you're left standing there holding your underwear in your hands wondering what the Hark spittle just happened." Her bright smile returned. "But thank the Stars, I love surprises. Life would be truly boring if it didn't just jump up at you every once in awhile to say, 'Hey Siri, thought you could use more excitement. How 'bouts I throw you into the middle of a Klingon delegation right before you pretend to fight them in a mock battle.'"

"Then I think that you're on the right ship for now," Stace nodded. "Nothing ever seems to go to plan here. Just look at my career. Chief Research to Science, Second Officer and now First. If you don't enjoy the corner balls life throws at you then you just end up on the back foot all the time. And that's never fun."

Sigrid laughed. "Such beautiful parlance!" She took a long sip of her whiskey. "On Vega we have a saying. 'Fear not your frozen toe, for you're as alive as Aurvandil the seafaring giant, to live and drink another day."

Stace flicked her attention up from her own tumbler of scotch as she was staring dreamily into it, broken away from casually listening to Siri by the preposterous and completely unfamiliar saying she had just expelled. "What in the name of the Universe does that even mean?" she exclaimed a laugh now lilting her voice.

"You know what? I have no clue really. But it seemed to fit." Sigrid mused a little to herself. "A lot of our saying's come from stories that our founding ancestors of Vega Colony had passed down." Sigrid giggled as she sipped her drink again. "It's all Haark spit to me." She said, "But the myths are beautiful when spoken in my home language around a fireplace."

"Ah," Stace reminisced, closing her eyes as she thought back. "That takes me back to my childhood. Sitting around a fire as my mother would tell me stories about her past lives. Memories she had of a world that no longer existed; fairy stories that she was once told as a child; poems. I'm from the countryside myself so it's one of the things we used to do to pass the cold, winter nights.

"Oh that sounds nice." Sigrid said with genuine interest. "Everybody lives inside the colony on Vega. There's the old colony, that a few residents live in on the south side. They still have the original colony habitation units that my ancestors first arrived in. That's as 'in the country' as it kind of gets. I grew up east side. Which pretty much mean's the likelihood of someone in my family becoming a dock worker was always quite high. And I don't mean spacedock either. Like, dock worker. Fishing boats. Trawlers. Tugs. That sort of thing. I couldn't stand living there. I need to be where the excitement is, so when I moved out I lived north side. Nightclubs on every corner. Neon signs everywhere. Casinos. Burlesque shows. Tourists from all over. You want some good memories, spend a couple nights in the north end of the colony. You'll have plenty of good memories."

Stace sucked the air in through her teeth and scrunched up her nose in a way that wasn't her usual, jestful fashion. One of more polite discomfort and rejection. "The city life has no draw for me, unfortunately. In fact, none of my hosts have enjoyed the pull of the bright city lights and the excitement that comes with stumbling out of a bar with an Orion slave girl on one arm and a Ferengi on the other at three o'clock on the morning." She laughed to herself as the image popped into her head and then shrugged it aside. "If it's one thing I've learnt living all of these lives it's that people absorb different elements from life. Connect with different experiences and not always the same things at different times. But for me, sitting by that fireplace still draws me as it did when I was a child. But I'm happy here. On this ship and with all these people. Somehow I've managed to secure a life for myself that I'm proud of."

"Everybody recharges differently." Sigrid agreed brightly. "I need people and lots of them. I feel positively energized when surrounded by them." Sigrid took a moment to reflect on what Stace said. She always liked to think of herself as someone that lives in the moment. If she were honest with herself though, Sigirid was always looking ahead at the next life experience. Forward momentum was the way she lived her life. "I like the ship. I love what I'm doing. I'm just not sure I feel as though I've secured a life that I can be proud of. Not yet. There's just too much to explore and do in such a short span of time. I envy you a little. Well, not you, you. The long lived, you. All that time to do all the things you've always wanted to. So many different lives." Sigrid threw her head back a little and looked at the ceiling with a look of reflection. "It seems like the purest kind of joy to me to have lifetimes of experiences like that."

"That's only the case when those lifetimes and experiences are for the better," Stace balanced with a raise of her knowing eyebrows. "Imagine that you're deeply unhappy. Eons of bitterness cannot be a pleasure to bear." She paused and then added a smile. "Not that I think you would ever suffer from such an affliction. Nor someone in your presence. I imagine that you bring an air of joy and innocence to wherever you travel."

Sigrid flashed a wicked grin which combined with the eye shadow on her half lidded eyes conveyed an energy behind the look. "I wouldn't say too much innocence." Sigrid chuckled a little, "But you're right. It takes too much out of me to be unhappy or bitter. It's much better to see the world in beautiful colours rather than those nasty swashes of black and white that too many people often see the world in." Sigrid inspected her brilliantly painted nails when she thought she'd spotted a flaw. Satisfied it was just a trick of the light she looked back at Stace and added, "Shades of grey is far from my preferred colour palette."

"Then we're both lucky," Stace replied with a flat, thoughtful smile. "Not everyone has that luxury. And I do think that, to a certain degree, people see their own colour-chart. But not everyone has that choice. And living in a palour of greys and blacks is all they know." She paused and changed tact, not wanting to continue the conversation any further. "But here's to the future," she added, raising her glass again. "To colour and life and dreams."

Sigrid raised her own glass and giggled, "'IwlIj jachjaj" She said in Klingonese. She took as sip and gave Stace a mischievous raise of her eyebrow over her glass.

END

Crewman Apprentice Sigrid Thelin
Scientist's Mate
USS Galileo
[PNPC Beaumont]

AND

Commander Norvi Stace
First Officer
USS Galileo

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