A Man's Cave is his Castle

Posted on 12 Feb 2013 @ 4:16pm by Raifi Zaren & Justin Baker

2,166 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, VIP Quarters, Men's
Timeline: MD01: 1800 hrs
Tags: press

[ON]

Zaren was still lying on the floor with an empty tea cup resting on his stomach when the door opened. "How was dinner?" he asked, rolling his eyes upward to see Justin.

Throwing the bag on his shoulder onto the floor, Justin just looked at Zaren before dropping his body down into the nearest chair in a manner which showed none of his gentleman style. "That...that...bitch...If I didn't know you so well, I would have walked by now."

"What happened? You've only been breathing the same air for a few hours."

As his hand moved to remove the sunglasses from his face, Justin sent them flying across the room in an angry gesture. "She decided to have a talk with me. She seems to think that she is more important than me as she is infront of the camera and I am behind it. This gives her permission to just treat me like dirt."

"Give her bad lighting and make her audio short out. She'll learn quick enough who's more important," Zaren rolled his head to the side to watch the glasses land.

"Oooohhhh...but didn't you hear?!?" Justin's voice raised a few octaves as it was heavily laced with sarcasim. "If I ever dare to make her look bad on camera, she'll have me sacked and ensure that I never work again because she is more important than me and has more important contacts."

"She can't sack you. She didn't hire you. I did. And I did because Trija left it up to me to select the best man for the job." He studied Justin, pushing up on one elbow. "Faces on screens come and go. The images are what's left behind and the best images are the ones you find. She wants you to react to her, to get angry, to give her the power. Don't."

Snorting, Justin pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ha! You know me better than that to know that I already got angry. Us camera people are extremely temperamental, didn't ya know?"

"I'm aware," Zaren murmured. "I just didn't think it'd happen this early in the game." He pushed around on the floor and nudged Justin's calf with his foot. "Anything I can do? Smother her with a pillow? Write a letter to her producer on Sol?"

This brought a rare genuine smile to Justin's lips as he moved his hand from the bridge of his nose to brush his hair back out of his face. "You'd probably do the whole universe a favour if you smothered her with a pillow but no...I won't stoop to her level. I know my name and work already speaks volumes in how people in our area of work view me. None of those people would take the word of a woman with her reputation."

"Still, she shouldn't be pushing you around. It's insecurity, you realize that, don't you?"

Stretching his arms high above his head, Justin stretched out his legs before crossing them at the ankles. "Enough about that woman. What precisely had you been up to today? You seem to have made yourself very comfortable down there on the floor."

Zaren swallowed a sigh. Allowing frustrations to simmer unresolved was never a good plan. Better to lance the boil and get everything out in the open so that healing could begin. But Justin was his own person, and Zaren was his friend, not his father. Some lessons had to be learned for themselves. "I met a charming woman and had tea."

"Charming woman...this wouldn't be the dear Lieutenant Commander from earlier per chance was it?" Justin raised an eyebrow at his friend, surprised he already seemed to be picking up women which was highly unlike him.

"I know Eve," Zaren said with a little stretch on the floor. "Or rather, Arjin knew her for a short while that felt like longer. She was kind to him when he'd given up hope. I don't forget things like that. And if I were you, I wouldn't go calling her 'dear' to her face. I remember she had some rather impressive skills in the hand to hand combat department." He smiled, "But no. Someone else." He laughed at the look Justin was giving him, "What? Just because the executive officer is putting everyone on full alert, doesn't mean we can't be friendly."

"Suuuure..." Justin had a big grin on his face as he said this and locked his hands behind his neck. "Back to the Commander woman for a moment...what's she like? She seems reserved but once she opens up she seems like a nice woman."

"'Nice' is not a good enough word," Zaren said thoughtfully. "She's... warm and wry and clever - very clever - and funny... by the stars, she's funny. In a sly, non-obvious way. And generous, good. Truly good and so very, very kind..." he trailed off, lost in a memory of a seashore.

Watching Zaren carefully, Justin sat forward in his chair with a thoughtful look on his face. "So there's something between you and her?" Justin had his reasons for asking, he didn't take the women who belonged to friends of his but Evelyn had seemed nice and he'd thought about asking her for a drink to discuss more the possibilities of getting her on camera.

"No," the Trill answered, though he couldn't help but sound wistful. "When we met, Arjin was in his eighties and she- was still the same as she is now. Wouldn't have worked. But she was... very kind." He rubbed a hand over his face and rolled to his knees. "I think I'll have more tea. Do you want anything?"

Well that cut that off, seemed like Evelyn was actually Zaren's gal. "Just a water will do me good. I've too many ideas running through my mind right now to even try injecting caffeine in alongside them."

Zaren nodded, heading for the replicator, "Anything else? Did you eat anything more than Jool's crow? I could go for... oh, a cake would be lovely," he decided before requesting the glass of water and the cake, large, chocolate and peanut butter, warm. He found a couple forks in a drawer and brought the whole selection back, stabbing the cake with the forks and collapsing on the sofa catty-cornered to Justin.

Placing his elbow on the arm of the couch, Justin cupped his cheek in the palm of his hand as he gently chewed on his baby finger. The appearance of the utensils reminded him of something, "Zaren...if I mentioned something to you it would go no further right?"

"If that's the way you want it," the Trill agreed. "What's up?"

On one aspect Justin didn't want to be seen as a tell tale but on the other the knowledge he had he knew could get them all landed in the brig unless it was dealt with. "An individual on our team is carrying counselled weapons, one assumes that they are also undeclared."

For a long moment, Zaren was still. Slowly, he straightened to sitting and eyed Justin. "Speak plain."

Letting out a sigh, Justin pushed his hand back into his hair as he closed his eyes. "The falling out I mentioned earlier. I pushed Fenta back against a wall as there was a shipment container trying to get through.. It could have been interpreted I was trying something more and she revealed a hidden knife."

The Trill shut his eyes and exhaled for an inordinate amount of time. "Tell Trija."

This comment alone caused Justin to burst out laughing. "Are you serious? You saw her today, she doesn't give a crap about any of us. She wants the job done with as few problems as possible. She'd skin me alive for bringing this up."

He opened his eyes and looked at the Terran seriously. "She cares more than she lets on. But even if she didn't- as you say, she wants the job done with as few problems as possible. Jool carrying weapons around this ship is a threat to the story. Trija needs to know. If she's caught out with something like that, we are all in confinement and there's no scoop."

"I know that!" Justin quick temper surfaced before he reeled himself back in, pinching the bridge of his nose once more as he took a number of breaths. "Sorry...I know that Zaren...why do you think that I choose to turn tell tale and tell you this? Fenta will know it was me who let the cat out of the bag so to say, I don't need to add to the picture for her to have reason to look down her nose at me and make snide remarks."

Zaren rested a hand on Justin's arm. "What she thinks of you doesn't matter. I know it feels that way, because... she's got conviction. But she's just one person. Your work speaks for itself. That said," he added. "She can't go wandering around with a weapon. So either you tell Trija and we handle it in house. Or I have to tell Eve and Starfleet gets involved in our business. I can't knowingly allow one of my team members to be a threat to her officers and not say anything."

Pushing his hand up into his hair, Justin finally looked across and met Zaren's eyes. "And when I go to Trija, can I use the threat that it'll be brought to command if not dealt with?"

"It's not a threat, love, it's a responsibility we have to the crew. And to our story. You know that as well as I or you wouldn't have told me."

"Amazing isn't it...I'm doing the right thing but you can be one hundred percent certain that I won't be thanked for it." Moving out of his chair, Justin retrieved the glasses he had earlier thrown, checking them over. "On which note...I'll take the couch. After what happened last time, I am not sharing a bed with you again."

Zaren watched him quizzically, then picked up one of the forks and slipped to the floor to dig into the cake. "It was cold."

As he slipped his glasses back to the top of his hand, Justin raised an eyebrow as he started to root through the bag he had earlier throw in the corner. "You were ontop of me..."

"Body heat." Zaren smiled around a mouthful of chocolate peanut butter cake. "I have poor circulation."

Pulling out the pillow and blankets he'd brought as a precaution, Justin tossed them over to the couch. "Then turn up the heating...you are not cuddling me to keep warm."

"I don't understand your problem with contact. Is it such a big difference, whether I touch you sitting in a chair or lying in a bed? My intention is always the same."

Coughing at this, Justin moved over to tilt his head to look down at the Trill. "Look...I'm not scared of men or anything but seriously...you were lying ontop of me...now really. That just brings on claustrophobia and alot else I don't even want to have to think about you. I love you Zaren, but not that much."

"I love you, too," Zaren beamed at him. "You're very comfortable; I didn't mean anything by it." He ate another bite of cake. "I will sleep on the couch."

Shaking his head, Justin quickly took the couch in question and rested his feet against the far arm rest. "Nope...You know I'm used to roughing it. You'd never be able to cope without your luxuries babe."

"My luxuries?" Zaren laughed. "You've been in my shuttle."

"You've got the bed squirt. End of." Justin placed his glassed back over his eyes as he closed his eyes behind the frames and crossed his arms across his chest.

"You're claiming this whole room so you can get first dibs on the replicator," Zaren challenged, mouth full of cake.

The only movement from Justin was an upturn of his lips before he spoke. "Someone's gotta ensure you don't eat the ship out of cake."

"You stand between me and my morning coffee, I'm going to force you to sleep in that comfortable bed in there," Zaren pointed towards the bedroom. "Do we understand each other?"

Moving one hand, Justin threw a salute to the Trill before folding his hands across his abdomen. "Now if you don't mind...I didn't get much sleep last night."

"You're no fun," the Trill said, ruffling Jason's hair. "Night." He grabbed the cake and his PADD, shuffling into the bedroom and closing the door. Hopefully it would muffle the noise as he made his way through his contact lists.


[OFF]

Raifi Zaren
FNN Journalist
USS Galileo
(pNPC Lilou Peers)

Justin Baker
FNN Cameraman
USS Galileo
(pNPC Pola Ni Dhuinn)

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