Bottomless Pit
Posted on Fri Nov 17th, 2023 @ 7:13am by Lieutenant Christopher Blake & Lieutenant Sorine Kaida
Edited on on Fri Jan 12th, 2024 @ 1:43am
0 words; about a 1 minute read
Mission:
The Sins of History
Location: The Sidebar Lounge - Deck 5 - USS Artemis
Timeline: MD003 1800 hrs
Kaida sat down at a table. Normally she would have just gone up to the bar to order but as she had someone with her she thought it might be kind of nice to have someone wait on them. "Well, we found it," she said. "What do you think? It pretty much looks like just about every other lounge I've been in, which admittedly isn't all that many. They always decorate them in the strangest colors, neutrals. As if they are afraid someone will wear an outfit that clashes with the decor."
"The captain of my last ship went with neon lights." Chris said as he sat down. "It was... interesting. But it grew on me after a while." Kaida was right though, neutral colours. Bland and sterile. Hopefully the Captain would allow them to add a personal touch to it eventually.
After a moment, a young man wearing what appeared to be all the colours that were missing from the rest of the room approached the table. "Good evening, is there anything I can get you to drink?"
Chris motioned to Kaida, "You first."
"Oh umm, I'll have a Bajoran spring wine." She really didn't drink very much and certainly not anything heavy. She had this thing about never losing control of a situation. She let Chris order while she gazed out the window, her thoughts having slipped back to Bajor for a moment. "Do you believe in a higher power?" She asked, out of the blue.
"I'll take a whiskey on the rocks." Chris said a moment later.
The colourful young man nodded with a smile. "Right away."
Chris had just begun looking out the window when Kaida sprung the unexpected question. He blinked his eye and slowly turned his head to look at her. "I suppose I do." He was well aware of how important spirituality was to most Bajorans, but he wasn't sure where he stood on the matter. "I guess I haven't decided if anyone is right or wrong on the whole higher power concept. So many conflicting ideas and ideologies."
She nodded. "When I was young I was being raised to believe in the prophets but my little mind couldn't quite wrap around the idea that a god or gods would let something like the Occupation happen. Still, I was willing to put that thought aside if my dad thought they were real. And then on Earth I was exposed to so many other beliefs and I never did find a god that would answer me. But I keep looking." She finally glanced over at Chris and realized he'd been watching her this whole time. "Sorry," She shook her head. "Tangent . . . I'm not even sure why I went off on it. I guess I was thinking of work which is really not the point of two people having a drink in the lounge."
"Don't worry about it." Chris said with a slight crooked grin. "That just kept my adrenaline up from the rock climbing."
Their drinks were silently placed on the table with a nod from the young waiter and Chris reached over to take a sip from his glass.
The amber liquid was smooth with a slight caramel flavor. "And we're colleagues. It's alright to talk about work too. Just stop me before I bore you with thruster calibration procedures."
"I know nothing about thruster calibration procedures, I might find it interesting. Speaking of that, do you have any interesting holodeck programs that involve piloting Antique ships? Or is that not an interest of yours? If I were a pilot I think I'd want to fly the ships on the holodeck that I was probably not going to get a chance to pilot in real life." She looked at him expectantly. "Or if not antique, one of a kind or rare ships." She seemed to think about this for a minute as if trying to come up with the names of some.
"No one finds thruster calibrations interesting. Trust me on that one." Chris said with a crooked grin as he thought back to the hours he'd sat down with the manuals and training simulations perfecting the technique and procedures on about ten main classes of shuttles. "Aside from the training simulators I've downloaded and adjusted..." He paused and thought about his sailing holoprogram. "I have one. It's an old schooner, The Splitter. Based on an actual boat I used to sail."
He looked down at his drink as memories came back. He shook them out of his head and took a quick sip before continuing. "I could show you sometime. It can be relaxing." It used to be for him, now he wasn't entirely sure if he could really relax with it. Although, Kaida had managed to make him feel more relaxed than he had in a long time so it could be possible to enjoy it again.
"Oh so it's not just starships you're interested in? I've never been on the water." Kaida admitted. She had always been hesitant toward it and she had no idea why. Perhaps something in her childhood or an irrational fear from some dream she'd long ago forgotten. "But I could try it. As long as you program calm seas. I never learned to swim and would not want to test to see if I have any natural ability in that way."
"Calm seas are best for speed." Chris said with a lopsided grin. "I'll take you some time." He took another sip of his drink, now only half full.
He glanced out at the stars before looking back at Kaida and continuing. "Thank you for getting me out of my quarters. It's usually not easy for me to... relax or stop studying. It's a bad habit, but I haven't really tried to break it yet."
"I'd like that," she responded, not looking at him as if her face might betray an emotion she didn't want anyone to know she felt. "You're welcome." Kaida nodded turning back to him. "I needed an excuse to get out myself. All I've done is work lately which isn't unusual for me but it's not good for the soul. You haven't made friends yet on here? On Artemis I mean?"
"No..." Chris half whispered. "I generally keep to myself because of..." He motioned to his implants. "I usually feel like I'm a spectacle, something to be gawked at or pitied. I don't like that, so I don't really engage." Truth was it wasn't just the Artemis, it had been the same everywhere he'd went since the incident.
She nodded. "People are very curious and despite being all over the universe they still find things they aren't used to seeing." Kaida cocked her head slightly and looked at him. "Do you think I'm gawking at you? I assume you don't or you wouldn't have gone climbing with me. So . . . why?"
"Consider it my attempt to push myself out of my comfort zone." Chris said with a shrug. "I was close to saying no, but that would have just left me in the same place I've always been."
He offered a lop sided grin. "You're also the first person to invite me to do something in forever, so I figured if you were going to give me a chance then I should give you a chance as well."
"Ah, I'm an experiment," Kaida said in a tone of mock indignation. "Funny, because you were sort of my experiment too. I don't think I've had a conversation with anyone on this ship that wasn't work related and I remembered our conversation in the shuttle which was brief but there was a tiny glimmer of hope that maybe I could coax another conversation out of you and in doing so segue to my own conversation. What a pair we are." She shook her head amused. "Shall we continue in say a few days? Go boating and not drown? Push me out of my comfort zone a bit?"
"Sure." Chris replied. He raised his glass to Kaida. "To being uncomfortable together."
"I will drink to that," Kaida clinked her glass with his and downed the rest of the liquid.
A Joint Post by
Lieutenant Sorine Kaida
Criminal Investigations Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
Lieutenant Christopher Blake
Chief Flight Control Officer, USS Artemis
Starfleet Criminal Investigations Unit
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