A Night To Remember, Part II: Breaking the Ice

Posted on Thu Feb 23rd, 2023 @ 10:46am by Ensign Ivy Kinsley & Lieutenant Shinobu Miyake & Lieutenant Azrel Vox & Lieutenant Michael Slatterly & Chief Petty Officer Meredith Corden & Ensign Syaffia
Edited on on Thu Feb 23rd, 2023 @ 10:50am

1,125 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Mission 2: Rendezvous At Starbase 10
Location: Starbase 10: "The Top"
Timeline: M2 MD07 (2268.6.09) 1815

Ensign Kinsley had entered a few moments before but wasn't sure where to go first. Her dress uniform was well tailored but it was fairly devoid of decorations. She decided she to walk over to the Captain who was chatting with Meredith and Aze.

"Good evening folks," she said with a smile. Her short blonde hair was well styled, her bangs barely gracing her long eyelashes.

"Hi, Ivy," Meredith said with a bright smile.

"Hi, Ivy" Aze chirped in.

Ivy smiled at Meredith and then looked at Aze, "Glad to see you could make it Lieutenant," she responded, "I heard a rumor you weren't coming... What changed your mind?"

"Well, not exactly. Someone decided I should attend and pretty much forced the issue till I got changed and then frog-marched me to here. So, I didn't really want to be here but now that I am, I have to make the best of things." Aze explained.

"Well alright then," Ivy responded, "I mean it was highly encouraged to have the senior staff and bridge crew here.

"Yes well, I've never really been a fan of these events. A glass of wine and a good book is my idea of a good evening." Aze replied.

Michael Slattery, wearing his dress uniform, walked into the club. He picked up a drink from the bar, vodka martini, shaken not stirred, and made his way around the room. He nodded to a few people who welcomed him. And then he made his way to one of the viewing windows and looked out.

Arriving in similar fashion was Lieutenant Miyake; making her way over to the bar, she ordered herself an Old-Fashioned, figuring some synthenol would do wonders in numbing the pain of their latest assignment- if just for a little while.

Swirling the beverage around in her glass, she made her way over to a window seat in the far corner of the room, where she proceeded to settle in and gazed out at the starry expanse beyond.

Seeing the Japanese officer Syaffina pushed away from her position at the bar and approached her with a warm smile on her face. "Ma'am? Is everything alright?" She enquired. "No one should be sitting all alone at events like this! May I join you?"

Lieutenant Miyake chuckled a little at Syaffina's concern for her well-being. "I don't see why you can't, Cadet," she replied, motioning to an open chair. "Have a seat."

The blond-haired woman smiled and swept her bags aside as she sat down in front of her. "You just looked like something was on your mind, after all. I've seen the look a few times. Sitting alone in a corner, gazing out the window deep in thought, that kinda thing. I know it's probably not my place to care as a cadet, but- is everything okay?" Fia asked with a kind smile.

"Eh, I suppose that last assignment reopened some old wounds for me," Lieutenant Miyake explained. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, though..."

"Maybe not. But I can definitely offer you a listening ear or a hug or anything else if you need it." She said with a gentle smile. "Just ask, really, I don't mind at all. So what do you do on board?"

Lieutenant Miyake raised an eyebrow. "I manage security," she explained, taking a casual sip of her drink, "Uphold law and order, make sure Captain Faust and Commander Heartfilia don't get in over their heads while on away missions- the usual shebang when it comes to running a security tangent."

"So you're the chief of security. It doesn't sound very fun, especially if people don't cooperate." Syaffia remarked. "They do cooperate, right? There aren't too many incidents on board?"

"For the most part, the Academy's done it's part in hammering into these guys that they need to behave themselves," Lieutenant Miyake replied. "I mean, sure, we get the occasional misunderstanding, and someone winds up in the brig because someone pussed out and didn't realize they were having a friendly spar, but I make sure those matters all get sorted out in due time.

"That's good." Syaffia said with a smile. "What do you do for fun? Hobbies and stuff. I personally visit the gym a lot and spend a lot of time in bars if I don't have anything to do."

Lieutenant Miyake put a finger to her lips. "Hmm... Hobbies... well, I do occasionally like to collect vintage postcards, but I haven't been keeping a particularly big collection on me, if you know what I mean; what with these annual crew rotations, it would just be a pain to transfer my whole collection from one deployment to the next."

Syaffia leaned in, smirking as if she'd just heard a big secret. "Why the secrecy? Do you not want people to know that you have such a hobby?"

Lieutenant Miyake chuckled. "I don't think it's so much a matter of keeping it a secret as figuring out where to put it," she explained. "It's kinda tacky to show up to your new deployment lugging around 3 bankers' boxes full of old postcards; space is something of a premium on these Federation Starships, after all..."

"Three bankers' boxes? No way. You're bluffing." Syaffia teased. "You gotta be. That's a lot of postcards... like, a thousand? Or something. So you keep them all at home, right? In your room or something?"

"Most of them I send to a collection I keep in a closet back at my parent's house, yes," Lieutenant Miyake replied, her face flushed with mild embarrassment. "At last count, I was close to filling up a third bankers' box, but it's been a while since then, I have no way of knowing if they've bought any additional storage boxes to accommodate my... obsessive hobby."

"I'd definitely call that obsessive. Just a bit." Syaffia laughed. "I used to collect little toy cars when I was young. Cars and shuttles, that kind of thing. I had an entire plastic box of them before mother decided I'd outgrown them and threw them away. I cried the entire night, but I suppose I grew up that night."

"She didn't even ask your permission?!" Lieutenant Miyake gawked. "At least my parents have made it clear they'll let me know my collection is getting intrusive!"

"Mother didn't like to wait. What she wanted, she got, no matter what." Syaffia shrugged. "She thought I should grow up and out of liking shuttles and toys and start studying more."

"Christ," Lieutenant Miyake sighed, taking another sip of her drink. "Apologies if this conversation's turned into something of a downer..."

To Be Continued...

 

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