The Morning After

Posted on Sun May 26th, 2024 @ 3:43pm by Commander Kevin Lance & Captain Mira Rodale

Mission: Starbase 364
Location: Starbase 364
Timeline: Immediately after The In-Between Time

on:
{Rodale Family Quarters}

Mira was dressed in her workout clothes for a morning run. Before waking Kolar, she decided to look in on Kevin and offer for him to join the two of them.

There was no answer to her knock, so she opened the door to his room. In was empty and the bed had not been slept in. She was about to use her comm badge to find him when he walked in the main door of their quarters.

He looked a little worse for wear. His eyes were sunken in and had a weary look to them. There was an angry bruise on his cheek and his lip was split. There was a tear in the left arm of his uniform under which Mira could see a derma bandage. She even detected redness around his throat that could have been from a choking attempt.

Kevin avoided eye contact and didn't say a word to her. Instead he immediately went to the replicator. "Computer" he ordered, "Coffee, Kona Blend, Black and two cafphetamine tablets. Override Kevin Lance, thruster one-seven golf lima," The computer chirped an affirmative response.

Kevin knew that the computer would report his use of cafphetamine to both the ship's doctor and the chief of medicine for the starbase but he was beyond caring at this point. He swallowed the two tablets and washed them down with a swig of hot coffee.

Mira's brows winkled. "Did the party get crazy after I left, or did the base get attacked?" She asked solfly. She walked closer to give him a hug good morning, but he didn't look happy. "Can I hug you good morning?"

Kevin set down the mug of coffee and held his arm open for her. She gave him a tight squeeze that elicited a whimper of pain from him.

"Neither," he replied, "just a disagreement on maintenance procedures."

Mira was a little worried about how hurt he was. "maintenance procedures?" She closed her eyes. "I had wanted to talk to you about the changes I was making to the ship. I wanted to extend your quarters up to my door." She picked up a padd that was sitting on the counter. "It would give you more room and make it harder to get to my quarters that Kolar would be in. Then, add a force field to the bed so Dianna and the kids could get in it. I don't understand why this is such a problem." Clearly, she might have to kick someone's butt. First, she was going to find out who.

"It took some juggling of the maintenance schedule," Kevin explained, "and the list of items on deferred maintenance is longer than I like but the ship's structure has been modified to your specifications. When I left, Walker was finishing up fine tuning the containment force field." He gave a shake of his head to ward off a yawn. The coffee and medication hadn't kicked in just yet.

"Ok, what happened." Mira asked.

"About what you would expected when Federation and Klingon engineers are forced to work on the same project," Kevin shrugged, "A lot more arguments than work getting done. I had to provide some corrective action."

"By all that is holy" Mira sighed. She put her hand to his cheek "I am so sorry." She bit her lip. "Did you work things out to your satisfaction?

Kevin gave a tired shake of his head, "I really wish you hadn't confessed your grievances with Admiral Proll to General Kharon," he admitted, "but what's done is done. There is still a lot to do but with the structural modifications complete, I was able to get rid of most of the Klingons."

"I did have a run in with Lt Commander Samuel from the base. He was in charge so he gets written up. The Klingons they can be guilted for fighting on my ship. BUT.........how do you want to handle this?"

Kevin smirked at the idea that a Klingon could suffer pangs of guilt. Force and their own twisted honor were the only currencies that they respected.

"Our ship, our responsibility," Kevin stated firmly, "Samuel shouldn't take the fall for this. It wasn't his fault that the Admiral accelerated our deployment. Or that General Kharon let himself get goaded into sending every feakin' one of his engineers to our ship. The sooner we are under way, the happier I will be."

Mira blinked if Samuel had done his job and not come to find her questioning her for all of this. Then, the work could have been completed. All of this could have been avoided. She nodded "Ok if that's what you want, then we will handle it that way."

She lifted up on her toes to kiss him. "I was going to ask if you wanted to go on an outing with Kolar and I this morning, but you need the rest more. When is the ambassador wanting to leave?" Mira asking thinking she would need to change plans with Kolar.

Mira's offer to join her and Kolar brought the first smile to his face all morning. "Thank you but no," he replied, "As much as I am willing to give Samuel a pass on this current mess, he owns getting things fixed. But he is only one man. I wanted to step away and get some perspective while changing uniforms. I plan to return to the ship to oversee the continuing repairs. Oh and the ambassador's ship is scheduled to depart at sixteen hundred."

Mira nodded "Ok I'll take Vaytoc and Kolar to the holodeck to play for an hour to get their energy out, then get them fed and on the ship in a few hours. By then, Kolar will be ready for a nap, and I can get some work done before I start the paperwork ." She kissed him again.

:off

Lieutenant Commander Kevin Lance
Executive Officer
USS Chuck Norris

and

Captain Mira Rodale
CO USS Chuck Norris