((USS Culver City, Main Engineering))

It had been a largely quiet week at the Tholian border.  Well, ‘quiet’ was more of a relative term; tensions had been running high on the Tholian/Sheliac border, and the patrol sent to monitor the situation had been on edge for a while now.  So far, other than the incident with the Rak’nal a few days before, the Culver City, one of the vessels in the Starfleet patrol, had not come seriously into harm’s way, but that could change at any time.

LCDR Varyn K’lev, commanding officer of the Culver City, was off-duty in main engineering, listening in from an upper catwalk as Lieutenant Pelix, the ship’s chief engineer, led an orientation for some new crew members; during the ship’s resupply earlier in the day by a cargo ship out of SB420, Culver City received some additional crew, her complement now numbering just over 200 out of a standard of 300.  He smiled a little sadly, listening as he remembered his own orientation in this very same engine room – had it only been a year or so ago? – and how eager he had been to serve shipboard, not knowing then how that service would go.

A voice suddenly came from behind him.  “Sir?” it said.

K’lev turned suddenly, startled, but composing himself as he saw a young crewman standing there, offering him a PADD.  “Oh!  Um….  Yes, what is it?” he asked as he took the PADD from her.

“From Ensign Tiza, sir; the cargo manifest and stowage plan, for your review,” she answered, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet, nervous at having interrupted her captain, especially knowing he was off-duty.

K’lev read over the manifest and plan; a lot of repair materials and some additional medical supplies, as he had been told to expect from SB420, and Tiza’s team had distributed them quite effectively through Culver City’s large cargo bays.  Satisfied, he signed the report with his thumbprint and handed the PADD back to the crewman.  “Looks good to me,” he said with a reassuring smile.  “Thank you.”

The crewman relaxed as she took the PADD back, then retreated up the corridor.  After she left, K’lev turned back to see the orientation group moving on with their tour.  He smiled, confident that Pelix had the group well-in-hand, and made his way to the turbolift for the long ride back to Culver City’s primary hull.

((Culver City, Ship’s Lounge))

The Culver City’s ship’s lounge, nicknamed by the crew “Cee-cee’s Tavern” or just “Cee-cee’s” for short, was fairly quiet when K’lev entered, with perhaps only a dozen others currently in the room.  While it was certainly not allowed to be open when the ship was at red alert, he had – with some restrictions, notably that it could only serve synthehol instead of offering both synthehol and full alcohol options – allowed it to stay open during yellow alert; after all, the crew still needed a place to socialize and relax while off-duty.  On advice from the Farragut, he had relaxed the standing yellow alert – for now, at least – so full alcohol options were available, but this close to danger many of the crew still preferred synthehol when they would come to get a drink, just in case things went badly without warning.

K’lev went to the bar, ordering himself a Saurian Smash – functionally a brandy smash made with Saurian brandy (or its syntheholic equivalent, in this case) – then made his way to an empty booth by one of the large windows.  There he sat, back partially to the window as he slowly sipped his drink.  The small crowd in Cee-cee’s were all gathered around a pair of tables closer to the bar, talking and laughing, some seemingly playing a friendly game of cards while others watched; K’lev wanted to join, but held back, glad to see them having fun and worried that it’d ruin their evening if their captain joined them.

The doors to Cee-cee’s swished open, and Lieutenant Ophelia Lotharys entered, dressed in comfortable clothes as she was also off-duty.  She ordered her own drink – functionally a Long Island iced tea, albeit one made with a syntheholic version of Andorian whiskey – then waved to the small group before spotting K’lev sitting alone.  With a smile and a polite word of greeting to the group, she made her way to K’lev’s booth.  “Hey, Var,” she said, smile broadening into a grin.  “Mind if I join you?”

He patted the seat next to him in the booth.  “Not at all!  How’re you doing, Lia?”

“I’m okay; just needed a bit of a break, you know?” She nudged him with her shoulder.  “How about you?”

“Eh…” K’lev replied with a shrug.  “About the same, actually; there’s only so many reports one can read before going mad, so I wanted to get out of the cabin for a bit.  Or needed to… something like that.”  He chuckled, though it faded out quickly.  “Definitely feeling the deja vu of the situation too, that’s for sure.  Though hopefully history won’t repeat itself.”

Lotharys nodded, a little sadly.  “Glad it’s not just me,” she said.  “It’s almost scarier that we might see it coming this time.”

K’lev nodded with a sigh.  “I know what you mean…  I was down in engineering earlier, watching Pelix lead a new engineers’ briefing, and I kept flashing back to mine; same room, just a year or so ago, but all different faces.  Knowing how that went, and how suddenly it all went wrong…”  He shook his head.

She leaned her head against his shoulder, entwining her arm with his.  “We’re ready for this, right?” she asked, as much an open question as a rhetorical one.  “It won’t go wrong this time?”

He rested a cheek against her hair.  “I’d say we’re probably about as ready as we can be.  And perhaps if we see the mess coming, we can keep things from going wrong this time?  There’s already a couple of differences from Palix Bravo; we’ve got a lot more help this time, for one, and there’s no subspace anomalies in the area either.”

She nodded, remaining leaning into him, her eyes drifting over to the group as a round of laughter arose from its midst.  “Think we should get the gang back together, play some cards or something?” she asked, memories flitting back to when the group of them – K’lev, herself, Pelix, sh’Livo, Ghimir, Hilava, and Phillips – were on the way to their first assignment together, and the fun they had on the flight; with how busy things had been since, there hadn’t been a lot of time to them to properly relax together.

K’lev smiled, watching them as well, his memories much at the same place.  “Sounds like a great idea, I think.  Could have it in my cabin, after all this is done; drinks, cards, no troubles allowed.”  He chuckled.  “Like those end-of-term ‘study sessions’ from the Academy, you remember?  The ones after the final papers and exams?”

Lotharys laughed, and K’lev could feel her posture relaxing.  “Those felt so good!  All the stress was gone, and we could finally cut loose and just have fun!”

K’lev’s smile widened.  “That settles it; once this crisis is done, we’re having an end-of-term session.”

“Sounds wonderful,” she said, looking up at him.  He met her eyes with his; a beat passed, then each leaned forward slightly and their lips met.  It was a short kiss, and perhaps a little awkward, and when it ended both K’lev and Lotharys blushed.  “Sorry, Lia…” K’lev started to say.

Lotharys waved the apology away.  “It’s okay, Var,” she said with a smile, leaning back into him.

Fortunately, it seemed as though the group closer to the bar didn’t notice the private, intimate moment shared between their captain and first officer.  The two whiled away another hour or so – and another round or two of drinks – in Cee-cee’s before leaving side-by-side.

K’lev and Lotharys rode together back to deck 3, where the bulk of the senior officers’ cabins were located.  A brief walk later and they were at Lotharys’ door; there they stopped.  Lotharys turned to face K’lev.  “Thanks for walking me home,” she said with a playful smile.

The two shared a hug, that turned into another kiss.  When it ended, K’lev brushed a stray lock of Lotharys’ hair from her face, looking at her tenderly.  “I don’t know why it took me so long to do that,” he whispered.

She smiled.  “Well, should we see how far this can go, you and I?” she asked.

“Are you asking me out, Lia?” K’lev asked, a twinkle in his eye.  “Because if so, absolutely.”

Lotharys grinned.  The two – a new couple – shared a third kiss goodnight, then Lotharys entered her quarters, and K’lev made his way to his, just a couple of doors further down the hallway, as well.