—- Starbase 415, Section E ——

The USS Seattle’s Assistant Chief Security Officer was not by nature a dancer. He was not a Neanderthal, in his own opinion anyway, but dancing was not something that was in his wheelhouse. Yet his friend and fellow Lieutenant Junior Grade Thomas Winfield was a good dancer and had dragged him out to a dance club playing Andorian beat music located on Starbase 415. They had brought their girlfriends, or at least the girls who were hanging out with them which in Hume’s case was Security Officer Lieutenant Junior Grade Rosa Flores who had joined the ship after one of the Captain’s trips home to Mexico.

Though he still missed Lieutenant Kolem who had dumped him after he had cheated on her, a mistake that he knew never to repeat again, Flores was fun. She was alive and adventurous, and though she was the same rank and about the same age as him seemed much younger. Perhaps it was that she was just off Earth for the first time in her career, but everything seemed new to her.

Take for example Starbase 415. It was a good Starbase no doubt but after so many times on Starbase 72, or other places it seemed old hat to Hume. Heck Lieutenant Winfield had been born and raised on starbases, and so for him they were old hat.

Winfield had taken out Lieutenant Akane Sone the Stellar Cartographer. She also had, in her words, two left feet so Hume and her were standing on the sidelines watching Winfield and Flores dance. 

“She’s cute,” Sone noted to Hume, watching Flores wiggle around the dance floor in time to some Andorian drumming.

”She is,” Hume agreed.

”You’re not going to screw this one up are you?” Sone asked, she’d been there when Hume had gone off to cheat and both her and Winfield had given him warnings. 

“I’ll try not to,” Hume said.

”Because if you do I’ll have to kill you,” Sone said.

Hume smiled, “That’s fair.”

Winfield and Rosa came back over as the fifteen minute song, Andorian dance songs tended to be long, ended. Both of them were covered in sweat and out of breath. 

Winfield wrapped his arms around Sone and nodded to the dance floor as another tune began, “You coming dancing?“

”I can’t dance,” Sone protested.

”You don’t have to this song you just jump up and down with gusto, come on, you can do it,” Winfield said.

”Okay, but just jumping,” Sone said and the pair headed onto the dance floor.

”You going to jump up and down?” Hume asked.

”Nah, I don’t have as much energy as Winfield,” Flores joked. 

“You look good, all sweaty,” Hume said, “I know it’s just your uniform, and stuff but you look good tonight.”

”Tip if you’re trying to be romantic don’t call a woman sweaty,” Rosa Flores said studying Hume seriously before breaking out into a grin to show that she did not mind, “And you look okay too, even if it’s just your boring old uniform.”

”Well I need to look good, I’m the Assistant Chief of Security,” Hume said.

”Oh yes sir, do you want me to salute?” Flores joked.

”Maybe, but we can talk about exactly what I need to feel important later in private,” Hume said as he wrapped his arms around the Lieutenant Commander and pulled her in for a kiss.

—- Paris, Earth —-

(Author’s Note: This continues from ‘Found Blood’ in the Contests Mission as opposed to Captain Cruz’s last appearance in this mission.)

“I’ve actually never been to Paris,” Captain Adriana Cruz told her dinner companion. She was having trouble figuring out if it was a date or not. They had fooled around at her brother’s home a few nights before and he had come to Seattle with her when she was giving a presentation on being the captain of the USS Seattle, but on the other hand where was this going? She liked her life in space too much to give it up and Ernesto her “date” had never been off of Earth. It seemed unlikely that this was going to work.

“How can you not have been to Paris?” Ernesto, and Cruz realized she still did not know his last name, asked.

”It’s not like I had access to a transporter growing up, and then when I did at Starfleet Academy there was no reason to go there,” Cruz said as the pair stopped in front of the famed Eiffel Tour. It was not as impressive as it had been made out to be.

”Besides,” Cruz said in her defense, “I’ve been to thirty odd planets and on at least a hundred starships across the known galaxy. I’ve been to Deep Space Nine have you?”

She knew he hadn’t which he confirmed. He’d never left Earth, arguing that there was enough to explore here for a hundred lifetimes. 

“This way, we’ll walk to the restaurant, it’s a nice night,” Ernesto said. Cruz agreed, she liked Earth air. While she was not someone who complained about the quality of the recycled air on the USS Seattle or starbases, there was something about the now-pollution free air of Earth that appealed to her. Paris was a more moist fresh smell compared with the dry heat of Mexico City.

”So what do you do, you’ve not told me yet,” Cruz said.

Ernesto smiled, “My family owns a brewery, tequila things like that. My brother runs it, I am in charge of the marketing.”

”So you’re Booze Bros with my half-brother,” Cruz said.

”Yes, Booze Bros,” Ernesto said smiling as he’d not thought of it that way. Certainly the two men were in the same industry, even if wine and tequila were not one and the same.

“Is this a date?” Cruz asked, “I only ask because, well I’ve never dated outside of Starfleet.”

”It is what you want it to be cariño,” Ernesto said with a smile.

Cruz was not sure how to respond to being called ‘cariño’ or ‘honey’. On one hand it felt good, Ernesto was attractive and interesting and clearly smart. But she was not going to move to Earth and all of this seemed doomed from the start. She had a few more days before returning to her crew and her ship, and there was no chance that she was staying put or that Ernesto was coming to Starbase 415 with her.

”Look Ernesto, I like you. But a few months ago my best friend turned into an ancient alien god and tried to brainwash me. I’ve been shot at by Cardassians, and attacked run from the Borg and all sorts of things I can’t tell you about, or you couldn’t relate to,” Cruz said, ”In a week I’m back to that life, and it’s not the sort of thing that ever want to leave, as crazy as that sounds.”

Ernesto nodded, “I understand. I am not asking you to marry me, just keep an open mind. I alway admired your brother, when he left for Starfleet and the ships he served on. Maybe one day I’ll see the universe too.”

Cruz sat on a bench next to the Seine River and looked across at the lights, and buildings that had stood for hundred upon hundreds of years.

”The universe is exciting, you feel like you can do anything, be anything,” Cruz said, “It took a kid like me and gave her a reason for being, and a purpose. You should see it, just stand on a starship, look out at the stars at more of nothing and everything than you thought was possible.”

She looked up at the stars and her and Ernesto sat there awhile in the cool Parisian night, until he reached out and put his hand on her bare leg just above the knee where her dress ended than leaned in and kissed her. They kissed for a while then he said, “We should be going, to make our reservation.”

Cruz nodded, “I liked that though, just so you know.”

Ernesto nodded, “I did too cariño.”

Cruz smiled, standing. She decided that she enjoyed the nickname, even if it was a bit diminutive and if anyone on her ship called her that she’d end them.