06:30 - Captain’s quarters, aboard the USS Dragon
Drake sits on the couch in his quarters, a PADD on the cushion beside him, inefficiently scrolling through some reports between bites of his breakfast. Buttered waffles, a generous, but not obscene amount of the best Canadian maple syrup the replicator can muster, and a very small dollop of whipped cream, with a side of bacon. There’s a small spread out on the table, easily enough to make another serving, plus some assorted fruit, and a second mug of coffee, still hot, just like the one for himself sitting on the low table in front of him. He has already made some progress on his breakfast as the door chimes.
“Enter.”
As expected, Commander LaSalle appears, hair put into an immaculate bun that effectively hides the crimson-dyed parts of her hair, showing only the gunmetal gray more suitable for duty, and wearing her usual skirted duty uniform. He places his plate on the same table his coffee is sitting on, and rises to meet her, straightening his duty jacket with The Picard Maneuver.
“It’s good to see you back here, Drake.” she says with a smile, taking a few steps inside, letting the door close behind her.
“It’s good to be back, as much as I miss Serah already.” he says warmly, as she closes in for a hug he returns. And as she lingers a little longer than usual, he says “Are you ok, Evie?”
“Yes, maybe? I don’t know. This whole thing just feels weird, being zapped by that thing, and then plopped back into space like nothing happened. It’s nice to feel someone alive. To feel life, I guess. That sounds weird, doesn’t it?” She breaks the hug after lingering a few more seconds, and starts making up a plate.
As she does, he responds “Not weird. Not the last part, anyway. I can only imagine what that was like.”
As they both sit down, Evette getting situated with her breakfast, and Drake returning his to be perched on his lap again, she says “That’s just it, it kind of wasn’t like anything. One of those energy-balls came at us, and it looked like a lot of lightning, and then… poof! It’s a couple days later, and everything is back to normal, like we just blacked out. I guess it’s the after that’s unnerving.” She begins tucking into her meal, but paying attention to her friend, the Captain.
“I was reading some of the reports… this is Enterprise kinds of weird, and yet it seems like the Enterprise itself avoided it to save the day. Not that it sounds like fun at all, but I still feel terrible that I wasn’t here with you all.” he takes a few bites, giving her a turn to speak fairly naturally.
“Oh, I know you do. I mean, I wish you were here too just because maybe I’d be a little less scared when it happened, but who could have known? And besides, I’m also glad you weren’t. Especially that you were with Serah. I guess it’s complicated. I also might be second-guessing myself, wondering if I could have done something different to keep the ship safe, less.”
They trade turns eating and talking again. “Evie, I looked at the ship’s logs, and you did everything I would have done. If there was some master-stroke to avoid it, and go in and steal all the glory from the Enterprise, I don’t see it now, so I’m sure I wouldn’t have in the moment. I feel guilty that anything happened to my crew, and I wasn’t there with you all, but you know I trust you with the ship. When I made Captain, and requested to bring you with me as First Officer, it wasn’t just so we’d win poker tournaments.” he grins, and picks up a strip of bacon to munch on.
She also smiles “I know, but thank you. It… really helps to hear it right now. And please don’t feel guilty about it. You had orders for another mission. How’d that go, by the way?” She takes a sip of her coffee, clearly savoring it for a few moments, before getting back to her meal.
“It… was interesting. We didn’t start a war yet, anyway, but they’re still very tentative about accepting any help, but they’re at least a little more willing to admit they could use it. Get this though: They actually fought off the Terrans pretty well! There’s wreckage all around their system. They even captured a Lexington Class. Seems like they’re rebuilding and studying it for the moment. Not sure I like that, and I’m sure the brass won’t like it either, but I’m not sure we can or should do anything about it. Just because the schematics are nearly identical, it isn’t really one of our ships, and these guys clearly have decent enough technology already to have defeated them… I’m pretty sure there will be papers written about this.”
She frowns a little at the mention of their salvage. “I don’t want to ponder if that falls even adjacent to the Prime Directive right now… it’s much too early to give myself a headache. Guess it couldn’t just be a simple grain shipment, huh?”
“Nope. But, at least we’re talking. And I don’t think these people are warmongers, but I guess the situation is in flux. Hopefully, we’ll get some direction on how to handle these things from the higher-ups before we head back to continue talks. I hope Captain Meadows is with us for the next round, too. She really saved my sleep-deprived ass there, since I didn’t have to talk enough to really show how out of it I was!” he grins “She’s good, too, think her idea to prepare a history of the Federation for them to read through was inspired.”
She finishes the last of her waffles, having been eating away while Drake spoke, and puts down a slice of melon she’d started on to reply. “Oh, I do like her, too! I’m not surprised she did well with the talks.”
Drake finishes a healthy sip of his coffee, and says “Oh, I’m not surprised, either. Still, happy to report it. And of course it was good to have Serah there. She could use the diplomatic experience, since we captains keep having to do these things, so I think this was good for her, my clear bias aside.” he grins. “Anyway, it should be interesting to see the Shinari situation unfold.”
Evette returns the grin as he mentions Serah. “Well, it sounds like we can at least be cautiously optimistic. Which is honestly a nice change of pace. We should get going for the staff meeting though.” She stands with her plate and fork in one hand, coffee in the other, to put it back in the replicator.
Drake also picks up his now finished plate similarly, picking up the PADD under it, and also coffee in the other hand, and briefly setting down his mug as they both one-handedly begin taking things from the table to stack in the replicator, in a fairly well-practiced manner to very quickly do the dishes, as it were. As they do, he says to her “I don’t think I need to say it, but I’m going to anyway, if you’re not feeling right about this whole ‘Other’ business, if it starts getting to you even more, you let me know, ok?”
She smiles while picking up a plate with a couple pieces of fruit left on it to dispose of. “I know. And thank you. I think I’m ok right now, but we’ll see how things go. I promise I won’t sit in my quarters wallowing in existential dread.”
“That’s all I ask.” he says, as they finish clearing things, and they get zapped away. The two are still carrying half-full mugs of coffee, and Drake, his PADD."
“Ready when you are, Sir.” she smiles again, as they head out of his quarters to the conference room to begin the day.
OOC This is following Catharsis.