Biding Time Part II
Posted on Sun Apr 6th, 2025 @ 9:04am by Lieutenant C'Mila Juli & Lieutenant Junior Grade Wyatt Spencer
Edited on on Sun Apr 6th, 2025 @ 11:21pm
2,152 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Like Sands Through The Hourglass
Location: Conference Room - Deck 1 - USS Herodotus
Timeline: MD003 2200 hrs
Jules shrugged. "I didn't meet the Captain until I arrived here. I'm sure he was playing naive, but when we met, he seemed to not know a lot about me. I received an invitation to apply without knowing much about the program. I did not know it was... well you know," She stated. "Honestly, I thought he was thinking twice about whether or not to even keep me for a hot minute there."
"I don't know any more about him than you do." Wyatt replied. "But, I'd bet you he keeps his cards pretty close to his vest and plays that same game, though maybe with a slight twist with everyone. Kind of testing everyone so he can get to know them."
Jules certainly had wondered if she was being tested when she met the Captain, but she kept that thought to herself as the pair walked.
The pair passed through the docking bay on their way back to the ship. "Mess hall? Observation lounge?" Juli suggested as they stepped aboard. Either option was on Deck 2. One thing about Herodotus, it was difficult to get lost. The ship was fairly compact with only five decks to sort through.
"Oh, I don't even have to think about that. It has to be the observation deck. I'm not exactly claustrophobic , but I prefer a view, instead of something closed in."
"Sure. Deck Two," Juli ordered as the two stepped onto the turbolift. "The mess hall has a view too ya know. Forward view actually, plenty of window seating." She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, not trying to show off. I've just walked the ship a couple of times. Anyway, there aren't a lot of places to hang out really."
They arrived at Deck 2 quickly. "You know, I wonder if there are stairs somewhere? Not in the Jeffrey's Tubes I mean. Five decks, I could really walk that," she added.
"I'll check that out," Wyatt replied. "Not only is it good exercise, it could be a strategic advantage."
Jules touched the panel to the side of the doors on the Observation Lounge and doors opened revealing a long conference table surrounded by chairs. Windows lined the wall opposite from the door. Jules stepped in with a bounce to her steps and took a seat on [the/a] table and sat cross-legged and poured herself another glass, filling it to the top. She slurped the wine off of the top of the glass to avoid spilling, then took a sizable drink to get the glass to a manageable level and looked over at Wyatt.
"So what is your story. What are you leaving behind?" She asked.
"For the most part, not much. My life was pretty routine. So this is a real adventure. But, I am leaving someone behind. His name is David. We'd just started dating, so it wasn't as though we were in love. But, I feel horrible that he thinks I'm dead. What about you?"
"Well, to be honest, dead early in the relationship is about a clean of a break as you can get," Jules replied. "I mean any longer and he'd be heartbroken. If you had broken it off with him first, you'd be one more ex for him to wonder 'what if' about. You know."
"Family though? What about them. Were you close with any of them?" She wasn't trying to avoid his question, but Jules couldn't help but notice that Wyatt seemed to be around her age. It had her curious. She new there were El Aurians and a Vulcan on board, and could only guess their ages. But what made other young people like her give up what they might have had.
"I left home and my family a long time ago. When I was a teenager. My father in particular disapproved of the boy I fell in love. His father felt the same about me. We ran away together."
"Whatever happened to that boy?" Jules asked. "The one you fell in love with?"
Wyatt's expression turned dark as soon as Jules spoke and he drained his half-full glass before he replied. "Not on his own.. Someone took him. Or killed him. I don't know which. I just know he's gone."
"He just disappeared? Was there anything before or after that gave any clues or anything?" She asked, leaning in with interest.
"As you might have guessed from my tale of woe, I didn't exactly grow up wanting to be like the great Starfleet Captains of old. And despite my boyish good looks I was never going to be in a recruiting video."
Wyatt continued, "The crew I was with at the time, weren't either. I was on the wrong side of the law if I'm honest. We were on Darius IV, a planet of cutthroats and pirates. We were dropping off some goods. We had made some credits and took some time off. We had a fight. I left, came back two hours later and he was gone. There was signs of a struggle."
What did you do?" Jules asked. "You had a crew did they help try to find him?"
"Oh, they helped alright, and showed me a lot of sympathy. But there was something off about them. It took me a while to notice and start figuring things out. But eventually, I caught on, or I think I did anyway. I began to think it was one of them. I didn't know who to trust and thought I might be next. So, at our next port, I bailed and disappeared."
Jules wrapped both hands around the wine glass as if she were drinking from a coffee mug and took another sip. "So how did you end up in Starfleet?"
For the first time since he had started talking about his past Wyatt's shoulder relaxed and a trace of a smile crossed his lips. "I tried to use my silver tongue on a Starfleet officer. To fleece him, if I'm being honest. He caught me and gave me the choice of going with him and joining Starfleet, or having him turn me into the local authorities. I am many things, not all of them good, but I'm not stupid."
"So did Starfleet turn you around?" She asked. "Or do I gotta watch my back around you?" The question came out a little more flirtatiously than she intended, but not being much of a drinker she was already feeling the effects of the wine. She finished the last of her glass and reached for the bottle and refilled her glass.
Wyatt had more experience drinking than the Orion, but not by much. He was by no means a heavy drinker. So he was feeling the effects himself. The technical term he supposed was buzzed.
"Oh, I think I'll always be a badboy."
"You picked a weird place to go next in life then," Jules said. "I don't think there's anywhere for you to hide on this ship. Gonna be a little hard to get away with too much around here. Don't ya think?"
"I was being facetious," he clarified, "well mostly anyway. I think one of the reasons they recruited me is they knew my past and thought my talents might come in handy. I really don't plan on getting away with anything. Nothing consequential anyway."
Jules laughed. "I was just messing with you." She put her glass down and spun around on her seat on top of the table and laid down, her head dangling off of the edge, while her body stretched across the short length of the conference table. "I like people with a wild streak to them. One of the problems with my ex was that he was a lot boring to be real."
He watched her as she stretched his eyes lingering a shade too long before they lifted to her face, locking on her eyes before briefly looking away, then staring into the middle distance.
"Do you want to tell me about this boring ex?" he asked as he reached for a bottle filling both their glasses.
Juli peeled herself back up to a sitting position. "Meh, I mean I'm sure he will make a great husband and father someday for someone who wants all of that," Juli commented trying to be fair. "Really, I am the dysfunctional one. I always fall head over heels for these people who have some kind of toxic trait, or I'm attracted to people who are completely unavailable. Then the guy who comes along and is like you are beautiful, let's be exclusive, hey come meet my parents, and the next thing you know I'm having a panic attack breathing into a paper bag wondering what's wrong with me."
Juli took a long swig of wine. "Seriously though, parents can kind of screw up like that. With such crappy parents, how do you even have decent relationships?" Jules asked. It was a sincere question.
"You're asking the wrong person," Wyatt responded feeling nice and relaxed with all the wine they had been drinking. He wasn't drunk quite yet, but he was feeling buzzed. "I was fucked up for a while. It wasn't all my parents' fault of course. I have to own my own mistakes. But they certainly didn't help."
Jules leaned in towards Wyatt and whispered dramatically. "Are we making a mistake?" She asked.
"Wyatt turned to face her more fully, carefully placing his almost empty glass down on the table. He didn't move toward her, but he didn't back away either.
"Making a mistake joining the ship, or flirting? Are we flirting? It's been a while. I'm probably sounding like an idiot right now."
Jules' head was now spinning. Not that she was that drunk, but the conversation had taken an unexpected turn. Not that she hadn't been flirting, but based in part on the conversations they'd had she'd also been operating under the premature assumption that she wouldn't be his type.
"No, you don't sound like an idiot at all," she said sweetly. "I was talking about the ship, but we could consider all of it. The flirting too. We're so young still. Kinda. Are we ready to give our lives up for this mission?"
Wyatt was confused as well for much the same reason as Jules was. She was attractive, there was no doubt about it, but he had never been romantically inclined toward members of the opposite sex. Was it his drunken state? Imagination? Something new and different? He couldn't be sure.
But now was not the time for it. He needed to clear his mind.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," he said, "giving our lives that is. As far as the flirting is concerned I might have to get back to you on that."
"No, of course not," Juli quickly replied. "I didn't mean... I meant. We work together, that would be a bad idea. I wasn't saying that. I didn't mean anything by anything... I was just. We just met. Anyway, I should probably go."
Juli started to push herself off of the table to leave accidentally knocking over what was left of her glass of wine in the process. "Oh crud. I got this. Okay. There's got to be a cleaning drone around here somewhere." Flustered, Juli scanned the room as she sucked the spilled wine off of her left hand. "I'm sorry, I'm such a klutz."
Spotting the terminal, Juli shuffled over to it and activated it for cleaning. A panel near the floor opened releasing the small droid.
She then went to the door and stepped through it to leave. Something stopped her and she turned around. "It was nice meeting you. Um. Bye."
"It was nice meeting you too. Perhaps we could continue, or maybe start over when we're both sober again."
"Oh yeah, definitely. We're probably going to be part of the youngest people on the ship. We gotta have each other's backs," Juli said with a sheepish grin. "Anyway. see you later then." She gave him a half wave before disappearing as the door closed behind her.
Wyatt knew he was buzzed, maybe even a little drunk. It had been a while. That was surprising to him, what was even more surprising was the words that had escaped his mouth during his encounter with the Orion woman.
A Joint Post By
Lieutenant Junior Grade Wyatt Spencer
Chief Operations Officer
Communications Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
Lieutenant C'amila Juli
Chief Science Officer
USS Herodotus DTI-30656
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