The First One Is Free

Posted on Mon Jul 4th, 2022 @ 2:52am by Lieutenant Commander Andrei Petrov & Lieutenant Commander Lyra Cassiel

Mission: S1 Episode 3: Phage
Location: After 11
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 2000
4181 words - 8.4 OF Standard Post Measure

After taking some time and mulling over what had happened in the Captain's ready room, Madeline decided that though she was no great admirer of Andrei Petrov, he was a good officer and worth speaking to as Captain Petrov had suggested. That was assuming he would stop trying to get into her pants for ten minutes to actually sit down and have a conversation with her. She let out a tired sigh as she stepped off the turbolift and the doors hissed closed behind her; in hindsight she had a nagging headache and this probably wasn't a good idea, but now that she was about twenty steps to the door to the lounge, she felt rather committed. Pausing just before the door, she smoothed out her uniform and adjusted her gloves. Madeline chose to wear the standard uniform and forgo the female variant - if she wanted to parade her body, she would choose to whom she would do that for. Besides, they were horribly impractical for security work. She stood there and scowled at the thought, but was quickly snapped out of it as a couple passed her by and entered the lounge.

"Alright then..." She murmured to herself and walked into the lounge looking as relaxed as she could be in the moment.

The lounge was full of patrons, as was typical, and people cycled between the bar and the chairs that lined the room. At a large window at the back of the room, Andrei sat with a contented look on his face, a PADD on the illuminated table in front of him. Three enlisted security officers sat on the opposite side of the table, talking to each other and nursing their glasses. The man had stripped off his uniform jacket and sat in the red shirt, his physique noticeably more fit than when he was last to Vengeance. The time with the Kazon had changed him, made him somehow less aristocratic, but more aggressive.

"Drink up, boys. It's on me tonight." he said, looking up from the device and grinning at them. "This is a solid design, Jeffrey, but you need to rethink your power circuiting. It's..weird." He slid the PADD back to the blonde man and pursed his own lips. "What do you guys think about the changes being made around here?"

“Mmm… yeah I was wondering about that.” Jeffrey said as he took the PADD back, detaching the stylus as he began to tinker with it, though he was really only half concentrating on it given the setting they were in.

“Well with you and Troy both abandoning us you put the department in a tail spin. So thanks for that.” Luca spoke up, flashing a pearly grin to Andrei to show he was joking. “Christoph is a good guy though. He’ll be a good chief. We’re just glad it wasn’t Cassiel.” He chuckled and earned a murmur from agreement from both Jeffrey and Simon on either side of him.

“Oh, I don’t know. She’s good at her job….” Andrei said, winking at them with a cocky grin. “Much better to look at than Ivers, right? She does wear the male uniform though, and that’s a damn shame with legs like those.”

Andrei reached for the lime green liquid in front of him and took a sip.

“Luca is just mad over the fact that last time there was any sparring exercises, Cassiel laid him out in less than ten seconds.” Simon pointed out with a smirk as he elbowed Luca who in turn thumped Simon on the back of the head.

“I’d let her lay me out.” Jeffrey mused, his PADD now completely abandoned in favor of his drink and a pondering expression on his face. “You ever been to the gym when she’s in there though? She will dress in sweats for that and just… it’s the ass for me. Small, but so round and defined.” He waved one of his hands as if he were tracing the curve.

“I hadn’t but now I feel like I need to.” Simon replied with a smirk.

“You getting your ass kicked by girls now, Luca?” Andrei asked with a laugh, slapping the surface of the table. “I really should have stayed. You need more even more than I thought. Maybe if you paid more attention to your workout instead of tracing curves, you wouldn’t be so puny.”

The comment wasn’t nice, but Andrei wasn’t concerned. Instead, he finished his drink and waved at a server to bring him another.

“I bet I could pin her to the mat, but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort. I just might try if I think there’s something there.” Andrei said, raising a brow. “But I’m too busy for a challenge right now.”

“Yeah, commanding your own ship can be kind of a bitch in that way, can’t it?” Luca offered up with a note of sympathy. Of course it was a command and a great honor, but it did cut down on time for things like this.

“Oh I think Andrei makes plenty of time to be amused by Eritrea still.” Simon pointed out with a devious grin and leaned back in his chair, balancing it on two legs. The other two joined Simon in a laugh over it, but it wasn’t a judgment and was simply still good natured teasing.

“Yeah, and your mom.” Andrei said with a wide smile, pointing at the man. “She’s even more eager to please, somehow.”

Simon shrugged. “Hey my mom is a nice lady. Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Now if Cassiel was that nice-“

“Excuse me, am I interrupting?” Madeline’s voice cut in from next to Luca.

“Ah, shit!” Simon yelped as Madeline’s sudden and unwelcome appearance startled him enough he lost balance in the chair, crashing backward and hitting the floor. He grabbed the back of his head and winced. “Ow…”

“You dumbass.” Jeffrey snorted.

Andrei rolled his eyes. How he hated this morons underneath it all. They were crude and barely more intelligent than loyal dogs. But it was loyal dogs he needed, so he played the part of the leader of the knockabouts. He preferred subtlety, charm, and sexiness. The moment that Cassiel walked up, he felt the discomfort of a dissonance between the man he saw himself to be and the man she would perceive through his company. He looked at the man covered in his own drink, clumsily pulling himself up off the floor and then at Madeline, her face inscrutable, and he gave a friendly look irrespective of the discomfort everyone else was experiencing.

“Oh, hey. Not at all. Luca was actually just talking about you, weren’t you, Luca?”

“Huh? I-“ Luca began, glancing over to Simon as he was pulling his chair up off the floor and wiping ineffectually at his uniform. “Yeah. Uh, yeah. We were just talking about your appointment to assistant chief. Congratulations on that.” Luca said and offered up a sheepish smile to Madeline.

“Oh, I see.” Madeline said and smiled. She looked down at Luca and though her mouth communicated pleasantness, the dark intensity of her eyes communicated something very different. She knew what they had been talking about. How much she knew was the unanswered question, but she did not buy Luca’s statement even for a moment. “How kind.” There was something by the way she said the last word that made Jeffrey shift uncomfortably in his seat and clear his throat, downing the rest of his drink.

Andrei smiled unreservedly. Watching them squirm was the highlight of this entire evening. He looked up at Cassiel, his grin relaxing a bit.

“You’ve managed to surprise me. I didn’t expect to see you down here. I didn’t think this was your scene.” He said, drawing attention away from the increasingly uncomfortable men.

There was a clear reluctance from Madeline to bring her eyes away from the trio of clowns sitting before her; perhaps she was enjoying their discomfort just as much in her own way. Even so, she did pry her eyes from them and turned her attention to Andrei. The piercing intensity that was reserved for the other men cleared and instead was replaced with a passive eye.. possibly tinged with a minuscule amount of apprehension. “I don’t come down here too often, no, because inevitably I have to deal with people like this.” She inclined her head toward the enlisted men sitting with Andrei.

He looked between her and then men with a relatively tame expression before raising his hand and waiving dismissively at the men.

“Okay, fuck off, you three.” He said, blinking at them.

“What?” Simon blinked stupidly at Andrei, the other two looking just as confused.

“I mean get up and get the fuck out of here. Im tired of you too.” He said, raising his voice ever so slightly before turning his attention back to her. “You can turn on their agonizers now, you know. Hell, they might even like it coming from you.”

“They probably would, but I don’t need the agonizer to put them in their place.” Madeline shrugged.

“Who the fuck do you think y-“ Luca began to stand aggressively toward Madeline but he immediately went tumbling back as his chair was kicked down at the back, catching him behind the knees and thighs, knocking him off balance and sending him tumbling back and landing at an awkward angle. He let out a pained groan as he moved to right himself while Jeffrey immediately moved to help him.

Simon gave a sound of frustration, standing and looking at Andrei for him to do something about what this woman had just done.

“You’re lucky she has my job. I would have had you in agony for the next twelve hours over that.” Andrei said, raising an eyebrow. It seems the men though they could do what they liked because he was around. He liked that, in a way, but there was no way to maintain that responsibly in the present situation. He wasn’t always nice to them anyway, but they still followed him like he was their own personal God. “If Imperial Captain doesn’t work out, I could always start a cult.” He thought to himself and motioned to the chairs across from him as the men left.

“Join me, love. I’d like to buy you a drink.” He said, his tone relaxed. “What’s your poison?”

As soon as the word "love" passed his lips, Madeline's expression turned from one of passive, mild apprehension into just the briefest moments of exasperated, grudging acceptance before resuming her usual solidly neutral countenance. He was little better than the enlisted men now dejectedly walking away to lick their wounds, Andrei just had breeding. "I'd take a starduster."

“Sure.” Andrei said, lifting a hand to catch the attention of the server and covertly ordered her drink without much fuss, then he turned back to the table, leaning back with his hands folded in front of him. He eyed her and noticed her unemotional expression and found himself wondering what it was she wanted. She clearly wasn’t excited to see him. Instead of asking, he decided instead to look at her in silence as well, though his face read a shallow smirk that communicated patience, interest, amusement, and just a hint of arrogance. Speaking was too risky. She would speak first, or they would be looking at each other all night.

Madeline wasn't here to play games with him and simply met his smirk with seeming indifference, only waiting until the server stepped away before she spoke. "Captain Petrov thought it might benefit me to speak to both you and Commander Marshall to get some advice on how to effectively run security now that I am Assistant Chief given your experience with not only the position but the men of the department as well."

“And so you decided to do that after hours in the bar instead of scheduling a meeting with me.” He said, nodding, his eyes locked on hers. He said nothing for a while again as the server returned with her drink. “Perhaps you’re thirsty as well? Or you just wanted me to get another chance to look into those gorgeous eyes..”

He took his own new glass and sipped it.

“I can at least give you the advice…how exactly can I help you?”

No, this had not been a good idea. “My apologies, then. I didn’t feel this needed to be something officially scheduled and given your limited time being on the Vengeance I thought you might prefer meeting in the place you often are.” Her remarks were dry and she was apparently unaffected by his flirting. “I was simply looking for your perspectives on how to effectively run the department, though I’m not sure I have it in me to elicit the worshipful response you seem to attain from… most everyone.”

“Sure you do. You’re lovely and competent. The only thing that’s missing is…well, some personality.” He said with a Frank expression. “People will follow an automaton…they will follow someone who is dry or even someone who is downright mean to them. But they won’t do it happily. If you’re looking to get your men to walk through hell for you, well…maybe start with a smile. Maybe flirt a little instead of being on the defensive.”

He was giving his advice, and he said he would. It may have sounded suspiciously like exactly what he wanted from her, but it was his advice all the same. He didn’t care particularly whether she was offended by it or downright suspicious of him. Either way, that’s what he thought she needed.

“Take that gang that I was sitting with..they are so simple. So easy to please.” He said, his eyes still locked with hers in an engaging gaze. “What is it about you that keeps you from loosening up with them?”

Madeline had been listening quietly while sipping her drink. She had never really seen the point in disingenuous flirting, but she would be foolish to deny that Andrei had been quite successful in forming a sizable amount of sycophants who either wanted to be him or be with him. It had most assuredly helped him reach and maintain his position. She mulled it over a moment until she heard his last question which had her actively quirking a brow at him as if asking him if he were serious. When she figured out that he was indeed asking her in interest, she took a sip of her drink. She had a feeling this would go about as well as it had with the man’s father. “Those men want only one thing from me and that is for me to be beneath them both figuratively and literally. Why would I want to ‘loosen up’ with them, knowing that?”

“Because you’re wrong. They don’t want to be beneath you. They want to put you on top and you refuse to let them because you want to put yourself on top.” He sighed then, leaning back with his drink in his hand. “This ‘I’m not a piece of meat’ mindset is not the way to get out of the metaphorical dog house with people. You have to be smarter than that. Make these men feel good being around you…give them a purpose…tell a joke..wear the female uniform instead of hiding yourself…and I’d bet you 5,000 Imperial Crowns they will make you their goddess…not their whore. Though, those of us who are good…know how to be both.”

He shook his head, smiling a flirtatious smile again. So many let this kind of mind set hold them back.

“One of them was mocking me for a…romantic entanglement, let’s call it. I could have become indignant and told him to apologize, but I decided I’d better let him know I was actually fucking his mother instead, and she loved every moment.” Andrei said, chuckling. “He loved that. You think we’re pigs; you think we only want one thing.” He leaned forward, still smiling, and shook his head no. “And you can’t even imagine what I want.”

With that, he relaxed in his seat again and made a clicking noise with his tongue.

“You’re too intelligent not to know this already.” He said. “You really do need my help to avoid disaster.”

“You’re going to try to tell me you don’t want everyone kneeling before you under your boot, including your father, recognizing your greatness and supplicating themselves before you, their almighty and benevolent ruler?” Madeline asked dryly though just the slightest of smirks tugged at the corner of her lip.

“I’d stand up to applaud you but that description is really working for me and I’m hard as a rock.” He said, chuckling. “Of course you’re right. But you see..that dream…that vivid vision of everybody, including you, on their knees in front of me..” he sighed before he continued. “Even that is something for people to believe in. It makes me…precocious, maybe. ‘Oh Andrei, with his delusions of grandeur. He’s such a mystery.’

He leaned forward slightly again, this time only smiling from the corners of his mouth as well.

“I wonder if he can pull it off…” he said, then relaxed. He managed to be quite animated when he had the mind to be. “But what do you want, Madeleine Cassiel? Do you have any true ambitions in that head of yours? Any passion in that heart? Any pulse between those toned thighs…or do you just want people to think you’re good enough?”

"Of course I have ambitions." Madeline said with a soft chuckle as she sat back and seemed to actually relax for the moment. He did have a way about him that she could see being quite magnetic. "I just don't think you nor anyone else particularly cares to hear about them from anyone. Not genuinely, at least. Politely? Perhaps. For means of potential manipulation? Absolutely." She took another sip of her drink. "Perhaps I can sink to their level to see them happy. does it not ever feel... distasteful to you though?"

Andrei did a quick mind search on the topic, considering how much to reveal rather than the answer to the question. He grinned then and tapped his finger on the table.

"How far are you willing to go to get what you want?" he asked, looking at her with a kind of smoldering expression. "I am a true believe. Only the grave will stop me. If I need to crack a few eggs or make a few friends...it's all the same, as long as I reach my goal. Such a skill is useful on a journey back to the Alpha Quadrant. We need single minded people."

He relaxed yet again, eyeing her less distant demeanor.

"You're improving already. I could teach you to influence others...to shape your environment." he leaned back then and crossed his strong arms under his chest. "But why would I, really?"

When Andrei mentioned needing single minded people, there was this strange expression that took over Madeline’s face. It was an amused smirk with glinting eyes, but there was a certain infuriating quality to the expression. It was like looking at a friend who was musing over an inside joke that they had with someone else that you were not privy. She shook her head slightly and it cleared, the smirk still there but her eyes now genuinely amused and interested. “Because he can’t pull it off alone.” She replied simply and shrugged, calling back to his “precocious” statement and wonderment of accomplishment in it.

"That is the frustration, isn't it? No matter how much we want something big...really big...we need to rely on others. We need them to do things for us. What a frustrating predicament, eh?" he asked, tipping the drink back again. "There is a certain risk in working with people. The first one, not least of which, is that it can be quite the distraction from one's own goals."

He looked her in the eyes, recognizing that same fire which so often flitted in his own. Underneath her quite demeanor, the woman was hungry for something magnificent. He felt drawn to her, in that moment, more than he ever had for the sake of her physical appearance. He met those eyes again with his own, not looking away, but holding himself there.

“Just convince them that your goal will also help further their goals. Whether it will or not I suppose depends on how much you like the person.” Her eyes danced with his as they met once more. There was delight and intelligence in her dark eyes; a strange warmth, but also a coldness perpetually existing underneath it all that glittered with a dark, unsettling mirth of a well kept secret.

"That's clear, yes. But one must be sure what his allies want. Making guess-work of that can be quite dangerous." he put his hand in the middle of the table, close to her, but not invading her space. It was a sign and nothing more. His eyes remained stuck on hers.

“Others could be made to do that particular bit of work for you though, no?” She asked, reaching her hand out and loosely grabbed her glass which she began to dance around inside her fingertips. She did not reach for him, but she was near, listening.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have the most fascinating eyes? One could get lost in them…the secrets they hold.” He said, then his own eyes caught the time on the clock. “I must be going, but this was an exhilarating conversation. We should continue it sometime later in more private company, so we can speak for frankly and…share the naked truth.”

He leaned back, looking at her.

“Or, if you’ve learned everything you came to learn from me, we can simply say goodbye.”

“I have a feeling that I could spend many years learning from you and still not figure your depth.” Madeline returned, her eyes lidding just slightly before she sat back and crossed her arms in an almost playful way. “I won’t keep you.”

Andrei drained his glass, the feeling the liquid warming his stomach mingling with the arousal he was feeling. He winked at her.

“I can’t be kept, love.” He said, and then stood from the table, grabbed his uniform jacket and pulled it on over his arms. The front of his pants contained a noticeable outline of notable impressiveness which he made no particular effort to hide or draw attention to. He was comfortable with these things, in practice and in conversation. “Something tells me we’ll be seeing each other soon, Lieutenant. Remember what I told you about your department just…” he leaned down toward her, his cologne wafting in her direction. He lowered his voice, “don’t fuck those morons. They’re way too stupid to respect you after that. There… are some double standards. That advice is free. The next will cost you something.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” His cologne smelled nice. She leaned into him then, not touching him, but close to speak softly into his ear. “As for that pulse you were asking about. I think you can use your imagination on that front. Maybe we’ll compare notes.”

Andrei smiled a Serotonin-fueled smile, his eyes meeting hers for the last time. There were many things he could think to say, but he opted instead to let the comment sit in the air between them. His eyes said it all, that he had every intention of finding out. And, in a flash he was out, stopping only briefly at the bar to pay the tab.

Madeline watched him only so far as her turned head would allow then turned her attention to what remained of her drink. She picked it up to sip, ruminating on the evening’s ups and downs and the encounter that had gone rather differently than she had imagined. Perhaps she had misjudged him, but it was also equally likely that she had judged him correctly. It was the first time she had been the sole focus of his charms, and they were charming at that. She had little interest in an unbalanced partnership and she amused herself with thoughts of Andrei being told he had to earn something and his potential reaction to it. She then became lost in thought while sipping her drink.

She would stay here a little longer.

END