Lunch Between Friends

Posted on Thu Oct 6th, 2022 @ 11:14am by Callie Marshall & Lieutenant JG Karen Lamont

Mission: In-Between (S1:E3-S1:E4)
Location: Resort Planet
Timeline: Mission Day 18 at 1200
957 words - 1.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Karen arrived at the small restaurant on the resort planet first. She knew Callie Marshall would be spending most of the leave with her family but she had reached out and asked if she might grab lunch. She had been there at some of the most foundational moments of the other woman's life, had seen her regain her abilities, fall in love, bear a child, but she hadn't seen her as much as she would have liked off duty.

Arriving at the restaurant Callie pushed John along in his pushchair as she looked for Karen. Seeing her she made her way across, offering a warm smile as she arrived at the table. “Hi Karen, thanks for asking me for lunch.” She pulled out a chair and sat down.

Karen returned the smile and looked. "Hey, Callie! Thank you for coming." She looked down to John in the pushchair. "Hey, John," she practically cooed before taking her own seat. "So how are you and Troy enjoying the resort planet?"

“To be honest, we haven’t really been out of our new quarters much.” Callie grinned. “Between settling in with John, getting organised, and being a couple again...” she blushed at that comment.

Karen looked off for a second before taking her own seat and smiling. "Well, that's healthy. I'm sure it's nice to actually have some time together. We've been going from crisis to crisis ever since we arrived in the Delta Quadrant."

Callie nodded. “That’s true. To be honest this has been a blessing in disguise for me, stuck away from the influence d control of my father. I have my own life to live now.” She smiled. “I’ve found a whole new family out here, I never considered myself truly Terran Officer material, but being here has proved to me that I can be a good Terran Officer. To be honest I don’t like Troy having to serve aboard a ship full of Vidiians, but we have little choice.”

"That sounds familiar," Karen said. "Well, we're certainly glad to have you." She smiled. "He does have a few officers from Vengeance with him, doesn't he?"

Callie nodded. “He has some, I’m just hoping the threat of what will happen to them will keep the Vidiian crew in order.”

"I hope so too," Karen said, remembering the Vidiian attack on Vengeance as well as when the Kazons had taken Andrei. She sighed slightly and looked around at the largely Vidiian passerby. "It is strange simply being visitors on a world."

Callie looked around. “Yeah it is, especially being stuck so far from the Empire. Though to be honest the further I am from my father, the happier I’ll be.”

"You too, huh?" Karen asked with a laugh.

Callie smiled and nodded. “My mother is, or maybe was, my father’s slave. He took me from her when I was born and raised me himself. Mainly because he wanted to train me to use my abilities for his own ends. I’ve never had contact with my mother, just seen her from afar, she was always kept away from me.”

"Oh," Karen said, the mood suddenly dampening. "I can see why you'd want to be far from him. That can't have been an easy way to grow up."

“It was...hard, but then I was raised in a better place. Otherwise I’d have been in the slave quarters, as a slave myself.” Callie shrugged her shoulders. “I worked my backside off, but not for him. It was for my mother. To honour her.” She offered a smile. “Now I have my son and a husband to honour, I will protect them both.”

Karen returned the smile. "I know you will," she said. "It has been a pleasure watching your family grow on a voyage that's otherwise...less cheerful."

Callie smiled. “Well I’ll do my best to keep making you cheerful. To be honest it worries me what awaits us out here. Admittedly we’ve grown to a fleet, but we’re going to have to spread ourselves thin, then there’s supplies for all the ships.” She sighed. “Who knows what enemies we might face out here.”

"The Empire will prevail," Karen said properly but in a tone that didn't hide her own worries. "We've met enemies here but we haven't faced any foes as formidable as the Alliance back in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. It might get harder before it gets easier."

Callie nodded. “Very true. To be honest when I first came here I had the idea of eventually escaping my life in the Empire, I never saw myself a Empire Officer. Since we’ve arrived here, with everything that’s happened and my marriage to Troy...It’s changed my whole outlook. I want to prove that I can be the Officer my father always saw in me, but not for him, for Troy. I want to make him proud.”

"We all depend on each other out here," Karen agreed. "We have to get your boy home, even if he's an old man and we're dead by that time." Which was very possible.

Callie nodded. “We can hope we’ll find a way, even if it takes until we’re old and grey.” She offered a smile. “I’m glad to have you for a friend Karen.”

"And I you, Callie," she said, reaching a hand out to the other woman.

Callie smiled warmly as she gave Karen’s hand a squeeze. “Anytime you want to get together, for lunch or just for fun give me a call. I’m looking forward to doing all those things that friends do together!”

"Me too!" Karen said cheerfully.

{OFF}