Flights of Fancy

Posted on Sat Feb 25th, 2023 @ 5:41am by Ensign Ilan Ocara & Sergeant Bryana "Bri" Locke
Edited on on Sat Feb 25th, 2023 @ 5:41am

Mission: In-Between (S1:E4-S1:E5)
Location: Observation Deck
Timeline: Mission Day 2 at 2120
4159 words - 8.3 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

After the shitstorm that the run had turned into towards the end, Bryana had decided that she needed to be more circumspect in planning out Shadow Squads runs in the future, especially since it had stirred up some unpleasant things for her that she had thought she was finished with. It hadn't happened that day.

No, of course not. It had festered and waited like a nasty infection, hitting her like a punch to the gut the next time she'd seen the doors to the Jefferies tubes. She'd almost lost her lunch and her cool, she wasn't certain if Jules or any of the other had noticed but she'd trekked them past the maintenance entry and detoured into the turbolift before disabling it with the kill button before she'd led them up into the tubes so they could climb to the next deck. It had been more open and had let them carry off the run without a hitch.

Still she felt that old fear slithering around like a snake looking for the chicken coop, so she'd swung by the lounge and grabbed a bottle of tequila before hopping down to one of the observation lounges where she could look out into space and not feel so...restricted. She doffed her uniform for more casual clothes; A pair of well-worn boots, jeans torn at the knee on one leg, and a dark green tank top with a faded, illegible logo on the chest with a simple sports bra underneath that. She'd found one on the starboard side, preferring to see the streaks of warp flying by instead of coming straight on; it wasn't as uncomfortable or unsettling.

A small group of people were already on the observation deck sitting around a table playing some sort of card game and drinking. They were keeping to themselves and while they were a bit rowdy, they weren’t being too loud. A peal of laughter rang out from them followed by one of them giving a good natured groan of defeat. The cards were thrown on the table, there was more chatter, and then the group finally stood. Hugs and handshakes were exchanged among them and people began to file out. Two lingered, women who seemed to be talking. One was a lovely woman with platinum blonde hair, a bit older and dressed in a form flattering purple dress, the other was a tall brunette with curves that were the envy of many and the desire of more.

After a few moments, the conversation seemed to end and they hugged, the blonde walked away, and the other woman turned to watch her go; in this motion, she revealed herself as Ilan Ocara, the woman Bri had briefly had a flirtatious encounter with. She was made up nicely and wearing a pretty green blouse that was quite low cut with a tight black mini skirt that barely covered the goods. She sighed and picked up the remainder of her drink from the table and downed it.

Ilan blinked and then smiled warmly at the vaguely familiar voice and the more familiar face. She brushed a bit of her long hair behind her ear revealing her long dangling gold and emerald earrings. "Oh not me. I just attend."

Her eyes ran over Bri once and then went back up to her face. "I'm sure I could get you in if you wanted to participate though."

Bri took a moment to admire the other woman, while her gaze was far from innocent, it was outright wolfish as she looked for a clean glass before opening her bottle and poured herself some, offering the bottle to Ilan.

"I feel like I might need to pull out my little black dress to make sure I fit in...hardly going to manage that lookin' like I just walked in from the pens."

"Eh, don't worry about what you wear. I just like to dress up since there aren't really a lot of chances to. A lot of the times people come in shorts and tank tops. It isn't about the dress code it's about the money." She paused and smirked slightly. "For most."

"A shame there aren't more chances for dressing up, you look quite stunning." The Marine shook the bottle a little to see if Ilan wanted some. "Freshen your drink?"

“What do you have there?” Ilan asked though even as she did so she held her empty glass out toward Bri to accept whatever it was. Obviously she didn’t care, but she was curious.

"Tequila, my preferred go to hard liquor." She poured some for her companion, being a bit generous but she was glad she wasn't drinking alone.

"So do these games happen often?" She inquired curiously, moving to take a seat, to relax.

"We try once every week or at least a couple of weeks. Sometimes it works out, sometimes doesn't." She pulled her glass back and glanced into it, then looked back to Bri. "So what brings you here tonight, marine?"

Bri had just taken a sip from her glass, enjoying the sour tang mixed with the heat of the alcohol as she let her mind wander a little, nowhere in particular, just wandering before she turned her attention back to Ilan with a wry smile on her lips. "Oh just coming down here for the view, like to relax occasionally away from the lounge and the knuckleheads that drag themselves in."

“Yeah, I can understand that. I’m not really sure who is worse - security or the engineers.” Ilan laughed and shook her head. What she did know is who has the more attractive people though. Security won that by leagues. “Would you like to sit down with me?”

Bri stopped herself from taking a seat and smiled at the invitation. She shifted and moved to join Ilan, making sure to keep the bottle close. "Mmm, that's the kind of offer I can't say no to."

"Though I'd say Pre Cassiel Security takes the rowdy crown by leaps and bounds, Marshall and Petrov cultivated a different sort of attitude. Though nowadays it's a toss up." She shared her opinion as she looked to Ilan.

"Probably Engineering though."


“Not sure Marshall had too much to do with it since he was much too preoccupied chasing Callie’s skirt and putting a baby in her, but yeah, I have to say it’s nice that the frat boy act has been dialed down.” Ilan settled into her seat and pulled her legs up next to her.

“The sweet and gentle hand of Lyra Cassiel at work, no doubt.”

"Mmm, Lieutenant Cassiel certainly has a presence that commands respect and she's got a gaze that'd cut through duranium plating."

She shifted a little, crossing her legs as she relaxed. She took a moment to give Ilan a generous once over before emptying her glass.

Ilan nodded her head a few times, watching the stars then looking back to Bri in time to see her give that once over to which she simply smiled. “Sounds like you admire her.”

"Yeah, lot to admire...not often you meet a female security chief, competition for the job being what it is." Bryana replied, remember their brief encounter in the Shadow Squad barracks, it had certainly left an impression. She refilled her glass before taking a sip while relaxing a little more.

"Definitely a one of kind woman,"

“Sounds like you maybe more than admire her.” Ilan flashed a devilish little grin and took the bottle from Bryana to fill her own glass and then wedged the bottle down in the seat next to herself.

“You can be honest with me, Bri.”

Bryana sighed and looked out at space as she considered sharing what had only really been her private thoughts, at least the chaste ones...the rest were...well, best left off the table and kept in the privacy of her mind. "I think the Lieutenant's a fine-looking woman, given the chance I'd love to put her away wet."

Was it eloquent? Definitely not, but it was Bri being honest and she tried to at least always be that. For better or for worse.

Ilan laughed, not cruel or belittling, but with understanding and amusement. Once she settled, she grinned at Bri. "Oh is that so? Tell me more."

She was curious on multiple levels, both for her own mental enjoyment but also because she was wondering exactly how much Bryana craved Lyra.

A slight blush crept onto Bryana's cheeks when Ilan started to laugh, hiding it behind her glass as she sipped a bit of the liquid courage since acting on her desires and talking about them were two different beasts. She struggled with the latter as she pulled the bottle out of the couch and poured some more. Being impulsive had gotten her in trouble more than a few times. "I mean, she caught me staring at her in the Shadow Squad briefing, she didn't seem to appreciate the attention and my mind conjured up some creative ways I could apologize to her for it, though they'd involve few words in the actual apology."

She shot Ilan a coy smirk before letting her gaze wander a little over the other woman's body; it was slow and easy, and the dark-haired scientist wasn't being ogled but appreciated. "That whet your curiosity without bedding it back down?"

A devious, lecherous little grin appeared on Ilan's face as she listened. She could relate to those particular desires, but she was also fairly certain given Lyra's noble roots that she decidedly didn't swing that way and if she did, she likely wouldn't show it.

"See, I think you're holding back still, but another time." She waved the topic off. "How are you settling into your new job?"

"Implying that we could set up another time for it." The Marine chuckled, smirking a bit as she flirted with the other woman and shifted closer.

The question hit Bryana in the gut as the playfully coy expression wilted a little from her features while the woman's attention turned to the dark expanse beyond the viewport, sipping her drink to give herself a moment to gather her thoughts. Formulate what she would say since she'd come here to forget about work for a little while. "It's going as advertised. Early mornings. Fast chow, running, training, more chow, and followed by more training."

"Been getting a kick out of planning the runs since no part of the ship is technically off limits." She skirted around the Jefferies Tube incident and then looked back to Ilan with a devilish grin. "We've been issued body gloves, very little left to the imagination...if you haven't heard already given that the ships been abuzz with that particular fact."

"I think you'd look quite sexy in one."

Ilan had taken immediate notice of Bri's expression wilting and how she looked away into the void. Something about the question had obviously touched a nerve and she felt the internal press to find out what exactly, but she had to be gentle about it to not run her off. Being close to the second in command of the Shadow Squad could be beneficial.

"Yeah, I heard. Though I imagine anyone who looks good naked would look good in one of those like yourself." She winked at Bri and then added with a bit of a gentler tone. "Sorry if that hit a nerve. I was just curious."

The Marine purred at the returned flirting and the little wink as she sipped her drink, reaching out to lightly tease the other woman's fingers to see what she would do and if her attentions might be reciprocated. Since she felt like a little one-on-one time with Ilan might do her a world of good. At least it would dispel the bullshit in her head for a while and distract her with something pleasant.

"It," Bryana frowned, letting out a little sigh as her fingers stopped for the moment and pulled away. Downing her glass, she looked for the bottle before noticing that Ilan had taken it away. She held up her glass as if asking for a refill, already starting to feel that pleasant buzz creeping in as she watched the other woman curiously. "It's nothing really to do with the Squad. That's going great, I honestly love the fact that we are training and keeping busy; something happened on one of our runs that brought up some things I thought were settled was all."

"Thought I was okay, nothing happened immediately, but then it snuck up on me like a Cardassian and slipped a knife between the proverbial ribs." She didn't let it all hang out, but she wanted to tell someone. Ilan seemed like a logical choice. She seemed willing to lend an ear, though the Marine was wondering what that might cost her.

Pulling the bottle from her side, Ilan poured Bri another glass then tucked it away again so she could have some control over exactly how drunk the other woman would get. She didn’t really enjoy sloppy drunks. Her green eyes were sympathetic and attentive, but she could tell Bri was holding back; it was mildly bothersome, but she had pushed through difficulty before.

“Well what a little bastard.” She quipped and smiled gently. “Do you want to tell me about it?”

The dark-haired woman swirled the pale amber liquid around in her glass for a moment, considering her words before she closed her eyes before taking a deep breath. "So a little context is needed. When I was little, I was home alone and liked being in my closet to hang out. That day the power grid failed, the whole area lost power, and our backup genny was on the fritz, which left me stuck in the closet. For hours, I didn't know how to work the manual override."

Giving it a beat, the Marine sipped her tequila before finally looking up at Ilan. "I was stuck there for hours cause I hadn't been shown how to work the manual override cause I was too young, and my parents were afraid I'd stick my hand in there and grab a power cable or something when the power was on."

"All I remember was screaming myself hoarse and huddling with my reading light when I couldn't scream anymore," She tried to keep her hand from trembling as she sipped her drink as felt that hateful, familiar panic creeping up her spine again. "Parents found me and got me out, obviously, but for a long time, you couldn't get me inside anything that didn't have windows or a wide open sky."

Again she took another beat as her mind warred to keep going to do something impulsive or way to do the impulsive thing. "The other day, I was leading the squad on a run, and we got stuck in the Jefferies Tubes after the blast doors sealed them off. I was perfectly fine inside of them, but a couple of days later, the little prick snuck up on me and hence why I'm here."

The sympathy on Ilan’s face was real as she listened quietly and attentively, letting Bri work through it at her own pace. It must have been a terrible incident, and maybe even a small part of her felt guilty for pressing now that she had the whole story. Once Bri was finished, Ilan reached out and placed her hand on Bri’s exposed knee.

“That must have been so terrible as a child. I can’t even imagine. Was it the first time you’d been in that kind of situation in a while the other day, then?”

"Yeah, I'd been in tight spaces when I was working the security detail, but it wasn't enclosed like the Jefferies Tubes were, and I knew I could get out whenever I wanted." Bryana's attention became hyperfocused on the other woman's hand on her knee, feeling that hateful spite mingling and fighting with the electric tingling of pleasant anticipation as she felt the urge to act growing more.

Did she act? Did she close the distance between them, lose herself in the physical? In something in the here and now? Forget what nasty little memories had decided to rear their ugly little head? But what would happen if she did that with Ilan? The other woman was seeing pretty as you please but was patient with her, more patient than the Marine thought she might have been on the other side.

Eventually, old habits and old ways won out as she shifted, reaching out to draw Ilan into an embrace, focusing on the feeling of her lips on hers, how warm they felt as she reached out to place a hand on the other woman's shin.

There wasn’t any surprise on Ilan’s part when Bri leaned forward and kissed her. The marine had been raring to go when they’d first met in the lounge, and today was no different, it seemed, though stress was indeed a driver in such situations. Ilan returned the kiss with ease, her fingertips dancing over Bri’s jaw lightly for a moment before she pulled back.

That Ilan seemed accepting of the attention was at least a good sign to Bri, plus she hadn't splashed the marine with her drink or slapped her. She'd acted impulsively, something that had gotten her in trouble in the past, both before and after joining Imperial Service though she didn't regret kissing the other woman, it'd been better than what she imagined, but it was still a stress reaction that had brought her to this point so she was conflicted.

She hated her brain sometimes.

She sucked on her lower lip before she reached out to trace Ilan's jaw lightly, looking into her eyes as she felt the urge to kiss the woman again, but she didn't want to cock things up like she'd down in the past. "Much better than what I imagined,"

Ilan grinned a little grin at that and held still as Bri touched her face. She didn’t mind the attention, and the other woman was attractive enough for Ilan’s tastes - though granted she could be accused of not being the most discerning individual. She didn’t care much. She liked what she liked and made no apologies for who she was.

“Well good. I hate to disappoint.” With that, Ilan leaned in and gave Bri another quick kiss, though didn’t let it linger too long and pulled back again.
Bri leaned forward a little as Ilan retreated from their second kiss, though she had turned to face Ilan properly with a coy smirk playing on her lips, she seemed a bit more relaxed. At the very least more at ease now that she'd done that.

"So I do have myself a curfew, but maybe we could set something up? Let me take you out..."

“You wanna take me out on a date?” Ilan asked, just a note of light teasing in her voice though she was obviously open to the idea. “What if you don’t get home on time? Will your boss come and give me a spanking? Because jokes on him I like that.”

That drew a chuckle and a throaty purr from the Marine as she shifted closer to Ilan. Her hand teasingly began to drift up from the Warrant Officer's leg as she paused at the other woman's thigh while holding her gaze. "Oh there'd be hell to pay, but it'd be my ticket, though I'd hate to set a bad example for the team."

"Though," She continued and her hand moved up over the barely there skirt and lightly stroked Ilan's rear. "You sound like you're planning on being bad and bad girls do get their spankings."

"Now now, try not to sound like you'd enjoy it too much." Ilan winked and poured herself a bit more of the tequila to sip it. She didn't remove Bri's hand, but also didn't react strongly to it in a positive way either. "What time is your curfew?"

"Mmm, can't help it, I know what I like." Bri chuckled while retrieving her drink before taking a sip, taking a moment to enjoy the alcohol and the moment, the buzz was steady and left her head with that perfect sensation of being lightheaded without the obnoxious queasiness that came with that one drink too many. She also could complain about the company, though she did feel that they might have too much clothing on as she let her gaze roam once more over Ilan as she smiled again and leaned in to steal a slow kiss.

"Have me til midnight," She whispered against Ilan's lips before sitting back again. "After that I might turn into a pumpkin, and believe me, orange was never my best color."

“No, I don’t think it would be a good color for you.” Ilan chuckled. She had of course returned the kiss, but still made no move for more. “Unfortunately though, I’m not sure I could promise to get you back in time tonight. I don’t like to rush my time… I am very,” she let the word hang and ran her fingers down Bri’s neck slowly, “attentive.”

An easy smile formed on the dark-haired marine's lips, eyes lidding while enjoying the feeling of Ilan's fingers running over her neck, as a soft moan escaped her lips as she shivered with delight since her neck was one of her favorite places to receive such attention. "Mmmmhm, that sounds quite delightful...though careful, much more of that and I might say fuck it and find out how attentive."

It was a temptation as she sipped her drink and smiled at Ilan. "Though I suppose I should be a good girl, not get put on restriction...though you've given me plenty to consider..."

Well she was certainly easy to entice and distract, Ilan mused to herself while smiling at Bri and letting her hand drift away from her attention. She flipped her dark hair back over her shoulder and smiled. "Well, I definitely can't be attentive if you get yourself put in the dog house."

"Mmm, no and I do need to make sure that I don't get on the wrong side of anyone, especially Lyra...though I certainly do like to imagine how she might make me beg at her feet for the chance.." Bryana cooed softly as she let her alcohol-hazed mind wander a little, remembering the little fantasy she'd had about Lyra after their meeting in the Shadow Squad barracks.

"Sounds like you'd enjoy getting spanked even more than I do." Ilan laughed and shook her head. "She's definitely an intimidating woman. Who knows though, maybe she's a kitten in bed."

"Only for the right person." Bryana smirked as she sipped her tequila, as her thoughts turned from Lyra to Ilan, wondering just what attentiveness would entail from the other woman. "Though you have a point, a lot of dominant and intimidating people tend to be a bit more subdued in their private lives, and find a way to let go to relax."

“Or maybe Petrov likes to call her mommy when they are behind closed doors. Seems like the type.” With that, Ilan laughed and finished her drink. “Well, I should get going. Morning comes early for us both, you know.”

"Hmmm, maybe though do you think his pride would let him do that? He's always got to be in charge so I don't know," Bryana pondered the idea of the powerful, self-assured Andrei Petrov submitting and calling Lyra mommy. She'd never personally called anyone mommy or daddy during sex, she'd never really seriously been with anyone and that might change the equation.

"I'd pay real money to find out though, just to sate my curiosity, though I'd likely take a quick trip out of an airlock after, sooooo..."

"Morning does seem to come much too soon," The marine sighed before she finished off her drink and smiled at Ilan. "Call you to set up the details for our date?"

“Sounds good to me.” Ilan flashed a mischievous grin, but didn’t say anything else on the topic of Lyra behind closed doors. Too much might draw unnecessary trouble even if it was all in good fun.

“Don’t keep me waiting for too long.”

"Mmm, I wouldn't dream of it." Bri purred after leaning into steal a final kiss along with what was left of her bottle, downing what was left in her glass as she shifted to stand, grinning at Ilan as she moved to step away, giving the other woman a wave goodbye to head back to the barracks and face down the idea of going into the Jefferies Tubes again.


END