Another Morning

Posted on Tue Nov 7th, 2023 @ 9:13pm by Lieutenant Commander Annalise Faulkner & Lieutenant Asher Stagg

Mission: S1 Episode 6: Joy and Ashes
Location: Ready Room; Gladius
Timeline: Date 2371-09-03 at 0645
2075 words - 4.2 OF Standard Post Measure

ON

It was 0645 and Annalise was already in her ready room as was typical before the morning senior staff briefing at 0730. Every other morning unless otherwise scheduled, she and Stagg met before the meeting to talk one on one and discuss between just the two of them what the coming agenda should be for the ship. She was sitting on her small couch, legs crossed with a PADD resting on her knee. She’d long given up having coffee waiting for Stagg, his version of prompt was… loose at best for these meetings.

Her lovely blonde hair hung loose around her shoulders, but otherwise she was in uniform, the short skirt sitting higher up on her thighs given the position of her legs, but she hardly seemed to care. They were getting low on some necessary supplies, so that would likely need to be their immediate concern unless he had something else to present to her. She let out a soft sigh, briefly closing her eyes and tilting her head back. She hadn’t slept particularly well and she wasn’t sure why.

Asher had spent the evening continuing to work after his dinner date of sorts with Kit. He’d then hit the gym, as was typical. Having worked hard all day and forced himself to be productive, he went back to his cabin, showered, and slept like a baby. Waking up was never a skill he acquired and he’d gotten up only fifteen minutes before his meeting with Annalise. He popped on his uniform, checked himself in the mirror, brushed his teeth, and was off.

Arriving at 0651, he pressed the chime. Late again? Oh well.

“Come.” Annalise called and stood, moving over to her replicator and calling up the coffee and tea that had just been waiting to be replicated. As he stepped inside, she extended the silver cup out to him.

“One of these days you’re going to find someone else here in with me because I gave them your job.”

“Ooo, talk dirty to me.” He said in a low growl, taking the silver mug in his hands and moving to the couch where she had clearly been sitting. He lowered his tall frame down and pulled the piping hot mug of black coffee to his lips. “You know how I take my coffee, temperature and all. You’re totally my work-wife. I’m safe.”

“I think I want a divorce.” Annalise replied dryly but smirked as she moved to sit back down with him. She took a sip of her tea, and then her brows lifted expectantly for him to offer his report as usual. Annalise liked Asher, but he was a pain in the ass more often than she would like. Still, he had been trying at her behest and encouragement to be better, and he had been better overall.

“We’re down on supplies. Food is essential, and because our chances to replenish our deuterium and anti-deuterium stores are rare at best, we need to see what edible items we can find and keep in storage aboard.” He said, producing a PADD from his side and handing it to her. “Our fabrication labs need more power in order to make all the resources we use on a daily basis around here. The top need, then, is energy. I’ve got a list of my own, of course, but we aren’t even close to that yet.”

“I know Orion has been pursuing avenues of renewable energy of late.” Annalise nodded, mostly to herself. “I’ve been considering consolidating some of the crew accommodations and converting what would be some of the unused quarters into a small hydroponics bay. It is better than nothing at all.” She took a pensive sip of her tea, her beautiful face focused.

“Everything we harvested from the lifeform went to repairs.”

“Taking up gardening is a good idea, I think. We don’t have the luxury to take keep our needs on the back burner. This is a small ship with a dwindling crew and almost 70,000 light years of travel ahead of us.” He said, taking another drag from his mug. “We need to find a station with resupply and a market pronto.”

Annalise found herself wondering if Asher actually believed they could get home. Even when they had a full crew it had been a rather unlikely go and with said dwindling numbers… hope went with them. She knew as the captain she shouldn’t be thinking that way, but she also had to be realistic. At some point she knew it may become a choice between pressing on in futility, or settling and trying to make some semblance of a normal Terran life in this strange place.

They weren’t there yet though.

“I believe we have a station that will suit those needs just so about fifteen lightyears away if I remember the star charts correctly.”

“Who owns it?” He asked, not having seen the route himself. “As long as it’s not those creepy Vidiian fuckers.”

“No, not the Vidiians. At least I don’t think it is. Some trading group named the Shen Consortium? That’s not very Vidiian.” Annalise shrugged.

“So, they won’t turn us into zombie freaks or anything like that.” He responded with a nod. “Sounds promising.”

“No, not likely.” She reached up and rubbed the back of her neck. “I assume all of our departments have their own lists. Are they… reasonable?” She almost hated to ask because they almost never were.

He chuckled lightly at that, looking down at the PADD he was keeping for himself.

“Orion wants the world, as you know, as does Kit, but her requests, I’d say, are a bit more mission-essential. Sickbay wants medical supplies, but the list seems reasonable to me.” He said, then paused for a moment. “All of my requests I would get from the fab lab once we had the energy.”

“Yes but everyone else is also going to want that energy for things, so we have to keep that in mind.” She reminded him gently and took another sip of her tea. “Orion’s list will likely need to be gone over with him to see what projects are absolutely essential.”

“My big question is what the hell we’re going to use to purchase what we need. None of it will be cheap and we don’t exactly have a bunch of Delta Quadrant cash lying around. In the past, we took things by force, but this is different.” He pointed out, and then turned his mind to what she had said. “I can do that but..the man isn’t my biggest fan in the world.”

“What makes you say that?” She prompted, lifting a brow and for a moment ignoring the first problem.

“He thinks I’m stupid and talks to me like it too.” He answered. “Makes me want to knock his teeth out. He might assume my turning him down is some dominance play. Of course, if you don’t mind, I don’t give a fuck. But I know you like to ‘keep the peace’ amongst your staff.”

“Mm… I think you might be reading into it a bit too much, Asher.” Annalise looked at him. Her tone wasn’t dismissive of him, but it was a patient offering of a different perspective. “Orion thinks we are all comparatively stupid and, in reality, he’s likely right. That is just how science types are and why most people don’t like them; it also doesn’t help he’s a Dominion Lord’s firstborn son.”

“No, it doesn’t.” He said, exercising restraint in his response. He wanted to show her he could be professional and keep his hands to himself, as that had been a challenge for most of his career. “I’ll talk to him. Don’t worry about it.”

“Alright.” In her acceptance, she showed confidence in him. “What about Marikit’s list? You say it is excessive but more mission critical.”

“She needs some major components needed for maintaining the RCS system and parts used in replicator repair. The one in my office has been out for three days.” He said. “She’s also requesting a particularly pure glass of some alien variety to make lenses for the ship’s phasers. There’s more in the laundry list, but those are the most important.”

Annalise nodded and made a note on the PADD resting on her knee. “And what about your list, Asher?”

“I don’t need anything we can’t get off the ship. I’d like to make more torpedo casings though, so we’ll need explosive material.” He said and smiled an early morning smile. “My primary job is to make things go ‘boom’, and I’m pretty good at it. Wouldn’t want my talent to go to waste.”

“You are, I’m just trying to make sure you and Kit don’t go at each other again.” Annalise noted, unknowingly giving strong innuendo to her words. “I know you both get jealous if you think I’m favoring one over the other.”

Asher smiled and shook his head, the meaning of what she was saying painting a different picture in his mind.

“Don’t you worry about that. I know how to handle her.” He said with a confident smile. It was playful, but not completely a joke.

“Do you?” Annalise’s eyebrows lifted in question, but it was an innocent one. “It hardly seems like it from some of the rows you two have been in, and I know I haven’t seen them all. I can only imagine how they are when I’m not there.”

Asher began to chuckle, pretty hard at that, but didn’t say anything. Once he calm down, he looked at the list one more time, and then up at her satisfied. “ once we get to where we’re going, we can scout things out a bit and see what they have. Then we can talk priorities once we know what our options are. No point in arguing now.”

She was left wondering exactly what she had said that had elicited that response, but she also had more important things to do than to dwell on it. Finally she stood and moved over to her desk. She opened a drawer there but instead of reaching in to get anything, she used her hands to gather up her beautiful blonde hair and began to twist it back and up. “We’ll look into the trading outpost then and adjust course if it looks promising.”

Asher watched her, admiring her beauty. While he was professional about their relationship when they were on the job, he would be lying if he said that Kit’s jabs about him and Annalise meant nothing to him. He didn’t entertain the thought much, but he watched her still.

“Sounds good, Cap. Sounds good.” He said, leaning back and extending his strong arms over the back of her couch.

Annalise smiled at him while she fixed her hair up into an updo that followed regulations. The expression was warm, sweet, and kind. The woman wasn’t a pushover, she had proven that, but she had a much gentler touch than their previous commanders. She hadn’t tried to browbeat the defiance out of Asher, but instead encouraged and praised better choices which had been a far more effective means it seemed.

“Anything else?”

“Not unless you want to skip the meeting and grab an early morning drink.” He said with a grin before standing up and straightening out his uniform.

“You keep trying that offer, maybe one day it will work.” She flashed her dazzling smile at him and finished with her hair. “Come along then, at least this way I know you won’t be late to the meeting.”

“Well, I have to pee first, so there goes your plan.” He said, stepping down to her level. “Just joking, Anna Banana. Let’s go.”

Annalise sighed and shook her head, but the smile remained as they both walked out of her ready room. It was the start of a new day, and who knew what it would bring with it. All they could really hope for was that it would, in the end, be good and kind to them.

END