Faery Lights
Posted on Mon 20th Aug, 2018 @ 10:34pm by
1,205 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
Oblivion
Location: Deck 1553, Hunt's Fortune
Timeline: MD 14, 1800
"Are you absolutely sure you don't want to go with me?" Tony asked his sister.
"Positively," Janetta responded. "Watching people get medals pinned on them isn't my idea of a good time. Besides, Arabella had a slight fever this afternoon, so I'd prefer to stay with her and have a quiet evening of ice cream and story books."
Hearing the words "ice cream", Arabella looked up from her nest on the sofa, but didn't say anything. She didn't want to jinx ice cream.
"You didn't mention that before. Maybe I should just -"
"Anthony Troy McCabe, get your butt out that door, and do it now!" his sister ordered.
Bella giggled and whispered, "You said the b word!"
Janetta grimaced as Tony grinned, "Yeah, you did," he teased. At her look, he held his hands up in surrender. "Okay, okay, I'm going. I can tell when I'm not wanted."
"Oh, Daddy, you're so silly," his daughter said. "We always want you, just not now."
Laughing, he surrendered. Kissing her on top of the head, he said, "Okay, then, I guess that clarifies everything. You be a good girl and don't give your aunt any trouble."
Turning to his sister, he said, "And don't hesitate to beep me, if things change."
Janetta shooed him out the door. "It's probably just a tooth coming in."
The express turbolift shot McCabe down to Tivoli Gardens in no time, stopping on each of the levels until he got off on 1553 with quite a large group of others going to the casino. He wondered how many of them were going to play and how many for the awards ceremony. Most of them were dressed casually, unlike him in his Starfleet uniform, so he presumed they were not going in for the ceremony. It was a shame, really, that more people didn't appreciate the sacrifices of the military for their comfort and safety.
Entering the casino, he stepped out of the mainstream of traffic to look around and almost knocked down a cute little thing about 30 cm shorter than he was. In a brief moment, he took in her deep brown eyes, slightly uptilted at the corners, her tanned skin with a trickle of freckles across her nose and cheekbones, and her ready smile. She was dressed in a short white and gold dress with some kind of shawl thing draped through her arms.
"I'm so sorry! I was trying to get out of the main flow of traffic and here I almost ran you down. Please accept my apologies, and perhaps I could buy you a drink to make up for it?" His offer surprised him. He wasn't comfortable around women in a social situation, and couldn't remember the last date he'd had. His wife was missing still, after more than three years, and he didn't expect she would ever return, but Starfleet hadn't declared her dead, and so he didn't find himself in the company of a woman very often. So why did that come pouring out? he wondered.
"Actually, I was standing here, hoping someone would run me down and offer me a drink," the woman said. "It's how I usually meet men. It's quite effective, as you can see."
For a moment, Tony was confused, and then he laughed. "For a minute there, you had me convinced," he said. "Great delivery." He held out his hand. "Anthony McCabe, Science."
She took his hand in hers, "Good, I like science. Jin-Kyung Quinn, Engineering, Matter and Energy Systems, actually, though you can't tell by the dress I'm wearing. You can call me Quinn. Just in case it matters, Lieutenant, I'm a petty officer second class."
"It doesn't matter in the least," Tony heard himself say, though in the past, it actually had mattered to him. It was only a drink; he wasn't proposing a contract with her.
"Then I think I should also tell you that you can't actually buy drinks tonight," she laughed. "They're all on the house."
He offered his arm to her. "Then let's go find the roof, shall we?"
She tucked her hand in his elbow, laughing. "We shall. Do people actually call you Anthony?" she asked, walking down the main steps with him into the casino area.
"Only my sister, when she's displeased with me," he admitted, "or my boss, when she's around. Call me Tony, if you prefer. Most folks do. Now, tell me where your interesting first name originates. Ginking? I never heard that before."
"Jin-Kyung," she corrected his pronunciation. "No, you probably wouldn't unless you are familiar with a tiny country on Earth called Korea. My second great-grandfather was an Irish lad who wandered the globe and came home with a wife from Korea. And her two sisters. They also intermarried in my family. Occasionally, one of us gets lucky and is named for a Korean ancestor. Just think, I could have been Colleen or Sioban!"
"Wow. Your family keeps track of the bloodlines, then? My family does, too, but we all go back to Italy, I think."
Quinn shook her head. "You can't."
Surprised, Tony asked, "We can't? Why not?"
"McCabe. That's not Italian. It's Scots which settled in Ireland a very long time ago. For that matter, I think Troy is French, maybe." She stopped him and looked closely. "There's something else mixed in, too, isn't there?"
"Huh, you're good. I think there is a rumor of Irish in the background, but I don't know about the French. Likely my mother simply thought it sounded good. And there is something else." They resumed walking toward a gold and ivory bar set up toward the back of the large room. "Just as your ancestor traveled a bit, so did one of mine. My grandmother was on the ambassador's staff to Vulcan, and she came home with a Vulcan husband. Quite an interesting man for a boy growing up to call grandfather. When she died, he returned to Vulcan, but I still see him now and then. And I don't know why I'm telling you all of this," he said, looking at her quizzically. "I don't normally tell anyone anything."
Quinn shrugged. "I'm a good listener." They arrived at the bar, and waited quietly until one of the bartenders asked them what they'd like.
Tony looked at the woman and raised his eyebrows. "Do you have a cherry Coke?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, but we don't. Orchids & Jazz is the only place you can get one on the whole base. They have an exclusive with the company that makes Coke. I can make something similar with Grenadine and Caramel Ice, or perhaps a root beer float?"
"That sounds nice, a root beer float. I'll have that," Quinn said.
Surprised that she hadn't ordered something more sophisticated, Tony followed her lead. "Make that two."
Seats nearby emptied and he led her over to sit in the vacated spaces. "Convenient for us that they decided to go."
"Nah, I hexed them," she said, sounding serious. At the look on his face, she laughed. "You are too easy!"
Tony smiled at her as he took his seat on her left. It looked like it was going to be an interesting evening.
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