Yesterday's Blues, Today's Opportunities

Posted on Thu 29th Aug, 2019 @ 3:30pm by Commander Mikaela Locke

1,031 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Deck 600 - ‘Orchids and Jazz’
Timeline: MD-06: 1832

Mikaela Locke sighed and shook her head.

"What do you think?" she asked, fearing the worst, "Was I a total bitch?"

'Time' on a space station like 109 was a fairly loose construct, since the base didn't actually orbit anything by which it could be measured. Many years ago, when the base was still in the hands of the FCDA, it had been agreed that twenty-four hour 'days' would be used, in order to best calculate things like 'day', 'night', duty shifts and so forth, and, when Starfleet retook control of the station, some fifteen years later, it was easier to keep the time increments the same - and consistent with most of the rest of Starfleet.

And so, a little short of a day after her outburst at Captain Grax, Mikaela Locke found herself back at the scene - in 'Orchids and Jazz'. Today, however, she wasn't sat in her usual booth. Today, she was perched at the bar, both hands wrapped around a whisky and coke, bending the ear off of her friend Jade - who, she was pretty sure, needed to be attending to other customers and didn't have time to be sat listening to her rant.

Lantz appraised her friend's face and her aura. Anxiety were written in both. "I wouldn't go that far. You might have been a little abrupt. It wasn't unreasonable, given that you were taken by surprise. I know you have to ease into new information, especially where emotions are concerned. If the Captain has known you so long, he ought to realize that, too." She grinned as she added, "He has the disadvantage of being male, however."

Rubbing the damp rag on the bar absently, Jade thought about all that her friend had said. "I'm guessing you were feeling, if not conspiracy, at least insensitivity from your friend. Tell me, though ... when you first saw Fisher? Did your heart leap with a moment of joy?"

Mikaela contemplated this for moment. “I’m not sure joy is the right word,” she eventually said. “We didn’t exactly end well, and...” She hesitated again, taking a sip from her glass as she revisited and reprocessed his arrival on the station in her mind. “I guess it was more shock than anything else. I just didn’t expect to see him again... maybe ever.”

"If that's all you felt, then is it the awkwardness of having him in your space?" Lantz smiled again. "You do outrank him, you know."

Turning serious, she contemplated her next thought. Normally, she didn't pry into her friends' business, but Mikaela had asked her and shared a lot today. Maybe sliding her attention away from Fisher was a good plan, not that she had anything against the man, but he had let Mikaela go once, after years of opportunities, and Jade did figure that meant he'd used up his chances. So...

Smiling still, she touched Locke's hand and said, "I'm thinking there's nothing with Grax but friendship, and that can be mended, if you choose to mend it but, and maybe I'm jumping to conclusions here ... I've seen you around with Paul Graves. I thought maybe that would lead to something good."

“Maybe that’s what’s bothering me,” Mikaela replied. “Things with Paul have been going really well - and I do really like him... For the first time in... maybe ever... I’m in a relationship that doesn’t have the shadow of Jason Fisher hanging over it: We’d broken up for good this time. I was over him. I’d moved on.” Her tone remained even but her expression suggested she was getting angrier as each new thought developed. “And then he just strolls in and decides to stay? What the hell is that about?”

"You think it's more than just a job opportunity, or some kind of career advancement?" Jade ran a towel around several glasses, inside and out, as she thought about this angle.

"You seem to feel as though he knew you were here, so he has to be up to something. What are your options? How much energy do you want to spend?" she asked her friend pointedly.

Mikaela thought about her friend’s words for a second. “Well,” she mused, “He certainly knew I was here, because I’d told him as much before I left Deep Space Five, but whether he could have deliberately planned that the Falcon would end up docked here following a pirate attack seems a little far-fetched. That said, my presence on the station certainly could have influenced his decision to stay.”

She took another sip from her glass and then another one quickly afterwards. “Or perhaps I am overthinking it,” she mused, almost to herself. “Perhaps it is just about a good career move. I guess, ultimately, I’m not going to have to see him too much if I don’t want to. It’s a big station and we’re not going to have that much professional contact...” She swallowed the last of her drink. “Perhaps we’ll just merrily ignore each other, and it’ll all be fine.”

"I once had a friend who always said 'Time will tell', and I think this might be one of those events that fits. If ignoring him works, then there won't be anything else to do. If it doesn't," Jade shrugged, "you can revisit the situation then. And in the meantime, build that something good with Graves, if that makes you happy. There's no need to let this disrupt your new life. That just leaves what you're going to do about Grax, but that may also work itself out ... or you can apologize, even if there's nothing to apologize over, if you want to save the friendship."

Picking up Mikaela's glass, she asked, "Refill?"

“You know what,” Mikaela said, tapping the glass on the bar a couple of times and taking a long inhalation of breath, “I think I need to go and talk to Andrus.” She smiled and nodded at El-Aurian across the bar from her. “Thanks, Jade.”

And, leaving the glass on the bar, she left the club.

 

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