Posted May 17, 2022, 9:59 a.m. by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) (Lindsay B)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Bethany Kovra Gadi (Chief of Security) in While the Cat’s Away…
Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Chief Intelligence Officer) in While the Cat’s Away…
(snip)
The lift came to a stop and Shara stepped out and waited for Bethy before they continued down the corridor. “I do have him and it is amazing. Unexpectedly amazing. We have something of an unconventional marriage too, in that as our work requires we will sometimes be apart, doing our own thing. I wasn’t expecting him to be here, but given our assignment, well, I should have seen it coming.”
Their quarters, connected by the tiny washroom, approached and Shara keyed in her security code to her own. “Come on, rum awaits us.”
Inside the duplicate tiny quarters, Shara’s was probably not much different from expectations. She had little in the way of personal effects on display, but for the first time in her life that was starting to change. In addition to the framed photo of her, her late husband and her then ten-year old daughter, there was one of her and Micah sitting on the front steps of a large wooden building set amongst mountains.
At the workstation (modified to a two-screen set-up), a soft throw in cream was draped over the chair and her guitar rested in its case against the side of the desk. There was a hard-shelled footlocker tucked into a corner and the other than some PaDDs piled neatly on the desktop, there was little else different about the space other than a (perhaps) odd appearance of a bulging paper envelope sitting on the dining table. Signs that her and Micah spent time there were few, other than an extra pair of boots. Everything else was tucked neatly away from prying eyes.
Shara moved to a little cabinet tucked next to a bedside table and keyed in a code. Her body blocked what all was in there, but she closed the door with a click and a beep and returned with a full bottle of rum, setting it on the table. “Open that, will ya? I’ll find us some glasses,” she said, moving to a small cabinet next to the desk.
Bethany didn’t glance around too much out of respect for Sharah’s privacy. She noticed the different items, but didn’t linger. She picked up the bottle, broke the seal, and opened it. The smell of the rum was a welcome assault on her nose. “Rum and pirates? Fitting I guess.”
Returning with the glasses, she set them down and then reached into her pocket, extracted the uneaten liquorice and dumped them (seven in total) on the table with a smirk, her foggy blue eyes lit up. “The rules didn’t say there was a punishment for not eating them all…”
Commander Calloway, CIO
Bethany dropped about 5 of the candies on the desk. “If I had eaten anymore and we would have needed the cleaning crew. That would have been a story for them to share.”
Gadi, CoS
“Good girl,” Shara said with a wink. She liked Bethy. It was nice to have someone else around (other than her husband) who respected that rules were rules but they often needed amendment, bending and sometimes breaking.
She pulled out the chair and slunk into it, feeling all of her sixty-five years as she poured a double-measure for each of them. She slid one glass to to Gadi and knocked back half of hers. Picking up one of the liquorice, she rolled it between her fingertips. “Never have I ever gotten pregnant as a teen and had to give my baby up for adoption,” she said before dropping the candy and knocking back the rest of the rum. It was spicy and warm and the taste of the hideous liquorice was dissipating.
She hadn’t conscious decided to share that tidbit with Bethany, or anyone. When she first got here it was a protected secret, but hell, Nadine had been at Faye’s wedding and it wasn’t a secret anymore. Nor did she want it to be. There was still that shred of shame lingering for having to abandon not one but two children, but at least with her first born it had been done out of a love and knowing that she couldn’t be the mother that babe needed. Now though? She liked to think they were all finding their groove together, strange as it all was.
Commander Calloway, CIO
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