Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Officer’s Mess Kitchen- Food for a Crowd

Posted by James Sinclair in Officer’s Mess Kitchen- Food for a Crowd

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Officer’s Mess Kitchen- Food for a Crowd
Posted by… suppressed (1) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

“So… Shara… is that going to suit you? Most CIO ‘s I’ve dealt with are pretty stationary. Most ships don’t have one… although I think they should. Or did you ask for a particular duty station?”

Daggum

Shara drew in a long and slow breath. “Well, I don’t know but I’m giving it a try,” she said with a shrug. “I didn’t ask for anything specific except for a position on a ship. I’ve not done that in a long time but it’ll be a change, and it beats sitting at a desk back on Earth. It was that or retire entirely.”

“Why?” Faye asked seriously, giving her mother a quizzical look.

“Because I can’t do field work even if there weren’t other considerations,” Shara said, smiling at Faye.

“Ahh, the familial excuse,” Faye said with her own grin.

“I wanted you to know where I am.”

“You could teach too. You were always really great at it,” Faye remarked.

Shara gave a slow nod. “It’s always a consideration. But I’m not ready to stay on a planet long term. I did it a lot for assignments but… it was different. I don’t know, so much has changed recently and I’m still trying to figure it out.”

“I know the feeling,” Faye said, gazing at Daggum with deep affection. “Speaking of which, Alex joked that when I retired I could always become his gardener,” she said with a laugh. “Maybe our shipping company should be horticultural!” she said, entirely teasing.

~The Calloway Women

Daggum watched the back and forth between the women and smiled. It was good they were able to connect like that… but a part of him hoped that time and distance apart didn’t do anything to complicate their relationship. They’d had enough hurdles, they had earned their peace.

At the suggestion, Daggum nodded. “Of course! And we’ll give Cochrane the ‘Former Commanding Officer and Mentor’ discount for encouraging the idea.” He smiled as he spoke and looked at Faye… and then simply leaned over and kissed her. “I love you. Just thought you should know.” and he went back to his food.

Daggum

For a moment Faye just gazed at him deeply, the corners of her eyes crinkling as she smiled. “Good, just the way I like it.”

Shara chuckled softly as she watched her daughter and what would be her son in law interact. There was an ease between them that she could understand and had known before in her life. And honestly it was present again but her mind wasn’t ready to traipse too far down that line of thinking. But then she found Faye watching her intently, a slightly frown gracing her daughter’s face. “What’s up?”

Faye swallowed the bite of her food she was chewing. “There’s one thing I haven’t been able to figure out that you, who know the even most classified parts of my file, probably know. And I want to ask, but there’s not been a great time, but maybe now is?”

“Go ahead,” Shara said with a flourish of her hand. “If I can’t answer for some reason, well, you know the drill.”

Faye poked at her food with her fork for a moment. “So… I needed a sponsor to get into the Academy. No surprise there. And I was led to believe it was Akecheta, but that doesn’t gel, because he was only a Lieutenant Commander. He wasn’t high enough ranking at the time to sponsor an Academy application. All I was told when I applied was that my application was good as is. So who was it? And why did they let Akecheta believe he had when it clearly couldn’t have been him?

Shara looked like she’d seen a ghost. “Akecheta? How…?”

This was why she hadn’t wanted to bring it up. He had told her of the history between them, how he had been good friends with her parents and had an unrequited crush on Shara that never went anywhere out of respect for her dad, but there was a lot she didn’t know. “He was on the Samurai with me briefly. Very briefly, but it was after my being a former Maquis was common knowledge, so it wasn’t quite as hard as it might have been had it happened earlier.”

Shara nodded slowly. “That is a name I haven’t heard in a long time, but you’re correct, he wasn’t your sponsor. I thought you would have figured it out ages ago,” she said, but as she gazed at Faye it was clearly she didn’t. “I don’t know all the details, just the basic fact that your sponsor was Gavin., who had just been promoted to captain.”

Faye’s mouth dropped open. “Gavin?” she said incredulously. “Your brother Gavin? The upstanding and loyal Starfleet officer Gavin? The one who metaphorically spat in our faces after we joined the Maquis and told us we were on our own? Him? He sponsored me?”

Another slow nod, but Shara had a sympathetic gaze. It had surprised her too.

“But why? It makes no sense. He hates us? He’s never even met me? Why bother?” Faye said. Yes, the news agitated her but not in that uncomfortable way that things had been lately that would make her dissociate. It was more like she was presented with a puzzle that she wanted to solve despite her unease.

“I don’t know Faye. You’d have to ask him.”
“So you don’t…”
Shara shook her head. “We still haven’t spoken.”

“Wow… huh.” Faye sat back and her mind was puzzling through various path, various reason the uncle who had written them off would bother doing something so big for a niece he considered a traitor.

“It was a complicated time back then, Faye. Emotions ran high and people picked sides. But as you know too well, things went very badly and while the Maquis ceased to exist and the survivors like yourself were either in prison or in hiding, the Federation found itself at war. And war changes thing, changes people. I can’t speak for him, but it’s quite possible he thought you’d been through enough and that you had been a child and didn’t deserve to be punished further. He might have been an arrogant ass at times, but he was always a good person, Faye. I can give him that much credit.”

Faye leaned towards Daggum, resting against her head his arm slightly for a moment. “Well… shit. I think I’m glad I waited to ask that question. A month ago and I might have lost it.”

~The Calloway Women

Daggum patted Faye’s leg and kissed her head. He looked across at Shara and said “Your brother still in Star Fleet? Or do you not know because you haven’t looked?”

Daggum