Snip

“Captain,” he said, emphasizing the word. It wasn’t out of ‘respect’ however and Kelly knew it was a tease of quite the opposite intention. Kelly was a friendly, team first kinda leader and liked to get to know her senior staff on a more personal level, even insisting they call her Kelly in private. Nash seemed to take a gruff delight in refusing to use her first name at any time, and in some way had seemed to turn the word ‘Captain’ into a teasing insult. Kelly also knew Nash well enough to know that if he bothered to do that, and do it to your face, then it was an admission of affection and respect that was far more telling of the way that the man felt about you. That he had shared is booze without a second thought just confirmed the respect he had for her.

“Lieutenant Commander,” she let the words roll off her tongue matching his tone as she settled back in the chair. Nash had the personality and demeanor to scare cadets down washout lane with a single glance, yet anyone that held their ground and looked deeper saw a man that would never flinch from your side. Nash had a sense of loyalty that was rival by few Kelly had met. He didn’t trust easily and when you broke that trust god helps you because no one else could.

“The last time I got you a drink in a big girl glass, you threw something somewhere and blamed me, and started a bar fight with an entire bar that ended with the destruction of a Science Station on Rho Puppis. You know that if that station hadn’t exploded I would have won that fight too.” He picked up the bottle again and filled his tumbler a third time, then offered her the bottle.

“Promises promises,” Kelly skipped the glass and took a swig straight from the bottle. “And if you aren’t giving me that glass I am going to just pass the bottle.” She let out a deep relaxed sigh and got up. She had only been in his office twice. Both times she had needed something and knew where it was. Moving around the desk to his side she patted his foot twice. It wasn’t a romantic gesture at all. It was the time held gesture of one individual to another telling them to move that body part. The way he was reclined in the chair, his legs were positioned in the typical one leg crossed over another style men used so that their bent knee was 90 degrees over the other with their foot sticking out horizontally. Currently, this foot was blocking her access to the first drawer of his desk.

Nash didn’t move, he just sipped his drink and looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “It’s a foot,” he remarked dryly. “You have them too. They’re good for away missions, getting your own coffee and putting up the rear end of Commanding Officers who start bar fights. That last one is better with steel caps.”

“If you are going to make me get up and get my own glass the least you could do is move your own foot,” she pulled open the drawer not caring if it hit him. Unlike most people that hide their liquor in the bottom drawer of a desk, Nash had his in plain sight, boldly displayed along with an assortment of drinking wear in the top drawer. Nash was not the type of guy that hid his intentions or motives from anyone. Events in his life had shown him life moves too fast. Nash was not an arsehole like so many read from his body language and words. He was actually very simple. He didn’t have time for bootlicking or pandering to garner favors from the elite of Starfleet. He got the job done because a job needed to be done. That is why his liquor was in the top drawer. He needed a daily swig to put up with the daily barrage of memos and pompous Admirals using everyone below them to make themselves look better.

Pushing his chair back on two legs, he made enough room for Kelly to bring out one of his larger glasses before dropping the chair back onto all fours. “You wanna straw with that? Maybe a little umbrella and some kinda fruit?” He finished his drink and fingered the tumbler for a moment while he waited. His own preference was for smaller glasses, he didn’t generally appreciate the length of time booze sat in a larger glass for at social events so his smaller glass preference meant that one, he could always excuse himself from a discussion he wasn’t interested in to get more booze and two, with a smaller glass people generally never considered how many he had actually had.

Kelly only knew it was there because of the last time she was in his office drafting a letter to Admiral Perkins. Grabbing a glass, she walked back to her seat, poured what was probably three shots worth, and slide the bottle back to him. “You suck at kissing a superior officer’s arse you know that Nash,” she took a swallow of her drink.

Taking the bottle, he seemed to ignore her comment and critically examined the lip of the nearly empty bottle where she had drunken out of it. Giving a sigh, he placed it back on the desk with a thump and pushed it back to her. “Talking about kissing a Superior Officer’s rear end, Captain, the rest of the bottle is your’s. I have a feeling I know where those lips have been and I’m not sure i’m up to date with my shots.” He turned and took a second bottle from the small stand behind him and twisted the lid off, then poured a measure into his tumbler before placing the new one between them.

“I think for all of our safety I better get you that cask wine that you seem to like so much. You can’t hide it Captain, I’m the Chief of Intel see and I’ve seen the reports of what you bring in for personal use. I have to do something worthwhile with all of this junk information I have access to now.” He put down his tumbler and looked at her, then at the box and raised his eyebrow.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTIO

“Pfft, that is fruit punch with a kick. It is not wine. It is just enough to get me through a fleet dinner.” Taking another big draw on her cup, Kelly could feel herself slipping into the past tipsy but not sloppy drunk stage. It had been a long day. That was why she was in Nash’s office. She needed someone to vent to.

“Next time you are at one of those, order the Maladovian mangoes,” Nash told her, but now he had left the tumbler alone completely as he spoke and was fiddling with his skull and crossbones engraved lighter and a cigar stub. “They have some kinda chemical that reacts with real alcohol, and makes things a whole lot more enjoyable. The effect is slow acting so it’s like a warm fuzzy feeling. You know what’s going on around you but you have full control of your faculties. I use ‘em for breakfast before most Senior Staff Meetings.” When he said the last part, he managed to look completely matter of fact and innocent at the same time. “Helpful for dealing with humorless superiors as well.” The way that Nash said that, and the way that he looked Kelly in the eyes as he did let her know that he wasn’t talking about her, but giving a helpful, secret little tip.

“Did you know that if you lose one of your senses the others are enhanced? That is why people with no sense of humor have a heightened sense of self-worth,” she announced holding her cup to the side as she talked. The liquid in it swirled in the cup but did not spill over. “Perkins has no sense of humor. I am guessing he is missing not only the ability to see the crap he is shoveling but also the ability to hear the crap that comes out of his mouth every time he engages in an official ‘hey do you have a minute’ conversation.”

Captain Kelly Bordeaux.

“You know those conversations only happen when he is unsure of his security and wants to try and get people on his team.” Nash picked up the tumbler now and finished it in one, then put the cigar in the corner of his mouth and lit it with the flip lighter. Closing the lighter, he placed it carefully on the desk and leaned back in his chair again, pointedly filling the tumbler with the fresh bottle of Tequila.

“It’s the people under him like you that actually make things work,” he offered, “especially when you’re busy cleaning up the crap he just created before he buzzes your comm with a ‘hey do you have a minute’ conversation. It’s the people like me that pay the price for making his decisions work. Mangoes, remember.” He filled the tumbler yet again and raised it to her, with an ever so slight grin.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

“I don’t clean up Perkin’s crap,” Kelly said and then got a sly smile, “I only try to add to it.” Tossing back another drink Kelly reclined and propped up her feet on the corner of the chair next to her. “I’m glad you got this promotion even if you are not. I trust you, Nash. Under that gruff exterior is a guy that I would have watch my back any day of the week. “So tell me something about you that’s a secret since you are in the spy game,” she gave him a smile.

Captain Kelly Bordeaux

“No.” He told her flatly, and this time sipped his drink. “If I told you something secret about me, it wouldn’t be secret any more would it. And if I told you something secret, I would be a terrible spy, wouldn’t I?”

“What I can do, is tell you something secret about someone else. Like Kevin.” Nash’s tone had dropped and become even more serious than him refusing to tell Kelly a secret about himself. “You know Kevin, right? That Kevin?” he let the question hang in the air.

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTIO

“If it is that Kevin then yes and I am all ears,” Kelly sat up a bit straighter. Kevin was Perkin’s pride and joy. The man also rose through the ranks of Starfleet with lightning speed. If he was covered in oil and sent down a metal slide, Kevin still wouldn’t be able to move as fast as he slithered up the ranks in Starfleet. He was the next generation of super zero’s that Perkin’s and his crew had chosen to back. Mainly because of nepotism but not all the time did it actually mean blood relations as in the case with Perkin’s and Kevin. Rivalries between the rank and file had always existed in the military or organizations and Starfleet was a mixture of both. Every department head at the Academy had its dream cadet. Science had the most brilliant. Helm/Navigation had the hotshot pilot. Medical had the one cadet that never lost a patient no matter how severe the injury. Command had the cadet that never lost a member of his team. Security had the toughest and scrappiest cadet that never backed down from a fight emerging from a scuffle looking like a professional hockey player with one tooth instead of a Starfleet officer.

During the years at the academy, Kelly and Dante vied for the top security slot as if was the last donut at a staff meeting. Each of them outsmarting and at times sabotaging each other for the sheer fun of bragging rights. Their ability to work together was the stuff all Admirals wanted and enemies feared with them as a command team. This caught the eyes of a few who rallied behind their hutzpah behind brandy and accolades about the bravado of youth. It also caught the eyes of the other department chairs when Kelly and Dante not only had the brawn but intelligence in the other departments to hold their own with the top cadets. Unfortunately, their tenacity put them on the radar with Perkin’s groupies as a threat to their golden boy and thus the rivalry was born, as ages before, between Kelly, Dante, and Kevin.

Pulling the bottle over to her, Kelly drank a swig and set it on the table. “One just does not up the ante with a Kevin and then back down,” Kelly leaned back in her seat.

“I thought that might get your attention,” he said to her, his words now sounding very slightly slurred. “I have it on very, very good authority,” Nash began, picking up one of the bottles and leaning back in his chair, taking a swig and then playing with it. “That our friend Kevin is in a bit of a pickle. You see he was waiting on a crate of some of the finest real spirits from Earth, for Perkin’s 60th birthday celebrations.”

“Now, I hear through the grapevine, that the shipment, went missing. Poof, into thin air, just like that.” Nash made a sad face that lasted for only a second. “Apparently he is in quite a state, you see that case set our friend Kevin back quite a lot of credits, that he didn’t have on him and ticked up in the good Admiral Perkin’s name as birthday supplies.”

“Oh my god tell me you had nothing to do with that,” Kelly’s voice held awe but the twinkle in her eyes said she desperately wanted Nash to assume a superhero pose, toss back a piece of his cape and say yes ma’am I did. Kelly’s imagination was running away with her. Maybe it was the booze but maybe she had just realized Nash was far more interesting than she ever realized.

Reaching over to a cabinet, Nash pulled open a draw and revealed three more bottle of booze just sitting in it. Picking one up, he examined the label closely. “It’s a pity, I hear that the case was very high quality. Such a shame that he misplaced it.” Handing Kelly the fresh unopened bottle, Nash took a sip of the one in his hand.

“Yes a pity,” Kelly took the bottle and downed a large swig. For all that Perkins was not, the man was a spirits connoisseur. It was smooth and rich and defined why people paid exorbitant amounts of credits for the real thing when they had the chance.

“What do you think of the booze?” Nash asked innocently. “Personally I think it is far too good for Perkins birthday.”

Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO

Kelly nodded in agreement as she savored the sip. Then her face lit up and she leaned out of her seat almost to the point of falling from it. “We should send Perkins a birthday gift,” she said so rapidly part of the sip dribbled out of the corner of her mouth. Kelly’s eyes were as shiny as a kid on Christmas morning. “I know what he would absolutely adore and would have no trace to us. If your game,” she leaned back in the chair. She tried to look cool and in control but she could not control the small seat dance her butt was doing in the cushions. “Care to sign the birthday card with me,” she waggled her eyebrows enticingly.

Captain Kelly Bordeaux

Captain Kelly Bordeaux