Posted Sept. 14, 2019, 12:49 a.m. by Captain Kelly Bordeaux (Commanding Officer) (Kate O'Neill)
Snip
M’Lene raised an eyebrow at the Captain’s rather jovial recollection of her former marriage and nodded. “I suppose it would do, serving with a partner certainly does bring it’s fair share of challenges…” she chuckled and then gritted her teeth with a sudden air of melancholy about her. She quickly cleared her throat and shook it off. “Sounds like you did a fair tour of the fleet together though?” she added with a grin. “Any I might have heard of?”
“Constellation, Fox, Eisenhower, Harrier, Broadsword, and Atlantis,” Kelly rattled off the ships in her career. “And it did. All the time apart certainly didn’t help Ric and I. We spent the bulk of our marriage in either exotic locations that were not exotic or cramped quarters.” Kelly would never talk bad about her first marriage but she would also never make it sound like one of them was to blame over the other.
M’Lene’s ears pricked up at the sound of a familiar name. “Did you say the Broadsword? It certainly is a small universe…” she chuckled. “My little sister’s first posting was on the Broadsword, before she transferred to the Washington,” she announced proudly. T’Lama and her were different in so many ways but at least they shared a love of star-fleet, it had been one of M’Lene’s proudest moments when her little sister had decided to join the fleet.
As she sat back in her chair, she noticed her screen blinking indicating she had a message from her sister. She made a quick mental note to check it later as she took another sip of her coffee.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
Kelly caught the eye gaze to the console. “Do you need to get back to something,” she asked. It was a weird question but M’Lene was not in her office but Kelly in M’Lene’s. Issues were always popping up with her so why would it not be the same for the CSO.
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
M’Lene shook her head with a grin. “Not at all Captain, it’s just a message from my sister, her ears must have been burning! It’s no problem, she’ll call back,” she added as she took another slurp of her drink. “So when did you serve on the Broadsword ma’am? My sister was there from 91-93 I think…” she asked as she tried to recall.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
“The first stint was 86 to 91 then I was the XO there in ‘92. It was my last ship before I got the Atlantis,” Kelly reminisced. “What was your sister’s name? Is she science like you?” Caitains were not an unknown race in the Federation but they were not as common as some races like Vulcans and Betazoids in Starfleet. Kelly let her mind drift to all the people she had known on the ship. She typically had a name or a face for everyone on the crew. Given enough time both married up to a single individual.
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
M’Lene laughed out loud, nearly spitting her drink across the table. “T’Lama?! Not at all, she doesn’t have the patience for science, she’s a security officer. She’d much rather shoot something than see how it works!” she giggled as she wiped her mouth. “You were there in ‘92? You may have come across her then? I’m guessing there weren’t many Caitians on board?” she mused as she rifled through her desk and pulled out a picture of the two of them at T’Lama’s graduation and handed it to the Captain.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
Kelly took the picture and looked at it. M’Lene was not wrong. Caitain’s were not an unfamiliar species but they did not have the numbers in Starfleet like other races. “I do remember her. She was a character,” Kelly said smiling. “I remember thinking that she needed to be in front of the group when carrying a phaser instead of brnging up the rear. Are you two close,” she asked her CSO?
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
Bump
M’Lene chuckled and nodded. “Indeed, that sounds like T’Lama, always charging in…” she sighed, recalling a number of times that her sister had found herself in a difficult spot that could have been avoided with a bit of forward planning. M’Lene looked at the picture of them together and nodded fondly. “Yes, we speak to each other fairly often although given our postings I don’t see her as much as I’d like. But when we do get together we’re like a couple of teenagers again,” she smirked. “Do you have any siblings ma’am?” she asked curiously.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
“A brother named Micheal. He is a bit,” she stopped searching for the best word to describe her older brother, “intense.” Kelly let out a laugh and shook her head. “He gets so focused and if you are in his sights God help you. He works for the naval intelligence and security division. Non-Starfleet. Civil Corp,” she said explained. “Mike is a good guy but takes a long time to warm up to people. Heck, I am not sure he likes Ian and most people do instantly after meeting him. You can’t choose your siblings but you can’t imagine a life without them. So where is your sister stationed now,” Kelly asked?
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
bump
M’Lene chuckled and nodded. “Ain’t that the truth…” she agreed, recalling several blazing rows with her sister over the years. “She’s on the Washington at the moment, although I know she’s getting itchy paws, I don’t think there’s enough action for her,” she added with a grin. “She likes to be where the action is, much to our parents dismay, they give her grief for it every time she talks to them.” she replied as she took a sip of her now lukewarm drink and made a face.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
“Ah to be young and want the action,” Kelly agreed. “I remember being young and thinking slogging through smoke and bruises I would get a command seat. It did but there were other ways to get here. I think that is why Dante and I were such a good command team. He was a bit more logical than me but we were perfectly matched.” Pausing to think about how she needed to call her long time work husband, Kelly snapped back to M’Lene. “Does your sister’s traveling eye see her,” Kelly asked.
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
Bump
M’Lene shrugged her shoulders with a laugh. “To be honest, I have no idea! T’Lama has always had a mind of her own, I gave up years ago trying to predict her actions, she’s certainly ambitious though,” she added warmly. “How long have you been married Captain?” she asked curiously.
Lt (jg) M’Lene (CSO)
“About a hot minute,” Kelly let out a laugh. “Ian booked me a trip at one of those zen spa things,” she waved her hand about as if the details were not important to convey, “because he said I needed to relax. Turns out it was anything but relaxing. My polyglot husband mistook one word in Swahili which turned the event from deep tissue massage to a couple’s cuddling therapy class.” Kelly had a hard time keeping a straight face as she told the story. “That weekend easily could have turned into a single woman’s crusade to get solo drunk playing never have I ever. For example, never have I ever shown up with a junior officer to a yoga class and had to demonstrate the mama bear embrace,” Kelly took a drink of her coffee as a substitute and continued. “Never have I ever had to run an obstacle course blindfolded and Helen Kellered into the finish line due to the yelling of my Klingon coursemate,” Kelly took another sip. “Finally never have I ever signed out of a hotel and later found out it was a bizarre marriage retreat and the paper I signed reaffirmed my legal marriage to the other party signing the document. It was not a normal courtship, wedding, or honeymoon but at least the past eighteen months have been anything but dull.”
Captain Kelly Bordeaux
© 1991-2024 STF. Terms of Service
Version 1.15.11
RSS Feed