Posted July 23, 2020, 3:16 a.m. by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) (David Shotton)
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) in Ten Forward: The Past and the Present
Posted by Ensign Oliver Loughty (Science Officer Botany & Ecology) in Ten Forward: The Past and the Present
Posted by Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash (Chief Tactical Officer) in Ten Forward: The Past and the Present
Posted by… suppressed (8) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Ten-Forward was quiet, many of the usual patrons now visited Mike’s Place and Nash paused as he stepped through the doors and looked around. He didn’t feel like sitting alone in his quarters tonight and less of having the company of one of the women he sometimes spent the night with, so he had changed out of his red uniform of a Tactical Bridge Officer and into more casual clothing of slacks and a simple v-neck shirt under his ever-present high necked black jacket. Having run his fingers through his hair, Nash paid no attention to the fact it was now scruffy instead of the tidy style he wore on the Bridge. Sitting alone in the company of a public room was more appealing tonight.A few of the crew nodded his way and smiled, those who knew him and his work while a pair of men at a far table eyed him with looks far less polite. Nash spotted them almost at the same time they saw him and just shrugged in his mind. Past members of his crew on another ship, another life, they would learn to deal with the hand fate had dealt them all, eventually. Nash had dealt with them enough times by now in the ships boxing ring that he was becoming concerned about their intelligence.
Ignoring them as fast as he spotted them he turned towards the bar. One or two people noted the stub of the cigar jutting out the corner of his mouth, unlit for now but they knew the man by reputation or rumor if not actual acquaintance and none made to point out the cigar or the rules. That suited Nash just fine but he came to a halt as his eyes fell on a man on the bar stool at the very end of the bench. That was Nash’s seat at the bar, and a place that people who frequented the Lounge knew was reserved. He shook his head slightly and stepped forward, the eyes of the people that had marked him previously watching while their conversation shushed.
The man was about Nash’s age but in notably worse shape in Nash’s eyes. Black hair that once was probably all jet black and probably Nash’s own height. Nash reached the bar and immediately the bartender shrugged slightly in an apologetic manner, but tried to be discreet about it clearly. Taking the cold bottle of beer that the bartender placed in front of him Nash removed the cigar for a moment and looked at the man, his eyes conveyed nothing. No emotion, no coldness, no warmth. Just emptiness. Nash said nothing, just picked up his beer, nodded to the bartender and walked away towards an empty table in the far corner of the Lounge.
Reaching the table Nash sat down, then placed the stub of the cigar on the edge of an ashtray that happened to be sitting on the table, in just the right spot for Nash to reach. Fishing in his pocket, he took out the small silver flip lighter engraved with a childish style skull-and-crossbones image and placed it beside it, then as if by magic a coin appeared between his fingers. It was old and slightly tarnished it seemed but as Nash sat, sipped his beer and looked out over the people in the bar the coin flipped idly between his fingers with a relaxed control that made it look as if he wasn’t actually taking any notice of what he was doing.
Back at the bar, the Bartender turned and looked at the man in the Tactical Officers seat. “Today you got away with it,” he said quietly to the man. “You’re in the Lieutenant Commanders seat and he let you keep it. Are you a betting man? You should take out a wager somewhere, Nash must be feeling happy tonight. Beer?”
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
Olly had been minding his own business, reading over some of the latest scientific breakthroughs throughout the federation, the reason he sat in this particular seat was because no one else seemed to go near it. He had observed several people looking at him and wondered if he was sitting on some sort of cursed chair or if the civilian attire of jeans, buttoned-down white shirt, and shoes were see-through or something but now with the bar keeps explanation it made sense. “Actually I am,” He said with a toothy smile “I’ll have a beer and whatever the Lieutenant Commander is having, I suppose I should apologies.” He turned and it was not difficult to see who the bartender was referring too, and notably, Olly knew him, not personally but he had heard the stories of course.
The bartender shook his head slightly, the meaning of it unknown but barely perceptible. Instead of just one drink, he placed a tray on the table and then on that, a beer for Olly, another for Nash, a bottle of Tequila and three glass tumblers. Pointing at the third one, he narrowed his eyes at the man. “That one is Nash’s special one, don’t drink out of it, just let him have it along with the other one.”
The drinks placed in front of him the barkeep shook his head before going to tend to another customer, a group of crewman who had just walked in. Standing he pocketed his PaDD and carried the drinks over to the Commander placing his beer on the table and then the commanders beer next to his own already ordered glass. “I was informed I was sat in your seat, I gathered a drink would be a good way to extend the Oliver branch,” He said smiling, his own personal joke with the age-old saying. “I’m Oliver Loughty, I’ve just arrived here.” Even though he knew the superior officers name he gave him the chance to tell him anyway.
Oliver Loughty
“Oh yeah, that’s hilarious,” Nash’s voice was low and lacked humor but wasn’t cold or aggressive. The coin in Nash’s fingers flipped one more time over his fingers, then dropped through them. Nash hardly seemed to move much more but when he reached forward with that hand, the coin was gone. “I’m guessing you would like a seat, go ahead Loughty,” he said and his hand picked up the tequila bottle. Already being opened he poured it into the three tumblers, moving one in front of Olly’s seat and the other two in front of him. One of those was set slightly further away than the other.
Olly brushed away the man’s condescending tone as he sat on one of the empty seats opposite the man and took the glass, having had plenty to drink about in the past the glass wasn’t a shock nor worried him. “Why thankyou” He tipped his glass and drank, tequila wasn’t really his thing but it still settled he’ll in his stomach especially when followed with a sip of beer. So maybe Olly was a bit of a drinker.
Nash made no effort to introduce himself, he found things just worked better when people didn’t know his name. “So what do you do here as a day job, seeing as you seem to moonlight as a comedian?” As he spoke now he picked up the cigar stub and put it in the corner of his mouth, then picked up the tequila tumbler and raised his glass in thanks to first Olly, then the bartender who gave the two of them a short wave in acknowledgement.
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
“Oh me? I am just the new Science Junior Officer, nothing really anything too exciting to get over.” He shrugged taking another sip watching the man in front of his drink and smoke. “And you are Lieutenant Commander Ethan Nash, the ship’s tactical chief from Anic City, Mintara Prime.” He raised his glass this time, “I may be an Ensign but you’re not the only one with a rough past, trouble finds trouble so they say.” The man in front of him was a bigger build than he, Oliver since the war hadn’t kept his pristine muscular body but it was still toned not that he came here to beat his chest and mark his territory Olly was too old
Ens. Oliver Loughty
“The famous Nash. That’s me, I don’t do autographs sorry.” Nash smirked and drank. It was true that trouble found trouble, or more accurately trouble found more than it could handle when it got in Nash’s way. So did most Admirals for that matter.
“So, Mr Loughty. Aren’t you a little old to be a Junior Science Officer still, and an Ensign at that? What kind of trouble do you bring to the Atlantis?”
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
“I’m not that old,” He said mocking shock before laughing and sipping his drink, his mouth wanting more of the god’s nectar. “I left Starfleet in eighty-four to join a civilian science crew, far fewer rules and regulations to worry about before then going to teach at a University in Estonia, though Id id some guest lectures at the Academy before our fine Captain pulled me back into service. I get bored easily.” Explained Olly. “And I hope to bring all the trouble, the good kind of course.”
Ens. Oliver Loughty
“The only good trouble is the kind I can target with my torpedo’s, Mr Loughty,” Nash growled and sipped his drink. “I don’t like good trouble. I like bad trouble less, contrary to anything you’ve undoubtedly read or seen about my history.” Nash looked up as two men passed the table he and Loughty sat at, both of the men gave Nash a sneer as they passed. Nash said nothing, just watched them uncaringly as if they meant nothing to him because, well, they didn’t.
Loughty had watched the men and considered saying something but he figured Nash wouldn’t appreciate the gesture and could handle the situation himself. He seemed used to the gesture and for people who were meant to be socially diverse and accepting they were acting like children.
“You know Kelly?” Nash asked, and notably he didn’t hesitate in using her first name.
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
“Of course I know Kelly. We both went through the academy together. We were inseparable we and a few others were quite the group” He said with a chuckle clearly finding something that the Lieutenant Commander might be interested in. “Do you know of her past that of her being our Commanding Officer?” Loughty asked curious what his answer might be and wondering if this was perhaps an inroad to get past his crusty exterior.
Ens. Oliver loughty
Science JO“Yeah I know Kelly fairly well, I attended Dante Knights wedding with her last year, he was her roommate in the Academy and the two of them were the main adversaries of Perkins Perfects, you’d know that I guess, having been there. Kelly arranged the stag party for him the night before and the two of them spent the evening drinking and telling stories of the Academy and how Dante would avoid Natasha’s wrath for the things that He and Kelly used to get upto. I don’t remember your name being in any of them,” Nash shrugged. “We were all drunk though, I may have misheard them. Incidentally I was there at the same time, though I ran in a different crowd.
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
Oliver didn’t mind having not been heard of, it always made it more fun whenever he told people about his career and who he hung about with. “Its ok, I was more of the crack the jokes and then go revise kind of friend, and I’ve been absent for the last few years, such as I was during her wedding though I was there for her first” He admitted, he was away on deep space assignment. “Who we were and who we are now are always completely different people, I’m sure you understand the most.”
- Ens Oliver Loughty
“I’m not a different person, simply a wiser one to the way things work,” Nash raised his glass and took a drink of the tequila. “Plus, everybody was absent for Kelly’s wedding with Bordeaux, not even they knew they were getting married from what I hear. That woman takes ‘spontaneous’ to the extreme, Dante had about as many stories of her as she did of him.” Taking the lighter out of his pocket, Nash flipped open the lid and lit the cigar stub before putting the lighter back. “Why did you come back? You said Kelly brought you back, but you didn’t say why you came back.”
Lt Cmdr Nash, CTO
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