The Tale of the Dodgy Eye

Posted on Wed Mar 6th, 2024 @ 3:13am by Lieutenant Commander Finnley Keating VII & Lieutenant Alexis Ryan

Mission: Character Development
3083 words - 6.2 OF Standard Post Measure

"I hope my quarters proved more comfortable than the Marines?" Finn asked as she walked in and saw Ray quietly reading on the couch. The offer to waste the hour in her quarters had clearly been too tempting to waste, considering the alternative of walking around the ship or being holed up in the Marines quarters.

"That they were," Ray put his book down and smiled, moving to stand and hug the engineer. "Don't get me wrong, I love being with my team, but it's nice to have a quiet place to sneak away and read sometimes."

Finn nodded and embraced her adopted uncle once more. "Ryan should be here any minute. In the meantime, can I get you a drink?"

"Only if it isn't that synthohol crap. I don't know who's bright idea it was to invent that stuff, but it's total trash."

"I don't know, probably someone that didn't want a ship full of drunken crew members when an emergency hit?" Finn chuckled. "Also, you insult me. You know dad taught me well enough to always have at least one bottle of the good stuff on hand, just in case." She walked across to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a bottle filled with amber liquid. "It's rum, not bourbon, but at least it isn't 'that synthohol crap'. Interested?"

"I will happily make do with some real rum," he grinned as Finn poured them both a glass.

It had only been once she'd returned to quarters that Alexis realised how utterly out of practise she was at this kind of thing, unable to remember the last time she attended anything closely resembling a formal dinner party. In this case, the event was likely to be far more casual but that in itself presented a bizarre conundrum, where the only person she knew remotely well enough to sit around idly chatting with was also someone she hadn't seen in years. Dress-code became a struggle to interpret, along with mounting indecision regarding whether or not she needed to take anything. It took an exasperated pep talk in the mirror to convince herself she was overthinking everything, before she threw on the first clean pair of jeans she found and grabbed one of the remaining merlots her mother had sent to commemorate her daughter's return to starship duty. Minutes later, she used the self-same bottle to press the door chime to Keating's quarters.

"Welcome," Finn smiled as the door opened and motioned for Ryan to walk in. "Make yourself at home, I was just about to start replicating dinner. Can I interest you in a glass of rum?"

"It's the good stuff," Ray smirked and held up his own glass.

Alexis hesitated. A long time ago, right before she'd entered the Academy, she'd made the decision to swear off hard spirits, holding them at least partially responsible for a few of her more colourful exploits over the previous few years. These days, if she drank at all, she stuck to wine or ale and then in small measure most of the time. For nostalgia purposes, she decided one probably wasn't going to lead to wrack and ruin, though she made sure to stipulate as she handed over the bottle of red, "Just a small one."

"Got it," Ray poured a small amount into a cocktail glass and handed it over.

"I hope you're both ok with hamburgers and fries? Nothing fancy, but its tasty all the same. Any special requests for toppings? Ray and I are having blackened blue, essentially a burger with blackened seasoning, blue cheese, bacon, ranch and lettuce." Finn asked.

It took a moment for Alex to detach herself from an attempt to recall the last time she'd had hamburger and fries. There had been a conscious decision several years ago to tidy up her diet, having hit her mid-30s with the sudden realisation that she didn't recover quite as quickly from poor choices the way she once had. Snapping from her reverie, she glanced between both faces and, spoilt for choice, decided on something that was both the easy way out and decently adventurous. "I'm game to try it if that's popular."

Finn nodded and quickly replicated the meals. It wasn't hard to miss the general hesitations around Ryan's entire being once she'd entered Finn's quarters so she made it a point to bring the plates filled with food back to the table promptly, hoping to avoid too much awkward lingering silence. Ray too felt entirely aware of the hesitancy, but having known Ryan in the past, he had an idea of what was holding her back and chose to not poke the fire. He knew her well enough to know that wouldn't have been a wise choice. After all, she hadn't obtained the moniker of 'Pele the fire goddess' without merit.

"Well, I have to admit, seeing Uncle Ray here took me by surprise, but I was even more surprised to find out that you two know each other. How did you meet?" Finn asked asked as she set down the last plate and took a seat at the table herself.

"His squad got lumbered with a recruit they were having trouble settling in." From behind a sip of her drink, which very definitely qualified as the good stuff, Alex's lips twitched. "Burned through two previous before they decided something with a far more dynamic assignment would probably suit her better." As much as she held some trepidation for revisiting past mistakes, Alexis was still somewhat circumspect about the futility of trying to avoid recounting at least some of them.

"And that's it? Just some assignment together?" Finn raised an eyebrow. "Seems a pretty tame story for how you two looked when you saw each other for the first time in however many years."

Alex raised an eyebrow, glancing across at the conveniently-mute older marine before her features melted into something far more recognizable to at least one of them, if not a lot more tempered by the control of age and experience; calculating mischief. "I'm not sure I'm allowed to tell those stories."

Ray shifted in his seat, somewhat uncomfortably, having picked up the desire from Ryan to not delve too deeply in the past. Then again, he couldn't easily dissuade his niece from digging in either. "To be fair, I'm not sure it's anything she hasn't already heard," Ray said in response. "We did meet on assignment. We were on the same team for what, two, three years? Most of the assignments weren't very glamorous and even in such a short span of time, you know that being in those sorts of environments tends to bond people to each other."

Finn nodded, familiar with the relationship that Ray shared with her own father that had made them like brothers even though they weren't technically related. So much so that Ray in turn had become her own family as well.

Another sip gave Alex time to adjust to her own silent chastisement. It was hard to catch up whilst keeping secrets. "I'd probably have been moved on again if it weren't for Doc and a couple of the others deciding to be more stubborn." A faint smile soon strengthened until the now-Lieutenant recalled enough to provoke laughter. "Of course, I strongly suspect there was a wager or two involved." A raised eyebrow challenged her friend. "Was there ever any payout?"

"Of course there was! You don't think I'd let any of those noobs cheat me out of my honest earned latinum do you?" Ray laughed. "Those were the days," he reminisced before taking another swig of his drink. "So after all that, you end up here, on the Athena. In the science department? How in the hell did that happen?"

How the hell indeed. Alex lingered over a sip of the rum, a moment's pause to answer the question honestly without launching into a monologue that took over the entire conversation. "I guess I got told often enough that my brains were wasted on the battlefield that I decided to test the theory." Out of context, it made it sound like there was an expectation that marines were a pack of grunts, and some of them were. In this case, it was more the lack of adequate application for her particular talents, though overriding door mechanisms had become her niche outside being taken under the wing of the ranged specialists. "Command doesn't always dress me in blue but Athena already had a more-than-capable Chief Engineer." She smiled at Finn and used the moment to steer the conversation a little. "Who I would have hit up for juicy updates had I known you were related."

"Well, not exactly related in the traditional sense," Finn noted between bites of her burger and fries. "Ray and my dad served together for many years. Enough to become more like family than friends. I guess you can say he adopted me as a niece. Best decision he ever made really," she chuckled.

Ray laughed in response as well. "I was never much for kids, but somehow this kid was different," he nudged her shoulder and smiled. "So, how's life on the Athena then? For both of you?"

Having spent the best part of the last minute trying to figure out the best way to pick up her burger, Alex looked up at the question and immediately flicked her gaze to consider Keating. If their families were close, it didn't seem unreasonable to assume that Ray had some idea of the engineer's recent ups and downs but that was hardly Alex's story to tell, nor did she really feel like she was the best audience member if it was a discussion the pair still needed to have. Biding time with a fry, she munched on it and fashioned her own response, more to buy Finn time to settle on her own response than out of any desire to take priority.

"Minimal casualties, but I've only been here a few months." It was a light-hearted response on purpose. Too many of the events surrounding the destruction of the Avalon and the loss of her crew were now classified and Alex wasn't in a huge rush to relive her recent attempts at dabbling in the psychology of terrorism. "Easier to wear blue on a warship though, I came here from a stint at the shipyards working on the next rollout of updates for the Prometheus' so I'd say things are suspiciously fortuitous at this point."

"I didn't know you came from the shipyards. That must've been pretty interesting. Getting to put in all the up and coming technology and seeing it put in action for the first time," Finn smiled in admiration before taking another massive bite from her burger.

"Interesting...but you left the shipyards?" Ray raised a curious brow. "I thought working on that sort of...new found innovation was your thing, no?"

"Two-year special assignment before they booted me out." Rather more carefully than either of her eating buddies, Alexis picked up the burger in both hands and considered the best way to tackle it. "I was partway through applying for tenure when this posting came up. Athena's in a class of her own, and she kept chewing up her scientists." Finally diving in, she managed a halfway effective bite and was then forced to chew for half a minute before she could swallow and add, glancing at Finn. "Turns out being an ex-marine with a hybrid degree gets you short-listed really quickly for, what did they call it... 'A very niche opportunity."

"Fair enough," Ray shrugged. He wondered if there was more to the story, but chose not to dig. At least, not for now. "And what about you?" He looked at Finn, taking the heat and attention away from Ryan. A gesture he was sure she'd appreciate.

"You pretty much know my story, Uncle Ray. The Midway to the Kearsarge and then the assistant chief spot opened up on the Athena and I took it. From there I got promoted to chief and I've been here ever since." She half smiled and downed another drink hoping the question and answer would end there.

"Ok, I know the basics, obviously," Ray rolled his eyes in response. "If I didn't already follow your career, you know damn well your dad would've at least let me know those details." He paused, sighing before taking a sip of his drink as well and then looked to Ryan. "Can you believe this one and her father got me roped into some crazy conspiracy theories and had me help abduct a Federation politician and break into a court room?" He chuckled softly before moving his attention back to Finn. "I think I deserve some answers after all that."

"It's sort of a long story," Finn quipped back,

"And it must've involved some sort of hand injury. You've been holding that burger a little weird this whole time. So start talking. Or do you want me to kick Ryan out before you spill the juicy details?" Ray smirked, he knew he had her cornered.

A faint smile appeared on Finn's face. Ray had always been one to notice details and he was certainly good at getting his way. "No," she said. "Ryan is aware of most of it anyway." Finn took a breath before recounting the whole story from Rondac forward. At least at this point, she'd been working through the whole ordeal and had stopped keeping it fully bottled up, so it didn't hurt as much to speak on the topic. Though a single tear did fall as she mentioned Tolbarr and spoke of his a death. A death that she was still working to convince herself wasn't entirely her fault.

A note of silence lingered in the air once Finn finished her tale. It was, admittedly, more than Ray had bargained for. He had expected something bordering intense, but nothing that deep. "I see," he finally spoke. "I would give you a hug if I didn't think it'd embarrass you too much in front of a coworker," he gave Finn a soft smile. "So I guess I'll just have to save that for later. Dessert?"

It had been about as awkward as Alex had expected it to be, which was a considerable amount for all she'd done her best to focus through it and not draw attention away with her inability to eat a burger without the entire thing falling to pieces. Several times, she had carefully reconstructed it, only for the next mouthful to incite the catastrophe all over again. In the end, just finishing the meal without wearing it had become the distraction she needed, particularly during the aspects of the engineer's recount that still held the potential to surprise. Overall, Alex found discussing the previous mission to be too fraught with potential to veer towards topics she didn't know how to explain, and so as she successfully polished off the last fry, there was something immediately gratifying about Doc's sweet tooth leaving them no room to breath before switching courses.

Her look of incredulous humour still didn't leave a lot of room for astonishment.

"Still operating on a second stomach, then?"

A glance swapped with Finn was loaded with sentiment unspoken, an empathy that also quietly apologised for changing the subject so quickly. Alex made a note not to linger too long, to give the pair of them a better chance to go back over everything Finn had just divulged without feeling like they needed to accommodate a sqeamish scientist.

"Third actually, haven't you noticed?" Ray slapped his gut. "I've gained another in my old age. How does a brownie sundae sound?"

"You already know that's my favorite so I'm in," Finn immediately replied with hunger in her eyes as if she hadn't just downed a large burger and fries. There was always room on the dessert shelf. "Ryan?"

Though there had definitely been a time where she could have downed twice as much food and still had room for dessert, Alexis paused for a moment as she was forced to confront a very real sensation of queasiness at the thought of piling more food on top of the burger, which was still trying to decide how it wanted to settle. "I might skip straight to the coffee course," she ventured, which was at least one bad habit she could still rely on.

"Fair enough," Finn could understand. Had she thought about breakfast or lunch she might have felt the same, but as it was her stomach had been operating on completely empty before this meal so there was plenty of room still left, especially on the dessert shelf. "How do you want your coffee?"

A long time ago, Alex would have responded with 'however it comes' because trying to be too particular with rations was a folly she'd outgrown very quickly. Now, surrounded by options, it was more nostalgia than anything else that saw her echo an order, introduced by another, that had become her staple when trying to squeeze another hour out of her ability to focus.

"Long black," she grinned at Ray, "The longer the better."

"I see your tastes haven't changed," Ray produced the coffee and the desserts and set each before it's consumer before sighing and sitting back in his own chair. "I do miss the old days. I'm glad I got a chance to run into you, Pele. You've been missed. We'll have to do a better job at keeping in contact after this mission."

A wry half-smile was Alexis' best attempt at navigating the sudden pang the older marine's word provoked. A mixture of guilt and regret, tinged with the residual reluctance to reconnect that was difficult to shake. She missed the people but not the person she'd been back then, at least not some of her rougher edges. Being back around those who had seen her at arguably her worst, and potentially some of her best, was not as comforting as nostalgia suggested it should be. She nodded though, because he was right. If her conversation with Brooke had proven anything it was that time eventually ran out if you kept putting things on hold.

"You're right," she agreed. "We will."