Let them take credit

Posted on Sun Feb 24th, 2019 @ 8:21pm by Lieutenant Gente López-Fonsi & Lieutenant Jane Sinclair MD, DVM

2,209 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Mission 2 - Love ORION Mistaken
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: 2261.192 1830

Gente and Jane were now in the mess hall, he felt a little awkward at first. Wondering if the crew were going to spread false rumors about them having dinner together. And if there was some romantic interlude between them. In all honesty, there wasn't but perception can be a killer.

Gente was more concern for Jane's reputation. She was cute, and he believed she was in a relation, or based on the way she was singing earlier, maybe a recently ended relationship. He was trying to be polite, and hopefully make a friend in the process. Her music earlier, while sad and tragic, really moved them both. He was curious to learn more about what transpired her moment. He knew what transpired his.

Gente loved his duty to each starship he served on, a part of him was missing the Arlington, however he was happy to be serving on the USS Legacy. He was workaholic, and first love would always be the starship engine. He spent countless hours, keeping her in fine condition. But tonight he could somehow tell that Jane needed a friend, and he was going to be there for her.

"Thanks for the invite, normally I eat alone or down in Engineering." Gente said, thinking how to everyone else, that might seem depressing or sad. But Gente preferred to have a working lunch or a working dinner. As he stated earlier, he loved to spend a lot his free time in Engineering.

Jane appreciated Gente’s company. Though she loved to eat with people, these past few days she had either been eating alone or in her office as well. Nurse T’Kal was good company, but she rarely wanted to eat with her in the mess hall.

“I understand completely,” she said. “I love eating here with people, but it’s too busy lately. This business with the Romulans kept me in sickbay for too long. Cindy was unimpressed with how tired I was on the job.” She took a bite of the chicken Caesar salad in front of her. “But thank you for accepting my invitation. We’ve been on board for a little while now and have barely said two words to each other.”

"Sorry about that, trying to get acquainted with the ship. She is a beaut, and I have a lot to learn." Gente said, with a boyish smile, as he thought of the Legacy. "Where here now, what would you like to know?" Gente asked, he had never thought about sickbay before, he always dreaded going there. Not because of the medical staff, just in general. He preferred to be repairing the ship, not having a doctor repair him. He was trying to ease his way into asking her about her musical choice, he did not want to be insensitive. And he was genuinely interested, in why she chose those songs. As much as they moved her, they moved him too.

“Not your fault,” Jane reassured him. “I’ve not spent much time in engineering yet. This is a good thing! No one’s been seriously injured down there. “As for learning about you...well, other than engineering and swimming, what interests you? Is there anything else you like to do when not working on engines?”

"Sometimes I go down to the lounge, to relax." Gente said, leaving out the fact, he mainly did that to hide in plain site, and not make the group think, he was avoiding them. He went on to say, trying to sell this idea more to himself than her. "A little dancing too. Just a creative way to express myself."

Jane grinned. “You dance? I’d love to see that sometime,” she said. “What do you say? I play and sing, you move?” She laughed pleasantly and delightfully, hoping he knew she wasn’t teasing him. Suddenly the smile faded from her face. She had remembered discussing singing and dancing with someone, hadn’t she? Someone close? Was this related to her sadness in the music room? “I’m sorry, Gente. You’re being very pleasant and nice, but my feelings from the piano have decided to come back.”

"I understand, do you want to call it a night?" Gente asked, wanting to respect her wishes. He could tel that she was going through a rough time in her life, and needed to work through it. He would be there, if she wanted to discuss it at all.

"No, not yet," she said. "I've been thinking about the music I was playing when you came to talk to me. I found the album at an antique store on Earth just before we launched. I digitized its contents and I've been trying to play each of the songs. The album was close to thirty songs, with almost as many different musical genres represented. Their unifying feature was that they were theme songs to an old movie franchise from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. I'm not sure why I gravitated to those sad pieces though. Nor why they suddenly made me cry."

"Our subconscious mind works in mysterious ways. Pretty sure, it wants you to express yourself in a way you feel comfortable doing soo. Maybe this type of music is your subconscious mind, telling you to express how you feel." Gente said, hoping what he said, made sense to her. And hoping she was willing to hear it.

“I think you might be right, Gente,” Jane said. She gently patted his hand on the table. “The problem is, I have no idea what’s got me feeling this way. It’s like I’m missing someone, but I don’t know who, or why. It’s so strange. How do I express a feeling that I don’t understand?”

"The subconscious mind can be a bit tricky, over the years I have heard of a lot of crazy theories about how to pull the information from your subconscious mind, and bring it out. Everything from Therapy, hypnotherapy to Telepathy. Granted very few races, I know have telepathy. Not sure I like the idea of another poking around in my mind." He said, as he paused for a moment. "But others will tell you time, will reveal the answer. So I guess its all upto you, on how you want to proceed."

“Hmm,” Jane said, taking a bite of her shrinking plate of food. “Alec is a certified psychiatrist. And Nurse T’Kal has mentioned mind melds to be before. But that’s a bit extreme. I think I’ll start with time and patience.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “How do you know so much about all of this?”

"The Arlington CO, wanted me to talk about my decision not to seek promotion. He encouraged me to talk to a counselor. He believed I was making a mistake. Holding out on promotion, just so I can serve on a constitution class starship. I understood why he felt that way, but I have no desire to command a ship. So I talked to the counselor's and picked up on a couple of things." He said with a smile on his face, but deep down, he was wondering why she was squeezing his hand. He got a vibe from her, she was not interested romantically in him. He could be mistaken, but maybe she was just reaching out for a friend. He was trying to do that. But emotions are not always black and white. And he knew that.

"So you always wanted to serve on a Constitution?" Jane asked. She pulled her hand away and grabbed her water glass, taking a sip.

"Oh ya, the constitution class is a dream come true for me. Beautiful ship, a lot of time and effort went into designing her. I doubt their will ever be another ship, that had so much love put into her design process." Gente said, trying to tone down his excitement. But it was hard. He felt like he won the lottery, getting to serve on one.

Jane smiled, as Gente's enthusiasm bubbled through. "Sounds exciting! I wasn't as interested in the class as the mission. We'll occasionally be visiting colonies that are right on the frontier. I love beaming down to a planet that's been settled by real frontierspeople. I give vaccines to their children, I check up on their livestock. I consult with their own medical staff on more complicated cases. And I'm hoping to help survey new planets suitable for colonization." She sighed wistfully. "That's my future, I think. Maybe fifteen or twenty years from now. Living on some frontier world. My own medical and veterinary practice. Using my Starfleet experience to keep us all alive. Wife, children, a small herd of cats."

"Cats?" He said surprised. "I am not sure why, but I see you more of a dog person. Than a cat person." Gente said, with a big smile on his face. He heard the wife comment, and choose to let it go. He had a suspicion, she was not into him. And now he knew why. He was okay with that. No reason they could not be friends.

"Dogs are fine," Jane replied. "But there's nothing like a little cutie that jumps onto your lap when you're reading, purring softly and falling asleep on you. And they're little faces and little tiny feet!" She said that last part in a higher-pitched, squeaky voice and made a cute face, as if overwhelmed by the adorable imagery in her head.

"I see myself staying on a Starship, till my old age, then eventually going to the academy to teach the next generation of engineers on Earth, when I get ready to retire from the Fleet." Gente said, thinking to himself, that was his endgame goal, just not his goal for the moment. He wanted to be Chief Engineer of a Constitution Class Cruiser.

Jane lifted her water glass to Gente and held it for him to clink with his glass. "Here's to our long term goals." She paused for a second before adding "And new friends."

"I can cheer to that." Gente said, as he raised his glass, and gently clinked it to her glass. Then took a sip from his glass. "What about short term goals, anything your hoping to achieve?" He asked with a big grin on his face.

She took a sip of her own water and set the glass down. “Short term?” she said. “Keep you all alive. Make some new friends. Perfect some more songs. I’d love to perform for the crew sometime. How about you?”

"I hope to be the best Chief Engineer for the Legacy. She is a fine ship, and I have a lot to prove. Took me ten years to get to this point." Gente said, with a big grin on his face.

“That’s very impressive!” said Jane. “There aren’t that many Constitution-class ships out there. Starfleet would be well within its rights to give it to a Lieutenant Commander with fifteen or twenty years experience. So be proud!”

"I am proud, and I would have waited as long as it took, to get on a Connie. I am not taking this assignment for granted. I plan on being the Legacy's best engineer, she's ever had. I know big shoes to fill." He said, with such passion in his voice.

“You’ll do well,” Jane said. “Tell you what. You keep our engines running and getting us to our next destination. I’ll keep us all alive and healthy. We take joint credit for the most successful Constitution-class mission ever recorded!” She laughed softly at her own little joke.

"We are two vital pieces to the success of the Legacy." He said with a big grin on his face. He knew she was joking around, and he was trying to play along. It was a good sign to see his friend laughing. "But surely the command staff will get all the credit." He said with a big smirk on his face.

Jane returned his smirk. “We’ll let them take the credit.” She leaned in and whispered conspiratorially “But we’ll both know the truth.” She pulled back and winked. “Gente, thank you for cheering me up. I needed this today. I’m not sure why, but I did. This dinner has been nice. We should talk more often.”

"Agreed, we should." Gente said with a big grin on his face. He was starting to think, it might be a good time to call it a night, and end on a positive note. Plus he wanted to get back down to engineering. "Well I should be heading back to Engineering. I have a few systems I want to check out." He said with a big grin on his face. Knowing that Jane would understand.

“Of course,” Jane replied. She stood and gathered her empty dishes and brought them to their drop off area. “I should check in with sickbay, then I’ll probably get an early night. Talk soon, yeah?”

"Night." Gente said, as they both went there separate ways. The scene starts to fade.

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