A random meeting

Posted on Sun Sep 1st, 2024 @ 9:04pm by Lieutenant Callie Knight & Lieutenant Connor Hayden

1,571 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mystery at Ryloth
Location: Crew Lounge
Timeline: MD3
Tags: 2396, Character development

Deciding to take her lunch break away from her office Callie headed for the crew lounge, it was a good place to make herself visible to people if they simply wanted to say hello. Walking through the doors she headed to choose her food and a drink, settling on a Vulcan salad and a refreshing lemonade as accompaniment, she headed for a quiet table in the corner to sit down to eat.

Connor found himself staring out the view port in the lounge, his mind was cluttered with the events of the last forty hours, he'd really not had a moment to stop and evaluate anything, and after almost nine years in Starfleet he was questioning what, he'd seen things he couldn't talk about, done stuff no one would know. He turned to see someone from medical walking by he casually said "Hello."

Callie paused offering a warm smile. “Hello” She looked around before looking back again. “I know there’s plenty of room at present, but would you mind if I joined you?”

Connor looked at his sudden guest and without much thought "Sure, I'm Connor Hayden." he said

“Callie Knight” She gently placed her tray down before sitting and making herself as comfortable as she could be given her condition. “I’m Chief Counsellor.”

Connor smiled, "That makes me the resident spy then.." he said with a small snicker.

Callie couldn’t help but grin at that response. “That’s one response I wasn’t expecting, but I like it. So how goes the spy business these days?” She picked up her glass and sipped her lemonade.

"It's a secret." Connor said trying to see if a joke might break the ice, "But in all honesty it's changed, more in the last few years with all of the new minor powers, you don't know who the real bad guy is anymore and sometimes you have to make a decision you hope doesn't end up on the nightly news."

“I can understand that” Callie nodded. “It must be pretty difficult, I have the advantage of my empathic and telepathic senses. I can tell when someone is lying to me.” She paused to eat some of her salad.

Connor raised an eyebrow interesting he thought to himself "how long have you been in starfleet now?"

“I graduated the Academy four years ago” Callie paused to eat a little more salad. “My foster parents are Human, and both are Starfleet Officers. I’m a Betazoid. Long story short my foster parents saved me and raised me as their own.”

"My sister and I spent the majority of our younger years between starbases and starships, My dad was a captain until about a year ago, mom was an MD spending a lot of her time between starbases and earth so I never had a permanent home and after almost nine years in starfleet, six of which were on earth, well most of it, I got sent out to an outpost to oversee a few operations then three days ago I got reassigned here with little more than a perfunctory 'We're shutting down your operations' and here I am."

“Wow that’s fast!” Callie shook her head. “Nothing like moving you at short notice. My real parents were killed, I was found by a Starfleet crew and taken to Starfleet medical. My adoptive mother is a medical officer, she took me home and I was eventually adopted. I don’t know much about my homeworld, I’ve visited once but it was a brief visit. When my abilities kicked in I was taken to Vulcan, to learn from them how to master control.” She grinned. “I do tend to act a little Vulcan like sometimes as a result.”

"Life has a way of handing out curves, which is where my own dilemma begins." Connor said setting a pad down.

Callie gave Connor a curious look. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

"I don't know how much you know about our upcoming mission, but there's an overlap from my previous work and there's a potential problem," He paused seeing that they were alone "One of my team got trapped undercover working with a group of arms dealers and I keep getting stonewalled on retrieving her, plus she may have insights we could use."

“Okay” Callie nodded. “Have you mentioned this to the Commander? I don’t have a high enough security clearance to be able to delve into the details. My clearances are purely medical. I’d still like to help though.”

"I've tried, but it's not exactly been easy to have a one on one conversation with all of the tension surrounding this mission, plus despite the differences there's something about talking with you, you had to learn to control and develop your abilities and I had to learn to only volunteer the relevant information, call it a similar and mutual discipline, plus, how do you think the CO will react when someone shows up saying 'oh by the way there's an undercover agent possibly whose potentially compromised and might be putting this mission at risk?' not exactly a good way to make an impression." Connor said

“What kind of impression do you think it’ll make if you don’t say anything and the agent is compromised.” Callie sat back in her seat resting her hand on her rounded stomach. “Honesty tends to be the best policy, that way worst case preparations can be made.”

Connor caught himself "You're right." He paused "So far you're the only member of the crew that hasn't left me feeling like an outsider."

Callie nodded understandingly. “I know it’s not easy, some people keep their distance simply because they don’t know you, others are suspicious of those in certain fields, people tend to avoid me because I’m the ship’s shrink!” She smiled a wry smile. “Guess we’ll both have to win people over.”

"The grey uniform doesn't help me either." he said with a smile.

“Exactly” Callie nodded. “Once people get to know you that’ll change.”

"you're right." Connor said.

“I certainly hope so!” Callie grinned as she paused to sip her lemonade. “So tell me more about you, what do you like to do in your off hours?”

"I golf from time to time, hiking when the mood strikes otherwise I'm fairly boring." Connor said nonchalantly

“Fair enough, there’s not a lot you can do aboard a starship besides visit the holodeck to get away from it all I guess. My hobbies are fairly mixed. Give it another four months I’ll have my daughter to keep me busy.” She smiled warmly.

Connor didn't want to read this wrong, "Oh, well that'll definitely keep you busy, is your husband posted somewhere he can't have family?"

Callie’s smile faded a little. “Oh, no. My husband and I are...divorced.” She paused. “The hazard of falling head over heels, and marrying quickly. Things don’t work out how you imagined they might. It’s just me now, trying to figure out how to be a single parent.”

Connor wasn't sure if it was a sticky topic but without thinking he blurted out "I never married, let alone had a long term relationship."

“There’s nothing wrong with that” Callie offered a smile. “I think the lesson I’ve learned is not to rush into a long term relationship, to let things work out in their own time. You’ll find someone you like one day, when you do take your time to get it right, you won’t regret it.”

"You're probably right, I've spent too much time hiding away from life I guess." Connor replied.

“I doubt it” Callie smiled warmly. “You’ve just been extra cautious.” She paused to sip her drink. “Anytime you want to chat feel free to drop by, or make an appointment, on or off record I don’t mind.”

"I might take you up on that offer." Connor paused 'Dumbass... was that her being professional or what?

Callie gave an apologetic smile sensing some confusion . “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to confuse you, that was a personal invite not a professional one, and no I didn’t read your mind, just your emotions.”

Connor froze, "I uh...ah..." the confusion was more than obvious.

“Oh... I didn’t mean to sound like I was...” Callie blushed. “That was meant as a friendly invite.”

Connor felt himself suddenly clue in "I think the sleep deprivation plus being on the go for so long I wasn't thinking straight, I should apologize."

Callie waved it off. “Don’t worry, most men wouldn’t look at a pregnant woman twice. I’m still getting used to the idea of being a single parent.”

"Well if you need someone to talk to, I'm good at keeping secrets." he said with a laugh

“I’ll bear that in mind” Callie grinned. “The same goes for you, anytime you need to vent just drop on by.”

=^="Lieutenant Hayden there's a subspace message coming in."=^=

"Duty Calls again." Connor said "I'll take it in my office." he stood too leave "Nice to meet you."

“Likewise Lieutenant” Callie smiled warmly. “I’ll see you around.”

=/\=End=/\=

Lieutenant Connor Hayden
Chief Intelligence officer
USS Oceanus

&

Lieutenant Callie Knight
Chief Counsellor
USS Oceanus

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