Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room

Posted by Commander Shara Calloway (Executive Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room

Posted by Captain Sara Kiernan (Commanding Officer) in Deck 6 - Captain’s Dining Room

(snip)

Shara grinned and leaned forward. “You know I play the guitar and the piano, right?” she said, a glimmer in her eyes. “Hobbies are good. They ground us in the moment and take us out of the grind. Not that I am even a good example of this balance. But having that guitar here with me, I have played a few minutes most nights before bed, just to calm myself and focus on something that gives me joy.”

~Shara Calloway, XO

Sara smiled back. “I never fashioned you the artsy type. Maybe I’ll try and get myself a nice guitar. We can jam sometime.” She chuckled through her nose, lost momentarily in memory. “My dad- he couldn’t sing worth a damn. But he had this old, maybe older than him, guitar. He played lullabies to put me and my brother to sleep. When I was older he thought me to play. Can’t stray too far from your roots, right?” As much as it was a reference to her father and the instrument they shared a love for, it also meant the legacy of officers in her family.

-CO

Shara forced herself to draw in a more full breath and nodded ever so slightly. “Depends, but I guess in this case I agree. I learned to play the piano from my classically trained mother. She was a government administrator by day, and played piano for an orchestra by night. There was never a time in my childhood that theer wasn’t music. It changed after she died though. I was fourteen. That was two years before I got pregnant and ran away,” she said with a snort. I never let go of music per se, but it was hard to keep in my life until recently.”

“It’s nice you have it back. I imagine the little bit of stability that is Micah helps make it a little easier to maintain now.”

Shara nodded. “He encourages me to play. We made a pact about music after we got married. I try to fulfill it and I would say I’m mostly successful.” While she didn’t get to sing to him every day, and their last mission screwed with that promise, she was back to at least humming to him at some point during the day.

“Tell me about your dad,” she said with a smile.

~Shara Calloway, XO

Sara sighed. “When my parents met, he was a senior officer, Chief Engineer on a massive ship. Probably a candidate to be an XO soon. She was there on some assignment from the Federation Council representative she was working for. It was never really clear… but she was traveling on the same ship my dad served on. I guess both our moms were in government. My parents got married and they knew they wanted to have a family. He requested a transfer to Earth. So we’d grow up safe. He got a position at the academy teaching an entry level engineering course. My mom moved up the ranks and became a senior advisor. But it was such a demanding schedule, she was away as often as not and dad was always around. My brother and I were always closer to him. And since we both followed in his family’s footsteps and joined up, it’s kinda stuck that way.”

-CO

“I’m frankly envious,” Shara said. “Though I can imagine it was hard having your mom away so much. Ironically, Starfleet has become our family tradition though none of it was planned. My brother joined first and is a starship captain, and then of course Faye opted to join all on her own. I stayed in Starfleet because we made it back from the Delta Quadrant and Starfleet was all I had at the time. Life’s funny that way.”

“What’s your brother up to these days?” Yes, Shara knew Sara’s file, but it was better to have natural conversations and see what was different and what might have changed. And just because Shara could pry, didn’t mean she always did.

~Shara Calloway, XO