Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Captain’s Quarters- If You Can’t Stand the Heat

Posted by Lieutenant Faye Calloway (Mission Specialist) in Captain’s Quarters- If You Can’t Stand the Heat

Posted by Captain Alexander Cochrane (Commanding Officer) in Captain’s Quarters- If You Can’t Stand the Heat
Posted by… suppressed (5) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

She laughed. “Oh, it is,” Faye said as she grabbed the bottle and brought it over. “Remember, the heat of cooking activates the heat within, but the rest of the stuff makes it more pleasant as it burns your throat and tongue. The one bright side to the Romulans killing my taste buds for the first year during my recovery is that I could eat it even hotter,” she said with a chuckle.

Taking a bite, the heat was instantly searing, but then you could taste each vegetable in turn followed by the soothing blandness of the bread. It was, in her eyes, the perfect food. Followed by a generous swallow of her dealcoholized wine, it was all in all just… right.

“Okay, rules. The recipe is now your, and I’ll give you the details on the brine and the ratio for the bread, but…”-she peered at him seriously-“all I ask is that should you ever choose to share the recipe with someone, you make sure they are worthy of it. The story is mine, but if there’s anything I’ve been learning it’s that I can’t accept mine until I let people like Jaris and T’Lora be a part of mine again. But at the same time, I still don’t think just anyone is worthy of hasperat this good,” she said, her grey-green eyes sparkling.

~Faye Calloway

Alex took a bite a low moan escaped his lips and he closed his eyes and savored the flavor and the heat. Slowly chewing, he tried to imagine the dish being shared around a communal fire and with friends… and he smiled and opened his eyes. Swallowing, he said “Oh… that is good.” and he took a drink. He shook his head as he swallowed and then inhaled deeply. Looking at Faye, one eye watered and he laughed. Wiping away the tear, he said “Now this I can promise. I may share the dish, but I won’t share the recipe with anyone except my mom, if that’s okay. I think she would appreciate the dish almost as much as the story that goes with it. Vas’tur has a strong sence of tradition and the emotions connected to it. Even as a Vulcan, she is probably the most empathetic individual I know.”

Cochrane

Faye actually clapped giddily as the spicy dish provoked his perfect reaction. That was what it was all about. “I approve! I only know her through what you’ve told me and her poetry, but I suspect she’d understand. So… please feel free to share the whole story with her. I think she’d understand T’Lora.”

She considered him for a moment as she chewed another bite. “Do you have anything you’d consider a perfect happy memory, Alex?”

~Faye Calloway

Alex looked at Faye for a brief second and then he gave her question serious consideration. After a few bites and contemplation, he shook his head. “A perfect happy memory…? Honestly… no. I don’t believe I do. I have very fond memories of when I was a child… but those are tainted by what transpired between my parents afterwards. I have good memories. I have sad ones. But for me, I suppose, I have yet to find that perfect happy one.” and he took a drink and then filled up the wine glasses again.

Cochrane

Taking her refilled glass and giving it a swirl so the stone could work (if that even was what it needed to work), Faye sipped the lovely Chateau Picard vintage, rather honoured he had shared it with her. “Plenty of time for that yet,” she said softly. “And, for now, I got to share mine with you.”

Faye considered him for another moment after taking another bite of the spicy wrap. “Can we talk about her? Your mother, I mean, and everything that went down.”

~Faye Calloway

Alex figured the question… questions?… about his biological mother would come up eventually; it always did. It was, after all, extremely public (some of it); and extremely dramatic.

Speaking round a mouthful of hasparat, he nodded and said “Sure.” and reached for his glass and washed down the heat. He leaned back with the glass and looked at Faye. “What do you want to know?”

Cochrane

There were any number of ways they could discuss it, and she wasn’t trying to bring up painful things, but mother-complications were something they had in common. “was she always… unstable, or was it the fallout after everything that tipped things towards her acting out?” The record spoke of the public events but often there were signs earlier on. He had said there had been happy memories, so she didn’t want to discount that everything had been fine before Deborahs’s missteps had become public.

~Faye Calloway

“She has always had to be in control. Me, my sister, my dad… hell, she tried to make changes to my dad and Vastur’s wedding. That desire to us probably what made her a good officer when she was first in Star Fleet. Probably got her where it did, too. But it is always what ultimately pushed her too far.” He took a sip and sighed slightly.

Faye would disagree that someone trying to control everything made for good leadership, but she swallowed that thought in a sip of wine.

“I wish she was mentally ill… I really do. It would give a reason for what she has done. But she’s not sick… not ‘unstable’. No, Faye… unfortunately she’s just a b***h.”

Cochrane

She nodded. “I’m sorry. Not that it’s much consolation, but that bit in your record where you stood your ground as a cadet? That is what made me interested to get to know you. Everything else was too… tidy, squeaky clean. That told me mire about you as a person than the whole file,” she said with a smile.

~Faye Calloway