Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn (Chief of Security) in COS Quarters - Birthday Blues

Posted by Major Vektul (Chief Engineer) in COS Quarters - Birthday Blues

Posted by Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn (Chief of Security) in COS Quarters - Birthday Blues
Posted by… suppressed (13) by the Post Ghost! 👻
Today was Rado’s tenth birthday without the people that had mattered most to him: his family. Ten years. He’s changed so much. Would they even recognize him if they were alive today?

He sat dejectedly at his new dining table, eating a jumja stick. But not even that could cheer him up. Sighing, he looked at the two pictures that he had set up. The first one was a grainy image of his mother Rado Cife and his sister Rado Xamis at the one Gratitude Festival that they managed to get to. Rado didn’t having that picture as a reminder of his mother’s and sister’s faces. The quality of the photo was awful and taken six years before their deaths, but alas, it was the only photo of them that survived the Occupation.

But at least that photo was of his family members. He looked at the photo that he had substituted as a photo of his father. It had originally been a photo of some politican from Earth by the name of Lyndon Johnson but with the assistance of a marker, Lyndon Johnson the Human became Rado Milol the Bajoran farmer. The resemblance may be uncanny, but Rado couldn’t fool himself into thinking that he was looking at his father.

He could have used the much better and clearer pictures of his family that the Federation News Network had managed to find and released in one of their journalist’s report called The Victims of the Cardassian Occupation of Bajor, but Rado couldn’t bring himself to look. It hurt too much.

He looked at his half-eaten jumja stick and mumbled to himself, “Happy Birthday.”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Major Vektul paused outside the door, consulting the PADD in his hand. He frowned slightly, then looked up at the room number. A moment’s hesitation.

This was supposed to be Ensign Thol’s quarters.

He pressed the door chime.

And waited.

-Major Vektul
Chief Engineer
USS Memorial

Rado’s door chimed, much to his surprise. He wasn’t expecting any visitors and he hadn’t mentioned that it was his birthday to anyone, not even T’Han or Ervim Kudas. So who could it be?

He bit off the last bits of his jumja stick and answered the door. Upon seeing that it was a Romulan, he froze for a split second, thinking that the Memorial had been infiltrated again. But he soon saw the Romulan wearing an engineering uniform, so he leaned against the door frame and said, “Um…Can I, uh, help you?”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

BUMP!

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul took in the sight of the young officer—unguarded, casual, surprised—and then, just briefly, the smell of something sweet lingering in the air. Jumja root, perhaps. The scent was unfamiliar, but not unpleasant.

He inclined his head slightly in acknowledgment.

“I was looking for Ensign Thol,” he said. “This is not Ensign Thol’s door.”

His eyes flicked past Rado’s shoulder, uninvited but not intrusive—just enough to register the dimmed lighting, the lone table, the faint shimmer of a holophoto nearby.

“Regardless,” he added, “you opened it.”

There was the faintest hint of something behind his voice—an almost imperceptible shift in tone. Not warmth. But recognition.

Vektul offered a single, subtle nod. “My apologies… Lieutenant.”

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
USS Memorial

“No, no, it’s, uh, no big deal. Only the Prophets know how many wrong doors I’ve knocked on. Ensign Thol’s quarters is, uh, down the hall and to the left. I realized that the, uh, Romulan numeric system must be different from the Federation way.” Rado said, hoping to provide an explantation.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul gave the faintest of nods at the correction. “The systems are not so different,” he said. “But the logic beneath them often is.”

He did not move immediately. His gaze returned briefly to the interior of the quarters—another glance, not invasive, but sharp in its clarity. A table set for one. The residue of something ceremonial, or personal. A quiet.

His brow shifted—barely. A crease. Thought, perhaps. Or memory.

“You were observing a remembrance,” he said. Not a question.

A pause followed. No apology this time. No discomfort. Just the faint hum of corridor lights, and Vektul, standing with hands behind his back, offering no explanation for why he still hadn’t turned to leave.

He added, quietly, “My intrusion was poorly timed.”

And yet… he remained.

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial

Rado sucked his teeth. “That’s…uh… somewhat true. Today’s… my birthday. I prefer having my birthday dinner with their pictures than in a holodeck. Even if those photos aren’t…good.” He said, looking back at the pictures that laid on his desk.

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul’s gaze followed Rado’s to the photographs. He did not need to ask who they were.

For an instant—brief as a flicker of a console light—he saw other faces. A girl with her mother’s sharp eyes and his steady hands. A boy with hair that refused to stay combed, no matter how Sehan tried. Lira. Terel. The names were a quiet echo he did not speak aloud.

He drew in a slow breath through his nose, letting the image pass without visible change in expression.

“No one should observe such a day entirely alone,” he said at last.

A pause, as if testing the weight of unfamiliar words.

“What is the expression… happy birthday?”

His brow shifted faintly, the closest thing to a smile he allowed in uniform.

“If your intent is to dine with them,”—he inclined his head toward the photos—“then perhaps they would not object to one additional seat.”

He left the offer there, standing in the corridor, waiting for Rado to decide.

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial

Rado was confused. “Uh, do you mean you?” Rado said surprised. This was the first time he met this man and he already asked to dine with him. Romulan customs must have been weird.

Then again, the folks back on Bajor called him ‘Weird Space Boy’. “I’m, uh, sure they wouldn’t. Come on in.”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul stepped inside, the door closing softly behind him. His gaze moved briefly over the space — the table, the photos, the remnants of the meal — before returning to Rado.

“I do not mark my own day of birth,” he said. “The date is… not a cause for celebration.”

A pause, measured.

“But my children would have expected me to observe theirs.” His eyes shifted once more toward the photographs on the table. “They would have insisted.”

He moved closer, stopping just short of the table, hands clasped loosely behind his back.

“So, Lieutenant… if today is yours, then I will observe it with you. Not because tradition compels me. But because no one should be left to honor such a day in silence.”

He glanced toward the table again before meeting Rado’s eyes.

“Where shall I sit?”

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial

“Anywhere is fine.” Rado said, pulling out his PADD. If he was going to have a birthday dinner with a stranger, he probably might as well invite his friend T’Han. He sent her a message and put the PADD in his pocket.

“So, uh,” Rado began, “Vektul, right?”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul inclined his head once in acknowledgment and took the nearest seat, settling into it with the same deliberate precision he gave to every movement. His hands rested loosely on the table’s edge, posture upright but not imposing.

“Vektul,” he confirmed, his tone even. “Major, by rank. Chief Engineer by assignment.”

His gaze shifted briefly toward the photographs again before returning to Rado.

“You are Lieutenant Gainn. Chief of Security.”

Not a question—just the quiet statement of a fact already known.

After a short pause, he added, “I am unfamiliar with the customs surrounding a birthday meal. You may set the terms of it, Lieutenant.”

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial

“Nothing much, really,” Rado said, waving his hand and walking to the food synthesizer. “What can I get you?”

“Also Gainn is my first name,” Rado corrected. “Bajoran surnames go first. But you are far from the first non-Bajoran to make that error.”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul inclined his head. “My error. Bajoran surnames precede the familiar name.”

A brief pause, his gaze flicking to the table before returning to Rado. “It will not be repeated, Lieutenant Rado.”

He shifted slightly in his chair—enough to suggest a recalibration rather than discomfort. “If your synthesizer supports Romulan programming, tea will suffice. Low tannin. And a small portion of viinerine, plain.” The request was made without hesitation, as though reciting an established habit.

“Among my people, formal observances mark occasions such as this,” he continued once the order was made. “For most Humans, I am told, the focus is… less formal. Cake. Candles.” The last word carried the faintest trace of uncertainty, as if he were testing its place in the sentence.

His brow furrowed a fraction. “How do Bajoran birthday customs differ from Human ones?”

It was as close to casual conversation as he seemed prepared to venture, and it lingered in the air with a faint, deliberate weight.

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial

“Typically, we, uh, tell stories of the birthday boy or girl while having food of their choice,” Rado answered after putting Vektul’s order into the food synthesizer. Once the food materialized, he brought it to the table, “But seeing as we just met and I already ate, I’ll let it pass. We can wait until T’Han gets here to tell stories.”

Lieutenant Junior Grade Rado Gainn
Chief of Security

Vektul’s posture shifted almost imperceptibly, the line of his shoulders stiffening as understanding settled in. Another guest had been expected—someone with history here, someone whose presence would not be incidental. His presence, by contrast, was an intrusion.

He rose from his chair with quiet precision, leaving the viinerine untouched on the table.

“My error,” he said, the words clipped but not unkind. “I assumed your intent was solitude. Clearly it was not.”

His gaze flicked once more to the photographs, then returned to Rado with the barest inclination of his head.

“I will not trespass further on your observance. Lieutenant Rado, I thank you for the courtesy extended.”

With that, he stepped back from the table, posture straight and deliberate, preparing to take his leave.

¥Major Vektul¥
Chief Engineer
U.S.S. Memorial