It was late, so very late. : : : : Nash entered the lounge sometime after his late shift on the bridge had come to an end. He had returned to his quarters, showered and changed into his trademark leather high collared jacket and casual slacks, and decided that he wasn’t tired and his quarters felt somehow empty tonight, not that he was in any way interested in that kind of company. Nash simply felt like being alone with people, in the way the drifter sat at the corner table of the bar and nursed his drink, or the way the traveler finished a meal and kept his own business to himself before boarding the next ship to nowhere. : : : : Sliding onto the bar stool the bartender slid him over a drink that that he knew that Lt Cmdr enjoyed, a strong smoky orange and toffee flavored whiskey that wasn’t for the faint hearted, and was made to be sipped and enjoyed. Nash sat for a while lost in his own thoughts, not really thinking, just existing in that place where calm is found while he let the low level of activity carry on around him. : : : : A slight commotion and two bodies near him brought him out of his reverie. Nash didn’t move or change his expression, but he had become aware of two crew members talking, one of whom had a voice that jogged in the back of Nash’s mind. “I’m telling you it’s him. I served with him on two ships. The guy is the reason they are all dead, he disobeyed direct orders and got his ship destroyed at Atoreme. We barely made it out in the escape pods before it lost power, and apparently he only made it because another ship ran the risk of being detected by the Breen to rescue survivors, they picked him out of the wreckage in an EVA suit, the coward couldn’t even go down with the ship after getting everyone else killed.” : : : : A muscle twitched in the side of Nash’s cheek, that wasn’t exactly how it went but that was the common story that was told, and it was what Starfleet had believed. And apparently at least one of these two as well. Straightening from over his drink Nash turned to the two, taking out his cigar and placing it down on the ashtray on the bar top, then with a seeming flick of his fingers making the coin between them disappear, a neat little trick and habit he had picked up somewhere. “Do you two muppets have a problem?” he growled, his eyes moving from one to the other with obvious disinterest. : : : : “Yeah” Said the taller and more bulky of the two, a Lieutenant from the Sciences division, “You’re Nash. The guy that lost the Renown at the Battle of Atoreme.” It was statement, not a question, and as Nash looked at the man a vague recognition came over him. “Hallessley” he said, recognizing the man but making no further effort to engage him in conversation. “Leave him” said the smaller man, “He’s the CTO and a Lieutenant Commander, he’s not worth time and your drunk Hallessley.” The larger man scoffed, “He’s a murderer and a coward, he doesn’t deserve to be on this ship. The prick is just going to get us all killed again.” The larger man reached forward, looking like he was about to take Nash by the collar. “How’d they give you more pips anyway?” he said, “They threw you in prison and busted you to Ensign, threw away the key.” : : : : Nash’s hand came up and stopped the large man’s a few inches from his jacket, the pressure Nash applied without seeming to make an effort made the big man wince, but he couldn’t withdraw his hand as Nash held it at just the right pressure point. “Yes, they gave me more pips” he said, his voice low but harsh, and fast running out of patience. “They also took me out of prison to give me these pips. Well, not they. People with more brains in their heads than either of you two Officers have had your entire careers. Grow up and learn about life kids, sometimes you have to make hard decisions.” Nash pushed the mans hand away from him, still applying the pressure and now the situation was obvious to all three of them that punches were only barely being held back. “Call me a murderer, fine. I can live with that, I already do. But call me a coward one more time and I will break something that will make your pretty boy face look more like you’re able to make those hard choices. It’ll probably get you laid more.” With a shove push Nash pushed the larger man away from him as he let go, but the man stepped right back in confronting Nash once more. “Your a coward Nash” he told him, “You should be dead, you owe the crew of the Renown that. It was your responsibility to them to get them out, and you chose to go against orders and get everyone killed.” : : : : “I told you” Nash told the man, slowly sliding off the chair and coming to his feet, “Not to call me that.” He looked at the two of them then at the lounge and smirked, but the look held no humor or joy. It was the look of a man who had work to do. “If I could go back, Hallessley” Nash told the man, “I would do every bit the same. I would make the same call, and kill everybody again.” That made Hallessley look like he had been physically slapped, then the look of anger he had held before returned, but more intensely. “I told you already, you make the hard calls, but you make sure they are right. I don’t care if you or Starfleet think what I did was wrong, I have three thousand colonists that are alive because of what I did and the lives I took, and that’s the promise I made when I joined the service.” Nash didn’t say anything about what had happened on the ship after the power went down, or what happened during the fire before hand, he had never told anybody. Nobody had ever bothered to ask or listen, or believe him. But Nash knew it was the balance to his decision to kill his crew, and as such, was his to remember. “If you have issue with it, meet me in the boxing ring tomorrow after shift. Both of you. You can both show me how much of a coward I am. Now get out of my face before you make me do something that isn’t such a hard decision.” : : : : Sliding back on to his chair, Nash watched the two leave after a few rather quietly muttered insults in his general direction. He knew it had to happen sooner or later, somebody who survived would run across him. Getting a refill of his whiskey Nash replaced the cigar, lit it with the skull and crossbones carved flip lighter, and proceeded to flip the coin that magically appeared in his hand, over the back of his fingers, backwards and forwards, while he stared into his drink lost in memories. : : : : Lt Cmdr Ethan Nash : : CTO : : “You handled that well,” Kelly said talking a seat next to Nash. “Coral,” she extended her hand. “Coral Lumpkins,” she gave him a half grin then signaled for a beer. : “I will have security pick them up. Regardless of their opinion of you, which is wrong by the way, I will not have my senior officer treated like that.” Taking a swig of her beer Kelly looked around. “Hey Nash…question for you. Will there be a car chase at the end,” she felt her lips spread into a smile as she set the beer down. : : Captain Kelly Shultz Nash looked at Kelly and sighed slightly, then took a sip of his drink and regarded her a bit closer. “Coral” he said to her, using the moniker she had used on Rho Puppis, “leave them be, this is the love boat you spoke of isn’t it? You don’t want your brig to get an unsavory reputation, and if we hold them, word will just spread as to why. No, better to let them come and face me down in the boxing ring tomorrow, they will accept a fair fight, but if we pick them up their resentment will only grow. You don’t want that on your ship, Captain Lumpkin. : “I am not looking to have a ship of arse hats either,” Kelly took a swig of her drink. “Everybody is damaged if they spend enough time in this organization. The people that don’t admit it are liars. People like us…well we just don’t go around with it tattooed on our forehead. Still, you are their senior ranking officer so if you don’t kick their arses boxing I will have to take action so don’t disappoint me,” she gave him a wink.

He pushed his glass forward slightly and the barkeep topped him up, then poured a measure for Kelly as well so she had two now, including her beer. “You don’t want a car chase from here,” he said, his voice low but his lips turning into a slight smirk. “Your corridors are much to tight and the driver last time doesn’t know how to corner properly, his tail end was a bit loose and his stick work was shoddy. Then again you get that when your pet Officers are fresh out of High School, Coral.”

“Pet officer? He is a Lt. in Starfleet and almost 30,” Kelly cocked an eyebrow looking at him. “Ian and I work very closely but I can assure you he is not the type to bow down and cow-tow unfortunately. I mean there are times I have to wait a good four minutes for a cup of coffee. Completely unacceptable,” she made light of the situation. “With age comes wisdom and with youth comes stamina,” Kelly picked up the shot and made a toast.

:He picked up his glass again and gave her a mock toast, “To the Minnow” he said. Then looked at her with a raised eyebrow. “So why are you here at this hour?” He asked her, then a note of mock suspicion entered his voice, “You aren’t here to start more bar fights are you? From what I saw you have that skill down right.” Lt Cmdr Nash CTO

“Why am I here,” she rolled the glass around their fingertips. “Good question. When I have an equally good answer I will share it,” she said in a neutral tone looking around the room. “I guess we can go with the standard I can’t sleep or the I am an incurable insomniac excuse but even as little as we really know each other you would know I was lying. If we are going, to be honest, my guess is that we are here for the same reason.”

Captain Kelly Shultz