Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in side-sim Still in the Lounge

<snip>

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in side-sim Still in the Lounge

Casela pouted, actually pouted. “Ryder took them away and left them in the lounge, but....” she got up and put a request for whisky into the replicator. The default was synthohol, but real alcohol could be gotten simply by adjusting a simple setting. And since she hadn’t asked for anything from the replicator that night, she was able to get the bottle and a glass. She walked over and handed both to Zachariah. She could see from the look on his face he was uncomfortable with her again. And it was always the same thing, with everyone- her telepathy. “You know one of these days I’ll have the paracortex of my brain removed and no one will look at me like that anymore.” She wouldn’t drink with Zachariah. Ryder had been right, an hour ago it had been far past time for her to stop drinking. The Captain was welcome to the whole bottle. She knew the look without reading his mind, and it hurt. Zachariah’s opinion mattered to her, and she didn’t like how he saw her at the moment. “Normally I’d tell you, your wrong. I don’t use my telepathy that much, but tonight I’m too drunk to know one way or the other.”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

Cobb regarded the glass as one might look at a broken stem bolt, then set it aside and drunk deeply from the bottle.
“Aye, I know,” he nodded. “I can tell when you’ve been poking around. In here,” he tapped at his temple.

The drink was comforting, soothing, and for a while demanded his full attention as he found a spot on the floor, loosened his tunic, stretched out his legs in front of him and drained almost half the bottle.

Then finally regarding his company once more, he sighed, “This thing with the shadow really rattled you, eh, lass? I wouldn’t worry too much. There’s not much physical they can do to you out here. Not with all of us around you, at any rate.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela tried to laugh but it came out a little hysterical so she stopped. “I work for a branch of star fleet that works in the shadows, whose enforcer is named “shadow” and we are trained to get in and out of places that are crowded and highly watched and never be seen.” She looked at him, “Yeah, I’m more than a little rattled.” She stared up at the ceiling. “There is no one around, Zachariah. It’s just me, and now I have Gen to look after.” She kept looking at the ceiling. She was NOT going to cry again, she just wasn’t.
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“Hey,” Cobb attempted to stem the threat of tears. “We have Gen to look after. You’re not alone, Cas. And there is no shame in letting others help.”

The corner of Casela’s mouth twitched. “She really likes you, you know. She likes it here. She…” Casela sighs, “she asked me if she was safe here, if I would be here to keep her safe.” And she was child, and there was no other answer Casela was capable of giving her. “She’s really brilliant and insightful, and so lost.” Gen was a concern for another night though.

He laughed dryly, his eyes fixed on hers. “I know you have your reputation to uphold here, the tough-as-nails war veteran that nobody can break. And don’t worry, I’m not about to go telling tales to Raauhl or Manhattan. But. you don’t have to keep it up with me.”

“I’m so sick of it all, Zachariah.” He had no idea about her ability to not be broken. Ryder had seen the evidence of it, but he hadn’t bothered to ask, yet. “I think Ryder might argue with you about keeping my secrets from him.” She groaned. “Oh I’m drunk. You didn’t hear that.”

At the mention of his second-in-command and the pair’s anything-but-secret relationship, Cobb’s eyebrows ascended to his hairline. But the questions and comments crowding on his tongue could be swallowed for another, more suitable, moment.

He punctuated his sentence with a wink. You’re not the only one that can tell what others are thinking.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

She caught the wink and the thought. “And that’s what makes you such a good captain.” She sighs up at the ceiling again. “What do I…what do we do now?”
Lt. Synthi-er, CNS

“We do exactly what we’ve been doing,” Zachariah declared emphatically as he struggled back onto his feet, his bad leg aching from the position he had forced it into on the floor. “We complete our mission, we get this anomaly squared away where it can’t hurt anyone else and we lose as few crewmembers as is possible in the process. And once the deed is done, we be sure to give an honourable send-off to those sacrificed in the line of duty.”

He moved to take a seat by her side, one hand reaching out and taking hold of hers. “We owe the ARU our commitment to this mission and to this vessel. We owe this crew our commitment to ensuring that they can offer the same. And after all of that, we don’t owe a single bloody thing to anyone else.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb