After some small talk and a turbolift ride, they arrived in the lounge. Magnus ordered himself a chicken salad with lemon soda water and found a seat near the viewport and waited for his meal partner

XO

Sage joined him a moment later with a lunch of chicken breast with avocado slices and a cucumber salad on the side. Her drink of choice was iced water. It was one of her favorite meals and supplied enough protein to make it through even the busiest afternoon. Once seated, she picked up a knife and fork, cut and skewed her first bite and looked at the Cmdr. “Okay, how about three questions, any subject, with nothing off limits?” It was a fast way to get an idea of who Peturrson was—it also left her open to his questions.

—Sage

Magnus took a slow sip of his carbonated water before answering with a smile “Alright sounds fair, apparently, I had a similar conversation with our IntSec officer” He gave a slight chuckle “I’ll start with a simple one, why Starfleet?” He asked with genuine curiosity, taking the time to eat a little as she answered.

XO

Surprised to hear he’d already had a ‘no holds barred’ conversation with security, Sage raised her brows, but answered the question honestly. “My family owns a travel business. It’s actually become rather successful and I think the plan was for my brothers and I to take it over when mom and dad got tired of the daily grind.” She chewed a slice of cucumber before continuing. “I never wanted any part of it. I thought it was boring and that I’d regret settling for it. I mean, it was our goal to design the most exciting trips through the universe a customer could afford—why do that for strangers and not for myself?”

“My oldest brother shared some of my thinking. He’s a clothing designer with his own label—one reason I have some beautiful and unique pieces in my wardrobe. The second oldest is responsible for the agency now. I’ve always loved the stars…it was a simple decision for me.”

—Sage

bump

Magnus nodded with interest, he wasn’t overly familiar with how travel businesses worked but her reasoning was sound. “I get that, seeing the universe is on the brochure,” He said with a wry smile “Alright, how did you and the Captain start your relationship,” He said delving deeper into the ‘no holds barred’ questions.

XO

Sage paused for the briefest second, her fork halfway to her mouth. Well, she hadn’t expected to have to reveal that information when she’d offered to answer anything. How did you meet? Maybe, but Peturrson’s question was worded in a very specific manner. So…should she really be honest like she’d offered to be?

Recovering from the surprise, she set her fork down and took a drink instead. “Alright, I did say nothing was off limits… I noticed Calvin in the gym one day when I was working out. He was brand new to the ship and cut quite an impressive figure.” As she remembered her first glimpse of him, a secretive smile turned up the corners of her mouth. “We flirted a bit—enough for me to believe he was interested, and I…I let him know I was open to physical intimacy if he was game.” The last part of the sentence rushed from her mouth as if she just couldn’t say it fast enough.

—Sage

Whilst the doctor spoke Magnus took a sip of his drink, his eyes not leaving Sage’s face, he was curious as to what her reaction to his very blunt and personal question would be, her response was both informative and honest. As he put his glass down he bowed his head slightly “Thank you for the honest answer, better to get an answer directly than rely on rumors and hearsay” He said simply “Well the last question from me: What do you want from your career, what’s the goal if you will?”

XO

Sage shook her head and smiled. “It’s uncanny that you chose the questions you did. They have all been a source of great debate in my life—with others or with myself.” She sat back in her chair, the meal temporarily forgotten. “I’ve always wanted a ship of my own. I mean, that is the be all end all, right? But life doesn’t always give you what you want. Still, I would like something more than this.” Here, she looked around the lounge, indicating the ship around them. “My career was on a forward trajectory when Cal and I met. We kept our relationship quiet so it wouldn’t affect our promotional paths and because it wasn’t really anyone else’s business.”

“I was a Lt back then, already the CMO here on the Genny. My record is blemish free, I’ve been decorated more than once and under Captain Julien King, I was his 3rd in command. But somehow, Cal got the promotions instead of me.” An unsettled look crossed her face then. She hadn’t talked about that particular thorn under her skin for a long time—the last time being with her husband when he told her about his rise to Captain.

Sage did her best to take a deep breath and tamp down any raw feelings. She picked up her fork again and skewered a slice of cucumber. “Sorry, it still seems to be a sore subject for me.”

—Sage

Magnus had leaned back in his seat as she talked, it seemed that he had somehow accidentally hit a sore spot. When she finished he leaned back forward and raised his hands slightly “Hey no need to apologize, I understand completely” He smiled slightly “Up until two years ago I was well on the way to becoming a Captain, it can be sore to miss out on the opportunity” He grabbed his cutlery and started cutting a piece of chicken and picked up some salad with it “I believe it’s your turn”

XO

OOC: Eeek!! Sorry I missed this one!!

OOC: Et tu, Brutus… Everyone wants my chair…

IC:
The Cmdr surprised her, first with the choice of questions and then with his calm acceptance of her answers. She didn’t see any kind of judgement on his face at the less than stellar feelings behind her responses. It allowed Sage to relax a bit and adjust her opinion of the man. Perhaps she’d been too harsh in her initial assessment of him. His last comments made the first question easy. “What happened two years ago?”

—Sage

Magnus’s face muscles tightened slightly for a moment before he smiled for a moment “I and a group of three other officers, my cousins who happen to be my oldest and closest friends went to Risa to a mountain resort where we could be undisturbed by anyone for a whole month. From there we made our way to Klingon via Orion and Starbase 24 through various civilian transports all incognito. Once in the Empire we took a private vessel and spent the next few weeks dismantling a criminal organization by ourselves” He spoke in a calm yet quiet voice, making sure that no one around could hear their conversation “We started deep within Klingon Space and worked our way to the Federation Border. Seven small bases later we finally located their headquarters hidden in a small nebula at the border. After we destroyed that we made our way discretely to back to Risa and finished our vacation.”

He paused to take a sip of water and to allow the story to settle “It was not an altruistic thing, they were actively targeting one of us who helped destroy their operations within the Federation during undercover work, we simply took out a threat to our family” He smiled once more “I was just going to tell you what I told the others, that I fell on the sword for something Embarassing that happened on Risa which is the official story but frankly you’re married to the Captain and I don’t want to put him in a situation where he’d be forced to lie to you or put myself in the position of blatantly lying to you after promising the truth.” He looked down at his plate for a moment “I do hope this doesn’t miscolor your opinion of me too harshly.” He didn’t look back up directly.

XO

Her shapely brows had raised with surprise while listening to the Swede tell the story. “I didn’t perceive you condemning me for the answers I gave you, so it would be hypocritical for me to do it. We’ve thrown automatic answers and acceptable explanations to the wind. Honestly is what we’re both after. I don’t know your entire history and you don’t know mine, but I can tell you I’ve done a few things that Starfleet might find questionable. Thank you for being up front about the situation with me. I don’t hold any hard feelings about it against you. I wasn’t there. Therefore, I accept that your decisions and actions were the right ones.”

A server looked over at their table to see if there was anything he could do to make their meal most pleasant. Sage saw this out of the corner of her eye and waived away the dishes in front of her. She was through with lunch, her appetite completely gone now.

When he came over to clear the dishes, she ordered a glass of white wine. It wasn’t her usual drink, but it was light and wouldn’t fog her head during the rest of her shift.

Once he left, she fired the second question at the XO. “Is there any situation you can think of that would make you defy a direct order from the Captain?”

—Sage

When the waiter came to remove their plates he just asked for a refill of his drink. The question made him smile “Short answer yes, I think there are situations where one can and should disobey orders but those are few and far between. The only time that has happened in my career was during a combat encounter where I was ordered to leave my Captain behind, I didn’t much to his chagrin. I cleaned lavatories for six months after that.

XO

“Wow, really? The Captain sounds like a hard ass.” Sage sipped her wine as she considered the next question. “Speaking of hard asses…what do you think of Captain Marius?” If ever there was a loaded question, that was it. She wondered how Peterrson would answer. He could play it safe and tell her how wonderful Cal was, or he could continue to be honest with her. She, above all others, knew how difficult Calvin could be sometimes.

—Sage