[snip}

Joe was grumpy. It was his natural state in times of upset. He had been moved from one truly bad posting to the post of XO on the Merrimack, but still. It was the move itself. A new cabin. Hauling your things from one spot to another across the darkness of space. It was enough to make one lose one’s mind for several days at least! Joe reached into the bottom of a knapsack. He felt around and found the bottle of Tullamore and sighed a long deep breath of relaxation that it had not been broken. He scowled and cursed at the universe and himself for a moment as he placed the bottle and a shot glass on the desk in his cabin. Well, he had to get checked in. Go and socialize a bit. He looked at himself in the mirror. Straightened his tunic, ran his fingers across his head to smooth his hair and turned to go get the check-ins done.

A few moments later after strolling through the passages nodding to one person or greeting another, he finally arrived at his first destination. The CO’s office. It was always better if you met the boss first. You never knew he may not like you and send you back. Save you from having to get a physical! In front of the CO’s quarters now Joe pressed the buzzer.

Glen had finally managed some downtime after the hectic previous mission. It was tiring work being friendly and putting on a show to make a good impression to alien races, but he hadn’t expected the disaster emergency or the second sleeper ship rescue. It had been a complicated mission, and then he had lost Kord too. A man who had been his XO for, what was it, about eight years, and who he had thought would be around for ever. Let’s face it, he hadn’t thought he had any place else to go to. He wondered who Starfleet would send him as a replacement, but knew that whoever it was would have big shoes to fill.

At the sound of the chime, John Glen called, “Come! Enter!”

Joe was unprepared when the door to the captain’s quarters swooshed suddenly open in front of him. He frowned, jumped back a bit and then took a deep breath. These sorts of things almost always went badly for him. Most generally as a rule a new CO had read his record and was sitting in their office wondering what they had done wrong to get Joe assigned to them. Assaulting an Admiral for instance was the last thing in his record that really stood out. Of course, it had taught him a lesson. Never play poker with an Admiral who was no good at the game, drank too much and on top of it all didn’t like to lose.
Joe had never liked being called a cheat.

Joe steeled himself for what he assumed would be the usual confrontation and strode into the CO’s cabin back ramrod straight and a hard, sharp look in his eyes. It was him trying to put his best foot forward. So, to speak. COs always seemed to appreciate the formal military look. He moved then to stand in front of the captain and stopped at attention. When his eyes fell on his new CO Joe found himself doing a re-evaluation. The man looked tired and worn down. It was then Joe remembered how he had come to be here. This man had lost his former XO of many years. And unfortunately, someone had thought it would be fun to give him Joe. The man looked to be a good sort on top of everything else.

Joe then found himself hoping he could fill the place of the former XO. He could tell by the captain’s face they must have been close friends. Joe just stared at the wall behind the captain’s head then as he gave a smart salute and said,” Sir Lieutenant Commander Joe Milligan reporting for duty sir. If it’s a bad time I could return later. “

“Not at all,” Glen replied. “This is a good time. I’ve given the crew leave, on rotation, to visit Deep Space K-5, while we are docked here. And I’m hoping the ship is safe from any emergencies while we are here. I say that with a little uncertainty and apprehension, because it wasn’t that long ago that we were attacked by sub-space travelling aliens who appeared out of nowhere, while we were docked at a very similar space station. So, I find it hard to ever relax much. How do you relax, Mr. Milligan? Apart from the hard drinking and bar fights,” Glen was belly-laughing, “Obviously, as you would expect, I’ve read your very large personnel file!”

Joe listened attentively as the captain described all the travails of the ship over the previous weeks. He tried to keep his face straight throughout the whole thing, but his mind soon began to wander.

His mind was snapped back to reality however by the captain’s question about relaxing. Only to be closely followed by the fact that he had read his record and knew about his brawls and his drinking. Joe’s right eyebrow then seemed to crawl halfway up his forehead as he listened to the captain. He thought things through for a moment before answering the only way he knew how. Directly.

“Well sir I guess it’s good you’ve read my record. But as to the fighting, that’s mostly from obnoxious people who shouldn’t be drinking. “Joe cleared his throat, and then continued. “As for the drinking, why yes sir I do partake. And since you’re having a hard time relaxing it just so happens that I have a new bottle of fourteen-year-old single malt Tullamore Irish whiskey sitting in my cabin at the moment with not just one but two empty shot glasses. “It was then that Joe smiled.

Lt. Cmdr. Joe Milligan XO

“I would like to take you up on that sometime…” said Glen, then added, ” Sorry, that sounded like a vague dismissal, but I really would like to take you up on that sometime, only not at the moment. I need to wind down at the moment and have some time alone to reflect on the last few missions. To be perfectly honest, I don’t care very much what is written in personnel files by some pen pushing commodore would can’t hack it in the field, and yours had some genuinely funny passages within it, but it does read like a man who could potentially cause problems, and I don’t really need any more problems on this ship right now. I wasn’t given a choice about your appointment, but it seems that good XOs are like strips of Latinum right now, so I’m very thankful that you are here. I’ve also lost a good XO who was with me eight years and to who I relied upon to bounce ideas off and to keep me on the straight and narrow. You have some big shoes to fill, and that always makes things difficult for a CO. I’ll try not to be that CO who keeps measuring you up against a previous XO. Other than that, I think we can put this file in the recycling bin and start over afresh.,, So, hello Joe Milligan, I’m Captain John T Glen and it is my honor to meet you.”

Joe watched and listened intently as Glen spoke. One of Joe’s major flaws was that he read people and tended to categorize them after only about ten to fifteen minutes in their presence. The irritating part to this even to Joe was that he seemed to be excellent judge of character. This being said after only a few minutes with a person They were usually placed in one of three categories. 1. A person you’d want to drink with worthy of your respect and friendship. 2. Might have potential needs a lot of work probably. or 3. Stay away from them lest they get me mad and they’re not worth it.

All the while Glenn spoke Joe’s face was a blank. It looked for all the world like something chiseled in stone. As Glen began to wind down his talk Joe started to simply nod before he took a few moments to reply. Before he did, he sat staring blankly at the wall behind the captain as if he were seeing something else as he said quietly, “I can understand about your losing someone. I’ve lost a few good people myself in my career. ”

Joe’s face broke into a smile suddenly as he looked across the desk at Glenn. “Well, I’ll tell you what. I can’t promise you a really good XO, but I can promise you one that’s as loyal as a bulldog and with the same temperament. And who knows in time I might be able to be a moderately good XO!” Joe rose from his seat, smiled and said, “like you sir. something tells me we’re going to get along just fine. But if you’ll allow me to give you my first piece of advice it would be for you to get out of this cabin and get yourself at least one night on the station to relax. I’m pretty sure that your previous XO would have told you the same. ” Joe extended his hand toward Glenn then and said to him. “And it’s a damn fine thing to make your acquaintance sir.”

“That’s probably excellent advice,” Glen replied. “I could probably think of a hundred reasons why I can’t leave the ship to spend time on the station, but you are right, I do need to get out of this cabin, and none of those things can’t wait a while longer. it’s about time I had a little fun again!”

Joe chuckled then and said, “Yes it’s a great time to go now that you have a somewhat competent Xo to watch things for you. Enjoy your time away sir.” Joe saluted quickly then and left. He had gotten a good feeling from that. He started to whistle a little ditty now as he walked down the corridor.

Lt. Comdr. Joe Milligan XO

Once Joe had left, John decided to take up his idea. He changed into something less formal and took a wander over to Space Station DS K-5 with which they had docked shortly earlier.