Knock Your Socks Off

Posted on Tue Apr 7th, 2015 @ 2:35pm by Captain Aidan Rackham & Commander Ashley Kennedy
Edited on on Fri Apr 10th, 2015 @ 8:39pm

Mission: The Night Cries
Location: The Brew House, Justerini Street, Pike City
Timeline: 2278.45: 2100hrs.

Justerini Street on Pike City was a pit just inside the mercantile zone of Pike City. Its low buildings and warehouses made it one of the less desirable areas of the new Federation member. In turn, the Brew House was one of its less desirable watering holes but had quickly become popular among Starfleet personnel billeted on the planet due to their very fair conversion rate of credits to alcohol content.

Aidan Rackham had found himself there almost every night. He told himself that it was a nice walking distance for an early evening constitutional but truthfully he was bored and lonely, a dangerous combination for any military man.

Now devoid of his uniform, favouring instead a simple suit, he found himself propping up the bar, regarding its owner with amourous eyes. She seemed to be in her mid-twenties but he couldn't place an age, but then he never could and a few shots of Ariti Brandy had done nothing to help his perception.

Ashley Kennedy was disappointed. Her day had started out as the day she was going to get to see her new ship. Then a trip to the Starfleet Admin Centre had burst her bubble. "The Farragut iss arriving tonight local time," the operations officer informed her in his smug Vulcan way. But, alas, she wouldn't be permitted aboard until 1100 tomorrow morning. With her plan for the day in ruins she fell back on her all-purpose backup and hit the books for a few hours. This time she immersed herself in the anthropological reports for Galactic South, figuring she might as well learn some more about who lived in this region.

While she was in the Admin Centre's modest library, she got to talking with one of the science officers who was helpful in pointing her in two right directions. The first was to a report from the USS Beckett on the Archa System. The second was to a great Starfleet hangout on Justerini Street. She hadn't gone anywhere beyond the Admin Centre, Shepard Park and her hotel since arriving in Pike City, so she decided to indulge in a drink. I'm sure I've earned it, she rationalised.

The music was loud, the crowd was pumped and, from what she could see, the liquor was flowing. Perfect, she grinned as she entered the Brew House, returning the bouncer's nod as she stepped through the entrance, making a bee-line for the bar. She was wearing her new maroon uniform with the jacket opened in what had quickly become the universal signal of 'I'm off duty' in the short time since the uniforms were introduced.

Rackham's vision was getting slightly blurry but the cold air which blew across the bar suddenly sobered him up. Lets me drink more, I suppose. He returned his eye to the bartender, trying feebly to attract her attention. Partly in the hope of another glass and partly in the hope a bed which didn't collapse in on itself.

Ash made her way through the throng to the bar, managing to skillfully slip between gaps here and there and avoided at least two drink spills. When she got to the bar, she grabbed a hold like it would save her from being pulled back into the torrent of bodies behind her. Most of those were either civilians or Starfleet personnel in civvies, but she did spot a few flashes of maroon here and there and even a couple of the old pajama uniforms. Forgetting all that for a moment, she focused now on trying to wave down somebody behind the bar; it was thirsty work getting here.

As one of the bar staff- unfortunately not the one he was hoping for- reached him, Rackham was overcome by a moment of benevolence as he motioned toward the Fleet officer who had just attached herself to the bar next to him. "She was first."

He offered a reluctant smile, now resigned to having one more drink and stumbling back to the disheveled little room he'd been calling home. She was a Lieutenant Commander by the looks of things and had striking red hair trimmed short to her hairline and had a look in her eye like she'd break his nose if he said the wrong thing.

Ash shot the civilian-clothed man next to her a searching expression, sizing him up and wondering why he was being polite to her; she had clearly not arrived first. She gave him a quick nod and flashed a half smile before turning to the barman, "Whiskey on the rocks. Whichever's good." Then she added with a gesture to her left, "And make sure you ask this guy next. He was here first."

"There's a Lagavulin cask which will knock your socks off." He offered, pointing toward a dusty looking bottle on a middle shelf.

"Lagavulin all the way out here?" Ash was surprised. She turned back to the barman and said, "You heard the man. I'll have one of those."

"No ice." Rackham's words followed the barman. "It would just ruin the flavour. The owner's a bit of a connoisseur of whisky- she's got one hell of a collection."

Ash shrugged and cocked her head to the side as she turned back to her new acquaintance. "I'll have to sample the rest of her collection some other time," she said. "I can't be up drinking all night."

"Got a pressing engagement in the morning?" Rackham asked breezily. It was nice to be talking to someone who wasn't trying to sell him stims or some Orion girl.

The barman returned with the bottle and two glasses, showing one to Rackham by way of asking if he wanted one too. As he did, Ash was saying, "New assignment. I'm going aboard tomorrow morning."

Rackham raised his glass to the woman and took a short sip of the drink. "That'll be the USS Farragut then?"

She smiled, a little shocked that he knew so quickly. Maybe Pike City locals kept a close eye on the shipping news? "That's right," she said as she brought the glass to her lips. She stopped short and shot him a quizzical look. Curiosity had gotten the better of her. "How'd you know?" she asked.

"She's due to pick me up tomorrow too." Rackham replied cryptically. "I've been waiting on her for a week."

Ash shook her head and smiled, annoyed at herself. It was the civvies that threw her. She took a sip of the drink and did her best to act cool as it burned its way down her throat. "You're Starfleet?" she asked, a little croak in her voice.

Rackham looked at her with faux offense and managed to slur out a joke. "Of course, can't you tell from the understated dignity with which I carry myself?"

"Well, I suppose if we're going to be shipmates, I should introduce myself," Ash said, extending her right hand. "I'm Ash Kennedy. Weapons Officer."

"Aidan Rackham." He replied, reciprocating the greeting. His name was enough- she probably knew who he was.

She instantly recognised the name and cursed her luck. Of the five hundred crew assigned to the Farragut, and she stumbled across one of only two who outranked her. She shook her head and rubbed her forehead, feeling slightly embarrassed that she'd been so casual with a superior officer. "Damn, and I thought first officers were required to be in uniform at all times," she said. "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't realise."

"Only when sober." Rackham replied, draining the rest of the glass. "No need to apologise, Commander. Unless you were planning to lay me out with a punch to the jaw, you've not done anything wrong."

"Well, it's still early," Ash shot back deadpan before downing her drink and placing the empty glass back on the bar. She looked back up to the XO and smiled. "So how do you know Captain Gunning?"

"I suppose you could say I'm her pet project." Rackham laughed as he motioned for a refill. "She took me under her blackened wing a few years ago, made sure I 'fulfilled my potential' as I think she called it."

Two more drinks arrived and Rackham pushed one toward Kennedy. "How did she get her icy talons into you?"

Ash took the glass and lifted it just off the bar. "Command Candidate School," she replied. "Last year she was taking Advanced Starship Tactics. I loved that course, but I was convinced she had it in for me." She paused and took a sip, then smiled as the warm liquid washed down her throat. "It wasn't until I topped the class by about five points that I realised what her real game was."

"So she was all over your arse until you thought you were going to snap and put an overloaded phaser in her desk drawer?" Rackham laughed heartily into the glass. "Then you find out she's pushed you so hard you're suddenly on every merit roster in Starfleet?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Ash replied with a chuckle. "You obviously know the feeling."

"The curse of the Black Widow? And then some. She once left an away team- myself included- to fend for ourselves on a planet for two days because she found out that two of the security officers in the team were fraternising."

Ash's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she recognised the pattern. "Sounds familiar," she said. "She once locked a team of us inside a bridge simulator for fifty-two hours with no food and a canteen of water between us before switching on the simulation ten seconds before a Klingon attack."

"Ah, yeah. Her very own Kobayashi Maru- she didn't think it was tough enough. I shudder to think what state she's going to have the Farragut's skeleton crew in by the time it gets here. "

"Eager to hand her off to us, I'd expect."

"Oh, undoubtedly. The Captain will probably be clawing at the walls if she doesn't have anyone to 'knock into shape'." Rackham smiled at the thought. There was something irresistable about their new Captain. She was tough work but had a vitality that brought out the best in people- it wasn't all based on fear.

Ash was smiling too. It was clear that they shared a fondness for their commanding officer and her particular ways of imparting wisdom. "You and I will have it easier," she said after taking another sip of the whiskey. "We know her methods. The ones who have to watch out over the next five years are the junior officers and non-comms who've never experienced the Gunning effect. I bet they've heard of it, though."

"I'd imagine there's a few shops doing a roaring trade in clean underpants, yeah." Aidan sipped the last of his whisky and smiled widely. "Obviously we need to keep the myth going. I've heard some people in here spreading rumours about hazing rituals."

Looking around the room, Ash said, "Like what?"

"I heard a couple of people talking about getting locked in the head and stuff like that. Nothing I'm aware of ever actually happening but I'll be damned if I'm going to correct them."

Rackham remember his actual hazing. Walking onto the bridge of the Pilgrim and being shouted at for five minutes because he wasn't wearing the correct colour of uniform on the assigned day. He motioned toward Kennedy's uniform. "God knows what she's going to make of these."

Ash looked down at the uniform she wore. The new ones were drastically different to the ones Starfleet had used for the past five years or so. Personally, she much preferred the new ones, but then she had a martial streak. "They're more severe than the last ones," she said with a shrug. "Probably more suited to her personality."

"True." Rackham felt much more official wearing his, so much so that he felt the need to change before coming out. "A new uniform for a new Starfleet."

The sounded like a toast to Ash's ears, so she raised her glass. "To a new Starfleet," she said, before adding, "but with the same mission."

"Ahh yes." Rackham raised his glass in kind. "To seek out new lives and new civilisations."

"To boldly go where no one has gone before."

They clinked their glasses.