Time After Time
Yesterday, during lunch, I'd retreated from the Mess when the bastard showed up and proceeded to plunk his stupid ass down at the table I had been sharing with Spiegel and Noelle. Neither of them seemed put out by it, but neither had been shot in the back by the bastard either, so to each their own. I ended up paying a surprise visit to Giannini while he was stuck in the weapon's locker for his duty shift, and we had an encore of the sex from the night before. He seems a keeper.
At any rate, when I was due to report back to the bridge for the rest of my shift at the helm, we agreed to meet up after our shifts for another rematch. Hell, we'd gotten into it something good, he was really holding out, hitting all the right spots, then the page came for another pow wow in the captain's ready room. At least we were in my quarters this time, so I threw on my silk bathrobe with the dragon on it, and reported in just that. I got more than a few looks on my way, and certainly confused people to find me crossing the bridge such. Oh well.
The bastard was the last to show up, and he was clearly drunk. He was at that stage where he was just drunk enough to think he'd pass for sober. It was actually pretty comical when our interrogators exchanged a look, but no words, before the human declared that the bastard had very kindly volunteered to be interviewed first. This was before they even bothered to introduce themselves or call any sort of meeting to order. The meeting itself was a complete and utter waste of time, more or less we were informed what was expected of us, and we had interview times scheduled. We were all dismissed, and the bastard stayed behind to be interviewed right then and there. It was probably pretty amusing, his drunken interview. My interview was scheduled for mid-morning the next day, on my day off.
In hopes of making it go smoother, I reported early and actually bothered to put on my uniform despite not being explicitly told to do so. My interrogators were waiting for me, the human sitting at the table, and his partner, standing behind him.
"Lieutenant Diziara," Raymond Makinzie said, tapping his index finger on the edge of the PADD in front of him on the table. I sat down across from him. "This one's got a record," he directed at his partner, a Talbin Genastra by name. I gazed at Talbin closer than I'd done last night, during the preliminary briefing. He looked to be Betazoid.
"Not just with us, Mak," he returned, and I grinned. "She thinks she's funny too."
"I am funny," I insisted, and both men leveled their gazes at me. "I left the last pair I talked to in stitches when I finally left the briefing room."
"Your record says that was because they were laughing at the idea that you'd get away with the chaos you caused," Makinzie explained and I grinned again.
"Well, my commission is intact, and I never saw anything come of it but a note on my record. Besides, I want to see you get dumped in the middle of a barracks with a six-foot tall tabby cat, and not need to defend yourself."
"You didn't need to use lethal force."
"You haven't stared down a Luftwaffe pilot, if you can say that." There was silence. "Besides, I was hardly the one who caused the most chaos during that incident. I think the only one who didn't have a higher dead swastika count that me was our cook who was non-lethal by choice."
"It's not our case, Mak, let it rest," Talbin said, laying a hand on his partner's shoulder.
"So, what did I do wrong this time, step on a butterfly?" I asked, crossing my arms as I leaned back in my seat. Talbin chuckled, surprising me, but I grinned wider for it. Makinzie shot a look over his shoulder at his partner, and I actually chuckled a little.
"It was a good reference. Not enough people remember that story these days."
"Based upon what all the reports say," Makinzie directed at me, electing to ignore his partner's comment. "As well as our interview with Lieutenant Commander th'Shan, it appears you took lead once the team realized where and when you were. Care to explain why? You were the lowest ranking officer in the group."
"As far as I knew, I was the only one in the group who knew anything about the time period, and as far as I knew, I was the only one who had traveled through time before."
"So that qualifies you to issue orders to superior officers?"
"I did not issue one order the whole time, I made suggestions and did what I felt would minimize our impact on the time line. Despite the complication that came home with us, I believe that goal was achieved."
"Complication, that's one thing to call Mr. Stone," Makinzie allowed. Talbin's nostril's flared in amusement and I grinned once more. "So explain to us what happened with him."
"From the start, or just the last bit that ended with him here?"
"From the start, if you please, lieutenant."
"The kid stumbled across us only a minute or so after we arrived. I tried to disengage from him, by implying we were just passing through, and looking for a hotel or something." I sighed and Talbin sat down.
"So he caught all of you with your non-human features in plain view?" Talbin prompted me as I paused. I nodded.
"We were lucky, it was a couple days before Halloween, so we had a little flexibility to deny what we really were. The-" I paused, my throat ready to say bastard, but I knew that it would only cause more issue, so I coughed. "The Lieutenant Commander-" Talbin chuckled again.
"Feel free to call him bastard. It's what nearly all the non-coms and a lot of the junior officers call him anyways," he insisted, causing Makinzie to shake his head. I bit my lip to try to keep from grinning, though I doubt I was successful.
"Okay, so the bastard was out biggest liability to blending in, the Romulan bitch and I could hide our defining traits much easier."
"Bitch?" Makinzie asked.
"She hasn't wronged me like the bastard, but she left a bad taste in my mouth," I explained with a shrug.
"We interviewed her earlier, she was a little intense," Talbin allowed.
"She doesn't like you much either," Makinzie added.
"I'm not surprised. She did look good with a beehive though. I managed to tease her hair big enough that I'm surprised it wasn't pulling small objects into orbit."
"You convinced her to let you do that with her hair?" Talbin's eyes widened a little, and I could tell he was trying to bite back a laugh.
"We are wandering away from the topic," Makinzie reminded us even as I drew breath to comment further.
"When I asked about a hotel, Brian told us there wasn't one until Iowa City, but offered his parents' barn for us to spend the night in. I only took the offer because I assumed it would be easier to regroup there and move out with a plan of action, than to try to blindly make our way to a hotel as we were."
"So how did you get from there, to dragging the kid around with you?"
"He overheard our conversation later that night, when he doubled back after he'd wished us a good night. He's a sharp kid, and he reacted pretty sanely. It was either take him under out wing, or try to leave him the dust without any idea what we were doing. We didn't even have transportation yet."
"Speaking of the transportation..." Makinzie said, and I sighed again.
"It was an early fifties Nash Rambler, wasn't it?" Talbin spoke up before Makinzie could actually ask what he'd intended. Makinzie shot Talbin a look.
"Yeah, V and I likely would have tricked her out if we'd gotten stuck long term. I named her the pocket rocket." I beamed with pride.
"And you were able to win an impromptu race with a young man in a better tricked out car, using a Rambler that was pretty much stock?"
"After we're done with this unpleasant business here, you and I are going to have to talk cars over lunch or something," I directed at Talbin, and he grinned.
"Just talk, my wife would get jealous of anything else," he returned, and Makinzie actually growled. "Mak's the one who has the flings, if you're interested." Makinzie's face flushed at his partner's comment, and I giggled.
"Perhaps we should get back on topic before he has a heart attack, and I don't have the chance to size him up and decide if I'm interested," I suggested. Talbin laughed and Makinzie was left silent. The rest of it felt like a casual conversation, now that Mak had been sufficiently tongue tied, and Talbin realized that I was actually pretty comfortable talking about the whole of it if he just asked nicely.
"So Mak," I said, standing up at the end of the interview. Talbin enjoyed a private smile, already knowing what I had in mind. Mak's eyes raised from his PADD, and I winked at him. "It should be easy enough for you to find my quarters, if what Talbin had been saying was on its mark." I turned and walked out before he said anything, but I was pretty sure I'd see him show up before the end of the day.