Dinner at the Captains Table

Posted on Wed May 16th, 2018 @ 9:44pm by Captain James Warrington & Commander Tracy Henderson

Mission: R&R
Location: Captains Ready Room

Tracy stared at the chronometer on the wall in her quarters. It was 19:45 and she had a dinner invitation with the Captain at 20:00. A lot of things were going through her mind. Should she dress casual, wear her standard uniform or put on her dress uniform. She had never had dinner with her Captain before.

Taking a leap of faith Tracy decided on dressing casually. Slipping into a pair of blue jeans and a blue-green button up short sleeve shirt. Taking one last look in the mirror Tracy placed her combadge on and looked back at the chronometer. "D*MN I'm gunna be late. "

James, being the Captain, was not having the same dilemma. Also dressed casually dinner's with senior staff were something he was used too and although this was the first with his XO he hoped it would allow him to find out how she had found their last mission and to better get to know who had his back. Checking with his chef everything was on schedule, it was as always, he headed to the dining room and grabbed himself a scotch while he waited.

Leaving her quarters Tracy made her way to the Captain's quarters.

Stepping into the turbolift Tracy tilted her head slightly upward and spoke. "Captain's quarters."

When he door buzzed signalling her arrival James stood and went, opening it himself before the on duty crewman had a chance. "Welcome, please come in and grab a seat. Can I get you anything to drink?" James asked pointing to the drinks cabinet he had. "All thing I've been gifted over the years. I promise though I've gifted more than I have received."

"Jack Daniels if you got it." said Tracy as she sat down in the offered chair.

"Good choice," James replied looking through his collection until he found the right bottle. "Unopened an all," he stated grinning as he poured a measure into her glass. Lifting it he set the glass down beside Tracy and took his seat with his own scotch. "I hope you've been enjoying your rest."

"Actually its been a really crummy day which is one of the reasons I asked for this..." she said raising her glass and taking a sip of her drink.

"Oh? Anything in particular?" James asked face showing concern for his XO.

"A year ago today I lost two very important people in my life.." Taking another sip of her drink Tracy slumped further down in her chair to get comfortable. "I lost my husband and my son in what I see now was a horrible situation that none of us should ever have been in."

James nodded listening. "There wasn't much in your file on it. Just that it had happened. Apologies for not realizing it was a year ago. I should have known that."

"Its okay. I miss them greatly. I tried to convence Peter to stay on Earth with Jason but he was too confident that nothing would bad would happen on a medical ship." She took another sip of her drink. ' You see, I was in command of a small medical ship transporting medical supplies to the colony of Gregor V when I recieved a communique from one of my former Commanding Officers, Captain Woodhouse."

Noticing her glass was empty, Tracy got up and instead of filling it back up with the alcoholic beverage she went and got herself some tea. "She and her ship the Relentless were going to be along the same route as the ship I was on and figured that it would be a good time to get together and catch up like old friends do when they haven't seen each other in a while.

Sitting back down Tracy continued her story. "Long story short, a rogue splinter Cardassian group that took revenge on Captain Woodhouse dropped out of warp and attacked and destroyed the medical ship first before attacking the Relentless.."

James took a drink and cocked his head to one side for a moment contemplating. "Aye that's something that nobody could have seen coming. I remember reading the dispatch on that one actually. That was needless to say a very subdued staff meeting."

Tracy really didn't want to think about that. Hearing the Judge Advocate General almost strip her of her commission was bad enough but she was lucky that she had an excellent attorney to defend her.

"Enough of my sad story how has your day been?" she asked looking back at her captain.

"Oh you know, we got some new fighters. The engineer in me was a little excited. Haven't had a moments piece to even get to the flight deck," James mused.

"I bet you are. Like a kid not being able to sit still huh." said Tracy with a small smile.

"When I first got assigned to the H I spent easily a week just reading over specifications and looking at images of the build on the database," the Captain admitted with a shrug. "Kid in a candy shop when it comes to shiney new engineering toys is an understatement."

"So what's on the menu. I'm famished." said Tracy.

"An old hearty family recipe that mercifully the chef prepares better than i do," James replied with a grin. "Enjoy," he added raising his glass.