Two Ensigns walk into a bar

Posted on Wed Apr 29, 2020 @ 8:21pm by Ensign Jonathan Baker

Mission: The Nanjing
Location: The Black Hole
Timeline: MD 1 || 1600 Hours

Having just met the CMO, the XO and several other female Officers Rayne was quite stressed. As he walk down the Corridors of the ship, trying to come to grips with all the new an almost over exciting things he has seen on the ship he noticed an Ensign walking toward him.

Rayne absent mindedly grabbed the man aside with him and asked in a shaky and vulnerable voice, "Is this the ship of the unreasonably good looking?" he asked, hoping the answer would not be yes as he feared the ramifications of coming across yet another attractive female.

Jon laughed at the young man and looked over at him. "Yes, and in fact, it's a hidden requirement of Starfleet if you're enlisted or an officer. Starfleet doesn't do ugly."

The response felt like a physical punch to Rayne's gut. The Academy wasn't like this, he recalled mostly unattractive humanoids, or was he so lost in his studies that he hadn't noticed. He looked away from Jon, staring into the distance. "What am I gonna do?" he said softly as he got lost in thought.

"Try saying hi," the other man said with a laugh. "They don't bite. Except for the Extonian's, but that's usually requested from them."

Rayne shook his head, "I need a drink," he wasn't even sure what he was supposed to be doing right now but sitting down was probably a good one.

"Then let's head to The Black Hole," Jon suggested. "Although you won't escape from them there, either."

In a moment of clarity the taller man reasoned with himself that this would be a challenge and if he approached it as such, he would come out the victor, "Yes, lets" he finally replied.

The other Ensign gave a laugh and led the way to the half packed restaurant on the ship and gave a wave to a few people. Scores of enlisted and officers mingled and the backroom was also full of shouts of excitement, calls of chagrin and merriment. "Welcome to The Black Hole!" he called over the noise.

The Xenxian was thankful for the hustle and bustle of the place. The movements and sounds were a nice distraction, he turned around only to discover a very young and energetic Andorian tender behind the bar, "Get you anything?" she asked.

Her blue skin and antennae made it easier for him to ignore her feminine features but he didn't know what to have so he pulled up the menu on the bar screen but still couldn't decide, "What's good?" he said to Jon.

"Are you allergy to barley or hops?" Jon asked.

The junior officer shrugged in response, "Who are they?" he joked, having had Terran alcohol before. "Who are you, by the way?"

"Are you sure you went through the Academy?" The Transporter Chief asked with a little suspicion and a little humor. There was also the fact that the white haired alien didn't recognize him from the transporter room from just that morning. "Ensign Jon Baker, Transporter Chief," he said before looking at the bartender. "Two drafts, chilled mugs, please."

Rayne looked down to ensure his pips were there, "Seems so." he laughed, "I've had a name change since we last met," he offered his hand in the Terran custom, "Cadet Fourth Class Rayne," he said.

"And that changed things how?" Jon asked as the bartender set two large draft beers in front of them.

The Xenexian kept his hand extended, "Perhaps a fresh start?" at that he swiftly move his hand to the Beer and took a strong swig, wiping the foam from his mouth with the back of his hand, "Now I remember you, you were the Transporter operator." the recollection came although belated due to the amount of people he saw between then and now.

Jon took a drink of his own beer, realizing that he had been rude in not accepting the other man's hand, but different species reacted differently. "Well, Rayne, what do you think of her so far?"

Taking a moment to look around before answering, "Big." he said turning back to Jon and then took another heavy swig of the beverage. As he did a heavy pat on the back, causing his drink to spill a little, "New fish?" a gruff voice came from a male Human Marine who had come over with a pal in tow.

Rayne looked down at his spillage for a moment and then turned toward the Marine, "I'm not that good with Xenobiology but I'm pretty sure, I'm not a fish." he responded.

The Marine smiled, "All you Officers are fish, fish in a barrel."

Rayne didn't get the reference.

"Hey, what's up with his eyes?" the Marine asked, clearly having not having drunk synthahol prior to joining them.

Jon looked up and sighed, then made a gesture towards the bar. "See that, guys? That's owned by Piper Aravan. She's married to Gage Aravan, who happens to be your direct boss. Not to mention he's the Commodore's little brother. Get where I'm coming from?"

Folliowing Jons warning, the second Marine placed a hand on the first's shoulder, "Stand down, Mills, this is the Hole. Man." he tried reasoning with his friend.

"Now, now, just a minute, I want to know why his eyes are like that?" he slurred, still convinced it was a two Humans before him one with exotic eyes.

Rayne shook his head and turned back to his drink.

The response confused the first Marine and he backed off, perhaps coming to some of his senses.

His friend stayed back to apologise, "Don't mind Mills, he just heard some bad news. Trying to drown his sorrows," was all the second said before leaving to rejoin his friend.

"Big and Disappointing," Rayne finally said taking another drink and unfortunately the last of his beer.

"Try counseling," Jon said with compassion. He wasn't without a heart, but he liked the place and would defend it and the owners as much as he would defend his wife's place on the Promenade. After the Marines made their exit, he turned back to Rayne.

"So what's your story?" he asked.

Rayne turned back, "I would say that as I understand my story is that I'm not from here, not from a Federation member world either. I'm here to learn how to be in charge." he said, taking another look around and noting how all these distractions were distracting him from his stress as he spoke, perhaps this was a way for him to cope with his earlier problems.

Jon signaled for another round as he finished his beer and looked back at Rayne. "Where are you from?" he asked as two more beers were brought to them.

Mentioning it and talking about it were two different things. Rayne hadn't thought about his homeworld in some time. He never discussed it at the Academy but now that he was a member of this ship's crew, he felt obligated to in some way, "Xenex, it's... Too hot, too cold and hard to make friends there," he said as he took his second beer.

"Xenex?" The Transporter Chief asked as he tried to remember what planet that was. "I don't think I've heard of it. Is it Federation?"

Rayne thought about it a moment, "It's not, and its technically not a Warp Capable civilisation but we have ships and technology leftover from our oppressors before we threw them off world. Or we did until another race decided to try to stamp us out." the Xenexian said before taking another drink.

"Sounds like a hard road," Jon commiserated with him with a silent heft of his mug. "So how'd you end up in Starfleet?"

An involuntary belch bellowed from Rayne, a rather loud one but not enough to be heard very far in the room. The Xenexian pounded his chest a bit before continuing, "I stole some of the oppressor's tech and managed to call for a," he thought of the right word to use, "Road?" he asked Jon.

"Ride," Jon corrected. "You called for a ride. What happened after that?"

"To be honest, the memory plays as if it was occurring in double the normal speed. I recall being on Xenex, a strange sensation I had never known before and then being aboard a ship, provided a guardian of sorts and shortly after was on Earth with a family."

The Xenexian was surprised his mouth went dry from talking even with the beverage. He chalked it up to having talked too much, "What about you Jon of the Transporter Room?"

"Let's see," the other guy mused. "First baby born in the year twenty-three sixty. Enlisted in Starfleet in 'seventy-eight and finally worked my way up to test out into OCS on our last shore leave. Which is why I'm a thirty-three year old Ensign. Been doing transporter duties since I enlisted."

Rayne nodded, "I'm in a much Junior program like OCS, is the Transporter Room your final destination?" he asked.

"I never really thought about it," Jon said. "I like what I do. I tear them apart at the molecular level, blast them instantly across space and reform them in another location. It's great therapy for when you're stressed."

Almost immediately Rayne began Absentmindedly patting himself in various locations of importance, "I just went through that thing," he said in a sombre voice.

"You're fine," Jon assured him. "Now back in the early days of transporter technology, they couldn't even beam inorganics across space or any distance at all without it coming out as a malformed blob of something. Happened to a few people, too. Technology is much better now."

Rayne made a mental note to look at Transporter tech a little more thoroughly, "I'll take your word for it," Rayne produced his Data PADD from his pocket and thumbed through a few screen before showing Jon an offer from the Ferengie Bazaar in his inbox. The offer showed a personal Transporter device which allegedly allowed someone to keep all their stuff on their person in the device and materialise it on demand, "This a Scam?" he asked Jon, now knowing he was a Transporter Tech guru.

"Yes...and how did they even get your comm number?" Jon asked.

Rayne smiled slyly, "I suppose that's related to my callsign, at the Academy."

"Was your callsign Breach of Security?" Jon asked as he took the PADD from the other man and ran an isolation protocol on it, then sent it to the ship's CyberSecurity department. "By the star...if the Ferengi get access to our system.."

Rayne raised an eyebrow, "They don't have access to the ships systems. Or even my PADD. Its a redirect from a public inbox, which is routed through Binarus Encryption services, run by the Binars. Data comes in, it doesn't go out." He said grabbing his PADD back from the excited man who took it from him, "Everybody at the Academy is using them,"

"What? Since when and if you're using a public access comm, Binar Encryption or not, it's linked to your PADD, Rayne. Have you ever used it to access the ship's LCARS since you've been on board?" Jon asked as he glanced to the door as if he expected Security to come in at any second.

"It has not, nor does this PADD link in any way to the ship." he thumbed through and displayed a connection map, "This connects to only that public inbox." he then produced a second PADD, "This one is linked to the ship and my personal files." he saw the other man glancing at the door and wondered what he was doing.

"Its all authorised," Rayne continued.He then put a hand on Jon's shoulder, "Starfleet has approved the service and Cadets were told they could use it to supplement study, unfortunately galactic advertisements get picked up. The number one rule is that the device it is on doesn't connect to any other system. Relax," he said as he offered Jon his Beer.

"There's a problem with your thinking, Rayne," Jon said. "This isn't the Academy and we aren't near a public comm system. Therefore, that's now obsolete."

Rayne could not believe how high strung this man was. It was quite the mirror for him, perhaps even therapeutic. Thumbing through the PADD he brought up the message and the details on it and again showed the PADD to the Transporter Room Jockey, "I never said it was connected currently," he pointed to the Data the message was received, dated several weeks ago when he was in the Core Systems of Fed space.

"This PADD is in no way connected to those services you are concerned about. Because as you said, 'we aren't near a public comm system'. And if it makes you feel any better, I planned to dispose of it," The Xenexian said spoke in even tones hoping it would calm the situation.

"Oh. Sorry," Jon said. "In that case, beer and dinner is on me. Let me introduce you to a real bacon cheeseburger and loaded fries."

A genuine smile spread across Rayne's face and he patted Jon's shoulder, "That's the best apology I have ever heard."