After TBR#019
JP by Elli and Carl
(2345 words)

It was evening on one of the days during the fortnight of Potemkin’s journey towards the termination of Tal Shiar signal and Elli’s conscience was pricking her. With a small basket under one arm, she found her way to the XO’s quarters and knocked. She stood there for a few solid seconds before she laughed at herself and rang the door like a normal person.

She didn’t have to wait more than a few moments before the door opened revealing the XO himself with his uniform jacket undone. When he saw Elli, he smiled affably and said, “Good evening, lieutenant. I hope you don’t mind if I take the liberty of assuming that since there aren’t currently any alarms blaring, this is a social call. Would you like to come in?”

Elli took the invitation and moved inside, taking the cursory curious glace to see how he might have personalized his quarters. “Oh, yes, just a social call. No demon gates or Tal Shiar attacks. I know humans like to say to knock on wood, but there’s so little of the stuff around on a starship…”

With a short but genuine chuckle, Carl followed her in, letting the door close behind them. Noticing her glance around the rather barren room, barely changed from the standard specification at all aside from the addition of a rather decadent looking recliner and the cello sitting in one corner, he explained, “I’m afraid the place is rather dull to look at for now. I didn’t have much opportunity to bring my personal effects aboard, and it just didn’t feel right to start replicating things before I’ve had a chance to pick them up or get them delivered. After all, with all the demon gates and the Tal Shiar attacks, I haven’t actually had much of a chance to use this place yet.”

“Oh! here,” Elli presented the basket between them with a sudden awkward thrust. “I’ve been fine tuning a replicator program to imitate my Auntie Zolette’s muffins. Kind of like Zucchini muffins, but there’s like, a sweet versus tang and the crumb… she makes it come apart just right. A taste of home, where ever you go. Well, my home, anyway.”

He took the basket, a little taken aback, but his face lit up as she spoke, and he held it up to his nose for a sniff. “Mmm… They certainly smell delicious. Thank you. A taste of home is a very important thing out here.” Setting the basket carefully down on a coffee table, he gestured expansively and said, “Please, take a seat, make yourself comfortable. Can I get you a drink of some kind?”

“Mulled Cider, please?” Elli requested as her eyes rested on the cello. “You play the cello? I mean, of course you must play the cello. It’s rather big for a piece of random room decor otherwise.” She tried to recover from asking the obvious.

With a nod, Carl wandered over to the replicator, returning with a jug of mulled cider and a pair of behandled glasses. As he poured, handing the first to Elli, he chuckled, replying, “Well, I don’t know if you can really call it playing; I’m no virtuoso, but yes, I like to have a bit of a dabble every now and then. As you say, it would be a little in the way otherwise, though it could be said that it adds a certain sophistication to the ambience.” His voice changed as he spoke the last sentence to a slightly self-deprecatingly snobbish tone before returning to something more normal as he asked, “Do you play anything yourself?”

“In middle school I built my own bio-electric auto-signaling dulcimer sphere. I can’t say that I played it very well. And the grounding was a little janky so it made my hair stand up on end with static when I played.” Elli grin-grimaced at the memory. “I thought it was fun, but my sister teased me mercilessly about it until I dismantled it in shame. I… never seriously played any other instruments.”

“Really? That’s quite impressive! Although I suppose I shouldn’t really be all that surprised, after everything I’ve already seen you do.” He chuckled, taking an appreciative sip of his drink before continuing, “It’s always a shame to see an interest in music discouraged. I’d suggest taking one up, but it’s quite a commitment when you already have all the responsibility of being a Starfleet officer. Far easier to keep in practice with an hour or so every two weeks than it is to put in all the time learning.”

Elli appeared thoughtful. “Maybe I should build a new one, with all of my new knowledge…” she smiled into her cup. “Without my sister around. Do you have siblings?”

“Well, if you do I certainly wouldn’t mind giving you some pointers. You could probably find a better teacher easily enough, but the offer is open anyway,” Carl replied, eager to help and obviously passionate about music. Then, with a chuckle, he continued, “As it happens, I do. Three sisters, one older and two younger, so I’ve been on the receiving end of some of that teasing. Honesty compels me to admit, though, that I dished plenty out myself. We could be quite merciless at times.”

Imagining him with all his sisters and their squabbles made Elli smile again. “I can picture you making mischief,” she admitted. “And trying to talk your way out of it too.”

“Mischief is certainly one way to put it. If you trust our parents, we were like little Klingons, squabbling incessantly half the time and spending the rest working together to cause as much trouble as we could,” Carl said, chuckling fondly at the memories. “Apparently I learned how to coordinate a team very young.” Then, with a sigh, he added, “After everything that’s happened, it feels like years since I last saw them.”

Elli nodded sympathetically as she took some cider and soaked the warmth in. “I just saw some of my extended family a few weeks ago, but everyone feels so far away already.”

“Exactly, yes,” He replied, with a nod and a sombre tone.

She got a distant look in her eye. “Did you ever consider one of your own? A family?”

The question seemed to catch him by surprise and it was a few seconds before he could marshal his thoughts enough to say, “I… I don’t think I ever have, honestly. I’ve always worked under the assumption that I’ll start one eventually, but it’s always been something that’ll happen later down the line, or when it seems like the right time. The work has always been more important, you know?” He left a contemplative pause for a moment, then added, “What about you?”

“I was very much in that same line of thinking. I mean, how could I possibly have a family and travel with the Fleet all the time? And with all of the risks we always take? it just seemed it would be unfair to them. But I guess I’ve been thinking about it especially again since an incident shortly before we came across yourself. The Potemkin ran into another Potemkin from an alternate universe running a few years ahead of us. It was using a Universe drive and something had gone wrong. My alternate’s quarters were full of family photos and memorabilia. I remember thinking she’s so much braver than I am, to have a family. She wasn’t aboard her crashed Potemkin though. None of the crew were. We don’t know what happened to them. I hope she’s alright and found her way back to her husband and kids.”

“I can imagine that must have been a bit of a shock to see. If it’s any consolation, though, from what I’ve seen of the crew of this ship so far, I’m sure she did find her way back somehow. I’ve only been here for, what, a couple of weeks? We’ve already made it through more than any of my other ships have done in years. I don’t think I’d bet against you in any situation, whatever universe you were from,” Carl replied, with every sign of sincerity written across his face. “I know an XO is supposed to be able to offer advice on this sort of thing, but all I can really say is what I’ve seen in other people I’ve known. Some drew a great deal of strength from their families, but some couldn’t handle the separation and had to transfer to a planetary station for them. I suppose we both just need to find out which applies to us.”

“I suppose so.” Elli echoed. She decided she liked Carl. He was humble about what he didn’t know and still found a way to be encouraging about it. “I don’t know why I brought it up. It’s been on my mind, but it seemed strange to share it with anyone else but then, I shared it with you and we’ve hardly even known one another very long.” She gulped cider to stop herself remarking more.

“I’ve been told I’m easy to talk to,” Carl replied with a shrug and a slightly sheepish smile. “Besides, we may not have known each other long, but extreme circumstances can form surprisingly strong bonds very quickly.”

There were details she had and feelings and she couldn’t untangle them. On the one had it might help to bounce them off of this calm, insightful man, on the other, even Elli sensed that she might be overstepping social boundaries too soon by oversharing. After a thoughtful minute, she finished the cider and set the cup down, trying unsuccessfully, not to look like she was rushing herself. “Thank you for inviting me in. I should let you get back to—” She skewed her lips in thought, realizing she was talking herself into a corner, she finished awkwardly, “Back to whatever it was you were doing.”

He paused for a moment, then shone a warm, personable smile at Elli and added, “You’re quite welcome, but I wouldn’t worry about what I was doing.” In an attempt to dispel a little of the awkwardness, he stood and walked over to the desk, returning and holding a small plastic starship, half coloured and still glistening with wet paint. “One of my less exciting hobbies, perhaps, but there’s something so cathartic about it. This coat needs a little time to dry before I can keep going, really, so you actually picked the perfect moment.” He let out a quick, cheerful chuckle.

“You do nice work with paint. There’s a few scrapes on our ventral that could still use some touching up. I could get you a team and an EVA suit.” She teased.

With a wry, amused smile, Carl set the model down next to the basket and said, “I’m game. In the interest of fair warning, though, that’s only a basecoat. The finished model is going to come out black with orange go-faster stripes, and I’m not entirely sure the Captain would be pleased if parts of his ship suddenly changed colour. It certainly wouldn’t match the rest of the paintjob.”

“Racing stripes…” Elli looked playfully open to the idea.

“It really adds a certain unique flare that Starfleet could really use.” Carl wasn’t quite grinning, but there was a certain suggestion on his face that a grin was lurking somewhere there behind his smile.

“Actually… I don’t want to impose, but I’ve been meaning to ask you for a quick tour of the Engineering department. Somehow in all the fuss and hurry I never quite got the chance to have a look around, and I’m still not completely sure precisely what the Potemkin can do. This seems a perfect opportunity, if you haven’t had enough of me already.”

“Oh. Oh of course.” Elli lit up as if she’d been asked for photos of her baby. “You should come by on Beta shift when I’m finishing up my reports. For all the trouble we get into, The Potemkin is actually something of a research vessel. We’ve had more than one experimental test with alternative engines, and I’ve got the computer core linked to an auxiliary processing system in a pocket universe. You have to see it to believe it. The Quantum Engineering research we’re doing is very exciting.”

“Perfect! That sounds like a plan to me,” He said, nodding firmly. “That’s exactly the sort of thing I want to know about. Normally I would have learned everything I could about a ship before coming on board, but… Well, I didn’t exactly have a terminal handy, and there hasn’t been an awful lot of time for research while I’ve been getting settled in. Possibly something to do with hellish alternate universes and exploding Tal Shiar bases.”

“It’ll be fun. Some of our projects are locked down for senior staff’s eyes only. I haven’t been able to geek out with many other people about them. I’ll get you all caught up on them.” She pressed her hands together with excitement as she headed for the door.

“I’m sure it will be! I’m already looking forward to it,” Carl replied, following her over to the door. “I’m afraid I don’t have anything more than an interest in Engineering, but I love hearing about it from people who know what they’re doing.”

Tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough for Elli. “Until then, I guess, enjoy the muffins! But you know,” She paused in the open door and said, “maybe not all of them at once. They’re a little heavy.”

He extended an arm, offering it for a shake, and added, “I’m sure I will. They certainly smell delicious enough. It’s been a real pleasure having this chat with you, thank you for coming to visit. And feel free to drop by whenever if you feel like it, or you’ve got something you want to talk about. I always appreciate company.”

Her mood a blend of anxiety and elation, Elli shook Carl’s hand energetically. “Thanks Commander!” she said before breaking away.