Karaoke!

Posted on Wed Oct 4th, 2017 @ 11:23pm by Lieutenant Renee Salchin

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/3
Location: Main Lounge
Timeline: June 15, 2399 2000

ON:

She was only 10 minutes late. To be fair, it wasn't really all her fault, she blamed the capacitor that failed the initial test of power throughout and remained stubborn about working until she'd found the misinstalled chips in the junction immediately feeding to it. But then she'd had to rush to shower and get ready for the night. She loved karaoke, the eyes on her, crunch time to do her best. The alcohol just made it a bit more entertaining to the others when she did drink. And she'd been told she had a good voice and that didn't hurt.

Finally she walked into the lounge, a vision in a shoulderless sapphire-colored dress that went down to just above her knees, matching two inch heels and a pair of diamond earrings that dangled ever so slightly to go with the necklace that had a sapphire pendant. She'd spent a couple minutes on her eye shadow, a pale blue with a light dusting of silver glitter, her hair she'd just brushed out and left as is. As the door slid shut behind her, she glanced around, seeing a dozen pairs of male eyes on her, but instead of picking a pair out at near random, she looked for Lieutenant James.

Thomas had arrived about ten minutes earlier, dressed in a pair of tan khakis, brown short sleeved shirt, with his hair brushed much like a young musician. He was sitting at the bar nursing his drink talking with the others sitting near him. From the corner of his eye he caught sight of movement and looked. Renee had just entered the lounge and she was stunning. He saw heads turn in her direction and heard the comments that were said, and he got up and went to her and kissed her gently. "Great dress Renee, you look absolutely stunning. Come, let's get a table and sit", he said, motioning to a table on the other side of the lounge.

Renee deflected the kiss to a sideways kiss to the cheek and did the same, "Public, Thomas." She reminded him, "And you are quite handsome yourself." She smiled broadly at him, "Quite a crowd in here tonight... Titan usually didn't get this many people on a normal night.. But, what do you think we should do for eats? And do you drink beer at all?"

"Guess I got a little possessive there for a moment. Let's just sit and then order", as he pulled out the chair for her. He waved the waiter over, "I'll have lobster with baked potatoe peas and a bottle of beer", he said to the waiter. "What are you having Renee?"

Renee gave him an askance look about the lobster, but chose to pass on the possessiveness. It was actually sort of refreshing, but if it got too bad, she would sit him down, in private of course, and have that little talk with him. "Steak, tbone, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. A Corbin's if you have it, real if possible, replicated is fine too." She smiled at Thomas, "Corbin's is the best I've found so far."

"Corbin? Never heard of it", he said. Looking at her, he was awed by her delightful use of the blue shadows on her eyes. "You know, the eye shadows really bring out your eyes. Renee, tell me about yourself...", he said, sipping his beer.

Renee smiled at the compliment, then tried not to grimace, "Tell you about myself..." She took a long pull of her own drink, "Well, I was born in Texas and my family owns a farm ourside Dallas, raising Quarterhorses." She paused for a moment, then just dug her heels in, "I then got kicked out of the Academy in my sophomore year, for demerits and grades. Some of the things I did? Yeah, I sorta deserved it, especially looking back at it." She looked at him, wondering what his reaction to that would be, rather than if he thought she had just decided to enlist rather than go for a commission.

"Texas? Nice...I don't live there but we do live in the midwest...Nebraska. Grew up on my parents farm. Hey...how would you like to join me for a horseback ride?", he said suddenly.

"I think I could handle that." Renee smiled warmly, "I had some of the best times of my life when I was on Cinderella's back, took her into a rodeo a couple times in high school, came in second in the barrel race my junior year. And she was really a natural cutter, just point her at the one you wanted and sit back for the ride." Fond memories of the paint came to mind, "Why? Were you thinking now?"

"Well maybe we could take a ride sometime...perhaps another day?", he said, hoping she, would say yes. If she did, it would not only make him a happy camper but would help him sleep better knowing he had perhaps made a small connection in making a friend at least for now.

"Definitely another day, and I actually have a program that would bring us right to my family ranch, if you'd like?" Renee agreed, "Tonight, we sing!" A mischievous smile crossed her face, "When should I go up for my first song?" She took a long pull from her beer, then got to her feet as the most recent singer finished, "You know what? Now seems like a good time. Be right back!" She gave him a peck on the cheek before rushing to the stage ahead of someone else who'd started to get up.

A few moments later, she'd selected a song from the screen and picked up the microphone. She had to take the song up an octave, but over the next couple minutes, she had done a rather decent rendition of the Disney song 'Kiss The Girl', complete with a lot of moving around on stage, acting the part. Some sporadic, standard, applause for someone finishing a song later, she all but pranced back to the table and slid into the chair next to Thomas rather than across from him, working on catching her breath and wrapping her arms around him, "So... Whatcha think?"

"That was...great...nice voice. Where did you learn to sing?", he asked...surprised that she sat so close to him.

"Here, there... Everywhere!" Renee said breathlessly, then gave him a quick peck on the lips, grabbed the rest of her beer and draining it. "And I need another." She grinned, ordering another Corbin's, "But really, I was part of my high school choir, had a couple solos and the sort. Even did a couple of musicals there. I had a TON of extra-curricular activities going on back then. Kept me busy and mostly out of trouble, so my parents thought."

"Nice...er what kind of trouble if you don't mind me asking...", he said, finishing his own beer and ordering another as he took her hand in his and squeezed it.

"What sort of trouble?" Renee brought her free hand up to her chest in a mock-shocked gesture, "Why, sir, how could you think I would do anything wrong? With such an innocent face?" She couldn't hold back a giggle, "Or more like, what sort of trouble DIDN'T I get into, but I was on a first name basis with the police, which didn't hurt. I was caught racing my car, a vintage Mustang internal-combustion engine, a few times against others and some anti-grav speeders too, smoked 'em, and almost outran the cops, but nooooot quite. I only got caught once with the quarterback, never with the wide receiver or ace pitcher on the baseball team..." She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, "I didn't do drugs, so none of that crap, didn't drink too much at parties... Only cheated on my foreign language tests, still got an A... Rewired the Principle's anti-grav speeder to make it reverse every command he made, made the school replicators replace every menu item with chocolate pudding.." She grinned evilly, "Need I go on?"

Laughing, "No...you don't have to...you are too much Renee. The only things I got into trouble on the farm was playing rodeo champ. I thought I was the best steer roper and kept roping the poor cows and tying them up trying to beat my time each time I did it. Pappa grabbed my ass one day and ooohhh boy did he tar it good. I couldn't sit for a week. Man did that hurt, but I did eventually go and win a trophy for best time in the steer roping event two years later at the county fair", he said, smiling proudly.

"Awesome!" Renee congratulated, "I never did that sort of thing, was only into the 'softer' side of rodeoing, the riding parts, and not really all that competitive. Cheerleading was a blast, though!" She sighed slightly, "Sometimes I wish I could go back to those days. Glad they're over with and I'm not 'respectable', but they sure were some fun times."

Thomas was not really looking at the time to this point but now did and realized it was getting late. He was tired and after the shuttle accident this afternoon, J'Loni was in a terrible state and had them working overtime. "What do you think happened on the shuttle? I mean I know they checked the shuttle out and all but with what has been going on here, do you think that the rumors are true about a saboteur being on board?", he asked Renee, getting serious all of a sudden.

That wiped the smile off her face for a moment, but with a quick glance around, she put a smaller one on her face to try to prevent anyone from seeing something a bit off. "I think..." She glanced around briefly, then stood and tugged him to his feet and with a wide smile plastered to her face led him from the crowded lounge. Once out of prying eyes, she pulled him around the corner, most of her smile dropping, "That this discussion not be in front of others..." Her eyes scanned around them, no one in sight, "Yes. I do think so. Too many problems with us coming out of a starbase overhaul, misarranged chips causing all sorts of problems, extra chips where they shouldn't be, that thing with the bussard collector filter?" She glanced around again.

Standing out of ear shot..."I quite agree...the boss looked like a freight train hit her as she crumpled to the floor all of a sudden. I thought she caught another attack or something. Her face was white as William got her to her feet. I mean...I know that she is part Betazoid but I never thought she would feel the emotions from the shuttle like she did. It must have hit her very hard for it to make her fall. But I do believe that there is one on board and now have to be very cautious and observant you know. Oh I did hear though that the boss stood up for us at the staff meeting. Bowman implied that Alennis might be slacking and she defended not only him but us at the same time", he said, looking around.

Renee bit her lower lip. Now she needed to investigate the chips she'd never turned in that she'd pulled from various places. Who knew what they might hold, and Valeria did say that the one from her quarters might be more important than she thought. "I've got the heebie jeebies about Commander Bowman." She admitted, "And yes, we absolutely need to be careful." Her blue eyes met his, intent, "I am not a saboteur." She said, letting her eyes promise him she was telling the truth, not that she thought HE thought she was. "And we need to keep our suspicions to ourselves until we KNOW who we can trust completely."

"Agreed, and I can vouch for the musketeers, as I know they are no saboteurs and the boss. Besides she has a lot at stake on this. A few years back, on another ship, she had to leave and defend her house's name. It was no easy task but she did honorably. I can't imagine of what her mind is going through right now but I do know this, she is going to need us at our best so...", he planted a kiss, as he heard foot steps approaching...watching as he did so.

Hearing the same footsteps as he did, Renee's arms went around his neck as she pressed into the kiss, planting the flat of one foot on the wall of the corridor. Out of the corner of one eye, she saw a pair of Marines in their duty uniforms pass by, phaser pistols on the belts and rifles in their hands. She'd seen the patrols here and there around the ship and nothing seemed right about them. "Jeez, get a room." One of them whispered after they had passed, probably thinking they were out of earshot range already. She finally broke the kiss as their steps faded away, "So she will HAVE us at our best." She promised solemnly.

"Mmm...yes...definitely", savoring the kiss. "I guess we better get back to our quarters don't you think...", he said, still holding her in his arms.

"'Our' quarters?" She asked, "You don't mean your quarters?"

Suddenly realizing he had said 'our' quarters, he corrected himself, " What I meant was to...my quarters? Well...sure I guess...yeah. Let's go before someone gets wise", he said taking hand and leading her to his quarters.

Renee laughed at the faux pas and the somewhat less than smooth coverup, "I mean, if you don't want to, I can always-"

"Shut up Renee and come on", he said quickly, very softly. Upon entering his quarters he whirled her around and said, "What would my cowgirl want for breakfast?", and before she could answer he kissed her long and passionately.

Her mind raced all over the place during the interminable seconds (minutes?) that felt like hours to her, work, fun, everything. She mentally shrugged and just let herself melt into it. Finally, when they came up for air, "Waffles. Bacon." She whispered, "And plenty of syrup."

"You got it", he whispered, and guided her to the bed...

OFF:

Chief Petty Officer Tenee Salchin
Engineering Officer
USS Wellington

Lt. Jg. Thomas James
Propulsion Specialist
USS Wellington