Celebratus Interuptus

Posted on Fri Sep 7th, 2018 @ 9:05pm by Captain Enalia Telvan & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Holographic Horrors
Location: Orbital Fortress Floor 58/USS Hera Bridge
Timeline: During Shore Leave

A few crews of the Artan pirates had returned early and as the head of the family, it was Enalia's duty to party it up with them, Starfleet or no, while she was at home. Thus she was dressed to the nines in her official family garb and seated in what amounted to a throne at the head of a table in the middle of an almost Nordic looking feasthall while racacious pirates ate and drank noisily. She appeared to be enjoying herself, but she also looked to be maintaining an air of discipline that made even the roughest of them keep their distance. Even with the white and gold cloak and tabard hat, she drank from the goblet and ate the food with them more like royalty than a pirate - indeed she was a Queen in more than name alone.

Back on the Hera, the unconventionally uniformed retro throwback Starfleet officer tapped the comm key on the command chair. "Bridge to transporter room. Get a lock on Captain Telvan, please."

As she waited, Lieutenant Paris sent a few more reports and was tapping out an email when the transporter room spoke up. "Lock achieved, sir."

"Good work. Stand by," Paris ordered as she finished tapping out the email, then spellchecked it. Sending out even casual messages with typos made one look less professional and led to mistakes and inefficiencies. Which was counterproductive to her Get Things Done agenda. With Rita's luck this was the one time the captain didn't want to be bothered, but she had certainly hinted that this was all duty and very little enjoyment for her, so Rita was taking a gamble on her timing given that this was 12:30 hours. Signing off on two duty roster changes, the buxom blonde bombardier tapped her left breast, activating the pointy comm badge there.

"Paris to Captain Telvan. There's something on the bridge that I think you should see, ma'am."

Enalia could barely hear her comm over the sound of the party but as soon as she stood and motioned to the group, silence fell over the hall. She tapped her comm badge. "Telvan here. What is it?"

While the din of the party didn't come through, there was certainly a lot of background noise. When she spoke, Paris did so slowly and clearly. "We may have a bit of a crisis ma'am. We've got a transporter lock on you, may we transport you to the bridge?"

"If you think it best. Give me a moment to wrap things up here." Enalia raised her voice to address the hall. "Ladies and gentlebeings! You earned great wealth and honor today! Sadly, I must call it a night early. Please continue to eat, drink, and be merry without me though!" At her words there was a great cheer and when it calmed down, presumably as they drank to her toast, she continued. "Energize."

Tapping the appropriate key on the command chair, the transporter phobic's forehead beaded with sweat. "Transporter room, site to site transport the captain to the bridge. Energize."

Don't die don't die don't die Paris secretly muttered in her mind as she did whenever ordering a transport, as opposed to going on one herself as the bulge of blue white light shimmered and expanded, then four blobs of incandescent blue light radiated out from that central core of coalescing energy that resolved itself- a lot faster than it used to, Paris noted- into Captain Telvan, who was rather completely bedecked in her piratical gear, Rita assumed.

"Did I call at a bad time, ma'am?" the ancient astronaut asked solicitously with a small smile on her face.

Enalia just gave her a lopsided grin, threw wide the white and gold trimmed cloak, revealing more of the ornate white and gold uniform underneath as well as her phase pistols, and peered out from under her piratical hat. "Status report, Commander Paris. What is this crisis that befouls space?"

"I'm an interruption, ma'am. A random one. You have no schedule or agenda to follow while your are caught up in all of this, so I thought I would try interrupting you right after lunch." Giving the captain's getup a once over, then taking a few steps to orbit and take it all in, Paris frowned and nodded. "I have to admit, you pull it off, Captain. You actually look... dashing."

"If I interrupted something important or that you needed to be there for, I offer my sincerest apologies for my manufactured crisis and we can beam you right back." Paris stood up straight and alert, in case this was going to be one of those unlucky moments of hers. She'd been straightforward, and that seemed to be how the captain worked.

"No, that was actually perfect timing. As much as I love seeing them all again, I can't party like they can after a mission. Thank you for the excuse." Without a second thought, she whisked off her hat, bowed graciously, took Rita's hand and lightly touched her lips to the back of it. "Dashing woman of action... at your service... Would you like to see my... Sword?"

Delighted by the show of chivalry, Rita cheerfully went long with it and blushed despite herself. Then she raised an eyebrow and flashed a bit of those pearly whites. "Why captain, as inappropriate an innuendo as that might be, I suspect you've a yard of steel hidden in there somewhere. I would indeed like to see it, if you're offering."

Standing back up and stepping back, Enalia reached behind her and pulled from behind her a custom rapier straight from a space pirate holodrama complete with platinum filigree and ruby embellishments. With a flourish, she offered it to Rita. "My ceremonial blade. It's a duranium alloy laced with platinum and ruby. Don't pull the trigger - it can fire stun bolts from the tip."

Reaching out to gingerly take the weapon, Rita was surprised by how weightless it seemed to be, thanks to the excellent balance. Carefully taking hold of the hilt, making certain to avoid the trigger, Rita hefted the weapon, waving it around slightly. One fencing lesson from the Baroness did not a swordsman make, and the comely cosmonaut was very careful not to actually hit anything nor pretend a skill she did not possess.

“It’s beautiful, Captain. A sword befitting a Princesszen,” she offered, using one of the captain’s retainer’s more colorful nicknames for the starship captain who still held court over a space kingdom of privateers.laying the blade on her palm, she carefully offered the hilt back to her swashbuckling superior.

Taking the sword back, Enalia returned it to its scabbard. "By the way, you're more out of uniform than usual. You're wearing the wrong rank. Did I forget to tell you I promoted you?"

Face squirming back a bit, Paris snorted. The computer in the pod yesterday had called her Lieutenant Commander. When she'd set foot on the bridge the Captain had called her Commander. Be damned. Rita Paris had, apparently, earned her broken stripe back. Looking down, she'd been wearing it the entire time on her sleeve, which no one noticed or cared apparently, because they just read pips. Bringing her gaze back up to the captain, Rita Paris smirked.

"I earned it back, ma'am?"

"You did. I'm also counting your prior time as Lieutenant Commander towards time in grade, which, because of all the reassignments taking place, makes you my new Executive Officer, if you're sticking around." Straightening up and peering at Rita from under the brim of her hat, Enalia continued. "You are sticking around, right?"

Initially Rita sought to answer the question, but then the questions started occurring. Now that she thought about it, she hadn't seen the XO since before they docked. He hadn't been on the bridge when they'd brought her in. That was when she remembered the captain was waiting on an answer. It was a skeleton crew of mostly punishments and malcontents on duty, but the stations were manned. Draping one hand on her hip and sliding into a pinup pose, Rita Paris turned it on.

"Where, in all of Starfleet, am I going to find a captain who respects me enough to let me wear my old uniform?" Taking the first of a long, predatory stride, Rita rolled her hips as she moved. "On a mutant hybrid customized starship meant for espionage and exploration. Captained by Herself, the Prinzesszen Pirate who ran away to join Starfleet yet proves you can come home again. To a snowglobe in space." Coming up on the captain's port side, the buxom blonde bombshell cocked a pose and crossed her arms beneath her prodigious bosom, forming a rather odd gold shelf that managed to peek cleavage out of that off-center V neck of hers.

"All that and she offers me first officer to boot. Commander Xustos?"

"Reassigned," Enalia simply replied. "As well as Ops and Intel Chiefs and a third of the crew." Enalia could play the pose game as well. Tossing the right side of her cloak over her shoulder, she pretended not to notice that Rita was even strutting around her and strode up to the Captain's chair, placing her right hand on it and rounding behind it in a fanciful pose, her eyes looking towards the viewscreen. "I need someone I can trust and someone I know can get the job done. You've proven yourself several times already. You've even saved my life." She then turned meaningfully towards Rita and looked her straight in the eyes. The tension from the rest of the bridge crew could be cut with Enalia's sword. "I know you're the one for the job. You're the only one that can be my new XO."

"I'd be honored, Captain Telvan. I'll do the job until I get killed, or you find somebody better. If I get killed, give me a few. I might just find a way out of it. After all, I am one hell of a navigator." Taking a step toward the swashbuckling starship captain, the curvaceous commander drew herself up to attention and offered a salute.

"I know you hate it ma'am, but to some of us it means a lot," Paris pleaded, holding the salute as per military tradition.

Enalia came to attention, rendered her own salute in the modern era fashion, and held it a moment. "As Captain of the USS Hera, I accept it." With that, she dropped her salute.

The antique Starfleet officer in near-mint condition grinned ear to ear and made a squeaky sound that clearly indicated that she was restraining a much louder sound because she was on duty on the bridge. "I won't let you down, ma'am. This day couldn't possibly get any better!"

A slow grin crept across Enalia's face. "Computer, what time is it? When is the Starfleet shuttle arriving?"

"Twelve forty eight. The Shuttlecraft Friendship 7 will be arriving in twelve minutes." The computer's reply was as mysterious as Enalia's questions.

The Captain nodded, her smile now gone and her arms crossed under her bust. "Let's see if we can make it better. Your first act as XO is to greet our new Assistant Science Chief. He's a bit of a time traveler as well, so Starfleet and I agreed that your experiences would serve well in this matter. Please take care of him and show him to his quarters."

"An indulgence, ma'am?" the old-school officer asked, as she tended to do. When given a mile, leave it to Paris to find the extra inch she needed.

"Ah... We can call it that... This man is important to the ship and crew and I'd welcome him myself, but I'm not dressed for the occasion." Enalia gave another of her lopsided grins and held up an edge of her cape. "Besides, I'm sure you'll do a better job of it."

"Thank you, ma'am. So... back in Ye Olden Days, when you kept the ship running for the captain, you were the 'First Officer', ma'am. It's a bit more of a mouthful than two letters, I know. But with your permission, that's what I'll be for you." The incoming officer meet and greet was already filed, and she'd be there in ten minutes. Cap'n had ordered, that's what she'd get. But this was something to ask for up front, not a later course correction.

"The XO position has many names. Number one... First Officer... XO... There are some more colorful ones I won't mention. First Officer is a good one though. You have to be on the flight deck though." Gallantly, Enalia whooshed her cape and sat in the central chair. "And you can't be late."

"Ma'am, I cannot chide nor discipline others for lax behavior if I myself am late. So you may be assured, Rita Paris is never late. If I am, something's wrong, start looking for me. No, seriously," she reinforced. Then that pretty face almost shyly broke out into a happy smile.

"Thank you, Captain Telvan. Not everyone would have taken me in and given me a home, but you did. You will forever have my loyalty, Cap'n." With that, Paris offered her approximation of the captain's courtly bow.

"I consider it a part of destiny," Enalia replied with a wink.

"Nine minutes, ma'am. I won't be late and I'll be prepared," Paris assured her captain.

"Prepared... Highly doubt that..." the captain muttered under her breath, checking the recorders in the main shuttlebay to make sure they were set to send their holovid data straight to the secure computer so it wouldn't be wiped later. She couldn't wait to see Rita's face when that shuttle's door opened.