Settling In Once Again

Posted on Fri May 15th, 2020 @ 4:11am by Captain John Theisman & Warrant Officer Mara Senra-Theisman

958 words; about a 5 minute read

John entered his quarters and whistled softly as he took a look around. The standard captain's quarters for the original Intrepid class layout had been nice indeed but the updated version on the new Intrepid II class ships were even better. While technically a couple of square meters smaller, the layout was much more practical and the standard design was rather luxurious compared to other ships of the same size. By the looks of his quarters, John could also tell that his wife had been rather busy since they had boarded as well. While his day had been spent meeting people and touring the ship, Mara had clearly spent the day depleting the replicator stores. There were bloody curtains covering the view ports, a sight he had finally learned to just overlook and let go. For men, marriage was often figuring out which battles you could win, or at least survive. With Mara, it was best to never talk about her decorating habits.

The second thing that he noticed was the smell. While the majority of Starfleet ships didn't carry an actual kitchen anymore, unless you were on an older ship that hadn't been overhauled since the very early 24th century, kitchens were a thing of the past unless an officer was a culinary expert. To both John's advantage and dismay at times, Mara was often attracted to the art of cooking. Granted it was rather hard to actually cook something unless you had an over and a stove, which were hard to install in starships due to the nature of starships in general, but one could make up for it by experimenting with the replicator recipes and that was often not advisable as the computer was often a jerk.

"Seems like someone has made themselves at home," John said out loud.

"Well, when your husband the mighty starship captain forgets to keep an eye on his wife or at least check in with her once in a while, she decides to do things her way," Mara said as she finally came into view. John smiled. She was wearing a long dark blue dress and carrying a bottle of wine. Other than cooking and books, her biggest enjoyment in life was a good bottle of wine. And Mara had a personal collection that made other collectors jealous.

"It's been a busy day," John admitted as he glanced at the table that was already set. He took in the sight of dinner, a thick cut steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, three kinds of vegetables, and two types of bread with a pitcher of water. "And I see that you're trying to make me fat again," he added.

"After nearly a year on Romulus, I got a little carried away," Mara said as she pushed him towards the table. "It's still hot, so sit down and eat. I'm sure you're going to have another long day tomorrow."

"Actually, it'll be pretty routine," John said as he sat down and grabbed the empty wine glass. Holding it up, he waited until she filled the glass before he took a sip. "This is from the 2390 blackberry stock," he finally said.

"Close," Mara said as she sat down. "2305, ebonberry," she corrected. "So when is the Hyperion launching and do we really have to go back to Romulus?"

"In two days, maybe before, and we're not going back to Romulus," John answered as he attacked his plate. "We're continuing the Hyperion's mission to explore the Beta Quadrant."

"Namely the part that the Romulans control," Mara growled.

"That's part of the treaty we have with the Romulans," John said with a sigh. Mentally, he added "here we go again". Ever since Starfleet had tried to stall his career over the T'vek Incident Mara had been rather upset, mostly at Starfleet Command but also at the fact that the Romulans hadn't seemed to care as much as Starfleet. It had created a rather nasty confrontational side of her when discussing certain matters.

"Then why can't Starfleet send another ship?" Mara snapped.

"Because the Hyperion was the ship that was ordered to the mission before, and the Romulans requested the new Hyperion with me in command. We've been over this," John said.

"And I'm still not entirely happy with it," Mara said. "They sidelined you once before because your actions offended their moral compass. Now, the only reason you're even back in a command position is because the Romulans requested you by name. Otherwise, you'd still be sitting on Romulus in exile."

"And I've survived worse," John said.

"If you say anything about my cooking I'll cut you into pieces and feed you to a tribble," Mara threatened.

John laughed, mostly because there was nothing else to do against such a threat. "Alright, I'll make you a deal. You give this one more chance. If it doesn't look like either of us are enjoying being on the Hyperion or in Romulan space, I'll get us out of it. But I won't leave until I find the Luna Hyperion and her crew."

"Deal," Mara said as she toasted her agreement with her wine glass. There wasn't much else she could do, and she knew that pushing her husband further might not be a good idea.

John sighed and resumed eating. At least she had agreed, and he was sure she would calm down and perhaps even learn to enjoy life on the new Hyperion. Either way, it was something that was out of the way and he could count on Mara to at least give life on the new ship an honest try. Cutting into another bite of steak, he wondered if his entire command of this new ship would be entirely of compromises. Silently, he hoped not.

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