A Clean Slate
Posted on Sat Nov 2nd, 2024 @ 10:09pm by Captain Rob Haines
1,354 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
:\>root
Location: Earth, Montana
Timeline: MD1, 1300
Montana, Earth
A small personal shuttle landed in a field near a log cabin. The wind blew snow around in small “cyclones”. The hatch to the shuttle opened and a man got out and trudged through the half foot of snow. When he got to the cabin, he knocked on the door. There was no answer. He looked through a nearby window and shook his head at what he saw.
Like he had been here before, he reached up to a small flowerpot that had dead flowers in it. After a moment, he pulled out and shook the dirt off an old fashion key. He took and unlocked the door and entered the cabin. Although it was relatively clean and straightened up, it still had the look and feel of a bachelor pad.
The biggest sign that it was a bachelor pad was said snoring bachelor who slept in a rocking chair near a fireplace that had a fire in it. The bachelor barely held onto a tumbler of a bronzish liquid. A picture laid in his lap.
The visitor stepped over and took the glass before it fell. This caused the man in the chair to jerk awake and try to stand. Swaying a bit, he fell back into the chair which rocked in response. He looked about and with some difficulty focused on the visitor.
“Hey Admiral Goodwin”, he said smiling impishly as he picked up a bottle that was next to his chair. “Want a drink?”
“No and you don’t either Rob”, the man replied taking the bottle of brandy away from him.
“Hey, give that back!”, Rob exclaimed, as he tried to grab the bottle.
The sudden motion caused him to fall to the floor along with the picture that had been in his lap. The glass of the old-fashioned picture frame cracked. His friend picked up the picture of a beautiful red-haired woman and placed it on the table next to the chair.
“How come you weren’t at the party?”, Rob’s friend asked.
“I just couldn’t Lyle”, Rob replied tears welling in his eyes.
“You are the one who taught us to not mourn death but celebrate life”, Lyle said.
“I just couldn’t Lyle”, Rob said loudly.
The proverbial dam that was holding the tears back broke and Rob started sobbing.
“I miss her so damn much Lyle”, he said between sobs.
Getting down with Rob, Lyle wrapped his arms around his friend as he sobbed. After a few moments Lyle spoke.
“You know she would be letting you have it if she saw you like this.”
It took a few moments for Rob to stop sobbing. He chuckled and replied, “She already has.”
Mustering the best Irish accent he could being drunk, Rob said in a very commanding tone, “Robert Haines, you rat-arsed eejit. Ná smaoinigh fuíoll feisithe a dhéanamh diosma * and put the damn bottle down before I throw you out in the snowbank!”
“That’s a pretty good impression”, Lyle remarked.
The two friends looked at each other and after a moment started to laugh. They both knew if she were there, their friend would do just that. One time the two of them had gotten into a drunken fist fight and wound up in her sickbay. The cure they received had been as bad as the black eyes and bruised ribs they had given each other. Their friend had been a no-nonsense doctor and later said she had been teaching them a lesson.
“What am I going to do Lyle?”, Rob asked almost pleadingly, his eyes still wet and red.
“Well,” Lyle replied, “The first thing is you are going to get sober.”
Lyle had brought a hypo-spray with him that would take away the drunken stupor he knew his friend would be in on the anniversary of their friend’s death who was also the woman he was in love with. It would still leave the lesson of a hangover. He pressed it into Rob’s neck.
After a moment, Rob shook his head as the ‘fun’ effects of the copious amounts of alcohol he had drunk left his system.
“Why the hell did you do that for?”, Rob asked with a groan from the hangover that was kicking in.
“I need to talk to you”, Lyle replied, shaking his head as he slid the hypo-spray back into his pocket.
“We were talking”, Rob said with a frown.
“I need to talk to sober Bobbie”, he said standing. He went over and started making coffee. The cabin didn’t have any major technology besides a communicator.
Rubbing his head, Rob got up and went to the nearby couch.
When the coffee was ready, Lyle brought it over to Rob and then handed him a data padd he had with him.
After taking a draw of coffee from the cup, Rob looked at the padd and said, “Nice ship.”
“Indeed”, Lyle said as he sipped his own coffee. “Keep reading.”
Rob read through the information on the padd, his jaw dropping a little.
“No way”, Rob said. “Not him. Seriously?”
“Unfortunately”, Lyle answered.
“Let me guess, this is the place where you say, ‘That’s where you come in’”, Rob quipped.
“Something like that”, his friend said with a chuckle.
“I don’t know”, Rob said. “It’s been a while since I’ve done field work, especially in the beta quadrant.”
Lyle laughed and replied, “Who said anything about field work? I want you to take command of that ship.”
“Uhm, Lyle”, Rob said. “Sorry to rain on your parade, but last I checked, one needs three pips to command a ship full time, and probably four to command that one. I distinctly remember Admiral Irstan saying, Captain Haines, with no chance of further promotion, this court demotes you to the rank of Lieutenant Commander.”
Lyle laughed, “You know, you should hit the entertainment circuit with impressions like that.”
Rob flipped his friend off with a smile.
“Don’t worry about the rank, it’s all taken care of”, Lyle said, extending his hand that had two full rank pips.
“You’re joking”, Rob said as he looked at his friend suspiciously.
Lyle shook his head.
“How?’, Rob asked.
“Well, remember that mission where we saved Admiral Benton’s son?”, Lyle said. Before Rob could say anything, Lyle continued. “Well, Kelsey’s god father is good friends with Admiral Benton, who is retired now. Her son is good friends with an aide of the President of the Federation. The aide got her to talk with Admiral Benton a bit. Well, after the discussion, the President had a ‘discussion’ with the head of Starfleet, head of JAG, and Personnel and voila Captain Haines rides again.”
Rob looked at Lyle with a blank expression.
“Oh, make sure to send the President and Admiral flowers”, Lyle said. “Apparently they hit it off and the rumor is they are getting married at the end of the year.”
“Hell”, Rob exclaimed, looking at the pips in his hands. “I’ll get them a whole damn arboretum.”
He looked at his friend and said, “I don’t know what to say Lyle.”
“Well, promise me no drinking out there”, Lyle said with a smirk.
“Can’t promise that”, Rob replied. “But, no more than a glass a day.”
“Small, human sized, glass”, Lyle said knowing his friend was a master of bending rules.
“Caught me”, Rob replied with a chuckle. “Give that wife of yours a hug for me given all she went through to do this.”
“Give it to her yourself”, Lyle said. “She’s waiting for us in Ireland. You are going to be gone for a while. You won’t get a chance to join the party again for a while.”
Rob smiled and nodded. Grabbing his coat, he followed his friend through the snow out to the shuttle.
• Ná smaoinigh fuíoll feisithe a dhéanamh diosma = Don’t fuck with me.
Post By
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Captain Rob Haines
Commanding Officer
USS Athena
Admiral Lyle Goodwin
Starfleet Intelligence
(NPC)
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