A Drink Between Friends

Posted on Thu Apr 20th, 2017 @ 5:26pm by Lieutenant Jera'turak Ros & Captain Alistar McKeon

1,009 words; about a 5 minute read

Alistar sat in the empty forward observation lounge and nursed a glass of real whiskey. The bottle sat on the table beside the couch he was sitting in, the clear gold liquid catching the dim lighting of the lounge as well as the light that filtered through the view port. It had been quite a while since he had ventured into the lounge, ever since Rhiana had died during the diplomatic incident with the Krivaldi. The shipyard crew had done a great job in restoring the lounge into something a little more suited for its intended purpose. He had to admit that it looked better now without the bar that had been along the back wall before. The full refit that had taken place before the Endeavour had fallen through the time anomaly had given the ship quite a few upgrades, all for the better. Still, Alistar sighed as he took a sip of the whiskey and wondered the turn of events that had brought him and his crew to where they were now.

Clasping a dark bottle of something liquid and possibly questionable for on duty Starfleet officers, Jera quietly walked into the observation lounge and towards where the captain was sitting. Without bothering to announce herself, she set the bottle she had been carrying onto the table, sliding the bottle of his whiskey out of the way in doing so, and sat down on the opposite end of the couch from him. “I see you finally came down here,” she commented with a smile.

“Yeah, I figured I would check it out and see if there were any ghosts in here,” Alistar said as he eyed the bottle Ros had brought. She had been known to keep quite the collection of semi legal beverages, and he wondered if he should even ask. “So, how go the repairs?”

“Other than a few things here and there, we’re good to go,” Jera said with a nod. “The shipyard crews should be wrapping up on their end tonight and they’re scheduled to turn everything else over to the shipboard engineering crew first thing in the morning. I’ve gone over all of the reports as well as checked all of the systems with T’lon. Everything is good.”

“So, we can head out at any time then,” Alistar said quietly. “Granted we’ll have to return to pick up Silvisi and the science department when they get back, but we can at least run a basic shakedown cruise in the meantime.”

“I’ve already run a power test on the warp core and fusion reactors,” Jera said. “All of the power systems are good to go. I’d love to run a full rundown on the engines as well.

"We can do that once we're underway. If the ship passed a full systems power test, then all we have left to do is run a run ship wide shakedown," Alistar said, nodding in approval. "Good work, Jera."

"Well, I do have to admit that the shipyard engineers did have a hand in getting repairs done," Jera said, making a face. No engineer liked to admit that, but she had just done so. "Some of them even knew what they were doing."

Alistar chuckled and shook his head before he indicated the bottle she had brought. "So, what is that, or do I even want to know?" he asked.

"I figured you would be moping around and thinking too much so I wanted to bring you some good news and share one of the rarest beverages in the galaxy," Jera said as she grabbed to glasses off of the shelf under the table. Opening the bottle, she poured two glasses of the rich sapphire blue liquid into the glasses and set the bottle down before she offered Alistar one of the glasses. "This is the last bottle of Romulan ale from our original timeline, and it's from Virinat, which makes it a little easier to drink."

"Romulan ale is pretty harsh on the throat, what makes this any easier to drink?" Alistar asked as he held his glass up and looked at it.

"The locals on Virinat use natural sweet nectar that eases the harshness. It also makes it slightly more potent," Jera said as she took a drink.

Alistar shrugged and took a drink, blinking as the ale burned, bit and clawed all the way down. Following the whiskey he had been sipping on, it was a complete wake up call. "Wow," he finally managed to say. "I can't believe Romulans drink this stuff all the time."

"Romulans drink it mostly to prove that they can. And because the effects are nice sometimes," Jera said with a smile.

"Save the rest of that bottle," Alistar said as he finished the small amount he had left in his glass. Setting the glass down on the table, he blinked as the blue fiery liquid burned its way down his throat. "I think I'm going to go to bed. I take it you'll have a report for me on my desk in the morning?"

"It's already there," Jera said as she finished her glass and picked up the bottle. Standing, she smiled. "I'll get with the Gamma shift staff and let them know that we'll be departing in the morning. That way everything should be ready for departure."

"Good," Alistar said as he could feel the effects of the Romulan ale already hitting him. The hangover was going to be rough. "I'll be in my quarters," he said before he walked towards the door.

Jera watched the captain leave the observation lounge before she turned back to the table and picked up the bottle of whiskey that he had been drinking. With a look of disgust, she studied the label for a moment, then walked over to the trash receptacle and tossed the bottle inside. With the bottle of Virinat Romulan ale safely nestled in her arm, she hummed softly as she started towards her quarters, and then on to engineering.

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