After the Party

Posted on Thu Oct 19th, 2023 @ 12:04am by Ensign Noah Balsam & David Mccolugh & Debbie Gless

Mission: Stardust and Sin
Location: King's Shilling Pub
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0914

[The King's Shilling Pub]
[USS Sojourner]
[MD 1: 0914 Hours]

The big cleaning after the party was done usually that night, though David was still one to do a lot of things by hand. Habits he had built over his lifetime still stuck true, before he opened her would sweep the floor, mop up polish the bar top and check the stock. The large rifle above the bar he checked it's locks, and even though it was from a generation where black powder was king, and it would be stopped by even the smallest open market shield, he still kept it secure.

It also let him get ready for the day, this time he did not hear the door hiss open .

"Morning!" came the bright, brassy voice of Debbie Gless, the ship's resident diner-matron. Standing beside her was the newly minted Ensign Balsam. "Figured you might want a little help with all this?" she said to David, gesturing to the aftermath of the previous night's party. "I needed to stop in to grab some of my things anyway," the somewhat rotund proprietor gestured to a stack of dirty buffet trays and a large box of partially drained bottles of real alcohol. These things had been set aside after closing the night before, Deb having been too tired to cart everything back then. "Our newest Ensign offered to come along and help," she said as explanation for Noah's presence, reaching over to pinch his cheek affectionately, a dazzling smile pointed his way, "so put us to work, David!"

Noah, shorn of his lengthy shag into a neat(er) sweep of hair, had donned his new Engineering officer's uniform. Gone was the gray, in with the black. He looked at Debbie and rolled up on the balls of his feet then back. His hands collapsed in front of his lap, he nodded. "Y-yeah. And thank you. Both." he looked at the two of them. The lad, as usual, had a nervous energy to him, expended in little hints like a knuckle pop or a shake of his hand. He eyed the rifle with some surprise, drawn there by David's presence. He didn't know the type- but he could guess the era. Vaguely.

"More hands makes the work go faster, so come on in, I'll get coffee going, and we can get started." True to his word David started preparing a pot of coffee.

"Coffee sounds amazing," Debbie intoned before moving off to get started.

"Is that a ri-rifle or a musket?" Noah asked.

"It's actually a Nock gun, 8 barrels, designed for the Royal Navy to clear decks, a gift from an old friend, he was with the rifles back when we were fighting old Boney." Seeing the young man's confusion, "Napoleon."

The confusion that David sought, he found. Noah's face stayed the slack of confusion, with a subtle furrow at his large nose's bridge . He'd thought muskets and rifle were the only type of such primitive weapons. He looked up at it and uttered an uncertain, "Uh. Oh." So that was why it was so fat? The youth was ignorant enough to think its multiple chambers were like an old revolver.

The name Napoleon he'd heard before. It held no relevance to the young Enceladan. Enceladus didn't even have an army. "Wah-was he the one with one arm?" Noah asked, confusing Napoleon with his biggest naval rival- Nelson.

That got a laugh from the bartender, "No the one armed chap was Lord Nelson."

As Noah asked about the rifle, Debbie moved over to the area that had been set up as a memorial to Booth. Going into a bendy crouch, she pulled a tub-style bin from under the floor-length table drapery and then set it upon the surface. She began collecting items from the remembrance then, carefully putting the framed picture of the security crewman into the tub, followed by the array of hand-written notes littered about the table. Booth hadn't known many people aboard the Sojo -- he was brand new to her, after all -- but people had still recognized the man's sacrifice and left notes of gratitude for his service.

"I'll make sure this stuff gets to his family," Debbie said then, looking back towards David and Noah. "Honey, would you start picking up all the dirty glasses and plates?" she asked of the engineer, looking around at all the left behind dishes from the night prior. They were strewn about the various tables as well as the bar itself.

The young one's lopsided smile, a sort of adoptive son's adoration, cast to Debbie when Noah broke from the chat of the rifle and set about helping the former engineer-cum-matron's needs. He began, arms out as if metaphorically encapsulating the dishes and utensils he needed to work with. He started to move- rather quickly- qand began to sort things that he could put in other things, things that could be matrioshka-ed into larger things. The sound of clinking glasses was the evidence of his movement.

Yet in it, a slight furrow kept at his brow and he listened in on the two older adults.

David nodded, then got to work washing glasses, yeah he could have replicated but for some things he used, the original was better.. Then he took some glasses from Noah, "I never got a chance to congratulate you on your commission. Well done lad."

Noah beamed again at the man. "Oh. Um. Thank you sir," he said agreeably, a sense of nervous energy coming over him again. Noah, who'd willingly let the glasses slip his grasp, began to differentiate glasses like those and glasses that were different. He started to sort. "Were you um, ever in Starfleet?" Noah looked at Debbie and chin jutted at the matron, "I know Deb was."

"Not Starfleet, I was wth a few different Armies from the Highlanders at Waterloo, to the 3rd armored under Patton, then I stayed out of war and instead just held odd jobs. Everyone thought I was just the guy next door, until the Vulcans came."

"I'll never understand why so many long-lived aliens ended up on Earth of all places," Debbie spoke up while working on her own task. "El-Aurians, Lanthanites...the list goes on, all of you hiding in our history. Me?" she suddenly said, looking over at Noah and David with her hands on her hips. "I couldn't do it. Living on a planet of primitive people with nothing but war in their hearts? And forced to try to blend in? That would be awful," the matron asserted.

Debbie had neatly summed up his own fascinations. He'd kept stacking, feeling that youth-among-wisdom need to both look busy and remain quiet. "I thought Luh-Lathanites were a myth. I've heard of El-Aurians. You read about them at the Academy. History of flagships of the Federation," Noah set aside a glass and began a new stack. "Captain Harriman was there to, um, rescue some of the survivors. But I didn't know th-they lived a long time." He looked at David. "So um, which are you Sir?"

"I wasn't in the Nexus group."David began, "I was part of a sociological survey team that was studying cultures on Earth, first place we landed was Scotland around 1800 or so, when we tried to slip out our craft got destroyed so we had to blend in. So I've been on Earth, all over since then." He then paused and addressed Debbie's comments, "An old American General William Sherman famously said War is the closest thing a merciful God allows to Hell and he was right, the war is the worst part, but as I lived I saw a lot of good too, the abolition of slavery, advancements from the steam engine to warp drive, I saw the Pyramids of Giza and learned a lot. Seeing a society that yes was primitive grow in to the Humans of today, it was a rare gift."

Clink.

Noah stacked a glass in a glass. His head nodded slowly, pensively. "It-it was a little too close to hell for my ancestors. After Green started trying to-to exterminate people like us, we fled the planet. First to Titan and Ganymede. But then we wanted our own society. So we uh," he shrugged, "My ancestors helped settle Enceladus. Thinkers puh-paradise." He smiled albeit with a touch of that awkwardness, "Enceladans have a-a complicated feeling about Earth."

Clink. Noah set yet another glass in. "I like the pyramids. Strongest architectural shape." He did a thumbs up.

"Well," Debbie clucked, putting the last of the Booth memorial into her box, "I'm glad you got something out of watching humans grow up. Bet it was a hoot seeing all our stumbles," she said to David. There was an edge to her tone: clearly, something with the man's history on Earth didn't sit well. "Noah, baby," he said, affecting a Cheshire smile, "tell us more about that complicated feeling? And while you do, would you put this over with the others?" She held the box of memorial items out towards the Ensign and nodded towards some bins of already-packed buffet pans and utensils from the night prior.

"Sure," Noah's eager voice broke in a too-pubescent voice for his own comfort. And he moved, beginning to pour over the task Debbie had delegated. He looked at each- obviously some kind of personal knickknacks. "This one's cute," he held up a random bauble. "Umm... anyway. A lot of people who moved to Enceladus. I mean when we first went to Titan. Scientists. Genetic engineers. Roboticists. But we-we weren't," and he did air-quotes, "Pure Human stock like Green wanted. His nose wrinkled, "We were the types he put in his death camps. Muslims, Jewish people... mostly scholars. Anyway when-when Green was... y'know.. gotten rid of. There was still the whole puh-post-Atomic horror. Which people blamed on people like us... so... we fled. In those old DY-classes. And um. Even today I think Earth kind of goes, "Oh those people out there,"" and Noah shrugged, "We never wanted to be part of United Earth. Or Mars. We did our own thing... even if Earth's representative is our representative on the Council." He paused, "And when they banned Synthetics in the 80's, Enceladus got with Bynaus and Tulia and Catulla and said... um..." He grinned lopsided, "Buh-basically fuck you to the Federation Council. About that."

David nodded and kept cleaning, he had heard similar stories about Colonel Greene, they did remind him of some other groups he recalled from his time on Earth, He didn't have much to say on this end and let the kid talk.

"Sounds awful if you ask me," Debbie grumbled hawkishly, commenting on the history of Noah's origination. "Never been there myself, but you hear things, you know?" she said, arching an eyebrow at the collection of glasses she was accumulating in her arms as she swept through the bar's tables and chairs. "David," the matron said then, turning to the bartender, "I'm curious. Why an English pub? It sounds like you lived all over Earth...does England have some kind of significance for you?"

"it-it's very different than Earth. Earth is, you know, pretty. There's something about trees," Noah said with an eye squint. "It just be genetic. But Earth's not home." Noah agreed with that with a suspect twist of his head toward the pub-owning man. He'd about finished stacking the wares Debbie had assigned him. "I-I was a little curious about that. Um, too."

David paused in thought. "Honestly, I spent a lot of time in either England, or it's Dominions for centuries, I've also worked in quite a few pubs and each one has been a home away from home for so many people, I wanted to bring that to this ship." He got a crooked smile, "As for the name, I took the King's and Queen's shilling many a time in my life so it fit."

"Huh," Debbie said in response, not having known any of that about David. "Well, we're all the better for having a cozy pub to relax in. The diner's great but it's definitely a different vibe," she noted before looking back at Noah. "Definitely get what you mean about trees. Used to have a big oak in the back yard when I was growing up. Must have climbed that tree a hundred times or more...always loved the view from up there," she said wistfully, recalling many a sunset watched from that particular perch as a kid.

"We're lucky to have both," Noah added with a tight smile and a nod. "N-not many Nova-Refits have this much uh character. It's just a Mess Hall and an Observation Lounge." Noah reached for a towel and cleaned his hands. "Did they allow it because we're so far from home? I-I was never sure who allocated it all," Noah looked at Debbie because he had, after all, created her holo-environment.

The inclusion of her diner as a "lucky" add to the Sojo brought a grin to Debbie's lips. There was a question asked, though, and the proprietor was happy to answer en route to hand off her armfuls of dirty glasses to David at the bar. "It's really up to the Captain of a ship," she said to Noah, "to approve these kinds of spaces. Some Captains want to keep things simple. You know, easy by-the-book locales," she stressed, leaning against the bar to rest for a moment. "Others are more willing to take some risks and try something more with their social areas," Debbie said brightly, eyes flashing. "Björn was definitely supportive of the idea of the diner given how far from home we'd be. But I'm betting he would have said yes even if we'd stayed in the Alpha Quadrant."

Noah's mouth opened in a soundless "Ah," of understanding. "Us um, Lower Deckers only get limited access to environmental modifications in our quarters. Probably because we-we have to share with three other people."

David nodded, the curse of junior officers and enlisted, but he thought about the diner, "Good place the Diner, Best burger I've had since Earth."

"I'll tell Mel," Debbie beamed, her earrings swaying dramatically as she turned her head towards David. "He's fond of a place back on Earth called 'Burger Queen.' He flame-grills his patties just like they do, you know," she said with a smirk. Arms getting rather full of another load of glasses, the matron moseyed back to the bar and began carefully setting them down for David to address.

In silence the fresh Ensign looked around David's pub again. He felt the knee-jerk impulse to have a pint of something, even though he wasn't an avid social drinker. It was just the right thing for the atmosphere. "Who-who's the current Monarch for the British right now?" Noah asked. He puffed out his bottom lip, "I-I know it's just ceremonial now but... the-the last time I paid attention it was I-I think..." One of his eyes narrowed. "I want to say its a..." he dropped his finger down to a point, "A Victoria. Victoria III?" His eyes opened, "Or Four. Maybe four? Anyway, she was old e-even when I was in primary school."

"Sadly Victoria passed a few years ago, her son George XII currently holds the throne. "It's amazing there's only been 4 Victorias in all the time since the first one. " He started washing the glasses with practiced skill and started putting them away.

"Oh," Noah acknowledged simply, his brows raising. "And-and what, three Elizabeths. There should be a Noah. Or a Debbie. Has there been a David?"

"There was a King David once," Debbie spoke up, having procured a mop from somewhere. "He ruled in ancient times, though not over England. He reigned in Israel," the matron explained, starting to work at a large, sticky patch of a dried drink that had been spilled. Whoever'd spilled it had clearly not mentioned it to anyone or made an effort to clean it up: she tried to set aside her irritation at that. "But a 'King Noah' kind of sounds awesome," Debbie grinned over at the ensign.

That did get an amused chuckle from David, "That would be a good Regal name." He then started putting away some groceries, "They had 3 Elizabeths, 4 Victorias, 12 Georges, 15 Edwards, even a second Steven, but not a Noah. " Then he paused for a bit, "had a corporal named Noah during Waterloo, was in his wedding. Lad survived the battle, ended up playing godfather to his son."

Noah smiled at that. "Well, we're-we're good in support that way." He said while he approached Debbie and studied what was sticking to the table. "I-I have something that'll take that right out. Computer, replicate bio-solvent 2-Y2-Alpha. Half strength." He grimaced, "We use that to clean out the holodeck waste disposal system." He winced an eye, "Probably the-the worst job an Ensign or a Cadet could get. Except hand-cleaning the carbon filters."

At the thought of strange, sticky substances on the holodeck floors, Debbie burst out laughing. "Oh honey," she said, putting an arm around Noah's shoulders, "I'm so sorry you've had to do that. We've all been there," she continued to laugh, her belly shaking as she did. "I remember when I was just getting my start as an engineer. Commander Tomlin spent way too much time in the holodeck. Everyone always wondered what he was up to in there. But, as a lowly ensign, I knew," she smirked, mischief in her eyes. "That man left behind more DNA sludge than a Denobulan slime slug...if you catch my meaning," Debbie clucked, her hoopy earrings swaying back and forth.

Noah's guffawing smile spread while the matron wrapped him. He nodded in her arms, "Heh yeah. Right of passage. Which reminds me, I-I think I have to do that next week. Unless Kirby's over his Tyrrellian Flu." He chuckled as Debbie regaled them of the exploits of one Commander. "Wanted to follow in Kirk's footsteps but the-the new rules regarding alien contact held him back?" Noah's eyes bugged. Oh he caught her meaning.

That got a laugh from David, "The more the service changes, the more some things stay the same."

A Post By:

David Mcclough
Pub Owner

Debbie Gless
Matron

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist