Alliance Exploration Initiative - Lore Blog #2

drogyn1701

By @antman9173

Captain Anton Mercer tugged on his uniform as he arrived in the transporter room.

"The commander is ready to beam aboard, sir."

"Very good... energize," Mercer replied to the transporter chief. The pad started to give off the familiar glow of materialization as Commander Jenna Romaine appeared on the pad.

"Permission to come aboard, Captain?" Romaine gave Mercer a warm smile.

"Granted." Mercer returned the smile as he motioned to the door. He nodded to the chief as he and Romaine stepped out of the transporter room and started walking down the corridor towards a turbolift. Mercer noticed Romaine looking around wide-eyed.

"The Odyssey refits look like any other Starfleet ship on the inside, Jenna."

"Am I that transparent?" She laughed softly. "I've been doing so many astronomical and stellar surveys, staring at star charts and system repairs the last few months that being on a starship, especially one of the new ones, seems like a brand new experience."

"Well I have known you for quite awhile." Mercer replies as they step into the turbolift. "Deck 17"

As soon as the doors close Jenna gave Anton a strong hug. He groaned. "Can ... Can I breathe, please?" She let go and gave him a pouting look.

"Ant, I haven't seen you in months, how can I not give my friend a hug?

"No, you may not give your superior officer a hug." Anton replied with a slightly smug tone. "Also how many times have I told you not to call me that?"

He gave Jenna a side glance to find her now glaring at him. He turned to her with a smile and raised his hands in a shrugging gesture. "What?" She turns to face the door and crosses her arms with a frown.

"You know... When you were under my command at Memory Alpha I remember treating you better," she said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye.

Anton sighed, eagerly wanting to change the subject, "Speaking of which, the report I got detailed the surveys you were doing on Iconian interstellar gateway movements and their effect on the stellar matter around them. What were you doing before that? When Memory Alpha was re-purposed?"

The turbolift doors open and they stepped out and walked down the corridor.

"I gave a full debrief to Admiral Quinn... and went on leave for several months. It was so boring! But they ended up asking me to teach at the academy, Astrophysics, naturally."

"You? A teacher? Wow. Glad you weren't the survival training instructor. You can't cook to save your life," Mercer chuckled.

"I am not a bad cook!" Romaine said loudly enough for a few of the crewman to turn and look. "Well... I'm not..." She repeated in a more quite tone.

"You put Jaimeson, Reutgers, and Morlain in the medbay you know. Why do you think Egg never..." Mercer's voice trailed off as he realized what he said.

"Yeah... I heard Egg was actually an Undine. I couldn't believe it at first. I kept thinking about all the time we worked together. Was he actually Egg at any point or was he always the Undine? I should have..." Romaine sighed.

Mercer put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it. It's over."

She smiled at him as they stopped in front of her guest quarters. The doors opened and Mercer motions for Romaine to enter. "These will be your quarters until we reach Starbase Magellan. If you need anything, let me know and we'll see what we can do."

"How bout dinner? I promise I'll use the replicator." They both chuckled.

"I would..." Mercer's combadge chirped. "Mercer here."

"Captain, we will be arriving at New Romulus shortly. D'Tan has requested that you speak with him upon arrival.”

"Understood, Mercer out. I would... like a raincheck. If that's ok?" Mercer said through a sigh.

"Of course, I understand. Running a three-way joint starbase can't be a day on Risa."

"More like a picnic... on a Demon-class world." Mercer says while pinching the bridge of his nose. "How about Velocity later? I'm gonna need to burn some stress off."

"Sure, just let me know when so I can thoroughly trounce you." Romaine gave Mercer a playful, but devilish smile.

"Right. Last time I checked it was 57 to 22 in my favor? I'll see you then." He said as he exited the room.

Romaine stood there for a few minutes contemplating what to do with her time. "I'm going to go practice," She mumbled.