The Message

 Month 14 Day 26 (day of wedding)

0701 Hours

Capt Jane Burke

Jane towel-dried her hair as she exited her private bathroom. She heard a gentle ping coming from her computer. A personal message? Can't remember the last time I got one of those. And it has to be an intra-ship message, or it would have come in my mail slot, which is a different tone. Well, it can wait until I'm dressed.

Getting dressed didn't take long, and then she slipped into the chair at her desk to see what the day held in store for her. The first thing was to open the personal message in order to get the repetitive ping to go away. That ping was beginning to get on her nerves. It wasn't supposed to repeat like that. It wasn't even a video message, but a typed one. How archaic, especially considering who it came from.

To: Capt Jane Burke

From: Lt Colleen MacDowell

Timestamp: Today's Date, 0033 Hours

Captain,

I have changed my mind and will not be marrying Mr Smythe this evening. I expect to take my usual days off today and tomorrow and to return to work on Monday, if the medical team lets me. My apologies for such short notice in this matter.

Uh oh. I don't like the sounds of that. What in space is going on between those two? There were no other personal messages, and all the work-related ones would be waiting in her office computer. Did they have a fight last night? Did Smitty finally confront her about her supposed pregnancy? Well, I won't find out what's going on by sitting here and asking myself questions I don't have answers to. How did a medical team get involved? She left her quarters, went directly to Smitty's.

She rang the doorbell, and the door opened. The living room lights came on as she entered, but the quarters were silent. "Smitty?"

She heard half a snort from the dark bedroom, and a muttered, "Colleen?"

I must have woke him. "It's Jane, Smitty. Aren't you up yet?"

"What? What time is— Oh. Sorry, captain, my alarm didn't go off."

Surely he could have thought of a better excuse than that. Nobody forgets to set their alarm if they want to stay in the Fleet. "I want to talk to you, Smitty."

"Aye, captain. I'll take a 2-second shower and be with you shortly."

For all that he promised a 2-second shower, it was more like a minute before she heard him open his closet to get a fresh uniform. While she waited, she paced back and forth between the sofa and the desk, until the glint of light off something on the desk caught her attention. Walking closer, she found 2 circles of glass sitting on the desk. When she picked them up, they were obviously a drinking glass that had somehow been split in two. Carefully placing them back where they had been, she frowned at what appeared to be a slight dent in the edge of the desk. What could possibly have done that? And how long has it been there?

"Captain, did you have any trouble getting in this morning?" Smitty called to her.

"No. Should I have?"

"Well, I did lock my doors last night," he muttered, just loud enough that she could hear him, although that might not have been his intention.

"Why did you do that?" There's really only one reason, and I thought he was serious about becoming a one-woman man.

It took him a moment to answer. "I wasn't alone last night."

Jane schooled her face not to show any emotion. She tried to keep her voice light and friendly. "Sowing some last-minute wild oats, Smitty?"

He appeared in the bedroom doorway, fully dressed except for his boots, which he carried in one hand. With the other, he picked up a rumpled, brown-stained towel and tossed it onto his bed. "I was with Colleen, captain."

So the problem isn't that he brought another woman here and the bride heard about it. "Have you given her residential rights to your quarters already?"

He looked confused by the question as he walked over to the sofa. "No. I haven't."

"Then how did she get out?" And when did she leave? Maybe sometime around midnight? When she went straight to her own quarters and called off the wedding? Disappointment or... what?

He sighed and started to put on one boot. "I suspect she fiddled with the lock mechanism. I'll have to look into that today." He picked up the other boot and paused. "I suppose she didn't want to wake me, for fear I wouldn't let her go. I wouldn't have wanted to, but I seldom tell her no."

"You were keeping her against her wishes?" That could put a damper on marriage plans.

"No! I mean, I don't think I was." He gave a slight shake of his head, his boot temporarily forgotten. "I wanted to take her to sick bay, but she kept putting it off. Then we got started with sex, and she enjoyed it as much as I did. Despite her injuries, which weren't that bad, after all."

"What injuries?"

Smitty grimaced and put his boot on. "A number of minor injuries, which won't make sense if I don't recall them in order. Let's see, she was very nervous and fussed with her glass of water until it broke, slicing her hands. But not very deep. But I saw blood, and jumped up to help her, which startled her, and she jammed her leg against my desk."

Jane glanced at the sturdy desk. She hit the desk hard enough to dent it?

"What was next?" he muttered. "I was headed next door to get MacGregor, and she stepped forward to stop me, her leg gave out, and she slammed her face against the edge of the doorway." He sighed. "That's going to be a strange bruise for people to talk about."

"You make yourself sound perfectly innocent, Smitty."

He looked up in confusion, which eventually turned to suspicion. "You can't think I did anything to harm her, captain! I'd never do that!"

Well, here we go. I hate breaking bad news. "Then why did she send me a personal message this morning telling me the wedding is off?"

Smitty stared at his commanding officer for several long moments as his face drained absolutely white. "She did what?" he finally croaked.