Month 15 Day 1
0719 Hours
MacGregor
Jane entered the booth, sitting opposite
Drake, and immediately stared at the 3rd member of their party.
"Wasn't sure you'd get my
message," Drake told her.
"With all the bells and whistles
you put on it, it did everything but drag me out of bed." She indicated
the engineer. "Shouldn't you be treating that?"
Drake instantly took hold of his
hyperspray and gave Smitty a dose of deintoxicant. "What'd you do that
for?" Smitty demanded, then went back to complaining at a slightly lower
volume.
"I wanted you to see it, first,"
Drake told Jane.
"Send me a notice through channels
is the usual way to deal with this type of thing," she pointed out.
"I didn't want to make it official.
This time."
"Have there been other
times..."
"No," Drake hurried to say.
"If you pay attention to what he's saying, you can figure out why it's
happened. I know you don't like to get involved in the crew's personal matters,
but it might be time to consider it."
"Saw it with my own eyes!"
Smitty said vehemently. "He came right out of her quarters, setting his
clothes to rights, and told her he'd be back later! And her trying to recover
from that healing ray you had her in yesterday afternoon! Of all the
self-centered ways to behave! In her condition!" Smitty chugged half his
glass of orange juice, which Drake knew he had spiked before the captain's
arrival with an over-generous amount of vodka.
"Who is he talking about?"
"His fiancée, who else?"
"And the man he mentions
is..."
"Lt Bugalu!" Smitty said for
himself, and leaned forward on the table to shake a finger at the captain.
"I was like you, captain, I used to think he was a good sort of a guy, but
this behavior just proves what a lying, self-centered, sneaky little weasel he
is! To treat my fiancée in such a fashion isn't to be excused!"
After a few seconds of silence, Jane
asked, "When did this 'problem' become apparent?"
"When he exited our shared bathroom
into my bedroom instead of his own," Drake revealed. "This morning,
about the time my alarm went off."
"So, chances are, he didn't get any
sleep last night." She glanced at the morning menu. "Smitty, what did
you order for breakfast? What looks good to you?"
"Just orange juice," he told
her, and gave her an exaggerated wink. "It's hitting the spot just
fine."
She gave a long look at the glass that
presumably held orange juice. "Is it..."
"Yes," Drake answered.
Jane's mouth momentarily formed a frown,
then she began ordering food on the keypad. "Order your breakfast,
Drake."
"But if I had any doubts about her
reasons for postponing our wedding, there can be no denying those reasons
now," Smitty rumbled abruptly.
"Did you manage to talk to
her?" Jane asked. "I thought she was recovering."
Smitty waved the idea away. "I went
to share the results of our teleportation device tests," he stated.
"But when I remembered she was recovering, I went home and sent them to
her by email."
"Very sensible," Jane told
him.
"I don't know why it took me so
long to see it!" he declared. "Well, no one likes to admit they're
past their prime, and I'm no different in that regard. But it seems so obvious
to me now!"
"You're hardly past your prime,
Smitty. Now, I'm—"
"I'm certainly no spring chicken,
captain!" he declared. "I do think a person should face the truth
when it rears up and slaps them in the face! And that's what I've done! Because
the truth is, Colleen wants a younger man!"
Food started arriving on the booth's elevator.
Jane selected some plates for herself, shoved others to a position in front of
Smitty. When 2 cups of coffee arrived, she gave one to Smitty, took his half
glass of 'orange juice' and sent it back to the kitchen for disposal. "And
you think the younger man she wants is Lt Bugalu."
"Who else? They've been inseparable
since she arrived!"
"De-tox him," she told Drake.
"Completely."
"How did you..." Smitty started
to ask, then winced when Drake gave him another hyperspray dose before he even
checked to see just how drunk the engineer was. "Just don't overdo
it," he asked. "The headache from being overly de-toxed is a killer."
"I've never over de-toxed
you," Drake protested.
"Happened at the Academy
once," Smitty mumbled.
"Smitty, you're wrong," Jane
told him flatly as she poured syrup on her pancakes. "You aren't seeing
things clearly, probably because of your jealousy, which I've spoken to you
about before. She doesn't want a younger man, and certainly not that young man, which if you weren't so
jealous, maybe you could see it. The fact is, she agreed to marry you, and until you said or did
something wrong, you each seemed completely besotted with each other. Bottom
line, you are not old. I know that, Drake knows that. You seem to be the only
one who doesn't believe it. So I'm going to prove it to you. Drake is going to
detox you completely, just like I told him to do. You are going to eat your
breakfast, and then you are going to report for duty and work your entire
shift, just as if you'd actually gotten some sleep last night. Do I make myself
clear?"
"Yes, captain," he agreed
quietly, and began arranging his breakfast and utensils before him.
"Good."
"I hope you'll forgive me for not
joining you for lunch today," Smitty went on.
"Why would you not join us?"
Jane asked suspiciously.
"I think a small power nap would
help me see my way through the rest of the day."
Jane shook her head. "I certainly
will not excuse you. Old men need naps to get through the day. You are not an
old man. I've seen you work 3 days straight without so much as a coffee break.
I have the fullest confidence in your ability to get through the day, without
any naps of any kind. Have I made myself clear?"
"No coffee break?" Smitty
asked in disbelief.
"I didn't say you couldn't have a
coffee break," she answered. "I said I've seen you not take them. But
you are allowed coffee breaks, and a lunch break. Have all the coffee you want.
Just nothing that bears any resemblance to a nap!"
"Yes, captain," Smitty
acknowledged, and turned his attention to Drake. "Are you done detoxing
me, MacGregor?"
Drake took a quick medical scan of the
engineer's body, adjusted his hyperspray and gave him a final dose of
de-intoxicant. "Give that about 5 seconds, and you'll be completely
done."
Space.
I expected the captain to have some unique way of handling Smitty's... misadventure,
but I'm rather sorry now that I brought it to her attention. She's going to force
him to stay awake all day. Which he probably would have done, if all I'd done
is detox him and send him on his way. But now he'll see it as punishing him for
letting his emotions get the better of him, and that will make it that much harder
for him to stay awake. Well, it's a good thing he doesn't let it happen very
often.
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