Return To Hiding
Posted on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 @ 4:20pm by Chloe de la Vega
Edited on on Wed Jan 23rd, 2019 @ 11:21pm
991 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Episode 6 - Old Habits Die Hard
Location: After 11, Deck 11, USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD001 1130 hrs
Chloe was in earlier today, unusually so. She didn't usually make an appearance to the late afternoon after lunch service was finished and the real 'drinking' crowd tended to appear. She had decided to give Marcel, one of the bar staff, the day off so she could keep herself busy, her mind active on other activities.
The thing was whilst on the planet, whilst she was having some fun, she saw her father.
Captain Gabriel de la Vega, of the USS Banburry.
She'd not seen him in three years, thankfully so. The sound of his voice sent shivers down her spine, and she began to close up in fear as she had done as a younger woman when he began his more physical forms of abuse. She remembered every bruise, every hit as if it was yesterday and the last one that forced her to run away from home at 17.
Considering such she hadn't done too badly for herself. She had done various jobs to make 'ends meat', or what ever that meant on Earth in the 24th century, to get off world and find other opportunities.
She now resided on the Pioneer, a civilian on a ship of those stuck in rigid service and it made her smile that they came to her for an escape. The irony being that she was using them for the same thing, a hiding place, a safe place.
She knew her father had been searching for her ever since she'd left. Surprising that he was never one to show his caring side towards her but she thought it was an attempt to get her home so she couldn't tell anyone. Tell them what kind of man he was, the kind of unsophisticated human being that was reported in the 21st century only a mere 300 or so years ago.
Had they really came that far? Evolved so much as to say that their basist instincts wouldn't return when their backs were up against the wall. Some would say Chloe's 'free love' was not very evolved, child-like and not within the moral standard for those of her race these days, but she knew better. She'd seen the basist of Human emotion, of Human need.
Before her luck changed she would find parts on Earth no-one knew about and find fellow lost souls looking for a place to fit in. She felt more at home with those people than she did in the facade her father had created in Valencia.
She had thought about telling Captain Malbrooke about her father, before he managed to find her, ask about her and before she would know it she would be gone again. Back into the shadows. Funnily enough she had found herself outside his ready room on many occasions, hand hovering above the button to enter but never having the nerve to push it. To open up.
That was her problem.
Trust.
For now she looked across the room, a few people going about their day without worry. Some were having an early lunch, others a late breakfast, the latter being engineers mostly having worked through the night on some project she would no doubt hear about later in the night when lips became looser.
Deep down she has always thought that's why she loves what she does. When people injest real alcohol, the only kind she provides, they become more of their true self. The inhibitions of protocol, rank and status within the world, within Starfleet. You become who you want, not what society deems you should be or how to act. There was some poetry in that, something she always found soothing.
For a moment she found her mind drifting to Clarissa and Elloma, two people she'd call friends. A rare thing for Chloe in light of her constant moving around but she'd been on the Pioneer for a while and grew closer to these two. A smile appeared on her face, her heart grew that little bit warmer.
"Penny for your thoughts darlin'?" came the drawl of an engineer from the bar.
"Just thinking about how life can change quickly on a starship Chief." she replied.
"Well, you're in the best place in the world in my opinion." he said raising his glass a little.
He'd been on night shift and had came in for a night cap before heading off to sleep before his next. Something he'd always done.
Chloe smiled in reply, "With people like you Seamus, there isn't much that can keep me down." She finished kissing the balding mans forehead with a childlike love.
"Ah away. You're too kind to me Chloe, especially when you give me the free nightcap." he said tipping his glass. "I just wish my own daughters were as sweet to their old man as you are."
"I know a good soul when I see one, couple of years behind a bar and you become a good student of the nature of people. You looked like you could use a little daughterly love." Chloe replied sweetly.
"Ah your old man must be very grateful for that." Seamus replied in kind.
Chloe's eyes closed as if the thought of her father gave her chills, her face contorted slightly as the mention but it quickly faded with a slight shake.
"I'm more grateful to have you here Seamus, I don't imagine I'd feel the same if my papa was here."
He went to ask further but Chloe shook her head and he decided against it. "I'll keep you in check honey." he said with a smile.
"Oh mi amor (my love), no-one can keep me in check." she replied with a cheeky wink and the blow of a kiss in his direction.
He chuckled and Chloe went back to her business.
Today would be a good day.
Hopefully.
Chloe De La Vega
Owner/Bartender "After 11", USS Pioneer
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