“Surprise” Party
Posted on Mon Oct 2nd, 2023 @ 1:33pm by Daniel Martinez & Captain Maxwell Culver
1,263 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
First Contact
Location: USS Intrepid: Captain’s Quarters
Timeline: MD1: 1700 hours
Max and Rena reached his quarters after some light chat about forgetting work for the moment. About how he had come to forget about his birthdays and the next one that was celebrated by the El-Aurians would be his hundredth, a milestone still forty seven years ahead of him. She had reminded him that he was not only dating a human, but one whose last milestone was his twenty first. Expectations were different between them, despite appearances, Max was more than double Dani’s age.
He was about to ask Rena inside one second before she pushed him and pressed the close prompt on the door pad. With a small smile to herself, Rena walked off, she still had work to do.
Max stepped inside his shared quarters, feeling guilty for leaving his bridge on time when they had just taken the Helivan ship under tow. He took off his shoes and socks, hung up his jacket, tossed his pips and combadge in a container by the door, threw his tunic in the recycler, and stepped into the standard Starfleet quarters. Well, standard on one side. The other side looked like an alien forest where Kaydren’s sentient tree survived. Max could feel her welcoming presence.
“Dani?” Max asked, but using his empathy all he could feel from Dani was excitement and interest. Max followed his senses to find his boyfriend in a completely different place than he expected. Sitting on the couch, straining his neck, Dani looked up and out of the curved windows.
Max cocked his head curiously. Setting down beside his boyfriend, Max craned his neck back too. What he had was a terrible view of the central side of the Helivan starship. “Whatcha doin’?” Max asked.
“Just looking at our first encounter with aliens since we entered the Beta Quadrant. Seemed like the ship was in some kind of trouble. I couldn’t watch the two ships as they tried to match spin, it was making me nauseous, but once we were linked and stopped, I’ve been wondering what would happen next.”
Max turned his head to look at Dani. His unwavering blue eyes full of excitement. Max smiled silently as he captured the visual image forever. “This isn’t the first time you’ve met aliens,” Max made the obvious statement.
“No,” Dani answered, not turning away from the image above him. “But it is the first time I’ve been around for the first time meeting a new people.”
Turning his head finally, Dani asked, “What the hell are you doing here?”
Max flung his head back to resume looking at the Helivan starship. “Well, to be honest, I didn’t want to leave, except the crew nearly picked me up and threw me in the turbolift. Unable to make sense of it, I did catch a single phrase from Chester. ‘Birthday Party’?”
Dani ran his left hand along Max’s jaw before grabbing his chin and forcing him to look deep into Dani’s eyes. “You’re Captain of this ship, baby. I don’t expect you to drop something this important to come down to poorly, homemade El-Aurian dishes when First Contact is underway.”
With his chin still in Dani’s grip, Max push in and kissed him. “Thank the gods!” Max exclaimed in relief. “I hate El-Aurian food, so I’m glad you didn’t waste your time making any of it.” Max’s face was lit by a broad smile.
“Good to know,” Dani responded, returning a quick kiss to Max. “So…go get dressed and go back to work. Consider this a brief hiccup in your shift.”
Max shook his head in agreement as his thoughts formed. “That’s not exactly fair to you, sitting here and getting neck strain just to look at the bottom of the starship. Nope…not fair at all.”
Max moved to the bedroom. He changed his t-shirt quickly, pulled on new socks and opened his closet to take out his leather jacket. The leather was, maybe, a step down in formality, but it was still regulation and much more comfortable.
Looking out at Dani, he picked out a black t-shirt and a replicated a dark brown leather jacket. Stepping out of the bedroom, Max tossed the clothes to his boyfriend. “I expect you to look professional on my bridge, Mister Martinez.”
Dani looked confused for a moment before it was replaced with clarity and a smile. “You’re going to let me on the bridge?!”
Max nodded a moment before he was swept up in Dani’s arms, sharing a deep kiss this time. For the pair, it couldn’t have been much more than a minute though time seemed to stretch out forever. When they parted, Max and Dani stood with their foreheads pressed together, just taking in the moment.
Finally, at nearly the same time, they said, “Alright. Let’s get going.”
Max made one last change for comfort, he pulled on his black trainers. If he was going to be working indefinitely, he wanted to be completely comfortable. To hell with traditional boots and uniforms.
A short walk found the pair in a turbolift, a short ride later, they were deposited on the bridge. As soon as Max stepped out of the lift, the crewman at the standing station there announced, “Captain on the bridge.”
People stopped what they were doing and began to stand, but Max was faster. “As you were,” he responded and the crew returned to their duties. This shift would be much more used to Chet running the bridge at this time. Max didn’t know many of the names, if he was honest with himself.
Turning back, Max could see Dani standing inside the turbolift, looking uncomfortable, shy even. Max offered a gentle smile and used one of Rena’s tricks, surrounding Dani with a sense of relaxation and confidence. Without a word, Dani soon stepped out of the bridge.
Before him was a massive circle design, perfectly symmetrical. A station just off each turbolift entrance, larger stations and displays lined the walls, three chairs in the center and two stations at the very front. Everything looked perfectly clean and shiny. Every person was in perfectly trimmed and regulation uniforms.
Max gave Dani a minute to check everything out, but after enough time, he dipped his head toward the center seat. Stepping onto the bridge, Max took his chair and had Dani take up station next to him.
Turning in his chair, Max looked at Dani. “You can use your station to monitor the situation and get a better look at the Helivan ship, but there’s not much more you can do there. Definitely nothing you can screw up,” Max explained quietly.
“What station,” Dani responded, confused.
Max looked to see the station had been returned to its proper storage position. He reached across and touched a relatively hard to find button and the station moved from storage, extending out and upward before coming back down into Dani’s lap. “Very cool!”
“Maybe we’ll come up on an overnight and I can give you a tour of the bridge, show you all the very cool things up here,” Max offered. To his surprise, Dani was incredibly excited by the idea.
“Yes, please,” Dani said, trying to hold back his excitement at the idea of learning about Max’s job and the bridge on one of Starfleet’s newest starships.
Once again, Max nodded. “I wonder where Chet’s gotten off to?” he asked himself.
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