May I join you?

Posted on Thu May 23rd, 2019 @ 4:04pm by Captain Rueben Gregnol & Tasha Belikov

Mission: Mission 9 - Daucina
633 words - 1.3 OF Standard Post Measure

Hal walked into the ships bar for one simple purpose, to drink. Which of course was the logical purpose. But today was sort of special. It was his parents birthday and he felt like celebration. Which to him was the only way to feel. It was a century and change ago, no sense dwelling on the life hed never lead. So he walked up to the bar and noticed someone sitting alone.


"She looks sad" he said to the barkeep, who just shrugged. "What'll it be?" he asked. "Whiskey." he ordered. "Not fussy on brand." he said.


"Coming right up." the tender said.

Hal noticed the mystery woman didn't have one. "You know what, upgrade my order and make it two." Once he got his drinks he walked over.


"Excuse me, but I couldn't help but notice that you seemed down from across the room. Would you like some company?"

Tasha had entered the bar a little over an hour ago. She hadn't wanted to be in her quarters. She couldn't shake it. Her office was fine, other rooms on this ship were fine, everywhere was fine except her own room. She was sure if she sat here a little longer pondering the why of everything she still wouldn't understand it. She was just about to give up on her time in the bar when someone approached her from the side with a drink in hand. She hadn't been paying attention and jumped slightly when he spoke. "Oh," She started her surprise. "I, uh,...sure." she said with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Thank you." He said, taking a seat. "My name's Hal."

"Tasha." She replied simply with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "How are you?"

"I'm good." He said. "Just celebrating the past" he said, looking down. "Well, not exactly "good' but better than "bad"

Tasha took a sip of her drink to stop the chance of blurting out what she thought. That never seemed to serve her well. She watched him for a moment until it was almost awkward. "So, what exactly in the past are you celebrating?" She had to admit that she was a little more than curious.

"Parents birthday. They died..a while ago." He said.

"Oh..." Tasha said her tone turning from somewhat hopefully to sadness. "I am sorry." Was all she could think to say.

"Don't be." Hal said. "I'm not. Sometimes life throws a curve ball that you can't really do much about. That's sort of what happened."

Tasha nodded taking another sip of her drink. "So, uh..." she started. "So, I take it you are like Eden? I mean, from this ship a long time ago?" She asked still trying to make sense of his comment.

"Well. That cats outta the bag I guess." He laughed. "Yeah. I am " he said. "I didn't know how to bring it up, to be honest"

"She just made some joke about knowing the ship from a long time ago," Tasha replied. "I mean, at least I think she was joking." She took another sip. "I was having a panic attack at the time so I may have missed it." she smiled, making her own inside joke of her own.

Hal chuckled a little bit. "Yeah. Never thought I'd feel like an old man in my twenties.'

Tasha couldn't help but laugh. The man looked young but she hadn't realized he was that much younger than her. Thinking about that for a moment she let out another laugh. If you went strictly by birthdays he was far older than her, but sitting there as they were, she was the elder. She grinned genuinely for the first time in a long time even if she didn't understand why.

Hal smiled too.

TRUNCATED