Friends In Another Life

Posted on Mon Dec 4th, 2023 @ 6:51am by Chief Petty Officer Virginia Pryce & Lieutenant JG Nairobi Ellis

Mission: S1 Episode 6: Joy and Ashes
Location: ACEO's Quarters
Timeline: Date 2371-09-08 at 1930
2610 words - 5.2 OF Standard Post Measure

Directly after the promotion ceremony, Nairobi was one of the several people who would have the pleasure of moving quarters. Going from a senior NCO on Deck 7 to a Junior Officer on Deck 5 came with a cabin that was largely the same, but now she was surrounded by assistant department heads. None of this was remarkable for her, and if she were honest, just felt like a bunch of unnecessary work.

She had already packed her belongings for transport to her new cabin the night before, so the task before her now was simply to unpack and put things close to where they were in her old place. She’d stripped off her uniform jacket and worked in her skirt and standard black tank top. She was braless as she so often was, not feeling the need for support considering her small bust. She was thin and fit without being muscular or physically impressive. The only part of her which warranted any attention was her pretty face, which she often squandered with a neutral and professional expression. Putting clothes on hangers wasn’t an occasion for excitement in her book.

The promotion ceremony and socialization had been fine… until it had been decidedly not fine in Virginia’s book. It was a small ship so she had of course heard the rumors, but she had written them off as just that - rumors started by bored people trying to stir up trouble. That was until she had seen it herself. So here she was walking down deck 5 with an expression of deep concern on her pretty but unremarkable face. Finally arriving at Nairobi’s cabin, she hit the chime and waited.

“Come in.” Nairobi said, her tone clearly indicating she was annoyed. It wasn’t personal, of course, but she had always been the type to be easily frustrated.

Virginia stepped inside, making herself smile but she was unable to push the alarm out of her eyes. “Hey. I thought you might need some help unpacking.”

Nairobi looked over at the source of the familiar voice and inclined her head, acknowledging the woman without offering a verbal greeting.

“Actually, I could.” She said, turning back to the box she was unpacking. “And you might actually remember where all of this stuff goes, unlike the man from Ops who called himself ‘trying to help’ me.”

“Yeah, they are super helpful.” She chuckled slightly and moved over to the boxes, looking down into it and picking up one of the items which she unwrapped and moved to set up in its proper place. “So… how are you doing?”

“I’m fine.” Nairobi answered, her dark eyes still focused on the pictures she was pulling out of the box. “I’m just trying to adjust to life as it is; life here. It’s not easy for me.”

“I know, it’s not easy for me either.” Virginia agreed sympathetically, glad for the busywork she was doing that helped her focus and let her have an excuse to avoid looking at Nairobi directly. “But hey we aren’t giving up, right?”

“Of course not. We have lived to get back to after all. No matter how hopeless it might seem now.” Nairobi said, stifling a sigh. She had always been the firecracker between the two of them. “I’m not giving up if you aren’t.”

“I’m not planning on it.” Virginia replied, hesitated, and then spoke with apprehension. “But ah… Nairobi… I’ve got some… concerns. Concerns with how you’re maybe trying to um… adjust?”

“What are you talking about?” Nairobi asked, glancing at the woman with a kind of mildly-annoyed curiosity which bordered on impatience.

With a sigh that communicated all the anxiety she felt, Virginia stopped what she was doing, tilted her head back, and closed her eyes. “I’ve been hearing a lot of rumors lately about you… I didn’t really want to believe them at first but then I saw you at the ceremony earlier…”

Nairobi stopped what she was doing and looked at Virginia more directly.

“Spit it out, dammit. You’re stressing me out.”

Instead of answering, Virginia just stared at Nairobi and weighed if this was worth it. Rumors often had a hint of truth to them and while of course the ones about Nairobi were concerning, it was the rumors about the other woman in the equation which were far more alarming.

“Are you trying to sleep with Andrei Petrov? Because everyone sure thinks you are. I saw the way you looked at him today, and apparently you just will not stop talking about him in engineering.”

“What?” Nairobi asked, but her heart was starting to race in her chest, more from embarrassment than nerves. “I haven’t been talking about him that much. Who says I have?”

Again, Virginia just stared at Nairobi for a solid silent ten seconds. “Nairobi… are you kidding me?”

“I’m not kidding you, no.” She responded, her voice raising slightly. “I mentioned a certain..attraction I have to a few other girls in Engineering and they agreed with me. Tons of people talk about the same thing. I didn’t say anything worse than they do.”

“Then why is your name the only one I’ve heard in the rumors, hm?” She challenged right back.

“Hell if I know.” Nairobi said, roughly taking the rest of her pictures out of the box and then picking up one of them and walking it over to the wall. “So I looked at our privileged psychopath XO once or twice. Is that a crime?”

“Nairobi stop. Stop.” Virginia moved over to her, putting a hand on the other woman’s arm and looking at her with the clear concern of a friend. “Are you hearing yourself right now?”

Nairobi frowned, looking down for a second.

“This is really fucking embarrassing, and I don’t like it.” She said, pausing with a picture in her hands of her as a little girl in her father’s hands. Her father was handsome and had an Afro of curly hair. He was a universe away. “I’m not trying to sleep with Andrei Petrov, Virginia, I was just joking around. I don’t have a death wish.”

“I’m sorry, I know you don’t like it and I don’t like it either, but Nairobi if I have heard it, think about it. Don’t you think Cassiel has too? I get it, he’s gorgeous and in another world - if he wasn’t a literal psychopath - I could see how you could fall for the bad boy thing; I’d be tempted too, but this is way beyond bad boy.” Virginia gave her friend’s arm a gentle squeeze. “I don’t want you to get hurt or worse.”

“Okay, Virginia, but I’m not trying to sleep with him, though. I just..fantasize a little bit about him crushing my windpipe; big deals.” Nairobi said, the shame mixing with an almost playful grin, a rare thing for her. “I just heard he has a really pretty dick. I heard it from girls in Cassiel’s own department. Why would I be the one to get in trouble? Kit was flirting with him in the middle of Engineering yesterday and I’ve barely even spoken to the man.”

“Okay first, kinda gross on that whole windpipe thing. Second, I don’t know who Kit is?” Virginia shook her head. “But the answer to your actual question is one I asked you earlier. Your name is the only one I hear definitively; that you are always talking about him, always looking. Like I said even I noticed how you were eye fucking him earlier. If she noticed - and I grow increasingly convinced she notices a lot more than she doesn’t - that’s… not good. You know that.”

“I’m honestly not sure I give a damn.” Nairobi said, breathing out of her nose. The fact that she had been unhappy was fairly obvious to the only person on the ship, in the universe, who really knew her. “I think eye fucking is a fair consolation, and if she doesn’t agree, then that’s her problem. That’s what people do around here, isn’t it? Play dirty? Do what they want.”

Nairobi placed the picture on the wall, trying hard not to look at it, and moved back to her bed where a box of clothes sat.

Virginia followed the taller woman, wrapping her arms around herself and still looking just as distressed as when she came in. She just let silence settle for a moment, then took a deep breath and spoke quietly. “That isn’t who we are, Nairobi. We can’t lose ourselves here. I know it’s hard, I understand it perfectly, you know I do. We can’t afford unwanted attention - even these promotions are too much for my liking.”

“Yeah, well they were hard to avoid.” Nairobi cut back, more like the wining of a stressed out pre-teen than the typically mature Officer she had always been. “The Big Petrov is doing everything he can to transfer every useful person to the Fleet and promote everyone else. How am I supposed to keep a low profile in a situation like this?”

“No, of course we can’t avoid it, but we can avoid certain kinds of unnecessary attention.” Virginia offered up, trying not to be too pointed about it since Nairobi was already upset and hurting. Thankfully as a doctor, Virginia had an abundance of patience - it wasn’t endless though.

“Who did you hear this from, Virginia?” Nairobi asked, her scorn for the person obvious before she had even received an answer. It wasn’t clear how much she had seriously considered what Virginia was saying, but she was a sharp thinker and it wasn’t like her to miss something so obvious. She was likely being willful. “Obviously the little gossip needs to be checked.”

“Are you even listening to me? Are you listening to yourself?” Virginia asked, the sympathy in her expression hardening slightly.

“I heard you.” Nairobi said, her expression still hard. “I just want to know who I should bite my tongue around. Do you know or not?”

“I heard it from one of the nurses. I don’t know who she heard it from.” Virginia looked away now, frowning and clearly disappointed in the response she was receiving.

Nairobi said nothing in response, instead unfolding her clothing and placing them in piles to be hung up. Silence descended between them for the space of about thirty seconds, but during the stillness, she stopped and faced her friend.

“Do you remember when we dropped that bomb into the Ocampa world?”

“Yeah… I do.” Virginia replied, quieter now and her shoulders dropped a bit at the mention of it.

“They shredded them; they killed millions upon millions of people without a second’s hesitation.” Nairobi’s eyes grew hollow and haunted. “Men, women, and children. They did the same to the Numiri. How can we keep a low profile with these people…and not act like them?”

“We keep our mouths shut, stay out of the way of the ambitious or murderously jealous, say Glory to the Empire when appropriate, don’t object to their genocidal plans, and work as fast as possible to get home again.” Virginia turned to Nairobi again and lowered her arms.

“I know you’re lonely, Nairobi. I am too, but if you can’t resist there are plenty of other good looking men here that I’m sure would grab you by the throat and make you call them daddy or whatever you’re into.” She offered a small half smile to indicate she was joking, mostly. “You have to stop being blatant about it. I know you think you aren’t… but obviously that isn’t really the case. We just need to be really careful.”

“Picking people up at a bar isn’t my thing, Virginia. I don’t even know how to talk to these people.” Nairobi said. “I feel like a liar every time I open my mouth. That’s why I’m pretty freaking amazed I’m being confronted about a fantasy and a few looks.”

She softened then, taking a deep breath.

“But I understand what you mean.”

Virginia reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose between her eyes, her face scrunching like she was in pain. She didn’t know if it was denial or stubbornness or what that kept Nairobi from accepting that maybe it hadn’t just been that. “Look, just level with me here. Do you really need to get laid?”

“Nobody ‘needs’ that.” Nairobi said, her neutral face, so often interpreted as bitchy, returning. She turned back to her clothing and continued unfolding them. “Still, I guess it has been a while. A few months before we came here, actually.”

Virginia wasn’t going to argue that point from a scientific standpoint right now, simply watched Nairobi as she continued to work. She was unaffected by the other woman’s resting face - she was quite used to it. “Okay, so if you have an interest, I know who you could talk to who could make some introductions and you can skip the random pickup from a bar thing.”

Nairobi looked over at Virginia again, her lips pursing.

“What are you talking about, girl?” She said with feminine attitude.

“What do you mean what am I talking about? I’m talking about getting you out on a date and some dick that isn’t completely off limits.” Virginia crossed her arms again. “Nothing serious, just some dirty fun and then you move of and we focus up.”

“Sounds like you have a man in mind.”

“Nope, I have no idea, but I know someone who would have an idea for you.” She offered again.

“And who is that, Matchmaker?” Nairobi asked, rolling her eyes, but seeming interested despite herself.

“Ilan Ocara. You saw her at the ceremony earlier.” Virginia lowered her arms again. “She’s nice, all things considered.”

“And she’s good at locating non-committed dick?” Nairobi asked, raising an eyebrow. “And how, exactly, would you know?”

There was the hint of a tease in her voice, but not much more.

“The favorite pastime of nurses while we do busywork and inventory is gossip. I know way more about this crew than I’d like, her name has come up more than once. I also won’t pretend I haven’t been tempted to talk to her myself about some sort of… arrangement.” Virginia admitted without shame.

“I’ll think about it.” Nairobi said with a grin, pretty and modest. “And, if I talk to her, I’ll let you know how it goes. Hopefully you can hear it from me and not from the band of cackling hens you run.”

“Hey, keep in mind we heard it from some knuckledragger first, hm?” Reaching out, Virginia placed her hands on the tops of Nairobi’s arms. “Let’s finish unpacking you, have some wine, and just relax. Sound good?”

“Yes, that sounds very nice, actually.” Nairobi said, gesturing toward the stack of boxes near her bedroom door. “You can start with that stack over there.”

“No problem, Commander.” Virginia quipped with an easy smile and with a swing of her hips went over to the indicated boxes to start pulling out books and putting them away.

END