Capt. Dominic Santos USS Vanguard - Event Horizon Lounge Following: Andy & Chris's "Concluding the Nexus Mission, Parts 2-3," before all other posts. [Previously, from Andy & Chris] =/=Santos to Vanguard. Hope I didn't miss the party. Soman: No sir, you're right on time. After another minute, the Nexus band had all but vanished and 1512 colonists now, once again stood on the surface of New Outreach. [New, from Andy] An hour later, Soman Drath stood in front of the captain's ready room. He sucked in a deep breath. Soman was about to announce himself when the turbo-doors flew open. Capt. Dominic Santos looked up, showing no surprise that the XO was there. Santos: You better come in. Soman did, entering for the first time. He wondered how Santos' tastes would differ from Lee's, whose room was nicknamed the "Jungle Room" by the junior officers. Soman took great pains so that Lee never heard the nickname, although he wouldn't have been surprised to learn that Lee knew. In one corner of the room perched Santos' new macaw, Prism. Santos had hung posters of his adventures: a bullfight from Seville, a volcano trek, underwater shark diving, tornado chasing. Santos leaned back in his chair and regarded Soman. Santos: You did an excellent job, Soman. Soman: Sir, Giles should never have been allowed on-board. Santos nodded and pursed his lips. Santos: You know, on my first tour, back on the Chrysalis, I did a delta-shift turn on Security/Tactical one night. We were in orbit over a Klingon outpost. At oh-four-hundred hours, this belligerent Klingon started barking orders at me from the ground, demanding to be beamed aboard. I spent an hour checking his background before letting him aboard. He spent the rest of the trip reminding me of that. We arm-wrestled, drank some blood wine, punched each other in the face, and I still keep in touch with him. Santos pointed to a wall of pictures behind him. In the periphery hung a small portrait of the captain and a Klingon, their arms around each other, hoisting back glasses of ale and laughing. Soman grinned. Soman: Who won? Santos: Excuse me? Soman: Who won the arm-wrestling? Santos: I'll give you two guesses, and your first answer shouldn't be "the Captain." What's the status of the captain's yacht? Soman: Challis is running through the typical post-flight diagnostics with Mandrake and putting her down in place. What should I list in the registry? Santos (mock official): The Valiant-class Coba del Rey. Soman: Very well, sir. And sir...? I have Cappie and Goodkind disembarking at the colony New Outreach. Santos: That's right. I've spoken with them. Just confirm that report. Soman thought of another question but let it pass. Soman: Very well, sir. Santos: Get some sleep. And don't worry too much about this mission, don't replay it over and over in your mind. Earth pilots used to have a saying--"Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing." Now get out of here. Soman: Aye, sir. [End Part I] __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger http://phonecard.yahoo.com/ ********************************************************** USS Vanguard: http://vanguard.iwarp.com Gamma Fleet: http://www.gammafleet.org.uk _Free_Lists: //www.freelists.org **********************************************************