Post-Commissioning Champagne (The Syntheholic type, of course!)

Posted on Sun Oct 5th, 2025 @ 9:25pm by Captain Patricia Cooke & Lieutenant Akira Kogami

1,696 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Ghost Starship
Location: Captain Cooke's Office

"Captain Patricia Cooke... hot damn, Patty, your folks must be proud of you..."

The two officers were relaxing in Patty's office, celebrating the Missouri's formal commissioning over a glass of champagne (the synthetic variety, of course; aside from the fact that it would look bad on them to show up for duty under the influence, Patty's antics in the Academy had practically guaranteed that she could never be trusted with alcohol ever again) and spending the first time in what had felt like a very long time just catching up on things, and what the two of them had been up to in the past six years.

"Of the Starship Missouri, on top of it all!" Patricia raised her champagne flute. "Granted, it's been a long road to get here... Strewn with potholes that could swallow small pets whole."

"Or me..." Akira muttered. "God knows I'd probably just disappear into one of those things, never to be seen or heard from again..."

"I was trying to avoid making that analogy." Patricia sighed. "I know you don't like it when you're called something like a small child."

"Nah, I appreciate the thought," Akira chuckled. "So, speaking of the family, how are the folks doing? Your Dad still working at Utopia Planitia?"

"You bet." Patricia nodded. "Work's still good, and he figures he's still got some more years to give."

"And how's your mother been doing now that Mary's... well, married and the nest is empty?"

"Well, she's still attending that book club." Patricia responded. "She's even started playing host to them, since she doesn't have anyone under foot most of the time."

"Probably appreciates the company, seeing as her husband works 35 million miles away, one of her daughters is in Starfleet, and the other's married," Akira remarked.

"Still, it's not like two way transit between Mars and Earth is impossible." Patricia pointed out. "Dad's still home in time for dinner, even if his commute is long."

"Regardless, she'd probably be spending... what, 70, 80 percent of her day with the house all to herself if not for her book club?"

"Yeah, but it's still not for me." Patricia sighed. "Romance isn't my genre. Now, if there happens to be romance in something I enjoy, then it's okay, but books that have nothing but sex going on in them? Yeah, not for me."

"Hey, don't knock a good porno until you've seen one, Patty," Akira blurted out, before she immediately realized her mistake and blushed with embarrassment. "Wait... shit... probably shouldn't have mentioned that..."

"You think?" Patricia laughed. "Though, with how quickly you turned fire engine red there... You didn't agree to be in one or two now, did you?" She asked with a naughty smirk on her face.

"Fuck you!"

"Anyways, enough about me:" Patricia waved a dismissive hand. "How are your folks doing? Been a long time since I've heard anything about them."

Akira shrugged. "They're still living out of Kasukabe, last I checked. "Honestly, my Dad's just happy I've managed to hold down a job this long..."

"I'm sure he is." Patricia responded. "And your mom?"

"Well, last I spoke with her- which, mind you, was a couple of months ago before all this shit hit the fan at Khitomer- she'd fallen and dislocated her hip, so she was preparing to undergo hip replacement surgery when last we talked. Then again, that was back in December, so who knows? It's probably healed by now..."

"Well, given that it's now, what? Mid February? Late February?" Patricia surmised, trying to figure out what month it was off the top of her head. "Regardless, I hope the surgery went well, and that she makes a full recovery."

"Like I said- haven't talked to her since December, so no clue how she's doing," Akira shrugged.

"Anyhow, switching subjects:" Patricia poured herself another glass of synteholic champagne. "Have you heard the news from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers?"

Akira paused mid-sip. "They're installing some better lighting?" she suggested with an air of sarcasm.

"Even better:" Patricia was grinning from ear to ear at this point. "Word is, we've made quite a splash in the field, and SCE has been reevaluating the Project Intrepid III subclasses: Production is going to continue with the Bellerophon class... And only the Bellerophon class. All the other subclasses have been cancelled."

Akira's eyes widened. "All that because of us?"

Patricia simply made a clicking noise with her tongue as she merely gave an affirmative gesture which included a wink.

"Holy shit, Patty!" Akira grinned as she pulled Patricia into a bear hug. "How about that? Just two months in the center chair, and you're already making the difference!"

"No kidding:" Patricia said into Akira's shoulder. "This decision might as well change history!"

"Oh, boy, you're going to be insufferable for the next few years, aren't you Patty?" Akira joked as she resumed her seat.

"Well, that depends on whether or not any hot shit commanders come along that need to be put in their place." Patricia responded in jest.

"For your sake and mine, you'd better hope that doesn't come to fruition," Akira shook her head and chuckled. "I've had enough shit to put up with these past couple of months..."

"Hey, I'm just as ready to put this I-400 shit behind us as you are." Patricia replied. "I'd hope you know me long enough to know that what I said isn't true, and never will be."

"Well... hopefully no offense, Patty, but I have known you long enough to know that you can be rather... unpredictable at times..." Akira remarked.

"You can't read me like a book, Akira." Patricia quipped.

"Oh, please; that one time I had to spend 2 hours begging the faculty not to suspend us because you decided to put dish soap in the fountain?" Akira retorted. "I mean, in retrospect, it was pretty funny, but I also know you well enough to know that when you commit yourself to an idea, you tend to go all out."

The two of them proceeded to giggle at the inanity of Patricia's antics back when they were Cadets.

"For the record, that was Mari's idea." Patricia replied. "She deserved the blame as much as we did. I guess getting cold feet wasn't a valid excuse to get her in trouble with us."

Patricia sighed, and her smile seemed to fade.

"You know, if anyone would be proud of how far we've come, it'd be Mari." She said. "It was always her dream to be where I am today..."

"Ah, yeah... Mari..."

The mood immediately darkened as the two of them reflected on another close friend of theirs from the Academy, one who sadly wasn't with them today; Mari Makinami. Patricia's best friend since childhood who was a major fan of Akira's work. In Patricia and Akira's senior year in the Academy, Mari was killed in a cold weather training exercise on Andoria. The exercise had gone wrong, and Mari fell to her death.

"Welp, if one thing, she probably wouldn't want us moping over her all these years later," Akira sighed as she refilled her glass and raised it in a solemn toast. "Here's to you, Mari; even if you're not here anymore, I'm sure you wouldn't have had this any other way."

"Amen to that." Patricia raised her flute.

The two of them reached over and clinked glasses before throwing back their drinks and settling back down.

"That'll be a fun thing to discuss with our new counselor..." Patricia muttered. "Oh, did I mention we got a new one, by the way?"

"Oh, great..." Akira sighed. "That's, like, how many crew rotations we've had in just two months? This is starting to become horse shit..."

"Tell me about it." Patricia also sighed. "I'm starting to wonder how the hell Kagami managed to run a ship for five years when I can't seem to run one for five minutes! Especially when she had such a failure for a little sister..."

"Compared to the ones who seemed to be there for all of five minutes before a console blew up in their face, I'd say 2 months is a comparably decent track record," Akira pointed out. "Not good, by any means, but certainly better than..."

She paused for a moment to reflect on any particular individuals that had remained long enough to make an impression. "Uh... help?"

"What about Stevenson?" Patricia suggested. "She was there at Khitomer... Assigned to our ship, I believe, but never made it aboard."

"She was?" Akira replied, her confusion evidencing just how little of an impact this Stevenson woman had left.

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, but she was definitely there when I-400 attacked." Patricia shrugged. "Maybe she wasn't assigned to us? We'll never know."

"Damn," Akira muttered. "And this is apparently a good enough showing for SFCE to scrap future Intrepid III developments?"

"I mean, don't you think it's a little impractical to go ahead with five different Intrepid-based classes?" Patricia asked. "I mean, to me, it seemed from the get-go that SCE was setting this up to see which class came out on top to ramp up full production of. I mean, sure, we've had the least stable crew in the quadrant, and are probably considered a hotel, but we did stop a genocidal AI from potentially destroying all life as we know it."

"Golly gee, Patty, isn't a relief to know that the freakin' Love Boat single-handedly saved the galaxy from total annihilation?" Akira quipped sarcastically.

"Could be worse, though;" Patricia pointed out. "At least we're still here to make fun of it all."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right," Akira sighed as she took another sip of her drink.

Posting by

Captain Patricia Cooke
Commanding Officer

Lieutenant Akira Kogami
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
Second Officer

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