Meet The Press

Posted on Sat Oct 17th, 2015 @ 9:45pm by Commander Louie Rousseau & Lieutenant Commander Cyrus Thorn

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Docking Bay / Lady Ella's

* Docking Bay *

True to his word, Louie had notified the main FNN correspondent who resided on 900. At the appointed time, she arrived with a cameraman, soundman, assistant and one other crew member whose function mystified Louie. He seemed to be the main guy in charge of following the reporter around and playing gopher. After taking a closer look at the reporter, Louie decided that there were worse jobs in the universe. When Cy’s transport arrived, Louie simply stood back and let her do her thing.

Cyrus Thorn wasn’t the only passenger disembarking from the transport; there were several passengers and Cy did his best to blend in with them in an effort to avoid the press. He wasn’t successful, and the press harpy descended. At least she was a pretty harpy, Cy thought as she got close and one of her assistants shone a light in his face.

He’d come prepared for this: he donned a pair of sunglasses and pulled a baseball cap from his back pocket. Pulling it on, he made sure the camera guy got a good shot of the saying on the cap’s front: “Loucifer’s Minion”. “Eh? What was that question again? How was my trip?”

He squinted into the light. “Just like every other spaceflight: boring. Why, the only break in that boredom was a call from my good friend, Louie. I’m sure he’s around here, too, just watching.” He made a show of looking around the docking area and shouting, “Louie Louie!”

“Are you excited to be taking up the reins of teaching once more Commander?” the reporter asked. “”It’s quite a feat for this station to lure both you and Commander Rousseau back. Can we take this as a sign that the academy here is expanding?”

As the young woman pelted Cy with questions, Louie did lean back against the wall, arms crossed, and began to laugh.

“It’s a feat? Really? And here I just thought that ol’ Louie was an old man with a need to be around young minds. Now, me, I’m here because I understand that some of the Fleet’s best and brightest are out this way. They deserve to have a great instructor like me. As for the Academy expanding... to fit both Louie’s ego and my ego, it’ll have to expand,” Cy laughed and did something most reporters hate: he put an arm around her and half-hugged her. “It’s good to be here. Say, I could use a tour guide, wanna volunteer?” He grinned at her.

She gave a polite laugh and then disentangled herself from Cy’s arm. As she turned to face the camera to do a closing, a leggy blond passed by just behind the cameraman. She paused and looked over at the commotion and her mouth fell open. She blinked at Cy, then realized she was gaping at him and closed her mouth.

“And that’s it from Starbase 900. This is Aerin signing off.” The bright light was turned off and the reporter began issuing orders to her crew.

Free of the reporter and the bright light in his face, Cyrus hurried away from the camera-wielding crew. Thanks to that bright light in his face, he missed the blond woman ogling him; once he was past the camera, though, his pretty woman radar went off and he hesitated a moment to appreciate her. “Oh my. Dear lady, if you’re here to volunteer as my tour guide, you are hired!” He smiled at her.

She blinked back at him, then smiled. “I just saw you on the news yesterday on the way out. It was just a picture of you and the other, Commander Rousseau, but they were telling the story of what happened to you and that you were coming out here. Wow! Oh, I’m Helena.” She offered her hand.

“Helena, the woman who launched a thousand ships,” Cyrus took her hand and, instead of shaking it, kissed it. “I’ve seen many women over the years and you definitely live up to your namesake’s beauty. Are you down here to greet someone coming off the transport? Or did you come looking for me?”

“Oh, I’m moving here. I’m the new singer at this little jazz club here, Lady Ella’s. You should come see me sometime.” She smiled at him and only then realized she was flirting with a man who was a hundred and seventy years old.

“Lady Ella’s? I will definitely do that.” He saw something in her face change and sighed. She was now looking at him like he was an old grandpa or something equally ancient. She wasn’t the first woman to look at him that way. “And when I do, will you join me for a drink between sets?”

Her smile returned and she winked at him. “Of course I will. Let me know you’re coming and I’ll have a table saved for you. You can find me in the register. Helena Marinos. See you soon.” She touched his cheek, then was lost in the crowd.

“Ah...,” he stared after her for a moment before moving along again. This time, he saw Louie just ahead. The rat was halfway hiding in shadows. “Louie. Thanks for the warm welcome from FNN.”

“Hey I warned you.” He laughed out loud, then wrapped his arm around Cy in a bear hug. “Good to have you here Sundance.” He continued to laugh, however. “So tell me. How the hell is it that I’ve been here for several days and the only woman I’ve met is an old friend who’s involved with another old friend while you’ve been on this station all of ten minutes and already flirting with a supermodel?”

“I’m better looking?” Cyrus teased his friend. “Haven’t you been around to see some of the Academy students? Or any of the Department Heads? Did you notice that nearly all of them are female? I wonder if Admiral Wegener arranged that.”

“They are, but...XO is married, as is the Chief of Security, the Chief of Temporal Affairs, and Diplomacy. As for the Chief Engineer, she is kinda scary. Besides, I’ve taught her grandparents, great uncles and several cousins. So have you.”

“Well, crap. That engineer whose record you pointed me to is someone I want to meet - and not just because she’s part Orion. Same with the Enaran, Ziyad. C’mon, let’s go get a beer and chat.”

“Certainly. I’ve given Ops your arrival time so they’ll have everything delivered to your quarters.” Louie led the way out of the docking bay. “So you want quiet or rowdy? And who was that blonde anyway?”

“Eh, quiet. You know I’m an old man, I like things quiet so I don’t have to shout to be heard,” he laughed. “The blond... the beautiful Helena is a singer at a jazz club, Lady Ella’s.”

Louie did a double-take. “Really? That’s where Leto took me the night you called. Let’s do that, then, so you can scope the place out for when you come back to see her.” He laughed again and slipped out of Cy’s reach. “I know you.”

“Nothing wrong with me visiting her! She’s of legal age, so am I,” he shrugged. “I do appreciate the chance to scope out the place beforehand, though. It’ll let me relax when she’s there singing.”

“Let’s do it then.”

* Lady Ella’s Jazz Club *

They had reached Ella’s and settled into a table. The combo was playing, the music mellow and smooth. Louie ordered two glasses of their favorite whiskey then looked back at Cy. ”So, what shall I start with?”

“What are your plans for the Academy? That reporter asked if it was expanding. Is it?”

“From the records I have, it already has,” Louie answered. “Drake the Dragon was out here when it opened overseeing things. Remember her? Back then there were only a few but now? We have humans, a half-Vulcan, an Enaran, a Voth even. With the colony opening, there’s even more interest. Diplomacy’s made several official alliances and some of those species will be arriving next term. Suddenly it’s no longer just a few stray cadets.”

“Oh man, Drake? Think she had those big cats with her? I always hated that, you know. Animals like that should be on a planet, doing what nature intended for them, not following some old biddy around a spaceship or station,” Cyrus shook his head and smiled as a waitress approached. “This will be an interesting assignment.”

“Well, I don’t have big cats but I do have a little spider who’s turned out to be a baseball fan. Does that count?” Louie smiled at the waitress as she left the whiskeys. He sipped his and sighed with satisfaction.

Cyrus did the same with his whiskey. “Oh boy... okay, the spider thing is different. Way different,” he made a broad stroke with one hand. “Those things are sentient - granted, the only report I could find was on just the older one, Ignatius J. Reilly. Any idea how it got that name? I mean, of all the characters to name something after....”

“From what I understand, Commander Zederino gave it to her before she became sentient...before the spider became sentient, not Zeferino. It’s the name on the official species recognition documents too. I’ve only met one of the offspring, but we had an interesting evening. You can meet him later, once you’re unpacked and such.”

“I look forward to it. I saw a reference that Ignatius attends Academy classes here, too. Should we prepare to have the younger ones in class as well?”

“Not for a little while yet, till their speech abilities mature a little more. The instructors’ records indicate that Iggy is doing pretty well so far.” Louie swirled his glass and sipped from it again. “I think you’ll be pleased with the students though.”

“I agree. I’m going to arrange a meeting with Cadet Ziyad and Ensign Madhava, to talk with them about the Cadet’s project. Also, to ask the Ensign if she’d be interested in helping with some of the Engineering courses. I can always find a place for someone like her,” he leered playfully.

Louie rolled his eyes. “Keep it to class please. According to Leto, this ensign has just come out of hell. She was snatched off the station by a slaver and it was several days before they tracked her down and got her back. A very bad few days. So be careful with her Cy. I do think, however, that what you propose will be good for her.”

Cyrus went silent for several minutes. When he spoke again, his voice was gruff. “Holy hell, this place really is the frontier, isn’t it? Security and Intel have their work cut out for them.” He stared into his whiskey.

“They do seem busy, I’ll grant you that. There’s even a rough part of town here, they call it the Cherry Pit. We can check it out soon. I’ve gathered all that Intel has sent over recently and the Security reports too. I added in the story of the young former Borg too. It’s better than a suspense novel, let me tell you.” Louie motioned to the waitress for another round.

“Eh, I’m good with avoiding the rough part of town, Lou. I like just sitting back, listening to good music, sipping a good drink. Add in good food and I’m golden. I can’t imagine that a ‘Cherry Pit’ is all that special of a place to go.”

“Likely not but I do know that one of the cadets goes there now and again, so I want to at least be aware of what it’s like down there.” He laughed softly. “I don’t know that this bunch of cadets is really prepared for me. I think I was something of a surprise to the two who came in with the new spiders.”

“Two cadets brought the spiders to you? Were they trying to prank you?” Cy laughed; it was exactly the sort of thing he could see cadets doing. Hell, he would have pulled such a prank - though he’d have had to use fake spiders.

“That’s what I thought it was to begin with.” Louie shook his head. “It’s what I would’ve done too. They seem like good kids though. I haven’t met the Voth as yet but soon enough. I’m taking one section on covert ops that starts tomorrow.”

“My first session starts next week. I should meet the cadets before then, as well. I’ll definitely get acclimated to the Station between now and then.” He swirled his whiskey in the glass. “So, tell me about Leto and Nick, Lou.”

“Well, it all started in Chile...remember when I went down there?” The next round of drinks arrived and Louie launched into the first of several stories.

******************
Lt. Commander Louie Rousseau
Public Relations Expert

Lt. Commander Cyrus Rubus Thorn
Single-Handedly Ruining Lou’s Reputation