Welcome Home....Sanitarium
Posted on Sun Feb 21st, 2016 @ 9:26pm by Major David Lorenz & Marine Captain Quentin Harrison
Edited on on Sun Feb 21st, 2016 @ 9:26pm
Mission: Further Challenges
DAVID LORENZ'S QUARTERS
MARINE BARRACKS
The saucer section of the Montezuma had arrived at the station several hours earlier, and now Dave was in his residence sprawled on a couch with a bottle of Aldebaran whiskey half-finished on the endtable. Dave's eyes were closed, but he was by no means asleep. The events of the failed mission to retrieve Commander Sakkath's body crashed through his mind repeatedly, each repeat stronger than the last. No matter how much booze he drank, the memories stayed razor sharp, the screams of the injured and dying were fresh in his mind.
Dave rose to his feet and went over to his photo wall. There were pictures of him as a Marine, a private contractor for NGSC, a plebe at Syrtis City. Each photo represented a victory, a successful completion of an assigned mission or task. The Corps had rewarded him with rpomotions and command of various units, even welcomed him back after taking time off to wage a private war with a man who was just as dangerous as he was.
Lorenz smiled at a picture of the group of operators that had called themselves "Team One". Nobody had ever expected the NGSC to exist past finding Jim Holbridge's brother, but somehow the beast had acquired a life of its own and was now doing a thriving business in all four quadrants of the galaxy. Sam Elliott was the CEO of the company and had his hands full coordinating all of the activities of the group, but he stayed in the Delta Quadrant near Jim Holbridge; partly out of loyalty and partly to keep Jim's ass out of trouble.
Dave rehung the picture on the wall and pulled on some jeans and a Corps t-shirt. A leather jacket and boots completed his outfit, and David Lorenz was ready to mingle with others on the base.
At Turbolift 65, Dave was joined by his friend and new XO, Quentin Harrison. Thew big man was similarly garbed, minus the leather jacket and boots, opting for tennis shoes as his footwear. "Good evenin' to ye, Davey-Boy! Are ye feelin a mite cooped up?"
"I tried getting drunk by myself, but it didnt work like I wanted." Dave looked at the bigger amn and grinned. "What about you? Don't you have paperwork to do?"
"Fuck it!" Harrison grinned. "Doyle is busy sorting out what absolutely has to get done and what can wait, so I decided to see what life on tis station was like again." It was a minor legend on the base that when Quentin Harrison went on R+R, bones tended to get broken if the big man was in a foul mood. Dave had dragged his larger friend away from potential bloodbaths numerous times, all of them with Quentin raining curses on him, his ancestors, his descendants, and anyone else he could think of. Lorenz did not sense the streak of fury and pain that once bedeviled the larger man.
"Being a Marine suits you, Q," Lorenz said as the men stepped into the turbolift. "Promenade." The lift slid easily intomotion. "Did you hear they named Commander Zeferino as the new second officer?"
"I read it in me daily briefing notes," Harrison nodded. "The wee lass has done well since the Berkeley, and I am glad her and Jack found each other, to be sure!" Harrison looked down at his friend. "Yer right. Since joining your lil' scout troop, I have found something that was missin' in me life. I have a sense of duty again, a sense of purposeto me being, the same thing I had as a security puke in the Fleet."
The lift stopped and both men exited. "Well, rejoining the Corps was a no-brainer for me. I gotta tell ya, I was shocked when you accepted the offer to helm recon."
"Just a bigger version o' Team One!" Harrison grinned. "Plus, I get to kick the crap outta new boots and call it 'training!'"
"Now, you have to XO the Regiment, big man. I picked you because you know the drill with me; how I think, how I move, walk, talk, react, the works. No disrespect to Tom Franklin..."
"God rest his soul in Hell!" Quentin said quickly, interrupting Dave with the traditional Marine's prayer for a fallen comrade.
"...Tom had trouble reading me and sometines he screwed things up, but never to the point I had to court-martial his ass. He was bright and intuitive, but you know me. There were other people ahead of you I could have picked, but I wanted someone I know I can count on." Dave finished his speech, looking longingly at an English Pub called Flanigan's welcome sign, smeling the delicious odor of stew and warm ale.
Quentin steered Dave into the pub. "Hello, Mr. Quentin! Welcome back to the station, sir. Your first pint is on the house, as is your friend's!" the barkeeper smiled, placing two pints of warm ale in front of the men as they sat at the bar.
"Thank you, Mr..." Dave said
"Flanigan, Tim Flanigan is me name, and I am pleased to meet another Marine!"
"This isnae just another Marine, Tim, this is the boss of the 3rd Marine Regiment, our very own Major Dave Lorenz!" Quentin boomed, letting the room hear his annpouncement.
"Is it now?" Flanigan smiled again. "It is a great pleasure meeting you, Mr. David! I was a marine in me youth, part of the 304th Brigade, The Black Legion,"
"Were you one of those crazy bastards that stormed Myskeil Pass during the Cardassian War?" dave asked, taking a gulp of his ale.
"Indeed I was, laddie! Lemme tell ye all about it! There we were, Cardies on the left and riht, and nothing but a pass through a rock a snake couldn't navigate...." Flanigan pulled up a stool and seated himself across from Quentin and David, reliving the old war stories as many combat vets tended to do, although most Marines embellished their tales with a lot of heroic bullshit that never happened, or so one would believe were he not a Marine. "...I had that fookin' Cardie gul square in me sights, and just as i pulled the trigger, the fookin rock wall crumbled under me feet and I fell ten stories to me near death. A pile of Cardie bodies was by no means a cushion for such a fall, but it saved me life sure as the day is long! And here I am, fillin glasses and cookin the Queens grub for the likes of two heroes! To David and Quentin, welcome home lads!"
"Aye!" a loud chorus of male and female voices echoed the sentiment and everyone in the room took a swig of their glasses. "What will it be lads, some food to fill yer belly?"
"I'll have the lamb stew, some bread, and a thick steak seasoned with chipotle." Quentin said, smacking his own lips.
"And for the major?"
"Shepherd's pie for me, with no peas, fresh asparagus and some noriegh, fresh off the vine." Lorenz smiled.
"Yer lucky I carry a stock of Betazoid food in here, major! I'll be back with yer meal in a flash!" Flanigan disappeared into the kitchen.
"My body won't know how to handle non-replicated food!" Lorenz joked.
"That's why I like this place, it's not a glorfied replimat with plastic-looking bitches with giant tits beggin for tips!" Quentin drained his glass with a mighty gulp. "Barkeep, me glass is empty!"
A bar girl immediately filled Quentin and david's glasses with the rich, dark ale. Dave took a healthy swig of his and had to admit he liked the warm liquor. After a few moments, Flanigan placed a huge platter loaded with foodin front of him. Dave tore into his meal with gusto, as did Quentin. "Damn, where has this place been all my life?"
"Right here on the base, boyo!" Flanigan smiled, and then went to tend to his other patrons.
Dave ate quickly, but savored the tastes of his dinner. Lorenz especially enjoyed the Betazoid vegetable dish he had ordered, but it didn't compare to his mother's cooking. Mrs. Lorenz was a wizard at preparing traditional Betazoid comfort food, and as a result David was the only member of his family that was in shape.
"When is Tom's memorial?" Quentin's question brought Lorenz bacxk to reality.
"As soon as I can get it arranged. There's no body, and the man had no family so disposition of his stuff will be a snap." Lorenz answered. "I think we'll do a memorial on the Pad tomorrow morning. Can you do the pipes for him?"
Quentin nodded, happy that he would be able to honor his fallen friend with a rendition of "Sgt MacKenzie." "What do ye suppose Captain Hawke is doing to honor Sakkath?"
"I have no clue. All I know is I have to make a report to the admirals tomorrow after the service." David turned to face Quentin. "I'm gonna give you an order; I want you to go talk with Jackson Banning and Commander Zeferino and let them in on Colonel Harris' idea for a Borg quick-response force. Once Corporal Thomas is ready for duty, we can bring him on board as well."
"I dinnae know if ye noticed, but the corporal isnae exactly popular these days on account of his killin' the second officer!" Harrison said in a low voice.
"I don't give a damn if he's a fucking Klingon drag-queen prom date of General Martok! I want Thomas on this team and he by God will be! Is that understood, captain?" David shouted, his voice carrying.
"Aye," Quentin took off his napkin and left the pub quickly, leaving Dave alone with his simmering anger that couldn't be drowned.
Lorenz looked at the people in the pub who were staring at him. "What the Hell are you looking at?" One patron turned away from Dave, follwed by the others. Lorenz flung his own napkin down and stormed out of the Pub. He was about to board a turbo lift when his comm-badge chirped. =/\=Major Lorenz, Admiral Hawke would like a word with you at your earliest convenience=/\=
"I'm not in the best of moods...Can't this wait?" Dave asked
=/\=I'll tell him you are on your way. Out=/\=
Just fucking great! Lorenz growled to himself
Major David Lorenz
Holding On To Anger
MCPT Quentin Harrison
Butthurt Feelings
