Shades of Green - Part 7

Zedd glanced at Mei-Lin again as he said it, the way he had been doing since dinner the other night when they had stopped pretending the obvious thing wasn't obvious. He liked her, she had said it back, and sitting across a briefing table from her now with other people in the room required a particular kind of discipline he was finding only moderately successful.

Tiraa didn’t say a word. Instead, she just sat there looking between Zedd and Mei-Lin as they looked at each other. They seemed both aware and oblivious they were doing it, and even less aware Tiraa was still just sitting there quietly. She let the moment drag for as long as she felt it was able to, then very pointedly cleared her throat to immediately signal that she had clocked everything that had just passed in this room. She stood with a personable smile.

“Cormus will have limited access to the shuttle, but he will have access. Rallid will walk him through what he needs to know and what he needs to avoid.” She didn’t have to make the threat that would usually go with the words - Zedd was smart enough to know that if the young man went poking about, it would not be a good thing.

“If there’s nothing else for now, I’ll have a look at my quarters and maybe take myself on a bit of a tour.”

Zedd and Mei-Lin both stood up. “Of course” Zedd replied. “Your quarters are just down the way here, I’ll have quarters on deck four prepped and ready for him. I believe he’ll be assigned a roommate as well, space here is tight to say the least and I have the majority of the crew hand positions filled. If I’m correct on the rostering, he should be roomed with a bartender we recently hired. Quite a character.”

Mei-Lin picked up the PADD and waited for the others to exit. Zedd did the same, allowing his new XO and her assistant to leave first when they were ready. “Oh by the way Tiraa, you don’t have to call me Captain unless something’s on fire. Call me Zedd like everyone else.”

“Bartender?” Tiraa questioned, pausing in her step toward the door. “Interesting. What is their name?”

“Ress.” he replied. “Maybe paying them a visit would be a good choice, I’m sure a drink and conversation after the trip would be a nice requiem.”

Mei-Lin spoke up to add “It’s just down the hall as well, the bar. If you like I can show you.” In truth she felt a bit awkward with Rallid there and just wanted to be helpful and assist them on their way.

There was just the slightest shift in Tiraa’s expression when Zedd spoke the name. The smile was there, but the warmth had diminished noticeably in favor of something more introspective. Perhaps it was nothing, but the similarities were too hard to ignore. A few well placed questions would give her the answers she needed within hours.

She blinked once and her expression softened again, this time her black eyes turning to Mei-Lin and lingering there. “No need, but thank you. I’m sure you have much better things to do than give me a tour. The deck maps will get me by.”


“Very well then.” The young woman waited as the rest filtered out of the room and made her way back to her bridge station.

Out in the hallway Zedd handed each Tiraa and Rallid a small stone shaped device “Personal transponders and devices to beam up if needed. Just press your thumbs to them and they’ll biocode themselves to you.”

“Thank you, Zedd.” Tiraa looked at the device briefly and then into his eyes. His name rolled off her tongue smoothly, and her eyes were focused and settled on his in an undeniably intense way. “You’ve found a wonderful thing here.”

“Thank you Tiraa” he replied. “If you need anything just let me know. Otherwise I’ll see you on the bridge later, most likely. Mess halls and senior officers' mess are open all day. Food is the same but if you feel like getting to know some of the new folks, going to the main mess is a good start to settle in with the group. Otherwise plenty of privacy up here for you.”

“I’ll see where the mood takes me.” She said simply and reached out to his jacket as she had the night before. This time, she straightened his collar a bit. “If you need anything from me, let me know.”

Zedd gave a nod and turned, making his way to the bridge as well. It was time to go through rosters after looking for the rest of the potential listening devices. Overall he felt good about the woman, if not still a bit unsettled. But that was part of the deal and in some ways he didn’t have much of a choice. For now, he’d keep his focus on running the ship and crew.