Star Trek: Erin

Part 58: Drink Responsibly

     Turns out the place we were staying was affiliated with the equivalent of a bar, and we were seated at a table within minutes. At this point I'd given up on anything being entirely new. The Prime Directive on Blyve II must've basically been a joke. 'Sensitive' my ass.

     Gabriel chatted up the bartender and procured a bottle of paol, which looked like hot sauce, smelled earthy, and most importantly, was alcoholic. As a waiter was approaching our table, I remembered something and leaned over to Nowak. "Hey, Vulcans don't have alcohol, right?"

     Nowak shrugged. "Most do not, but that particular teaching was never passed on to me." He raised a hand at the waiter. "Three cups, please."

     We got those cups and got drinking.

     Paol tasted like the best parts of sushi but packed a brutal heat that hit if you stopped drinking for two minutes and sixteen seconds. We timed it. Us being the brilliant officers of Starfleet we were, we decided the solution was to continuously be drinking.

     Conversation skated over our surroundings, faceplanted in our Enterprise duties, and finally settled to roost on gossip.

     I was on my second cup. "Is anyone else confused by Chekov's accent? Like, I'm not doubting his heritage, but pretty sure people from, what, Eastern Europe? Pretty sure they can say the letter V."

     "Perhaps it is an exaggeration to differentiate himself." Nowak considered his drink, swirling it to catch the light. "Some see it as a problem that Sol unified, that it erases their heritage to be considered one people. Geographic accents are a mark of this heritage, and some try to resurrect them when they become less noticeable."

     Gabriel tilted her head at Nowak. "Your surname's Polish, isn't it?"

     I knew the answer. Spelt with a W, pronounced with a V.

     Nowak nodded. "My father's side. My homeworld is Sol."

     Because I was still on my second cup, I managed to notice. "You used to call it Earth. Why 'Sol' now?"

     "Turns out Sol is the name most outside my native system recognize."

     I shrugged and drained my cup. "It was always 'Earth' on Glock V." I glanced at Gabriel. "Where'd you grow up, Levi?"

     "Not any one specific place." She raised her hands. "Right, that was vague. We travelled a lot for my dad's lecturing. Anywhere with an institution, I've probably lived there. Kind of always regretted that I didn't develop skills on all those planets."

     Nowak's face was intense. Possibly related, he was on his fourth cup. "What would you learn, given the chance?"

     Gabriel took her time while she refilled her and my cups and topped off Nowak's. "Plenty. Lucid dreaming. Glockian pottery. Whatever fighting style Kirk knows that's so weirdly effective. You?"

     "I wish I could do the Vulcan Nerve Pinch consistently. Luck intervenes sometimes, but mostly I am a disappointment to my race."

     "If you were a proud product of your race, you'd be stuck-up and damn inflexible. No offense to Vulcans, but I like you a hell of a lot more than any full-blood I've ever known."

     "Thank you, Erin." Nowak lapsed into silence and continued nursing his drink.

     I ran my gaze over the establishment. Other than us, two small parties occupied tables, neither paying us attention. I leaned closer to Gabriel. "You know, first time we met, I thought you were an asshole."