Alex was ready to go scant minutes later wearing the deep red t-shirt Carbon had approved of over black cargo pants, pockets crammed with the emergency equipment that the CPP had required he carry while on station. While he didn’t work for them anymore, the Individual First Aid Kit and decompression pouches were issued by the Navy specifically, and thus were not on the list of things that needed to be returned. They hadn’t been noted as required equipment by the ONI, but it had become a force of habit to pack it all along. It was a space station, after all. Vacuum was mere meters away.
Noonan’s was on the other side of the station, the only conventional restaurant in the secured section. The decor was classic English pub, all dark wood and padded leather seating, the dining room itself was D shaped with the ceiling stretching to the second floor above. The doors opened into that first floor, half the wall a curved bar, the rest booths. The flat wall was a single, massive display showing traffic in space immediately around the station and in the main runways for Sol. Specks of light in various shapes and colors floated across the screen, tagged with ship name, registration and other sundry data.
Alex bypassed the host, the two of them tapping their badges on the gate to the bar, verifying they were old enough to be in there and that they were off duty. He led them past the handful of people sitting and drinking there, conversations slowing in their wake as they went straight to the stairway that curved up to the much smaller second floor. Ed preferred the booths up there, most people didn’t make the trek unless the first floor was getting full. As expected, it was nearly empty and Ed was tucked away in the far corner, nursing a pint.
Carbon took a seat on the bench first, sliding over to the wall to make room for Alex.
“Glad you two made it. Ordered you a porter.” Ed gestured to the other pint glass on the table, dark liquid topped with a tan head of foam. He looked over to Carbon. “Didn’t know what you’d like, though.”
“I am not sure. I am unfamiliar with most human beverages.” She shook her head, eyebrows knitting together as she looked over the menu Alex handed her. “I am... unfamiliar with most of this food as well.”
“Didn’t you have lunch at The Mothership?” He bit his tongue about all the times they had shared dinner on the Kshlav’o, though Noonan’s focused heavily on pub food while their cultural exchange had not.
Ed shook his head. “They give everything themed names there, it’s almost as bad as getting a mixed drink here.”
“Of course. Well, drinks first. Something straightforward to start with, a brown ale?”
Ed nodded. “That’d be a good place to start. They did tap a keg of double cream stout a few days ago. Not my thing, but I’ve heard it’s good. Sweet.”
“I will try that. Sweet has been safe, in my experience. If not occasionally overbearing.” Carbon tilted the menu towards Alex. “Chicken fingers. That is like the fish sticks, correct? They are not actual fingers?”
Ed chuckled quietly into his ale as Alex answered her question. “Yeah, it’s just a way to describe a particular method of serving chicken. Don’t get those here, they always fry them too long.”
“Ah. Is there something they are good at?”
Ed piped up. “Cheeseburger. Best on the station.”
“Oh yeah. With bacon.”
Carbon eyed the menu, one eyebrow raised. “It sounds interesting. I will trust in your judgment.”
The waitress arrived bearing a basket of garlic fries and took their order. Alex ordered for Carbon and himself, both having the same thing. Ed got the t-bone, which was the only thing that Alex had ever seen him eat here. The waitress gave Carbon a second glance, though it was a quick second glance. Tsla’o still weren’t common around here.
Ed ate a few fries as he watched the waitress descend the stairs, barely hiding a smile. “So... you two are an item now, or what?”
Alex sat stock still for a moment before he took a long sip of his beer, shaking his head as he set the glass down. “No... What would give you that idea?”
Ed laughed. “Don’t lie to me, Alex.”
“We’re just professional acquaintances.”
“Yeah, I don’t think so. When I said that, you both looked like deer in the headlights.”
Carbon cleared her throat. “It was a surprising statement.”
Ed seemed very amused by the situation. “You ordered dinner for her. And that glare you gave him in Uncommon? Whew. I’ve seen those from ‘professional acquaintances’ before, but not like that. That came from the heart.”
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Alex weighed trying to keep lying to Ed or just admitting it. Giving Carbon a look would tip his hand and it’s not like Ed was wrong. Might do him well to have an outside perspective on the whole thing, too. He sighed and leaned back against the booth. “Yeah, you’re right. We’re an item, as you put it.”
“Interesting. She’s doing it again.”
Alex glanced over and Carbon was giving him the ‘why did you do that’ look. “What? I don’t like lying and he’s both perceptive and trustworthy.”
She relented, jaw still tight as her eyes softened. “I know. I do not enjoy duplicity either.”
Alex turned back to Ed. “Alright, so do we throw a party now?”
Ed considered him for a moment, idly swirling the amber liquid in his glass as the waitress returned with Carbon’s stout and waiting for her to leave again. “I would think that a bit extreme. I get the impression you’ve been keeping this under wraps, or trying to?”
“Yeah.”
“You could stand to work a little harder on that. Just off the cuff, I would find this rather deviant. Still kind of do, but I’m willing to entertain the idea you’re not just playing Kirk here, Alex. You’ve never seemed like the type of guy who would engage something casually.”
Carbon looked up from inspecting her drink, perplexed. “Kirk? Who is that.”
Ed didn’t miss a beat, explaining with his usual level of nonchalance. “It’s a fictitious character who was a ladies man - and that did include aliens.”
“Ladies man - is that one of the subgenders?” She asked before taking a drink, apparently finding it to her liking with an appreciative hum.
Ed shot Alex a questioning look with a little shrug of his shoulders to indicate he did not know what to make of that question.
Alex, in turn, filled in the spaces for her. “It means he enjoyed spending time with women, flirting, that sort of thing. Suppose that doesn’t require a gender, just an interest.”
“Oh, he does that.” She nodded emphatically. “Sometimes quite aggressively.”
“Wh- I do not.” He was surprised at how defensive he got about that. Ed was laughing into his pint across the table and Alex felt some embarrassment creeping in.
“I know you do not only flirt with me for my enjoyment of it.” Sip.
“Yes, ok, that’s true. I do enjoy that.” Flirting during a link was pretty much a guarantee that she knew how he felt about it. “But I am not aggressive about it.”
Carbon gave him a sidelong glance, a little smirk curling the corner of her mouth. “The shorts.”
He held up a single finger in his defense. “I didn’t know.”
“And now that you do know, you continue to wear them around me. I would say that is quite flagrant.”
“They’re comfortable.” Alex rolled his eyes, words dripping with sarcasm. “I’m sure Ed wanted all of this aired in front of him.”
Carbon shrugged through a second sip. “He brought the subject up and I would know if you were. Now there is no doubt for him.”
Ed was laughing, hard. “No, that’s great. I don’t really want to know, what you do behind closed doors is your business.”
Alex cleared his throat, cheeks feeling a bit warm. “Anyway. Not just in this for the alien sex, thank you.”
“Actually going for the interspecies relationship, Commander Shepard? You’re not just putting her on, right?” Ed brought the conversation back down, a hint of humor still on his face as he checked on Alex’s motives.
“No, I’m not putting her on. She’d know by now if I was.” He put his hands up by his temples, index fingers waggling. “The deely-bobbers aren’t just for show.”
Ed sat up a little straighter, surprise clear on his face. “So... they work with humans, too?”
Carbon’s pint was mostly gone now. “Very well, actually. Our brains are similar enough in layout.”
“Interesting. So she can see into your mind?”
“It’s duplex. Works best when both people have a set, but that’s somewhat impossible.” Alex hadn’t told her about the Whisper and experimental hardware he was going to be getting yet. He was hoping it would be a pleasant surprise. “There’s a sort of shared space, and it’s possible to show each other memories. It’s a little like fulldive VR movies. But since you’re reliving the exact thing, you have to just go where the memory takes you.”
“Huh. That’s a hell of a-”
Carbon started to chirp, the sound unfamiliar to Alex. She fished a slim black communicator out of one of the many pockets on her jumpsuit and tapped through to a message. He leaned over, unable to read the Tsla on the tiny handheld.
Her eyes widened slowly, a look of apprehension washing over her. Her head twisted to look at the screen on the far wall of Noonan’s. “Excuse me.”
Alex moved out of her way, following her to the railing. She scanned the screen, jaw working until she found what she was looking for, a hiss of her native tongue following.
“What? What is it?”
Carbon looked up at him, bristling with a mixture of fear and anger. “I must depart. I will contact you as soon as I can, please thank Ed for me.” She stood on her toes and kissed him softly before running away, taking the steps two at a time.
A glance at the screen told him part of what he needed to know. Triangles were military ships, red was non-human. A great big red triangle was in the inbound runway nearest Earth right now, the Sword of the Morning Light. Listed as a Tsla’o Hammerhead-class Supercarrier. A smaller red triangle only marked as a shuttle was already in the diplomatic lanes. Her government had arrived in the system and was on its way to collect her.