Date with the Coffee Goddess

Posted on Thu Sep 3rd, 2026 @ 12:19am by Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker & Lieutenant Commander Elyse White

1,648 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Blade of Deceit
Location: Mess Hall

Had they been on a base, perhaps Elyse would have dressed for the occasion. But, this was merely a date onboard a working starship, so simply civilian clothes would suffice. Elyse walked into the lounge for her date with Tholos. She still wasn't quite sure he'd show up, but she wanted to out her heart on the line. If he couldn't see past what happened, she would not be giving him another chance.

The gentle murmur of a busy lounge kept Elyse focused. She wandered to a free seat and sat down waiting for Tholos. Elyse felt nervous about being stood up and started to question whether coming early was really a good idea. If he was on-time or even late, she'd feel as if he had stood her up for the few minutes that she was early. Gawd, she was spiraling.

Tholos hurried through the door. He was ten minutes early, running late because he stopped to take a call from Engineering SF Command. He looked around, somehow knowing she'd be here and smiled when he saw her. He walked over smiling at her. "Hello Beautiful lady. My apologies I just spent an hour trying to convince SF Command that I could be the assistant chief...I may have hung up on them there near the end."

Elyse looked at her watch and then looked back at him, "seems we both have the same opinion in that ten minutes early is still five minutes late." She chuckled softly, blushing at his original comment, "why do they need convincing? You've done the job of chief for a few days in Walker's absence. I can help if you need anything."

He shook his head. "It's out of my hands. I'm only in temp until the Chief is back and they are getting a back up for him. Not sure who but they have a few people in mind."

Elyse nodded, "Walker may demand you. He's got a lot of pull." She sighed a little and tried to encourage him, "but, hey, listen, you got some experience and if you wanted the post going forward elsewhere, it should come easy. And, for what it's worth, I thought you were a great temp. I don't know much about engineering, but nothing died on your watch."

He laughed. "I think I have strong motivation to stay here. The Coffee Goddess is here." He grinned at her. "Now how was your day?"

Elyse snorted with amusement. It was forward, but entertaining nonetheless. She shrugged, "I've found out that Walker needs more sanity and health, so I'm stuck acting XO for a while. I've also found out that Baciami had her kids. She wants me as a godmother. So, that's a positive end to my day aside from a date with an old romantic."

He grinned. "Walker has always needed more sanity. Eli was in the academy with him and has been at every posting so you want to learn about his sanity ask her." He sighed. "Hoping he wakes up soon...." He shook his head pushing the thoughts away. "As for your scary lady predecessor well that I knew. Vance sent us all images of the babies. He's a proud papa." He leaned in and waggled his eyebrows. "Who is this romantic that is old and is he a danger to my courting?"

"Well, Wales up long enough to help things," she sighed, "I'm not an XO. It's beyond me." She chuckled, "Adrianna isn't scary once you get to know her and as for the romantic," she swatted him playfully, "the same guy who told me that if I give a 'damn it, work' tap to a light, I'll be like a bug in a bug zapper."

"He sounds terrible. I'm much better." He winked at her.

She chuckled softly. This had been one of the reasons that Elyse had been so upset when Thol became awkward-- he had a unique way of making her smile. "Not terrible, the last thing I wanted was to have the same fate-- I mean, if prefer old age or heroism than a big zapper scenario."

"Oh I almost forgot. I made something for you." He reached down and pulled up a small gift box. "It's nothing fancy but it's for when you have bad days and need to remember who you are."

Elyse looked confused but took the box. She was taken back by Tholos even thinking about giving her a gift.

Inside the box was a small octagon shaped box. "Press the big red button that says emergency on it."

Elyse opened it carefully, praying for nothing to explode.

Out popped a hologram of Elyse and five seconds later it was her in a coffee bean t-shirt and a cape two coffee cups in hand. She had on a sash that said Coffee Goddess and above it a flashing sign that said It's actually hot chocolate

Elyse blushed, but the smile across her face was genuine. She chuckled and looked it over, "well, that will be out in pride of place in my office. You made this?" Elyse was surprised, but she'd never had anyone think of her to the point of making her something. "Thank you, Tholos. No-one has ever made me anything before."

"I was inspired." He grinned. "Shall we get our food?"

Elyse blushed, looking down to the device again. After a moment she smiled at Tholos, "yes, please. I had to skip lunch because of back to back meetings and work."

"Me too. I spent lunch with the Chief...he's still not awake so it was just me talking and skipping lunch."

They got their food and settled back in their seats. While they ate they talked about their days and all that's been happening and asked one another questions. They were getting to know one another and Tholos was loving spending time with her. "So you think you'll go back to Earth to visit the scary lady and her family?"

"Yes, if I get chance. You should come. I'm sure Vance would love to see you. And gawd, she's not scary," Elyse chuckled, "it's a façade, I promise. Behind that exterior, she's a squishy marshmallow. Let me guess-- rumours started about her time under cover. Although-- it's engineering and lower deckers that seem to have the worst opinion on her. I get the lower deckers, but why engineering?

He laughed. "She scared half of us to death." He sighed. "Plus Engineering has always been good with the lower deckers. Chief treats them really well teaches those who want to learn about engineering." He shrugged.

Elyse chuckled shaking her head, "believe it or not, when you're in intel, they do encourage hazing lower deckers. I believe it's the same for security and more military style roles. So,.I'm someone who torments them too. I'm doing it from a distance though. I don't go as extreme." She shrugged, "I was specialising in interrogation before--" she stopped herself and shook her head, "I was good at it. And it comes in handy."

"Well don't tell Chief. He loves the lower deckers. They're like family and they tell him everything."

Elyse nodded, "ships that haze lower deckers tend to have smaller amounts of disciplinaries and produce more resilient people." She smiled, "it's my first time having them. I've only been down once. And that was for contraband searches. The rest, I just read the notice board-- gawd knows they're dumb enough to write things on there. Whilst they're on shift, I just remove what they shouldn't have. Makes them question their sanity but leaves me looking innocent." Elyse looked up at Thol from her food, "have you always been on ships? If so, I assume that you were once a lower decker?"

He smiled. "Mostly. Eli and I are the only ones that have followed the Chief from his first posting to this one. But yeah I was a newbie once." He sighed. "Actually after Fang got promoted and the chief took post he brought over a lot of the core group so I'd say about seventy five percent of us are Chief followers."

"Wow," Elyse nodded. She knew Sabastian was popular. How the department reacted to his 'death' was proof enough of that, but she assumed he was just a people person, not that he had a cult following. Her smile faltered a little upon realising that if Sabastian left, Tholos wouldn't even think twice about her. It was early, but she couldn't help how it felt. She sipped her drink and took a breath, "I guess if you have a team that works well together, you should keep it though. You must like engineering."

He smiled. "I do. Honestly I wasn't going to come to this ship when Chief came but the class is one I've always wanted to work on so here I am." He studied her. "And I now have a Goddess on the ship so this is home." He grinned his goofy grin at her.

Elyse noticed how he seemed to lighten the topic. She blushed softly. It made her chuckle and shake her head. It was nice to be seen and spoken to in such a manner, "honestly, I don't remember the last time someone made me smile and chuckle as much. Thank you."

"Life is short My Lady. Smiling and laughing is important. Great source of happy juice." He studied her. "I'm really glad we met."

Even if things didn't work out, Tholos was well on the way to helping her soul heal. "I have to agree," Elyse blushed, smiling down into her glass, "I think you may be good for me. Even if it's nothing more than to be a reminder to smile and that I am seen."

OFF:

Lieutenant Tholos Th'Keal
Engineering Officer

&

Lieutenant Commander Elyse White
Chief Communications Officer

 

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