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Beckett Mariner was extremely bored—so bored that she was imagining a nanite icosahedron rolling onto the stage to disrupt the concert. Considering that happened in the same room earlier in the day, she hoped it wasn’t too much of a stretch to imagine it coming true.
Having saved his life earlier that day from said nanite icosahedron, Krog on the Rocks was treating the Cerritos crew to a private concert. Previously, Mariner had thought him nothing more than a tourist trap. Her opinion was now being revised downwards. Beside her, Rutherford appeared to be asleep. On her other side, T’Lyn was sitting up straight in her seat, watching with rapt attention for a Vulcan. Mariner had no idea how she could be so attentive; the music seemed exceedingly dull.
Mariner shifted in her seat once again, wishing she could speed up the concert. Although Krog was certainly vibing in a tropical, relaxed fashion, it wasn’t Mariner’s vibe. She felt she was too chaotic for such beachy music. It was going to take a whole lot of Klingon acid punk to pep her back up again.
“You are restless,” T’Lyn remarked unexpectedly, causing Mariner to jump in her seat.
Mariner glanced around to see if their conversation was disrupting everyone only to find that Rutherford wasn’t the only one sleeping. T’Lyn was probably the only one in earshot who actually seemed to be paying attention to the concert.
Nevertheless, Mariner kept her voice a respectable whisper as she hissed, “No, I’m not!”
T’Lyn raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, fine! I’m restless! I’m sure Krog is a good musician, but I’m not into it.”
“His compositions are very mathematical. I find his music to be meditative.”
“Yeah, well, I guess I’m not the meditative sort.”
She slumped down into her seat, glaring at the stage. Krog wasn’t even doing anything other than standing in the center and moving the rings up and down the tubes.
“Perhaps I can help with that,” T’Lyn mused. “I can offer you a brief mind meld like I did when my Bendii Syndrome caused emotional chaos among the crew. It might help to regulate your emotions once again so that you can meditate.”
Mariner considered that. She wasn’t sure she liked the idea of someone else forcing her to calm down, but she had to admit the idea had appeal. It had felt so good the last time T’Lyn had done it, and Mariner trusted T’Lyn. In the end, she figured there was nothing better to do at this concert. If T’Lyn’s telepathy could help Mariner relax enough to stop being consumed by how bored she was, then she wasn’t going to object.
“Go ahead. Shoot your best telepathic shot.”
T’Lyn touched her fingers to Mariner’s forehead and softly telepathically probed the human’s mind. It was a light touch that Mariner barely felt, but she nevertheless found herself relaxing. For a moment, she felt a flicker of some type of reciprocal feeling from T’Lyn, but it disappeared quickly as T’Lyn removed her hand. Instead, Mariner’s mind began to focus on Krog’s music; she was beginning to understand why T’Lyn liked it so much.
“Thanks,” Mariner said, feeling the tension leech from her shoulders. “After the day I’ve been having, I needed that.”
“After your conflict with Ensign Sh’reyan.” T’Lyn paused and then added, “I am surprised you never mentioned her before.”
Mariner gave a lazy, dismissive wave. “Oh, yeah, but we broke up. Officially now.”
“Good.”
For several seconds, they continued to watch Krog’s performance. It really was relaxing. Perhaps she and T’Lyn should do something like this more often. She was now calm enough that she didn’t jump this time when T’Lyn spoke unexpectedly.
“I would not have thought you were the type to be in a committed relationship,” T’Lyn remarked.
Truthfully, Mariner had been afraid of a committed relationship. Being in a relationship with Jennifer had been fun, but Mariner had been terrified of growing old and boring with her. Perhaps she should have known from the beginning that they were never going to work out.
That was Jennifer, though. While Mariner certainly didn’t want to become boring, she thought she might want to grow old with someone after all. Recent events on Sherbal V had been causing Mariner to reevaluate her life and finally work through her past trauma. Dating Jennifer had been a good first step, but maybe Mariner could find someone better out there that she could truly allow herself to open up to.
“Have you thought about that much?” Mariner deflected rather than voice her complicated feelings. “Are you interested in dating me or something?”
“Yes.”
The reply was so surprising that Mariner actually fell out of her chair despite her newfound calm. Luckily, Rutherford was still too far asleep to notice the embarrassing mishap. Cheeks blushing furiously, Mariner scrambled back into her chair.
“What?”
“I have been attracted to you for some time,” T’Lyn remarked, somehow completely calm, “but you did not seem to be interested in romantic relationships. It was unfortunate that I only found out today that such is not the case.”
“I never would have known. You were acting as restrained as always today.”
“Thank you.”
Mariner supposed that T’Lyn had been challenging her about her relationship to Jennifer throughout the mission, but it hadn’t seemed particularly remarkable at the time. In hindsight, Mariner wondered if T’Lyn had been jealous—if the Vulcan was even capable of that emotion. It was quite flattering, if unexpected.
“I just have commitment issues,” Mariner explained, waving one of her hands about wildly, “so the whole romance thing is complicated.”
“That is reasonable. I will not allow my emotions to affect our relationship if you do not wish to pursue anything romantic.”
“Wait! Wait!” Mariner practically yelled, nearly falling out of her chair again as she leapt towards T’Lyn. She got an unhappy look from Stevens at the volume of her voice, but she was probably just disturbing his nap. “I never said ‘no’ to a romantic relationship.”
She supposed it was the typical self-sabotage that had her shying away from T’Lyn’s bluntless, distracting from the issue of a response. However, despite the fact that a part of her wanted to run away from emotional honesty, a bigger part of her didn’t want to let this opportunity pass her by.
“I like you,” Mariner blurted out. “You are so cool and smart and you have an unexpected but awesome sense of humor. Frankly, I’m surprised you like me!”
“You have been welcoming and understanding to me despite my fallacies, and we share similar opinions regarding the rules.”
“Hell yeah!” Mariner replied, slinging an arm around T’Lyn’s shoulders. “Rebels for life!”
“In a manner of speaking.”
“Didn’t you say yourself that there is more to achieve than can be defined within the rules?”
“I believe I phrased it differently, but I suppose we both have a tendency to be defiant.”
Mariner grinned broadly at that. She had always liked T’Lyn because of the way she felt they had similar souls. Though T’Lyn wasn’t as extravagant about her unruliness as Mariner was, her propensity for intuition in addition to logic was about as rebellious as Vulcans got even if it seemed rather underwhelming to a human.
Mariner’s arm was still slung around T’Lyn’s shoulders. Though Mariner was the type of affectionate person who did that sort of thing to all her friends, it felt different when it was T’Lyn. The Vulcan didn’t even let Tendi—her best friend—be so affectionate most of the time. Mariner felt like she had gotten a great gift to be allowed to hold T’Lyn in the crook of her arm. It made her feel rather nice, even if the boring music was beginning to bother her again.
“I assume this means you accepted my offer of courtship,” T’Lyn said.
“Yes.”
Entering into a new relationship seemed rather scary, but Mariner wanted to try anyway. She had a feeling that T’Lyn would be worth it.