Chapter Text
Talla sat down at the meeting room table, “Hey Isaac,”
“Hello Lieutenant Keyali,” Isaac responded. He was already sitting, thankfully in a non swivel chair considering his recent fascination with them.
She smiled, leaning back in her chair “You know you can call me Talla off-duty, right?”
“Interesting, I shall keep that in mind,”
“Hey, um, sorry you were caught in the middle like that,” she said awkwardly.
“It is alright. Although I believe that Heveena’s strategic skills are severely lacking, I do not suffer from the emotional reservations of the rest of the crew,”
“You know, I could have come with you and the others to help,”
“That was not necessary. As I have said, Heveena and the others’ deficiency in effective strategizing would have put a biological being, particularly a female one due to the Moclans’ prejudice, in danger. Even a Xelayan,"
“I think I could have handled it,” she responded a bit annoyedly. Regardless of it being Isaac, what he said still felt like an unfair judgement of her skills,”
“It is unlikely. However, there were also concerns about the emotional reservations you may have,”
“What?” She sat up straight.
“You were adamant regarding the idea that there should indeed be a Moclan prison ‘breakout.’”
“Well yeah, I feel like it’s just unfair to leave them in those kinds of circumstances. It’s lucky the Kaylon thought the same thing. Great advantage to have allies that are stronger than us,"
“Indeed. I had informed them of your and the female Moclans’ reasoning against that of the Admirals,”
Talla blinked, “Wait, you…you convinced them?”
“I did not. I stated the situation and allowed the others to form their own conclusions,”
She tilted her head “What exactly did you tell them?”
“Simply that there were a large quantity of Moclans wrongfully imprisoned for harmless actions. In the end, it seemed that making the Moclan government less secure in their own system as well as increasing the numbers of the colony was beneficial,”
“What about what the Admirals said?”
“It is important to note that we are already at war with the Moclans. That, and the substantial protection the Union has provided for the colony means that there is little increased risk in staging a ‘breakout.’”
“Thanks, Isaac,”
He paused, "Of course,"
“But…” she leaned back again, “what do you mean about me having emotional reservations?"
“I assumed you would deduce that one of the Moclan prisoners recently rescued is the Engineer Locar, with whom you had a romantic encounter,”
***
“So, he told you,” Ed gave a slightly annoyed smile.
They were in his office, sitting down on opposite sides of Ed’s desk. It had changed a bit over the years, decorated with framed pictures of the crew and the others on the ship and one of a young half-krill girl.
Of course there was still good, reliable Kermit the frog. Talla had ended up watching the muppets because of it. Her favorite piece of their work was probably the 1992 Charles Dickens adaptation.
“You know he can’t keep a secret unless you tell him to,” Talla responded. She could almost never be mad at Isaac. He had gotten way better at social interactions but he still wasn’t a master at things like “reading the room.”
“I mean, it wasn’t a secret necessarily I just thought, even discounting the risks, it all might be kind of a conflict of interest,” he explained a bit awkwardly.
“Does anyone here not have a conflict of interest?”
“In the sense that a Captain can’t do prison breaks and every other qualified person might punch Heveena in the face if they see her? Yes,”
Talla crossed her arms, “You telling me you wouldn’t at least need as much restraining as I would to not punch her?”
“Like I said, Captain. Gotta act like I’m going off of pure logic and nothing else,”
“Maybe you should ask the Kaylon,” Talla joked.
“Great idea,” he said sarcastically.
Talla paused, “Um, so, are any of us going to the colony now? To check out how the prison break went?”
“Depends, are any of us okay with explaining they’re dating the Chief Engineer?”
Talla felt her face turn warm, “It’s not really a…it’s more of a casual romance…I mean now it is,”
They had somehow gotten over their initial roadblocks but at this point, what they had been trying to fix seemed to be all that was there. What was it she had told John?
I haven’t felt a connection like this in a long time. With anyone.
She hadn’t been lying when she said that to him, had she?
Because her and Locar never had the time. She knew him for one day, and even though that made her feel like she’d known him forever, it wasn’t true.
Ever since he had left, Talla had been trying to forget it. Forget how his life was ruined and she was a part of it. But she knew that she still…she didn’t know if love was the right word. But she missed him.
More than she would’ve missed any relationship with John. More than she would have missed anyone. But if she didn’t want to keep thinking about it, she just needed to assume that everything was over and move on. She needed to assume it was too late.
“A long time” was loneliness with a couple of days in between.
“Well if you can handle that, then we’ll set a course for it. Mind checking for underage operatives while you’re there?”
The fact they had to do that…
“Totally,”
“Alright. Talla: it’s go time,” he looked at her warmly.
She grinned, though she felt her heart sinking, “Aye sir,”