Chapter Text
[Stardate 43218.8
Lieutenant Science Officer Ryland Grace's personal log.
Damn, these titles are huge.
Anyways. After two entire months of shore leave, I have once again been beamed aboard the highly acclaimed (and highly infamous) USS Mary.
I cannot by the life of me say that I missed it. Being in space, however safely they insist we are, always causes me discomfort. Humans in general were not supposed to be traveling the stars with so much comfort, and yet, we are, living our day to day lives in giant pieces of metal that move around the emptiness of space in search of something that we don't even know what is.
If I had it my way, I would have remained back on Earth, working in the academy, teaching children and doing lab studies where I am in safe and steady ground. However, as Eva never tires to remind me, I am needed in this giant block of steel that we call this ship, and therefore, I cannot be allowed to just work whenever I feel most comfortable.
I like to say this stuff in my personal log, as if the decision of going to space hadn't been mine in the first place. Ever since that damned mission, where everything went wrong and I first met Rocky, life on Earth became… unbearable. It was so boring all the time, I always felt like something was missing.
So, here I am, back at my post, back with my duties, complaining to myself in my personal log before Jacob arrives and I have to shut it off. I did not miss sharing my cabin with Jacob, his feet stink. But… despite that… it's good to be back.
I am done unpacking, and I'm ready to work. My shift only starts in two hours, but I want to take a look around, get myself familiarized with the ship again. Not much has changed, but it's always good to make sure so I don't make a fool of myself later.
Besides, I have a meeting with an old friend and his mate, and I wouldn't want to miss it for the world.
See you later log.
Grace out.]
The ship's soft hum was music to his ears. The people, all kinds of them, walking around the hallways, chatting and checking their pads, working for the better being of the crew… he did miss it.
Grace remembered when he was just an ensign, young and stupid and mad, mad at his parents for forcing him to go through Starfleet when he just wanted to keep studying on Earth, maybe become a teacher one day, work at a lab. He had no desires, no aspirations of ever becoming an officer, and yet… he did, to his parents' happiness. And yet, after a mission gone wrong, he met Rocky, the two of them worked together… and he finally understood what it meant to be an officer in the fleet.
Now, as a Lieutenant, working with what he loved inside a big spaceship, under no one other than Rocky's own mate… he was happy. He visited his parents whenever he liked, he taught some classes for the children of the officers in the ship, and he had friends and colleagues that he admired.
Well… not all of them, but most of them.
Grace made his way through the hallway, heading to the elevator so he could reach Rocky's quarters on the floor below his own. They had arranged to meet up before his shift started, drink some brandy, catch up. Apparently Adrian would be there too, which would be good because they could fill Grace in on the news around the Science department.
"Deck 12" he said as he turned the handle inside the elevator. The familiar buzzing of the machinery made him hum in delight, his chest warming up. How had he missed this so much? Maybe he was getting old.
Once in the right deck, Grace made his way to Rocky's room, stopping by the doors and pressing the doorbell. He heard a loud note and chuckled as the doors took a moment to open before he was met with the sight of his old friend and his mate.
"Grace! Grace Grace Grace Grace!" Rocky said in his usual, robotic-like voice. Grace chuckled, walking inside the room and kneeling down as he opened his arms, Rocky rushing right into them and hugging Grace back. "Grace! Rocky miss Grace, statement!"
"I missed you too man" Grace said, rubbing Rocky's… head? Top? He would never get used to that. Rocky moved around in happiness, letting out a content song that wasn't translated. He looked up while standing, smiling at Adrian who was just behind Rocky. "Hey boss."
"Hello Grace. Adrian content that Grace has returned, statement" Adrian said, always more controlled and polite when compared to Rocky. Grace was glad, from the little he had worked with Rocky over the years, he surely liked Adrian's more composed personality when it was time to get the job done.
"So am I. I missed you guys, I missed the ship… I missed my job" he sighed, walking towards the replicator and tapping the button. "One cup of chamomile tea please" he asked, and the replicator quickly made his wish a reality. Ah, the pleasantries of modern technology. "So, how has everyone been? What did I miss?"
"Grace miss so much" Rocky started in what could only be described as an exasperated tone. Grace couldn't help but chuckle. "USS Byul in danger, USS Mary sent over, explosion, damage to engines, new officer under Rocky, Rocky very stressed, new officer pretty good, Rocky friends, Adrian work on new molecule, USS Mary sent for supplies" he began listing, and Grace simply watched as he caught absolutely nothing about what his friend was saying. His eyes shifted to Adrian for a moment, who shrugged at him. They allowed Rocky to keep talking and talking and talking until he was done. "Many things happen while Grace gone. What about Grace?"
"Ah, my leave was fine" he said with a shrug. "Visiting my parents is always the same, a bunch of questions on the first days, a bunch of trips around Earth on the next, and then a bunch of nothing. By day ten I wanted to be back but you know how things are…"
"Adrian schedule leave for Adrian and Rocky. Rocky angry" Adrian said, and Grace couldn't help but laugh at how distressed Rocky sounded as he moved his body around in a circular motion.
"Rocky not mad! Rocky want work! Rocky shocked!"
"Adrian cancel shore leave after fight."
"Adrian! Not say things in front of Grace, statement!"
"It's fine, it's fine" Grace chuckled, shaking his head. "You should listen to Adrian though, a shore leave could be interesting. See a new planet, travel around the systems, maybe go back to Erid and see family."
"Adrian not want see family, statement. Family annoying, statement."
Grace burst out laughing, watching as Rocky once again moved around Adrian in distress, clearly not happy with how Adrian was just exposing them to him. He found it adorable, that despite having over 100 human years, or however old they were, the two of them still argued like a recently married couple.
Were they even married? Was that even a concept? He would have to ask Adrian later.
"Grace!" Rocky said suddenly, calling his attention again. "See new roommate, question?"
New roommate?
Grace frowned and reached down for his pad, checking for any messages about a new roommate. His eyes widened when he found it, indeed, Ava had sent him a notice about a change in his rooming situation. Luckily he hadn't been transferred, but then again if he had, the doors wouldn't have opened when he first arrived.
"Yeah, you're right… I hadn't seen that, what happened to Jacob?"
"Ship transfer. Assigned to USS Gilmore now" Adrian said, and Grace raised his eyebrow. Gilmore was a lower class than Mary. Weird.
"He was demoted?"
"Requested transferring. Adrian and Rocky know not why" Adrian explained, and Grace nodded.
"Alright, then… who's my new roommate?" he asked, more to himself than anything as he opened the file attached to the notice. Before it could open though, Rocky made a loud sound again.
"Rocky new officer! Rocky suggest to Ava, Ava agree! New roommate Simon!"
Grace looked down at him while he spoke before looking back at the file, now open on his screen. As usual, it had a picture and a bunch of information about the officer in question. He focused on the picture for now.
"Simon…" he whispered, clicking on the picture so it became larger. He had long hair, tanned skin, dark eyes… handsome was the first thought that came into his mind, before he closed the picture and looked over the information on the file. "Simon… just Simon? He doesn't have a last name?"
"Rocky don't know. Rocky don't ask."
"Of course you didn't" Grace rolled his eyes, continuing down the file. "Lieutenant, engineer, age 34, human illyrian hybrid… illyrian?" he asked in surprise, looking at Rocky and Adrian and then returning to the file. "That's interesting. I know the Federation is a little more open about illyrians being in the fleet but I had never heard of a human illyrian hybrid before."
"Adrian find it exciting too, but Simon did not speak much on subject" Adrian commented, and Grace made a mental note about that.
"Maybe he has had bad experiences…" he said, continuing down the file. "Admitted to the academy at 20 years old… has been through other 4 ships… alright. He seems interesting."
"Rocky introduce Simon and Grace, if Grace wish" Rocky said, but he was clearly going to do it anyway by how excited he was. "Grace like Simon, statement."
"We will see about that buddy. But if he has stinky feet like Jacob, he can start running."
His first shift was extremely calm. He was getting himself used to everything again, and although Adrian had some tasks for him to perform, most of them were very simple and did not require much work: analyzing some samples, checking some parameters, watching over a solution, all daily stuff, nothing major.
He was, however, quite excited for dinner time, when he was going to meet his new roommate Simon. Rocky had set everything up, the four of them would meet in the main hall and have a casual dinner where they all got to know each other better.
As he worked, Grace checked Simon's files again to learn more about him, his work in Starfleet, the missions he took part in while working on the other ships. Simon had a similar story as he did with Rocky, but with Adrian. From what Grace could tell, Adrian had requested that Simon be transferred to the USS Mary after he had saved their lives in an accident involving USS Mary and Simon's old ship, the USS Callister. Somehow the two of them had gotten stuck in a shuttle for over 10 hours, and if it wasn't Simon's quick thinking and engineering skills, they would have crashed into an asteroid field.
This Simon guy… he seemed pretty interesting. No wonder Rocky wanted them to meet so badly.
Finally the day was over, and Grace put everything in his lab away, making his way to the main hall with Adrian just next to him, the two of them chatting about the next tasks ahead, where USS Mary was heading next, what were their plans for the next few months.
They arrived first, taking a table for four and waiting patiently while Grace took small sips from his drink of choice, orange juice.
"Rocky is near" Adrian said suddenly, shifting their body towards the entrance. Grace did that too, only to watch the doors open and Rocky walk inside with a man next to him. The same man from the file, obviously, Lieutenant Simon. Except his hair was combed back and tied in a loose messy bun, he was wearing his typical engineering-red uniform, and Grace felt his cheeks warming up at the sight of such a beautiful man coming towards him. "Grace's heartbeat quicken. Grace feel well, question?"
Oh lord.
"I'm fine! I feel fine" he assured Adrian, blushing furiously and looking down at his drink for a moment. "It is a totally normal human reaction when we meet someone new. That's all."
Simon looked strong, he looked muscular, his hair seemed so soft and smile so sweet… and he was supposed to share his living quarters with him?!
Oh no, Ryland was screwed.
"Grace! Adrian!" he heard Rocky exclaim and looked up, smiling at his friend and standing up as he and Simon approached. "Adrian know Simon."
"Hello Simon."
"Hey" Simon said as he came closer, nodding to Adrian. His voice… oh gosh. Grace felt his cheeks going even warmer as he heard that deep, raspy tone of voice. Simon was handsome, his voice was deep and seductive, and he was staring right at Grace oh lord oh lord. "Hi. You must be Ryland Grace, science officer. I'm Simon."
Grace saw a hand being extended to him and quickly reached for it, grabbing Simon's hand with his own and squeezing it firmly.
"Hi! Yes! Yes that's me, I'm Ryland Grace. Hi. Pleasure to meet… you…" he said, trying to get a hold of himself as Simon's face changed from a pleasant smile to confusion. "Sorry… I'm not good at meeting new people… I'm Ryland Grace, science officer."
"Pleasure to meet you too" Simon said with his smile returning, although still a bit confused. "You are going to be my roommate, right? I've been looking forward to get to know you."
"Yeah, I guess we will be sharing" Grace agreed, finally releasing his hand. "I'm surprised because I was only out 2 months and I didn't know Jacob was transferring… when did you arrive? At the USS Mary I mean."
"Three weeks ago" Simon said, sitting down, and Grace did the same as he returned his attention to his orange juice. "I'm still getting used to the ship. Rocky is a great teacher, but even so, this is much more complex than my last job."
"That's what ranking up is for. First time working in a Miranda class?" Grace asked, now finally feeling more comfortable as they settled down, Rocky and Adrian talking next to them but in their song language after turning their translators off.
"Yep. It's much bigger than what I'm used to, but what I really want is to work on a Nebula class one day" Simon said, smiling as a little robot came to ask for their drinks and food. "I'll have some black tea and a bowl of ramen, please."
Grace's eyes widened and he smiled.
"I want the same" he said, looking at Simon as the robot moved to get Rocky and Adrian's request. "I think we will get together very well, Simon."
"Because we like the same food everybody likes?" Simon asked with a teasing smirk, but Grace only nodded in determination.
"Exactly."
Dinner was pleasant. The four of them chatted, he was able to put everything up to date, he was feeling home.
Just as Grace was about to head to his and Simon's shared quarters, he got a ping on his pad and looked down at it.
"Ah. Captain wants to see me" he said, shrugging a bit. "I guess I'll see you later Simon. Rocky. Adrian."
"Have a good night Grace" Adrian said, ever so politely, while Rocky moved up and down.
"See Grace tomorrow! Four of us eat breakfast together!"
"Understood buddy" Grace chuckled before looking at Simon. "See you soon, roommate."
"Don't be surprised if I'm asleep when you arrive back. I tend to sleep early" Simon said, and Grace gave him a nod. He would be quiet when he came back then.
He headed down the hallway towards the elevator and got inside, twisting the lever and calling for the bridge. Once the doors opened, he stepped inside, being greeted by none other than Ava's scary face.
"Oh! Look who's back on board" she said, smirking at him, and Grace frowned slightly. He never understood why Eva liked having her as a first officer, but he wouldn't question his captain.
"Hey Ava" he said, not really trying to hide his discomfort. "The captain called me."
"She's waiting in her private room. I have to say, every time you go for a shore-leave, part of me wonders if you'll ever come back" she said, approaching him and tapping him on the arm. Grace held back a frown, giving her a fake smile in return. "Welcome back."
"Thanks… I'll just go talk to the captain, I'm very tired" he moved away from Ava and her scary eyes, stepping down and to the left where the captain's private room stayed. He clicked on the button. "Lieutenant Grace, back for duty."
The door opened and he stepped inside, finding Eva sitting behind her desk with a bunch of pads in front of her, hair tied in a tight ponytail. She sighed before putting the pad she was holding down, just as the door closed behind Grace.
"Ah… you are back."
"Yeah well, I'm still a Starfleet officer" he teased, walking closer and sitting down on the chair in front of her. "Missed me much?"
"Less than I thought, more than I wanted" she said, always so cold. Grace would have been hurt if he wasn't used to it. It wasn't like the crew really liked him; besides Rocky and Adrian, he had no friends among his peers. Apparently he was too egocentric, melodramatic, rude, among other things he didn't like to think about.
And while he and Eva were in good terms now, that hadn't always been the case.
"So. What did you call me here for?" he asked, and Eva hummed softly before she held her hands in front of her face, looking thoughtful.
"I believe you have already met your new roommate, Simon" she said, and Grace nodded slowly. "Good… did you read his file?"
"Yes."
"And what do you think?"
"I… don't know?" Grace asked, frowning a bit. "About what part?"
"Anything that called your attention, lieutenant Grace?" she asked, her voice serious. The use of the patent also demonstrated some sort of worry about the matter.
"Well… I was curious about the fact that he is a human illyrian hybrid" he admitted, getting a raised eyebrow from Eva. Bingo. "Illyrians are still scarce in the fleet, and considering your first officer Ava is an illyrian too-"
"It wasn't a coincidence. We made it seem like it, but it was deliberate" she said, sighing and closing her eyes for a moment before staring at Grace again. "This conversation, from now on, is classified. You will not disclose any of it to anyone, and that includes your eridian friends. Do you understand?"
Grace frowned and fixed himself on the chair.
"Yes captain."
"Good. Then, let me fill you in."
By the time he was back in his room, Simon was in fact asleep. He requested dim lights and changed in the shared bathroom before walking out and staring at the sleeping man a few meters away from him.
Ryland Grace did not like classified missions. And yet he had one right in front of him…
Just another day in the Fleet.