Sirius Federation Officer's Club

[Hyperwave22]

Jeff Kerrigan entered the CRI bar late at night to find the bar completely empty. He had just gotten off shift, and was quite tired. Due to his tardiness, there was not even a real bartender left there. He walked towards the electronic drink mixer and made an order for a drink in a foreign language. He hoped that it would taste good.

After removing his credit card, he heard Joanne's voice loud and clearly behind him. "You aren't going to be wanting that, doctor."

Kerrigan turned around. "I think I do, Joanne, unless you've got some thing better."

"Oh, I do. That stuff is so hot that it will burn your throat up, and I know that you don't like spicy things. I got the recipe from a Corsair that came through here. Didn't know it at the time, of course, but once twenty secs came in to arrest him, I figured it out." She looked away and started fixing a drink that Kerrigan had never seen before. He wanted to know, but first asked her why she was up so late.

"Ah, you just missed him," Joanne responded, "The admiral came in here for a late drink. We got to talking about the soldiers not coming back from the battlefield."

"Strange," Kerrigan said, "because I came in here because I'm contemplating returning to work for the war. The Sierra is nice, but it doesn't get the patients that I need. People in the major systems get pretty good treatment, but those on the front lines are the ones that need it most."

"I like that idea, Jeff. The Sierra has a competent crew, and doesn't deal with the stuff on the front lines. Which ship do you plan to transfer to?"

"Probably back to the Horizon. The Navy Surgeon General found some excess cash reserves, and has alloted enough money to buy a new platform. They're thinking a genuine Bretonian Battleship if possible, but we're also bidding on a destroyer."

"Well, good luck with that. Hopefully you get the battleship bid. I've heard that the destroyers actually end up seeing combat," Joanne said. "Oh, before you get into details I'll never understand, tell me, how do you deal with all of those not coming back from the battlefield."

"Well, they do come back, they just die in our hands. How I get through it? Dark humor. It's hard when you actually see our soldiers die, screaming for help. We save the majority of them, but it still doesn't seem like enough."

"Well, maybe you can feel a better when you get out there. Here's your drink. Careful though, it's really heavy. I'll see you later, I'm headed to bed now."

"'Night, Joanne." Kerrigan spent the rest of the night sitting there watching Planet Cambridge. At about four in the morning Cambridge time Mike showed up with a few pilots. Kerrigan took his drink down, bothering pausing only to say "hi" to Mike, and went to bed in the CRI guest quarters for the remainder of the day.

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Retired
A very big thanks to Dark Oddity who put my signature pic together