B General Bretam Keylor Commanding Officer USS Chimera NCC 96899 - Lt Commander Samantha Palmer Mission Specialist USS Chimera NCC 96899 = SB Bragg After tending to his business on Sefra II and performing a proper Lament and death chant for his sister, Keylor had returned to DS-9 to return to his federation life. No sooner had he stepped on the old Cardassian mining station, he had received strict orders to report to Starbase Bragg. The orders were not specific but then it was the special forces and they dealt in secrecy. He had arrived several hours before and was told he would be briefed the following day. After checking in to some guest quarters and changing in to something a little less distracting like his marine greens and his general star, he headed down to the stations sparse promenade for a little relaxation. Now sitting at a bar on Bragg he sipped on a Terran whiskey, still showing the scars of his recent combat. Even though the Doctors on DS-9 had healed the cracked ribs and the cuts on his hand and face, the faint bruising was still visible as his body slowly absorbed the bruises under his skin. He sat, quietly at the bar, the image of Bertold still fresh in his mind. As he sat in thought, he did not notice the blond enter the bar and sit next to him. Samantha entered the bar. It was one of many similar establishments on the starbase, and most of them looked the same. The reason for this was that there weren't too many civilians on Bragg, and as a result most of the establishments were run by the starbase crew and lacked much character. Still, she had come for something to calm her nerves, not the drab decor. Walking over to the bar counter, she took a seat next to a Bajoran who looked like he'd seen better times. "Andorian martini, please... stirred, with a dash blue cherry," she said to the barman. He nodded and got to work on her drink. Samantha fussed at the scarf around her neck. Its purpose wasn't to keep her warm, but instead to hide the faintly visible Trill spots that were an after effect of her last mission. The medical officer had assured her it would fade completely within two days. Luckily they were much less apparent than they had been a few days before. His mind a drift, his attention was caught by the sound of a woman requesting a drink right beside him. Until Keylor had joined Starfleet, he had not been much of an explorative drinker. He had usually stayed with his homelands Sweet wine. Aside form that and the whiskey he was introduced to after his first encounter with the Mo'tok, he typically stayed away form the colorful concoctions that adorned many a crew lounge or bar. This was more poignant after a particular costume party aboard the chimera when a crewman experienced an adverse reaction to a drink that contained something they were allergic to, but did not know about. As the bartender delivered the spectacle, he looked over at it. Looking over to the woman sitting next to him he commented, "What, pray tell, is that? And is it safe?" "An Andorian martini," Samantha smiled as she accepted the wide cone-shaped glass from the bartender. "It’s made from Andorian whiskey, and the dash of blue cherry adds flavor and blue color." She took a sip from her drink and looked back at the Bajoran man. "You look like someone who’s just come back from a tough mission." Keylor shifted his eyes away. He did not want to admit the real reason for his appearance. In his mind he looked back at the encounter and thought he could actually be courts martial for the event. He looked in to his glass and simply replied, "Uh, yes." He took a sip of his whiskey and then looked back at the Woman. Looking at her from the side, he noticed some thing just at the top edge of the scarf she had wrapped around her neck. He looked a bit closer and noticed a few odd shaped spot. {That looks like a type of mark you would see on a trill.} he thought. He motioned to her neck and nodded. "Well not all of us hide our appearance." He said quietly and in a somber tone. Samantha smiled slightly. "The after effects of my last mission." She still had to remind herself that she couldn’t talk too much about her work, since most of it was classified by Starfleet Intelligence. Unfortunately, this limited conversation topics quite a bit. At least she could still introduce herself. "Lieutenant Commander Samantha Palmer," she said, extending her hand to the man. "I’m a specialist working with the Temporal Mechanics Department." Keylor nodded. As an after thought he handed out his hand, a custom most people in starfleet had adopted from the terrans. "Bretam Keylor" he said omitting his rank on purpose. Though starfleet was fairly relaxed, he tended to think that people looked upon rank too much, and if a lieutenant commander found out he was a general, she might shy away. And even though he was in a somber mood, he still enjoyed the distraction of an attractive female to keep his mind from replaying the events of the last few weeks. Keylor shook her hand and added, "That is no problem about the circumstances surrounding your blemishes, I understand fully. It is a surprise that we here can talk about anything. Small wonder we all don't mill about simply nodding our heads and zipping our lips." He smiled back. "Exactly... especially in my department. I have the Temporal Directive breathing down my neck as well," she laughed. "Temporal Directive? That must mean you deal with temporal mechanics." He said with a half grin and smiling. "I always found that to be a confusing subject. Coming and going in to the past or the future and then returning. Though I have heard of instances where people had traveled through time and then returned knowing what they had done, I often wonder if more events of time travel have happened. Only that the ones traveling in to the past were unaware of where they had been. " He said not realizing that several years before when stationed on SB Aurora he and the entire base had been transported back in time only to vanquish their foes and return to the present with out any knowledge. "Time travel happens all around us. I think you’d be surprised at how easy it is. The hard part is controlling it and managing to alter the timeline successfully. Some people might not believe it, but when you study time you learn that some things are just predestined and there’s no way to change them. In any case... time was never meant to be changed." Samantha took another sip of her drink. Keylor nodded and raised an eyebrow. "Predestined? Well then I guess there is no reason to travel in time then, if we can’t change things, things will happen no matter what, then why waste the time and energy?" “The ability to change time is viewed by some as the ability to wield ultimate power. If you alter one event in the timeline, you alter another; its simple chaos theory. Some things, like artificial paradoxes and loops, can be corrected, but a naturally occurring event should not be changed; changing it would alter the natural course of events throughout the entire timeline.” Keylor shook his head gently, "Ah well , ..." he said trying to sound like he understood. " I guess time can be on our side, in certain circumstances." He took a sip of his whiskey and then looked back at Samantha, "Well it is a good thing I never had to worry about such things. As far as I know." He chuckled the sentence.   Keylor finished the last of his whiskey and looked at his wrist chrono. He had a briefing at 07:30 the next morning and he was tired form his long journey to BRAGG. As much as he enjoyed the company of the lovely lady, he knew he could not be falling asleep in front of some major general or admiral so something he could only anticipate as being very important. "Well I must he heading out. I have had a long flight here and have an early meeting to attend." He said standing up. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr Bretam,” Samantha smiled, extending her hand. “It was a pleasure to meet you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.” He held out his hand once more and shook Samantha's hand. "It has been nice chatting with you. I expect I will be her eon the base for a while. Perhaps we will bump in to one another again." He smiled. “I’m sure we will,” she responded. Smiling, Keylor nodded once and in a awkward movement slid past Samantha and headed to his quarters. = -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.308 / Virus Database: 266.11.9 - Release Date: 2005/05/12