Beyond the Frontier

Chapter 37

Once I left the bridge, I went home because I was exhausted. And once I was home I checked my messages to find that Uhura had left me tons of messages, and I had one from Spock, and some from my other friends, but the only one that I actually listened to was one from Carol. 

"Bella, I thought you would like to go out for drinks? I know you might be tired, but I wanted to talk to you about something. If you want to go out, message me."

Decided that my sleep could wait, I messaged Carol that I would meet her at the pub down the street in 20 minutes. I looked at me in the mirror to see that I was dressed in jeans a light blue blouse that matches my eyes. However, I wasn't looking my best considering everything I had been through. 

I had taken off my head wrap, but I had a pretty nasty wound on my forehead. My wrist was hurting, and it was bruised, but at least it wasn't still in a cast. But unfortunately, my fingers were wrapped up, which was going to make holding something difficult. 

Once I made it down to the pub, I walked in to find it filled with tons of people. Lot's of people where here because they were still mourning about all the deaths, and I don't blame them.  Looking past the crowds I saw Carol at a table in the back with two beers. Walking over I sat down at the table. "Hey, Carol." I smiled. 

She gave me a small smile. "How are you feeling?" She asked looking at my hands. 

"Fine, nothing time won't heal." I shrugged. "How about you? You don't look fine." 

"The council called me forward today." I already knew where this was going. 

"They called me forward about a week ago." I admitted. "About you." 

"They told me that they talked to some of the crew." Carol sighed. 

"So what did they say to you?" I asked taking one of the beers. I usually don't drink alcohol, but I wanted to numb the pain. 

"They asked if I knew about Khan, and what my father was planning." She said. "And then they started implying that I was going to finish his work." 

"Did they tell you what the others said?" 

"They just told me that everyone vouged for me." She said. "They told me that Spock even said that I was exceptional at my job." 

"That is such a compliment." I admitted. 

"I don't know if I can keep working for Starfleet if they can't trust me." 

"Don't think about it as working for Starfleet, but as working with us." I said. "Once the Enterprise is back up, we'll be up in space, and the council can't touch you." 

Carol smiled bigger. "You're right. Thank you." She drank her beer. "Not only for talking with me, but for coming out when you probably didn't want to." 

"No, I needed this." I sighed. "You're the only person that was going to talk to me without yelling at me." 

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked. 

"Not really." 

"Okay." 

Carol and I spent the rest of the night drinking away our feelings and talking about our past. She told me what it was like growing up with an Admiral for a father, and I told her what it was like having an ambassador for a father. Turns out our fathers weren't much different. 

Five beers later we were interrupted, by someone tapping on Carol's shoulder. She turned and I looked to see a red shirt cadet who was acting a little wobbling, obviously drunk. "Can I help you?" Carol asked in her sweet British voice.