I do not own the characters.
"I can't believe she won't help," whispered a crewmember, angrily.
"That's too bad, we all want to go home, we have families," lamented another crewmember.
"What do y'all expect, she doesn't have family."
"Shush here she comes," whispered a third crewmember.
They hushed up when Admiral Cain came around corner of the corridor leading to the mess hall. The crewmembers stared at Cain. She stopped and backtracked.
"Is there is a problem?" said Cain as she looked hard at them.
"Yeah, there is. I'm stuck out here 70,000 light-years away from home," said one crewmember, defiantly.
Cain could see the crewmember was livid was hands clenched. She surreptitiously put her hand on her handgun and quietly released the safety.
"Thank you for that astute observation you've just made. Is there is something else?"
"No Admiral, Have a good day," said another crewmember as he pulled away the surly crewmember aside.
Cain sighed when they left and put back the gun safety on. She didn't expect such open insolence. She took a deep breath to relax before she entered the mess hall. When Cain entered the usually noisy mess hall it abruptly became quiet, down to murmurs. Unperturbed, Cain went up to the kitchen counter to receive her supper. When she didn't see Neelix, she asked the server.
"Where's Neelix?"
"He had to attend to a morale problem, he's been doing that a lot lately," said the server, as he piled some of Neelix's creative cuisine on Cain's dinner tray.
Cain almost decided to eat in her quarters but instead sat at a small table overlooking the space window. She looked at her dinner. It was suppose to be 'meatloaf' with macaroni and cheese with a small salad, and an apple for desert. Cain poked the meatloaf with her knife but it giggled. She grimaced. Cain ate the macaroni and cheese instead and overheard a conversation behind her. She recognized the voices and smiled.
"We should invite the Admiral to our table."
"No way Harry do you want to cause a commotion, everyone is so tense," said Tom. "Besides she's a flag officer, it's not good to mingle with us lowly officers."
"I know but we're alone in the Delta Quadrant, we should be more accommodating. In the end we're all people."
"Sheesh Harry you're getting sappy. Come on let's go. I want to show you my latest holodeck program."
* * *
After an insipid dinner Cain went to 10-Forward hoping for a better ambience and to unwind. 10-Forward was packed and boisterous; however the volume turned down and buzzed to a low hum the moment she strode in. Cain saw B'Elanna and Seska and two other crewmembers playing a card game Pyramid. Cain greeted them but they hardly looked up.
They all replied in unison, "Evening Admiral," and all went back to playing their game. However, B'Elanna looked at Admiral as she wanted to say something but glanced back at her cards. Cain walked away and went to the bar.
"Hi Guinan," said Cain as sat at the barstool. She gave her handguns to Guinan who placed them behind the bar counter. Weapons were not allowed in 10-Forward.
"It's good to see you, Admiral. What can I get you?"
"Something that will give me a slow buzz."
Cain felt exhausted she wanted to lie down but knew she wouldn't be able to go sleep until she could relax.
"I got just the thing," said Guinan, as she was pouring drinks for other patrons. She watched Guinan busily prepare other drinks before she got to her order. 10-Forward was packed. She came with Cain's drink a soon after.
While Cain was enjoying her drink, she felt a few crewmembers brushed up against her as they leaned by the bar counter. She looked around and noticed how much more crowded it had become. It was almost like the entire crew was squeezed in 10-Forward. Then one crewmember bumped into her rather hard spilling his drink on Cain. He ignored Cain as if the incident didn't happen and attempted to leave.
Cain held the crewmember's arm and faced him.
"Crewmen Meyers, aren't you going to apologize for soiling Cain's uniform with your drink?" admonished Guinan.
Meyers suddenly panicked Cain knew his name; he thought he could get away with this infraction anonymously.
"Admiral, I apologize for my clumsiness."
Cain eyed him and finally released his arm. Guinan gave Cain a towel and some seltzer.
"Thank you Guinan," said Cain as she cleaned off her uniform.
"Go home Cain," shouted an unknown crewmember.
Cain turned around and looked at the crowd and saw anger, boredom, fear, and resentment.
"If you have something to say to me then come up here," said Cain. "Don't be shy."
The crowd became silent and a few crewmembers sitting at the bar vacated their seats. Then someone threw an object towards Cain, she dodged it. It landed on the bar counter smashing in pieces. Cain saw the direction and stood up. All the crewmembers sitting at the bar suddenly left. The crowd pressed forward with their arms out and more objects were thrown.
Suddenly, a large laser blast cracked an overhead light, shattering pieces of acrylic into the crowd. It was Guinan. She had a laser rifle and it was now pointed at the crowd. The crowd was startled and quiet.
"That's enough fun tonight. Alright everybody the bar is closed, now go away," shouted Guinan as she aimed at the crowd. "Go away. I mean it. I have this rifle on wide dispersal, so don't push me."
The crowd soon broke up and left.
"You sure like to live dangerously," whispered Guinan as she gave the handguns back to Cain.
"Where I can get one of those?" asked Cain, as she studied Guinan's laser rifle.
"When we get closer to the Alpha Quadrant, I'll hook you up."
She patted Cain's shoulder and softly said, "Meanwhile, you better go to sickbay and have that cut on your head looked at."