Mood Lighting - Part I

Posted on Tue Mar 31st, 2026 @ 9:26am by Lieutenant Commander Elyse White & Lieutenant Commander Sabastian Walker

1,050 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Forgotten Wounds
Location: Elyse White's Quarters

ON:

Elyse had been surprised at just how disappointed she'd been to find out that Tholos didn't show up to the coffee place. Elyse understood that engineering was a busy place though. She had just found herself looking out specifically for him. She knew in herself that it was far too soon. Well, it was the excuse she was actively telling herself.

When she got home, Elyse cussed under her breath. The light in her kitchenette was still dead. She knew she should have waited to confront Walker about his department pulling overtime too much after she had the light fixed. With a sigh, she walked closer to the kitchen and looked up. It couldn't be that hard right? Maybe she just needed to tap it and it would fix itself like in her old apartment on the station. She climbed up with ease into the countertop and looked at the light. Well, it didn't look like the one in her apartment on the station. Nonetheless, she reached up onto her tiptoes and tried to move the guard so that she could access the light itself.

Thol stood outside Commander White's quarters. He grinned. He didn't mind working overtime to help a princess so he was here, smiling his goofy smile and ringing the chime.

"Enter," Elyse called just as she'd managed to shimmy the cover off.

Thol entered and his eyes landed on her. "Commander! What are you doing?"

Elyse jumped out of her skin and blushed seeing Tholos. Oh, of course Sabastian sent him, she thought to herself. "I--," Elyse had just frozen in place, "well--" she gestured to the light, "I've been waiting since I got on board for this light to be fixed. So, since engineering is clearly overwhelmed babysitting, I thought I'd give it a go. My last place had a glitchy light that just needed a... Love tap... Once in a while and it worked. Thought there'd be no harm in trying." Somehow she avoided stuttering too much.

"Well can you tap after I've turned off the power. You could have hurt yourself." He walked over to her and gave her a hand so she could step down. "This kind of lighting is not like it would be in a home. One wrong move and you will know what a fly in a fly zapper feels like."

Elyse looked between the light and the Andorian. Two lots of rescues in the space of two days. But this time felt a little different. She'd always been the one cleaning up her ex's messes and trying to fix things around the apartment, but now, Tholos was here willing and able. Elyse closed her eyes and took a soothing breath. She couldn't think like that. This was Tholos' job first and foremost. He would have been here for duty not for her anyway. Opening her eyes she nodded and took his hand to come down.

"That's better. Now you sit and rest. This will be done in a second and as for your earlier comment about overwhelmed babysitting I really like you but I will not have you making any negative comments about the chief. To our department he's everything. He's always been the one taking care of us and now that his life is in shambles a dead husband who turned out to be a liar and a cheater and the emotional stress of a broken bond and loosing his job and all the crap he's been through it's our turn to take care of him. Hell we're all waiting to see if he's going to leave the ship so that we can all go with him. We're not a department we're a family and when one is down we are all down." He walked over to a panel on the side of the counter and tapped a small hidden button. The panel popped out and he added his code. The lighting in the quarters switched to emergency lighting and he climbed up where Elyse had been moments ago. The whole job took five minutes and when he stepped down shut the panel and added his code the lighting came back on.

"There. I made sure it's white light rather then yellow, better for your eyes and better for cooking."

Elyse was silent as Tholos seemingly told her off. She'd not had someone reprimand her in a while. It caught her off guard. Elyse stayed silent until he was finished. "Thank you for the help and the light change to white instead of mood lighting," Elyse hesitated, "you have me wrong, Tholos. About Walker, that is. Perhaps not the best choice in words but I didn't mean it necessarily as a bad thing. A team that operates in a unit like that is one to be commended, but actual duties were being... Missed, which we cannot afford. Sabastian knows that, and I spoke to him today about it. I need Sabastian fighting fit, because I don't want this job."

He was silent. "We weren't missing duties we were prioritizing. Those upgrades Starfleet had us put in turned out to be duds. Chief had to rework the entire engine flow regulator to bring it up to speed and then improve it for this mission. It was keep the ship alive or change a light or fix a faucet or gravity gens in the rec centre. We're all caught up and the sooner we finish this the better. He'll be back to himself again now that he has the motivation."

Elyse sighed, but firmly asked, "I understand that, but how much more could have been done if you didn't have to look out for Walker? I'm not the bad guy here, Tholos. I'm just doing this stupid job that I've been given."

"I'm sorry. I should not have been that forward...things are a bit tense now. With everything that's happened to our little family we're all kind of recovering and figuring things out. We won't fail the chief on this mission."

"It's not just the chief you'd all be failing-- that's the scary part," Elyse sighed, running her fingers through her hair, "I've got to admit-- I'm somewhat jealous of Walker."

He looked at her. "Why?"


To Be Continued...

 

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