Maybe Tomorrow

[Cptn Swain 0]

Asher glanced across the room. Arden was laying in bed, wrapped in the bedsheets, but was sitting up looking at him.

 

“Come to bed,” Arden said patiently. “It’s nearly 0200 and you’re still looking over those files.”

 

Asher frowned and took a drink of tea. “Just a little bit longer.”

 

Arden returned the frown and sighed. Asher looked back to the PADD in his hand. “What are you looking at anyway?”

 

“Mission reports.”

 

“I know that. But what of?”

 

Asher wrinkled his nose and sat the PADD down. He knew Arden well enough to know that he wasn’t going to just go away. “Excalibur’s mission logs from their various encounters with the Scorpiads, Al-Ucard and Eratians.”

 

“Interesting reading,” Arden said. “But what do you expect to learn? Besides, I am sure most of the really good stuff is classified anyway.”

 

“It is,” Asher said, a rare grins creeping across his face. “Tandaris managed to weasel me a copy of them out of his overlords in Starfleet Intelligence.”

 

His lover lifted an eyebrow. “My my,” he said amused, “You looking at classified material and telling me about it? Who are you and what did you do with Asher?”

 

“Did you know that Corizon negotiated a deal with the Scorpiads to get them to stop blowing up stars?”

 

Arden’s mild amusement faded. “Huh?”

 

“Apparently,” Asher said, giving into his inner gossip. “When the Excalibur crew recovered the Scorpiad vessel that merged with Tandaris they discovered it had been retrofitted with the subspace weapon that the Scorpiads were using to destroy stars. Corizon threatened to give the technology to the Eratians and Al-ucards if they kept using it.”

 

“Starfleet just let him do that?”

 

“Oh,” Asher said with a mirthless laugh. “You have no idea what they let him, Day and then Abronvonvich get away with.”

 

“Enlighten me.”

“For starters, Corizon planned on using a subspace weapon to blow up the wormhole.”

 

Arden’s expression darkened. “I wish you were joking,” he said. “But at least Corizon isn’t charge anymore and they’re flushing his ilk out.”

 

Asher nodded. He wanted to tell Arden about the other part of his new assignment. Instead, he put the PADD down and pushed back from the desk. “Maybe when this whole negotiation is over,” he said, making his way to the bed. “You and I can take some time off. I hear there are some pretty places for hiking down on Avalon.”

 

Arden wrapped his arms around Asher as he slid into bed and kissed him softly. “I’d like that,” he said between breaths. “You could use a real vacation.”

 

“You’re telling me.”