Damn Right I Got the Blues

Posted on Sat Jul 18th, 2020 @ 8:19am by Lieutenant Ben Sheppard

329 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: The Saga Begins
Location: Quarks, DS9
Timeline: Present

ON

“You damn right, I've got the blues, from my head down to my shoes You damn right, I've got the blues, From my head down to my shoes I can't win, cause I don't have a thing to lose”

Lieutenant Ben Sheppard whispered the Buddy Guys lyrics as they echoed around a near empty Quark’s bar. He looked into the glass of whiskey, glaring at the reflection that dared to look back. For a moment his hand tensed around the glass as if to shatter it, his muscled forearms straining… then he relaxed. Releasing a deep breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding.

“Everything ok?” the pretty Bajoran waitress asked from behind the bar and he could see the worry behind her dark brown eyes.

“Fine… just fine” Ben murmured a reply. For a moment he was lost in unbidden memories as the Bajoran with her short hair in bangs looked just like a girl he’d known in Galveston, Texas. Now that had been one mean old town for a weekend’s leave… Though it was all gone. The girl centuries dead, long gone and forgotten. Or perhaps it was just his mind playing tricks and she looked nothing like her?

“Another drink, Lieutenant?” the Bajoran asked as he finished his whiskey and placed the glass softly down on the bar, the ice cubes tinkling like bells. Ben looked down at the PaDD with his transfer orders for the USS Ganymede - for a moment he thought the device looked like an old phone he had and smiled wistfully.

“No thanks, darling” he replied after a minute or two. “Better shake a leg” he mumbled to himself and picked up and shouldered his aged kitbag, no doubt a good deal older than the girl behind the bar. He left Quarks as Buddy Guy finished his blues riff and the music faded like his memories.

OFF

Lieutenant Ben Sheppard
Tactical Officer
USS Ganymede

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