A Cup of Quiet

Posted on Sun Jan 18th, 2026 @ 6:47pm by Ensign Vesper Wells & Sergeant Jace Morven

3,970 words; about a 20 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: FGF Barracks, USS Guinevere
Timeline: Early 2389

Vesper sighed as she rounded the corner, part leaning on her walking cane to balance out her stride. It wasn't an area of the ship she had been to often. The Yeoman didn't have much reason to hang out with the Ground Forces, oddly enough. But when the package of tea leaves she had been waiting for had somehow ended up delivered with the troops? She was going to have to brave it. She came to a halt outside the door to the barracks, steeling herself. She knew, she just knew that this was going to be carnage. She politely pressed the chime, but she wasn't sure how often it was ever used.

The door opened, not because the chime was answered but because a trooper went out. R'Valla smiled to Vesper, the Caitian's eyes flickering over her before she almost snuck past her, to head to the lounge. Inside, there was noise. The sort that happened when you had a whole detachment of Ground Force Troopers together and not a single officer in sight. A card game across two bunks, a table where boots were being polished, half-undressed bodies heading to and from the showers. Someone had put on music, and right now there was a Tellarite arguing with an Andorian about exactly what sort of music should be playing.

Vesper had intended to keep her eyes modestly down, but she was straight up staring as she moved slowly through, taking in the chaos. Her shoulders were hunched inward though, as if she could make herself smaller and not be spotted as she tried to stealth her way through the somewhat intimidating scene.

Jace had clocked the door before it even opened. He was sitting by his bunk, back against the wall and his toolkit next to him. In his hands he had an old tricorder he was in the process of stripping. It wasn't R'Valla's departure he marked, but the figure that entered. The hesitation. The careful steps. Not slow enough to draw attention, not fast enough to seem casual. She was Starfleet...regular Starfleet. And the way she looked around, moved like she was worried about either breaking or being broken by the chaos of barrack life...it tugged at something in him. She shouldn't have had to walk in like that. Not in this space. Not in any space Jace stood. Not quickly or sharply, but fluidly...he walked over, and as he did Bralk and Kelen's arguing died down to mild bickering. He made his way to her and moved to her side, not commanding or intercepting, just...there beside her. "You looking for someone, ma'am?" he asked, his voice quiet in the noise. An opening, an escape...whatever she might need.

"Ma'am?" she looked to him with surprise before it softened to a gentle laugh. She wasn't used to being called that. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to intrude, it just seems that my parcel was somehow misdirected down here, and...well..."

He gave a small nod, a slight pull between his eyebrows for a moment. "This way," he said, heading to the side. Not fast, more a pace for her to stay at his side as he led her to the lockers and the bench there.

"It's...certainly busy down here..." she glanced around with an almost shy smile, unconsciously walking closer to him.

He glanced at her at the words, considering it. He always found it loud, yet he was used to it. She was new here and she saw it as busy. The smile was not something he expected from an officer. But as his eyes went over her, he saw her youth. He gave another nod. "Between shifts. Downtime. It usually gets loud around now," he paused, realising that there was a step he had missed, a social thing he was meant to do. It made him frown. "I'm Sergeant Jace Morven." Full rank, name. She hadn't asked. But he gave it anyway.

Vesper's smile brightened at that; it brought her back to familiar ground. She offered her free hand across to him. "Yeoman Vesper Wells. And I've read your file, I know who you are, Sergeant."

He looked at the hand, his own twitching for a moment, the body deciding before the mind had. He knew what was expected...he just couldn't bridge that movement. He didn't reach for her hand, instead he looked at her face, a muscle tightening in his jaw at the idea that she had his file, that she had read it...that she remembered his face and name enough. "I know they're loud. But they won't hurt you."

Vesper hesitated before dropping the hand awkwardly, clearing her throat with a weak smile. "Oh, I'm sure I'm in the safest place on the ship right now.”

"Not safest, but...not unsafe for you. I'll make sure," he said before he looked down at the large box before he started taking out what was there. He looked at the labels, but it was static to him in the moment. His eyes went to her instead. "Safest is most likely one of the escape pods," he added, meeting her eyes. "Somewhere quieter than here."

"Oh, I'm sure it's just noise and bluster," she shook her head with a soft smile, almost embarrassed by her own initial reaction. She crouched down carefully, pursing her lips as she started to look through the boxes. "Hm...no luck so far..."

He looked at her for a moment, almost contradicting her...but didn't. Instead he crouched down properly, his eyes going to her cane for a moment then back to the boxes. "What am I looking for?" he asked, taking a slower and deeper breath. "Big, small, soft, hard?"

"Oh! It's a tea canister, with real tea leaves in..." Vesper smiled warmly across to him at that, only too happy to share one of the small luxuries that managed to delight her. "It's a blend that was created close to where I live...well, lived. It's fragrant on the nose, almost floral, but with notes of cinnamon and smoke on the tongue..."

Jace met her eyes, considering the words. A tea canister. He could work with that. He knew what tea leaves sounded like. The smile...she did it so easily. He gave a small nod in acknowledgement and started searching, discarding parcels based on size, feel. Her Federation Standard had that tone of starship life. But she spoke of somewhere she lived. Which meant a planet. He didn't mean to say anything but it slipped out. "Where was it, where you lived?"

"Earth," her smile widened at the question, her blue eyes sparkling with warmth. "Well, England to be more precise. My parents were Starfleet though, so...I wanted to come back out here, follow those nacelle streaks."

Jace's hands settled on a parcel and he picked it up, turning it over his hands. Weight seemed right for tea, as did the sound. "Different out here than planet-side," he said and offered the parcel to her. "Gravity can be adapted if needed too. Less to pull you down."

"You'd do that?" she asked with surprise before looking the parcel over, finally finding her ID on it. "Ha! Thanks, I..." she paused, frowning when she saw the side had already been opened. She pulled the canister out, the seal broken on it. As she twisted it open and the fragrance hit her, a good quarter of the canister was missing. "Huh..."

Jace breathed in slowly, catching the scent...which seemed oddly familiar in the moment. But he was watching her reaction instead, the frown. "Abandoned post often...becomes used," he said quietly. Not an excuse. Not even an explanation. "I'll make sure you get it back." A quiet promise, because he would figure out who had helped themselves to the tea. Would just be about finding out exactly what she had, and replacing it.

"Oh...no...it's fine..." Vesper summoned up a smile, trying to sound cheerful about it as she shrugged. "We...can all share, no problem."

He looked at her, a slight pull between his eyebrows again. The words didn't match, but she was smiling. There was a lie there, somewhere, but he couldn't pin it down. But sharing. He gave a weak nod. "You like mint?" he asked, voice quiet as he started putting the other parcels back in the box.

"Love it...in food and drink," she assured, taking a breath. She paused for a moment, gathering herself before tensing her body. She leant heavily on her cane, using it to carefully push herself back to standing, her hand gripping tight to try and keep the grimace off her features.

Jace rose with her, not rushing to her side, but matched her pace. His eyes weren't on the cane but her...he could see the pain easily enough. "Come," he said and put the large box with the parcels back. He didn't offer to take the tin from her, or reach for it. He walked slowly to the back of the barracks, towards his bunk, expecting her to follow. Set beside it on a low table sat a small, hand-built hydroponics setup. Compact, self-contained, shaped more by necessity than design, it looked like it had been assembled from leftover engineering components and broken equipment. A narrow metal basin the tray for the pots with two slender grow-lights mounted on recycled joint brackets. A salvaged coolant coil ran beneath it, helping regulate moisture. The two pots contained mint. Their stems were thick, leaves slightly curled from recycled air, but strong. A gravity-fed drip line ran the length of the tray, calibrated with the kind of care that came from someone who knew how to make systems hold under pressure. The lights were manual rather than automated. That said enough. It was not decorative. But it was steady. Maintained. A quiet ritual rebuilt from what others had discarded.

"Oh Jace, look at this set-up!" her eyes widened when she saw it, moving to sit on the bed, close to the plant. She reached out, rubbing a leaf between two fingertips to catch the scent. "This is so much better than my plants, you clever little buttercup..."

Jace looked at her and blinked. Just for a moment. Like something had misfired behind his eyes. A beat lost, a thread dropped. No one had ever called him that before. Not even close. His jaw shifted slightly, like he was testing the shape of the word in his mouth. Not to repeat it...just to figure out if it was real. "Barracks aren't exactly good for plants," he said eventually, voice lower now, slower too. He did not move at first. Just stood there, watching her fingers on the leaf. Then he stepped away. Opened his locker. Found a clean mug and brought it over, crouching beside the tray. He reached for his knife, not the standard one, but the smaller blade he used to cut clean. No waste. No bruising. "It's not the same as your tea," he said quietly, cutting a few stems with care. "But you can have this for now." There was a pause, soft as the snip of another stem. "I've got dried, if you'd prefer that."

"No, this is wonderful, thank you," Vesper watched with a warm smile, shaking her head with awe. She had never expected him to be someone to take so much care of a plant. "Will you join me, though?"

He looked at her, a tightening of confusion shown on his face. "Where?" he asked, not understanding what she meant.

"In a cup of tea," she chuckled softly, motioning to the cup he held. "We could have one together, now."

He looked at it and then nodded, accepting it. Not because he understood the ritual, but because she had answered him without mockery. "Sugar?" he asked, cutting more before standing and getting another mug. His eyes cut to the replicator. Hot water was easily to get a hold of, the amount of sugar would depend on her reply.

"Not for me, thank you," Vesper smiled warmly at his agreeing to join her in a drink. "Although I used to when I was younger. I have such a sweet tooth. Don't tell anyone."

His lips parted for a moment before he nodded. "Classified," he said, his voice quiet before he went to the replicator. He added hot water to the mugs...and to his own, sugar, stirring it before he carried it back. He looked at her for a moment, sitting there on his bunk...and then he carefully sat down next to her. Not close, there was a good couple of feet between them...but close enough, for him. He offered the mug without sugar to her.

"Thank you," she smiled with gratitude, wrapping her hands around the mug to feel the warmth. She lifted it, closing her eyes as she breathed in the scent. "It's beautiful, you've kept such good care of it..."

He held his own mug, the warmth seeping into his hand. He didn't look at her, or the mint she was talking about. Instead his eyes were fixed on the steam rising from the mug. "I was given good instruction," he said, after a moment. "Petty Officer Tevaris. I realised...I wouldn't always be able to do it, so I built that to...make sure it could survive a few days without me."

"You're a real strategist," she said softly with a chuckle, reaching out to gently caress a leaf. It was working. "I bet 'be prepared' is your motto..."

Jace looked at her for a moment before he gave a nod. "Can't always prepare for everything. But could make sure the plants lived."

"And your troops," Vesper said with a soft, knowing smile before sipping her tea, watching him over the rim of her mug.

"Plants follow instructions better," Jace said and lifted his mug to sip. He closed his eyes for a moment, the taste and scent grounding him in the moment. He opened his eyes after a moment, looking at her cane before back at the plants. "If you need something like that rigged up...I can figure it out."

"You could?" she asked with a hopeful smile, resisting the urge to nudge closer, but she'd taken notice of the gap he'd left between them, so she respected it. "That would certainly be reassuring for my fussier plants, some of them can be such drama queens..."

He gave a small nod, thinking about it. "Least I can do," he finally said. "To cover the tea." He met her eyes for a moment before he tilted his head. "I'd need to know size."

"Well why don't you come and see them when you have a moment?" she suggested with a gentle smile. "I can return the favour, make some of this tea so you can try it and tell me if it's worth all the fuss."

He looked at her with surprise, unable to hide it before he let out a breath. "I...don't have a great...understanding of taste," he finally said and looked down. "Not sure I am the best suited to tell you. And you don't need to return the favour. It's not...a debt."

"Well, you know what you like, you can let me know if you like it at least," she encouraged with a gentle chuckle. She had an instinct to try and make him smile, but she got the feeling it might not be something that happened often.

"I can try," Jace said, which was as far as he'd bend. But he accepted her words, his hands wrapped around his mug. For a moment he looked thoughtful, weighing up something. "How's the pain?" he suddenly asked.

Vesper looked to him with surprise at the open question, but her smile remained as she shook her head lightly. She'd rather he felt comfortable enough to ask questions than close off to her. "Not too bad," she said softly. "Just stiffened up today, crouching is not my friend."

He gave a small nod of acceptance at that. Considered it for a moment. Didn't have anything worth to offer, no magic cure-all. Or remark. "Don't think crouching is natural to anyone, if they're being honest."

"Well, neither is flying, but we do it anyway," she pointed out with a soft chuckle, leaning briefly in with her shoulder, as if she was going to bump it to his, but didn't. "Besides, you must get up to far worse things, in the line of duty of course."

He looked down into his tea before there was a brief raise of an eyebrow. Minute, then gone. More a twitch than anything else. "You've read my file," he said, as if that explained it all. "Not chronic though."

She shook her head lightly with a wide smile, following it up with a shrug. "Not all of it. Just your...vital statistics and headlines."

Jace looked at her for a moment, trying to judge if she was being honest. He decided she most likely was. There...was something about her. A lightness. "It's just...a summary anyway, right. A file."

"Yes...gosh, I hope people don't actually judge me on mine, they'd think I was the most boring person on the ship..." Vesper rolled her eyes lightly, but it was mostly to put him at ease.

Jace gave a small shrug. "Could be you're just starting your file." He took another sip of tea before lowering the mug. He looked at the leaves floating in it, dark green with the heat. "Boring's not the worst thing to be. Better than reckless."

"Speaking from experience there?" she asked with a small smile of amusement, sipping her tea carefully. It was so fresh and vibrant.

"I don't know," he admitted as he looked at her, considering it. "Boring keeps you alive longer, I've seen that. Not...sure how it works in the real Fleet though."

"Neither do I yet," she admitted softly, chuckling gently as she shook her head. "I...didn't join for a boring life though."

He considered it before he gave a nod. "It'll be harder for you than most," he said. Not with pity, or sympathy. Just fact. "And I suspect you're more reckless than you like to admit." A frown had started forming as he watched her. Not understanding why, not really, but an instinct was pulling at him. Something older, that he didn't understand.

Vesper searched his features, seeing the change in him. She reached out, touching the bed between them, but not his arm, although it was her instinct to. "What is it?"

Jace briefly met her eyes, holding them for a moment. "You don't need protecting. But you might need someone to watch your back now and then. Make sure that you don't...get dragged too deep in it all."

She blinked with surprise before leaning in a little closer, searching his eyes at the oddly gentle words from the military man. "You see a lot, don't you," she observed softly. "And who watches your back?"

He held her eyes for a moment before he glanced away, taking a deeper breath. "I don't leave it open," he said before there was a suggestion of a smile touching the corner of his lips. "Training the squad to watch each others' though."

"That...sounds kind of lonely," Vesper had to admit, but shook her head gently. Perhaps that was how he liked it. "Maybe we can watch each others back. Although...I'll be doing it in the general sense, of course, phaser rifles really aren't my thing..." she teased him lightly.

He looked at her before down at his mug. He lifted it and finished the liquid inside. He recognised the teasing note...the way it made her voice change, lift up a little in places. He could see it the way he could see a pattern. "I can handle the dangerous things," he said quietly. "This...I'm not good at. Talking and...what's between the words."

"I disagree, you're doing great with me," she assured with a gentle but warm smile, shaking her head lightly.

Jace glanced at her, studying her closely for a moment. "You don't demand," he finally said. It was easier when there were no real expectations, or demands. It...reminded him of Elen. Different, but...reminded him of it. He didn't know how to say to her that it meant it was easier for him, so he didn't elaborate.

Vesper nodded with understanding. It had to be difficult, living so close to all the others in barracks when he was so introverted. "Well...you know what?" she whispered to him. "If you ever need some...space...you can always hang out in my quarters when I'm on shift."

He met her eyes with surprise, unable to hide it. He swallowed at the offer, at the flutter he felt at her saying it. She offered her own personal space to a stranger. It was...dangerous behaviour, a part of him said. She was going to get hurt one day. He pushed it aside. She knew what she was doing. He could tell. He finally gave a small nod, not in agreement but in acknowledgment he had heard her, and of her offer. "Got...other spaces. Deck 14," he finally said, and in doing so offered soemthing back. "By the auxiliary systems junction. No one really knows its there. Good view. Quiet...unless Rell's there. Then it is just different."

"You know Elen already?" she asked with a bright smile, shaking her head with surprise. "Has she made you anything yet?"

He gave a nod in answer, considering it. It had been a year. He had known her that long already. "Gloves," he said, rather than answer for any time. He wasn't sure he could explain how she had attached herself to him. He didn't think he'd get rid of her even if he had wanted to. "She's...good at softening the edges in a room."

"That's a good way to describe it," Vesper nodded thoughtfully, smiling fondly as she pictured the vibrant young woman. "Did you know that she puts poetry in her reports? Certainly brightens my day..."

"Not surprised she does. Not met a rule she didn't bend, a protocol she didn't somehow bypass," Jace said quietly, but he was looking at Vesper now. At the way she smiled, the look in her eyes. Seeing it but not understanding what it meant. "If she's got to know you...she'll make things for you. Things she thinks you need."

"I take it she worried for your delicate hands then?" she teased him gently.

"Said she wanted me to have something to stop from floating off the map," he said and there was a brief softening in his eyes at the memory. "She talks a lot."

"Do you mind it?" she asked softly, curious.

"Do you?" he asked in reply, looking at her before he took a deeper breath. He stood and moved to the mint, crouching down and cutting some up. "You should take some to your quarters."

"Thank you," Vesper smiled with gratitude, shifting forward to watch him work. "And no, I don't mind it. I like it. There's something comforting in it...like home."

He found a clean cloth and put the cuttings in there, folding it up with precision. He stood and handed it over to her, meeting her eyes for a moment before nodded. "She can be quiet too. Not for long...but a little."

"Sweets help with that," Vesper offered a playful tip in return for the mint.

---

Sergeant Jace Morven
Platoon Sergeant, Alpha Squad
Federation Ground Forces Detachment
USS Guinevere

Ensign Vesper Wells
Yeoman
USS Guinevere

RSS Feed