Roommates No More

Posted on Mon Mar 9th, 2026 @ 6:09pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao

1,231 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: The Menagerie II
Location: Sugarplum Cafe, Deck 9
Timeline: 0635 Hours

The Sugarplum Café was already alive early that morning.

The galley at the back of the café was abuzz with two bakers delicately trying to coax some cinnamon into some dough before sliding the whole tray into an oven. It's what the café prided itself on--real food, baked fresh, and real drinks. Of course, a bank of replicators were always on standby when supplies were running low--which could often happen when Astrea was between visits to starbases.

A tray of pastries--small spiraled doughy things lacquered with sugar--sat cooling under a transparent serving dish.

Vashti Rao had arrived early and that wasn't at all unusual.

She sat at a corner table with a mug warming her hands. The drink inside the mug was a Rigel-Earth concoction that could be best described as chocolate-adjacent with sharp spices and whipped cream. It was prepared fresh and not one ingredient had been replicated.

Vashti hadn't touched it yet. She preferred to let any hot beverage to cool first. Instead, she drank-in the curling steam.

The transparent doors to the café slid open and a yawning Zal Rixi stepped through. Her dark brown hair was in a parted chin-length bob as she surveyed the room, finding Vashti almost immediately. She flashed her a two fingers and stepped up to the counter to place her order. The barista acknowledged and went about preparing it while the Bajoran engineer strode over to the table.

"Ah," Rixi said, sliding into the chair across from her. "You were out of the door early."

Vashti offered a thin-lipped smile. "I had to swing by Engineering before Gamma Shift scattered," she muttered, still clutching the mug. "Ensign Scout has been working on the deflector upgrades and Winters wanted some oversight."

Rixi nodded, understanding how much Nash liked to keep a steady hand on his engineers. During his short absence, Vashti had assumed the role of Acting Chief Engineer and had nearly broken her back to ensure everything was running exactly as he'd left it. Now, she was back to her regular duty shifts but he was now relying on her more than ever as his number one.

"You insisted we meet here for breakfast," she prodded jokingly. "That can only mean one of two things: gossip or disaster. I've brought my best listening face for both."

Vashti exhaled through her nose.

"You always bring that face."

"True," Rixi admitted. "But today it's freshly polished."

They sat a moment in the morning's quiet while a server glided past with a plate of shortbread biscuits that could easily have been illegal.

Vashti cleared her throat. "So," she began, carefully, "there's something I need to tell you."

The barista delivered a mug of raktajino, placing it in front of Rixi with a smile and a nod before disappearing behind the counter again.

"Is this about Garo? Or Dallas?" Rixi teased, raising her brow up and down in quick succession.

"No," Vashti replied glumly. "With the promotion... and the Chief of the Boat assignment pending..."

She paused, watching her Bajoran roommate take a gluttonous gulp from her drink.

"... They've issued new quarters. For me."

Rixi nodded once, completely nonplussed by Vashti's admission.

The Master Chief pressed on, the words feeling entirely alien and awkward in her mouth. "They're larger. Apparently, the role requires space for... meetings and things." She gave a faint shrug. "And protocol. Which I'm told is a real thing now."

There was another long pause while Rixi found herself distracted by a nearby tray of weaved dough lengths that were adorned with alien fruit slices.

"Uh huh," she grunted, trying to decide if she wanted to spike her blood-sugar this early in the day.

"I didn't want you to hear it from someone else," she added. "And I didn't want it to feel like I was just--" she made a vague motion with her hand. "--vanishing."

Rixi took another sip of her raktajino, setting the mug down carefully. She tilted her head and fixed her roommate with a whimsical look.

"... Vee."

"Yes?"

"I was wondering when you were going to move out."

Vashti blinked.

Rixi leaned back in her chair and folded her arms, studying her with fond exasperation that was normally reserved for people who could reconfigure antimatter injectors but who always somehow forgot to eat lunch.

"I actually thought you'd be gone last week," she said. "You're the Chief of the Boat now. They give those people entire little command caves."

"Command caves?"

"That's what I've decided to call them."

Vashti stared at her for another long moment, feeling the tight knot she'd been carrying for days starting to carefully untie itself inside her.

"You're not... upset?"

Rixi barked a laugh that brought a startled look from the barista.

"Upset?" she said. "Vee, you've been sleeping in a bunk the size of a footlocker while running half the engineering department and now the entire enlisted crew." She gestured broadly with her free hand. "If Starfleet finally gave you a room big enough to stretch your legs, I'd have filed an official complaint with the boatswain if you didn't take it."

The tension quickly drained out of Vashti's shoulders. "I was worried it might feel like I was abandoning you," she ventured.

"Puh-lease." Rixi waved away the notion immediately. "You're moving a few decks up, not defecting to the Klingon Empire."

A smile started to slowly spread across Vashti's face. "That was actually an option."

"Don't joke about that before coffee," Rixi said, a finger raised in warning.

The both smiled then, friends to the last. It was a friendship built on shared shifts, shared meals, and the occasional shared disaster.

The Bajoran engineer leaned forward a little, dropping her voice as she spoke.

"Besides," she added, "this was always coming. You've been climbing that ladder since the day we met. The rest of us are just trying to keep up without falling off."

Vashti finally took a sip of her drink. It had cooled a little by now, the chocolate melting in the liquid and making it taste thicker than an actual liquid.

"It still feels strange," she admitted. "Being responsible for that many people."

Rixi nodded thoughtfully.

"Of course it does. It means your sorry ass is doing it right."

She reached across the table and touched Vashti's forearm.

"But don't worry," Rixi continued. "I fully intend to visit your new command cave and steal your better furniture."

The Master Chief grinned again. "You assume there's better furniture."

"There's always better furniture."

Vashti shook her head, smiling right into the rim of her mug.

There was a long moment of silence shared between them while they inhaled the smells of cinnamon, sugar, and coffee beans. It was a warm blanket shared by two friends at the start of another duty shift. And, for a bit longer, neither of them felt in any hurry to move.

---

Master Chief Petty Officer Vashti Rao
Chief of the Boat
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)


Petty Officer 2nd Class Zal Rixi
Engineering Officer
USS Astrea
(NPC of JB Dorsainvil)

 

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