A couple of space captains walk into a bar... (For Han Solo)

[smartass_captain]

Han's certain to find backwater pubs that remind him of his cantina days on the Outer Rim if he looks hard enough for them. The Nexus has a nigh infinite amount of variety and content that way. But if Jim's gonna take folks out for a drink, it's less 'seedy cantina' and more 'rural town bar' in ways of atmosphere. Blame his farm boy upbringing.

Lou's is just such a place, smelling of cigarettes and some kind of otherwordly smoke as Jim pulls the door open and holds it after he walks in for Han to follow him. There's a pool table in the corner and a dartboard on the wall. Dim lighting and cramped table arrangement really doing the hole in the wall feel justice.

Normally Jim would head right up to the bar so he could mingle and maybe pick up a friend or two when he's through. He hasn't done that in a while though. And he wants to talk to Han and that probably would be better done at a quiet corner table, away from any curious ears. It's warm and out of the weather, and Jim's already grabbing a drink menu and tossing it Han's way.

"Here we are."

Comments

[smartass_captain]

Jim's expression softens slightly at the wince. He knows that pain all too well and it's not one he'd wish on the other captain in any regard. He remembers the month or so he was stranded in the Nexus and the guilt and worry that drove him insane.

Knowing his friends and crew assumed he was dead.

Knowing they were effectively right unless he could get back.

The new drinks clinking against the table announce Kirk's return as Jim reclaims his seat.

"I was. I knew my first officer would try to find me, but I also knew that the circumstances of my arrival into the Nexus would eventually make them think I was dead." There's a pause while Jim turns his glass before he adds almost as an after thought.

"Again."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Speaking of wincing, the sound of more glasses hitting the table makes him want too. He's had the equivalent of about three or four servings of alcohol, from what he can tell, in about eight minutes. All different ones too, which, even though he prides himself in being able to hold he knocks back, is cause for even the most season drinkers to be wary.

Anyway, he's gonna slow way down on the jack and coke.

"Make a habit out of being presumed dead, huh?" Han tends to just make people wish he was.

[smartass_captain]

It's easy for Jim to forget he isn't the weakest liver in the room necessarily with Han around. On his ship he's the lightweight, and the same can be said around his group of companions in the Nexus. He figures if Han is pounding the drinks, he can handle it.

But he's certainly not going to force it on the other Captain.

"Make a habit of being dead, really." Jim scrubs a hand through his cropped hair and gives a shrug. "I don't recommend it, by the way." He sips at his drink, smiling faintly at the familiar taste of home.

"So....too soon to ask how long you've been in the ....transport business? With the shape of your ship, doesn't seem like a safe trade in your neck of the galaxy."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Oh, let's not talk crazy, Jim. He has every intention of drinking that Jack and Coke, it's just not very manly to puke in front of a fellow Captain, is it? At least, not until you know each other better. Then, you know, then you start looking out for each other and carrying each other home. For now, he's just pumping the breaks.

"You're pulling my leg, kid." This guy can't even be bothered to believe in the force when someone is using it right in front of him, for now. He's not inclined to believe Kirk could come back from the dead, unless ... "What did you get your face done and your prints changed?"

Changing identities is a thing where he comes from. Especially in the circles he hangs out in.

A small smile creeps on to his face when he hears Jim start to find a polite euphemism for what he does. He already had the feeling that, if this guy was from his galaxy, they wouldn't be likely to be on the same side. He's too ... clean. Too noble. As far as he can tell, anyway. He could picture him maybe working in some branch of planetary defense or maybe dogfighting in a one man ship for one side or the other, but not smuggling.

"Privateering, you mean?" He says with a self amused tone. That's the word that Han likes to use when he's trying to be subtle. "Only a couple of years. I started off trying to be a ligitimate commercial pilot, but that didn't work out. Pissed off a gangster on my very first job."

He also was in the navy. Imperial Navy, alas, because that was really the mecha of flight schools that you could go to and be respected, when he was younger. Course, that was before he put together that the empire was really horrible. Anyway, in some ways, when he looks at Kirk, he sees the man he wanted to be as a adolescent. Respectable. Well trained. Doing good for people.

[smartass_captain]

"And mess this face up? No thanks man." He wonders vaguely if he should talk about....well, too late to wonder now that he's already opened his mouth.

That happens a lot with Kirk.

"Oh you know. The usual. I've bleed out damn near on enough planets to make me a universal donor in the worst kind of way." Joking makes it slightly less awkward to talk about.

"But you mean literally, and to that I say acute radiation poisoning is the worst thing that you can do to yourself."

He's gonna get real friendly with his drink for a minute. Makes the burning feeling less pronounced even if it's only a memory. Jim looks up again when Han starts talking.

"Before I got into the Fleet, I was a repeat offender in four different states, sharking transport drivers and stacking decks to make ends meet." He grins at the memory. "So, I ain't about to look down my nose at a guy doing what he's gotta to make a living. You've got your own ship. I get the appeal."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"I try to avoid poising in all forms, but in some cases it's kind of an occupational hazard." Like alcohol poising. There's a constant threat of that when he's had a good run and he's got money to burn.

"Still, sounds unpleasent. And I'd estimate you'd make yourself pretty rich if you did have the secret to cheating death and you were inclined to teach other people. I know more that a couple people were I come from who'd want to know. Although, they're also the type that would want to see you prove it."

Han makes that universal symbol for gun with his hand. You know, the way kids pretending do. He's also, still, inclined to believe it's some kind of trick.

Now it's a good thing that Han didn't open up his mouth about thinking the kid was squeaky clean. It would have just had to put his foot in his mouth once again for about the millionth time.

"I wouldn't have pegged you for someone with a record."

[smartass_captain]

"Not a trick. Bad shit tends to follow me, simple as that." Beat. He raises a finger as if making a point. "If there is a trick to it, make the best medical professional in the galaxy your best friend. It helps." Bones has saved Jim's hide more times than he can remember, and Jim's only been doing this a couple of years.

Now Jim has to laugh. Really laugh, where the corners of his eyes crinkle and everything. He tries not to. It makes him look crazy young.

"Nothing violent, just a dumb backwater kid with no other prospect in life doing what dumb kids do best. Getting drunk and getting into fights." And beds but hey. Jim's always had that bad habit.

"Don't know how the recruiting officer got me in, frankly."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

That's probably the biggest difference between Jim and Han. They're both captains, both rocking that roguish charm, both into kicking down doors and talking names, but when Kirk laughs he looks young and Han, well, he has a way about being the oldest guy in the room. Even when he's not.

"Well, fights can be kind of violent." They are fights, after all. "I get what you mean, though."

[smartass_captain]

Jim wears his scars inside, but he knows what it's like to have them. Though he'll be the first to argue that his baby face is a serious asset in many circles. It's gotten him out of more trouble than he can remember, and he remembers an awful lot.

"Eh, details. I wasn't hijacking shipments or knocking off shipyards to sell government secrets." Jim shrugs. Not that it hadn't crossed his mind to back then, but it was always more trouble that it was worth when cheating at dom jot or pick pocketing a transport driver would get him drunk for the night and win himself a place to stay until the next day. "You thought I was clean?"

He snorts, nearly breaking out into laughter again.

"Hell no. My first officer, that's another matter. But me? I'm trash." And proud of it, by the sounds of things.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"I been wrong about people before." He says with a shrug. Maybe with that knowledge he could see Kirk fitting in a little better than he did before, but still ... he can't picture him doing some of the really terrible things you sometimes have to do to get by. Like shooting a man in the back, for instance.

It's also worth noting, though he has been wrong before, he's not wrong often.

Han takes his first, if cautious, sip of his jack and coke. It smells so sweet that it kinda worries him, tbh.

[smartass_captain]

"Mmh." Jim takes another sip of his drink before setting it down and pulling out a small glass device. It's not quite like those rectangular things everyone walks around holding or putting up to their ear. Larger. And when he taps at it's surface, a small hologram appears.

"Fair's fair. You showed me yours, so I'll show you mine." It's difficult to get a sense of how large or small the ship is with just the small holo but the shape and the designation numbers are quite visible, and that's what Jim's most proud of. "Granted you didn't give me permission to see yours but, eh. Details."

He thought someone could be hurt. Luckily they're past that, hopefully.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

It looks like the Holocron's where he comes from or like a video projection that some of the astromech droids can do. Scale is quite impossible to really get a feel for it on such things, but somehow, he just knows ... maybe it's the design ... that the Enterprise is just enormous.

"How many people does it take to fly it?" That is perfect question to confirm his suspicion without exposing his lack of familiarity. As if he should some how feel inept because he doesn't know the size of ships in other universes.

As for him being on his ship, yeah, they're cool. For now. Helping him get drunk while he has no currency to speak of goes a long way in fostering good will with this Captain.

[smartass_captain]

"To fly it? About five people. To keep her flying? Lots more. Plus, we're on a 5 year deep space exploration mission. Science officers, communications, engineers---need a shit load of engineers. Security, medical staff. We're more a self sustained colony than a ship most days."

There's a pause while Jim turns the image around.

"They're good people. All I do is make sure nothing happens to them. " Best as he can, anyway. He gives Han a glance. "Pretty sure we're not from the same place or time though. Nothing inside the Falcon looked familiar to me. "

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He got the impression. More of a floating city than a spacecraft. He's been on some that big before, during his mercifully brief time as Navy recruit, but it was distinctly military outfit. What Kirk outlines to Han, even in the form of a brief sketch of a narrative that he's giving over a Jack and Coke, is that they aren't that.

Military, that is.

At best, they're paramilitary. With a de-emphasis on the military if they have a whole bunch of science guys in their crew.

"There is nothing like this where I come from. I can't imagine any one world supporting something this massive for the sake of knowledge and exploration. Trying to get multiple planets, even in the same system, to agree on anything seems all but impossible at times."

With that off his chest, he'll take another sip of the Jack and Coke before he points out, "you sound fond of your crew, though."

[smartass_captain]

The Federation is a tricky thing to explain sometimes. They're not soldiers, not really. Diplomats, scientists, and engineers, certainly. With the occasional soldier around to make sure people don't kick their asses too badly on non friendly planets. Which happens much more often than it should, these days.

"It's a group of planets working together, yeah. They don't always agree and there's some tensions, but for the most part things work out alright. It's better for us to work together in peace than to each end up fighting the more aggressive planets individually."

The Enterprise makes one more slow spin before Jim deacticiates the holo and slips his PADD away again.

"Best crew in the fleet." Jim attests, and he looks entirely committed when he says it, without a hint of his usual arrogance. "I'd die for 'em again."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He got the gist of what they do. It's interesting. He can't picture it in a galaxy far, far away, though.

"A captain is nothing without his crew." He says it earnestly. He himself wound be an absolute mess without Chewbacca on a flight in every sense of the word. It is possibly why he's inclined to drink so heavily right now.

That said, there is a dark undercurrent in his words. A feeling in him that maybe Kirk senses and maybe he doesn't. The very phrase for him ... much as he agrees with the sentiment, has some bad memories associated with it.

[smartass_captain]

Being separated from your crew, from your best friend....Jim understands that. He spent a long time in the Nexus before he was able to find his way back to the ship and to those he cares about.

"We'll figure out a way to get you back." He sounds confident when he says so. Firm. As though failure isn't an option. He's James Kirk--he doesn't believe in failure. "Back to your first officer. Co-pilot." Best friend. Jim will be in Han's corner supporting him wherever he can because he knows that pain firsthand. He doesn't want the captain to end up stranded here.

"How hard could it be, right? You've gotten out of worse scrapes than this, surely.No one's even shooting at you."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"A very good point." He says with a nod. It was explained to him, though he couldn't really understand how, his blaster wouldn't even work here if he tried shooting at someone.

Which is alright by him if nobody else's can shoot at him either.

"Are any of your people here with you now?"

Man I *wish*

[smartass_captain]

The anti-violence field is handy when Jim pisses people off. He has to admit that.

"No. We're keeping it under wraps that this place exists at all. Last thing we need is the government--anyone's government, finding out about a rift between universes and exploiting it. So only myself, my first officer, and a handful of trusted crew are aware of its existence, and only I frequent around."

And even that's a hassle given how against it his CMO is.

"Bones says this place is a threat, what with different worlds and times' diseases and germs, and my first officer doesn't have a real interest in this place. I think he just likes being in charge when I leave, personally."

Is there anything Bones isn't against? XD

[twelve_not_fourteen]

"Fair enough." He says, peering into his glass as if he might find answers in there. No such luck.

Han finishes off the rest of his drink. Fizzy and sweet with a little bit of a kick. Something he could see himself having again if he was in the right mood.

"Knowing how much they mean to you ..." Kirk admitted as much himself. "I would think your trips out here don't linger too long."

If he admitted to them, it would ruin his reputation.

[smartass_captain]

It's not like they're hiding the Nexus from the Empire or anything, but it's the sort of thing you really don't want people in power to have the ability to use and abuse.

The worst Jim does with it is impromptu resupplying occasionally between shifts.

"Not usually no. Time runs slower there than here, but I still try to limit my visits. Last thing I need is for something to go wrong on the ship, and me not be there." It's a concern Jim has a lot, if he's being honest. "I'm supposed to be sleeping now for my next shift." He snorts, shaking his head. "That's actually usually when I pop over here."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Well, the time slowing down here is something of a relief to Han. He does harbor similar feelings that Kirk does to getting back to his 'crew' which is, of course, just Chewie in Han's case. That said, there's no need for desperation that the Starfleet captain might have had. Chewbacca is on his homeworld with his family.

The stakes are only high for Han because of his own attachment, which as Jim would be able to empathize, is both a blessing and a curse. If he never got back, the wookiee might need to find another way to make a living, but he's still relatively safe.

"That's clever. They'll hardly notice you being gone if you leave during a rest period."

[smartass_captain]

"Not like I sleep on my off shifts back there anyway." With all the paperwork that's waiting for him? No, Jim Kirk works on and off the clock, and he wouldn't have it any other way.

"If Bones and Spock knew I was coming here this often they'd probably be more concerned." Jim admits with a shrug. "But this place has a purpose and as the captain of an exploring vessel, I'll be damned if I don't explore here too." He polishes off the jack and coke and sets his glass down.

"There's folks who have a specialty in finding ways back to alternate universes. Look out for a guy named Schon. Tall, thin, dresses hella sharp. He's real good at that kind of thing, for a price. Helped me find a way home. Bet he can do the same for you."

He's just begging for you to tell him to negotiate with the blaster. XD

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Paperwork hardly exists in Han's world of seedy dealings, but he can imagine a lot more bureaucracy and paper pushing in the world that Kirk describes. In that world the Captains role, he should think, would be quite different that what he knows. Like a liaison between the crew and the governing body of their organization.

In that sense, it's getting back to a more military structure again. Starfleet: you have to be in it to really get it.

"Schon." He says with a nod. "Any other tips for dealing with him other than having your pockets lined?"

He can try. It would be a Bad Idea.

[smartass_captain]

"Nah don't bother lining your pockets. He asks for weird things as payment." Jim still hasn't figured the magi out. He's not sure he ever will, either. But the man is a friend, and Jim trusts him insomuch as one ever trusts a wily conjurer.

"Last time he asked me for a bottle of liquor. Time before for a favor. A hair, things like that. Magic is weird."

He's not sure about the way they "negotiate" around here.

[twelve_not_fourteen]

Then again, not everyone has people skills like Han Solo does. You can't be faulted for that.

Magic. Why does it have to be magic?

It's not that he's not above using anything that will, ultimately, help him achieve his gains. He just doesn't like the broader implications of what magic's existence means to him. Magic, in his galaxy - the force, the very idea of it, is like rubbing Delphon salt into an open wound for him.

Why?

Because it's a power that he has no access to. Magic, in most of it's forms, seems to favor only a few special people who can wield it. It's a literal manifestation of the universe favoring some over others. To an orphan boy from Correlia, who spends every day struggling to convince himself that he is worth something? That he's no lesser than anyone else? It's a hard pill to swallow.

Everything he can do can be learned by someone else with enough time and patience. Conversely, he could never wield the force, no matter how useful it would be or how hard that he tried.

This is what's running through his mind right now and because Han tends to emote everything that's on his mind through his face (unless he's gambling, in which, he's shockingly capable) his face has gone a bit sour. Reflective.

"But you say he's a good guy." He says finally. It's not that it's entirely comforting for him, but, better than nothing. Right now, he'll cling to anything.

[smartass_captain]

Believe him, Han, Jim knows that struggle all too well.

Most days it seems every other species that exists is more equipped than humans are. Touch telepaths, abnormally high strength--the list goes on and on and on. Then you add to the fact that magic of any kind--force or otherwise-- is a thing and suddenly being able to 'beat' the Kobayashi Maru seems a whole lot less impressive.

Jim's had it beaten into his face how unimpressive he is as a man by super soldiers, been mind molested by Vulcans with telepathic abilities he could never dream of. Worse. Insecurity is a second skin men like them wear. Shocking how used to anything one can get. And how much understanding is on Kirk's face right now.

"As good as those types ever get. He's the one who helped me home. Didn't have to. Been nothing but pleasant to me since I got dumped here the first time."

[twelve_not_fourteen]

He see the change in Kirk's look. Though it takes him a second or two to recognize it as empathy. For a moment, he supposes, it makes him feel closer to the other Captain. Much as Han likes to detach himself from things ... he really has a whole lot more in common with Jim than not.

"Alright." He says. "Schon. I'll seek him out."