Mindo, My Boy

Posted on Fri Dec 6th, 2024 @ 7:10pm by Commander Mindo

Mission: The Only Thing Left Was Hope
Location: Starfleet HQ, San Francisco
Timeline: current

ON

Mindo stepped out into the sunny day and sighed. It was official. He was back in Starfleet, taking the rank of Commander, with orders pending. He thought he'd celebrate a little by heading to Caesar's Palace, the old video arcade and bar that Mindo had replicated on the Pandora. It had been, what, ten years since he was last there? He wondered if anyone had managed to top his high score in "Burger Time." His stomach rumbled as the word "burger" came to his head. Caesar's Palace had the best bacon and Swiss double cheeseburger in the surrounding Academy area.

"I guess it really is Burger Time," Mindo said to himself. He hailed a taxi and within five minutes was walking into the arcade.

When he got there, a very large man with a bushy brown mustache and pink on his cheeks grinned when he saw the small Fesarian.

"Mindo!" his voice boomed throughout the room above the sound of beeps and bells. Mindo suddenly realized the comparison between Big Sal and Qaraq was not an unfair one. Big Sal was practically the same size, and his voice emanated a deep tremor. Mindo barely knew Qaraq, who gave his life to save the Pandora from complete destruction. Mindo felt he and Sal shared a kindred spirit. In another life, they may have been cousins.

"Hi Sal!" Mindo said as Sal lumbered over and picked up the diminutive man and squeezed so tight Mindo could hardly breathe. Sal held Mindo out at face level like he was a misbehaving cat or angry baby.

"You have been away far too long, my friend!" Sal said happily in his baroque Mediterranean accent. "You are handsome as ever, but far too thin. Let me make you something. I still remember 'the usual!'"

He set Mindo down on a bar stool and went behind the counter to punch in the ingredients for the sloppy burger. Sal inquired about where Mindo had been the last ten years.

"I daresay no one has come close to matching your Burger Time score!" the giant man exclaimed, setting the burger, with a side of loaded tots of course, right in front of Mindo.

Mindo gave as much of an account as he legally could, ending with the part of him living on Risa for three years. Sal listened with heightened interest. When Mindo was done Sal shook his head.

"You have been through it, my friend. So if you were so happy on Risa, why are you wearing that uniform?" Sal inquired, and Mindo got the idea Sal already knew the answer.

"That's another long story," Mindo said. "Sadly not one I can tell yet."

"Mindo my boy," Sal said, "Be very careful. Those three pips on your collar... they are giving you a command?"

Mindo nodded. Sal shook his head.

"What?" Mindo said. "You don't think I can command?"

Big Sal smiled and gestured grandly around the room. "These games..." Sal started, "...they were not just recreation for you. You lived your life through them. I remember the young Fesarian who came here night after night. He was a tortured soul! Such pain! But here, in this... you were a paperboy, a pilot, a street car racer. People play these things, but you lived them! Why else would you save them and put them on your ship? You are no entrepreneur. And you're definitely not a bartender, no offense! Maybe you do these things on your ship. But these games, are home. This place... this was home. But then, you grew. Not very high off the ground obviously, but you grew here," Sal pointed to his head. "You became an Engineer for the adventure. Always something to fix, always running around with shields at forty percent and trying to bring phasers back online. You're not the kind of person to sit on a command chair all day, barking orders. For you, things must be dangerous. And I fear, my friend, that you return now to Starfleet not because of your friends, but because there is danger!"

Sal sighed and leaned on the bar. He had forgotten how much Mindo thought of him as a father. He could see his words were discouraging his small friend.

"You are a natural leader, Mindo," Sal said. "But you are not one to let someone else get their hands dirty." He stood straight again and waved a hand. "But, what do I know? I think you are doing this for your friends and Captain too. As much as you are good at leading, you also know how to follow. Few people have both of those features."

Mindo smiled. "A great many Captains would disagree," he said. Big Sal laughed.

"Maybe so, my friend!" he said.

At that moment, three figures familiar to Mindo walked into the establishment.

"I knew he'd be here!" exclaimed Lieutenant Zo. "What did I tell you guys?"

"It's not like we disagreed," Greep squawked.

Mindo looked at Sal. "Thanks for the burger, and the advice. Now I have business to tend to. I suppose I'm getting my first report!"

"Addio," said Sal with a kind smile. He watched as Mindo slid off the bar stool and grew up.

To be continued...