Blues and Soul (Backpost, Part 1)

Posted on Thu Mar 26th, 2026 @ 12:11am by Lieutenant "Joliet" Jane Cooke & Lieutenant William Neil

1,123 words; about a 6 minute read

Having both reported in and gotten her checkup done, Jane felt like she was on a hot streak. Despite this, she wasn't quite ready to tear into the records of her Klingon predecessor just yet, and decided instead that a good meal was in order, and maybe some time on the holodeck afterwards to clear her thoughts.

Understanding that this was a joint Federation-Klingon station, Jane decided for now to stick to the Federation areas. There would be a time that she would eventually have to make herself known to the Klingons, but now wasn't that time.

As Jane perused her options along the multi-level main galleria, nothing was lighting her fire. That was until she spotted a sign for a place claiming to make Chicago-style pizza. Jane remembered from before the accident that she always had fun critiquing these kinds of joints as a Chicagolander, and when Jane saw that the place was open, she knew she had to get her hands on some...

"They never get it right." William said half to himself as he stood next to Jane. His hands were clasped behind his back, but he held himself in a rather relaxed fashion.

"I was considering getting a slice myself when I recognized the exact same expression on your face." He smiled warmly and held out a hand. "I'm William. Pretty new here so I'm still getting used to things."

"Joliet Jane Cooke:" Jane accepted the other officer's hand. "And, uh, likewise."

"Well as one newbie to another, care for some company with your pizza?" Being the new guy never really bothered William, and if anything he often used it as an ice breaker.

"Sure, though if what you said about their pizza being terrible is true, then it definitely won't stack up to a good old fashioned Lou's deep dish. But surely, it can't be as terrible as Gino's East." Jane shuddered thinking about it. "But we're talking a very low bar to surpass here..."

William chuckled. "Maybe not terrible, but certainly not Lou's. Or at least the one time I had it."

"Never had Gino's East, but I grew up close to the heart of poutine country. And a La Banquise poutine at 3am is a good alternative."

He motioned to the door of the restaurant. "Ladies first."

"Never had a poutine, but as a native Chicagolander, trust me; Gino's East is awful." Jane said as they entered. "Never understood how they manage to stay in business."

"Brand loyalty is a funny thing." William said with a chuckle.

He looked around the establishment and smiled. It was warm and inviting, the decorations and art on the walls lent to the atmosphere of an authentic pizza joint from Earth.

"Impressive." William said in awe. "You don't usually get this kind of theming on a ship."

"Do we get our own table or do we have to wait here?" He asked, looking for some sort of sign.

Jane quickly spotted a sign that read in both Federation Standard and Klingon to "seat yourself:"

"Looks like we're free to seat ourselves." Jane indicated the sign as she looked for an available table.

An empty booth along the back wall eventually caught Jane's eye, and she began to make her way over to it.

"This way;" Jane said after she had started walking.

William offered a smile and followed shortly behind Jane as she seemed to be on a mission when it came to seating.

The booth that Jane had chosen had a particularly catching art piece to the young security officer; as the art hanging on the section of wall that the booth occupied was that of a battered old Earth automobile- its black and white paint indicative that it had seen a previous life as an old police car, with the faded markings on the doors including a rubbed off star shaped decal on the front doors and the remnants of a P1 marking on the rear doors.

To most, a beat up old police car was hardly the worthy subject of an art piece, but to Jane, it was as much of a Chicago icon as the Willis Tower was. For the 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan featured in the artwork was none other than the Bluesmobile. Jane knew all about the Bluesmobile, because back in the Academy when she was known as "Joliet" Jane Soul, she and her Soul Sisters co-frontwoman owned a Bluesmobile replica that they drove to their gigs around San Francisco.

"Ah, here we go:" Jane said as she slid into the booth, taking the right hand bench. "Don't think there's a better booth in the entire place.."

William looked around and took in the art and atmosphere in general. "I'll take your word for it, but I can't imagine a more interesting spot to say the least."

"And you haven't been here before?" William asked. "If we had something like this on the Venturer, it'd be packed from open to close."

"Not to this particular joint." Jane replied. "However, when you work aboard a Defiant class ship, you get to indulge in the luxuries of starbases a little more often, given those ships' rather limited range."

William smiled. "Defiant class, interesting. I've been mostly assigned to Excelsior class except for my last posting. Venturer was a Galaxy class. That was a bit of a jump in resources, but also a lot of moving parts to keep track of."

"Where were your patrols?" William asked as they waited for the waiter to come by.

"Starbase 472 near the Hebitia sector." Jane replied. "Lot of contention with Cardassia in that sector. Pretty much ever since they invaded and took Krimena back in '91."

"I was on the Congo during that time. My first posting back actually." William said. "Took a bit to get my feet back under me, but it was a solid crew."

As he finished speaking, a young Bajoran woman came over with a notepad in her hand and a red and white checkered apron on her waist. "Good evening, would you like a menu or do you have something in mind already?"

"Yes, I'll take a deep dish sausage pizza." Jane requested without skipping a beat before looking over to William. "Medium or large?"

"Let's go large." William replied. "I've worked up a bit of an appetite."

"And then, what's your soft drink selection?" Jane asked.

He had to think for a moment there. "I think the classic thing to have would be a coke right?" He paused and then nodded. "Yes, let's go all in. A coke is fine."

To be continued...

Posting by

Lieutenant "Joliet" Jane Cooke
Chief Security/Tactical Officer
Starbase Frontier

Lieutenant William Neil
Chief Operations Officer
Starbase Frontier

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