[right][sub]Aboard the Meeting Place station
sort of mentioning [@Irredeemable][/sub][/right]

[center][url=https://ibb.co/6r93FzD][img]https://i.ibb.co/BcWXBbT/oie-8-Fl4-Re-Yhr-Sd-E.jpg[/img][/url]
[sub]Credit: Vladimir Manzenko https://www.artstation.com/artwork/8LBNQ [/sub][/center]

Someone was banging on the door. What door? Kelsie squinted, but it was too dark to see much, just a dim light coming from a lamp on the other side of the room. Still, she had to close her eyes immediately, groaning and rolling over. Bad idea. Her stomach growled violently, threatening to evacuate its contents on the floor. Fucking hell. What the hell happened? How did she even get here? How long was she out? And why the fuck was someone banging a hammer INSIDE HER HEAD? So many questions, no answers.

She tried opening her eyes again, noticing some glasses on the nightstand. One was filled with water, another one with what looked like some juice. And, a miracle, a couple of pink pills were lying there too. Kelsie grabbed them and put them in her mouth, concentrating with her sheer will to not throw up. A little sip of water and when her stomach started protesting again, she laid back down. Insane that in all those centuries no one had come up with some miraculous hangover cure.

Her mind was busy trying to put the pieces of last night together but failing spectacularly. She remembered hearing about the Horizon, sending the squads to invade the ECU bar, and then holding the bottle of that horrible liquor they left behind. Then there were some vague images of hugging a lamp, glass shattering, and a loud bang. Huh. That probably explains the sharp pain in her elbow. And the knee. And the bump on the back of her head that was pulsing painfully. When was the last time she got this drunk? Kelsie already knew the answer - never. She rarely ever drank. A toast to fallen comrades, a sip here and there when someone passed the bottle, but that was it. “No training,” she croaked.

“Indeed.” A quiet voice answered her from a dark corner. Kelsie’s first instinct was to jump up and reach for her gun, but her body refused to cooperate and she stumbled and fell down, one big pile of bruised limbs.

“Dammit, Kelsie.” David got up, collected her from the ground, and helped her back to bed.

“David, I think I said…,” she hesitated, wishing she would forget [i]that[/i] part of the evening.

“Forget it,” he waved his hand. “I know you, talk first, think later. Perfect diplomatic material.” He grinned.

“Shut up.” Talking made the headache worse.

“Wish I could. But, there has been sort of an incident. The guys got really wasted in the ECU bar.”

“Oh fuck,” Kelsie sat up, trying to ignore the world spinning and whirling around her. “How bad? Please tell me they didn’t actually attack the Zetans?”

“Calm down, it’s not that bad. All that the official sources are saying is that ‘[i]someone[/i]’ vandalized the walls around the Zetan embassy. Unfortunately, the cameras had a mysterious malfunction, so they couldn’t find out who did it.”

“Mysterious malfunction?” Kelsie closed her eyes, relieved that nothing worse happened.

David smiled. “Yes, very mysterious. You can ask Julianna about it, those things happen from time to time.”

“Oh, I’m gonna rip those bastards a new one.”

“Already ordered them to go through all our supplies, armory, and storage rooms and run a full inventory checkup. They look about as well as you do, so it’s gonna take them some time. You can yell at them all you want though. If you can,” he chuckled.

“Maybe later,” she rolled her eyes, collapsing back on the bed. “Thank you.”