Party Planning

Posted on Mon May 18th, 2026 @ 6:14am by Captain Andre Hunt & Chief Petty Officer Heath Stoudemire & Chief Petty Officer Antwon Burton

984 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: New Years on Denobula
Location: USS Meridian: Galley

Somewhere in the ships galley which was empty other than being occupied by Captain Andre Hunt and Chief Petty Antwon Burton. The word over the past two weeks since leaving L'Dira was that the Captain was putting together a New Years party on Denobula, which intrigued the ships head Chef. Though they were a few hours from beginning shoreleave, but Antwon insisted on helping to put this event together. Hunt had many talents but was party planner really one of them?

"The venue reservation has been confirmed," Andre announced with a bit of excitement in his voice. "Pulling up the layout of the event hall."

Looking over at the layout, Burton smiled. "That's a very good choice." Pointing at one of the rooms on the screen the Chief nodded in approval. "That room would be perfect for serving food. We could line the tables along the wall over there. The guest can enter the line over there."

Hunt nodded in approval. "Going to have the caterers serve the food to the guest. I was given some recommendations for a DJ. Listened to most of these options for hours. But one here seems to good at his craft."

"Really now..."

"Computer play DJ track number 291." The galley came to life as the music came blaring from the speakers. "This guy here has what it takes to get the crew on the dance floor. But still has peaceful and more relaxing options."

Bobbing his head to the hypnotizing sounds that came through the speaker. Antwon couldn't help but stand up from his seat and started dancing around the room. Pulling a quick spin move, he almost fell over.

The sounds of laughter and applause could be heard in the background as Heath Stoudemire had entered the room without their noticing. "A dancing chef. I have definitely seen it all."

"I knew had made a good choice picking you up out of the available choices," Maddox spoke up. The music was extremely loud, and he decided to turn it down a bit.

"Looks as if I have arrived, right on time." Looking down at the table, Heath took a glimpse of the party plans. "I see that this party is really going to happen."

Greene raised a curious eyebrow. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"With all due respect, Captain," the shuttlebay manager responded. "I've known you for several years now. And party planning has never come up in any of our conversations."

"I can concede to that. But I feel that with this command and our extended mission. Just feels like the crew should be celebrating together. We spend more time with each other, than with our own families. If were honest, we miss family reunions, births, funerals, graduations and everything else that happens on wherever world we come from."

Both Antwon and Heath looked at each other, nodding in agreement. Serving in Starfleet was exciting but could be extremely lonely at the same time. Heath had delayed starting a family for this very reason. But all his family resided on Mars and they continued on with life without him. At this point, it seemed that he didn't even exist. He gained a reputation as someone who was spoken about in rumor among his family.

Burton on the other hand, made it a point to focus on his dreams of owning a restaurant. Which turned into opening multiple restaurants. He was on the verge of retiring and hanging up this uniform for good, when Captain Hunt convinced him to take on this journey. There were no regrets with this decision, but he did miss his wife and children. All three children were now in their teens. So, Antwon could definitely relate to what his commanding officer was going through. "I must agree that the longer we remain on this ship. It begins to feel like home."

"That's a scary thought," Stoudemire joked. "Makes you wonder, if we would be able to properly function outside of these bulkheads."

Maddox sighed while rubbing his forehead. "All the years and you remain the same. Still leaving with no idea on what to do with you."

"But I am consistent and dependable."

Antwon shook his head and looked over to the Captain. "You insisted on bringing him on this assignment."

"In my defense, Heath just showed up at the airlock. And it would have been inhumane to just ship off with him standing there."

All three men burst out laughing. Gathering his thoughts, Antwon looked between both me. "Clearly you two have known each other for a long time."

"Back to when I was first assigned to the Meridian to run the helm department," Hunt answered with a smile. "Things were so much simpler running a department. Made it a point to know about all my people. It's much harder getting to know people outside on what's on their record when in command. Kind of miss those days."

"So, let me tell you back when Captain Hunt was Lieutenant Hunt," Heath spoke up. "Every now and then he our staff meetings would consist of team building exercises. Occasionally, he would throw in a game night. Those were the days. I left for a while, and everything changed."

Hunt looked over at the Chief and raised an eyebrow. "It's called I took on more responsibility. But implementing some sort of game to this gathering is a good idea." Picking the PADD back up, he started to jot down some ideas."

"See you what you did," Chef mentioned as laughed. "Prolonging our shoreleave. But since you're here." Antwon poured Heath a drink and slid it over to him. "You might as well help out with the planning."

Accepting the drink, Stoudemire took a sip a grinned. "Let's do this."

=================
Captain Andre Hunt
Commanding Officer
USS Meridian

Chief Petty Officer Heath Stoudemire
Shuttlebay Manager
USS Meridian

Chief Petty Officer Antwon Burton
Chef
USS Meridian

 

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