| Episode: | Season 1, Episode 1 – Chaos! At The Gala |
| Location: | Dorian’s Bar & Gaming |
| Written By: | Dorian Reade Melissa Reade Edward Brandt |
| Date: | 08/11/2026 |
| Word Count: | 1,365 |
Dorian stood behind the bar with a cloth wiping it rather slowly, it was late afternoon which meant the place wasn’t all that busy. His busy hours were always a little later, and frequently on the weekends when everyone was off work and the corporation offices were closed. Not that he complained about the weeks being a bit slower.
Well, sometimes he’d complain to his wife who was standing behind him with her arms crossed. Or, so he assumed because that was her typical posture. And, there was one person in the bar, a man named Edward Brandt. Edward barely ever spoke and whenever the freighter he captained was docked at the station Edward would be there in the bar.
“Don’t you ever just stay at home?” Melissa asked from behind Dorian. There was a playful grin on her face when she asked perhaps their most regular customer sitting there. He had a familiar vibe to him, a familiar appearance that she’d never been able to place.
Edward sipped at the drink in front of him, “Now why would I break tradition for?” He asked with a gruff sounding voice. He raised the glass, “To the second best bartender on the station.” He took another drink from the glass.
“Second best?” Melissa asked.
Dorian had a smirk on his face, “Edward has always liked Jocelyn the best for some reason.” He quipped before his wife played anymore of her ‘offended’ mantra that she was so good at. “Jocelyn flirts with him, that’s what he says.”
“She does,” Edward insisted with a smirk on his crinkled face. “Tells me I have aged like fine wine.” He added as he swirled the contents of his glass in front of him. “Where is she anyway?”
Melissa knew Ed was probably playing around, but to her he’d certainly not aged like fine wine. Melissa thought of Edward as the station’s grumpy old man even if she was certain there were grumpier and older somewhere. “Fine wine my ass,” She mumbled and shook her head.
Dorian looked over his shoulder as he continued to polish the same general spot of the metallic colored bar. He shook his head and looked back toward Edward, “She has the next few days off for the Gala.”
Edward scoffed at the mention of the Gala, “Bah,” He managed to say softly, “Wake me up when that dog and pony show is over.” He took another drink and put the partially emptied glass back down on the bar.
“You don’t like the Gala?” Melissa asked him rhetorically because she knew the answer, “So if we play it here you’ll not be here?”
Edward winked at her, “Never said that.”
Dorian resisted his temptation to laugh at the two of them, wondering if they’d ever quit this back and forth routine. As far as Dorian was concerned the old fossil in front of him was both the station mascot and a centerpiece to his bar. To the bar he owned alongside his wife, “He already knows it’ll be on the tele-net stations here in the bar sweetheart.”
Melissa sighed and lowered her shoulders, “Can’t fault me for trying now can you?” She said and then took a step forward so that she was standing directly over the top of the bar. She placed her hands down on it’s surface and leaned forward just a little bit.
Edward laughed as he leaned back, “Most years I’ve been lucky.” He told Melissa, “I’ve been somewhere between Earth and here, or Sirius and here,” Edward shrugged after saying both points. “I guess this just wasn’t my year.”
“Your crew doesn’t watch it when you’re away from the station?” Melissa asked him.
“Oh hell no,” Edward said while shaking his head rather vigorously. “They know if they try watching it I’ll whip them or something.” He was being playful and his tone indicated that even his expression was nothing less than a really big smile.
He shook his head a little slowly before he gave the honest answer, “Honestly I don’t know too many freighter crews who actually like watching it. Maybe they are closet Gala watchers or something, but that’s for them to decide I guess.” Edward looked at the Reade couple, “Do you two watch it?”
“Sometimes,” Dorian answered. “There’s usually nothing else to watch that day and it’s an all day event. It kind of reminds me of those ancient earth vids from whatever Hollywood was.” Dorian said, he knew the context but not well enough to understand. And, Dorian’s strong suit was never really history beyond that on the station.
Dorian didn’t know many people who knew much about old earth from before the Faster-Than-Light travel system was adopted. Humanity had been in the galaxy for so long, that much of singular planetary history was lost to time.
Edward didn’t know what the man was talking about, but given how the Gala had so much red carpet appeal around it, he could draw a conclusion. “Celebration of democracy and the process,” He said raising his glass mockingly.
That time it was enough to get Melissa to laugh a little more as she shook her head rather slowly at the end. “Somehow I get the feeling you’re one of those closet watchers you so fondly talk about. But, rather than oh’s and ah’s you spend your time making fun of the people on the tele-net.”
“Something like that,” Edward told her. He didn’t know how many people actually shared his sentiment about it. “Maybe this year will be different? Maybe one of the women on the screen will break a shoe or something. Now, that would add some much needed stress relief,” He said.
Dorian had finished polishing to surface of the bar and dropped the rag behind it near the row of drink dispensers. He leaned forward pressing his lower body into the edge of it. “I get you don’t like it now, but did you like it when you were younger?”
Edward didn’t have an answer to the question because he didn’t really remember, “I barely remember what I had for breakfast this morning Dorian.” He remarked with a chuckle. Then his expression changed to something a bit more serious, “I never really watched it. Always found it to be a complete waste of time.”
He looked at what remained of his drink, “Some traditions should be allowed to die,” He finally remarked. This thing was over eighty years old and he’d been alive for most of them. Edward sighed and considered whether or not he really ever liked them. “My Mom used to watch it religiously and my Dad would tell her to turn the drivel off.”
Edward nodded once, “Yep it was a major source of contention in the Brandt household.”
Melissa understood that sentiment because her parents were kind of the same way about it. Her father always seemed bored whenever her mother turned it on, and she was certain that was still the case every four hears. “They’d never kill it. Too many people on the station watch it, there’s entire festivals in the districts, and so on.”
“Oh I know,” Edward told her.
Dorian looked at both of them, first his wife then at Edward, “My parents never watched it. I think they still don’t,” He said to both of them. He was confident in his answer even as a small smirk played on his lips. “And Melissa and I don’t make the boys watch it if they don’t want to.”
“Even if so many people dream of being part of the Gala’s main event,” Melissa added, “I don’t think we’ve ever dreamed of that. It’s fun to watch, but not because I hope some ill will thing would happen to someone Edward.” She said with added emphasis to his name.
Edward scoffed again, but this time it was more playful. “I’m just saying they need to make it more entertaining,” He said with a shrug. Though if he was being entirely honest with himself and them he still wouldn’t watch it. Maybe something more entertaining would happen? Edward rather doubted the answer was anything other than a simple no.