One Shot? Written whilst listening to 3AM in quarks by Dennis McCarthy. Google it ;)
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Running a finger through the dust the old man moved amongst the tables. Picking up a glass here, a mug there. He moved as though on auto-nav. As though the tables were not there. He'd been here long enough that he could move uninhibited by anything. It was his bar now. Sitting heavily at the end of the long serving area he placed the glasses down with a clank. Sat surveying the emptiness. All of the pilots, the traders, the locals had gone. The Constabulary herding them home. But the place rang with memories. Some of this place, this time. But many more of them of the time and place he'd once known. He rose and walked to the piano, something the locals loved having never seen one, and began playing. Mournful tones filled the bar. Once more he remembered the friends and colleagues from long ago. A tear falling on the worn old ivory. A figure appeared in the doorway, orange flight suit, helmet in one hand. Long hair, high cheek bones.
"You mourning again Will?"
The soft voice carried but didn't stop the old man playing.
"Always Jaina, always."
The younger woman moved to the bar and poured a generous glass of amber liquid. She watched the old man continue to play. Lost to his memories. He had so many. She barely remembered a time the station hadn't been here. From the moment it zapped into their lives though things had changed. The old man changed his tune and turned to talk over his shoulder.
"What brings you to Quarks then my beautiful young amazon?"
Jaina smiled at the back of his head, white streaked and bobbing with the music. She shook her own head and poured another drink for Will. A Jack Daniels she thought it was called. And picking them up she stood by his side.
"All hands brace for impact"
He winked at her. Taking the drink he savoured the first taste. Closing his eyes.
"Computer, play Jazz Compilation twelve."
The music sprang from hidden speakers and he turned to look at his friends daughter. She was in her late twenties now. The full force of the war showing on her face though. The current one that was. How long had he been here? Forty something years? He'd been, my god, Forty Four? When he'd arrived...when they'd arrived! He'd fought, laughed, loved and lost here for that long. Eventually taking over the bar when old Quark passed on and he'd been too injured to carry on fighting. Then peace had come, and the station had become a home for him and the thousand or so that were aboard when the event happened. It was like yesterday...
He stopped himself. Wiped away another tear. Looked up at Jaina and smiled.
"So, again, what brings you here young Amazon."
If she still didn't understand the term Amazon Jaina Solo didn't show it, just accepted it as an old man's quirk. Hmm or quark? She smiled at her internal joke and sipped the fiery drink.
"Just in from a patrol Uncle Will. Saw the lights on and heard the music. Knew you were thinking of her and the others so I thought I'd join you. Cheer you up."
The light came back on in his eyes then. A moment of kindness sparking back to life the man behind the sadness.
"Maybe you could do that."
The old twinkle reappeared as the door opened and a short figure appeared. Unruly mop of ginger hair turning grey and a smile in an oil and grease stained face.
"Maybe I'll help you."
Jaina turned to see the Chief stood in the doorway. Perpetual grin on his face.
"A glass of the good stuff William if yeh will."
Will smiled and gently lifted the younger woman onto the bar. Reached for a glass and filled it from a dusty bottle marked Bushmills.
"That'll be the one Commander."
Picking up the glass he lifted it in salute, Will doing likewise with his bourbon.
"Starfleet"
Will smiled and replied
"The Enterprise."
Jaina did likewise
"The New Republic"
Ex-Commander William T Riker, Ex-Chief Miles O'Brien stood and smiled teary smiles at each other in the bar of what had been Star-fleet's Deep Space Nine. Jaina Solo stood and watched the two old men, friends of her father and mother from before her birth and wondered at the tales she'd heard of the arrival of these men and their vessel and starbase. How they'd helped in the darkest hours of the rebellion.