"Excuse me, but you don't look like one of the regular crew," he said, slowly.

Jelandra half-dropped the sandwich she was about to take. "That's because I'm not."

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Summers, COS, and you would be, miss?" He said, holding out his hand. Actually, she already heard that he had been promoted earlier that night, he sure did get used to the new title fast. But she knew the type.

She took his hand and shook it though, "Jelandra Gear, Cadet."

"I see," he replied, looking as though he was thinking of obvious implications.

Jelandra turned around and watched the crowd for a minute, "I understand that you set this whole party up, right?"

"Ya betcha," he said with a big grin.

"By the way, I'm Buck Gear's sister," she said, taking a sip of her champagne. A slight look of surprise worked into features as she realized it was the real stuff. She didn't think that was allowed in these "official" parties.

"I see," he replied again, most annoyingly.

"You seem to see a lot, Lieutenant," she observed.

"It comes with the job," he replied.

"Does the singer take requests?," she asked, nodding towards the stage, taking another sip of her champagne. She didn't know who he was, and she could have figured out after a moment digging around in his head, but she figured it wasn't worth the bother.

"Sure does," he answered simply.

"Think he'll let me play the piano?" Jelandra asked.

"Don't see why not."

What was it about this guy? He was absolutely boring. Oh well, she had figured out better things to do. Wandering up to the singer, whom she learned was named "Charlie" from what one of the band members said. She she leaned over and whispered to him. "Are there any requests out there?"

"Just In Time," he said, hiding a grimace.

Sitting down at the vacant piano, Jelandra smirked and ran her fingers across the keyboard in a chromatic scale. "If you say so," she said, simply. It was a pleasant piece for her to warm up on---nothing too strenuous. She impro'd a little during the second refrain, skipping three octaves between bars.

Summers decided to keep hanging around and was humming the tune. When Charlie finished, Jelandra closed off with a major fifth key change, easing back into a minor seventh from a chromatic at sixths, before settling on the root again. The audience applauded her. She smiled.

Turning to Charlie, she spoke over the applause. "Do you know any Chuck Berry?"

Pausing a moment, he went through the list. "Refresh my memory, I need to know a couple song titles."

"He wrote one called 'No Particular Place to Go', if that's any help," she said with a demure smile.

He returned it with his winning grin, "I can do that."

She grinned back, "Okay, I'll give you eight bars into in four-four one-twenty. You with me?"

"You betcha," he replied, taking his place back behind the mic.

She started with what was probably one of the most famous piano introductions in the history of music, amending it to her purpose---a bit of Gershwin called Rhapsody in Blue, but slightly more upbeat. At the fifth bar, she skipped from its unique syncopation into the triplet sounds of early Rock'n'Roll, slipping in a key change and throwing her hands about the keyboard in an immensely difficult jazz solo. She just hoped Ethan was there to see it. On his cue, Charlie came in with the bass, the guitar playing its refrains in perfect time.

Jelandra grinned---this was a challenge. She'd always striven to attain what she called the 'Perfect Solo', a jazz term for an improvisation that hits every note perfectly, and it looked like she was going to manage it. Charlie began cursing his safety-belt and Jelandra hit the top ends of the ivories with a swiftly repeated double-triplet hexatonic minor descending scale. It was working.

The lyrical part ended, all that remained was the piano guitar duet. Jelly chuckled as the crammed in every possible jazz technique she could think of, carefully ensuring that she didn't play over the guitar. Eventually, they stopped, both musicians congratulating each other silently. She turned from the guitarist to Charlie and grinned.

"You know, I don't think I've seen a dame do that in a long time," he said with a wide smile.

"Thanks, old man---it's been a pleasure. We'll have to do this again some time, agreed?" Jelandra said with a smile, quite pleased at her performance and very much pleased at the audience's reaction.

"Old man?" He queried, that's right, he was from a distinctly different era.

Jelandra grinned, "An expression of respect and high regard, or so my brother tells me."

He chuckled. "Alright," Charlie's head turned as he noticed Summers walking up to them.

"Mind if I do a little singing?" the Lieutenant asked. The current singer, known only as Charlie uttered the expected affirmative. Various people had been cutting in all night.

"You sing?" Jelandra attempted to hide her surprise.

"Yes, I do," Summers replied solemnly. Jelandra only shrugged and tended to her own side of this whole musical number. After a few songs she excused herself and went to mingle for a while, trying to find the Commander. She noticed Summers watching her and grinned back. Then she saw Ethan. When the song finished, she walked over to Summers. "Do you accept requests?" she asked.

"Depends on the song," he replied.

"Know any Manfred Mann?"

"Nope, can't say I do."

"Ah well---how about the Moody Blues?" she asked, racking her memory for things she liked and he might at least know.

"Sorry, no," he replied.

She began to get desperate---music needed to be choreographed well in advance, she reasoned. "The Bangles?"

"Once again, no. How about Queen: Crazy Little Thing Called Love?" he suggested, guessing her mood.

She blushed, "Is it that obvious?"

He smiled, "Just a tad bit. Unless there's something else you'd like?"

"Queen'll do just fine---what key?" she asked him.

"Doesn't matter," he replied.

"Right---G-sharp, then---give me some exercise." ::She grinned, and sat back down. She hoped Summers knew what to do next without being asked---she hated to think that she was being adolescent about it.

He cleared his throat for emphasis, "dedi-ahem-cation. This next song goes out to our own very special First Officer, Ethan Lysander. It's called, A Crazy Little Thing Called Love and it's by a 20th century group called Queen."

Jelandra started with probably her favorite technique ever used by anyone on the piano - running from the top of the keyboard to the bottom. Then she skipped key into G-Sharp and started playing the intro, pausing for Summers' perfectly-timed entrance.

The tempo kept perfectly, the bassist juggling from right to left-handed stance and vice versa while never skipping a beat. The kit-percussionist played his role perfectly, and the guitarist was… Well, he would have put the original to shame. It was, in Jelandra's opinion, one of the best performances she had ever heard.

She stood from the piano, bowing with the rest of the band to rapturous applause. Then she walked over to Summers and whispered in his ear. "Thank you. Mind if I take some time to mingle about now?"

"I was just about to do the same," he said, looking purposefully at a few female officers standing by the stage. "I'm taking a break now ladies, I'll be back later."

Jelandra grinned. She wasn't that innocent. "Bon chance, mon ami."

Loaded: 06.14.2004 - this is a section I did little but edit some details, the credit actually goes mostly to the person who also wrote Buck Gear. But I felt it was important to include for understanding what was going on with Ethan.