The place reminds him of the bars in the Haight that he and his fellow cadets would frequent back at the Academy. They'd start at one end of Haight Street after classes let out on Friday and go up one side and down the other before catching a late-night transport back across the bridge to their dorms.

Jim supposes he'd miss those days if he could remember very much about them.

But the atmosphere, the crowd, the energy, the free-flowing alcohol, it's all so familiar to him, and he's in his element. He's had to be The Captain for a few months; it's nice to relax and just be Jim again for a while.

He figured his Starfleet uniform would be too attention-getting, even in a place like this, make him seem too out of place, so he's ditched it in favor of things he's picked up at the marketplace. They make him feel even more like he's walking around inside a history book but he's all right with that.

He's been doing some easy socializing, some dancing, some drinking, some flirting, some polite conversation. Right now? He wants to sit for a few minutes. But the place is packed and when he sees an open seat, right beside a lovely lady in purple, he makes a beeline for it lest he lose it.

"Excuse me, miss," he says, summoning a winning smile, "is that seat taken, and if it's not, may I?"