Dinner Time (Part 1)

Posted on Wed Dec 21st, 2022 @ 7:22am by Captain Gary Alexander & Lieutenant Chadrick McNier & Lieutenant Quinn Stiles & Lieutenant JG Alexandra Campa & Karina Tell
Edited on on Wed Dec 21st, 2022 @ 7:25am

1,515 words; about a 8 minute read

Mission: Mission 3 - A Whole New World
Location: Officer's Mess
Timeline: 2168/08/22 0915

One thing that nobody ever prepared spacefarers for was the monotony of space travel. Despite the invention of warp speed, most of space was empty and black. Consequently, most travel, was uneventful. It had been slightly over a week since they had lost their crew and nothing had happened since.

KAT and others had been right, they needed to do something...anything before they completely lost themselves to despair. Therefore, Gary arranged a dinner in the officer's mess hall. Only the Chiefs of Staff and his Yeoman would be invited. He wanted to make sure that everyone here was on as good of terms as could possibly be.

Gary had seated himself at the head of the table but left the seat to his left for KAT. The seat to his right would be for his odd XO, Lieutenant McNier. Wherever anyone else sat, would be fine with him.

At Gary's instructions, the chef had prepared a fine feast. In the back of Gary's practical mind, however, he worried about how long they could go on like this without new food. Undoubtedly, with their Arboretum, plant food would be available for some time but anything with more flavor, such as meat, would be gone in due course. That would have to be fixed.

Quietly checking her PADD, KAT slipped in and took a quick look around the room. Working dinners required working attire, and hers was, as always, impeccable. She murmured a small greeting and touched the Captain's elbow before taking the seat at his left. Her eyes remained lowered, making notes of locations and detailed reports.

He took a bottle of Andorian Ale and opened it, carefully pouring himself a glass, while reminding himself to savor it, for this, too, was a resource that would be gone someday. He put on a smile and waited for his Chiefs.

Cpt. Alexander would not have to wait terribly long for the first of his guests to arrive. Lt. Quinn Stiles, who was the senior officer in engineering...making her the de facto chief engineer, entered the officer's mess. "Captain," she said, coming to attention, then nodding ever so slightly to the other woman in the room, Yeoman Tell.

"Lieutenant," Gary responded back. "Have a seat, why don't you?"

"Thank you, sir," she replied for the moment, and tugged at the blue sleeve of her jumper, before taking a seat, if only just before the doors hissed open again.

McNier came in without his usually present Notes. The uniform was up to standards and he had managed to get his hair to behave. Moving to the traditional Right side seat that an XO takes he nod to those present.

"Greetings." He did not like calling attention to himself as he sat. "The sensors are clear at the moment so we should have the time to enjoy anything the Captain has planned." He tried to be jovial... not very well as it was forced.

"Mr. McNier," Gary replied while slapping him on the back. "You worry too much." The Captain then poured the odd, new XO some Andorian Ale and then handed it to him. "Have some of this. It will put hair on your chest."

Alex took her seat, looking a little thoughtful and self-conscious. She settled down and pulled it up. "Hello, everyone."

"Welcome, Alex!" Noticing that she was appearing uncertain, Gary magnanimously poured some Andorian Ale for the lieutenant. "Please, be comfortable. This is a time for us to be people, not ranks."

"Thank you, captain," Alex said, taking a big swig of Andorian ale.

As the rest of the chiefs slowly trickled in, Quinn nodded or gave small, tight smiles of acknowledgement. She'd been holding down the fort in Engineering for a week now, ever since their rough ride at Floria. Prior to that she hadn't really interacted with most of these people save in passing. Now it was beginning to be a daily occurrence.

McNier looked at the beverage, he had studied several chemical similarities between popular Human alcohol and the 'favored' drinks and exotic and hard to get brands. To say that this would promote Hair Growth was a myth that had been accepted for centuries, not a theory based on fact.

Still, McNier was a man of science, he had researched the "Solar Winds' and how they moved per the gravitation center of any said galaxy. He had done some analysis; this was not the Milky Way or anywhere near the Gravimetric echoes he could recognize. No star charts needed; he knew how far away and could point a good guess at the gravitational fluxes from what is known as the Galactic center... this would take a Generational ship to get home.

"To braking the fallacy of Hair Growth." McNier took the drink he needed and as much as would go down.

He could really use this drink...

Gary looked over at McNier, with his eyes widening. McNier was an odd duck, but could he really not understand such a simple witticism? Chuckling uncomfortably, he looked back at Kat and then Alex with a continued perplexed expression as he raised his glass and drank half of his ale in one gulp.

"Sometimes pretending to take a joke literally is just another joke," Alex said, as amused at Gary's reaction as at McNier's antics.

Lt. Stiles looked around the room, spotted the bar on the far side, and with a quick nod to the others rose from her seat, and once again tugging at her jumpsuit, she ambled over to fix herself a drink. Cradling a lowball glass in her hands a moment later, she turned around in time to watch the recently promoted XO try the alien beverage.

One would have thought that McNier had never had Ale before as his reaction was a chocked cough that is usually associated with strong liquors of Earth.

"I -do-not-think -I -need more chest-hair." He stifled more coughing as he spoke. "A regular beverage will suffice please."

"A regular beverage?" Gary scoffed. "Mr. McNier, you really need to live more for the day...."

"He's not wrong, Lieutenant. Trying new things is what Starfleet is all about, right mate?" Stiles gave a little toast with her own drink, a fairly straight forward Old Fashioned, before sipping and resuming her seat at the table.

"Seize the day." McNier said. "Though in the Latin it has a better flow to the tongue one might say." McNier began "Carpe diem... Actually in literal translation is 'Pluck the day' but over the centuries it was translated as 'Seize' as the phrase has more bit to it don't you think?" He took another ; smaller, drink from his glass. "The whole of translations in the future should be of note; we will be likely expanding out UT functions. There is an excellent Linguist under my staff..."

"Is she a cunning linguist?" Gary asked McNier with a small, hinting wink.

Quinn repressed the urge to groan. It was a bad pun, no two ways about it. But the humor of it was welcome.

"Her grammar conjugation is very Spot-on, and has pointed out that the context of a statement can affect largely the whole translation and the message must be reviewed in the FULL context to get a proper understanding." McNier explained. "Tabitha does not believe in paraphrasing, she always relays her meaning very clearly."

Gary laughed at his XO and then slapped him on the back. "Mr. McNier, you're going to have to get out a little more."

"I have tried the so called 'Social Graces, I am not good at them." McNier held a slight grin. "And my teacher is not likely to give more lessons at the moment." He shrugged. "Besides, the Solar Winds out here are going to give me more than enough to do for the foreseeable future... it is quite fascinating the distance between the particles tend to give a hint of distance and motion from the Galactic Center."

"Ah!" Gary exclaimed with the sound of an epiphany. "I'm more than certain that any one of these lovely women would be happy to school you." He gave a knowing wink to the crowd.

"Possibly," Alex said, sounding strangely thoughtful over what should have been a casual comment.

Quinn found her eyebrow rising up in a perfect mimicry of some Vulcan's she'd once met, but stayed quiet for the moment, eyes darting back and forth between the XO and Helm Officers.

McNier looked in the direction of the voice; he knew her right off, the kind-hearted woman that had been so helpful to his studies. He had realized she was pretty but he had been more interested in her having a beautiful mind. Reminded of the stimulating conversation about the possibility of Solar Sail and how she liked Balloons.

"You are kind." He said with a grin, he had meant to thank her but time got away. "I would like to show you what I discovered with your help if you wish?"

"I'd like that," Alex said. "It'd be good to have something concrete to work on."

 

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