Topic: Star Trek: The Scales of Eternity Subject: This Round's on Me...No, You... Or was it You? (Collab with Eol and Meri)
Stardate: 2365.05.15 USS Peregrine, The Aerie - 15:25
Tochi strode through the doors of The Aerie and, as usual, was greeted by a series of friendly nods and more vocal greetings. He returned each one as he made his way to the bar and noted that Zhay-la’s face was not to be found anywhere in the lounge, yet. Commander Kennedy was present, however, settled in on the bench before one of the wide windows that looked out upon the Calican system. The Trill offered the CEO a friendly smile and the wave of a hand in greeting before drawing to a stop at the counter where Leah was waiting expectantly.
“Afternoon, Toch,” she chirped, bobbing her head in Kennedy’s direction, “Come ta jibber-jabber with yer greasemonkey, ‘ave ye?”
“Hello, Leah,” Tochi grinned in reply, “I imagine we will, yes; but we’re actually here to meet Lt Taissud.”
“Ah! I see,” the barmaid’s eyes sparkled with a mischievous light, “What is it with ye an’ the exotic colored birds, anyway?” She leaned across the counter and laid a flirtatious hand atop Tochi’s; “When’re ye gonna give a human girl a go, I cannae help but wonder?”
The spots at the Trill’s temples flushed purple and he offered Leah a wink. “It’s not like that,” he chuckled softly, patting the woman’s hand before slipping his from beneath it, “and, if there was ever a time you weren’t working, we’d certainly entertain the notion of buying you a drink.”
“So ye say,” it was Leah’s turn to blush, “Charmer!” She lifted a brow, then, and draped a towel over her shoulder; “What’s it ta be fer ye, then, luv?”
“Just an Altair Water, to start,” Tochi shrugged, “We don’t want to put on a buzz before this beacon is floated back.”
“Altair water it is, then,” Leah nodded, setting off to fetch the beverage, “if ye decide on somethin’ stronger, jus’ gimme a nod.”
“We will,” Tochi answered as the glass was slid across the bar and into his hand. He glanced in Kennedy’s direction, then, and took note of the potted flower that sat on the table before her. “What’s with the plant,” he asked Leah.
“I reckon she’s jus’ takin’ it fer a walk, aye,” Leah tittered, “Why don’ ye ask ‘er yerself?”
“I suppose we should,” Tochi returned, taking up his glass and pushing away from the bar.
He wove his way through the tables between the bartop and where Kennedy sat. “Good afternoon, Kennedy,” he smiled, gesturing at an empty seat, “okay if we join you?”
Kennedy glanced up from another examination of the delicate blue flower and smiled at him. “If you don’t have a better option, you are more than welcome to join me.”
“We’re not weighing options,” Tochi grinned behind a sip of his water as he settled into the seat, “Though I was expecting Lt Taissud to have beat us here. What better way to pass the time than with the woman who’s been poking around on my ship all day, though, eh?” He set his glass on the table, let his eyes fall to the plant between them, and then lifted them back to Kennedy; “How did you and the Angel get along? Uncover any more of my engineering blunders?”
“She’s doing well. Spent the day recalibrating the asymmetrical E-M converters. Had some help… in case you hadn’t heard. I might have gotten more work done, but your little red headed pilot talked my ear off.” She smiled and laughed lightly at the thought of Megan jabbering all afternoon.
Tochi grinned and nodded.“She’s good at that,” he chuckled softly, “Don’t get her too excited, though, or else you’re likely to find yourself being climbed at some point.”
Kennedy took a sip of her drink and laughed. “Oh… she was pretty excited when we first made introductions, didn’t get climbed… but… let’s just say it was… memorable.”
“Memorable,” the Trill repeated the word with no small amount of amusement coloring it, “That’s certainly one way of describing Megan. We’re just happy that her flying isn’t as bouncy as she tends to be… although, there was that instance when she danced a WorkBee around the shuttlebay…” He shook his head, recalling the various accounts he had heard about that unbridled moment of excitement and lifted his glass, again. “...Nice flower,” he nodded to the plant, then, “I might have expected you to take your cat on a walk as opposed to a plant, though.”
A shrug lifted her shoulders momentarily. “Pudding isn’t wilting. This little critter is… she was fine this morning and now…” she touched the edge of the petal with her finger lightly and gave a dismal sigh, “she’s all wilty. Thought maybe a change of scenery? I don’t know what I am doing with plants…” she laughed at herself.
“We don’t do terribly well with them, either, I’m afraid,” Tochi smirked, “You might want to check with Petty Officer Crane in Sciences, though. She worked pretty closely with a former CSO who was an absolute magician with plants; could be she could offer some advice.”
Kennedy nodded and then leaned over to talk a little softer, not wanting anyone else to hear what she was about to say, “To be honest… it’s a Crey, a Ferengi luck flower, and… well… if she’s wilting, that cannot be a good sign. I’m not superstitious generally, but..” she shrugged and gave him an awkward smile.
“...But, given Peregrine’s recent history, you can’t help but wonder,” Tochi finished the thought for her with a faint nod.
She spread out her hands in a gesture of understanding then leaned back against the bench to look around the room, then tipped her head toward the door. “Is that your little green friend?”
“If she’s green,” Tochi said even before his eyes tracked Kennedy’s to the door, “I’m sure it is. There’s only one Orion in all of Starfleet, after all.”
When his gaze found the door and the scowling emerald-skinned TAC officer who had just stormed through it, he got to his feet, and lifted a hand to catch her attention. “Zhay-la,” he called, “Come join us.”
Kennedy noted the energy coming off the Orion now, and brought her hand protectively around the base of her plant and pulled it a little closer to herself. She wondered if every introduction she was going to experience today was going to be potentially violent, but couldn’t stop herself from a light chuckle at the thought.
Anger radiating off of Zhay-la as she stomped towards Tochi, and it looked for a moment that she was about to yell, when her eyes darted to Kennedy, back to the Trill, and twice more back and forth before she settled into a more neutral expression. “Hello, Commander,” she said, steel in her voice.
Kennedy watched the Orion’s eyes dance back and forth between her and the spotted man and it was all she could do to hold back any smart-alec comment she had bottled up inside of her. Instead she simply tipped her head a little to her in a greeting, a bit of a smile already tugging at her lip.
Zhay-la’s anger… or was it irritation… was palpable and, though he thought twice about it, Tochi did, in the end, reach out a comforting hand to rest on the woman’s shoulder. “It’s Tochi,” he reminded her in little more than a whisper, “there is no rank here.” Gently, and not before he thought she was ready, he exerted a bit more pressure in the hand that rested on her shoulder and, by way of that, guided her into the seat next to his.
We take this to mean that being called into Silas’ ready room was not a good thing, he mused as, reluctantly, she followed his subtle goading.
His eyes stayed locked to the Orion woman’s even after he had coaxed her to sit and he smiled gently. “Zhay-la Taissud,” he offered with a cant of his head toward the engineer sitting on the bench on the other side of the table, “I’m sure you recognize Callie Kennedy; the Peregrine’s CEO?
Kennedy?” Tochi continued, casting a furtive glance toward the engineer, “This is our CTO and my friend, Zhay-la.”
The Trill’s gaze danced back to the CTO then and his smile warmed a bit; “What are you drinking?”
Lips pressed tightly in a half-assed smile, Zhay-la offered the human woman a small nod of her head. “Greetings, Commander Kennedy.” She raised an eyebrow at Tochi, trying to gauge at what this introduction here was meant for.
The CEO returned with a smile. “Kennedy is sufficient in here. One day perhaps Zai will fill you in my first and middle names and you’ll get as much of a kick out of them as he apparently does, but Kennedy will do for now. Glad you could join us.”
Tochi let his fingers slip from Zhay-la’s arm, then, and, reclining into his seat a bit, he took up his glass and indulged in a sip. “We take it that the Captain’s summons left a sour taste in your mouth,” he probed gently, “and that you didn’t drop kick him as a result?”
Colour came to her cheeks at that, though her eyebrows snapped in a glower just as quickly. “No,” Zhay-la dismissed with a scoff. “That hardly helped the one time I did do it.”
Tochi chuckled a bit and poured another sip of Altair Water past his lips. “Good,” he grinned, “Silas is a stickler for protocol but, over the years, we have found that he is understanding.” Depositing his glass on the tabletop, once more, he lifted a brow and prompted the green-skinned woman once more; “Drink, Zhay-la?”
She scoffed again. “Like I need ‘drunk on duty’ on my service record, too.”
Tochi lifted his glass and shook it so that the ice within tinkled against the glass; “Just water.”
Kennedy raised her own and took a sip of the orange liquid, “Orange juice, straight up… not even on the rocks.” She shrugged a little.
Slightly miffed, Zhay-la crossed her legs and looked pointedly between the two. “Is this a department head meeting I wasn’t aware of?”
Kennedy glanced over at Zai and shook her head. “Not that I was aware of. I’m off duty. I was simply taking my plant for a walk down here on the Aerie and in walks Zai…” she shrugged, “I was filling him in on my lack of botany skills and what I had been doing with his Angel all day.”
Tochi’s spots went vaguely purpled and he blinked between the two women for an instant. “No,” he chuckled, swallowing another slug of water against the hitch in his voice, “no meeting. Just crewmates enjoying a drink with no expectations toward anything else... “
Why are our palms sweating?
“Your what?” Zhay-la looked between the two, this time perplexion written on her face.
The look of puzzlement on Zhay-la’s face struck Tochi as comical and he couldn’t help but chuckle. “The Aurora Angel,” he explained, “She’s a ship we’ve been building for some time, now. It started out as something of a pet project with my friend, Erik, but, following Chimera, she’d been gathering dust until Kennedy, here, discovered her.” He offered a shrug and a smile; “I can show her to you some time, if you’d be interested.”
“She’s gorgeous!” Kennedy lifted her brows a bit suggestively along with her interjection. “I can’t keep my hands off her to be honest. You really should get the tour Zhay-la.” She smiled warmly at the Orion and then took a sip of her drink again.
“I wasn’t aware we were capable of hauling more than ourselves around,” Zhay-la said, relaxing a little. “Is she space-worthy?”
For a brief moment Kennedy ticked her eyes over to Zai then gave a noncommittal shrug, “Technically, she is space-worthy yes… but she needs a good deal of work yet until she’s ready for any long flights. I’ve been working quite hard on her though, so hopefully it won’t be too much longer.”
Spreading his hands toward Kennedy by way of acknowledging her expertise over his where such matters were concerned, Tochi offered a shrug of his own. “She’s made precisely one trip outside of the shuttlebay, to date,” he said, ghosts playing at his features, “Not precisely the maiden voyage I’d had in mind… but she did her job…”
Tapping her foot to an unknown rhythm, Zhay-la glanced between the group, finding her hackles dying a little bit quicker than she’d expected after her talk with Drake. She waved to the bartender whose name escaped her still despite at least two meetings with the woman, and ordered an Altair Water to match the XO. “You just can’t help yourself in your off-hours, can you, Commander?” the Orion said jokingly, leaving the point off of his title. “To think you were sparring with me last night and doing busywork on your spacecraft hours earlier.” She gave Tochi a wry smile. “You’re almost as bad as me.”
The Trill blinked, snapping his gaze from where he had been absently staring out the window and turned his eyes to Zhay-la, then. The congenial smile returned to his lips as he cleared his throat a little and took another sip of his water. “It helps to stay busy, we suppose,” he chuckled, “Mentally and physically. Sit around too much and dwell on things and the Peregrine tends to get smaller than she actually is, hm?”
Kennedy leaned back and listened to them, sipping on her orange juice and casting an almost knowing glance down at the plant with the wilting leaves. “So you two have been beating each other up then? I cannot say I ever understood the desire to do that, but…” she shrugged a little, “what do I know besides warp engines?”
Tochi laughed at that and gave a faint shake of his head as, once again, his spots flushed vaguely purple. “More like she’s been beating me up,” he grinned, tipping his head toward Zhay-la, “but, to be fair, she stepped on my holodeck reservation and I made the not so wise decision to challenge her to a duel.”
“Got what you deserved…” Kennedy nodded then tipped a wink over at the green skinned woman, “kudos.”
Zhay-la, slightly flushed, smiled at the wink. “Hardly broke a sweat.”
“We suppose so,” Tochi smirked, following it up with a teasing wink at the engineer, “Thank you, Eugene.”
Kennedy nodded and took a sip of her drink. “There it is… and I deserved it.” She tried to change the subject then, “So… Zhay-la, you do anything other than beat up your superior officers in your time off?”
The Orion gave a low hum, warding off her lingering anger taking offense to the CEO’s comment. Most definitely was not about your service record, Zhay-la. Cool it. “I collect knives, read some literature, do yoga… and I’m realizing I’m a rather uninteresting hobbyist at the moment,” she smiled. “In truth, training is about all I do, since it’s one of the things I’m best at and know the most about. Starfleet leaves me with little enough free time that I fall into old habits when off-duty.” She looked about the Aerie, soaking in the details of the rather pleasant surroundings. “This may be the first time I’ve sat in here for more than twenty minutes, as well.”
“Yoga… that bendy thing, right?” Kennedy smiled, “I won’t judge you on uninteresting hobbies. I listen to ancient music, hang out with my cat, kill plants, and on my free time I bang around on other people’s ships,which is what I do when I’m on duty as well.” She laughs. “I think it’s a hazard of the fleet, we love what we do, so we do it constantly. At least that’s how it is with me. However… the Aerie is a nice break, you’ll have to wander back sometime.”
Nodding her thanks to the bartender, Zhay-la took a sip of water and agreed with Kennedy, “Indeed, it’s a rather comfortable place, compared to the sterility of even my quarters. Though that could be my sparse furnishings.” She pointed with her glass to the wilting plant on the table. “Is this one of your victims now? You’re rather an inefficient killer if that thing is meant to be dead by now.”
“Maybe a plant would liven it up,” she laughed and the nodded down at her plant. “Yes, this is the plant in question right now. She’s doing alright, only been with me a few weeks, though, and now she’s a bit wilty…” Kennedy frowned and touched the petal lightly, then shrugged. “I thought she might enjoy a change of scenery.”
“Wouldn’t the holodeck be better suited for ‘scenery’?” the Orion offered.
Kennedy laughed in return, “Probably… Zai suggested the Science Labs, find an actual botanist to take a look… but… obviously I’m not a good plant mother, so I brought her to the bar. I’d offer her to you, to spruce up your quarters, but she was a gift and I’m not ready to part with her just yet.”
Regarding the plant sentimentally for a moment, Zhay-la felt a strange pang of homesickness looking at it. “It would bring a touch of life to the place,” she said contemplatively. “Feel free to gift me another at some point.” She sipped her glass, nervously diverting her eyes to the viewscreen beside her; how she hated feeling awkward in new company.
“If I run into another I shall consider it.” Kennedy noted the look in the Orion’s eyes and noted to herself her earlier feelings, This ship is haunted, even by those who are new to her…
As the conversation lapsed for a moment there was a sudden interruption. All three of their Commbadges went off.
=^=Commander Kennedy, an emergency staff meeting has been called in the Officer’s Lounge at 1630 hours. Attendance is mandatory.=^= the computer’s voice rang out, replacing the beginning with each of their own names.
“Well, frill,” Tochi muttered, tapping his badge to acknowledge the hail, “so much for a peaceful evening.” He downed the remains of his water, then, and getting to his feet, turned for the exit
Kennedy rose a brow and sighed. “I haven’t heard any issues from Sa’eridon.” She frowned and rose herself, she glanced down at her grey and olive outfit. “I’ll need to go change I’m afraid. I guess I’ll see you both there… save me a spot.” She picked up her potted plant and started for the door as well, leaving the rest of her orange juice on the table.
“Of course,” Tochi nodded even as he strode for the door, “see you soon, Commander.”
Downing the rest of her water in one gulp, Zhay-la gave a brief nod to the retreating human woman, then looked to the Trill. “Walk me to the Bridge? I could use some restraint going back so soon.”
Tochi nodded his consent, offered a hand to the Orion for getting out of the booth - which she batted away with a playful smirk - and they headed to the Officers’ Lounge, uncertain about what was in store for them.
Posted on 2021-03-01 at 21:08:26.
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