Coffee Break

Posted on Wed Nov 25th, 2015 @ 6:00pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor & Commander Yuna Raza

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck 6, Officer's Mess
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Yuna,Charybdis,Coffee,bonding

ON

With all of the excitement of getting ready to cast off and a nearly new crew complement coming aboard, it wasn't until 1900 hours that Charybdis recognized the intense personal need for food... and perhaps some caffeine. There was a distinct possibility that she would be pulling an all-nighter, so best to bolster her system here and there to insure that she stayed alert.

Thus she found her way to the officer's mess on Deck Six and settled in for a cheesburger, an Andorian salad and a liter of water... she would go back for a cup of coffee, a delicacy she had recently picked up from Dr. McKenzie- she was fond of any beverage that invited cream and sugar into it as components. Ordinarily she would eat in the Enlisted Mess on Deck Ten, but tonight she wasn't looking to mingle with the crew so much as just have a meal and a few moments to collect herself from the hectic day.

Meanwhile Lt. Yuna Celes sat in the corner of the mess at a table of her own. She knew no-one here, and people looked at her strangely as though she'd pulled off some major miracle getting sucked from one starship and being spat out on another. Her head still ached, even though medical had cleared her for duty, and she'd met the Captain. Nice fellow, but she didn't know him otherwise from a bar of proverbial soap. Then again, she didn't know anyone here. At all. She longed for the Kurrajong, for her own crew and her own friends, here she just felt like the resident freak of the week. She looked down at her sandwich and sighed. Food be damned, she needed coffee.

As she got her food from the dispenser, the science officer noticed the Security Chief in the corner looking miserable, and it dawned on her that perhaps not everyone was looking to be yanked across the universe on an adventure and dumped unceremoniously into a brand new crew... a brand new crew who did not know one another, forget about who was who.

She debated internally for a moment, then she ambulated in her inimitable style to the table with the lone Lieutenant, who seemed lost in thought.

"Mind if I join you, Lieutenant Ceres?" she asked with a smile.

Yuna looked up at the new arrival. " Sure... but its Celes, not Ceres... Ceres is a stinky mountain on Trill's northern continent" She said with a half smile - pulling her sandwich closer to make room. " I was just about to grab a coffee, can I get you one?" She offered, trying to at least appear polite when someone was making the effort.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I guess in all the excitement... I really am very sorry. No one ever gets my name right either, from reading it. Kar-ib-dis... it seems straightforward, you'd think, but you should hear the versions I get. Of course," she added with a smirk as she slid into the plastic chair, "I am named for a voracious sucking creature that could swallow the sea with a few gulps. Thanks Mom and Dad."

She noticed Celes still standing there and snapped out of her self-reflection. "Coffee! Yes, please, two creams, four sugars?"

" Holy crap thats a lot of extra stuff in your coffee" Yuna said with a smirk as she rose and headed to the small servery. She made the two coffees, one black and strong, the other with two creams and four sugars as requested. She could smell the sugary sweetness even as she carried in " You obviously have never served on an outpost or on a planet where the sugar and creamer run out in the first week" She chuckled as she sat and offered the coffee across the table.

The voluptuous Vulcan was busy powering her way through a cheeseburger, inadvertently demonstrating just exactly how she maintained her figure, when she swallowed and smiled. "I just learned about coffee, really... I usually just drink water, but the Doctor introduced me and I'm limiting myself to one per day, so I thought I'd make it count."

Wiping her mouth with her napkin, her sharply angled brows knitted somewhat and she spoke in a lowered tone. "Are you all right, Lieutenant? I know it has been a little crazy around here, what with the while 'Bonne Chance Incident' and whatever that phenomenon we encountered was, plus you, myself and Crewman Ricky piloting her back to Starbase... ?" She left the statement hanging there and waited.

" I guess I just miss the Kurrajong. I was settled there, I knew everyone. This was completely unexpected - not like a crew transfer or a promotion or something, it was like Bam, new ship, new life. I guess I'm just having a little trouble getting my noggin around it all," Yuna replied, taking a sip of her coffee and closing her eyes to relish the dark bitter liquid. "That... is the best coffee I've had in a while"

The blue-clad lieutenant pursed her lips and considered. "Have you asked to be transferred back? I mean, I know we are setting off on a mission, but we are at Starbase. In theory it could be worked out to get you back to the Kurrajong... back to where you belong, I guess?"

There was almost a note of regret in the woman's voice as she spoke, which was curious enough coming out of a Vulcan, but more curious given the circumstances.

" I'd love to go back, but apparently the Captain requires my presence here more than my old Captain did. " She smiled sadly " Sucks to be wanted, doesn't it?" She couldn't help but lament a little, realizing that she was part of a much bigger whole and she would do what she was told. "So tell me Lieutenant, how does this boat run? "

The cheeseburger-chomping officer snorted a bit at that question. "I'm sorry, but I am very much the wrong person to ask on that front. Since I came aboard a week ago I recalibrated the long range sensors by myself, got formally reprimanded and suspended from duty for three days over that, got dumped into the Chief Science Officer's job without the title, realized the ship was losing crew and that the senior staff was gone, worked out a plan to help save the ship, then with a skeleton crew and no knowledge of how to pilot a Constitution-class starship brought her safely home just in time to avoid a court martial, apparently for overstepping my authority... and as of today I am officially onboard a week, and we're having this conversation."

"So in short, Celes, I really haven't a clue how things run on this boat. So far? One very prominent SNAFU would be my answer." She laughed at her own joke merrily, then went back to punishing her cheeseburger for its crimes of existence.

" Well - it looks like you're about as clueless about how things are here as I am. We might make a good team then!" Yuna snorted, sipping her coffee and taking a bite of her sandwich. "At least I don't feel like I'm the only one who has no idea"

Charybdis raised her coffee cup and held it halfway across the table. "Here's to clueless Lieutenants... dumped into circumstances beyond their control by Starfleet and a very unusual universe. To making the best of things!"

" Here here!" Yuna clunked her coffee mug against Charybdis' own mug. " May this be the first clunk of a long and fabulous friendship between us, and our coffee," she couldn't help but add. There was one thing about being a security officer - coffee was your friend, and you got as much of it as you could to stay awake during the long night shifts.

"You know, I'd like that. I think you might just be the first female friend I've had in Starfleet, as long as I don't steal your boyfriend. I'll work on keeping it that way," she said with a lopsided grin. "So is Celes your whole name, or what do you prefer to be called?"

" Boyfriend? Nah aint got one of those - it's somewhat frowned upon for an active woman to have a male companion that isn't her mate in Trill culture" Yuna admitted, wondering why she even bothered to listen to the archaic traditions. She was her own person - she could make her own decision. " But my full name is Yuna Celes... Yuna for my great grandmother, and Celes.. well its the family name, for a mountain in the Southern continent that's not so stinky as Ceres"

"Family name... ohh, that's nice! And named for your great grandmother... was she famous or just a matriarch of the clan, fondly remembered?"

" Nah she was just some witty old bat that my mother said had a pretty name" Yuna couldn't help but laugh. " Sometimes names are just names you know, although every culture is different"

The dark-haired lieutenant curled a lock of hair idly around her finger as she sipped her coffee. "I know the feeling... I was supposed to have an arranged marriage, and when my parents were... lost... and my arranged husband was... um, well, he kind of didn't survive his Kahs-wan, so..." she paused for a few seconds, then looked up again and smiled.

"Well, let's just say that most Vulcan males aren't very fond of moody Vulcan woman, and moody Vulcan women aren't fond of stiff-necked and boring Vulcan males. But that's okay... human males seem to find me attractive enough, and there seems to be no small supply of them in Starfleet."

At that she leaned across the table conspiratorially, nearly spilling her coffee in the process. "Speaking of which, have you seen that Capellan Commander? Between him and the new CO I am going to be VERY happy on the bridge..." Charybdis grinned lasciviously at her dining partner.

" I've laid eyes on him once or twice I think," A conspiratorial smile crept across her face, Starfleet or not, there was no harm in looking right? " but you're right - the uhh... eye candy is quite tasty on this little boat!"

"Hee hee! Yes, yes it is... I'm going to have to be very careful not to slip up, but there's no harm in a little flirting, right? Well, a LOT of flirting, really... and what we do in our off hours is still our own time as long as we aren't fraternizing with the enlisted, right?" She was conversational, but still keeping her voice down to nearly a whisper and her tone level... anyone nearby would have a hard time eavesdropping.

" Our time is our time indeed, but let us not get caught gawking- that would be quite the controversy" Yuna admonished, not wanting to get either of them in trouble on their first mission together. She looked around the room noting the officers drifting in and out at their leisure. This would be an interesting ship to serve on by the looks of it.

"True, true..." the pointy-eared minx sighed with resignation, then just as quickly the eyebrows arched upwards again and she grinned. "Besides, I wouldn't want to choose too soon.. better to shop a while. Wouldn't want to chase after one only to catch him and find out he is an uncharismatic bore, or that he snores like a Mugato or something. And you're right, I guess I might want to try to be a little more discreet in my window shopping... Ooooh, hello, engineer.. I do love a man who's good with his hands, and look at the size of those hands..."

Her eyes darted back to Celes to show that she was kidding, and she smiled broadly. Apparently it came rather naturally to the unusual science officer, as she was doing an awful lot of it... and it seemed mildly contagious.

Yuna smiled back and drained the last dregs of coffee, setting the mug back down on the table with a thump.

" Well at least they know how to make a semi-decent coffee around here," she said with a smile before turning her attention back to the science officer in front of her. " Well I guess I better go whup some ass with the new security personnel - I'm sure they're as soft as they come"

With a sigh Charybdis did the same. "And I should double-check the duty roster and maybe I'll go recalibrate the lateral sensors tonight... I'm not going to be able to sleep before my first shift on the Bridge under a new Captain." With that she stood, then paused and cocked her head slightly to the side.

"That anomaly... as near as I can tell, there was a guiding sentience behind it, Yuna. I'm not sure why it did what it did and I am certainly not sure how, but it was powerful enough to bring you here across over a hundred light years, and deposit you here reasonably safely..."

" But it's gone now right? So it can't send me back, not that the new Captain would let me attempt it anyway" Yuna said with a sad smile, at least here she had one friend, and one was a start.

In a move uncharacteristic of her race, Charybdis put her hand on top of the security chief's hand on the table and squeezed it gently. "I think it's gone... but what matters is, it brought you here... I think for a reason. So try not to be too sad... because the universe isn't unkind, and sometimes it really does put us where we need to be." With that she let Celes' hand go and sashayed out of the mess, dropping her tray off on the way.

Yuna watched her go - wondering how the youthful enthusiasm got into a Vulcan. It was, however, going to be an interesting ride. Setting her tray back into the servery, she headed to the security office to whip some young ones into shape.

OFF

 

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