Coffee Chat

Posted on Sun Apr 3rd, 2016 @ 9:29pm by Captain Charybdis MacGregor

0 words; about a 1 minute read

Mission: Taking Chances
Location: USS Bonne Chance, Deck 7, Officer's Mess
Timeline: 2265
Tags: Yuna,Charybdis,Coffee,bonding

It had been a busy day today...

The Captain had barked a few orders on the Bridge and then departed, which of course set in motion of flurry of activity. In Charybdis' case, that meant personally supervising calibration of 144 individual sensors all over the ship, with each calibration double-checked by another science officer and triple-checked by the time they were finished by Charybdis herself, who also spent the day dealing with a myriad of minor problems that inevitably came up in such projects.

In short, she was beat. It had been 12 hours of duty so far and now that the task was done and she had congratulated her team and sent them off with the satisfaction of a job well done, she needed to unwind. She would go chase down Patrick but he seemed... tense. Fiona was laid up in Sickbay with some sort of Denebian flu, and the Doctor had shoved her out when she had tried to visit declaring that 'a chest cold could kill you, woman!'

Meanwhile Lieutenant Yuna Celes finished up in the security office - piling up the paperwork that she had still to complete whilst organizing another training session for the troops later on in the week. She had planned to run sessions at least twice a week until they were up to standard... okay, well, not Starfleet standard - they were there already - HER standard. Excellence and above.

" Argh.... I need a coffee," she grumbled to herself, picking up the pile of paperwork and heading out to the galley, thinking that a change of scenery would ease her mind a little.

Food. In Charybdis' mind food was always the answer, and today was no exception. Maybe chocolate. Maybe cheese. Maybe turkey. Maybe brussel sprouts. Maybe ice cream. Maybe all of the above. It dawned on her that they had skipped breakfast again this morning, for the usual reasons, and she had worked through lunch insuring that her teams were properly supported in their herculean calibration efforts. No wonder she was so hungry. Briefly she wondered where her Captain was, but decided that she needed to give him some space if he desired it.

Headed for the galley, she was determined to give her ration card a workout.

Yuna slung her paperwork onto a free table, leaving it there for a moment before heading over to the servery. There at the back sat a pot of the most glorious coffee she had tasted in days. Coffee... her kingdom for a coffee.

Picking up the pot she grabbed a cup and poured herself a hearty portion, adding a small amount of milk before stirring. Sometimes coffee just made it all better.

The tray was piled with the detritus of a meal... well, likely two meals, really. And as Charybdis sat back and wondered what to demolish with her digestive capacity next, she spotted Celes and waved her over.

" Wow... hungry much?" Yuna quipped, taking in the amount of food on the Chief's plate. "Man, you must have the quickest metabolism..." she commented, taking a sip of her coffee and relishing the bitter taste.

The alien scientist shrugged seismically. "My heart beats 240 times a minute, so... yeah, pretty much, I think I may metabolize a little faster than most lifeforms. Besides, I was really hungry... I haven't eaten all day."

"You look pretty tired yourself... are you all right, Yuna?" she asked, her big violet eyes showing concern.

"Tired, overworked, and dealing with the mess the last Security Chief left behind" Yuna admitted, rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand, she was stuffed. Thankfully the coffee helped.

"How are you doin?" she asked.

"Me? I'm okay. You know. Just worked a lot today. But everything's fine. I'm sure. I'm sure everything's fine." The smile on her face was about as convincing as a shoplifter's whose ill-gotten loot had just spilled out of his coat.

The smell of food started to make Yuna's stomach rumble, remembering that it hadn't been fed in nearly 6 hours.

"Holy toledo - I didn't realize how late it was.... dinner is served I guess." Yuna put down her mug of coffee to pick up a plate, ladling up a spoonful of various concoctions in the servery. She glanced at Charybdis' plate again - how did she eat so much????

Charybdis took advantage of the distraction to deposit her plate and tray in their receptacles, grab a cup of coffee and decided to try it just black for a change. She watched as Celes chose bird-sized portions, barely putting anything on her plate. How did she eat so little????

"You're giving me that weird look again," Yuna commented, noting the Chief's attention.

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry. I'm just... um. I don't know," the sensual scientist squirmed in her seat. "How do you live on so little food? You're like a Vulcan... I mean, the regular vegan-one-bowl-of-vegetable-broth-a-day kind."

"And... you're like the non-regular vegan-one-bowl-of-vegetable-broth-a-day kinda Vulcan I take it?" Yuna quipped, tucking into her food with the hunger of one who'd forgotten the taste of food.

The expression that Charybdis made was one Yuna hadn't seen before... it was angry and bitter, even though it flashed across her face for only a second. "No. I'm not regular as a Vucan at all."

Yuna looked up quickly, realizing her words may have insulted her new friend. "Oh I'm sorry - I didn't mean that how it sounded!" she apologized quickly.

The alien waved dismissively. "No, no, just... an old memory, nothing to do with you, Yuna. I'm just not... well, any sort of Vulcan, really."

Yuna gave her the once over before raising an eyebrow " I'm sorry to say but your looks kinda, well... don't lend themselves to that statement."

"Hahahaha! Okay, you've got me there. I'm just a very, very plush specimen is all. And this is what happens when you don't follow that vegetable broth diet!" She giggled at her own joke, obviously not upset.

Yuna filed that information away for future prying, knowing there was something more underlying the statement but not wanting to push the matter.

"So tell me, what's happening in the science department?" Yuna asked casually, changing the topic to a safer lane.

"Oh, the captain asked for the sensors to be ready for a workout, so my team recalibrated all of the lateral sensors today. Outstanding work, no complaints and they all did outstanding work. They learned a little bit, and so did I, and overall now we are well acquainted with those systems. I'm very proud of them today, and I am proud to be their department chief... my guys and gals are good scientists."

"You?" she asked, sipping the bitter coffee and making a face.

"Well apart from reminding a bunch of goons that boobs also equals brains... thanks to yourself - it's mainly catching up on paperwork, it seems your last security chief wasn't too fond of that part of the job." Celes patted the mountain of paper next to her. "A little evening light reading."

"Well... I could... do you want any help?" The sassy science officer chose her words carefully, trying to offer help without being insulting.

"I wish you could, it's mainly personnel reviews that haven't been done, weekly reports that haven't been submitted - stuff like that," Yuna said with a frown before pulling herself together. "I'm sorry - I don't mean to lump all my problems on you!"

"Oh, no, not at all Yuna... that's what friends are for! I'm happy to listen to your problems, and I don't mind helping. I like starship life, and filing reports and just doing some of these mundane tasks. And I like that you don't judge me, and that you... uh..." It was obvious that train of thought had gone a bit further down the line than she had planned.

"And I don't have my eyeline fixed on your chest?" Yuna quipped an eyebrow in a very Vulcan way, the movement making the spots on her brow appear a little contorted.

"Yeah... that too," the vixen smiled. "So you want some help with that paperwork? We can work on it right here, where there is all this coffee, and I still have a little time before I need to be... uh.. somewhere else."

That got Celes' attention " You have a date, don't you?" She could tell, no matter what planet a woman was from - she could tell when a friend had a date...

The Vulcan vixen went from composed to blushing furiously in 3 seconds flat, and her cheeks lit up a bright mint green. "I... that's... I mean..." she sighed and her shoulders slumped a little in mock defeat.

"Yes. I kind of do have a date. Not like a date date, but a, um, getting together with someone romantically, yes. Wait," she stopped, her eyebrows knitting together, then a look of understanding dawning across her face. "You already know, and you are just trying to get me to come out and say it, aren't you...?"

"Well I knew you were interested in someone, but we haven't really spoken since we left the planet so I just wanted to ... you know... follow up on the gossip," Celes smiled a knowing smile.

Leaning over the table Charybdis hissed in a whisper. "Fine. Yes, Yuna, I'm sleeping with the Captain. I thought everyone knew by now, and as Chief of Security I figured you would have been one of the first to know... really, you had no idea?"

"Idea yes, confirmation. No. Remember, gossip leads to ... well.. gossip and that's one thing I don't share," she affirmed.

The smile came easily, as it always seemed to, and Charybdis relaxed again, her mercurial mood shifted once more. "So would you like to hear a detail or two perhaps...?"

Yuna was, by professional trade, an excellent listener.

"Only if you're willing to share," Yuna said with a smile - finishing off her dinner and resuming enjoying her coffee, listening to her first true friend on this bucket of bolt's she'd been landed on.

OFF

 

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