Veteran Lives
Posted on 23 Nov 2017 @ 4:14am by Lieutenant Commander Darren Marian (Dec-Jan 2389 - WIA-TRNSFR to XFY Medical) & Lieutenant Nimh Ahressa (Dec-Jan 2389 - TRNSFR, Bre'el Dip. Msn.)
Mission:
He ho'omaka hou 'ana - A New Beginning
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: Sometime during the day of arrivals
With everything she'd done so far since she'd arrived, Ahressa was starting to realize she'd pretty much forgotten to replenish her own reserves. A scrunching in her gut was quite clearly indicating that she was both starving and thirsty. So she made her way down to the Mess Hall.
May as well check out the masses as well while I eat. The intelligence officer posing as operations chief thought to herself as she stepped inside.
It was fairly empty at the moment, as a good portion of the crew was still incoming. This suited her fine aswell.
She ordered a sushi platter and miso-soup as well as chilled ginger-lemon tea and found a table for two. Sushi was something she'd fallen in love with when she was reassigned to Earth and was usually her go to meal.
Darren had assumed the mess hall would be empty given that most of the crew hadn't yet arrived. He was happy to see he'd been correct, the mess hall was almost empty save for a few officers spread across the many tables, some alone, some with others happily chatting as they ate.
He strode over to the replicators just as another woman walked away from them. Something about her struck him as oddly familiar. "Steak, Kobe fillet mignion, medium rare. Potatoes, mashed. Whiskey, straight." He continued to consider as the computer processed his request. The manifest. That's right, she was one of the senior staff. Ops, if he remembered correctly. He had been meaning to meet with as much of the senior staff as he could before the ship left moorings. Fate, it seemed, had dropped the perfect opportunity in his lap.
He picked up his tray of food and walked over to the table the Bajoran had just occupied, feeling the rising anxiety he always felt when confronted with a new social situation rise in his throat, and suppressing as he always tried to do. "Excuse me, is that seat taken?" he asked the OPS officer, gesturing with his head at the seat across from her.
Ahressa looked up, well well, two command birds in one day. I'll take it. She thought as a smile spread through her features, "of course," she said in her soft british twang, "good an opportunity as any to meet fellow crew. I'm Nimh Ahressa, with Ops."
Darren inclined his head in acknowledgement and returned a slight smile as he sat across from the Lieutenant. "Great to meet you. I've always gotten along well with OPS officers," he said with a wry grin. "Darren Marian. I'm the XO." He extended his hand across the table, trying to remember as he did if there was anything in Bajoran custom against shaking hands as a greeting. He certainly hoped not.
Generally the bajorans didn't shake hands as a cultural greeting between themselves, however many bajorans who traversed the Quadrant adapted. So had Ahressa, especially when she had served on DS9 under Captain Sisko and Chief O'Brien with the Bajoran militia contingent.
So she reached out and clasped his hand firmly, "good to meet you, sir." She gave him a grin as she shook his hand. "Unusual for a Lieutenant to get XO of a Sovereign, I have to admit. But then again, a Lieutenant Commander got command of it. The times they are a changing...indeed. Sushi?" She nudged her platter towards him a bit in offer.
Darren took a piece of sushi off the plate with a smile. "Thanks. Try a bit of this as well." He took his knife in hand and sliced a piece of steak off, scooting it toward her. "It's the best the replicator can do at an imitation of Kobe beef. It's not bad. Though not at all like the real thing. Just like this." He tapped on the glass of the synthol whiskey. "Yeah, I was surprised too at the assignment. But I'm not complaining." He took a bite of potato. "So, where are you transferring in from, Lieutenant?"
Ahressa gingerly picked up the slice of kobe with the chopsticks she was using, and took a nibble. "Not bad. I came in from the Hendriary. She's an old Korolev class."
Are there still Korolev class ships in service? Darren thought, taking a sip of his whiskey. "Wow. Then this must be quite the transition, going from a Korolev to a Sovereign. Were you in Ops there as well?"
Ahressa took a california roll slice and dipped it into soy sauce in the rammekin next to the platter. "Mhm. It's a rarity to find anything older than a Galaxy in the Fleet any more, but there are even a few Excelsiors running around out there. But yeah, a Korolev is sort of my...what do you call it, true love? Stubborn, even grumpy old maid, but thats the challenge, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, the Sov is nice but...a bit, convenient, if that makes sense."
Darren nodded as he stabbed a piece of steak. "Yeah, I can understand that. If things are too easy they're not really fun." He took a bite and chewed it for a bit. "My last ship was a Nova class. Sturdy little ship. Not necessarily state of the art but definitely not bad. We were doing surveys in the Delta Quadrant. You know, mapping and logging planets. Tried not to make any contacts. That's for the big ships with the superstar Captains." He chuckled. "Went pretty well until..." He stopped short. "Well, until it didn't." He smiled. "Anyway. What was the Hendriary out there doing?"
"Oh just running around in the Raeyan Transit Corridor, dealing with the newly ceded Romulan worlds that have been handed to the Federation. It was an interesting tour to be sure, but I welcomed the change when I got transfer orders for the Hawaii." Ahressa replied, popping another piece of sushi into her mouth.
The real Hendriary was indeed assigned to the RTC, only Ahressa had never been on it. Her knowledge came from various Intelligence reports and her work on the Venture incident at Ruhoka, which was at the mouth of the RTC.
There was a person, of course, embedded on the Hendriary who would confirm Ahressa's presence there if anyone ever came looking.
"Sounds fascinating," Darren said, leaning back in his chair. He adopted a conversational tone as he asked, "So, what are your expectations for this mission? From all that I've heard it may be an...interesting ride." This seemed like a good way to yet again sound out the feelings of the crew on the upcoming mission. Every conversation he'd had thus far with senior and junior officers he'd tried to work the question in somewhere. It was something he'd learned from his old XO, a way of gauging the crew's morale. It was his job as XO, after all, to keep track of these things.
"My expectations, sir?" Ahressa sighed as she leaned back in her chair, taking a sip of tea, "it's a bit early to tell, don't you think? Where we're going...it's not pretty. I'm a war generation, both Dominion war and the Occupation of Bajor, rosey spectacles - I lost them a long time ago."
Darren realized suddenly that, comparatively, his own experience of war and bloodshed was impossible to compare to the experiences Ahressa had had throughout her life. He could imagine living in the turmoil of battle, existing in that chaos. "That was a hell of a time," Darren said. "For you all on Bajor especially. War is ugly." He took a sip of whiskey. "I hope we don't too much of that kind of action...but, as you say, it's not pretty where we're going." He leaned forward a bit. "Most of the kids on this ship, they haven't seen the kind of things we might see. They still have the "rosey spectacles". as you put it. It's going to be a challenge to manage."
Ahressa nodded, taking another roll and dipping it in soy sauce. "They'll look to us to guide them."
Darren nodded, finishing off the last bite of his steak. "Well, I'm sure you'll do an excellent job, Lieutenant. Here's to a successful voyage." Darren raised his glass in salute before draining the last bit. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Lieutenant Ahressa." He said, standing up. "If you excuse me, I need to head back to my office and get some things in order."
Ahressa nodded, "Lieutenant Nimh, sir. But yes, you're excused." She flashed him a bright smile to let him know she was mostly joking.
Darren felt himself possibly blush ever so slightly as he picked up his platter. "Right, right. Sorry. Lieutenant Nimh. See you on the bridge." He returned her smile.
