Morning After
Posted on Fri Feb 18th, 2022 @ 2:59pm by Major Cornelius Tremble & Lieutenant Elen Diari
1,056 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
Episode 12 - Risin' To Risa
Location: XO's office, USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD003 1130 hrs
El strolled from the lift over to the XO office door, noticing that the couple of staff on the bridge looked a little worse for wear, one leaning unsteady on the railing behind the command chairs, and the other resting their head on the ops console.
She smirked and she chimed the door, noticing the new nameplate C. Tremble, rather than Q. O'Flanangan, so it was official- Quinn had gone.
Neil's HUD flickered a warning moments before the annunciator sounded and he glanced at the door. With his eye movement, the holo-receptors made the door mirrored the outside and he saw Lt. Diari at his door. Curious, he hit the automatics and the door slid open as he said, "Come in Lieutenant Diari."
El walked in "Hi Neil. How's the head from last night ? Heard I missed quite the party." She pulled a couple of small padds from an external pocket. "hopefully these won't be too much trouble."
Eyeing the engineer, Neil said, "We definitely could have used you when the Klingons showed up and started the full contact dancing." He ruefully rubbed at a bruised cheek that he hadn't bothered to get attended to before continuing, "My head is still mostly attached. But I think the blood wine and other booze did not mix well. I probably won't eat much more than rations for the next week just to tone everything down."
After a beat to consider his stomach, he met her eyes with a grin and asks, "And what are you handing me here?"
"I wish I had been there too, got stuck on a conference call about the drive. I'm meeting up with my friend B'tnar, the white haired woman with the blue braid, later for brunch, hopefully she'll have pictures. " El explained "These ? One's a complaint about parts we got from Sirius, well below quality, either you can have a nice shout at them, or just post it."
She continued "The other's if the fleet ask, you're covered. They want a holo-engineer program installed- I'm not doing it, as we've got the much better prototype one sitting in a data cube somewhere in my office, and if we have to I'll plug him in. So, when they come and complain, just whip that out."
Neil glanced at the flimsies as El handed them over and dropped the first on his desk. "I'll light somebody up over the supplies. Their tolerances for replacements shouldn't be so far off as to make them unusable."
Reading over the second he said, "Find time to test-bed that hologram. Confined access, stand alone terminal or holo-tank. I'd rather know ahead of time what we'll need rather than have to mess with it last minute to make it work. And before someone at Fleet gets bent out of shape over it."
"I hope you do light them up" El replied, fishing two small cylinders "this one" showing a dull, rusted one with a corroded tip "is what we got from Sirius, and this" putting a clean, shiny cylinder with a gold square tip, "is a new out-of-the-box power adapter. Feel free to what I saw a Marine Sargent Major do once- he let rip at the top of his lungs for five minutes straight, no repetition, and no taking in breath. it was epic. Learnt about six new swear words from that." She reminisced. *
"And as for Bill the prototype hologram, he was plugged in for the engine refit, why I have him in the first place. He just asked to be unplugged to get a vacation. Putting him back in the socket when the two weeks are up." Elen explained.
Neil's grin reached his eyes and he held up his hands. "Fair enough. As long as Bill meets Fleet specs and I don't catch too much hell for him not. That cup has a defined level before it spills out and runs downhill, yeah?"
"Bill more than meets fleet specs, and if anyone complains can get the Real Bill on the comms if he's not on the golf course." she reassured him "talking of cups, I'd recommend a large mug of chocolate milk to help with any troubles from Klingon booze, mops up blood wine quite well."
Neil winced slightly. "Physically, it very well might but the idea of chocolate milk right now makes my head hurt more. I was thinking of having a prairie oyster, but that may not be your idea of a cure either. Raw egg, tomato juice, Worcestershire , vinegar hot sauce...
"Replicator program 216, know it too well" She sighed "Good for spirits, both Terran and Romulan, not for Klingon, Andorian, and definitely not mysterious green stuff your former CO found behind the bar." wincing at the memory.
"True," Neil mused. "Perhaps going the direct method and hitting the Klingon restaurant on the promenade would do better. I understand they have some sort of delicacy just for something like this. Chocolate covered Gah."
El shrugged "No disrepect to Grek, but his Gagh isn't that great, too thin and wire-y. I'd go for his honey and blue cheese Meh'lek, a bit more carbs, bit like a Terran chicken parmo."
As his stomach grumped at hime he nodded. "I heard that's good, but today needs to be spicy I think. A good burn may be just what's needed to show my system who's boss." Glancing at the chrono, Neil asked, "Want to join me in a long lunch? All of this busy work can wait."
"Sure. I'll call B'tnar to meet us on the promenade- if you don't mind two women joining you. We might talk shop for a bit, but not much, she'll be giving me all the dirty gossip from last night." Elen answered, holding a hand out to help Neil up out of his desk.
Neil took her hand and let her pull him up as he closed down his desk and auto-opened the door. "After you, Lieutenant. We might as well find out what's going on...the paperwork can wait."
Major Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Commanding Officer, The Cure
Lieutenant Elen Diari
Chief Engineering Officer, USS Pioneer
*Seen in real life, Royal Marine base Condor,UK April 1996.
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