A new friend

Posted on Fri Nov 17th, 2023 @ 7:00pm by Ensign Kate Kono & Commander Jonathan Grayson

Mission: Hard Earned Peace
Location: Mess Hall
Timeline: Evening

Kate entered the mess hall of the ship. She looked around carefully before jamming a tricorder under the automatic doors to keep them from closing behind her this time while she scanned the room for any signs of that weirdo Bartender that likes to dissolve like an annoying bath bomb.

Carefully she moved toward the cake. The slender girl felt that maybe if she put a few pounds on, she could win more fights instead of flying through the air on the holodeck. Despite the doctors best efforts, her jaw still felt sore and thought it'd feel better sooner if she exercises it on a big slice of chocolate.

The door beeped behind her and thudded back and fourth in it's futile attempt to close on the tricorder while she placed a slice onto a plate and found a fork.

Ben sat at one of the tables, eating a ham and cheese sandwich and sucking on a vanilla milkshake. A pile of chips was also on the plate. He looked up at the sound of the mess hall doors trying to close but were unable as something was blocking their attempt. He squinted his eyes. Was that a tricorder sitting in the door's threshold? He looked around. There was no one else here. No, wait a short girl in red had come in. Had she left the tricorder there? If so, why?

Kate sat down at a table across from him and started forking into the cake while still cautiously looking around the room. Aside from some cute guy, it was an empty place but she still looked nervous while eating the cake.

She caught the guys eye and waved at him happily as if a missile has locked onto a target. It was her special way of being friendly to everyone she meets.

Ben looked up from his sandwich and saw the girl waving at him. He blushed and waved back and then waved her over to joim him at his table. He looked away for a moment and then back. She was cute with sharp, intelligent eyes and a bright, friendly smile. It was time he made some friends.

Kate already ate the cake at this moment but she jumped over to his table and sat down across from him.

"Hello! I'm Kate. You haven't seen a tall angry judgemental woman in here that likes to dissolve into thin air after making fun of people have you?"

Ben blinked at her. After a few seconds he spoke. "Hello I'm Benjamin, Ben and no I haven't, just me." Yet even as he spoke his eyes were darting around the room looking for anything and anyone out of place. "A woman dissolved?" He questioned Kate.

Kate's dark eyes widened as she whispered while looking around a moment and then inched her tiny frame over the table as if on a secret Starfleet intelligence mission to steal all the ships cake.

"Shhhh I know - right? I can't make this stuff up... This morning in the lounge. I thought it was the new bartender but she was wayyyy too rude to be a bartender. She even called me malnourished."

She looked down at herself. Admittedly, she was skinny and bony. She shook her head. "bad example but still! I know there's more going on. Maybe she's Q's evil stepchild or something."

She leaned back to sit down normally and took a deep breath.

Ben stared at her as she rattled on. His eyes focused on her. She was cute, if a little thin could probably use to put on a few pounds. When she had finished, he shook his head. "No, just me in here. no one else, rude or otherwise." He answered before going on a rant of his own. "A Q? I'd like to meet one. I read on Captain Picard's dealing with one. Sounds very interesting." He looked around, "Do you think she followed you in here?"

Kate shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't think so. It sounded like she was more focused on other people than myself. After everything went Apecrap last trip out, I was hoping for a moment to relax and lock myself in the Holodeck." Kate admitted. She gave a sly smile at an odd thought while tapping the table in front of her.

"... Hundreds of people onboard this ship and the Holodeck is always available. That's another weird thing. We have the ability to use that thing to do anything we ever imagined... But most people are content to stay in their quarters listening to four thousand year old music and read books... Does anyone ever like to go to the Holodeck?" Kate asked. "I like to do action adventures but most people would load up a secluded beach.... Which is fine, but... What about even Robin Hood, or a spy thriller... Something..." Kate rambled on. "This ship is amazing. The bartender sucks but all good things have to have one flaw I guess."

Kate leaned forward a little and rested her angular jaw into her hand. "What do you do for fun?"

Ben was surprised by the question. No one ever asked him what he liked to do. It was just assumed he would do whatever thr est of the group wanted. "Me? I like to listen to a few centuries old music." He grinned. "And I like to swim and run. I go the holodeck so I can run or swim. It is very relaxing. I haven't tried a spy thriller on the holodeck. That sounds like fun."

"mmmm okay. If I programmed a spy thriller or downloaded one from subspace, would you want to do like, a cooperative effort, or should we be like, one of us is the spy and the other - the villain?" Kate pretended an evil laugh at the end of the sentence. "I hear that Deep Space Nine has a collection of spy thrillers I can get from some guy named Rom who both runs the bar there as well as is chief of their engineering. Apparently they were a collection of some doctor that left the station years ago."

Ben didn't even he think, he jut blurted out his reply. "Together! Um. Um, I mean together. We can learn more about each ither as we go through the adventure, that is if you want to," He added. Not wanting to have Kate think he was anxious or anything.

Kate smiles at him.
"Okay, double-oh-one," she joked. "I'll download a bunch of them and we can choose which one to do, or we can make one from scratch."

Ben grinned at Kate, "Let's see what we have when you download them. If there is nothing we like, we can create our own adventure."

Kate smiles from ear to ear and nodded at her new friend.
"You want to leave out the romantic portions of the simulation or keep it real to the story. You know how those spy stories go.." Kate winked playfully at him. She really didn't mind either way.

Ben grinned at her, "Oh, leave it in. It will be fun." He answered as he suddenly wanted to know more about the woman who had just come into his life. "Oh, one thing. Does this mean you are going to get naked as well?" He grinned broadly at her.

"If it's in the story yeah. But you better lock the Holodeck!" Kate playfully stuck her tongue out at her new friend and giggled. She left her tricorder in the door on the way out because she wouldn't want her friend to be locked in the cake room by some strange omnipotent being.