No Guaranteed Days

Posted on Sat Jun 22nd, 2024 @ 5:33pm by Lieutenant JG Benjamin "Ben" Dalton & Lieutenant JG Kate Kono

Mission: The Andromeda Strain
Location: Kate Kono's Quarters
Timeline: Shortly after the hail from USS Andromeda

Kate woke up with nothing but the bedsheets to keep herself decent. After the wild night she had with Ben, she didn't want to get out of bed at all. Thankfully, unless something pressing was happening, this was her day off. She looked over to see an empty spot next to her on the bed. She was sure it was Ben's day off too. If course, last night she was much too busy to ask him. Kate smiled and giggled to herself at that thought as she slipped out of the sheets and walked to the bathroom where she laid her uniform the night before. She pulled the top of the uniform off the sink counter and placed the new hollow pip next to the solid gold one and admired the uniform with a smile.

Part of her wanted to just put the uniform on anyway, but the other part of her wanted to simply stay in her quarters exactly as she was without even showering to get the evidence of the previous night's escapades off her skin. At the same time, if it turned out Ben wasn't working, she didn't want to seem like a lazy ship bum. She giggles to herself as she backed into the sonic shower and turned it on. The warm breeze and the low him caressed her lithe frame as she was suddenly clean again. She stepped out and walked back into the main room.

"Computer turn the temperature up to about eighty," Kate said. She walked over to the replicator and ordered a bowl of rice and soy sauce. When it appeared with chop sticks sticking out of the bowl, she narrowed her dark almond eyes at the screen. She emphasized the use of a fork instead and the chopsticks vanished, replaced with modern technology, a fork, instead.

From there, she took the bowl and started eating out of it while standing in front of the viewport looking out at the warp field as it rolled past the window as streaks of light. She felt like the luckiest girl in the universe at that moment. She counted herself lucky that the events onboard the section-31 vessel didn't break her in some way. She found herself wondering just what those strange beings were, but for the most part she tried to keep her mind off such things.

She took another bite and tried to think about something else. The smile cake back to her when she thought about Ben last night. She loved making someone happy. She heard the doors to her quarters open as if on queue to her own thinking. It must have been Ben. Because if it wasn't, she knew they'd be in for a shock, whoever it was, to see her wearing nothing but a bowl of rice.

It was indeed Ben and he was carrying two big, covered dishes. He stopped as he saw Kate. "Well good morning>" He said with a smile. "I must say Kate, I like this set of clothes you are wearing. Most becoming." He grinned again and walked over to her. "Stop eating rice. I have us something better." He said handing her a dish. "I went to the mess hall and got us, waffles, pancakes, scrambled eggs, ham, sausage some hash browns and orange juice. Figure we need to keep our strength up after last night." He finished chuckling as he did.


She giggled and sat down at the table. She would have tackle hugged Ben but then there would be food all over the place.

"I'm glad we at least have our same days off!" Kate stabbed into the waffles and started eating. "Think we can add extra energy for later?" Kate asked with a wink. "This is so cool! Thanks for doing that. You didn't have to. But I love it. I hope I can make you just as happy!"

Kate waited for Ben to sit down as she just sat there and glowed between bites.

Ben smiled at her as he sat down. "Yes, most becoming" He said again and added a wink. "Oh, me too! Having the same days off is great! We can do stuff together, plan to stuff together, talk about anything and everything." He took the cover off the dish to reveal the food inside. "Yum. yum." He whispered.

"What do you mean I didn't have to do this? Yes, I did Kate. I most certainly did." He stabbed a sausage then looked over to Kate. "You make me, very, very happy Kate. You are as pretty as a picture...and sitting there like you are certainly doesn't hurt. I hope I make you happy." Ben answered.


Kate grinned from ear to ear.
"Glad you don't mind. Back a few years ago, my parents had me take care of a plot of property on Earth. I still own it, my parents gave it to me. The small, crappy house boat on the lake is gone but at the time, I was taking care of it... I was still studying for classes and since it was such a secluded spot out in the wilderness... I had this really strange brainzoink about my laundry situation since I didn't have access to an onsite replicator, or a washing machine."

Kate pulled over another waffle and dug in.
"... I decided after I took a shower to just not put any clothes on for a day. Then, the next day, I realized, 'nobody is around for miles... It's my property'... I could go outside naked if I wanted to. I got used to it, despite being shy about it around other people. It was one of the things that made suddenly ending up in Starfleet difficult."

There was more to the story of course since Q was involved but there was irony that he made it to where she still had that land after she time traveled. But the boat was long gone. Kate looked Ben up and down and smiled.

"... And you look good no matter what you got on. But yeah, glad you don't mind me being comfortable," she winked and giggled.

Ben sat and listened as Kate told her story of the houseboat and going nude. His sausage going uneaten. He grinned at her. "I bet you got very happy going without clothes and I don't blame you. It was your boat, your property. You could do whatever you want." He cut his sausage and popped a piece in his mouth. After swallowing it, he looked at her. "I am very happy and glad you are so comfortable with your body. "I mean you look good, real good." He took a sip of his juice.

"You know, you can go nude here all the time. I certainly won't complain. Only time you have t get dressed here is we're having company or going out of our quarters."

He paused and his eyes twinkled with delight when Kate said she liked how he looked. "Well, I thank you kind lady. I thank you very much." He winked at her and stabbed at his waffle. "You know this is good, not as good as looking at you but good nonetheless." As Ben finished he once again realized his feelings for Kate were growing with every minute he spent with her. She was so vibrant and alive. "Kate....." He began.

Kate smiled and nodded at the idea of just not throwing anything on after a sonic shower. She was the type to keep clothes on unless there was a reason to take them off, but also, to not put clothes on unless there was a reason to get dressed. She didn't have the heart to tell him that her nudist tendencies were more out of being lazy after working so hard rather than a propensity towards naturism. But she was relieved this man liked her even though she wasn't exactly all curves.

Kate was done eating quickly, her small stomach only able to handle a little food at a time. She was more of a 'eat smaller portions all the time' kind of girl than someone who sat down for huge meals. But she absolutely loved Ben's enthusiasm and the breakfast was very tasty. She caught herself looking into Ben's eyes with a huge smile.

"Yeahhh?" She asked.

Ben lost his thought when Kate smiled at him with a smile that went from ear to ear. "You finished? He asked as he tried to remember what it was he wanted to tell her. Then he remembered. "Kate." he started again. We have a good thing right? I mean between us. We like each other a lot, we like the same things and we have the same interests. Well..." He paused and then looked into those big expressive eyes, and the cute adorable smile. "I love you." He announced.


Kate opened her mouth wide and walked over to his side of the table. She sat on his lap and straddled him as she pushed her face up next to Ben's.
"I love you too!" She smiled back before kissing him.

Ben's face split into the wonderous of smiles, it stretched from ear to ear. After Kate had kissed him, he grinned at her, "Whew! I was so worried I was going to blow it." Then he stopped talking and kissed her again.

Kate shook her head and kissed him back.
"Nope!" Kate said as she sat in his lap facing him. She kept shaking her head and smiling at him. "I liked you too from the moment you got onboard. Especially since you like some of the same kinds of entertainment I do! And you're always so sweet and thoughtful and you don't mind my hyperactive ways... You're a keeper!" Kate winked and giggled. "So what ya wanna do now? We have a whole free day ahead of u..." Kate stopped talking when a ship came up beside their viewport. ".... what the frack is that?!"

Kate stepped off of his lap and looked out the window.
"... Looks like a giant Starfleet Dorito with warp nacelles."

Ben just smiled as Kate talked, when she finished he answered, "It does help we like the same things and you are easy to nice, sweet and thoughtful to Kate. Your a keeper as well." His smile grew bigger as she asked what he wanted to do. "Oh, I don't know, I'm sure something will come u...." He stopped talking as she got off his lap and walked to the viewport. "Its a Starfleet ship. I think it is a Prometheus class. "And I think whatever plans we were going to make need to be shelved."

"Well," Kate shrugged her naked shoulders as she looked out the window and leaned into Ben's chest. "You never know.. The ship looks like a Dorito. Logic suggests that these people might not need any intelligence for whatever it s they're doing with a ship that looks like that." Kate nodded to herself while being hopeful.

Ben brought his arms up and around Kate to hold her close. He laughed at her description of the ship. "You know it does look like a Dorito. You may be right n=maybe they don't need us. So, in that case, let's not waste time." With that he turned her head to him, kissed her softly and winked, "Come on time's wasting."


"Wanna smash?" Kate squinted and grinned as she ran toward the bedroom.

Ben followed her, "I do indeed want to smash," He replied with a big grin on his face.

*Half Hour Later*

Kate was on her stomach and had her chin resting on the outer edge of one pillow she was laying on with another pillow on top of her head and she was peering out of the two pillows at Ben as he lie next to her while she looked at him. If there were a 'Signature Kate-Burger' her face between those two pillows would have been the product picture as she grinned over at him playfully.

"Good news is they haven't called either of us yet... Maybe they just ran into each other and said hello! Space isn't that big, you know? Sort of like how despite the Ocean being so vast, in the twentieth century, submarine will always end up surfacing underneath a fishing boat. I think they call it Occams Shaving Rash or something like that." Kate knew it was Occam's something, but her mind was so worn out from the fun she just had with Ben that she just wasn't thinking straight but she still dared to muse.

Ben looked back at Kate. They had just spent a very fulfilling thirty minutes smashing as Kate referred to it and now, they were relaxing. "Maybe. Don't say anything else. you may jinx us." He teased and then added hopefully. "Though I think that may be wishful thinking." He shook his head at her, "It is Occam's razor as you fully know. But I like your new name for it. Occam's Shaving Rash. As a ring to it." He chuckled as he lay there looking at her.

"Makes sense it didn't have anything to do with Hygiene," Kate said with a giggle. "It's too bad movies and cinema went out of business. Just imagine the kind of film sets people could develop with a Holodeck. But then again, it does make sense that if people just used the Holodeck, they could be the main character in the story anyway." Kate giggled. "I have a fun idea. How about one day, we go into the Holodeck with the express purpose of departing from the narrative intended and ruining the entire plot?" Kates giggle turned to a laugh as she sat up in the bed.

"Like, James Bond killing the bad guy in the middle of his long winded story-starting monologue, or, launching Phoenix missiles at the MIG 28's as soon as the Tomcats leave the carrier and destroying the enemy from 120 miles, or, the O.K. Corral, but the good guys have level 3A plates and M4's!" Kate bounced exuberantly on the bed as she rattled off ideas.


Ben listened in rapt attention as Kate rattled off her ideas for them. "Those are all really good ideas Kate. I think the one I like the best is where we go off the intended plot and free wheel with out own ideas. No telling what we can come up with or the fun we can have.' he winked at her, "I have already have an idea for us."

Kate crawled back ontop of Ben and sat straight up, obviously all ears to the idea that he had in mind.

"Okay! What famous story are we going to famously screw up in ways that'll leave the ships computer cross cored hehehe." She kept giggling mischievously as she smiled down at Ben. "We can give Dirty Harry Callihan an M-203 rotary cannon?" She wondered.

Ben smiled up at Kate. "That isn't a bad idea Kate. I like that! however not what I had in mind. Have you ever watched the old vid Bullitt? The car chase? Well, we do that but with jet packs. What do you think? We can also combine other vids to make it all ours."

He grinned at her, "I also have something special planned for you the next time we smash, for your adventurous spirit."

Kate smiled and shrugged as she sat on top of him.
"I haven't seen that movie, but I'll try and pull it up on the database before we play the holodeck. I can also teach you how to fy a Viper so we can fly missions for fun, too if you want." She giggled at the idea of having a flight buddy.

"Really? You'll really teach me? Kate that is great! Thank you so much. I promise I won't disappoint you! I'm a quick learner." Ben rambled on. "I'll help you with the movie, so don't fret over it. You aren't curious about what I have planned for you?"

"Sure! What did you have in mind?" Kate wondered as she transferred a handful of files over to a PADD that she pulled from the stand next to the bed. "Just getting all the fun materials all set up so that Ican show you all the fun stuff in a bit hehe." Kate seemed happy about sharing her interests with him just as much as she loved the idea of him sharing his with her as she excitedly moved files around so he can start learning how to fly an obsolete 20th Century Cold War Aircraft.

"I can't wait to get started!" Ben gushed and then paused for a moment. "Oh, I don't know if I should say Kate, other than it is going to be fun."