Joint Duty Log |Lt Zola & PO Rayya| "Free For Lunch?"

Posted on Mon Sep 29th, 2014 @ 2:31am by Petty Officer 2nd Class Rael Rayya

1,821 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Are You Touched?

= V =

Once back on the Vindicator, Rael went and put the 'Little Big Sound' probes back in their case. He didn't get the chance to see them in action when they were used to help rescue Ivanova and the now deceased Neyes. They were incredible. Standing up, he tapped his badge, "Lieutenant Zola, this is petty officer Rayya, do you have time for lunch?"

Zola had been pouring over Commander Dahe'el's design notes for the Vindicator when her combadge chirped at her. She set aside her slug-o-cola as she recognized the name and voice of the marine who'd talked to her about her Little Big Sound probes... except now he was using naval rank? Zola scratched her head with a PADD as she tapped her combadge on the table to respond.

"Sure," she answered, looking around for her uniform. Crew mates always got upset if she left her quarters without clothes on, silly hew-mons. "After Dark Lounge?" she suggested as she started to get dressed.

"Sounds perfect," Rael said, sliding the case back into it's place. "Meet you there in five," Rael said as he walked out of the storage, signing that they were returned and put back.

=/\= After Dark Lounge =/\=

Zola made her way into the After Dark Lounge, and looked around. The place was impressive, kind of intimidating even, but she'd heard very good things about the food. She looked around to see if the petty officer had arrived yet.

Rael walked in a few minuets later spotting the Ferengi looking for him. "Right behind you, Lieutenant," Rael said in a upbeat voice, "Sorry, got caught up filling out some forms."

"Oh, no problem," Zola chirped in reply. She looked around and spotted an open table under the window. "Shall we sit there?" She pointed to it. She noted the change of uniform color to blue instead of the marine green.

"Looks perfect," Rael said leading them to the table, "so how's your day been going so far?" he asked, pulling the chair out for her.

"It's been slow. I'm not due on duty for a little bit yet, but that might change. I think Commander Dahe'el may tap me to help with something involving the planet?" Zola had to jump just a little to get up into the chair, glancing back up at the taller Petty Officer as he helped slide her chair in once she was on it. She was used to having to drag herself closer to tables with her ankles hooked on chair legs.

"Ah yes, the planet, that's gonna be a mess," Rael said, taking his seat, "I haven't checked in with my chief yet, but is there something interesting about the planet itself?"

A waiter appeared at the table, almost as if from thin air, waiting silently to take their order.

Looking up at the waiter, "I'll have a egg salad sandwich and a coke please." Rael said giving a waiter a nod.

"I'll try what he's having," Zola added, aiming her sharp toothed grin at the waiter. He nodded, and hurried off without a word. "I think it's just the Klingons want to get people off it. There's a downed ship, right? I think I'm gonna be helping get that picked up."

"There is, with bizarre set of characters coming from it," Rael said, taking a drink of his water, "and by the way the 'Little Big Sound' probes worked perfectly." He added with a grin on his face.

"Characters?" Zola crossed her arms on the table and leaned forward with a curious look. "Glad to hear they worked well, how many did you deploy?"

"Sorry, their crew are a very intriguing group of people," Rael said shrugging his shoulders a bit, "and only two. Would've brought more, but wasn't sure if the mission was gonna involve much moving."

"They work best in groups of at least six. Lets them form a grid when searching and sweeping, helps them triangulate positions better, and compensate for interference. Also, redundancy if one or more fail or are damaged by the environment." Zola considered. "I didn't plan for them to work in anything less than groups of three, and that was less than ideal. You said they worked okay with two?"

"Yeah, even through heavy jungle, they picked out creatures that were four feet and under," Rael said with a smirk, "but if I had one more, I probably would've got a better reading. I also attached the scans to come into my Marine tactical tricorder."

"Marine tactical tricorder," Zola repeated as their food arrived. Zola looked at the sandwich that was set in front of her, and smiled at the soft clink of the coke bottles meeting the table. She was pretty sure that sampled and distorted, it'd be a fun thing to layer into a noise track. "I haven't had a chance to use one, what makes them different than a standard tricorder?"

"It's dedicated more to picking up body signatures and heat signatures at longer range than a standard tricorder. As well as syncing better with other sensory devices like the 'Little Big Sound' probes," Rael said, "if you would like, I'm sure I can requisition one and you can take a look at it." He added as he took a bite of his sandwich.

"Please," she answered, carefully picking up her sandwich just the same way he did. "What is an egg salad sandwich?" She considered the food in her hands.

Before her jump in time, she'd kept a terrarium of beetles and slugs to feed herself with, but had found it difficult to replace her supply since. At first it'd been because the fleet wouldn't let her contact the outside worlds, then starting with her Moogie, most Ferengi wouldn't give her the time of day, let alone sell her anything. By the time she'd found out her brother and father would talk to her, she'd already started to adjust to hew-mon food. There still was a lot she hadn't tried.

"Ever heard of hard boiled eggs?" Rael asked deciding to ask that before trying to explain the rest, seeing as the hard boiled egg was the essential ingredient of the sandwich.

"Yes, but I'm curious how anyone got the idea to prepare them like that," she returned, setting the sandwich back down and lifting the top slice of bread up to look at the contents.

"Once they get the shell off the egg, they'll mash the egg up and mix it with some mustard, mayonnaise, and relish — which is finely diced pickles. And once it's all mixed thoroughly, they spread it on bread," Rael said with a grin.

"I like pickled slugs," Zola allowed skeptically, closing the sandwich again. She picked it up and sunk her sharp little teeth in for a bite. When she swallowed, she grinned. "That's pretty good... But I'll bet pickled slug would make it even better."

"If you say so," Rael chuckled as he took a sip of his coke, "have you ever had a peanut better and jelly sandwich? That one for me took awhile to enjoy."

"The first time I tried it, the replicator pattern had chunky peanut butter, which reminds me of beetle shells..." Zola scrunched her face as she said this. "Moogie always shelled my beetles when I was little," she confessed, leaning across the table and collecting her coke bottle. "I liked it better with smooth peanut butter and marmalade." She took a small sip from the coke bottle and pursed her lips as she let it sit on her tongue a minute.

"I agree, I prefer smooth as well, with either strawberry or blackberry jelly." Rael said smirking as she saw her face when she tasted the coke, "how's the drink?"

"It's so bubbly," she observed, her eyes opened wide momentarily, "And it's such an odd flavor. People like this?" She shoved the bottle away from her, towards the middle of the table.

"Some not all," Rael said, "it's like you preference to smooth peanut butter instead of chunky; everyone has a different preference, and there are also different flavors of soda — for example lemon/lime."

"Well, I do have some slug-o-cola that my brother sent... but it's not bubbly," Zola returned, "It's got algae in it, very tasty. If you want to try some, I can always bring you a bottle some time. Where are you now, medical or science?"

"Of course I would love to try slug-o-cola," Rael said with a small smile, remembering her mother's lesson of always accepting an offer to try new things. "Science," he added while taking another sip of his coke.

"Got tired of being a jar head?" Zola asked this casually, not realizing that the name for marines wasn't intended to be a nice one. She smiled, waiting for the answer.

"Got tired of fixing things that caused destruction instead of helping," Rael said, sitting back, "and I would watch the use of 'jar head' in the future," Rael added, giving Zola a little smile, "some won't take it as well as I have."

"Take it well? Is there something wrong with it? So many hew-mons call marines jar heads," Zola made a face as she asked this. Hew-mons were so weird about what they called each other.

"Some Marines might find it offensive or feel that only other Marines may use it." Rael said shrugging, "it's a weird cultural thing."

"Offensive?" Zola's eyes went wide as she repeated the word. "I don't mean to offend! I'm so sorry, I had no idea."

"It's okay," Rael said with a smile gently patting her hand, "like I said before just beware of it for the future." Rael said finishing up his sandwich.

"Okay," Zola said softly, considering when she's heard other people call marines Jar Heads. She'd have to start watching for that, see what other names she might have been calling people that she didn't realize were rude. "Let me know when we can meet up about the marine tricorder? Maybe I can either make a program designed to help it interface with the probes, or we can design a similar device dedicated to the probes?"

"If you have time, tomorrow would be perfect." Rael said finishing his drink, "let's say around 2130."

"I'll have to get back to you, once I know what's going on with the possibility of an away mission, but otherwise that sounds good. I'll bring the slug-o-cola." She grinned wide.

"Perfect. I look forwarded to tasting your drink of choice," Rael said with a smile as he stood, "well I better get back to the labs and good luck on the away mission if one comes up."

"Thank you!" Zola grinned up at him, then turned her attention back to the last couple bites of her sandwich.

=/\= END LOG =/\=

Lieutenant Zola
Engineering Officer
USS Vindicator

Petty Officer Rael Rayya
Science Mate Second Class
USS Vindicator

 

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