Lounging Around

Posted on 13 Nov 2024 @ 6:18pm by Ensign (Provisional) Bertrim Wysocki & Ensign Aurilia Moretti

1,469 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Bait and Switch
Location: Ten Forward
Timeline: June 21, 2390 || 1800 hours

It had been a long shift and Lucas was still helping with survivors of the multiple starships and Unity that had been rescued by the Black Hawk and she and the Black Knights had been on patrol in two hour shifts for the past twenty four hours. Now she was ready to wind down.

Once she took a quick sonic shower, the lithe redhead dressed in a pair of baggy lightweight silky black pants, a blue crop top that exposed her flat abdomen and a pair of black flats. She pulled her hair back in a ponytail, then headed to Ten Forward. She missed the old Talon's, but she missed the old ship, too. It had gone down on New Bajor while she circled the planet in her little fighter looking for her love.

She shook her head of such dark thoughts and entered the place where most of the crew went to off duty to talk, unwind, grab something quick away from the mess hall, or have a nice synthehol. She stayed away from most alcohol and synthehol since she had met Abrams, but she did have a vice.

Aurilia took a seat at the bar and smiled at the waiter behind the bar. "One double chocolate chip mocha shake, please," she said.

"You got it," the Risan male said with a smile of his own before he headed off to make the chocolately, caffeinated drink. It seemed that Humans would put anything in their body and he had seen as much on Risa.

Bertrim Wysocki had been onboard the Blackhawk for forty-eight hours. He found himself finding a table, mostly were full. In the corner of his eye a redheaded young woman caught his eye. He made his way over and placed his hands on the backrest of an empty chair, "Do you need company, Miss?"

Aurilia looked over her shoulder towards the voice and smiled at the young man. "It's a free lounge and a little company wouldn't be bad."

Socks sat down across from her, he leaned across the table extending his hand to her, "The name's Bertrim, everyone calls me Socks. Yours?"

"I'm Aurilia," She smiled. "But they call me Tango. I'm with the Black Knights fighter squadron."

"Tango," Socks found repeating to himself while he shook her hand and then lounged back into his chair across from her. "I'm also a pilot. The new chief flight control officer in fact."

"Nice to meet you," Aurilia said. "Are you new to the ship?"

"Sure am," Socks continued, "fresh from the Academy too."

"Sweet," she said before she took a deep drink of her double chocolate chip mocha shake. "Lucky assignment or did you piss of a powerful entity to get here?"

The server looked over to Socks, interrupting their conversation, "Can I get you anything?"

"I'll have whatever she's having. It looks decadent."

The server nodded and took off to retrieve Socks' order.

"To answer your question earlier: lucky assignment."

"Must be nice," Aurilia said. "Of course, being new, you'd think this was a lucky assignment. Well, it does have its perks. What's been your favorite part so far?"

"Favourite part?" Socks replied with a rhetorical question while he gave his answer some consideration. "I would say my favourite part so far is getting to know the senior staff and the crew."

"That's been one of mine, too," she said. "Especially meeting the man that would change my life in ways I didn't know needed changing."

"Oh? Who's the lucky man?" Socks winked at her while the server placed his matching drink to hers down in front of him.

"Doctor Lucas Abrams," Aurilia said after taking another sip of her shake. "He rescued me from myself."

"I believe I've met him when I went down to help do triage when I first came aboard but haven't spoken to him socially," Socks commented before taking a sip of the drink before him. He found it on the sweeter side of things he was normally accustomed to but it was delicious.

"He's a pretty big man, but that's because his heart is so big," she said. "I was an alcoholic and kept getting written up before I was sent here for my last chance. He didn't lecture me. He didn't threaten me. He helped me. He held me through the shakes. He wiped away the sweat. He made me believe in myself."

"Well, I'm glad that he was there at the right time and place to help you through your recovery," Socks answered before taking another sip. He gestured to the glass, "What the hell is this concoction?"

"So am I," Aurilia said with a smile. She nodded towards the shake. "That, Socks, is a double chocolate chip mocha shake. It'll add twenty pounds to your waist, then make you run it off until you collapse."

"Well Tango, I'm not sure if I love it but I'm also not sure if I hate it either but I can't seem to stop myself from taking a sip here," he took sip, and then another, "And another."

"It keeps my nerves steady so I can fly," she joked.

"I can see that," Socks reflected with a long sip of the shake with a bit of slurping.

Aurila laughed. "The controls of the fighters are so fine tuned that I barely need to touch them. How easy is the Helm?"

"I haven't really had a lot of flight time since we've been mostly in stationary orbit. I did just get back from doing several personnel transport runs with the Henson."

"What made you choose Flight over being a fighter pilot?"

"I have always had a preference on piloting something large, always wanted to be rated in both. We'll see if that's possible some day."

"We have plenty of holodeck fighter sims if you want some practice," Aurila said after taking another chug of her shake, causing her cheeks to collapse inwards for a moment. She took a breathe and shook her long coppery red hair. "I could show you a thing or two if you want, too."

"That sounds like it could be a lot of fun count me in," Socks continued, "I've put in a couple hundred of hours into WWII dogfight simulators."

"What's WWII?" the redhead asked as she looked at him.

"You don't know twentieth-century Earth history?" Socks asked semi-rhetorically before continuing with his answer, "It was an armed conflict on a global scale in Europe and the Asia-Pacific."

"How does that help you fly starships?" Aurilia asked, not seeing the Correlation between some ancient Earth aircraft and a modern fighter.r

"Hmm," Socks replied with giving her question very little thought, "I thought the two were connected somehow."

Aurilia shrugged and took another pull of her shake. "Sorry, but I don't see it."

"That's fair," Socks looked down into his milkshake, "I know this is out of topic but what is growing up on Earth like?"

"What makes you think I was born on Earth?" She asked.

"Just an assumption."

"I was actually born on Copernicus City on Luna, but I did spent a lot of time on Earth visiting relatives," Aurilia said as she finished her shake. "It was pretty cool, but the gravity sucks." She grinned at the double entender. "How about you?"

"Luna?" Socks asked with a raised eyebrow, "I wished I paid more attention in the class for Sol system's planetary bodies and their satelites but I didn't."

"I was born here in the Gamma Quadrant. I haven't been on the other-side of the wormhole except for the short stint I grew up in a monastery on Bajor during the war."

"Really?" She asked, looking surprised. "What was that like? Did you go to the Academy on New Bajor?"

"Living in a monastery on Bajor or growing up in the Gamma Quadrant?" He continued, "Technically I'm still a cadet just continuing my studies while I sit at the conn. Hence the different style of pip," he pointed at the provisional ensign pin lapeled to his collar.

"Both," Aurilia said. "Were you there when the original Black Hawk crashed on it?"

"Yes, I was a freshman at the Academy."

"I was new to the Black Knights at the time and saw her go down," the redhead said with a look in her eyes that spoke volumes at that memory.

The Ensign had finished his milkshake, "It was great speaking with you."

"It was nice to meet you, too," Aurilia said with a smile. "Maybe I'll see you around the ship sometime."

"Likewise," the Ensign stood from the table, "Sorry to dash off like this but I've still got some coursework to do before I get some sleep. Have a goodnight."

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