A Little Bit Of A Snack

Posted on Sat Feb 13th, 2021 @ 3:49pm by Lieutenant Commander Evelyn Rozia

Mission: New Beginnings
Location: The Raging Deity
Timeline: Before leaving for Pathstone

Although the two women walked arm in arm, making idle chatter along the way, Mica knew that Evelyn was wary of her. After years of distracting others, Lt Rue was accustomed to the distance that came from her personality and the normal folks around her.
Entering the lounge, Mica looked around. “I see what you mean.” She nodded to a table. “Shall we?”

Evelyn glanced behind the bar and didn't notice Lon there, but mentally shrugged at that. One of his staff was there, which was good enough and it wasn't like there was the need for Lon himself. "Absolutely, and we don't even absolutely need someone here to place our order." She grinned, "Interactive tables and all for when the bartender would rather be more passive or is a bit busy." She slid into the seat and tapped a few buttons on the table and a holographic menu popped up between them, "I've been kept up to date on how things here have been going."


“Don’t suppose they could replace a nice lida.” Mica slipped in across from her. “My brothers always surprise me with a basket of them when I return home.”


"Well, what the chef can't whip up, a good replicator can." Evelyn chuckled, "And if it can't do it right away, I can either do it myself or get one of my other engineers to do it." She punched in an order for a mocha cappuccino, then after a moment of thought deep fried mozzarella sticks with a side of marinara sauce, then looked up guiltily, "I'm kindof partial to fried foods." She explained.


Mica programmed in her own order; a coffee and a piece of cake. “It’s baked goods for me - I became quite addicted to them when in the academy and never quite shook it”


"A good danish is never something to turn down, glazed with some melted sugar and perhaps some lemon curd or raspberry jam in the center?" Evelyn almost started drooling, "And I'm sure you're wondering how I keep my figure rather than be as round as a watermelon, don't you?" She giggled.


The Lt chuckled. “In a way, although I am all too familiar with how the job can keep you moving constantly."

"And on a ship over a kilometer long, I'll end up needing to be in two or three places at once." Evelyn shook her head, "I'm still considering setting up a couple subnodes within the ship where I can station teams for quick response. I've got about a hundred and fifty-odd engineers I'll be in charge of, and I don't think it'll be enough."

Mica nodded. “Multiple contact and workstations among the ship would also make the regular jobs on a regular basis more efficient as well, you would think. What about a pre-designated site to site transport as well?”

"That could work, but that would also tempt me to put myself in more than one location at a time, or near enough to it to have no significance." The engineer smiled at the server who brought over a tray of the requested consumables and picked up one of her pieces of fried cheese and waved it like a baton before dipping it in the red sauce, "I'd rather hold that in my pocket for important times rather than use it on an everyday basis, besides I need to trust my fellows."

“Most definitely, that’s what I meant; in emergencies. Regular use wouldn’t be practical.” She turned her plate so the whipped cream faced her, she ALWAYS ate the whipped cream first. “My chief on one of the larger starbases had used three point checkins for engineering. It worked well, although there were always some logistical problems to work through with scheduling multiple areas”

"Well, I'm still working my way through how I want to handle this." Evelyn admitted, humming in delight at the chewy cheese for a moment, "This ship is three time the size of Scheherazade and I'm still getting used to that, even a few months in."

"Understood." Mica sank her fork into the luscious chocolate sponge, watching the piece break from the rest of the slice with a sigh, the viscous fudge on top dripping into the crevasse, filling the hole into the plate. She sighed in response, placing the piece on her tongue, closing her lips around it, removing the fork. Closing her eyes. Gods, she missed earth chocolate...

"But, any which way, you're welcome in engineering at pretty much any time, what I ask, however, is that you stay away from the QSD?" Eve raised an eyebrow, "Until she gets settled in after a significant bit of use, I'm seriously considering a rope line or forcefield to keep the other gawkers away from it." She popped the second half of her second to last mozzarella stick in her mouth with a crisp crunch, "Seriously, some people have considered it just a stop on the tour of the ship."

The other woman nodded, biting her lip. "I'm sorry about that. I have always tended to get...well..." she glanced out one of the windows. "I don't really...GET people. But engines, machinery, things that we can disassemble and put together and modify and upgrade. These are things I understand. I've spent an awful lot of my life with them. I've gained a reputation since being with Starfleet - I'm the strange one, the one that talks to non-people, who touches electronics and tries to make sense of them before even looking at their innards. I don't date, I don't often have friends, and apparently I have an unhealthy attachment to my family." She looked back at Evelyn. "That's me, in a nutshell. A very specific nutshell."

Evelyn listened closely to what was being said, considering the last bit of fried cheese before carefully nipping off the very end of it, "There's nothing wrong with that. The best people like us tend to have our own idiosyncrasies that others don't understand. My own reputation is a bit different than yours: I'm precise to a fault. I don't tolerate mistakes in myself and get very, very paranoid about the center of my focus, which on this ship is that QSD." She took exactly a centimeter of the food in her fingers off, "I also get things done, on time, and not always the way other think they should be done."

Mica chuckled. “You just sound like a Chief to me.”

Popping the last of the cheese into her mouth with a regretful sigh, "Well, the shoe fits, I suppose." Evelyn sighed, "Don't get me wrong, I'm quite happy to be so, but I've got ideas that I want to see hit reality, some of them coming from some friends of mine who want to field-test certain um... Useful items. And being Chief robs me of some of that time."

“That makes sense, it seems like the measure of success is when you don’t have time for anything else.” Mica sipped her coffee. “When I ran a team at the trill institute, I barely saw my brothers. Sad really, considering I lived with two of them.” She put her fork into the cake, considering anther bite. “But perhaps you will be able to delegate more once everything settles on the ship. An overworked head of department is never a good thing.”

"Oh, delegating is never a problem, it's following up on the delegating that takes the time." Evelyn laughed, "Admittedly, I've got a good senior Chief to help me with that and to tell me to shut up and go to bed when I really need it." She smirked, "Am I a workaholic? Somewhat. Am I a dumb workaholic? Not a chance."

The smile remained on the Lt's lips long enough for reality to sink in once more. "Evelyn, do you ever wonder if it's...too much sacrifice? The life of Starfleet I mean. Families and friends...children...things get put to the wayside all for...this..." she spread her hands, palms upward. "I do believe the ideals are worth it, but..."

"Don't sacrifice family and friends, even children then." Evelyn stated quietly, "My old Captain on Scheherazade has a daughter, Bonnie, that's eight years old, well, almost nine now, but it didn't stop her. I may look like I'm giving up on all that, but I'm not. I just haven't met the right guy yet, been on a few dates and had a boyfriend for a few months before he moved on." She shrugged, "If the right someone happens along, I'm not averse to a relationship."

Mica nodded. “I hope we all get our happy-ever-after, or at least a happy-for-now. And a new ship, a new posting is a good start for it. She glanced around the room, at the new officers arriving and sitting to enjoy drinks or a meal. I suppose here is as good as any, with the variety of life there will be to choose from”

"Mica, my dear, there are five times as many people on board this ship than were on the old Astraea." Evelyn smiled softly, "For me, it's almost seventeen times more than Scheherazade and until a week ago, it was only about a hundred people here. This is a whole new world, literally, than either of our last assignments. Happiness is right around that corner, you never know who you'll bump into."

Mica let the slow grin take over then. She was in no rush to find a companion, but the chief was right- anything could happen in a ship this size. She raised her mug. “To bumping into opportunities”

Evie raised hers and clinked it gently against Mica's, but hesitated for a moment, "May they not make too much of a mess!"