Sweet and Sour (Part One)

Posted on 29 Apr 2013 @ 8:19pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho

3,821 words; about a 19 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Panne's Quarters
Timeline: MD04: 1940 hours

[ON]

Of all the things that Maenad had ever been called, a good cook was not one of them. She was neither particularly bad nor good it, it was just that she had very little practice. Almost all of her food came fully prepared from the replicator, lending her not the slightest idea of how she could do it herself from scratch. For Maenad, an academic who'd spent most of her life in universities, cooking never found the time. Reading, writing, and studying was more than a full-time job. There were times where she would spend seventy hours a week for whole strings of months devoted to study. In her mind, to stop work and to cook when she could simply whim up whatever meal she wanted just by asking for it was nonsensical luxury.

And luxury was something that Maenad was never and good at, either. She gave the impression sometimes, perhaps, that she was refined and bourgeois, but she wasn't. She was materialistic, but she wasn't selfishly so; Maenad liked things because she liked them. Her small collection of wood-carved and porcelain animals and knickknacks reflected that, so did her large and similarly bland wardrobe, and so too might have her many books. But nothing about her said it was there to be seen, but rather that it was liked.

And that was the indifferent attitude that Maenad had taken toward eating and cooking. To show off oneself as a cook when food could be readily assembled out of thin air, to her, was pointless. It was just another way to flaunt one's talents, something that Maenad never enjoyed. She didn't care what people were good at, and she cared even less when they tried to show it off. Show was bad.

But, here she was, in her kitchenette trying for the past two hours to make Kiri a dinner from scrap. Almost. Maenad had had to replicate the ingredients, of course, for sweet and sour pork. There were no pigs on the Galileo except for Stone, and even if she had the will to slaughter him, she might hesitate before eating him. Handling and dicing the meat in her bare hands was a gut-wrenching experience in itself, and she daintily tried to handle the PADD with the recipe without getting the screen all covered in juice. She kept washing them and wiping them on a hand-cloth on the stove.

Preparing the side of noodles for the chou mein was even more frustrating. Because it was so hard to tell when they were done, Maenad overcooked them repeatedly. It was after the third time that she thought to use a timer, each time having to spend several minutes waiting for the water to boil. For the first time in her life, or what felt like the first time because it had been so long, she understood what was meant by 'a watched pot never boils.'

But, in the end, Maenad had prevailed. At least, she thought she had. She'd never had sweet and sour pork, and it had been a very long time since she'd had chou mein. Her taste testing made her very proud of herself, making herself stand a little taller than she already was and boast her chest a little. The computer told her it was almost 2000, meaning that Kiri would be there very soon.

She dished the food onto plates on the stove, covering them to keep them warm, and then rushed into her bedroom to dress. She slipped on her nylons and a knee-length black skirt, and a white-collared shirt which she didn't care to button all the way. She whitened her face and reddened her lips, just enough to show that they were there, and lined her eyes with black. She made her hair look nice and about ten or fifteen minutes later, Maenad was back in her living quarters setting the table. She lit a candle in the middle and dimmed the lights. She thought about playing her piano until Kiri arrived, but sat down at the table, perched on the edge of a chair with her hands in her lap.

As she waited, Maenad hoped that Kiri wasn't upset with her for ignorantly breaking her promise to prepare dinner before they left Vega, but it was a promise she'd hastily made and was forced to reschedule. She pressed her lips as she played with them hem of her skirt by her knees.

Kiri didn't know what her relationship with Maenad was any more, or that much of what it had been before. Despite her attempts the plans she made always fell short of what they were meant to be. She was her boss, the person she reported to and yet. A person she had talked to at length about things she considered extremely personal. As she learnt more Kiri had found herself more and more confused, Maenad was different than she expected, very different. She also felt let down, unwanted with how events were unfolding. Failed meals, lost offices, replacement and limited contact. Even being given her own shift to manage, that somehow felt like a punishment. So the invitation made her both happy and worried. She was trying to change though, if Liyar and Cyrus were right rather than Dawn then Maenad might not like her because of how she felt about herself. That hadn't changed yet but Kiri was considering what Athlen had said, she wasn't likely to get happier staying the same.

She wore a fitted blue wool dress that hugged close to her body. A triangle of black cut in on each side and drew attention to her shoulders rather than her chest. Black sleeves clinging to her arms down to her wrists, and a dark waistband before the dress gave way to loose pleats over black tights. On her wrist she wore the spiralling pearl bracelet that Pola had given her and and her feet had little black pumps. The biggest different was her hair, rather than being lifeless she had taken the time to curl it. The volume had increased drastically and made her seem more lively, each step made it bounce a little as it rolled down her neck. Walking with her hands held close in front of her Kiri still wasn't able to figure out how to best change how she came across, if at all. Should she be the officer she felt she should, or one of her other persona? Before she knew it she was at Maenad's door, looking a little meeker than normal she pressed the door chime.

Maenad shot up from the chair and quickly made her way to the door. It was Kiri, she saw and she smiled down at her. "Hello, Kiri," she said. "Please, come in. I hope you're hungry."

"Good evening," Kiri bowed slightly, "Thank you." Being dressed up and visiting Maenad this time was a little strange but it felt more alive than being in her own room. "Yes," Eyes drifting across the table and noticing the candle which caused her to stop. She hadn't eaten since lunch and that hadn't been that big.

"Well, please, come in and sit down," Maenad extended her arm in a welcoming gesture. The curls in Kiri's hair struck her as odd; she had never seen her with anything other than her usually straight hair. "When did you curl your hair?" she asked, making her way to the kitchen.

"This evening, I wasn't sure it would work," Kiri felt rather sheepish now but it had looked good in the picture when she'd been looking at dresses, "You look nice." Maenad was dressed differently than last time Kiri had been together with her, it suited her though. The sort of thing Kiri might wear if she was at home but not in jeans, or sweatpants. The whole room smelt like there had been cooking going on all day, it smelt a little like home.

"Oh, thank you," Maenad said from the kitchen. "So do you. What made you want to put curls in your hair?" The idea of curling her own hair seemed as foreign to her as adopting Klingon culture. Maenad had always had straight hair and she always would. She came to the dining room with two plates of her sweet and sour pork, then went back for the bowls of chou mein. "I hope it tastes all right; I am not a very good cook," she admitted as she sat down.

"I just thought, maybe I should change something," It was complicated but it felt like changing something helped her feel changed? Her mind was cleared though as the smell got stronger and the plates came into view. It did smell nice and look edible though she couldn't attest to taste yet. Managing to look rather apprehensive now Kiri gave a small smile, "It looks fine."

"Looks can be deceiving," Maenad smiled. She reached for the bottle of red wine she'd pulled from her cabinet and poured first Kiri and then herself a glass. Maenad took a rather large drink, then padded gently at her lips with the cloth serviette before unfolding it on her lap. "Computer, start playlist Piano Favourites at one fifth volume," she said. "And dim the lights by sixty percent." The computer complied and Claude Debussy's Rverie; began to play softly in the background. The flickering candle seemed to brighten suddenly by many times, but provided a pleasantly romantic setting for a dinner for two. Maenad looked better in more subtle lighting; shadows complimented her physical lines and sharp angles, and made her eyes seem more alive somehow.

She looked down at her plate as she picked up a fork. Mixed with the pork and sweet and sour sauce were chinks of red and green bell peppers, onion, and pineapple. The chou mein she had prepared with bean sprouts, celery, mushrooms, peppers, onions, and broccoli. Maenad went for the noodles first, wrapping a clump around her fork. "I don't know how to use chopsticks," she said with a shameless grin.

Everything seemed to happen at once and it left Kiri blushing and rather bewildered. The room being darker and the music alone she could have coped with. The scene that it created in front of her was one she had sometimes dreamed about, it was so sudden though. She wasn't even sure if Maenad was really her friend and she'd created a romantic meal. As a human from Earth she must be aware of the implication right? Eyes wide Kiri elected to focus on the meal rather than anything else. Even trying to ignore the fact she was being served alcohol. The way that things were laid out didn't lend themselves to chopsticks, neither did the setting so Kiri chose the same but kept her head down, "Thank you for going to so much trouble." Deftly cutting herself a section of noodles that she folded with her knife.

"Well, I promised you dinner, and after having to leave so suddenly last time, it was the least I could do," Maenad said after swallowing. She thought it tasted pretty good for a first try. "How do you like it?

Taking a mouthful Kiri took a moment to chew, very concious that she might be watched. It wasn't bad, it wasn't as good as at home but she wouldn't dare let that on, "It's lovely," A smile followed it. Sucking on her lip for a moment more Kiri looked up, "How was your day?" Her citrous body spray started to diffuse across the table and mingle with the other smells. When in uniform she tried to smell as neutral as possible, since they were dressing up.

"It was fine," replied Maenad with a slight nod. "The away mission was a lot of fun. I'd never seen a B class planet up close before." She caught a whiff of something fruity, almost citrus, but wasn't sure where it came from; she hadn't used any citrus in her cooking. Maenad took another sip of wine to wash down some more noodles. "How are the sample analyses going?"

"Good, the should be finished completely in a few days, depending on what else we find. The planet has a large amount of liquid Rubidium under the first liquid layer, but has very limited amounts of Carbon other than its atmosphere." Kiri dare not attempt the wine yet and cut herself another portion of chow mein.

Maenad played with her food a bit, prodding at the pork chunks with her fork. She had only asked about the sample analysis to create conversation; without thinking, she'd made it seem like a work-related dinner. "Are you feeling better?" she asked, hoping to sound more interested in Kiri than in her work.

"Mostly, it is still hard to sleep some nights," Kiri shivered very slightly, "It was a little easier last night though," Her face flushed red slightly. It was nice here, it was nice to talk. Some things had started to go well for her since they last spoke. It wasn't quite boasting but Kiri wanted to let somebody know.

"Good," Maenad said. She felt sympathy for the young woman; she had a lot of responsibility for someone her age, and even though a lot had gone well for her, she'd had to deal with some pretty traumatic things. "If ever you feel lonely or want to talk to somebody, you can always come to me," she said with an easy smile. The candlelight glinted in Maenad's dark eyes, making them sparkle with sincerity.

"Thank you," Kiri bowed her head slightly. If there was something she felt Maenad could help with she would. The person she wanted to impress more than any other was Maenad though, she didn't want to appear too weak. It was all nice, nice to have someone do things like this for her.

Maenad ate some more from her plate and took another generous sip of wine. She was actually proud of herself for having made a meal that tasted as good as it did, and Kiri seemed to be enjoying it too.

"Did your dinner with the Captain go well?" Kiri spoke softly, not sure if it was meant to be a silence or not.

Maenad glanced up from her plate and held Kiri's eyes for a second. She was grateful that she was chewing at the time, giving her time to come up with an answer without casting suspicion. "Lirha is a wonderful cook," she said. "And I find Nesh adorable. Someone with her curiosity will go far in life," she said as though it were a fact. "It was a lovely evening."

"I'm glad," Kiri had a lonely night in turn but not unpleasant. Because she'd cleared her time she got a little work done for pleasure and read a section of a book before reluctantly sleeping. She was slightly jealous of Nesh for the attention, trying to forget about it another forced smile appeared, "Will she be helping with any of the away missions, or remaining on the ship?"

"I don't know," confessed Maenad. "If she would like to find her way on one of them I wouldn't be opposed; it's up to the captain." She drank some wine. "Do you like her?"

Kiri still found her interesting but hadn't seen her other than glimpses with her different shifts, "Yes," She didn't dislike her, "She is very different from how I was at her age." That was the thing Kiri found the most problem with, she had no real way of relating to Nesh, it worried her with regard to her own new sister.

"Ah," that didn't surprise Maenad in the least. Kiri was difficult to interact with now; she could only imagine the troubles she had at seventeen. Maenad pulled off a piece of pork between her teeth. The meat was thick and juicy, but broke apart with hardly any effort. Somehow, it was perfect.

After a pause and Kiri started to move onto some pork for herself she looked up, "Before when we talked, you asked if there was anyone on the ship I might like." It was rather a big thing for Kiri but of everyone she felt that Maenad might be the best to help her.

"Oh?" Maenad asked. She didn't remember asking Kiri if she liked anybody; in fact the idea of her doing that sounded as alien as the prospect of Kiri liking anyone. A hidden grin began to appear on Maenad's lips and she turned her head a little to the side. "Do you?"

"I think so, I'm not really sure what to do about it though, well, how to react." Taking a breath she shook her head, "I can't really work out how he feels about me." He was wonderful to her and yet he didn't show her the same attention she gave him when they were together. If it was because he wasn't human or he didn't like her or something else entirely.

"Tell me about it," Maenad encouraged. "Maybe I can help."

"Last night he came to my quarters with a box of fruit he picked for me on Vega Colony, we hugged," She was hesitant and started to blush slightly, "We talked for a while and it was late, he wanted to sleep on my sofa. I made him breakfast in the morning and we talked some more." Closing her eyes, "He said he thought about me when he was away, but if he was interested in me then why would he leave?" Then much more reluctantly, "To be with someone else." She had been happy with the events really but they weren't what she had dreamed of. There was also the spectre of doubt in her mind that he wouldn't be interested in her at all, she had little to offer him.

Maenad narrowed her eyes, pressing her lips together as she thought of who it could have been. Whoever it was, they had spent a while at Vega Colony. Then it dawned on her. Kohl had spent longer than than anyone else, and his absence was unexpected. And Kiri had told her before that Kohl's departure had saddened her. But this, then, formed a tiny wave of panic in Maenad's chest: Kohl had told her that he liked men. The reason he had stayed on Vega was to spend time with a love interest. Maenad slowly licked her lips as she carefully opened her mouth. If that were true, Kiri was in for some serious heartbreak. "Mister Kohl?" she asked, almost in disbelief, as if she were seeing a piano falling.

"Y, yes," Kiri realised how easy she had made it to work out, "But, please don't tell anyone." To her the only man Kohl had talked about was the one he had been with, even that wasn't in detail. It hadn't even been clear, it could have been a woman just with a name that sounded male. To her there had been no indication that he didn't have an interest in women as well. He was also the only person on the ship to show as much interest as he had. The only one of two she thought might be romantic, the only one of those she felt she could return.

Very slowly, Maenad nodded. She sipped some of wine. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone," she promised. Maenad had no idea whether it was her place to tell Kiri, whether she should be the one to deliver the bad news. In a way, she was angry with Kohl for having led her on - even if he had no intention to. On her first day aboard, he too had caught her attention with false promises and a now-obviously fake interest in her. She sighed through her nose and wrapped some more noodles around her fork.

"Thank you," Following her lead Kiri picked up her glass and looked at it for a moment. It was rude not to try it, carefully she took a sip, not really sure what she was expecting. It was sharp and almost made her cough, it definitely tasted like alcohol. Taking another sip she placed it back down carefully, "I thinking about trying to spend more time with him, so I can try and work it out."

"I think that's a good idea," she quickly agreed. The faster Kiri found out, Maenad thought, the better. She smiled across at her, but it was sympathetic. Kiri had told her once that she had never liked anybody, and was reluctant to, but here she was trying to find somebody with whom she could identify romantically - and would be turned down. If she were in Kiri's place, Maenad thought that she would have probably misinterpreted Kohl's friendliness as something too. But she knew better. "How old is he?"

"His file says he is twenty seven years old," Kiri had read most of the files she had access to as part of trying to get over her fears. Reassurance from Maenad helped her make her mind up about asking him to have dinner with her next time there was a chance. To spend more time with him, partly to find out more about him, partly to impress him and try to make him like her more.

"Oh," Maenad grinned. She remembered crushing on people that were older than her, but she had never had the courage to do anything about it. Perhaps in some ways Kiri was more confident than her, once she'd found herself - which, to some degree, it seemed she had. Shrugging to herself, Maenad wondered whether at 31 if she even knew herself sometimes.

"What compelled you to curl your hair?" Maenad asked. "I never thought I'd see you in curls," she confessed with a smile. She preferred Kiri's hair the way it was, but she was still glad to see Kiri mixing it up. Even if Maenad wanted to curl her own hair, she would never have the courage to do it.

Despite being extremely scared of failure, other than her discovery that she was socially defunct she had never experienced it. That was why it had hit her so hard and she felt so unable to resolve it. Taking as many precaution as she could the fact she could fail felt rather distant and disconnected still. As for her hair, "It's silly." Glancing down at her plate, "I wanted to change how I was thinking about things, I've never tried to curl my hair before, I was trying to take a small risk and I think it worked." She wasn't sure about keeping it but it was more about trying something unknown rather than the look.

[TBC]

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Lieutenant (JG) Kiri Cho
Assistant Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

Lieutenant (JG) Maenad Panne
Chief Science Officer
USS Galileo

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