Making Friends

Posted on 14 Oct 2016 @ 9:18pm by Lieutenant Amaranai Franklin & Ensign Miraj Derani

2,325 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 12 - Recluse
Location: USS galileo - Mess Hall
Timeline: Md-02 2100

[ON]

Miraj had the munchies. it was nearly bedtime, but she needed food, so she trotted along to the mess to see what was on offer. For a moment she eyes the chocolate mousse longingly, and then chose the cherry yoghurt and a banana. She spotted yet another new face lurking at the back, mustard trim on her uniform, and woandered over. "Hey. can I join you?"

Amaranai had gotten off her shift and headed to the mess. She was hungry but didn't want to overdo it as she knew she was also tired. She grabbed some hot soup and sat down at a table by herself. It wasn't that she didn't want to make friends, but she wanted to at least eat some of her meal in peace without having to converse with someone.

That, however, was changed when a young girl moved closer to the table and asked about joining her. For a split second, Amaranai wanted to ignore the girl but changed her mind. She put her spoon down and smiled.

"Sure," she said as she looked up at the girl properly and was taken aback by her appearance. She didn't say anything as she was already too embarrassed by looking.

"I'm Amaranai," she continued. "Security and Tactical."

"Miraj. Conn." Miraj peeled her banana, opened her yoghurt and dipped the end of the banana in the yoghurt. "You came over on the Wolfe, yes?"

Amaranai took another bite of her soup.

"Actually," she said. "I got here on the Oceana. But I did see that you were meeting up with both ships. I guess different people were coming from different places."

She paused a moment to take a sip of her drink.

"I transferred here from the Gemini. Just felt it was the right time for a change of scenery." She smiled at the other girl. "How long have you been on the Galileo?

"Not long." miraj licked the yoghurt off the banana and then bit the end off. "About 8 weeks. Most of which I spent parked on a planet."

The thought made Amaranai chuckle.

"A conn officer stuck on a planet," she said. "Were you grounded or something?"

Amaranai hadn't read any of the public reports that had been submitted by the Galileo recently, mostly because she just wanted to be surprised when she arrived. She didn't want to be influenced in her decision. She just wanted to set sail against the stars once again.

"No, Galileo was helping set up a colony on the most awful planet ever. Its only in the habitable zone nine months a year. They wanted to test some prototype robot out, but couldn't even get it to boot. There was a lot of shuttle work, but once we got there, the ship was parked. Kinda boring. Worthy work, but boring for a pilot. I'm so glad we're up in space again."

"I've been on missions where I didn't get to do a whole lot, so I know how it can be." She paused to finish off her soup and then looked at Miraj. "I'd prefer to be in the action," she continued. "I know it's not supposed to be what we do, but sometimes I think it'd be more fun."

Amaranai thought about her different posts and all of the missions that she had been on. She wouldn't admit it right away to Miraj, but Amaranai, at times, felt that she would prefer to be a Marine so that she could see more action. She also wished that some of her posts would lead to more combat. That didn't seem like something that was going to happen on a Science vessel.

"So," she started. "Where are you from?"

Miraj has scooped up some more yogurt on her banana and paused to finishe swallowing. "All over really. I was born in space, and since Dad was in Salvage we were always in space, travelling between wreck and flotsam and derelict. Dad's human." She added, just in case it wasn't obvious.

Amaranai listened as Miraj spoke and at the mention of her human dad, Amarani looked at her again.

"Salvage, huh?" she said after a moment. "Is that how you learned to fly? Your dad would fix up a junker and then teach you?" She paused a moment. "Or was it more like you'd accidentally crash something and then your dad would salvage it?"

She smiled, hoping that Miraj would get her joke.

Miraj laughed. "Not since I was seven." she admitted. "I just always have flown. I'd sit in dad's lap when he was at the conn, and just kind of picked it up. And then I'd fly anything i could get my hands on. And I just turned out to be good at it, so I was doing all the tricky nasty stuff, like reversing out of tight spaces, or manoevering through a debris field with half a helm and three thrusters. Wht about you? have you done much flying."

Shaking her head, Amaranai spoke. "I've only taken the basics," she started. "What they offered at the Academy. I can fly a shuttle without too many issues and can even take off and land without killing anyone."

She paused.

"As long as there are no extenuating circumstances."

Miraj laughed and ate some more yoghurt. "that sounds like a story from experience?"

Amaranai chuckled.

"Yes," she said. "One of my first assignments I had to fly an Away Team down to a planet full of electrical storms." She paused. "Getting down wasn't the problem," she said. She finished her soup and then looked at Miraj. "Trying to get off the planet wasn't a good thing because the shuttle got hit with some lightning. Shuttle got fried and we crashed."

Amaranai paused again as she considered that mission.

"We were fine," she continued. "But it took a day before the ship could get another shuttle down to the planet and rescue us." She smiled. "After that, the captain made sure that if I went on any other Away Missions, that I wouldn't be the pilot."

Miraj looked horrified. The idea of been banned from flying was the stuff of nightmares. "Thats hideous. Do you know the chances of a lightening strike doing damage? Its got so many naughts after the decimal point i don't how to pronounce it. And no one can fly a shuttlecraft in atmosphere without full propulsion. They've got all the aerodynamics of a block of cheese."

"Yeah," she said. "Well, the captain wanted to investigate the planet further than a simple scan would have done. So we had to go."

She paused.

"But that's enough of my history," she continued. "What about you? What prompted you to join Starfleet?"

"I want to fly new ships, bigger ships, ships that work and have all their thrusters and functioning warp cores. Salvage is fun, but you're flying ships at their worst. and I want to get n the test pilot program for Quantum Slipstream. can only do that in starfleet."

"Sounds kind of fun," Amaranai offered. "I've only heard a bit about the Quantum Slipstream program, so any further explanation would be welcome."

"Its a form of transwarp. Based on the ship Admiral Janeway made in the Delta quadrant. That Dauntless turned out to be a fake, but quite a few prpoulsion nerds grabbed it and ran with it. if they can get it to work, we can effectively make day trips to the gamma quadrant from here. But its a systemt thats going to require a lot of pilot input. You literally have to feel you're way through. It going to be awesome."

Amaranai smiled. She could tell that Miraj was definitely excited about he possibility of the tech as she had described it. She thought about her own life and if there was something that she was that excited about. At the moment, it didn't seem that she had anything special. Of course, she had just arrived on the Galileo, so she had plenty of time to find something. Sometimes she used her first few weeks as a barometer to what other people might think about her own hobbies.

"Sounds pretty cool," she offered.

Amaranai finished off her soup and wiped her mouth.

"So what sort of things do you do on this ship for fun?"

"I fly." Miraj admitted. "Though i don't really like simulators. the feedback is all wrong. But everyone seems to do something different. Having a holodeck is very useful. I've got a couple of holonovels i like to play through when I don't want to fly, but everyone seems to have their own thing."

"I have a couple of holonovels myself," she said. "I've always liked literature, so I had a few programs created to match."

Amaranai thought about the holonovels and considered her past adventures with them.

"Though I might want to branch out sometime. Have any thoughts on some new titles?"

"I've got the holonovel version of most of the bloodbeard books. I wouldn't call them literature..."

"Bloodbeard?" Amaranai asked. "Don't think I've heard of those. And I've read a lot."

"Bloodbeard. Its about pirates. The hero is Captain Bloodbeard and the books are about his adventures. Bloodbeard's Bounty, Bloodbeard's Banner, Bloodbeard's Treasure, Bloodbeard's cannon. You get the idea."

"Oh," she said. "I get it. I have several adventure novels but I don't think I have any pirate ones."

She smiled. Miraj didn't seem like the kind of person that would be caught dead with a holonovel about pirates but the more she talked wiht her, it seemed rather natural.

"You're obviously a fan," Amaranai continued. "I'd be willing to give it a try." She paused for a moment. "I wouldn't have to dress like a wench, right?" she said. "Not that I would mind, I would just want to be prepared."

She grinned at Miraj and chuckled.

"Only if you wanted to." Miraj replied. "To be honest, there aren't really many women in the books. Its a very male environment. I usually dress up as the cabin boy. Sometimes I play bloodbeard though. What sort of roles do you like?"

"Cabin boy?" she asked quizzically. "That doesn't sound fun, unless he's a secret adventurer in disguise."

She smiled again.

"I like to be where the action is, so I tend to try to be the hero as much as possible." She paused. "There are times when I will actually reprogram the story so that the main character is a woman instead of a man just so I can have more fun."

She looked at Miraj again, this time, taking her in in her entirety.

"And if I get the girl, better for me."

She winked and finished the last of her drink.

"Have you ever reprogrammed the holonovel to change the ending? Or randomize the adventures? It sounds a harder than it actually is and it makes it more fun."

Miraj choked on her banana a bit when the lieutenant winked at her, but covered it with a cough and concentrated on getting more yoghurt on the remaining banana. "Not really. The guy who writes the book usually writes notes on what happens if bloodbeard looses for the holo version. Since it usually involves a short drop and a sudden stop, I'm not really keen to loose. Do you do it a lot?"

Amaranai noticed that Miraj had choked slightly, but didn't say anything. Instead, she listened to Miraj as she talked about the novels and what should and shouldn't happen.

"Like I said," she started. "I like to have a lot of fun with holonovels. So what's wrong with changing the ending so I can have more fun?"

"nothing. I've just not really done it. What sort of endings do you like?"

"Well," Amaranai said. "I do enjoy getting the girl." She paused. "Or the guy, for that matter." Another pause. "But I do like to win and though some people might have problem with my attitude, they can think what they want."

She looked at the girl again.

"Besides the pirate books, are there other types of stories you enjoy? Or what about endings? Do you like to win or are you happy with ambivalent endings?"

Miraj poked her banana at the bottom of the yoghurt pot, trying to look nonchalant, knowing she was about to come across as a bit strange. "I don't know. I've never really done anything other than pirates. If it wasn't bloodbeard, it was Captain Blood, and Treasure Island, and Princess Bride, and Stranger tides, and Captain pugwash." she didn't look up. "I guess you can call me kind of monomaniacal."

Amaranai chuckled a bit.

"There's nothing wrong with a favorite," she said. "Though there are a lot of options besides pirates." She paused as she thought. "There's all the old Earth adventures with Alan Quatermaine or Sherlock Holmes or any number of adventure stories that were published."

She paused.

"I'd be happy to have you join me on an adventure sometime and I could even join you for one of your pirate stories. They do sound fun." She smiled. "And I promise to not reprogram it until we've gone through it at least once."

"Something new would be fun. What would you recommend?"

Amaranai thought for a moment and then spoke up.

"There's some fun vampire hunter adventures that I enjoy. And they have two lead characters," she said. "We could try that one out first and then your pirate story after that."

She paused and then smiled.

"Anytime you're free," she started. "Since I just got here, I don't really have much of a social life just yet."

Miraj nodded. She'd never tried anything with vampires. it sounded fun. "Thats cool. want to go tomorrow?"

"Sounds great," she said.

END


Lieutenant JG Amaranai Franklin
Assistant Chief Security / Tactical
USS Galileo

and

Ensign Miraj Derani
Cheif Flight Control Officer
USS Galileo

RSS Feed