I Think You Forgot This...

Posted on 10 Oct 2018 @ 4:48pm by Chief Warrant Officer 2 Kala Gorvel & Master Chief Petty Officer Kai Mazen
Edited on on 10 Oct 2018 @ 4:48pm

2,615 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Episode 17 - Crystal of Life
Location: USS Galileo-A, Deck 6, Section 26, Room 10
Timeline: MD -178, 2000hrs

[ON]

Kai looked at himself once in the mirror and decided his appearance was acceptable. Black T-Shirt, cargo shorts, and sneakers, since he was off-duty and this was a social call. He picked up the toolkit Kala left behind, the one he ‘just couldn’t find the time to return’ during her shift and started for the door.

“Raowoo-oo-oo-oo,” said Fin from his bed. The android beagle lifted its head and titled it, which usually meant he was asking something. “Raowoo?”

Kai looked at Fin.

“What?” he said. “You want to come with me?”

“Raow-oo-oo!” Fin said.

Kai shook his head.

“Fine,” he said. “You can be my wingman. Just don’t overdo it with the cute stuff, okay? We don’t want Kala to think we’re trying too hard. Got it?”

“Raow-oo!” Fin said.

Kai chuckled and not for the first time wondered whether it was the biped or the quadruped who was in charge here.

“Alright,” Kai said. “Let’s go!”

Kai exited his quarters with Fin following at his heels, weaving in and out between and around any people he encountered on the way, stopping to say hello to people he recognized and then catching up to Kai when he heard his master’s whistle summoning him. Finally, Kai arrived at Kala’s door and rang the buzzer. Fin sat patiently at his feet, just to the right.

Dancing around the room in an over sized grey paint splattered jumper, jean shorts and bare feet Kala was really letting herself enjoy the time she had between shifts. With no active department head she was really picking up the slack like most of the senior non-enlisted in engineering. Listening to some 21st Century pop music, something she discovered at the Academy Kala picked up the paintbrush and applied a few more licks of paint to the canvas when her door bell chimed.

"Come in!" She shouted over the music.

The door opened and Kai entered. "Kala? I think you forgot this..."

Fin ran right up to Kala and sniffed at her, hoping to be pet.

Kai grinned.

"...I meant the toolkit, not the dog," Kai continued. "Fin! Don't get in the paint! You'll leave paw prints everywhere. Uh, right...hi."

Kala had turned to see who it was would enter and smiled pleasantly as Kai's form took shape in the open doorway. Laughing as Fin ran in to explore the new environment she was glad her roommate was absent on duty. "Hey!" She said over the music and putting do the paintbrush that was in her hand before wiping a drop of paint from her face but only smearing the blue speck across her face and over her Trill spots.

"Wow, I must have really left in a hurry If I left that behind, thanks for returning it." She said looking around "Can you place it on the table?" She said holding up her paint splodged hands.

Kai thought Kala looked great with paint on her, but didn't say anything, only smiled.

"Sure," he said, putting the kit where indicated. "I didn't know you painted. That looks interesting."

Kala watched him pop the kit on the table she had asked him before answering, "Yeah, its a small past time. It helps me relax, and its fun!" she said turning to her painting "Yeah, I'm doing an abstractionist piece of the main engineering room." though at its current stage it didn't look like much she thought.

"Well," Kai said. "I admit I'm no art critic, but from a layman's point of view, it looks good. When did you start painting? As a kid?"

"Yes, though our art on Trill is a little different. Art is art in its purest form no matter where you come from but this style is from Earth, I learnt this particular one when I was at the Academy. Do you paint or draw?" She asked curiously.

"Sadly, no," Kai said. "The most artistic I get is that I play around with a bass, which I use to mess around with Jazz, Fusion, Blues, and Funk, though I can't really say how good I am. I played in a band as a kid. Mostly now I just do it to relax. I've got a full on stand up double bass stashed at my parent's house, but it's too big to haul around with me. I was able to get my 5-string baby bass, my 5-string electric bass guitar, and my six-string electric shipped out before we left, so I play around with them. Fin doesn't seem to mind."

"Awroo-oo-oo!" Fin said.

Kai laughed.

"That had better be 'I love listening to Kai play bass', my little canine quadruped!" he said. He grinned at Kala. "Now he's a music critic!"

Kala was fascinated by Kai's relationship with his mechanic dog and it made her smile. "You'll have to play for me sometime! I like music, especially when I paint it calms me" she said before adding "Well since you came all this way to drop of my things would you like to stay for a bit?

Kai flashed Kala a winning smile.

“I absolutely would,” Jake said, hoping he didn’t sound over eager. “I was hoping I’d get a chance to spend some time with you that didn’t include my shower trying to kill us.”

“Awroo-oo!” Fin bayed, found a spot he liked, turned around in a circle a few time to make the spot comfortable, then flopped down, head on the deck, making yellow puppy dog eyes at the bipeds.

“Ha!” Kai said. “I guess Fin is happy you asked us to stay, too!”

Kala thought for a moment about Fin before asking "Why do you just give him a human voice processing unit? That way you could know exactly what he's thinking and saying" Kala had to wonder if it would be easier or harder to live with a pet that could tell you exactly what they wanted or what the thought.

"Ah, the million dollar question," Kai said. "First of all, it's more involved than just giving him a voice processor. His brain wasn't designed or programmed for speech, and his jaws and head and voice box aren't designed to produce words as we know them. Secondly, he's a dog. He's highly intelligent for a dog, but still, he's a dog. He plays fetch, he wags his tail, he pokes his cold nose into your face and licks you half to death at 0600hrs when he thinks you've slept enough and wants to go for a walk or a run. I get the impression he wants to be as much like other dogs as he can be. Besides, we seem to understand each other pretty well, don't we, boy?"

"Awroo-oo-oo," Fin rose up and bayed and went over to stand next to his person.

"See?" Kai said. "Who needs words?"

"You two surely do make a pair, sometimes I feel like I'm the one intruding on some cute bromance, its rather sweet really." She said teasingly. "So I've got to ask, why is it you waited all this time, whilst I'm off duty to return my tool kit? I mean you could have just dropped it off in engineering, got someone else to do it or just recycled it into the replicator system." Kala knew she was fishing for what her gut was already telling her, they liked each other's company and maybe he felt some sort of guilt for staring at her butt, either way she was going to tease him for as long as possible.

Kai looked Kala in the eyes and smiled at her, just enough heat in his gaze to get a reaction from Kala, but not enough to seem creepy or like he was forcing anything.

"I think you know the answer to that," Kai said.

She winked "I'm a female I know a many of things." Kala moved towards Fin, kneeling down and began to stroke the hound. "Though if you think using Fin is going to help you... You might actually get somewhere."

Kai laughed.

"Yeah," he said. "Fin is the perfect wingman. He's cute even when he's not trying to be, and cute dogs attract cute girls...and beautiful women. Sooo...I didn't read your record because I wanted to find out about you from you. You made Chief really fast. You must be a pretty damned impressive engineer."

"I'm not exactly the chief, just standing in really. It's more just for my shift." She admitted deciding to sit down on the floor with her legs crossed as she continued to pet Fin. "But I was lucky enough to get a good education on Trill and my dad is a shipbuilder so, its kind of like a family thing.

"HEY! You're not one of those weirdos who just find my spots attractive are you?" She teased.

Kai joined Kala on the floor with Fin.

"Your spots are sexy," Kai said. "And we've established that I'm partial to your ass, but those aren't the only things I like about you."

Kai gave Fin a pet, but the android dog was more interested in Kala at the moment.

"What I was saying was that you made Chief Petty Officer really quick," Kai said. "Unusually quick. So I'm guessing you are every bit as smart and determined as you come off, which is also very sexy."

She felt her cheeks go red and her spots tingle with embarrassment and surprisingly with excitement. "Well, Urm thank you." The trill said sitting for a moment in silence as she pet Fin before adding, "I was lucky in my last assignment I had to step up because of an unfortunate accident and I was given the promotion on a temporary basis. After I was allowed to keep it. I was told to commission and go down an officer track but I'm no officer."

"I don't know," Kai said, grinning. "I think I could take orders from you. But I know what you mean. I've been a chief a long time and I like what I do. I'm just not ready to give it up, though the Command part of the job is taking some getting used to."

"I bet it is, usually I only have to deal with a few engineers now I'm filling in yet another role." She let out a sigh, "I do hope we find a chief engineer soon. As much as I enjoy my job at the moment its a lot of work running a department, even if it is only a third of it." Kala admitted. "You'd make a good officer though, I mean you basically already hang out with them."

"Oh Great Bird of the Galaxy forbid!" Kai said with a laugh. "No, I work for a living. Admirals command fleets, captains command ships, but chiefs are the ones who really run everything. Even the really young ones. Nothing gets done without us."

The trill chuckled "Easy their tiger, I don't think we need any birds of any galaxy" She was intrigued by the way the man spoke and how he presented himself. "I think we should arrange something to do together that are not requiring me to fix your shower, bleed all over your room or be covered in paint"

Kai smiled mischievously.

"I can think of some fun stuff we could do covered in paint," he said. "And not all of them require being naked. But yes, we should. I want to know all about you Kala Gorvel, and I'd even like you to know me, if that doesn't sound too corny? Is that too corny?"

"Yes, that's extremely corny but I think I can let you off this once," She said flashing him a teasing grin. "I'll make you a deal. You arrange the date and I'll maybe forget how corny you are and also forgive you for taking sooooo long to bring back my work kit. Sound good?" Kala had no idea where the words were coming from but she did know she was enjoying his company she wasn't sure yet if she liked, liked him but after all isn't that what dates were for?

"Hmmm..." Kai said. "Dinner? My quarters? Wine, or beer, if you prefer, even the hard stuff isn't out of the question. I've got some Rigelian hard cider and cold fermented applejack that'll blow your mind. Music or maybe an Old Earth film? How does that sound?"

"All of the above I think," She said not helping him in the slightest her grin only teasing him more. "Though I do like old Earth culture I was introduced to a film once by urm... a friend in the academy I think it was called trainsporter or something?" Kala said unsure of herself.

"Ah," Kai said, grinning. "An action film junkie. I have that very film on file. It was called "The Transporter". People say I look a lot like the lead actor. I think I'm better looking, but I might be biased. Tomorrow?"

Kala face saddened "I'm pulling double duty tomorrow and well I'm a little busy for a few days how about this time next week?" She wasn't trying to prolong the idea but the engineer really was busy, she'd love nothing more than to just sit up all night watching old Earth movies with Kai but work was work.

Kai was disappointed, but he was also patient. He didn't let the delay bother him too much.

"Well, that's too bad," Kai said. "But next week is great. I'm looking forward to it."

Kala gave fin one last scratch behind the ears before helping herself off the floor. "Me too, and thanks again for bringing back my toolkit I'm glad it gave us this opportunity to get to know one another." No truer words had been spoke Kala was looking forward to seeing Kai in the future and even more so what he had planned for them next week.

Kai took that as his cue to leave. He got to his feet and Fin, somehow sensing that it was time to go, bayed once at Kala, before moving to his position at Kai's heel.

"Alright," Kai said. "Next week then. In the meantime, if you see me in the mess hall or the bar and want to join me, please feel free. I really enjoy your company."

Fin bayed. "Awroo-oo-oo!"

Kai laughed.

"I think that means he enjoys your company, too," he said.

The door to her quarters opened as her roommate returned, she didn't say anything but Kala smiled and waved before turning her attention back to Kai "Have a good night Kai" She leaned in kissing him gently on the cheek. "And you too Fin" And she bent down kissing the mechanical dog his fur tickling her cheek.

Kai wasn't a particularly grim man, but he did carry off the image of the gruff NCO, even when he wasn't trying. When Kala kissed him on the cheek, his expression softened.

"You, too, Kala," he said. He nodded to Kala's roommate and headed out, Fin following at his heel, stopping long enough to let Kala's roommate pet him.

She smiled waving as she watched them leave and let out a short but heartbreaking sigh. She lingered for a moment as she watched them further the gap between them before the door itself decided to end her longing as it closed shut inches from her nose. "Bye" She said again.

[OFF]

--

Chief Petty Officer Kala Gorvel
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Wyatt]

HMCM Kai Mazen
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo-A

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