Masks Like Mine (Part 3)

Posted on 01 Feb 2013 @ 8:48pm by Lieutenant Kiri Cho & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren

3,000 words; about a 15 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo: Deck 2, Lilou's Quarters
Timeline: MD01: 1800 hrs

[Continued]

The movement shook Lilou back and she blinked a couple times. "Better?"

Edging back towards her seat Kiri nodded, "Yes, thank you." It was completely new for her to be close to someone like that. More than welcome but what happened next? Did it all go back to the way it was before, did their relationship change? Should she say something? Sitting down she looked up at Lilou, what did she feel about it all?

"Good." Lilou dropped unceremoniously back to her own seat beside Kiri. "Have you tried lida?" she asked, apropos of nothing. She didn't know what to say; she hardly ever did. "I couple replicate some. They're... or kaki? They're Trill fruits. We're going to have to go through all this again, next time we find a place that actually grows these, because they really are different, when they're not from a replicator."

"No," Kiri really hadn't tried anything Trill before tonight, "What do they taste like?" Her mind was already on how she could find these plants and grow her own. Her room was big enough for it, but where would she find them?

"Kaki are about the size of a big fist. They're really sweet and also kind of... spicy, I guess, although that's not exactly right. Spicy to the nose. But not on the tongue." Lilou shook her head, "I'm not really good at describing stuff. But with kaki you have to peel the top leaf off and then scoop out the insides. Kind of like pudding. But not." She nudged her food around her plate, thinking, "And Lida... Lida are stone fruits, they have a pit, you know, and they're about the size of two thumbs. Mostly, they get mixed with things - sugar, like a syrup, or tea or water, for flavoring. They're too sour for most people. I mean, for most non-Trill. My father ate them raw by the handful when I was growing up, as did Uncle Krajek and Liso, but my mother..." Her lips curved into the barest of smirks, remembering, "Every time she tried to eat one by itself, she looked like she was about to murder someone. Her whole face scrunched up."

"Do Trill like sour things then, compared to humans?" Kiri knew she did but she had no idea that it might be true for other Trill. Then genetically she wasn't anything special, she was just another Trill. It was on a social and cultural level that she was completely different. On that level she was human, more so than most others she knew.

"I don't know," Lilou shrugged. "I haven't asked every one of our species I've met. And I haven't met that many of us." She ducked her head, "Maybe you should ask Mialin. Or Rothgra."

"I meant generally, but I might. It was just you were saying your father and uncle did, and, well I just thought," Resisting the notion to shrug her shoulders Kiri looked back at the food. It was nice, but was she always going to like Chinese food better?

She hadn't known generally. Hadn't that been what she'd said? Lilou glanced sideways at Kiri. There was an enormous amount of pressure from the science officer to know 'things' about Trill, but Lilou was mostly positive that she was not the right source for that information. Whatever it was. Kiri felt disconnected from her species, that much was clear, more so than Lilou did. At least there had been her father, and his friends - the men she called Uncle who had helped to teach her hours upon hours of preparation for testing for the Symbiosis Commission. Still none of them had ever really spoken to her about Trill - not the planet, not the people generally. They were tight-lipped on the subject. Asking her father about it had only served to irritate him most of the time. She knew some of the foods, yes, because her father grew them. Prepared them. Not because he spoke about them. She knew a few names of places because she'd looked them up when she was a child, and then again when she'd thought she would be going to Trill. She knew the frustration of not having seen the world where everyone looked the same as she did, perhaps had similar tastes, but Kiri could go. If she wanted. She could probably go whenever she liked. Lilou would never be able to see that planet for herself, thanks to whatever it was that had sent her father far away never to return. So why ask me? she wondered. Just go. Just go and see for yourself. Why rub it in?

Kiri started eating again, leaves and beans. She hadn't really gathered how little contact Lilou had with other Trill. This talk of fathers and uncles and others, they were more than Kiri ever had. Her family often talked about their past and cultures. Her fathers and grandmothers talk about China and sometimes Japan or Australia. Her mothers and uncles talk about America and Russia and even more so when her uncle talked about space. The concept of a family that didn't do that was alien to her. Silence hung in the air for a while more until she spoke up, "Did you have a chance to think more about the holodeck?"

"Not really, no," Lilou answered, cutting a syto bean in half with her fork. "Did you?"

"A little bit," Kiri watched Lilou cut the bean, "One of the cities maybe, where we could watch people."

"I'd like that." Lilou murmured, "I'd like that a lot."

That brought a smile, things didn't seemed to have gotten too strange, "When do you think you would be free?"

"I've got to do final checks on the shuttles and see if I can't muscle in some on the fly upgrades for the ship before we reach the Rojar. Maybe after we're in orbit in the system, if you have time?"

"Okay," Kiri didn't really know much about any work going on with shuttles, "What are you working on upgrading?"

"The captain wants the ship to be able to sprint if there's trouble. She's fast right now, but... it won't do any harm to sit down and do a hard study of our capabilities. See if we can't rig an emergency boost larger than what we've already got."

"The flow would need to be reversed but you could draw power from the new sensor power capacitors if its an emergency. The safe guards will keep all the new system upgrades safe. It wouldn't be a huge amount but it would be something," Kiri tried to be helpful. The matter of the shuttles interested her also though, their sensors could be polished up a little more, even the ones they had worked on before. That had been fun.

"Mm," Lilou nodded. "I'd thought about that. And we can work that. But even with that, that only takes us up to Warp 8.8. But if for any reason we were up against... say a Romulan destroyer. Or... almost any ship in their fleet. Even their scouts outpace us. And they can do that for a while." She tugged her ear, "We'll work on it though. Best we can do, considering she just told me now and there just aren't the parts available from 185."

"I thought the Romulan's had enough problems without starting a war," Kiri bit on her lip, they were a science vessel after all, not a warship. They shouldn't need to be running away too often. That said however there were other sources of power on the ship, "Can you connect the warp cores of some of the advanced probes together?"

"That won't get us to 9.9," Lilou said with a shrug. "It's not a matter of a war," she explained. "It's pirates. Especially since the Hobus' supernova, it seems like more and more have taken to the stars as free agents and they're using the fleet ships for their cause. Those that could grab them. So says the FNS. I didn't take it very seriously, but apparently Saalm is. She says go faster, I need to figure out how. And the energy we've got... We need to have power for emergency systems, life support, the escape shuttles... It's not an easy fix."

"I see," That was more complex and Kiri didn't normally watch the normal news, "I could investigate if we can made adaptations to our current equipment though. There was a team working on advanced asynchronous warp fields at the Academy, the problem they had was with creating a stable field. I think they were trying to use the wake of a smaller core to make travel easier." Kiri had paid attention but not notes or details, it was also right on the edge of her knowledge. No one had spoken to her about their new mission yet other than a rough idea. She'd had no idea it might be hostile, maybe she should work on updating the ships ECM. If it was Romulans then maybe programmed countermeasures would be needed as well.

"If you've got data on that, I'd like to see it. Couldn't hurt." Lilou ate half her bean. "I'll see if I can't pull something up through the LCARS, too. But we only get you if Lieutenant Panne doesn't need you. And I think she will. These planets... moons... they sound amazing."

Kiri's sensors had been pointed much further afield than that for the day. There was plenty of time for detailed scans of the planets when they got there. There were more interesting tests to be run on long range comets and interstellar gas clouds. Even though there were much closer sensor stations, in Sata Beta Three there was a stellar nursery that was just starting out. Having a long range perspective of that data could be really useful. Since their meal together yesterday Kiri hadn't really seen Maenad to talk about it, even that had been abrupt. "I haven't heard anything about them," Kiri said even though it was slightly guiltily. She should have really tried to find out more than the basic facts but lately no one had been telling her much of anything.

"Lieutenant Panne is supposed to brief you," Lilou said, looking at the other half of the bean. "I guess I probably shouldn't."

"Oh," Kiri looked down at the plate, that might be right but it didn't seem any harm to talk about it. Instead of debate the point though she took a breath, "I had dinner with her yesterday."

"Oh?" Lilou asked, "That's a good thing, right?"

"Yes," It was a good thing but, "I wanted it to last longer though, we didn't actually eat anything."

Lilou squinted at her. "Then you didn't have dinner?"

"I suppose not, I planned to and I even dressed up but she had other things to do," Kiri lamented that she'd had a night alone in her quarters after that. That she had taken off the dress a little angrily and slipped back into her uniform to try and keep herself occupied with work.

Lilou was not sure what to say to that. No part of it made sense. Why would someone plan to eat and then not? Why get 'dressed up' for it? Unless that had been arranged beforehand. Maybe it had. The only times she'd ever gotten dressed up for any dinner, she'd been going to graduation or a date. "Oh," she said softly, and she ate the remaining half bean. "Maybe she's not... you know... I mean, she's your commanding officer."

Kiri looked rather confused at that comment, "Yes?" A concerned look crossed her face, "Do you think we shouldn't spend time together?" That was the conclusion she could draw, it might not be appropriate for a commanding officer to be friendly with their subordinates.

"It's not my business," she murmured and looked back at her plate. "But... did you ask her or did she ask you?"

"This time I asked her, last time she asked me, it was sort of mutual though, I think." Kiri wasn't really sure she should be talking about this but maybe someone else's thoughts would help her work out what was going on.

"Oh." Well, if Panne had asked her the first time. "I'm not good with people," Lilou admitted quietly. "I'm probably not who you should ask. But if you're... confused... about where you stand with her, and she made the first move... I don't know."

"What do you mean," Kiri was losing track now, "That I should ask her? If we should be friends or not?"

Lilou frowned. "I don't know," she said again. "If it were me, I would just see how things went from now on. But it's not me. So... that's your choice to make." She was talking too much. She scraped a combination of noodles and congee up with her fork and filled her mouth.

Kiri wanted to just see how things went too, that was her natural response. Following Lilou's lead she ate a little more, starting to realise that maybe Lilou had meant something else. Meanad was pretty, but Kiri hadn't considered anything like that, not really. But if Peers was like her then maybe, well everyone else seemed to have relationships like that. Very gingerly she asked, "Have you had, special relationship before?" She couldn't come up with words she was comfortable with that didn't make her sound completely like a child.

"A what?"

The answer always dragged her kicking from her comfort zone, this wasn't something she should really be asked, "Intimate relationships." Now she felt ashamed, "Sorry, I shouldn't ask."

"Yes." Lilou glanced at Kiri. "Oh. Is she your... first?"

Kiri turned bright red and let out a gasp, "No, I," Shaking her head she realised what she was admitting to, "She isn't, I never, I mean, I've never done anything like that," She trailed off and looked hard at the salad. Was that what Lilou had thought the whole time?

"Oh. Oh!" Lilou's brows came together. "Oh. I... misunderstood." She'd never? Unless Kiri was lying, which was perfectly valid considering they were talking about her commanding officer. "Oh."

"Right," Kiri was still rather flustered, caught between defending her own chastity and at the same time sounding extremely inept, "I wouldn't know the first thing about things like that."

"Oh," Lilou paused, "Really?" She shook her head, "Sorry. None of my business."

Falling silent Kiri felt quite embarrassed, quite worried about what Lilou thought about her as well. Pushing a leaf around on her plate she sucked on her lower lip and kept her eyes down.

Lilou's gaze flicked hither and yon. "So the dinner with Lieutenant Panne was... platonic."

"Yes," She let out a breath, "I've never been close to anyone like that," It was something she wanted but it also scared the life out of her. It was also something that made her feel like a child, everyone else seemed capable of having relationships, even Peers apparently. It wasn't like she hadn't thought about people in that way, she had even had people she liked quite a bit but she never knew them very well. She always held herself back and cutting herself off meant she had never given anyone the chance to get to know her either. Since she joined the ship she had changed, but the only people she thought she might like had already left.

"In that case-" How in the spirit-melded universe had she found herself giving social advice to anyone? "She's still your commanding officer. It's not her job to be social." It hadn't been Quinn's job either and he'd done it any way. "That doesn't mean she won't. Just that... I mean..." She'd been good at this once. Well. Not good ever, but fair. "It's best to keep in mind what you want her to know about you. And what you don't."

"I hadn't really thought about it like that," Kiri had been so desprate for company a part of her had forgotten that Meanad was her boss. Was she acting the wrong way around her? Showing her weaker sides to someone, maybe that wasn't a good idea. Trying surpress how she was feeling she forced a smile, "Sorry for being difficult."

"No need. I'm difficult all the time." Lilou squinted a little then scooped the remaining congee and noodles together and ate them in one bite. Chewed. Swallowed. Drank half her glass of water. "I don't know if I was helpful."

"You are, its nice to just talk, I like it," This time the smile was less forced, "I don't think you are very difficult." Picking up her own water Kiri took a long sip until it completely disappeared.

"Just a little then," Lilou smiled self-deprecatingly, and speared a leaf of grakizh. "You should talk to her, though. To your Chief. About the mission."

"I will, when I get a chance tomorrow," If Kiri was able to go to department head meetings then it would all be much simpler, having it filter down didn't seem very efficient. Her mood was slightly more subdued now but she was still more cheerful than she had been lately.

"Okay."

For a while more they talked about little things, they were already almost finished their meal as it was. Kiri really enjoyed it, how natural it felt, how much she felt she could place trust in Lilou. Before she knew it though, it was time for her meeting with Liyar. Rather than rush though she made it clear she had to leave soon. Even going as far as to explain a little bit about it before, "I hope you have a nice evening Lilou."

"And you." Lilou nodded at the door, "Good luck."

[OFF]
-------------
ENS Lilou Peers
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

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

RSS Feed