Odessa went about the cargo tasks with little attempt to feign any kind of interest. This was by far one of the less exciting aspects of her job, but it was a necessary task nonetheless. While she wasn't particularly skilled in matters of ship maintenance and such, not like Tammie and Judith were, she certainly wasn't too good to at least assist with transferring supplies, especially when there were new people to meet. She made a mental note of Spencer's comments towards Judith as the two spoke, watching them, but not staring intently. As if the stigma attached to her stares ever kept her from doing so; Odessa took her designation seriously, wearing her uniform with pride regardless of how others saw it.
When approached by the auburn-haired researcher, the empath had introductions at the ready, which were quickly cut off by a most peculiar inquiry. "Why, I do have a moment, and two answers just for you. The first question should be redirected to the captain of this ship and her pilot--a fairly fast one, at that, so I'm sure there's a good explanation somewhere outside of us just...well, being slow. My best guess is that we weren't the original ship intended for this trip. As for the shipping manifest, that would be in Ami's safekeeping." Odessa motioned over to the kind-looking logistics officer with a polite smile, whom Caitlin had first approached before changing her mind to address the blonde psion. "Might I ask what the particular significance of these... mushrooms, are? After all, we did just deliver far more than just those in the way of ration varieties, if you are hungry."
Caitlin nodded in response, her brow creasing slightly as the empath asked the natural question. "You might ask. But since you're visiting a remote research station with the effective title of 'courier', however glorified it may be, I'm afraid my the answer may elude you, being several steps higher than you pay grade. If you'll excuse me, I believe you have an ancient earth saying about dead felines to ponder, not to be confused with the one about dead felines in a box." She replied quickly, circling her finger in the air in an encompassing motion as she spun and walked to the logistics officer.
"You would be Ami, yes? I need you to check your manifest for a crate labelled 'sliced mushrooms', and deliver it to the east workstation on C deck immediately, room one-two-four-C, to be specific. Before the communal dinner we seem to have prepared, if at all possible." She told the logistics officer, taking up her former pose in the new location, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
"Chief??" Judith repeated in a very surprised and and slightly panicky voice. "Me? N-not really, Tammie has more experience... I'm good at repairs, though. Show me what's wrong, and we'll see what we can do." Energy problems on a research station sounded like a real issue. She saw a few schematics for theoretical antimatter engines, and she noticed that they had universally a little note regarding "Extremely energetic malfunction if containment power supply is interrupted", which she was pretty sure meant that the explosion would be so big you'd be able to see it from all the way across the system. She wasn't sure if that's what they were studying here, but if it was, she really wanted to fix it before she found out.
"C'mon, Doughnut," she said as she got down from the mule she was riding. It wasn't really necessary, since she was still holding her cat in her arms. As checked to make sure she had her tools with her before she slid off the mule's platform - she couldn't do much without those, after all, and she was rarely without them.
'Note to self, avoid talking to that one.' Athryn noted mentally as she listened to the auburn haired researcher's response to Odessa's fairly innocent question. While it might have been due to the long period of minimal social contact that the scientist had suffered while stationed out here, her rebuttal sounded like nothing but a series of poorly veiled insults to the marine. She watched Odessa's reaction, and then her transfer to their quartermaster with a slight frown, but continued to remain aloof.
Tai had apparently steeled himself for Elise' new tactic, having regained his composure from the unexpected touch and now on guard for when the mischievous captain moved in again. He kept silent as she lowered her voice and made her teasing come-on, and did not so much as apparently breath in the pregnant pause that followed. When at last she switched back to a lighter tone and indulged herself in another pat of his broad shoulder, he closed his eyes, and exhaled through his nose. If Elise had looked down at his hands, they would be closed tight, showing a concerted effort to remain calm and unmoving, despite whatever his inner thoughts would have been.
Despite the Captain's unease about empath skills, she might have been curious enough to have them just for a moment to peek inside Tai's mind to see what he thought about all this.
"Of course, Captain. Just joking," Tai said, rolling her own words over his own tongue, as if trying them out for himself, before moving to follow her out of the bridge. In the corridor near the airlock, the pair of them met up with Sonya, Nicolas, and Dr. Rachel.
Having grown accustomed to Tai's rigid attitude, Elise ignored his tense stature and clenched fists. To her, it was just a sign that her teasing had worked. Eventually, she would wear down that wall of stoicism and he would be more personable and have an easier time expressing himself. Well, if he didn't punch her first. Either way, Tai needed the release. It would do him good, and in the end would be better for everyone.
Still smiling at the fun she had with Tai, Elise nodded to each of the crew members waiting at the airlock. Sonya was still smirking, no doubt having enjoyed Tai's discomfort almost as much as Elise did. The proud young pilot sometimes felt like a kindred spirit to the captain, enough alike that they got on fairly well, but with enough difference to keep things fresh. Nicolas, on the other hand, was almost alien to her. She, coming from a fairly simple family living in space, and he the son of a rich Federation official, didn't seem to have much in common at all. He seemed to be sincere, and was a dedicated crew man, though, so she didn't mind his upper crust attitude. Rachel, though, was so bubbly and energetic that Elise didn't think anyone could have a problem with her.
The young doctor smiled at them in her teal and white outfit, comprising of a shirt, knee length skirt, white boots, teal tights, and her medical lab coat with a red cross on the front left breast pocket.
"The others are busy with the cargo still, but Nicolas says we should go and meet with the head researcher," the young woman said.
"That's right, no doubt they'll be appreciative of us coming aboard and mingling. Space is pretty lonely, and these good people have been out here longer than most," Nicolas said.
Providing that the captain was okay with their suggestion, the five of them would be the first to cross through the tunnel airlock. Commander Soude did the honors of pressing a button on the far side of the tunnel which opened up an intercom channel. "Fringe 1, we are prepared to come aboard."
Elise couldn't help but smile at Rachel. The young doctor was childlike in many ways, and the old fashioned uniform combined with lab coat just made her look too cute. The captain's own uniform was the more modern type, a crisp dress shirt with half of the front buttoning over the other side, and tight but comfortable pants in white with yellow trim, giving her what she felt to be a more formal military look. "Yeah, we should go take care of all the formalities. The sooner we get finished, the sooner we can all enjoy a little time to relax," she replied.
"I can relate," Elise responded to Nicolas' appraisal, then motioned for Tai to open to the airlock.
A few moments passed, then with a series of 'ka-chunks' and a hiss, the metal wall in front of them split down the middle and slid to either side, revealing a small delegation of three people on the other side, two men and one woman. The one in the middle was the oldest of the three, short, balding on top, with thick rimmed glasses and a round face with drooping jowls. He and the short, brown haired woman next to him wore the white and green of Federation science officers. To the man's right was another male officer, but he wore blue stripes, indicating that he was likely this stations' lone engineer. He was a younger man, with an elongated face, shaped like a downward pointing arrow - a wide, high brow and a very pointed chin, which he had decorated with a strip of hair running from his soul patch down to his underchin. His hair was dreadlocked, and if one got close enough, they would realize that he smelled of a veritable cocktail of various chemicals the would be useful to strip paint off a wall.
The man in the middle rubbed his hands together and then stepped forward with a smile on his face. "Permission to board granted! Welcome, welcome! We're relieved you've finally come. We were starting to get a little antsy, but all's right now, isn't it? Ah. My manners. I am Dr. Bernard Tully, head researcher and commanding officer of Fringe 1. To my right is Maria Cleareau, our medical researcher, and to my left is Spencer Tote, our resident engineer."
"You can call me Sparky," Spencer said. "Everyone does. Pleased to meet you all. Uhhh, sir?" The young man turned to the older one with a raised brow.
"Oh yes, well, sorry to have to ask for a favor having just met you all, but a few months back we experienced a little hiccup on the station - purely a minor accident, but we broke a part of our main reactor that we just didn't have a replacement for and it wasn't on our last requisition list due to a clerical error. Would you mind terribly if Spar -- I mean Spencer here had a chat with your engineers about seeing if you have a spare aboard the Urania? Other than that, you can follow Maria and I to the mess hall. We've prepared a modest spread for your crew to relax with. And there's a lounge for relaxing if you'd like as well. Please do be our guests for this evening."
As soon as the airlock opened, Elise put on her most diplomatic expression, the stock smile one would take when meeting people for the first time but wanting to appear like a trusted friend. She cleared her throat as the rather pungent aroma of the engineer's "cologne" wafted over her then nodded to each of the station's crew in turn as they were introduced. "Good to meet you all, I'm Captain Anders of the Urania. This is my second in command, Commander Soude; my communications specialist, Lieutenant Wrangel; Mrs. Chalice, our pilot; and Dr. Sutherway, our medical officer," she said, motioning to each of her subordinates in kind.
'Sparky's' sudden request drew a raised eyebrow from Elise, but she listened attentively. "A problem with your reactor? That sounds like more than a minor matter," she replied to Tully, concern evident in her voice, though she maintained her diplomatically friendly expression. Without hesitating, though, she turned to Spencer and said, "You'll want to talk to my engineering staff, either Mrs. Price or Mrs. Skoveld. They are currently helping to offload the cargo, but I'm sure they will be happy to help." Regardless of how unexpected the request was, Fringe 1 and it's staff were part of the Federation, and Elise was duty bound to assist them if she could. Besides, she knew Judith and Tammie could repair a reactor with their eyes closed and both hands tied behinds their backs.
With that taken care of, Elise turned back to Dr. Tully. "To tell you the truth, my crew is quite eager to spend some time relaxing. We'd be delighted to be your guests. Please, lead the way." She had been told she was a natural at meeting new people, but Elise always felt awkward in these formal official to official meetings. It all seemed so stilted and unnatural. She much preferred getting to know people in a more relaxed setting, so hopefully the lounge and dinner would be more to her liking.
Ami looked up from her clipboard, noting the tapping of Caitlin's foot with a quirk of her eyebrow before smiling politely.
"Sorry, miss, but we're only supposed to bring these crates to the designated storage area, which is right here. Any offloading and sorting of the delivered goods is the task of your own station's personnel."
The power loader behind both of them set the final crate down with a soft crunch of the hard plastic palette hitting the steel floor. With a whir of electrics, the power loader released its grip on the cargo crate and retreated back to the cargo entrance. In the cockpit, Tammie whistled and said "That's the last of 'em, Ami."
Calling over her shoulder, Ami called out an affirmative before turning back to Caitlin. "If you want help opening a specific crate compartment, I'll help, but the rest of the crew's duty is officially done."
Odessa and Athryn could both take that as permission to leave if they wanted. As they did so, two more individuals entered the cargo bay. One was Ausel, who seemed to have come over between the ships of his own accord, and the other was a female Vulpar of quite astounding beauty, even by human standards. Her long tufted ears, gorgeous brown tail with a white tip, green and yellow speckled eyes, and trails of white fur in areas of her body currently covered by her science officer uniform would be the only differences between her and a human. There were some slight skelatal and muscular differences of course, but they were easily overlooked.
Caitlin knew this individual as Jane Palok, a Vulpar whose research had to do with cloning a "safe" hybrid of Tentak and human/vulpine using dna bio-engineering and advanced cloning techniques. In a way, it was the complete opposite of Caitlin's own research, wanting to completely eliminate neurospores from the equation and master the biological plasticity of the Tentak independent of their own developed neurospore control. Caitlin was dubious such an endeavor had any promise. Also, Jane was possibly a bit reckless, her own experiments having taxed the station's reactor so much that it had nearly caused a catastrophic meltdown. The blemish this incident might have caused to her career could have been crippling, but somehow Jane had convinced Bernard to help smooth the incident over and not report her as the cause of the accident, even though such was most probably the case.
Jane and Ausel seemed to be deep in conversation about the Cerulean's astro-cartography when they stopped to say hello to everyone.
"Welcome to the station. I'm Jane! We really appreciate your delivery," the Vulpar said, with a giggle. To the others, it would be hard to readily believe that someone looking like this could be a top Federation scientist.
--------------
Sparky and Judith went back aboard the Urania and headed to the main engineering room, passing Ausel on the way back. The Cerulean had decided to come across the connective tunnel alone it seemed. The two engineers reached the back of the Urania without any trouble, and Sparky only spoke once they'd reached Judith's personal workstation.
"What I really need are spare 3He-D mirror cells. The ones on our reactor are fractured and I've had to do an impromptu welding job to keep the base structure stable. As you can imagine, we're losing over 60% of our output, and that means taxing our back up generators to keep all the essentials running while rerouting all else through the main. Trouble is, with the, ah, delicate nature of the research materials on this station - keeping the main generator at its current output is mandatory as well. If something else went wrong, we'd be in real trouble out here. Bernard's told me to keep that much hidden from the other researchers, since they don't need to know, but any engineer would know that we're in a hell of a predicament."
Fortunately for Judith and Spencer, the Urania did carry spare mirror cells for their own engine reactors. It was also a relief to Judith to know that Fringe 1 wasn't being powered by one of those experimental anti-matter bottle reactors. Had the structure of one of those things been damaged as much as Spencer's 3He-D mirror cells had been, this place would have been annihilated space debris.
However, reinstalling a mirror cell structure would require shutting down the main reactor. Which meant whatever delicate materials these researchers had would be exposed during the repair time frame.
---------
The research director brought the captain and her immediate crew members to the dining area, which had been set up with a modest, but unspectacular, spread of hor d'ouevres. There was a kitchen area off to the side however that had some nice smells emanating from it.
"Humm, that's strange. I could have sworn Jane said she'd be observing the kitchen while I went to do introductions.
"Don't worry Dr. Tully, Jane said she was going to go to the Cargo area. She left me in charge of the cooking!" A young human man popped into view through the hole in the wall connecting the two rooms together.
"Egan?" Maria said. "But since when did you learn to cook?"
"I haven't. Just keeping an eye on things here," Egan responded.
"Oh, I'd better help you then. The last thing we need is the main course burned!" Maria sighed, as if trying to sound like this were such a bother, but a grin across her face belied that attitude, and she practically skipped into the small confines of the station's kitchen.
"Ah, that would be Egan Bothwell, one of our researchers," the director said. "Please, take some food here, or go across the hall to our lounge. We've got some refreshments inside, and there's even a pool and card table if you all fancy a way to pass the time until dinner is served.
Caitlin's gaze narrowed on Ami, letting out a sigh. "Just direct me to the correct case, if Sparky's going to repair the reactor immediately, I likely won't need it until tomorrow anyways." She said wryly, letting the woman do so before thanking her and hunting down the Empath once more. "Would you be interested in answering some questions on your abilities?" She asked simply, seeming slightly more relaxed for some reason, though she appeared to be intentionally ignoring the Vulpar she was now practically standing beside.
Her and Jane were almost at odds theoretically, they each felt the other's direction was a waste of time. Caitlin had her own theories about how Jane had gotten as far as she had, mostly involving using her looks to 'enhance' her standing, at least in terms of getting military posts.
"Oh, one of those top-secret matters, is it? Fair enough. I'm quite used to keeping secrets myself, so I understand. Pardon my asking," Odessa replied smoothly, the smile never having left her face despite Caitlin's someone short answer that some might take as patronizing. It wasn't necessarily that the empath didn't take it as such, either--rather that she was so used to such responses that even the minor amount of irritation she did feel was offset by her previous experiences. "Mm... seems about the standard fare for a space station researcher. But, as important as first impressions are, they never quite tell the entire story..." she thought to herself.
Despite the many thoughts about Caitlin, she would only add just a few more words to their first meeting. "By all means. Enjoy your mushrooms," was all that she said in response to her dismissal, nodding and stepping off to the side.
Ausel's entry normally wouldn't have earned him anything more than a slight smile of acknowledgment from Odessa, as she always did, but even more interesting to her was the unfamiliar face he entered with. While she had met those of the Vulpar race before, it certainly didn't make this new subject any less interesting; as far as first impressions could provide, she seemed... a bit different from the others.
Naturally, Odessa was there to greet her only moments after her introduction. "Jane, nice to meet you. I'm Odessa," she said with a calm smile. "I see you've met with our resident science officer. I do hope you two are getting along, for the most part--I'm sure he's been aching to discuss scientific matters with someone of his intellect," added the psion with a sly glance at her blue-skinned crewmate. "So, is she to your liking?" she said to Ausel in a most suggestive manner. This message wasn't actually relayed verbally, however; it was telepathically sent to the Cerulean, and really only because Odessa wanted to force a blush from him, which would hopefully spark a most amusing situation... well, one that was to her, anyway.
However, Odessa wouldn't be given too much time to indulge in this shameless teasing of her fellow crewmate, as she found herself stopped by Caitlin, much to her own surprise. "Questions? Hmm... why, certainly. I can't imagine too many of the answers to be beyond your pay grade," she replied with a knowing grin.
Athryn's gaze was drawn instantly to the attractive Vulpar as she joined those gathered in the entrance to the station, and the marine shot a grin back at Jane even though she likely wouldn't see it. Odessa got to the alluring alien first, and while her interest was piqued, Athryn kept her outward reserve and opted not to approach. To do so now, from her position on the outskirts, would likely seem odd, and she'd played the game often enough to know that timing was essential, and now wasn't the time. Turning instead towards the innards of the research station, Athryn opted to give herself a tour of the mess hall and the lounge as offered, glad to miss the conversation that started as the rude woman approached Odessa after apparently getting an answer about her mushrooms from Ami, an exchange that that marine hadn't bothered to pay any attention to in favor of slyly eying up the then newly arrived Vulpar.
Caitlin's eyebrow raised in confusion for a moment at Odessa's reply, then nodded and smirked. "Aaah, I get it. Fair's fair, but I meant what I said. We're out here in the middle of nowhere for a reason." She said seriously.
"Regardless. When is the first time you remember your ability manifesting?" She asked, returning to her original reason for striding back over.
The research director brought the captain and her immediate crew members to the dining area, which had been set up with a modest, but unspectacular, spread of hor d'ouevres. There was a kitchen area off to the side however that had some nice smells emanating from it.
"Humm, that's strange. I could have sworn Jane said she'd be observing the kitchen while I went to do introductions.
"Don't worry Dr. Tully, Jane said she was going to go to the Cargo area. She left me in charge of the cooking!" A young human man popped into view through the hole in the wall connecting the two rooms together.
"Egan?" Maria said. "But since when did you learn to cook?"
"I haven't. Just keeping an eye on things here," Egan responded.
"Oh, I'd better help you then. The last thing we need is the main course burned!" Maria sighed, as if trying to sound like this were such a bother, but a grin across her face belied that attitude, and she practically skipped into the small confines of the station's kitchen.
"Ah, that would be Egan Bothwell, one of our researchers," the director said. "Please, take some food here, or go across the hall to our lounge. We've got some refreshments inside, and there's even a pool and card table if you all fancy a way to pass the time until dinner is served.
Elise laughed at the dinner preparation drama and shot a glance at Sonya, recalling their earlier jibes at the silliness of scientists. For a moment, she thought about offering to send for Ami to give them a hand. The logistics officer had proven to be a rather impressive cook, a welcome addition to any starship crew. She decided against bothering the woman though, she had already given some extra work to her engineers and didn't want to start having her whole crew working during this 'R and R'.
"Thank you, Dr. Tully, this is all very nice," Elise said, nodding to the scientist again. Walking over to he hor d'ouevres, she took a few and bit into them, smiling and giving a delighted sigh to the kindly doctor, no matter how they happened to taste. Turning back to the officers, she said, "Maybe we should get some games going, give the others something to do when they join us." Donning her usual smirk, she planted her hands on her hips and said, "So who's up for poker? Or pool? I'm pretty good at both though, so your bets better be worth my time." She was, of course, joking. Not about being good, Elise had actually developed some pretty impressive skills during her years visiting bars at the various trading depots around the Federation. She was joking about the bets, as she would never stoop to taking hard earned coin from her own crew. Of course, if they were playing for something other than money, she might hold them to it, but the party hadn't even started yet. Maybe after some wine...
Judy fluttered her fingers at her shipmate as they passed in the hallway. He was kind of a spaz after lunch, but otherwise Ausel was pretty laidback, and Judith respected that. He sorta reminded her of a song her grandparents had on one of their antique 'CD's, too...
"Uuuhhh..." Judith drawled, with very noticeable apprehension. "That... that doesn't sound safe," she protested. "What, what kinda stuff are you guys doing out here, anyway?" She asked. "It's not anti-matter research, is it? We won't get annihilated if the power goes out, right. Do you have a capacitor bank to cover for the reactor until we can repair it?" The notion of being anywhere near that stuff without layers and layers of failsafes and backups made her antsy, but the notion that they could have something worse being researched here made her feel even worse. After all, there was Einstein, who invented nuclear fission - something that had never been thereunto even dreamed possible. What if they had something of that caliber here, just waiting for something to go wrong?
She sighed through her nose, once the Fringe's engineer answered. "Well, either way, we have cells we can spare here. I'll talk to my Cap, and they can co-ordinate with your director to shut things down and prepare for the repair. Okay?"
In the Cargo Bay of the Fringe 1 (Odessa, Caitlin)
The Cerulean officer's cheeks turned a shade of purple as Odessa's telepathic voice threaded its way through his gray matter. His aqua eyes shifted nervously towards Odessa, then he cleared his throat and shuffled in place.
"I just happened to bump into Jane hear upon coming aboard the ship and when I found out she was one of the researchers here, I took it upon myself to inquire about her work. She's been a little vague about it so far, but said it shouldn't be a problem for me to help her unload some equipment."
"It really would be *such* a help," Jane said, putting both her slightly clawed hands on Ausel's sleeve and transfixing him with an adoring gaze. To Caitlin and Odessa, it appeared as if the Vulpar woman was laying it on a bit thick. "I just needed a strong male to lift some stuff for me."
Ausel scratched the back of his neck and grinned. "So yeah, can't refuse such a request."
The beginnings of their conversation were interrupted as Caitlin posed her questions to the Empath. The Vulpar and Cerulean shrugged and moved on, with Jane pointing out one particular crate and Ausel rolling up his sleeves before getting to work on freeing a few packed shelves from their crate.
--------------------
In the Fringe 1 Lounge (Athryn, Elise)
With the loading of the cargo done. The rest of the Urania crew, barring Odessa, Judith, and Ausel, had relocated themselves to the lounge. Their host, the director, excused himself, saying that he would have to take care of a few things in his office, but insisted that everyone make themselves at home. With the researchers Maria and Egan looking after things in the kitchen, it meant that the crew were left pretty much to themselves.
Nicolas took a seat at the card table. "Always game for some cards. But what shall we play for, Captain?"
Sonya started to test out pool cues, obviously more keen on that recreation, while Tammie rummaged through a cabinet filled with game and movie cartridges. "They've got a ton of GameStationXX games in here... anyone up for some Dance Galaxy Revolution?"
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" said Rachel, who skipped her way over to stand by Tammie in front of the lounge monitor.
"Think I'll play cards," said Kenneth, sitting down and stretching his arms. "Never been one for dancing myself."
Tai looked around, saw a seat in the corner, and claimed it for himself, taking a beer from an open cooler in the center of the room. He seemed content to watch and would likely need to be prodded into a contest.
Ami smiled and sat down with the two men at the card table, brushing her hair back and looking up at Athryn and Elise to see if either of them would join her. Sonya stood ready at the pool table, chalking up her stick.
------------------- Aboard the Urania, Main Engineering (Judith)
"What? Anti-matter? No, no! The mirror cells are to help run our fusion generator. It's not that big a deal. Plenty of failsafes supplied by our generators... it's just a matter of keeping all the experimental equipment running -- which is very important, but, uh... yeah, we should be safe. You can alert your captain if you want, but really, we were hoping to just get this repair over and done with as soon as possible. I've been anxious to get at it all these months and to be frank, I think it's more of a risk to wait."
He grasped the mirror cell replacement in his hands as if he were holding the cure to an infectious disease during an epidemic. "Hey, I'd appreciate your help with this if you could give it, but I'll understand if you'd rather just go back to your crew."
The decision for Athryn wasn't hard, and after she grabbed a couple of beers from the cooler at the same time that Kai went for one, she headed over to the card table. Handing out drinks to all seated, Athryn gave the two men a smiled before cracking the top off of her own bottle and taking a long swig. Finding the alcohol about as she'd expected, the marine was about to drop into a chair before she spotted their pilot all on her lonesome by the pool table. She'd gotten fairly good at the game, but hadn't played in a while, and while it was her first time doing any real fraternization among the crew the marine decided that Sonya was a good enough start. Taking another beer from the cooler, Athryrn strode confidently across the room... "Care for a game?" she asked inquisitively while holding out the chilled bottle.
"Oh, going to join little ol' me?" Sonya said, taking the beer in hand. "Would you like to break? or should I?"
The pilot took a long swig from her bottle, gulping down the sudsy refreshment like a woman used to kicking back a few. A killer combination for a woman who liked to fly expensive space craft at breakneck speeds. Still, she seemed nice enough as she placed the bottle down and handed a cue to the marine.
"You can break, I always lose when I do it!" Athryn replied as she took the offered pool stick, grinning. It was something of a lie, but it was one that she washed down with a long swig of beer to match the one that Sonya had just taken. When her opponent bent to break the triangle of colored and numbered balls, Athryn stood behind and to the side to give her room, her eyes trailing over the pilot's body in a manner that took in a good bit more detail than her normal weapons inspection sweep. It wasn't an overtly lustful look, more an approximation, but the marine admitted easily to herself that she quite liked what she saw, and even though she (and presumably Sonya as well) was hardly a lightweight, a few drinks might loosen her up just right...
With the loading of the cargo done. The rest of the Urania crew, barring Odessa, Judith, and Ausel, had relocated themselves to the lounge. Their host, the director, excused himself, saying that he would have to take care of a few things in his office, but insisted that everyone make themselves at home. With the researchers Maria and Egan looking after things in the kitchen, it meant that the crew were left pretty much to themselves.
Nicolas took a seat at the card table. "Always game for some cards. But what shall we play for, Captain?"
Sonya started to test out pool cues, obviously more keen on that recreation, while Tammie rummaged through a cabinet filled with game and movie cartridges. "They've got a ton of GameStationXX games in here... anyone up for some Dance Galaxy Revolution?"
"Ooh, that sounds fun!" said Rachel, who skipped her way over to stand by Tammie in front of the lounge monitor.
"Think I'll play cards," said Kenneth, sitting down and stretching his arms. "Never been one for dancing myself."
Tai looked around, saw a seat in the corner, and claimed it for himself, taking a beer from an open cooler in the center of the room. He seemed content to watch and would likely need to be prodded into a contest.
Ami smiled and sat down with the two men at the card table, brushing her hair back and looking up at Athryn and Elise to see if either of them would join her. Sonya stood ready at the pool table, chalking up her stick.
Elise turned to wave and thanked Dr. Tully again as he left, then sighed, some of the tension leaving her as her posture slacked back into her more normal relaxed pose. She looked over at Nicolas as he sat down and took her up on her offer, then smiled and moved to grab a beer from the cooler. The sight of Tai grabbing one nearly caused Elise to gasp in alarm, but she decided to let the tremendous event pass by without comment. It was incredible enough that she had managed to get him into the party to start with, and she felt it best to let him relax a bit before teasing him any more.
"What to play for indeed?" Elise said, sitting down at the card table with a wicked smile spreading across her face. It didn't take her long to come up with some fun ideas. How those ideas would be met was the real question, though. Nicolas might be a proper rich kid, but he was not the kind to turn down good fun. Kenneth was the rough and tumble type, and those kinds were game for just about anything. The real wild card was Ami. The girl was a good crew member, and probably knew more about the ship than any one, but she was pretty quiet and almost too sweet to be in the military. Elise wasn't sure how she would take to some of her more adventurous ideas, and she certainly didn't want to put the girl off right when the party started.
"Tell you what," Elise said, looking around the table and taking a sip of her drink, "We'll play fast and loose." She smirked, the motioned for Nicolas to start dealing. "Five card draw, winner gets to decide what the loser has to pay," she said simply, then continued, in case anyone didn't understand. "Say Ami has the highest hand and Ken the lowest," she said, glancing at each of them in between checking out her cards, "Ami might decide that Ken has to take her week's shift cleaning the latrines." Holding her cards up to hide her smile, she looks over them at the crew members. "Or maybe Ken wins and he wants to see Nic dance the macarena in a dress on the table." Elise paused a bit, sure the others would be laughing at such silly bets, then decided to go for the fun stuff, "Or maybe I win and I want Ami to go the rest of night topless."
Elise expected her last suggestion to stun the others, no matter how receptive they would be to such a thing under other circumstances. She paused a bit, then added, "But I'll allow an easy out." She then motioned to a counter on the wall of the room that seemed to be serving as the lounge's bar, judging by the rows of hard liquor bottles lined up on it. "If you don't want to do what the winner suggests, you can take a shot, your choice." Of course, if any of the players were having a hard time accepting the dares, the shots would eventually change that. Elise smirked, and waited to see how the crew would react.
"Okay. I'll try my best then," Sonya said with a smirk, then set the cue ball on the felt and leaned over the table to aim. This gave Athryn a good view of the pilot's physique, which was pleasing to the eye. The tight uniform bottoms she wore were technically within regulation standards, but certainly let onlookers know the contours of her legs and curvaceous backside. Athryn was pretty certain the pilot couldn't possibly notice that she was inspecting her, but the pilot still had her lips slightly upturned as she stroked the cue stick forward and broke the balls with a crack. They scattered, but nothing dropped into a pocket, which meant it was Athryn's turn.
"Hmm, nadda. Guess I've lost my touch," Sonya said as she stepped back. She leaned her cue against the wall and unzipped, then removed her jacket, revealing a black tank top underneath. "Your turn, 'Ryn."
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"Interesting proposal, but if I might make a suggestion -- we announce our ultimatums after seeing our initial hand. Before drawing up. Then we get the opportunity to raise the stakes afterwards. No immediate penalty for folding, but after five folds in a row, you take a shot as well." He spread his hands. "Fair?"
"Hmmph, Ami going around topless eh? Can't say that wouldn't be nice. Howabout you, Captain? Am I gonna get in trouble for suggesting my commanding officer show us her goods?" Kenneth said before nodding to Nicolas, "Yeah, sounds fair."
Ami raised her eyebrow at the captains' rules, but in the end just shrugged her shoulders. "I've a few dresses I can lend the boys, I suppose."
With the three other players agreeing to the game, the first cards were dealt out. In her first hand, Elise drew a Queen and Jack of hearts, a 9 and 6 of spades and a 5 of clubs. Not the greatest hand, to start.
"Hmm. I will wager a pitcher of water thrown in someone's face that I've got this hand won," Nicolas said.
"Har har. That's not so bad... I call," said Kenneth.
"Fold," said Ami, quietly, and pushed her cards away.
Judith took a few minutes to consider her options. After going over the scenario in her head a few times, the conclusion she came to made her she shut her eyes tight and swear with a brief burst of anger towards the situation she'd been dealt.
"Fuck."
She didn't have a comm device to contact any of the other crew, so contacting Elise was going to be an annoying, wasted effort in running around Fringe 1 looking for her, wasting her and the reactor's time. She was almost certain this engineer would run off with the cells as soon as she let him out of her sight - two months worth of waiting on a spare part for such an essential system would undoubtedly have made that repair his number one priority. If she didn't contact the crew, then whatever failsafes that should have been in place when they started the repair might not be in place. And no matter what she did, the reactor's condition was probably already at Pinto-levels of accident prone, and degrading.
"Okayyy... just give me a minute to put my cat back in my room, and when I get back, we'll take these cells and fix your reactor, okay? I don't want her following us in there - just in case there's a radiation leak or anything, you know?" Jane powerwalked her way back to her room as quick as she could, put Doughnut on the bed, and scratched her on the head. "Mommy's gotta work now, so stay here for just a little while, okay?"
Hurrying back, she picked up her stuff once more, grabbed what cells she could, and then followed the Fringe's engineer off to help him fix their power source.
Elise nodded slowly and smiled at Nicolas' suggestion, realizing that he had probably done something like this before. Trust a rich kid to get into the best parties. "Sounds good, Nic. You probably already have some ideas for raising the stakes too."
Ken's perfectly reasonable question brought a smirk from Elise, but she nodded to him just as she had Nic. "Considering I came up with it, it'd be pretty crappy to get mad at you for throwing it in my face." She laughed then added, "Though speaking of which, maybe we should build up to the fun bets?" It was a question, not an order, and framed as such. If they wanted to get naughty right off the bat, she wasn't about to stop them.
Ami's quiet acquiescence relieved Elise, and she laughed at the idea of Ami running over to pick out a dress for Ken or Nic. Her smile remained, even as she beheld her modest hand. Queen high, unimpressive to say the least. Still, she had started this, and she couldn't back out on the first hand. "I'll call, and give me two," she said, putting the six and five face down. Hopefully she would at least get a pair out of this hand, and if she were really lucky, a straight.
