A Proposition

Posted on 18 Jun 2013 @ 8:36pm by Petty Officer 1st Class James Watt & Lieutenant Dawn Meridian

809 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: Episode 03 - Frontier
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 07: 1730 hours

[ON]

Dawn pondered her milkshake.

Well... she didn't ponder it exactly, and she supposed she wasn't even really thinking about her milkshake. So she wasn't pondering her milkshake. Or pondering. Let's try that again, she thought.

Dawn sat in the mess hall, idly poking at her milkshake - vanilla, with a touch of mint - with a big red straw. A Caesar salad sat half-eaten in front of her, her fork buried between two strips of bacon, somehow managing to stay almost upright.

People are funny, she mused, as if she'd never had the thought before. The background buzz of conversation and the clinking of knives, forks, and spoons made it hard to concentrate on not-pondering her not-milkshake. Instead, she pondered people. There weren't all that many crew on the Galileo, but they all had dinner around the same time, slept at night, thought about the future. Well, except the Gamma shift people. They were just crazy.

It was reassuring, though. Even when she left, people would continue to flow, and think, and live. Reassuring or terrifying? She could never remember. Humbling, maybe.

Whatever, she thought, and took a sip of her milkshake through the straw, her grey eyes skirting around the room. It was good, and she wasn't about to argue about that.

James Watt walked up to her table and stood across from her, a tray of food in his hands. "May I sit with you, Lieutenant?" he asked, offering her a smile.

Dawn blinked once, took a big sip from her straw, and then nodded. She didn't recognise the brown-haired man, but it looked like he was an engineer. She didn't know many engineers. Engineering was about as far from Medical as you could get, really, although that wasn't much of an excuse.

As he sat down, the engineer studied her, noting that she seemed in a bit of a down mood. "Everything all right, Lieutenant?" He asked.

"I think so. I'm just pondering whether I'm pondering," she said. She cocked her head slightly. "Although I guess that answers that question." She gave him a small smile. "What brings you to the counselling table?" She imagined a little teal flag waving on the table with two crossed hyposprays, and her smile grew.

Watt smiled back at her, even though he wasn't sure quite what amused her so much. "And has your pondering revealed the nature of your pondering?" He offered her his hand, "Petty Officer Watt. Engineering."

"Only that I am pondering," she said, and shook his hand. "Lieutenant Dawn Meridian." Although she was sure he knew that already, unless he was just looking for somewhere to sit. She narrowed her eyes just the slightest bit. Maybe he had to do lighting calibrations, and she was sitting in the wrong spot. Lighting calibrations were a thing, weren't they?

"I hear you might be able to help me, Counselor," he said in a relatively neutral voice that might have just as well have been invoking her counseling skills as anything else. "For a friend, not for me."

"Help?" she asked. Her eyebrows eased upwards slightly. It wasn't every day someone came to her in the mess hall to ask for help for a friend. Why her? And why not while she was working? For the moment, her milkshake was forgotten. "What with?"

"Well, perhaps not help, per se," Watt replied after a moment's thought, "but an opportunity. I'd like to arrange a blind date for the two of you." He smiled his most charming smile, slightly crooked in a quirky way, showing a hint of white teeth. "I assure you, too, he's a fine officer and a handsome man, if in need of a little... ah, encouragement when it comes to socializing, but a charming, pretty, intelligent girl like you should have no trouble getting his attention. I have no doubt you'd both enjoy yourselves thoroughly."

Her first thought was to say no... but why? It wasn't a bad idea, and it would probably be quite a bit of fun, even if it just ended up being for the surprise of it. Watt had done everything right - she even felt herself blushing a bit at his compliments. So why had her first reaction been to say no?

I don't know, she admitted. It was a strange thing for her to admit. She always knew.

Finally, Dawn nodded. "All right, Mr. Watt. I'll play your game." She smiled a bit at that. "But why me?"

Watt gave her a grand smile. "I told you, Counselor, a charming, pretty, intelligent girl is just the thing for our friend."

[OFF]

PO3 James "Striker" Watt
Engineering Officer
USS Galileo
played by Psylus Anon

Lieutenant (JG) Dawn Meridian
Counsellor
USS Galileo

RSS Feed