Pizza Wednesdays (Part 1 of 2)

Posted on 19 May 2012 @ 12:26pm by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Lilou Zaren

4,118 words; about a 21 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Deck 2, Mess Hall
Timeline: MD 06 - 1715 hrs

[ON]

Stepping into Main Engineering, Lamar took a few steps into the mid-sized room and stopped to look around. He wasn't sure why he had come here...he wanted to see Lilou again, especially to check on her hard fall the previous day, but in the middle of her shift probably wasn't the best place or time. Several personnel moved about between consoles, some of them weaving around him and passing close by. Not only did he feel out of place in the bowels of the ship's engines, but he was also beginning to draw several stares from nearby personnel since he was the only red-collared crew member in sight. Red meant either command or flight control, neither of which spent much time in engineering and now aroused the curiosity of anyone nearby. Clearing his throat, he realized he was in the way and stepped further into the room and closer towards the pulsing warp core. Fascinated, he stared up at it, hearing its soft hum and just barely feeling it through the metal floor. He had never been this close to one before, to the raw energy contained within the anti-matter fields.

Lilou watched the ongoing activity in the main computer with interest as Ensign Cho and Willis worked on something new. She couldn't quite tell from the vid feed what they were up to, but once the data feed from their console activity was reconnected, she'd be able to piece it together retroactively. In the meantime, she could test the first batch of prototypes for her short-range spacial forcefield armbands. This particular gadget was one she'd been toying with the designs for in spare minutes for almost three months; designing, building, testing, and re-designing. If she could get them to work, she could input the specs in the replicator for the security team. Maybe if she came up with enough new toys for them, Kestra would stop being disappointed in her for not stepping forward and saying something about the armory sooner. Maybe. She hoped. She finished the fourth band and strapped it to her arm, activating the unit. A glimmering yellow gold field erupted for a meter above and below her arm. She deactivated the band and headed out into the main area with the full intention of going to a secure area to test the field against phaser fire, but she stopped, seeing Lamar's back and smiled subconsciously. Quietly, she stepped up beside him and watched the core. "Poetry in motion. What can we help you with, Chief?"

Lamar turned as he noticed Lilou's familiar slender figure next to him and heard her voice. With a small smile, he turned towards her. "Hey, I was hoping to catch you here." he began, feeling rather sheepish at the moment and hoping to explain himself. "I came to check on you...you know, see how you're feeling. Did you ever go to sickbay and get check out like I said?" he asked with a grin. He knew she was a tough girl but hoped she hadn't ignored his request.

She cleared her throat, nodding back towards the lab and leading him away to the relative privacy. "Yes," she said, flushing, as the doors closed behind him. She didn't need the whole world knowing she'd gotten injured. "I did." And the doctor had not been pleased. Not at all. She really hoped she would never have any reason to go back and upset the lieutenant again. She ducked her head, "I hope I didn't cause you undue concern. I'm fine now, really."

Having been led into the lab, and with the doors now closed and in close proximity to her, Lamar felt himself suddenly fighting a bit of anxiety. "Okay, I believe you." he said after a brief pause, then took a deep breath to compose himself. Looking down at her, he finally admitted the real reason he had come. "I actually came here to see you and...was wondering if you had time to grab some food with me?" he asked in a quiet voice, a slight glint to his brown eyes. "I have fun whenever we hang out...and I suppose I want to spend some more time with you." he said, rather bluntly and with a bit of awkwardness. His eyes glanced down to his boots briefly before returning to her face, and he finally flashed her an embarrassed smile. He was never very good at these things.

She blinked at him once, then again, then another time. He had fun? With her? Was she giving off a pheromone? First Kiri Cho wanted to spend more time with her, which... all right... at least that made sense of a sort. Kiri was nervous and awkward and disconnected from Trill culture like she was. They had those things in the Venn diagram of traits, plus a common interest in how things worked and making them work better. But Chief Darius was... huge. Not just tall, but broad of character. He was confident and knew how to talk to people. Good things, but they weren't like her. He might as well have been the moon. And he was a marine, her brain shouted at her. Yes, there was that. He was of the same class of the men who had victimized and terrorized her on the Algonquin; that still made her wake up out of sound sleeps in cold sweats. But this marine was... well, how did she know if he was like them? Just because he hadn't been yet? But she'd spent hours in his company in the middle of the night on a mostly sleeping ship and he hadn't tried to hurt her. Even though he'd clearly had the advantage more than once and obviously overpowered her. And there was no way he could have known that she'd asked Kestra to monitor them, so... was he just... good? Was it that simple? She searched his expression. She couldn't quite glean the subtlety of the smile, but there was something... soft about it. And she was alone with him again and... she looked down at her hand. Not even shaking. "I... okay," she said, so softly it was almost inaudible.

It was reassuring to see Lilou's shyness. It made Lamar feel more comfortable, like he wasn't the only one feeling awkward about breaking the ice. Letting out an internal sigh of relief as she accepted his invitation, he put his large hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle yet reassuring squeeze. "I wish there was somewhere other than the mess hall I could take you, but it happens to be Pizza Wednesday." he said excitedly with another grin. "Do you need to finish up in here before we go?" he asked.

"I... no. I mean... I will finish. But. Need to test these first," she held up her arm with the four completed bands around it. "So... I'll do that. After. Pizza Wednesday." She finished, stilted and a bit unsure, though the presence of his hand on her shoulder strangely did not make her feel like fleeing. Maybe it was because of what she'd done during her lunch hour instead of eating. That tingling happy light she'd found, thanks to the counselor. Or maybe Lamar Darius just didn't terrify her today as he had the first time she'd seen him. Why would he want to take her somewhere other than the mess hall? That was where the food was, wasn't it? She pointed towards the door and led him back into main engineering. "Troxx, you're in charge til I or Quinn get back. Call me if you need anything."

The Bolian inclined his head and returned to monitoring the MSD.

Lilou tilted her head back to look up at Lamar. "So." She marched out of engineering, ever so grateful there wasn't anyone on duty who would feel inclined to poke fun at her.

"So..." he replied as they walked together towards the turbolift, thinking of something casual to talk about. "How are things running in your department?" he asked. "I noticed the last day or so that the senior officers have all been on high alert since the warp core malfunction...something going on that I don't know about?" he added with a bit of curiosity.

Lilou lifted a shoulder. "Nothing I've heard. Just the maintenance. And that was pretty straight-forward, once the Chief figured out how to bypass the malfunctioning relay." She looked up at him, "High alert? Really?" She thought back over Quinn's actions over the last day. And the night before, Will hadn't said anything about anything abnormal. Regular holodeck system maintenance. She'd been given a shift off. Aside from the unexpected time off, none of that had been irregular. "Who?"

Entering the nearby turbolift, the chief moved to the far wall and turned to face Lilou. "I overheard some of the department heads talking in the corridor yesterday." he said, "And then, when I visited Lieutenant Orexil to report the incident with the logs and security system that we discovered, she seemed rather disturbed by the report and immediately went to investigate" he said, then shrugged. "Not that she didn't have reason to, I suppose, but I just get the feeling that there is more going on than a simple resupply or delivery mission."

"Oh." She felt her ears warm. Level ten clearance, she remembered. Spirits knew why she'd needed to hear it. "Deck two, please," she addressed the computer. "Well... Kestra's always been like that. At least, she was when we were kids. Worries about things until she understands them. Me, too, I guess. I mean it was a little strange, the..." she stopped speaking as they passed a pair of ensigns on their way out of the turbolift. "The thing we found. Wasn't it?"

"I suppose your right." he replied quietly after thinking about it for a moment and following the young engineer out of the lift and down the corridor. "But Galileo is brand new ship, still technically launched without a shakedown cruise...problems are bound to pop up on her maiden voyage." he said, then stopped as they reached the large doors to the mess hall. "So you know the Lieutenant personally?" he asked with a raised eyebrow. "Childhood friends?"

"Oh," she glanced at him sideways. "That's- well, yes. Sort of. Her family visited the station I grew up on when I was about eight. They stayed for a few months. She's... a very dogged pen pal," she added with a soft laugh. "It's strange having her here. And outranking me." She wrinkled her nose a bit over the thought. "Out of all the ships in all the universe, she had to walk onto mine," she transquoted.

"Maybe you two were meant to be BFFs." he joked, chuckling to himself as he quoted an old Earth acronym. He couldn't help but find amusement in the irony of the situation. Motioning towards the door with an outstretched hand, he waited for her to enter the mess hall. "After you." he said politely.

"Oh," she uttered, then winced. Stop. Saying. That. she insisted to herself. Oh, oh, oh, indeed. She sounded like an imbecile. He just kept catching her unawares. Which was silly, really, wasn't it? As he was asking perfectly reasonable, harmless questions. But moreso, it was the fact that he kept talking to her. That was the surprising part. Not that it was unusual for people to talk to her. People did. Will did. And Kestra did. And Kiri did. Quinn did, when he needed to, though she'd been working on actively fulfilling his needs before he asked her. It kept things running smoother, she found, if she just kept on top of the list he'd shown her that first day in his office. And... well. Willis, she supposed, though her conversations with him outside of engineering subjects were limited to his ever more ridiculous sense of humor. "Thanks," she said, pulling herself back into the moment and leading the way inside. It smelled like grease inside the mess hall, but it was a good smell. Strangely inviting. She hadn't had pizza since her third year of Academy. What did bifurcated feldspar have to do with she and Kestra... Oh, she thought, slowly grinning. Of course. The mineral that formulated most of the Earth's crust, but split into two parts only to rejoin. She laughed. "Very clever," she murmured, laughing again as she led the way to the line of round warming disks holding a variety of kinds of pizza aloft. "BFF."

The delicious smell of oven-cooked pizza seeped into Lamar's nostrils as he entered the mess hall, and his mouth began to water. "Mmm...smell that?" he muttered, then grabbed her hand and gently pulled her through the crowded room. Despite the late afternoon hour, Pizza Wednesdays were a new tradition that had become quite popular with the crew, and no member of Galileo missed a meal on Wednesdays. Moving to the front of the line, he peered over at the prep table to see two new pizzas being taken out of the oven. Turning to Lilou, he quickly spoke. "What do you like on your pie?" he asked.

She didn't have time to think about their joined hands as he led her through a sea of chests, shoulders, and elbows. What did her preferences for pie have to do with anything? Maybe it was some kind of guessing game? "Ah... lemon cream?" she answered, dwarfed by the people around her. "But I'd like dinner first, please."

Lamar frowned. "Huh...what?" he said in confusion. He thought for a moment what the hell she was talking dessert for, then suddenly let out a loud laugh as he realized she didn't understand his urban slang. "No, dummy, a pizza pie, not a cake pie." he said with a grin and a playful nudge. "Do you like pepperoni or sausage?" he asked, then paused and frowned again. "Wait. You only eat veggies, right?" he said, remembering her meal choice from their previous encounter.

"Yep," she asserted, her ears pinkening at the fact he'd bothered to remember that. "I like the sweet peppers, if they have those." She couldn't see past the shoulders around her face, but she found an eddy in the stream of people right next to his arm. "Doesn't anyone work on this ship anymore?" she wondered aloud.

"Sweet peppers...gotcha." he said, then disappeared to the front of the crowd, returning several minutes later with a tray loaded with various kinds of slices. He looked around quickly for Lilou but had suddenly lost sight of the young engineer. Why do you always go for the short ones, he muttered in his head. After searching for several moments, he finally saw the sleeve of her engineering jumpsuit peek out from behind a tall security officer. Moving delicately around the larger man, Lamar walked next to her and motioned towards a pair of empty seats in the corner, next to the window. "Do you want to grab a couple drinks for us and meet me over there in that booth?" he asked.

She'd allowed herself to drift back through the crowd. It was easier than struggling against the tide. When Lamar found her, she'd just found a place to hold her ground behind a security officer who was talking to someone from flight control. At least she assumed she was from flight control. They were talking about flying. "Mm," she agreed, nodding as she plucked a grilled onion off one of the slices on the tray in his hands. It had smelled too good to be ignored. "What do you want?"

"A Coke, please." he said as he bent over so she could hear, then walked away with the tray through the crowd and into the corner. Finally seated, he unzipped his collar to loosen it, then reached for a napkin. There were none in sight. Cursing under his breath, he remembered they were all the way back through the crowd at the service station. "Darius to Peers," he said with a tap of his commbadge, "Grab some napkins on your way back." he instructed, hoping she could hear her communicator over the loud decibel level in the room.

=^=Roger that, Chief,=^= she replied, ducking under and through the crowd until she reached the replicators. Once she'd retrieved the drinks and the napkins, she made her way to the table he'd pointed out and set down his Coke. "That was an adventure," she said, wrapping her hands around the glass of water she'd procured for herself. "I hope the pizza is worth the crowd."

"Mmm...it is." he reassured her as he held a partially eaten slice of pepperoni, bacon and extra cheese in his hand. With his free, non-greasy hand, he moved the tray in front of her to let her pick out a slice which suited her. "Dig in." he said, motioning with his elbow for her to help herself.

She watched him eat with a half-smile and carefully selected a slice loaded with vegetables and peppers, plucking the vegetables off the top one at a time and nibbling them. "Thank you for this," she said quietly, in between bites. "I missed lunch." As she finished speaking she blinked hard, waving ineffectually with her hands to her sides as the spiciness of her favorite peppers hit her full on in the face; her eyes teared up and a little hiccuping yelp emerged from her as she waited for the overwhelming kick to give in to the delicious sweetness that followed.

Lamar smiled after she thanked him then turned his attention towards his pizza. So absorbed was he with eating his slice of pie over the next few moments that he barely noticed Lilou's plight until he heard a strange sound come from her. Looking up from his plate, he noticed her eyes were wet as she waved her hands indicating an overflow of spiciness. Quickly swallowing his bite and with a bit of concern in his eyes, he finally spoke. "Spicy, huh? ...are you okay?" he asked. For someone so small, she seemed to put herself through a lot of of physical punishment, he thought.

She nodded quickly, pressing her finger the bridge of her nose and breathing until the wave passed. Two large blinks later, she swallowed a gulp of water and shook her head with a little cough. "It's good," she chuckled, cheeks still red from the exertion. "Just takes a while to get to the other side." She cleared her throat again and nibbled a piece of broccoli from her slice.

The chief thought she looked rather cute with her bright red cheeks and freckled spots lining the side of her face. With an amused grin, he nodded and took several more hungry bites before wiping his mouth and leaning back in the booth. "Thanks for coming to lunch with me, I've been meaning to pull you away from engineering, seems like every time we meet we're both on duty." he said casually as he continued to look at her, "Like I said, I have fun whenever I see you and I've been wondering...last couple days, do you have anyone...like a boyfriend, I guess? Or maybe, husband...kids?" he asked as he began to mutter a bit at the end nervously, then finally smiled to hide his anxiety. He admitted to himself that he was perhaps being a bit forward, coming into engineering and dragging her away from her post to ask her out only a day or so after they met. But he couldn't help himself, and as he looked her pretty features as she ate, he was glad he hadn't second-guessed himself earlier.

She'd been ready to explain, as she had to Kiri and Will, that Engineering was understaffed and as Assistant Chief, it was up to her to make sure they stayed ahead of things and she only got the one shift off every day, when she usually went straight to sleep so she could get up to work again, but he went on and flummoxed her. "A..." Lilou wiped one still blurry eye with the back of her hand. It was a strange question, coming as it seemed to out of nowhere. "No," she answered, and because she had no idea why he'd asked or what the relevance of it was, she started thinking. He was in charge of the enlisted crew; was he was trying to ascertain if she was distracted from her duties? Or wondering if she lacked a support structure? "I mean... no. Why?"

He shrugged, feeling a bit awkward now from her reply. "Just curious." he answered simply, then glanced down and fiddled with his napkin for a moment. "So what do you do with yourself then?" he asked, "In your free time, I mean.". He couldn't quite be certain but he got the impression she was an ambitious worker, and he wondered if she had any hobbies they might have in common.

"Oh," she fell back on the same sound again, utterly oblivious to the implications of his question. She looked at him with a curious tilt to her head, trying to figure out the connection between her having children and her having hobbies. "I read," she answered, gamely. "When I can. Try to run every morning, at least, if not parkour. Depends on the time available on the holodeck. Sometimes I sneak into the labs off hours and tinker on things, but..." she laughed. "Mostly, in my free time - I sleep." She peeled a cheese covered bell pepper off her slice and nibbled at it, "You?"

Lamar picked up the slice he had been working on previously and took another large bite, chewing happily as he thought about his own interests. In truth, he had been so busy the last couple days that he had hardly had time to indulge himself, let alone use the few holodeck hours that he had managed to save up. Finally, he set his slice back down and wiped his mouth again. "Well, I like to go to the firing range...but Galileo doesn't have one, so I suppose when I get around to it I'll have to use the holodeck." he said with another shrug. "I like to run also, I'm used to doing a lot of PT from my time in the Corps." he added, then took a long swig of Coke from his cup. "I also like playing old 20th century Earth sports...American football, basketball, baseball, that kind of stuff."

"I never played any of those," she offered. "Well, volleyball, once, but..." she rolled her eyes. "I could barely reach the net, so that was a wash." She prodded at her slice, glancing at him with a small mischievous smile. "So...what's your poison?" she asked. "Type three phase rifles? Hand phasers? Have you had a chance to target with the isomagnetic disintegrators or tetryon pulse launchers? I've been toying with a shaved down version that won't throw me half across the room, but they are-" her eyes gleamed, "-majestic."

Hearing the small Trill engineer in front of him begin to discuss heavy weaponry with him brought a smile to his face. "Type-IIIC compression rifles are probably my favorite," he answered with a nod, "The new generation of holoscopes are great, they eliminate virtually all particle drift. Just point and squeeze." he added with bright brown eyes. Tilting his head curiously, he furrowed his brow. "How do you know so much about Starfleet weaponry? I thought you were an engineer." he asked with a chuckle.

"My mother's in Security," Lilou explained. "Her idea of getting me to do something extracurricular was target practice and gymnastics. I guess she hoped I'd follow in her footsteps. I didn't, obviously, but... there's something like home about assault weapons." She laughed quietly, "Besides, it gives me something to do in my ample free time. Figuring out how to make me-sized heavy weaponry. The engineering comes in handy when you're trying to fabricate a phase cannon from scraps." She pulled her legs up so she was sitting cross-legged in her chair across from him. "And before you ask, I haven't accidentally blown anything up since I was in first year Academy. I take precautions now." She sipped from her water, watching him over the rim. "Compression rifles... not what I would have expected."

[TBC]

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MWO Lilou Peers
Assistant Chief Engineering Officer
USS Galileo

MCPO Lamar Darius
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo

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