Well, Hello There

Posted on 10 Jul 2012 @ 9:43am by Chief Warrant Officer 3 Lamar Darius & Lieutenant Aria Rice

2,037 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Episode 01 - Project Sienna
Location: USS Galileo - Main Shuttlebay
Timeline: MD 07 - 1945 hrs

[ON]

Lamar stood on the flight deck of Galileo's main shuttlebay as a newly-arrived shuttlecraft entered the large bay and softly touched down in the far corner. There were a multitude of craft currently present, including two cargo shuttles, two Type-9s, and three Type-15 shuttlepods. And all of them carrying at least some component of Sienna, including personnel, equipment, and supplies. The chief scratched his chin in thought as he looked at the registry on the newest arrival, then moved over to a nearby LCARS console to input the data and view the shuttle's supply manifest.

Aria smiled gently as she looked at Lamar. She had taken a bit of well deserved refuge there. She liked it. The space, the silence. She was still in her uniform but her makeup was newly applied. She had meant to go to the lounge. But hey, this? Sometimes, she just needed some space. Her eyes followed him as she stayed quiet, just studying the man for a long moment before biting her lip. "Hey..." she suddenly spoke up, her blue eyes on him. "You been on the Galileo for long?"

The chief heard someone speaking to him and his head snapped towards the source, glancing about for several moments before his eyes came to rest on an attractive, gold-collared woman nearby. He had not previously noticed her presence and was somewhat surprised to see her casually hanging about. Lilou? he thought briefly as he saw her, then quickly dismissed the notion as he looked at her closer. Though both women were small in statue with dark hair and bluish eyes, there was something about this woman's demeanor and voice which was very different from his engineer friend. "Um...yea, a few days." he answered, not quite sure as to her reason for asking. "Yourself?" he asked politely in return, attempting to keep one eye on his LCARS terminal and the other on the woman speaking to him.

She smiled as she watched him, her eyes warm as she jumped down, walking over to him. "Me? Oh, a few hours," she said and met his eyes, shrugging, before offering her hand. "Hi, I'm Aria Rice. Didn't realise people would be working here just now. Tell me if I am in the way..."

He shook his head to dismiss her notion that she was unwelcome, and turned away from the terminal to face Aria. "No, you're fine." he replied with a friendly smile, then took her small hand and gave it a firm shake with his own. "Lamar Darius, Chief of the Boat. Nice to meet you, Aria." he said to introduce himself. Now that she was closer, the chief looked over her features, noticing her striking black hair which was contrasted by her blue eyes and well-applied makeup. After noticing he had been staring perhaps too long, he shook his head to recollect his thoughts and cleared his throat as he prepared to speak. "Yea...we've been busy pretty much since we docked at One-Five-Two. It's these scientists...and all their equipment and belongings. I can barely keep track of it all." he said with a grin and a shake of his head.

Aria laughed and nodded, shaking her head sharply. "Tell me about it. I mean, all the kit? I hope they know what they are doing, that they don't try to create some sort of black hole machine...because we all know how that went!" she winked as she watched him, looking up at him. He was tall. She wished she had her heels on. And he was rather good looking too, she noticed that...and then pushed it aside. He was a Chief of the Boat. He was pretty high up on the enlisted chain and she didn't mess with stuff like that. She rather liked the idea of having a future after all.

"A black hole machine?" he asked, looking down at the shorter woman with a raised eyebrow. "I hope not..." he muttered quietly. As strange and improbable as it sounded, there was a part of him which sincerely hoped that these scientists had more common sense than that. "What do you think they were experimenting with on the starbase?" he asked quietly, glancing around to make sure no one was in earshot.

She bit her lip as she watched him before shrugging. "I don't know...but I hope it is something nifty. Like...a serum that gives us superpowers...like flying or amazing strength without the Klingon ridges..." her blue eyes shone with warmth, a playfulness and easiness to talk to people. And then she sighed, rolling her eyes. "But it will be something really boring and scientific..."

The chief tilted his head to the side, giving her a guarded look. "From what I remember in one of my history courses, I think the Klingons already tried to genetically engineer their own kind with superpowers...and they ended up without ridges and succumbed to the augmentation process." he said in a rather concerned tone. "I hope we've at least learned something from that."

"Yeah, but they never had Marvel," she said and smiled, looking at what he was working on. "Everyone knows if you mess with genetics, nine out of ten times you turn into the Hulk, not Captain America..." the reference to 20th Century graphic novels was off-hand, someone who clearly had done some studying on such media at school.

He blinked several times in confusion as he looked at Aria. Marvel? Captain America? he wondered, unable to understand what she was referring to. "I'm not sure I follow..." he said as his voice trailed off and he shook his head in confusion. "What is the Hulk?" he asked.

She grinned at the idea of someone not knowing who the Hulk was. Which, in all fairness, was the majority of encounters. "Oh, you know the story of Dr Jekyll and Mister Hyde? Sort of that story...only, Bruce Banner gets exposed to gamma radiation and whenever he gets angry he turns into a green giant of a man that they call the Hulk. But only when he gets angry..." she winked and moved to look at what he had been doing, curious. "Whereas Captain America gets injected by a serum which makes him into a supersoldier...but with the heart of someone who cares about the world..." she looked at him, almost shyly. "I did 20th Century Media at school. I looked at graphic novels from the 1940s until 2012. It never really left me, y'know?"

"Oh...yea, I remember now." he said as he finally realized what she had been referring to. Lamar thought himself to be quite the 21st century Earth connoisseur, however he now felt rather sheepish that he hadn't picked up on Aria's comic book reference. He let out an embarrassed laugh. "I suppose I was always more of a Batman guy, myself." he joked, his brown eyes looking over her face ever since she had stepped closer to snoop on his LCARS activities. She really was a beautiful woman, more so than most, he thought, but his own affections were reserved for Lilou. At least, for the time being. "So...I take it you're from Earth?" he guessed, based on her knowledge and interest in the culture.

Aria looked at him, her eyes shining as she shook her head. "No...but close. Luna," she said and turned her head to meet his eyes. "Selene City, actually, so right smack bang in the middle of it, close to Hansteen crater," she met his eyes and chuckled. "You are so DC. Shame...Marvel has the cool powers, DC has the gadgets. You into stuff like that?"

"Gadgets?" he replied with a tilt of his head, accompanied by a shrug, "Yea I suppose. I served in the Marine Corps for a while before transferring to Fleet, so I've had a chance to play around with some of the newer tech that the Engineering Corps has...fun stuff." he said with a wink. "So, what is Luna like?" he asked, turning his attention back to the LCARS terminal and inputting several bits of information into the ship's computer system. "I'm from Philly...on Earth, that is, but I've never been to Luna."

Aria smiled as she shrugged, her eyes warm as she watched him, studying him closely. "You're not missing much. It's pretty...artificial..." she looked around for a moment. "So...a Marine then?" she glanced at him with a shy smile. She liked Marines...because her father had been one.

The chief nodded, then finished his inputs and turned back to the dark-haired ensign. "I was in the Corps for most of my career, I only recently transferred to Fleet duties maybe..." he thought for a second to try and recall his own service record, "Fifteen or so months ago." he explained.

"Must be difficult," she said as she frowned, her lips parted as she held his eyes. "I mean, it is a different mentality from what I gather.." she could be wrong and she didn't mind if she was. It was one of those things.

Lamar nodded slowly in agreement. "It was a little different, the first couple months." he replied. She was right, after all, it had been a bit of an adjustment for him to transition into the routine of Fleet life. "But I've always liked space travel, so I suppose it wasn't as hard for me as some." he added. "And I've been stationed aboard starships in the past, so I was familiar with the lifestyle."

"That's something..." she said and smiled gently to him, takinh a slow breath. "You know, if you ever fancy a bit of a poker game...let me know," she grinned, slapping his arm playfully. "I'm pretty good at it."

"Poker?" he said with a bit of surprise, noticing her light touch on his arm. He glanced at her pretty face again. Nothing wrong with a game of poker, he argued with himself. "Sure, if you like...but only as long as we play a couple games of Spades too." he finally agreed with a sideways grin. He wasn't sure if Aria was familiar with Spades, since she was Lunan (?), but it was one of his favorites...and it made a good drinking game as well.

She arched an eyebrow, her eyes shining. "Spades? You play Spades?" she asked with excitement. "Awesome. We could lay a bit of a pot down...you know, make it worth playing for?" she stepped back with a small grin. She did like her games of chance. Anything that was a bit exciting was good.

Lamar's eyes twinkled at the thought, and he was happy to learn that he had a new future partner. "Yea sure, I've got some slips of latinum to throw in. Just be careful," he warned as he lowered his voice, "I've been known to take clean people out from time to time...I even won a guy's uniform off him once." he added with a wink as he glanced at her gold-collared undershirt.

Aria chuckled as she folded her arms, arching an eyebrow. "Well, I will look forward to wearing your shirt, Chief...cause this uniform doesn't come off for anything less than dinner and drinks," she winked and grinned.

With a smirk, the chief chuckled softly. "Too bad I can't cook...replicator mac and cheese is about the best your going to get from me." he said in jest. "But I will take you up on that card game." he added rather smoothly.

"Make it soon, Chief," she said and smiled, slapping his arm playfully. "I better get going, see the sights, annoy some people...look me up soon, yeah?" she chuckled and winked before walking out of the shuttlebay.

His eyes followed her as he watched her walk off, fascinated by her charm and jubilant personality. "Yeah...sure." he muttered quietly to himself, then turned back to his terminal to complete the inventory check.

OFF:

--

Ensign Aria Rice
Security
USS Galileo

MCPO Lamar Darius
Chief of the Boat
USS Galileo
NPC'd by Lirha Saalm

RSS Feed