A meal with an old friend

Posted on 03 Aug 2017 @ 5:57pm by Ensign Mimi & Ensign Miraj Derani

2,223 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: San fransisco - Earth
Timeline: Md 13 - 1800hrs

ON:

Mimi sat alone at a table consulting the menu at an American style steak house, she'd made a reservation for three people but at the last moment the others; two crewmen from operations had to cancel so instead of cancelling herself she had decided to come down on her own. She looked a little out of place as there was only one other alien in the whole building.

"What can I get for you Miss?" the waiter said drawing a Padd from his pocket.

"I would like this." She pointed at the menu. "The mixed grill."

"Ok, how would you like the steak cooked?" The waiter asked.

"Rare please and I would like some lemonade to drink." Mimi replied.

"Sure, I'll get right on it." The waiter slipped the Padd back in his pocket and headed off to the bar. He returned a minute later with her drink. "Here you are Miss." he said placing the drink on the table.

"Thank you." Mimi said and watched the waiter disappear again.

A moment later a shadow fell across the table. "Let me guess? Raw cow and sour fruit juice?" Jetu Mesha, red hair bound up in intricate braids, fan shaped earring with its long pendents swinging freely against her neck grinned down at the nekomi girl. "You can be very predictable, you know."

Mimi's ears twitched and she looked up from her drink when she heard a familiar voice, a voice she hadn't heard in nearly two years. "Mesha? what are you doing here?" She practically lept from the chair and hugged her friend, her tail lept upwards in excitement.

Mesha hugged her back, then stood away to look at her as if to make sure she was really real. "The Century is in for resupply, we've got weeks shore leave whilst the QM runs inventory and then its back out. New theatre though. Romulan neutral zone somewhere. What are you doing here? We were told that your ship had gone down with all hands?"

"It is a long story that I can not talk about." Mimi replied remembering the orders given to the entire crew by the admiralty. "Will you join me?" She motioned to her table.

Mesha sat down opposite Mimi as the waiter came back with her mixed grill. "Same for me please." She shook out the napkin and drew it across her lap. "Its like nothing has changed. two years out of the Academy and here we are, like we never left."

"I do miss the academy at times." Mimi said. "Being back on earth has made me think of good times. Most of them with you."

"We had fun," Mesha allowed. "I don't know how we squeezed it in between EPS conduiting design and optical memory alignment 201, but we did." they had been the two singularly most boring classes they'd taken together, and had spent most of them trying to ensure the other stayed awake. Especially since EPS conduiting design had been an 0800 lecture on a Thursday night, And Wednesday nights were happy-hour-all-night at pretty much every bar on campus.

"I am glad you..." she paused to think of the right phrase. "Got me out of my shell?" For the first years of academy Mimi had kept to herself a lot staying mostly in her quarters when not at lectures.

"You needed it. Hiding away doesn't get you anywhere. You were the first reliable project partner i'd had, I wasn't going to give you up becuase you were too wimpy to get yourself out of your room." The waiter arrived with the iced lemonade and set it down. Mesha raised the glass. "Thank the prophets you're still alive. I was gutted when the notice came through."

"Fate has other plans for me." Mimi said then paused to cut up her food.

"Really," Mesha sat up straighter in her chair, ears pricked up. "What plans are these? Tell all!"

"Do you remember what I told you about my home?" Mimi answered then gave Mesha a few seconds to think while she eat a few bites. "Well I found some data that has given me some clues where to look."

The Bajoran's eyes went wide. "Result! It beats going through astrometric reports sector by sector." which is pretty much what they'd done in the odd spare minute, even starting with the edge of alpha quadrant known space, they had read a lot of charting reports with no information. "Where should we have looked? Would we have got to it before we got gray?"

"I am not even sure it is there." Mimi replied. "The data had information about a species that sound a lot like the Bespiri, but it might not be them at all."

"So where are they?" Mesha pressed "Anything we can cross references? Maybe check with the state department see if we have any representation with them at all? You must have more than that?"

"There space looks to be far away from the federation. Into unknown space." Mimi explained. "The data came from a Klingon computer so it may not be....good."

Mesha let out an impatient sigh. "Come on, Mimi. Don't be defeatist. You've got the first real lead. Ever. You need to be all over this. Attacking it from every angle. You've wanted this more than anything else. You can't just say ..might not be good... Be positive!"

"I know, it is hard to stay positive." Mimi said shrugging slightly. "There is no way I could get to that area on my own and I doubt command would give me use of a ship to get there."

Her friend nodded sympathetically. "You need too break it down. Get somewhere closer to just a whole bunch of space, and then you have somewhere to start and set up alerts for. And as for getting a ship." Mesha shrugged a slender shoulder. That was the easiest one to solve. "You can always charter a ship. You get shore leave like everyone else. Get someone to chauffeur you out when you have a destination, be it bespiri or somewhere else."

"I do not think many will be interested in going to unknown space on what could be a." Mimi carved off another peice of her steak thought about the right words. "Wild duck chase?"

Mesha giggled as the waiter arrived with her own plate of meat. "Goose. They say goose chase here." She carved a chunk off the steak and was gratified to see the juices run out. Mimi had got her into some bad habits, like rare meat. "And I think you're undestimating the sheer wanderlust that drives most people in Starfleet. You maybe just in operations, but everyone I speak to on the command track all have grand plans like first contact and scientific discoveries. I'm sure all you have to do is find someone with the right drive, and get on their ship, or "help" them "use up" their shore leave..."

Mimi made a mental note that it was 'Goose' "Finding people to help would be easy, I think anyone on my mothers ship would help. But we would still need to find a way to get us there."

"You still need to find where there is," Mesha pointed out around a mouthful of meat. "You have time to figure that one out. You don't have to figure it all out now. Just not give up on ever figuring it out. There's a thousand ways cut this particular knot."

"I do not have much to work with." Mimi said as she picked apart an onion ring, while her body couldn't tolerate much that wasn't meat based she liked them. "But I have always been lucky. I might get a second break through like this."

"Exactly." Mesha raised her glass "So here's to luck. Cats are supposed to be lucky here? Aren't they?"

"Some are in some places, some are not." Mimi replied. "There is a old thing about black cats walking past you is bad luck. I seem to be the... odd one out."

"You've always been good luck for me. And it seems to be coming through for you now. So chin up."

Mimi smiled and slowly started laughing. "Do you remember sneaking back into the campus after you took me to a concert and then a night club?"

Mesha looked shocked. "I took you?" she said with mock outrage. "You practically bit my hand off to come. It was hardly a fight. And if you hadn't flaked out at three am, we wouldn't have had to sneak. we could have strolled back onto campus at six with all the eager beavers."

"You know I use energy a lot faster than you do." Mimi fired back. "I was already tired before we got to the club."

"We could have fixed that. Better living through chemistry." Mesha shrugged and started to work on her hesperat sausage. "You got back in okay though. Black cat must have crossed your path," she giggled.

"Something must have happened, I do not know how I did not get caught by security. He came down the hall and you ran into the place I was doing to hide."

"I thought you had some cunning cat thing to do, like sink your claws in the ceiling or something," Mesha said around a mouthful of sausage. "It never occurred to me you'd just stand there whilst everyone else scattered. I would have taken you with me if I thought you were going to freeze."

"I did try and hide." Mimi remarked to defend herself.

"Ducking into a closed doorway is hardly what I'd call hiding." Mesha pointed out. "How in the name of all the Prophets did he not see you?"

"I do not know, it was dark I have black fur, maybe I.... blended in." Mimi said then cocked her head to the side a little realising how stupid that sounded, while her fur would blend in her very light skin would do the opposite.

The Bajoran laughed. "You certainly got lucky. He just walked straight past. I couldn't believe it."

"I could not either. I did not expect you to remember all this after all the drinks you had." Mimi laughed a little too. "It took a lot of coffee and sugar to get you up for class in the morning."

"It always takes lots of coffee and sugar. I wasn't that drunk. " Mesha protested. "I could stand up. And walk in a straight line. Mostly. As long as I concentrated." Mesha polished off some more meat. "So.." she changed the subject. "You're here and alive. Is there going to be an inquiry?"

Mimi tore apart a big chunk of chicken with her long canines. "Like I said, I am not allowed to talk about it. Orders from very high ups."

"You can at least say if its a court martial or whatever. You don't have to tell me anything about what happened. Which I do want to know. Come on. How long have we known each other now? Don't I deserve to know why my best friend from the Academy was declared dead?"

Cocking her head to the side a little Mimi thought about what she could tell her without breaking the order. "There are some questions being asked about the Galileo being destroyed and why we were missing for so long."

"And why were you?" Mesha pressed, "And don't give me any bull about protocols. I'm your friend. Who am I going to tell?"

Mimi squirmed a little, she wanted to tell Mesha about it but she knew her orders. "I can not Mesha, I am sorry." she finally said. "After all the questions have been answered and we can talk about it I will."

Mesha sighed. "That's my Mimi, always so proper. As soon as you get clearance though, I want everything you're allowed to tell me. Leave anything out and I'll find a catnip farm and abandon you in it until you're too stoned to resist."

Mimi burst out laughing. "You know I tried catnip, not on purpose though."

Mesha raised an eyebrow. "Straightlaced little Mimi wouldn't ever try it on purpose." She chased the last of her steak sauce around the plate with a bit of bacon. "So, was it what we thought? Did you mellow out?"

"Yes." Mimi answered "After I had ripped apart a pillow thinking it was a Klingon, my room mate found me laying on my bed with her cat asleep on top of me just as mellow."

Mesha looked at her, stunned and wide eyed. "You thought it was a Klingon?" She grinned. "That I wish I had seen. You must have looked so cute trying to tear it up!"

Mimi laughed "I do not know, Korre showed me the remains of the pillow and it was in her words 'Well clawed'."

Mesha laughed. "Oh Mimi!" She got herself under control, and wiped the last touches of sauce from her lips. "So. How about we get dessert, and I'll tell you what I've been up to the last few months.

"That sounds good to me." Mimi said and called one of the waiters over.

OFF:

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer

Ensign Jetu Mesha
Operations Officer
USS Century
(played by Miraj)

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