It's All About the Pudding

Posted on 06 Sep 2018 @ 10:23pm by Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant & LuAnn Lovegood PhD

2,236 words; about a 11 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Avondale Shipyards - Moba Cafe
Timeline: MD 141 - 1900 hours

[ON]

It was a peculiar thought running through his head, admittedly, but Lake ir-Llantrisant came by it honestly. As he crouched down and folded himself into the tiny chair, at the tiny table, Lake felt a sense of relief that he wasn't prone to wearing capes, or holsters, or the extreme shoulder-pads of his native Romulan fashion. Rather, he was partial to the retro-jumpsuits of the 2360s, and wore one in varying shades of taupe, come together in a Guilloché pattern.

Lake breathed in to fit between his chair, the chair behind him, and the table he had reserved. He supposed the Moba Cafe was exclusive only because of its extremely limited footprint, which was evident by how closely the tables were packed in. Although, he supposed, it may also have been exclusive because of the distinctive experience it offered. The cafe didn't smell of roasting coffee or baking bread; no, it smelled of soil and compost. Fresh herbs were growing from out of the centre of each and every table, available for each patron's contentment. Everything on the menu was intended to be just as earnestly fresh.

LuAnn chose to dress up for dinner, partly because it was nice to dress up from time to time, and partly because she didn't want to stand out in a bad way by being too casual. However, her version of "dressing up" was a flowing caftan with flowers embroidered at the neck and hem. This one was sky blue and made her feel like she was outdoors.

She walked in and looked for Lake, easily recognizing him seated at a table. "Hello again," she said.

Lake's Romulan parents had always taught him to stand when a guest joined him in a room. It allowed him to position himself in a way to avoid getting stabbed in the back by said guest. And it was good manners. "LuAnne," Lake pleasantly said, "may your day be filled with--" His greeting was swallowed with a painful scoff when Lake moved to stand up. His chair had collided with the chair behind him too soon and his knees bashed against the underside of the table.

"Thank you, but I would rather not have my day filled with pain." She cocked her head to one side. "Are you okay? That must have hurt."

Wincing, Lake extracted himself from the furniture like that one stubborn jenga block. "I was startled more than pained," Lake said, dismissing the event with a wave of his hand. As he approached LuAnn, Lake said, "Thank you for joining me. I'm striving to meet all of the counseling staff as Captain Saalm accepts them to the crew."

"I appreciate it, even though we have technically met before." Her smile was warm and friendly as she greeted Lake. "But I will gladly accept a chance for a good meal and conversation."

Squinting at LuAnne momentarily, Lake said, "Yes. Yes, of course. The rhubarb. Yes, I misspoke." He strode around the small table to pull back LuAnne's empty chair in a welcoming manner. "What can you tell me," Lake asked, "of your experience joining Galileo?"

LuAnn sat down and waited for Lake to take his seat again. "I have a pair of rhubarb earrings. I'll have to wear them when the ship leaves spaceport." She found them in a tiny little craft shop on some planet. She didn't even remember which one. But they appealed to her, as did the radish earrings and the banana hair clips and the mistletoe headband. "I used to be in Starfleet. You'll see that in my record. We parted ways because they didn't like some of my preferred therapy suggestions. But in spite of that, I've spent the last couple of years working on starships as a civilian counselor. How I came to be on the Galileo-A?" She paused to consider that for a moment. She wasn't exactly sure. "I was looking for rare herbs in a greenhouse on Pellana VI when I overheard two admirals talking about Captain Saalm and the Galileo-A. They weren't sure if anyone would want to work with her after what happened with her other ship, and I turned around and said that I would. They were a little surprised at that, but when I told them that I would love a chance to spend three years with the same crew just to see how they got along with each other, they took my name and contact information and said they'd get back to me." She didn't think it was the t-shirt that said melons have the best balls, so it had to be that they looked up her personnel file. "And they did. I got a letter telling me that after looking over the ship roster, I would be a perfect addition to the crew."

Having settled into the seat opposite LuAnn, Lake affirmed, "I would have to agree with them." When he said that, he continuing his nodding along to the points she had made. Raising a palm to gesture towards LuAnn, he elaborated by saying, "Having conversed with you over produce and having perused your personnel file, I can confidently say the crew would only benefit from your knowledge, your demeanor, and your expertise." Lake stopped suddenly, then, and he leaned in and he narrowed his eyes on LuAnn. Speaking softly, he asked, "Which of your therapy suggestions do you think Starfleet disliked the most?"

She leaned forward conspiratorially. "They won't tell me. It's either skinny-dipping in the moonlight or or mud-wrestling in pudding." A slow smile spread across her face. "Sometimes more than mud-wrestling."

Breathing out a single, "heh," of a laugh, Lake acknowledged what LuAnn shared with him, while he split his attention between her story and the menu laid out on their table. "I think we'll get along fine," Lake said; "You'll have no objections from me. That is, unless you're flooding my office with pudding. I don't think Galileo even has a swimming pool?"

"Sadly, no. And holodecks aren't quite the same thing. At least there's an aarboretum. Real trees are always better." She cocked her head to one side and considered him for a moment. "No, I wouldn't use your office, but we could always find a small, unused room somewhere and fix it up if there's a need. Could be interesting. Do you think the captain would like Chocolate Pudding Day? No?"

At that, Lake stared at LuAnn. He squinted at her, and he breathed in through his nose, and he looked right at her. Slowly, he breathed out through his mouth. He sucked on his teeth and then Lake said, "I don't think the Captain likes much."

---

Weeks Ago.

"Go to your room and don't speak back to your elder!" Lirha quipped back at Nesh in their native Yrevish tongue. "If mother saw this..." she admonished as she pulled her phaser free and pointed it between the two unclothed intruders. "I will not tell you again. Get. Out."

Sticking with Federation Standard, Lake stammered out, "Nesh, I, uh, I, I don't know about this." --As much as he directed his statement to Nesh, his eyes remained on Lirha's phaser, studying the way she gripped it, the body language of her outstretched arm, the way she held her shoulders, her postures; really, he was looking for any indication she was about to hit the trigger-- "I never consented to electro-play," Lake said. He put down his glass.

"Damn it Lirha!, put that down." Nesh shouted at her sister. How dare she show up and ruin everything when she refused to take part with Nesh's life.

The mention of electrical fetish play was enough to send the older Orion over the edge, and there was no way she'd allow Nesh to partake in such an aberration. Her other hand quickly reached out and pressed a button combination on the phaser to set it to wide-beam stun. And then she fired, sending a wash of orange phased energy particles through both of the two naked men.

Much like Gideon, Lake never even had time to dodge or even react to the event. Even for all his watchfulness over Lirha's behaviour, it wasn't as if he could move faster than a nadion particle beam. As soon as the orange light washed over him, Lake's legs gave way beneath him and he crumpled to the floor. Inadvertently, Lake took the bottle of Romulan Ale crashing with him, leaving a jagged and soggy mess on the hardwood.

---

Now.

"She won't like it," Lake said with absolute certainty, "but we can start a list? A list of proposals. And see where we get with it?" He shrugged at LuAnn, because why not? They weren't about to start making decisions based on what would or would not be popular.

"That's too bad. Maybe she needs a Personal Pudding Day?" Or maybe not. Some people didn't know how to relax properly. "Yes, a list would be a good place to start."

"What did you tell her?" Lake asked. He looked as if he was physically restraining the burning curiosity within him. He looked as if he wanted to reach over and scoop the information from right out of LuAnn's head, and so he sat on his hands. "What reason did you tell Captain Saalm for wanting to blast off into the edge of beyond?" he asked.

"When you spend three years on a small ship with no real shore leave, standard therapies can lose their efficacy," LuAnn said. "I am not traditional and so I can offer options that may work when others have failed. And, since I'm not Starfleet, if they don't work, she can put it down to trial and error. Call it a failed experiment and move on to the next treatment." She smiled. "She can even say space made me a little loony and it won't reflect poorly on her. And then I offered her a spider orchid."

"Those are all very good reasons," Lake remarked, "very good reasons for why the Galileo would want you. I have to say, I'm more curious to know, why do you want Galileo? What makes you ready to give up everything you know in this life for thirty-six months?"

"It's only thirty-six months." she shrugged. "I like the idea of being on a ship where everyone is committed for three years. We're going to either become good friends or we're going to be at each others' throats. I think we can become friends. Or most of us can. There's also a great opportunity to study human nature and how people react. This is a perfect spot to see romances blossom, too. I love a good love story. I don't know if we'll see any, but the possibility is good."

She looked at Lake for a moment. "What about you? Why did you come to the Galileo-A?"

"I don't..." Lake said haltingly, with a shrug of his shoulders and a pointed lack of eye-contact, "have anything to leave behind. My whole world is gone. My husband and my best friends are all dead." --He raised a hand, gesturing in emphasis to something LuAnn had said about a good love story-- "Every man I've kissed in the past two months has done an immediate about-face and ran in the opposite direction."

"Maybe you'll have better luck here?" she said. "I admit, I haven't kissed a man in a long while, either. But that doesn't mean I'm not open to the possibility." In truth, most men were either too militaristic for her or they thought she was too weird for them.

Lake's arched eyebrows rose high on his forehead, which only emphasized the skepticism in his inflection. "On a crew of fifty?" Lake asked rhetorically. He shook his head. "Self-love is the only love any of us are going to know."

"I'm an optimist," LuAnn said. "But the realist in me has to agree with you." She turned to look at the menu. "What do you recommend?"

Lake entirely missed the visual cue of LuAnn gesturing to the menu with her eyes when she asked for his recommendation. Referring back to their last topic of conversation, Lake snorted a laugh at what he thought was LuAnn's request for a recommendation when it came to self-love. Lake took a breath, and he didn't think have to think about about it for too long. Assuredly, he said, "Pudding."

She snorted with laughter and quickly covered her mouth. "I think I'm going to like working with you." She took a moment to calm herself. "I mean, what do you recommend on the menu. For food? Pudding can always come later."

"Ah," Lake replied, and he thought about it, and he blinked. "The menu," he said dryly, and he thought about it some more, and he dropped his gaze to the menu. "Yes, well..." he said, pivoting the conversation far too inelegantly. "I hear the mazza stalk is roasted to perfection," he said; "For eating."

"I'll try that, then." She leaned over the table and whispered. "You can always take the pudding with you."


[OFF]

Lieutenant Lake ir-Llantrisant
Chief Counselor
USS Galileo-A

LuAnn Lovegood
Counselor
USS Galileo-A

 

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