It's Just Like the Academy!

Posted on 30 Sep 2018 @ 5:40pm by Lieutenant JG Sofie Ullswater & Lieutenant Aria Rice

2,432 words; about a 12 minute read

Mission: Episode 15 - Emanation
Location: Ullswater and Rice's quarters
Timeline: MD 141, 1640 hrs

ON:

Aria Rice dragged her duffel bag stuffed, stuffed full of her clothing, shoes and makeup. She was in her uniform because she had just gone off shift and having been assigned her quarters (that would teach her being out late and then finding somewhere else to rest her head) she was finally getting there. Her hair was free now, had been free from the second she had stepped off duty. It had mustard streaks in it still, not yet her usual reds or purples. She groaned as the doors slid open, recognising her, and she more or less fell into the room. "I'm alright! I'm alright!" she declared just in case someone was already there. She was curious who her room mate would be. Because Aria had a bit of a history. There had been Kohl, who had been one of her BFFs and she had loved him to bits despite the slightly awkward start. And there had been Dorian Counsellor Sexy West who she had had such a crush on and she would have happily polished his boots from dusk to dawn (and some other bits). And then she had also enjoyed sharing with Seth, who had been her last room mate before her transfer back to the Galileo, with his funny eyebrows and giggles and a lot of shots in bed.

So Aria had a track record of sharing with people. And apart from the Academy, it had mostly been with men. Which in itself was a bit funny. She pushed herself up and looked around, her blue eyes searching for any clue as to who she would be sharing with.

In accordance with her ancient rights as first to enter the room Sofie had claimed the bottom bunk. She was just pondering - from said bunk - the issue of whether ancient rights trumped seniority and rank when she heard the thud of bags hitting the floor and the call of another woman entering the quarters. She stood up and poked her head around the doorframe and spotted along side her bag (which she had yet to unpack) a person and their own baggage who seemed to be clambering up off the floor. She swallowed her nervousness and walked out with a well practised confidence "Hello there! I'm Sofie, you must be Aria?" She extended a hand and a warm grin.

Aria looked at the woman with surprise and stood, smiling. A girl. She was bunking with a girl! Awesome! And even better...she was bunking with someone who was somehow even shorter than she was! She almost punched the air at that, because it happened really really rarely. "Yes! Aria! That's all me right. Aria Rice..." she took the hand to shake it. "It's really nice to meet you, Sofie."

"Its great to meet you too!" And it was, Sofie felt instantly at ease - Aria seemed friendly and quite excited to meet her, which was good because that seemed like a solid base for friendship. "Welcome to..." she gestured around the room with mock solemnity "Where we live."

Aria looked around before she smiled, her eyes shining. "It's...homey! Well, it will be once we put our personality on it!" she gestured to her bag, eyes shining. "I just need to put my babies away..." she sat on the floor and got the boots out. The numerous pairs of high heeled boots. Strappy, spikey, blacks and reds and metal and purple, lace ups and buckles. Aria did love her boots. Especially with the heels that gave her some extra height. And a bit of a platform because, hey! She might as well be comfortable. She lined them up and looked at the storage space, crawling over to start putting them away. "And my clothes and some other stuff. Which bunk did you take?"

Watching her roommate crawling on the floor with slight awkwardness Sofie crossed her arms tightly. The boots were quite... excessive and to the not very fashion minded Sofie a bit of a bemusement. As for the bunk she responded warmly "I've sort of claimed the bottom one." But then wanting to be polite she hurriedly added "But if that's your preferred spot I can change."

"No, no! It's the law of height!" Aria said and smiled as she watched her for a moment. "Because I didn't think it was possible, but you're actually shorter than me so you get the bottom bunk." The chuckle she gave said it was in good fun, because hey, below average height girls on a starship sort of had to stick together. She got her clothes out and shoved them into the empty storage space, sliding the door shut quickly before anything could fall out. "I'll...deal with that later..." she said and moved to Sofie, holding her eyes. "So, let's have a drink and a chat! I want to know all the stuff that's important to you and what to avoid stepping all over."

The Law of Height may not have been something Sofie had ever heard of before but it was an idea that she instantly liked and combined with the suggestion of that oh so classic combination of drinks and chat she was definitely warming to this new room mate. "You know when Commander Wyatt was showing me around the ship he mentioned you," Sofie said as she unfolded her arms adopting a warmer stance "And he said you'd probably suggest a drink rather quickly. Luckily for us," she gave a cheeky grin "A drink and a chat sounds exactly like the sort of way I like introductions to go too."

"Brilliant!" Aria almost squealed with excitement and went to her bag, pulling out a bottle. "See, I am done with my shift for today...so if you are too, maybe we can just replicate some glasses, sit down and take it from there? And hey! Wyatt is here? Wow. See, I remember a different time when he was the fresh one on the ship getting himself into trouble. Funny how things work...anyway!" she moved to the replicator. "Shot glass. Two. Clear." She smiled as they materialised and offered one over. "Sorry, didn't think of making it anymore fun than that. This is Luna vodka. Which...is pretty much the same as vodka full stop except it was made on Luna and may have a slight aftertaste of ozone."

Sofie was perhaps slightly alarmed with how enthusiastically Aria had got out the bottle, she dearly hoped that she hadn't ended up bunking with some crazy alcoholic. Yet at the same time she couldn't say she wasn't glad that they were off to a good start. "I've never had it before." She walked over to the table in the room and shoved the couple of books she'd left on it to the side and took a seat. "I visited Luna a couple of times when I was at the academy to look at its rocks. It was pretty boring though." Then she cringed internally realising that a good reason for someone to have that vodka would be because they came from there "I mean... Well the rocks were boring. You aren't from there are you?"

"Oh, I totally am! Look at you, dissing my homeworld..." Aria said with wide eyes before she laughed warmly, shaking her head before she opened the bottle, pouring the drinks. "I don't mind, I do it all the freaking time. Because there's nothing interesting, except maybe the gravity and the fact you can throw things towards Earth and pretend you are able to take that blue shiny ball of...planet...out of your starry sky..." she was grinning now, watching her. "Selene City is more rocks and plastic if you ask me. So many rocks. Soooo many rocks..."

"See, that should be exiting." Sofie picked up her drink "Rocks, they're really my thing, I love rocks. That does mean I can be very critical of boring rocks though and those rocks... They were boring." She lifted up the glass as a toast. "Cheers, here's to hoping we don't hate each other."

Aria laughed before she knocked back the drink, closing her eyes. "Ooh..." she made a face before she giggled. "Well, I work in Security and I escaped rocks. So you are a scientist then? A rock scientist...that makes you one of the brainy people here. Wow. I am not. I am like...not brainy at all. Just enjoy the patrolling and sticking up for the little guy...or...bigger than me little guy usually. Do you like being a rock scientist?"

The vodka was nice, very Earth, but nice all the same. "The rocks I enjoy." Sofie answered waving her hand almost to brush away the question "It seems there's more to this job than looking at rocks though - doing scans, doing more scans, scanning your scanners to make sure they are scanning correctly." She smiled and placed her glass purposefully on the table in a subtle attempt to indicate that she rather enjoyed that and would not be averse to more of the same. "And to be honest I am definitely not one of the brainy ones. I meet some scarily brainy people in sciences but I'd be lying if I said I was one of them."

Aria promptly refilled the glasses, her eyes narrowed as she watched Sofie. "Hm. Modesty. Is it false or real though...sneaky, I will wonder now..." she smiled before she shook her head, raising the glass. "So, let's toast to the Galileo, a beautiful sparkly new Sciency and brainy ship with some brainy and some not-so-brainy people!"

Sofie laughed and raised her glass to the toast "The Galileo" she responded and laughed again. She was happy in a way that left her feeling very open and exposed but also comfortable - she felt very young. "This is nice," she said gesturing at the bottle " And whether I am brainy or not I am sure this is making me less so."

"Oh this will strip brain cells and various cells in your throat. But maybe take care of bacteria too so...yay us?" Aria asked as she met her eyes, grinning as she eased back and refilled their now empty glasses. "So Sofie, tell me about yourself? Whatcha like doing, whatcha hate doing...people you bring over and all that stuff?"

Sofie rolled her eyes with a wry smile "I really am not all that remarkable. I do like singing, as well as rocks, and before I joined Starfleet I sang opera. Of course that ended when the opera house I was working at burned down..." The memory of it struck an odd chord with her now that she had really started her new job - that was like a whole other world left behind. In an effort to steer herself back into normality she raised an eyebrow and continued "As for bringing people over I'll just have to wait and see. You don't happen to have any of your own plans in that department do you?"

"Yeah, I got a shag list," Aria said with a straight face before she laughed and shook her head. "No, I don't see much action that way. I mean, sometimes I wonder if there will be cobwebs there..." she winked before she watched her with interest. "Opera. Soprano?" Aria loved music. And she had been exposed to opera, well...Earth opera. But dancing had always been her real medium if she started doing the more...artsy, proper things.

Wincing slightly at the thought of it Sofie quickly replied "Heavens no, I am not a Soprano." Like all altos there were times she wished she was but she also happened to have a bit too much of that alto pride ever to admit it. "I sang Contralto, which is great for classical Cardassian Opera, less so for the Earth variety... Do you sing at all?"

"Errr...." Aria looked at her before she sighed softly. "I did as a teenager. I was never good though..." she admitted before she shook her head. "But I have a light voice so I suppose I just shrieked my way through anything." She took her glass but sipped it this time now that she was more used to the...strength. "I was in...a band. A bad band. I mean, we should have been...we....our name was Moondust. That says it all."

Sofie gave a light chuckle "Yep, I can imagine." She paused and cocked her head to the side "It must have been fun though eh? Did you do," she waved her hand in a bit of an unclear gesticulation "Anything else before Starfleet?"

"Before?" Aria bit her lip for a moment before she gave a small shrug. "I danced. I was just a teenager, going into Federation service was always my dream. But I danced a lot. Ballet. Tango...anything really."

Most of the cadets Sofie had known had also joined the academy earlier in their life than her - short and old was sort of how she'd felt during first year. Now here with her roommate, only a year different in age but several her senior in terms of experience. "But I suppose we're all in Starfleet now. Time to go out and do a bit of exploring, eh?"

"Yes!" Aria smiled as she watched her, giving a small shrug that seemed casual, but the way her face lit up at the idea showed the childish glee she took in it. "Explore, help, see things...you will do smart stuff, I will go and guard on away teams...it will be excellent-e!" And she was excited about it. "I am so glad you are my roomie, Sofie. I am so used to sharing with men by now, it is good to have another girl on my team!"

Sofie raised her eyebrows in disbelief "Back in the Academy I only ever roomed with other girls..." She paused pondering the merits of gender related room assignments "But you know," she gave a broad smile "I think I'm glad to have you as a roommate too!"

"Then let's drink to that!" Aria said and raised her glass in a toast before knocking back the drink, with a grimace. "Urgh!"

OFF:

Lt. JG Aria Rice
Security Officer
USS Galileo-A
[PNPC Vansen]

&

Ensign Sofie Ullswater
Science Officer
USS Galileo-A

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