Lunch in the Stars

Posted on Thursday, 4 June 2020 - 9:56pm by Petty Officer 3rd Class Echo Smith & Lieutenant JG Maximus Mackenzie

Mission: Operation: Iktomi
Location: Station
Timeline: 2393 - MD 13+ (Mission Recall)

{ON:}

Max headed into the small cargo bay. He'd booked some flight time before the ship got in and he was old he'd have to have a co pilot. He wondered who they would send his way.

Echo arrived, her flight suit half unzipped, her hair in a messy pony tail. She smiled when she spotted Max. "Hey there." She grinned. "I understand you want some flight time? Bored already?" She teasingly asked.

"I do my best thinking when I'm flying recklessly amongst the stars and given that I already tried to escape via pod and shuttle they figured they should send someone along." He motioned to the two Klingons leaning against the wall. "And them."

Echo snorted. "Good friends of yours? Or are they here to protect my non existent virtue?" She asked with a smirk.

"I think they are here to make sure I don't run back to Vashti." He sighed. An Evil grin passed his lips. "Let's take our Klingon friends for a ride. I'll drive."

Echo got an evil little glint in her eyes, coming a bit closer so she could speak without being overheard. "I heard rumor this shuttle has some issues with its inertial dampeners."

"I like the way you think." He chuckled. So far he'd met two crew members and he liked them both. "Let's go!" He entered the shuttle followed by Echo and the Klingons. He sat down. "I think I'll let the pretty lady take us out."

Echo wanted to be a real pilot, not fly these boxes around at impulse, but for the time being she'd take what she could get. Once they got clearance she barreled out of the bay at a speed that set off two alarms, and would no doubt get her a reprimand, but it was so worth it. It wasn't her fault if the Klingons did or did not buckle up.

Max gave a little snort laugh. "Nice." He whispered. "Let's get a little farther and we can do big looks around the station." He said louder so the Klingons heard. He winked at Echo and leaned over. "Buckle up when you have me the controls."

Echo grinned back, and moved them a bit away. she had to admit it was a nice view from here. Once she'd taken a minute to enjoy it, she handed the controls over to Max, and subtly tightened her restraining straps. "She's all yours."

He grinned. He gunned the impulse forward for a ten second burst the banked up hard doing a loop and then settled into doing a leisurely doughnut around the station. There was a racket from behind them and two very ill looking Klingons. "Oops." He said. "I must be rusty."

It was all Echo could do not to fall out of her seat and start laughing hysterically. "Wait." She suddenly got serious. "Have you ever been around Klingon vomit? I have, it's not pretty."

"Ohhhh they're fine." He leveled the shuttle out a bit. "So Echo, tell me about yourself."

"Well, I despise long walks on the beach, and I will never eat anything if it requires a special fork, and you really should have taken Adrianna and I up on our flirting, because that could have been a fabulous three way." She couldn't help but tease him a bit at the last bit there.

He coughed a little. "But....we are shipmates."

Echo shrugged. She didn't care about the shipmates thing, but she didn't chase what didn't want to be caught. "So why have you been running from the likes of twiddle dee and twiddle dum?"

He smiled a little. "I left Starfleet a year ago. I resigned and thought that part of life closed. I read the fine print so I figured they might be back I had hoped that they wouldn't. When they sent the first guy after me...and how they tracked me on Vashti have no idea, but I tried to get away. I had no intention of being fleeter again."

"Ahhhh, so they are your detention monitors." She leaned in. "You could always throw them in the escape pod and take me hostage." She offered, really only half teasing.

He laughed. "Well now that they have managed to bring me back honour dictates I stay."

"pffft." Echo's comment wasn't a real world, more a puff of air. "Well, let's give this metal box as much of a whirl as we can. It's no Valkyrie but needs must."

He smiled. "Let's... do a little fancy flying." He tightened the belt. "Make it fun!"

There was a reason Echo was a small crafts pilot, and not in the seat of a fighter like she wanted to be. She had the reflexes needed, but was a bit ham fisted on the controls, without the fine tuning needed for precision fighter flying. For their needs it was perfect though. The shuttle struggled to keep up, tossing everything about and Echo enjoyed every second of it. When she'd had her fun, she turned the controls over to Max.

A groan from the Klingons, who'd caught on part way through and buckled up, drifted to Max and Echo. He smiled a little. "That was some good flying. But...I think we should get back. Let our...friends recover and get some lunch. What do you say?"

"Fine." She grinned. She didn't want the Klingons to actually vomit. The trip back was much more sedate. "Are you going to have your escorts with your at lunch to?"

"Nope. Once on the station they figure I'm safe enough. Besides I have to see my mother later this evening when she's out of surgery."

"Oh. Is she ok? Obviously not ok, ok with needing surgery, but you know what I mean." Echo offered.

He shrugged. "I don't know. They won't know for a while. Her husband," he said refereeing to his adopted father. "Might not have gotten her back in time due to him playing admiral."

"Well, I hope things work out. Let's get back and ditch the dodos."

"Indeed." He shot a glance at Echo. She was a beautiful woman. He chided himself in thinking of her that way. She was his crew member and he had a rule. No dating or even bedding fellow crew. He sighed. It was too bad he found both her and Adrianna attractive. He tried to put it out of mind.

Once the shuttle was safely back in the bay, and everybody was off she turned to the two Klingons and waggled her fingers. "Toodles" and some how she made it sound like "get lost"

The Klingons stumbled away. Max laughed. "I wish I had a holo. Now let us lunch. What do you feel like?"

"Well since I'm not getting a nooner." She teased, then promised herself (which she knew she'd break) That it would be the last time she'd tease him sexually. "I suppose a salad is in order. What about you?"

"Anything meat related." He grinned. "I can't live on Salad. Tried...have an allergy."

"Uh huh." Echo snickered. "I'm not a fan of it either, but my waistline is." She patted her middle, which was by no means ample, but certainly wasn't 'thin' She was on the upper end of a healthy weight, but that took work, hence a salad today. "Please let me watch you eat a rare steak."

"I'm more of a very well done kind of eater. You have nothing to worry about in the weight department," he said.

"Well done is fine, and thank you." They headed towards the lounge. "So, how are you settling in? I haven't decided if I like a small ship or not."

"I haven't been on full time yet. I'm more of a wait till the last minute. They have changed my room twice so I figure let them make up their mind. As for the Fontana it looks quite interesting. Small ships are some times better." He looked at Echo as they walked. "So why Helms?"

"Well, baby steps to being a fighter pilot." Echo explained. "I want to fly a Valkyrie, one day."

"A good goal." He studied her. "I have faith that you will attain that goal."

"Well I'm glad somebody does." She smiled as they reached the lounge. "Lunch!" She declared, stepping in with him. "Wow, crowded."

"Do you trust me?" He asked a glint in his eye.

"Hell no." She grinned. "But I'm game anyway." She had no idea what he had in mind.

"Wait here." He hurried inside and after about twenty minutes he came back holding a closed box. "Let's go, observation deck."

"Alright." Echo didn't ask for details. It was more fun this way. She smiled and followed, not even trying to peek in the box. "If that's frogs you're going to be very disappointed, I'm not scared, and they're quite tasty with a nice risotto."

He laughed. "Not Frogs." They got to the observation deck in record time. He lead her to a round door. "Hold that a second?" He gave her the box.

She took the box and yet again resisted the urge to open it.

He pressed the button entered a code and it opened. It looked like an airlock of sorts but they weren't sucked in to space. He took the box from her and walked through the door. Contrary to what should have happened, him floating away, he just walked out as if there was an unseen bridge. He set the box down and motioned. "Come on it. There is a high grade force field here."

She tapped it with her foot, and sure enough there was a force field. She went out and joined him. "Ok.." She prodded.

He laughed. "It's my fathers doing. He's the Station CO who sent the goons the other night. I borrowed his command codes." He grinned as he reached in the box and pulled out a blanket. "How about a picnic?"

"If we get arrested, you abducted me." Echo insisted, but then smiled. "Sure, let's have a picnic."

He smiled. "It's like sitting in the middle of space and having a picnic." He unpacked the box which had some beers and sandwiches and even a salad and some sweets for after the meal.

"Not bad." Echo grinned, reaching for the salad. She spotted their future ship, which had very recently docked. "For such a shoebox of a ship, she's got spirit."

He looked over at the Fontana that could clearly be seen from their little bubble on the station. "Indeed. We'll be on her soon enough. I should feel excited but...I am not."

Echo shrugged. "Offer still stands. Escape pod, hostage. I can do a really convincing girly scream."

He laughed. "Starfleet is about Service, Sacrifice, Compassion and Love. Duty and Honour. It is all a part of Starfleet. I cannot ignore that."

"Wow, you sound like the recruiting poster." She teased him just a bit. "You know, you can have some fun as well."

He smiled. "Perhaps." He studied the woman. "I hope to make Captain some day."

"So, let me get this straight. You don't really want to be here, but you want to make Captain? Am I missing something?" She asked, then poked a bit of salad into her mouth.

"I do not want to be here but if I have to be here then I want to reawaken my ambition of being a captain. But in a Starfleet that once was not one that is now." He explained.

"Ahhh ok. The glory days of Picard? Do you think they could come back?" Echo asked between bites.

"Never a fan of Picard. My hero's are Kirk, Spock, Pike. But yeah it could come back only if people who believe in that time stop leaving Starfleet. That is why I have to stay. I have to try and make a difference." He studied Echo. "How about you? Do you think it could be like it once was?"

Echo shrugged. "Everybody I've met in Starfleet has been very...well Starfleet. I mean recently it's Mars and Synthetics. But back in the day it was Bajoran's and Cardassians. Is it actually any different? Or is it just that we are living this, and reading in the history books about the other? I barely passed history though" She smiled. "I just want to fly."

He grinned. "I have no doubt you will fly well my friend."


{OFF:}