Hot Gossip

Posted on Friday, 22 January 2021 - 1:41pm by Lieutenant Alex Kingsley & Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Trail of Tears
Location: Science Department
Timeline: 2394

"Aren't you just beautiful..." Lieutenant Kingsley murmured as she adjusted the resolution to enhance the image dominating the screen. Not only had the specimen survived, it had thrived. She paused, dictating her notes before returning the sample to the case and moving on to the next. Determined to give her husband time to meditate and rest, she had thrown herself into work not just on clearing paperwork but for her research paper. Both had been neglected as of late and being here, in her lab, was calming.

Here there was order, a system and procedures. Protocols you had to follow. There was no room for distraction, to risk breaching the safety measures in place or destroying your work.

By the time she was done, her neck and shoulders ached and ironically enough, she would have loved to get some time in the gym to work out all the aches and knots in her muscles. That, she knew as she went through the decontamination process, was not a good idea. For one, no matter what Soral had decided to do (or rather not do) her spat with T'Paris would be hot gossip. If anyone on the ship didn't hear about it, it would be a miracle.

For at least the next day or two, she would keep as low a profile as possible.

With that decision made she headed into her office, sighing when she found her once clear desk now held a fresh stack of PADDs. "Oh come on," she groaned, throwing herself into the chair and snatching up the first one. "Damn things are like rabbits..."

Adrianna stepped in, she chuckled a little, "Uh no, I had my pet tribble, Uovo, snipped so he wouldn't breed like a rabbit."

"Aren't Tribbles born pregnant?" Alex mused thoughtfully, "you better check there isn't an invasion going on in the bowls of the ship... but no, I was referring to paperwork. I mean, this department is tiny and yet it never stops! How is that possible. Maybe it is karma. I take it you heard about my little disagreement with T'Paris?"

Adrianna nodded," brought you a gift."

"Grappa?" Alex guessed, with no small amount of trepidation. That stuff was lethal.

"That depends," Adrianna offered sitting down and pulling her satchrn to her lap, "you still got some?"

"Got some? If you mean the little stash Soral got from you, Stillwater had to hide it before he drank himself into a coma. I know you said get him drunk but it was not pretty," Alex told her, "he is not a good drunk."

"Did you at least get the conversation you needed?" Adrianna asked curiously. She couldn't help but feel pride that the grappa had knocked him for six.

"Kind of," Alex sighed, "I think we had a better conversation after my little altercation with T'Paris. He wasn't happy, obviously, but he didn't throw me in the Brig. Which is what I expected. He thinks I'm jealous."

"Are you?" Adrianna asked as she pulled out a bottle of grappa and then a long, thin strip of velvet.

Alex shrugged, "maybe. Probably because I don't trust her. She acts all perfect when she is around him, then spends time trying to push my buttons so I do stupid things like I did today."

Adrianna nodded, "remind me, what race is she?"

"Vulcan. So of course she loves to tell me how I'm failing as the wife of a Vulcan. And she has this really annoying smirk," Alex added. "Until I punched her in the face."

Adrianna snorted and pushed the grappa and velvet strip over the desk towards Alex, "I dated this Russian once. His mother hated me. She used to say he should be with a Russian girl. Long story short, he's now married to an Orion... Man. My point is, there are people that like to chip at a crack, to see if it'll break. She thinks she's a better fit because she's 'his kind'. She will find herself out of an airlock though if she persists. You need to out logic her."

"Out logic a Vulcan?" Alex repeated with a grin, "how much grappa have you had?"

"Today? None," she smirked, "Logic is what I call my wrap. I think you should name it Logic too."

"Your wrap?" Alex asked curiously.

Adrianna pointed to the velvet on Alex's desk. "When I was growing up, I used to keep one of those in my pocket. If I started to get angry, I'd take it out, wrap it round my knuckles and then punch whoever was making me angry. It firstly, protects your knuckles, but also decreases the chance in bruising the other person, though it still hurts like hell."

Alex grinned, lifting the strip of velvet. "Nice... although I think my husband would much rather I just didn't go around hitting anything other than a punching bag."

Adrianna chuckled, "he'll only find out if there are witnesses or if T'Paris is really that stupid."

"She is not stupid," Alex sighed, "I was. She baited me. She's determined to show Soral that emotional humans are not suitable wives. While she, on the other hand would be perfect. She probably thinks reciting tactical manuals is a wonderfully romantic evening."

"You mean you wouldn't get naked to those tactical manuals?" Adrianna teasingly asked, "Soral is smart and baiting is rather human. She's knocking at a bricked up wall. At some point, he's the one that needs to step in though."

“Tactical manuals... eww. Now a biohazard containment protocol? Now you’re talking... kidding. Both are mood killers. But you are right. Eventually he needs to step in. I don’t think that will happen soon though.”

"My mother used to tell me that a man may have been the Head of a house, but the woman is the neck," Adrianna offered, "he needs to step in. There's only so much we can cover up before he gets pulled in for coving up an assault."

"I offered to go to the Brig," Alex pointed out. "He just did that tone which is pretty much how I think every exasperated parent sounds. Still, I keep thinking Stillwater is going to walk in any second and march me down there himself. And I can't complain, I deserve it. Did feel good though."

Adrianna could hide a proud look," you be a Don before you know it."

Alex laughed out loud, “hardly. But in preparation for my future role as Don, why don’t we polish off this bottle of Grappa tomorrow night? I need to do some more work in the lab and on my research paper which sadly needs to be on of duty time.”

Adrianna nodded, "Si, Don Kingsley." She smirked, "I think that sounds like a good idea. Maybe even plot some hypotheticals."

Alex laughed again, "sounds like a plan."

OFF.

 

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