PLOT

[kentra m. donrav]

Life aboard the Enterprise was looking like it was going to be the most comfortable starship posting that she had ever had. Having served aboard non-Starfleet vessels in both the Trill and Andorian merchant fleet and other Starfleet vessels, Lieutenant Kentra Donrav was used to the most basic of meals. Andorian food especially was hardly a feast, and they were a warrior culture so hardship and sacrafice were basically the way that their employees were suposed to conduct themselves as well. The Enterprise though, well this was another story.

While the food would never compare to that offered at a space station, or even better planet-side, it certainly was an improvement. There was a fairly good selection of dishes from Federation worlds, though as with most things Starfleet that veered towards being slightly human centric. Thankfully Trills and humans had similiar tastebuds, so she was not eating anything that was particularly disgusting. Though she had lived on the Klingon homeworld in a previous life, so eating things that would induce vomitting in most races was something she was used to. Theoretically. Her grasp of her past lives and the memories and abilities that came with them was still an ever changing thing. Somedays she was able to quickly call up memories of past events, other times as early that day down in Engineering with Mr. Scott, she was unable to remember things until all of a sudden something popped into her head unbidden.

For this dinner she had gone with a mostly human dish, though she had picked up some of the native beans from the Rigel system as a side. Sometimes there was nothing so good as a nice steak to satisfy the carnavore in her, cooked medium rare of course. Since she had worked well past the end of her shift, and the ship was still not fully manned while in spacedock, the Mess Hall was pretty much empty, and so she had a table to herself as she sat down. Pulling her hair back into a ponytail the Trill began to cut into the steak, and took her first bite. Again not quite as good as on a planet, but still pretty good. This was going to be a comfortable assignment.

[riley j. rand]

Only a few days aboard the Enterprise and already Rand was doing what humans do best - adapting. If it was one thing that any other race could give them credit for it was their ability to adapt. Either themselves or the environment around them. Even certain social environments. Granted she had meet a good amount of people aboard the star ship, even including those that stood well within the captain's own private circle, but with her own self driven need to make friends and meet new people, she had opted for taking a meal in the mess hall. Certainly she wouldn't find the captain there. As if she were really avoiding him, and he hadn't exactly been asking her to bring him his coffee. No, it would be a good opportunity for her to meet others on her own level.

As she walked through the large automated doors, she couldn't help but noticing that the hall was fairly vacant. Indeed she knew that not everyone had come aboard yet, but certainly she had expected more than this. Moving from the doorway and rather than looking for a group of others to join, she scouted out any lone individual. Not afraid of any encounter seeming awkward with her usual ability to make conversation, she saw many possibilities to choose from. Some men, some women, all in the usual blue red or golden yellow uniforms. She did notice how dirty some of them looked and rather than be turned away by the hygiene, she was only interested in joining them more, certain they would be apart of the engineering class.

Turning away from the others at their tables, she then scanned the list of choices she had to eat from. Certainly there were the foods she had never heard of, and she told herself she would try before her departure, but as things stood, she had the expected desire for something homely. A comfort food. Opting for the 'Wisconsin Mac & Cheese' she rolled her eyes at the title's prefix. As if the cheese heads from Wisconsin actually still produced the most or best. Some things had changed in the midwest. Other things; however, stayed exactly the same. For instance how the Idgets from Iowa and Illinois still couldn't drive - the FIBs. It was nice to know that good natured state rivalry had kept it's place even in the universal world.

As she grabbed the tray, now laden with a large bowl of hot macaroni noodles and both melted and shredded cheese, she walked along undoubtably impressed. The side of well rounding vegetables and glass of milk made her almost embarrassed. She was a city girl and this simply seemed as if she were little Hannah down on the farm. With a shake of her head she looked up from her tray, stopping dead in her tracks to decide who she would attempt to sit next to, only mildly concerned with rejection.

[sem d. maered]

They'd been in dry dock for a while now. Long enough for Sem to have officially received his commission as a Starfleet officer, to be officially assigned to the USS Enterprise and to receive his first assignment as a security officer aboard mentioned ship. Albeit, it was the standard assignment assigned to all new security officers, Sem Demiglor Maered still felt a little suffocated by it all. Sure he had filled out all the paperwork himself, jumped through every hoop and studied like a devout man would the scriptures, but he would by lying if he said he had always wanted to join Starfleet. And as the old saying went: “No good Betazoid lies.”

Sem stifled a yawn as he continued scrolling through the list of names and ranks and occupations. 'Familiarize yourself with the ships crew and report any and all threat levels beginning with level 1.' That was his assignment. A most tedious and arduous task worthy of his father. His father... It always came back to him. Starfleet. His commission as a security officer rather than a councilor or therapist or even as a nurse. His many nights spent with 'nose to the groove and mind ever expanding' – as they would say back home. All of it was to prove himself worthy of his father's pride. It always seemed just that much out of his grasp. And on days like these, it seemed impossible to even attain.

He stifled another yawn with the back of his hand and annotated his thoughts onto the pad, making particular note of just how much 'brashness' and liquor consumption would be required of Lt. Quinn before he could be escalated from security threat level 1 to level 3. His mind weaved through the scenarios in less time it took for him to turn the corner and enter the mess hall. Gods willing, they'd have an ice cold mocha available (or possibly two...) to help get him through the rest of the names and still have some energy to write the report before 0700 tomorrow.

He scrolled on to the next name. Yeoman Riley Janice Rand.

WHUMP!

Startled and taken aback, his pad slipped from his fingers and clattered noisily to the floor beside a shattered glass of spilled milk. Heat rushed to his cheeks as he starred flabbergasted at the face from his notes. She stared back at him with eyes that looked as startled as he felt. He'd been so self-absorbed as to walk straight into Yeoman Rand and ruin her day.

“Gods all! I'm – I was just – I wasn't –“ He felt the burning heat of embarrassment bloom fully and he looked around absolutely mortified at having been such an utter dolt in front of his crewmates. After a moment of clear-minded surprise and blank-minded staring, Sem backed into the galley for a cloth, mumbling apologies as he went.

[kentra m. donrav]

The impression one had of watching the recruiting films for Starfleet was that the crew of starships were well trained, capable people who strode about the hallways and corridors of the ship purposefully, never putting a foot wrong. While the first bit was right, they were well trained and capable, the second bit was nearly always incorrect. Maybe Vulcans never had any accidents, but from her experiance Kentra Donrav had seen quite a few of them amoungst the regular crew. It had happened on her previous posting the USS Farragut and she had not even left spacedock and they had already seen it happen on Starfleet's the USS Enterprise. Hell she had even seen the Assistant Chief Engineer locked in the brig for trying to hit a member of the engineering department. All in all the ship looked like it was going to be fun.

All of which did nothing to prevent her from laughing when Sem Maered collided with Riley Rand. Though there was hardly anyone in the mess hall apart from the three of them and a disinterested Tellerite, Donrav was unsure if she should get involved or not but decided that since she had already laughed at the pair of them she might as well help out her fellow crew in red. Standing up from the table she approached, bending down she began to collect what had fallen on the floor. Maered's PADD was now covered in milk, and she took one of her napkins and began wipping it. Glancing at the screen she noticed the file photo of Rand. Looking between Rand and the photo Donrav laughed again, as she held the PADD out to Maered, "Well you are the worst shadow I've seen. I hope you're not looking to go into intelligence."

Gesturing towards the table she inclined her head, "Would you two like to join me? Maybe we can sort out whose investigating who and which one of you had the banana."

[riley j. rand]

With a small gasp of surprise as she felt the tray slip from her fingers, she reacted as fast as she could to reclaim it. Certainly enough she had taken hold of the tray once more, but as it was at a now slanted angle, she could only watch as the milk, broccoli and banana slid off to hit the ground. Closing her eyes as the resulting crash hit her ears, she felt more sorry than angry at whoever had hit her, she had just stopped in the middle of the room.

"Oh, I'm-" she started, turning around to apologize to whomever had run into her. Before she could get the five letter word out, however; he was off mumbling all sorts of things. She then tried to give a smile, but before it was received he was off. Looking down at the spilt milk she didn't honestly mind. She was too laid back for that, although as she heard laughing from a third party viewer she felt a slight blush hit her cheeks.

"I'm certain that isn't the most professional thing you've seen." Rand commented as the crew mate began to help gather what had fallen onto the floor. When she had grabbed the PADD however, Rand couldn't quite help herself from sneaking a peak at what was on it. She was surprised enough to find herself, wondering quietly why, but also able to hold any judgment until she had heard the entire story.

She gave the boy that had run into her a strange look before glancing toward the table the less clumsy stranger had indicated. "I'd love to join you, and I believe the banana was mine." She said with a smile before gingerly taking the fruit and walking toward the table with what was left of her meal. Setting the tray down she turned back to see if there was anything left for her to do in the clean-up process.