Another Round O' Brew

Posted on Mon May 18th, 2015 @ 11:41pm by Lieutenant Riley Sukotav & Ensign Six of Ten & Lieutenant Bryce Kendrick & Ensign Reva Madhava

Mission: Breaking New Ground
Location: The Promenade - Cravings

* * * Six’s Quarters * * *

Six was as good as her word and had spent the time after Bryce left unpacking. She had little doubt that no other roommate would be forthcoming, so she arranged the entire living room to her own desires. Once done, she surveyed her bedroom and the living room with some dismay. Until now, she hadn’t realized how little ‘stuff’ she had. Even completely unpacked, the place looked empty. The second bedroom, which she intended to use as an office of sorts, was completely empty. Perhaps Bryce might have some ideas on getting this place furnished.

In the meantime, she was supposed to be meeting friends for dinner. That thought alone thrilled her. The idea of her having friends was new and novel, especially in a new place where she’d expected to know no one. Now, what to wear? She opened her closet, which turned out to be as sparsely filled as her rooms, if you ignored the uniforms. She chose a silky patterned skirt she’d picked up while at the Academy, and a white tank top. That should do well enough. She owned exactly one bracelet and that got added to the pile. She braided her hair, examined herself in the mirror and promptly unbraided it, letting to flow loose. Good enough, she supposed, and departed for Cravings.

* * * Cravings - The Promenade * * *

Strolling up to the table where Bryce was, Reva smiled at him, looking like she just might be flirting with him. “Hey there, handsome. This seat is now taken,” she sat next to him. “How have things been with you?”

He looked up and smiled briefly. “Hey, Reva. Things have been well, I guess. Had a pretty good time with Six today showing her around the station.” He sipped at his drink as she adjusted her chair. “I gotta’ admit, I didn’t think I would be the first one here. I figured you guys would have already been here living it up.”

“You guyz? Who? Riley and me? I haven’t seen him in a bit. Instead, I’ve been working on a little side project.”

“Side project, eh? Some kind of engineering technological breakthrough?”

“If it’s Reva, that is highly likely. Hi everyone.” Riley had arrived, beer in hand already to get get his mouth working. He clapped Bryce on the shoulder, then moved around the table to kiss Reva’s cheek.

She returned the kiss. “Nope, that Iggy, you know, Eli’s and Chance’s spider? Her predicament got me thinking, so I’m looking into how we can get the computer hear her.”

“Maybe I can help with that.” This was a new voice, at least to Reva. Six had arrived and stood, rather uncertainly, by the table. “HI Bryce, Riley. And you must be Reva.”

“I am,” Reva said before pausing to stare at Six, her mouth hanging partly open. She blinked then found her voice, “And you’re Borg! Bryce, you didn’t mention that!”

He almost choked on his beer and wiped his chin. “Uh, well...I didn’t--” He pulled a chair out beside him trying to avoid getting sucked into that conversation. “Here ya’ go, kid,” he said to Six. “Have a seat.”

Six shot Bryce a stricken look, then took the seat. “Technically I’m Halanan, though I don’t suppose I was that for a long time.”

“So tell us this project with Iggy.” Riley jumped in, surprisingly, to salvage the moment.

Bryce leaned over to Six. “Iggy’s a big spider. Sentient. I’ll fill you in later.”

Reva leaned in towards Six, too, intently staring at her and ignored the men’s attempt to change the subject. “You’ve got an eye implant. What does it do? I mean, beyond see.”

Six looked back at Reva a moment and it dawned on her that this woman’s curiosity might be due to the interest in things computer-related. The waitress stopped and she ordered a beer, then began to tell Reva all about the implant’s abilities and specs.

Enthralled, loving the technical talk, Reva peppered Six with questions when she paused.

Riley caught Bryce’s eye over their heads and shrugged.

“Still think this was a good idea?” Bryce asked Riley with a grin.

Riley flagged down a waiter for a refill and laughed. “Perhaps a better one than you know, my friend.” He watched the two women, his smile lingering. “So, how about those Mets?”

Eventually, the two women realized they were excluding the men from the conversation and stopped. Reva laughed, “So, yeah, maybe you could help me with Iggy. She can’t talk… well, she can, but not out loud, so getting around the base can be a problem for her.”

“Turbolifts, yes?” Six nodded. A thought struck her but then she frowned. “I’ll think on that some Reva. An easy solution comes to mind but it’s one that would likely give the brass a stroke.”

“Ooo, even better! What’s that solution?” Reva didn’t mind causing trouble for the brass.

“Something I'm not allowed to do.” Six frowned and fiddled with her beer mug. “But perhaps there is a way without that. We’ll work on it.”

“Wait--nanoprobes?” Bryce asked. “Is that what you’re talking about?” The thought of that big-ass spider always kinda’ creeped him out in the first place, but pumping it full of nanoprobes? Whoa nelly…

“Not exactly, but there should be a way to wire the lifts so they can communicate.”

“Communicate with a telepath?” Reva wasn’t sure how that’d work without a direct link to the brain.

“I’ll take it up with Commander Leroy and if Riley’s willing to help?” Six looked to Riley now and smiled. “He likes you, you can convince him.”

Riley blinked at the comment. “He does? I wasn’t aware he liked anyone except his...umm...Kh’ali.”

“I’m hungry,” Bryce blurted out. “Are you guys hungry? I could eat, that’s for sure.” Without waiting he let out an ear piercing whistle, getting the server’s attention and wondered why be said he would come to this thing. He was a pretty smart guy, having picked up a few things over his couple-hundred year life, but engineering and science-y stuff was just something he wasn’t interested in beyond the basics everyone had to learn.

“I could eat.” Six turned to Bryce and rested her hand on his arm. “We’ll cut the shop talk if you want. Besides, I was really looking forward to meeting Reva and getting caught up on what’s happening on the station.” Silently, she mouthed ‘thank you’ to Bryce.

“Oh, hell yes,” he said, referring to stopping the shop talk. “I think my head was about to explode with the gibberish.” The server was ready for his order. “Chicken and waffles for my meal and a large order of onion rings to share with the group.”

“Sorry about that, Bryce. I get excited and can’t stop myself,” Reva grinned at him.

“I can vouch for that.” The words popped out of Riley’s mouth before he could stop them. His face was instantly a deep red. “Oh shit,” he mumbled.

Six, just taking a sip of her beer, laughed and spewed beer on the table.

Reva, too, laughed, even as she nudged Riley with an elbow. Good misstep there, dear, her amusement came across with the thought. “Oh,” she realized the waiter was still there, “Right, I’ll have a cheeseburger, the works.”

“I’ll have what she’s having.” Six then reached for her tiny napkin and wiped at the table.


“Me too,” Riley added, refusing to look at the waiter.

The waited made a note in his padd. “Don't worry, I’ll go get a towel,” he said and moved away.

Bryce shook his head at the group. “Some seriously unadventurous eaters at this table,” he said. “Cheeseburgers? They have some amazing stuff here!”

“Hey, it’s not like I grew up eating this stuff,” Reva huffed. “Unadventurous would be if I ordered a Betazoid Stew.”

“Ditto,” Riley agreed. “Give me the beef! Or whatever passes for beef here.”

Six was overcome with laughter once more. “Have some more beer, dear,” she said to Riley. “I think the first is wearing off.”

The server had returned to wipe down the table. Bryce took the opportunity to order more beer. “I’ll have another Old Rasputin,” he said and turned to the group. “Anyone else?”

“Mmm, rather have Dirty Bastard,” Reva said.

“I’ll have the Old Rasputin and Riley there will have one of each. Trust me.” Six thanked the waiter and he hurried off. “Sorry about the table, really. I don’t normally exhale my drinks.”

“How was your tour this morning, Six? Was your tour guide friendly enough?” Reva winked at Bryce.

“He’s the best.” Six’s tone was enthusiastic. “He even tolerated showing me through shops all over the promenade and treated me to lunch. Without one complaint.”

Riley raised an eyebrow, looking from Six to Bryce. “He took you...shopping? Reva, better check and make sure he’s not been replaced by a pod person.”

Brows raised, Reva looked first at Riley then at Bryce and Six. “What? Not all men hate shopping. Right?”

Bryce tried to plaster a smile on his face. Speaking through his smile he asked Six, “What the hell is happening right now?”

“I believe they are having fun at your expense, dear. Just nod and smile while I kick Riley under the table, okay?” Six did her best not to laugh.

The drinks arrived and before the server left, Bryce ordered two more bottles. “I’m gonna’ need it,” he said before chugging the bottle at hand.

Six squeezed his hand. “Never fear, looks like the food is here.”

* * *

“And that’s when I came out of the trees on Charu and found Nick and Leto pointing phasers at each other and Iggy demanding they lower their weapons or else.” Riley paused as he laughed once again. “The moral of this story, kids, is if you go to the colony, don’t stop and smell the roses.”

Agreeing with him, Reva swallowed the last of her beer and added, “Or, take a scary as fuck giant, talking spider with you.”

“Scary, right? That’s what I’ve been saying!” Bryce said pointing at Reva to accentuate his point. Then again, it could be the nine beers doing the pointing. And the rather large belch that followed. “Holy shit that was fantastic. It reverberated in my chest! Some serious bass in that one.” He was working on beer ten and was eyeing number eleven.

Six held up both hands, her fingers spread. “I give that a ten. I expect better of you after this next beer.” She flashed Bryce a shy smile.

Riley had slowed down to sipping his beer now, just enough to keep him talking in front of Six, but not talking too much. He smiled at Reva. See? They like each other.

Yeah, I see that, Reva answered him then lightly kissed his cheek and teased him, Just as it’s obvious you like me.

Bryce high-fived Six. “You’re gonna’ have to grow another finger, kid. This next one’s gonna’ be an eleven.” He proceeded to down the rest of the bottle and tried to work up another one. Nothing. “Damn. That’s just unacceptable.”

“There’s always next time.” Six finished off the last of her beer, then turned to Reva, speaking in a stage whisper. “I’m off tomorrow, if you have time to get together. We can talk about Iggy so we don’t do any more s-h-o-p talk tonight.”

“That’d be great! Hey,” Reva promptly forgot about the ‘no shop talk’ rule, “Maybe there’s a Borg implant… oh, no, we can’t break her surface… exoskel-el-eton.” The beer was hitting her language skills, and she’d had just four. “Bryce! Will you be able to walk home?”

“Pssh. I’m a drinker from way back, lady,” he replied. “It’ll take a few more to keep me from getting to my quarters. Hell, I might even make it halfway there now!”

“If not, I can carry him,” Six answered. At the funny looks she got, she nodded. “Really.”

“Really, really,” Bryce said, finally getting bottle eleven down. “And for my next trick,” he said, prefacing a loud, obnoxious belch that almost seemed to cause random papers to blow across the room and hair to be misplaced. “Oh….shit! That one hurt!” He followed it up with a laugh.

Six shook her head and laughed. “And on that resonant note, I think I’ll get him out of here.” She gave Reva her quarters number, then looked to Riley. “Give Tess my regards when you get there tomorrow morning.”

“Will do.” Riley saluted. “We’ll have to do this again.”

“Yes, we will!” Reva laughed as Six coaxed Bryce up and out of the restaurant. “Who is Tess?”, she asked Riley.

“Tess is the assistant Chief of Science. He said she came down to Galileo this morning and he met her. He’s a pretty stand-up guy, which is good. He won’t let anyone hassle her on the job.” Riley wrapped his arm around Reva’s shoulders. “Come on, let’s go dance.” He hopped out of his chair and led her away.

* * *

On the way out Bryce had his arm around Six. He was able to walk but a little steadying didn’t hurt. “Okay, kid, that was actually fun! And I’ll be damned if you’re gonna’ have to actually carry me. I think I can stagger home okay.”

“It’s okay, I’ll be a gentleman and see you to your door.” She smiled. “You like your beer, pity you don’t have nanoprobes to gobble it up so it doesn’t affect you. Funny thing, they think it’s a poison.”

“Oh, it is. It is!” he said, chuckling. “Poisons the brain, but it’s a good type of poison! Well, every once in a while. Can’t have people running around like drunk assholes all of the time.”

“You think?” Six laughed as they entered the lift. “At least you are only one of those.” She didn’t indicate which, teasing him a little.

“Asshole,” he replied. “Definitely asshole.”

The lift stopped on her floor and the doors opened. “Next stop, men’s shoes, luggage and housewares,” he said. After the blank look he added, “That’s an old thing...it’s--well, never mind.”

“I see.” She paused the lift and looked up at Bryce. “You want me to get you to your quarters?”

“Nope. I’m good. But I did have a pretty good time. Thanks for that, kid.”

“Me too.” She hesitated a moment, then continued. “I need to know where to get...stuff. My rooms are a little empty...okay they’re a lot empty.”

“Looks like I have a few more places to show you tomorrow, then,” he said. “Can’t have you living in a cavern.”

“Thanks. Goodnight.” Six stepped out of the lift and once the doors closed, made her way home.

*****************
Lt. Bryce Kendrick
Belchmaster General

Ensign Reva Madhava
All About the Borgtech

Lt. Riley Sukotav
A Tongue That’s Too Loose...For A Change

Ensign Six
Trouble Holding Her Beer...In Her Mouth