Slumber Party

Posted on Sun Oct 4th, 2015 @ 2:14pm by Ensign Six of Ten & Falasin & Ensign Reva Madhava & Desta

Mission: Further Challenges
Location: Archadia III

* Archadia *

The four young women had beamed down to the transport station, then a small transport had ferried them up the hill outside town to the cottage. They piled out and stood looking up at the house as the transport sped away.

“Oh, this is so nice!” Falasin bounced on her toes. “It’s so good to get away from 900.”

“You can say that again.” Six smiled. “The less you have to worry about that worm.”

Reva and Desta shared a glance. They had just gotten back to SB900 a few days before; leaving it again had felt strange. For Reva, she was venturing out without Riley, and she wasn't entirely sure about doing so. For Desta, ...well, everything was all new again for her. "That worm?", Desta asked.

“Niro.” Six and Falasin answered at once. “Fal, why don’t you and Desta take your stuff on inside? You can take the upstairs bedrooms. We’ll check the kitchen and make sure the food got here.”

"Yes, Ma'am," Desta picked up her bag and Reva's, shouldered them and headed inside, calling back, "Reva, I'll leave yours in a downstairs room!"

“Yes ma’am?” Six looked over at Reva. “Do I want to know?”

Wincing, Reva watched Desta and Falasin head inside. "She still takes things as orders thanks to Fisher and Pash," she said quietly. "Six... about Suresh. I'll try not to ...denigrate him."

Six nodded. “I appreciate that. He’s been amazingly good to me and for me. Between him and you? I’ve learned so much about living in this world.” She took hold of Reva’s hand.

"I just hope he doesn't teach you any painful lessons. Men like him... like Fisher and Niro.... They don't think of people, particularly women, as being equals." Reva read Six, read of her engagement and wedding, read further and, as her eyes widened, pulled away. "Let's go inside. Did you say you had Farco stock some steaks for dinner? We can start up the grill."

“He did.” She wondered at Reva’s reaction but decided to ask later. “There’s a fire pit out back, feel like marshmallows later?”

"Marshmallows...? We have chocolate? And those thin cookies? If not, then let's send Farco out to get some. I'll bet Desta hasn't had anything like that." She smiled and caught Six's arm in hers. She peered up the stairs as she and Six went into the kitchen.

“Check those cabinets and see. If not we’ll have him go down into town. Otherwise, I gave him strict instructions to do his job and stay out of sight. I don’t want Desta being frightened. You know him but she doesn’t.” She paused as they heard laughter from upstairs. “That’s a good sign.”

Reva started opening cupboards and looking through the food they had. "Rice, beans, something I can't read or recognize, ...cookies! Okay,...," she kept going. "I'm glad he didn't send Patch," she said quietly. "Solis sterilized my collar and let me take it home."

Six shivered. “I’ve seen what those can do. Why did you want it?” Six hopped up to sit on the counter while Reva continued to look through the cabinets.

Pausing because she'd just stuffed a cookie into her mouth, Reva glanced at Six, looking guilty about the cookie. She swallowed and said, "Um... Well, no one else will ever wear it. But I want to reverse engineer it. Solis said that if it had been on too much longer, it'd've been permanent. If I can reverse that...." She shrugged. She was also hoping to find a creator's signature. Sometimes engineers did that; she did on things like her little robots. If she found one in this necklace... collar, she reminded herself, she'd be able to hunt him down. A shiver coursed through her, making her skin pebble and her scalp prickle; she wasn't sure whether that was another reaction from the surgery or an adrenaline spike caused by her thoughts. Either way, she tugged at her sweater to pull it tighter around her.

“Makes sense. If I can help, let me know. Those spinal implant devices are tricky things.” She swiped the second cookie from Reva’s fingers and popped it into her mouth. When she’d swallowed it, she smiled. “You asked me a question in your quarters that I didn’t answer. About Vic.”

"Oh, yeah, what about Vic? Does he know?" She looked into the fridge, found the steaks as well as cold beer and wine. She lifted two bottles: one beer, one wine, and waggled them at Six, looking at her. "The red must be in the... oh, it's in the wine rack over there. Red, white or beer?"

“Beer for now. We’ll have the wine with the fire.” Six frowned and shook her head. “He’s been off-station since Suresh and I came down here. He knew we were engaged though. I don’t think he’ll be surprised but I don’t expect happiness either.”

Reva had pulled out two bottles while Six spoke and opened them, handing one to Six. A burst of laughter from upstairs made her smile faintly. "No, I don't think he'll be happy. He liked you, Six. And he's such a super sweet guy!"

"Who's a super sweet guy?" Falasin asked as she descended the back stairs into the kitchen. Desta was just behind her.

“Vic.” Six motioned to the fridge. “Get two more out Reva.” She looked back to Fal and Desta. “He’s the bartender at the Nexus. We had dinner a while back, before I met Suresh. Once I met Suresh that was it for me. I had to let Vic down, which is a shame. He’s really great.”

Reva handed Falasin a beer then offered one to Desta, who frowned at it. "Try it, Des, if you don't like, we'll find something else for you," Reva said. "Yeah, Vic's great." She laughed and told them, "Poor guy: he got stuck holding Ignatius' egg sac while we crawled back through the Jefferies' tubes. I had Iggy's mate in a box. The whole time, we were worried the sac would split, covering us with hundreds of little spiders."

Desta had tried the beer, found it wasn't half bad and tasted it again. "Ignatius? I think you've mentioned that name before. He's a spider?" She sounded utterly confused.

"Here," Reva touched Desta's arm and opened up her thoughts, showing her Iggy. "She's alarming at first, but is really very funny."

Blanching, Desta nodded. "Oh. I think I'll have a nightmare with that in it."

Falasin leaned back against the counter and sipped her beer. “I heard that she likes to pop into the Nexus now and again? One of the waiters there mentioned it. I’ve yet to see her but then until recently I hadn’t gotten out much.”

“You two will have to meet her. She’s hilarious.” Six smiled for a moment. “So, Farco came through and we have steaks for dinner. Reva’s going to get the grill going and we can start on the rest.”

"Steak? Real steak?" Desta looked back and forth between Reva and Six.

"Um...," Reva, still standing near the fridge, opened it again and pulled out the packet of red meat. She showed it to Desta. "Archadia has a domesticated animal that they breed for meat. It's a bit like... Terran beef or Klingon targ meat. Six? Will you and Fal work on some side dishes? If I start the fire now, we could put potatoes on to roast."

“Certainly.” Six hopped off the counter and crossed to the pantry. She pulled out a bag of potatoes and passed them off to Desta. “We’ll join you two in a bit once things are cooking in here.”

Falasin checked the refrigerator and began pulling out various things for a salad. “Oh, and there’s desert in here too. Oh my, it’s a box from Portin up on the station!” She opened it just a little and smiled. “A big bowl of chocolate mousse. If this is Farco’s doing, can he start shopping for my stuff back on the station?”

Laughing, Reva drew Desta, holding the potatoes, out to the back patio. There was both a fire pit and a brick, gas-burning grill. Reva went to stand in front of the grill to work out how to turn on the gas. Once she got it going, she and Desta put the potatoes on the grill and closed the cover.

“You all seem to know so many people,” Desta observed once they sat down in two of the lounge chairs. “So many names...Suresh, Farco...Vic. Who are they all?”

"Vic is a bartender at the Nexus, a restaurant on the Station. I met him... hmm, I forget exactly when, but Eli works at the Nexus, too. He's a Cadet, dating Chance, whose sister is Iggy's guardian and the Chief of Security - oh, you met her on the Takei. Dark hair, human. Anyway, I've worked on a project with Eli for one of his classes. He's a cutie," she grinned. "Vic is, too, though older and much... sexier," Reva admitted. "Farco is one of Suresh's men. He's usually assigned to watch out for Six. Big guy, grey. He looks mean, but he can be pretty nice. Suresh...," she looked away from Desta, out over the view and frowned. "He's Six's... something. Boyfriend, I suppose," she sounded cynical. "Romulan. And more than that, you'll have to ask Six about. I'm not good talking about Suresh."

Desta’s mind jumped, naturally, to her own experiences. “Does he harm her? She seems awfully happy if he does, which is strange.”

"No, he loves her. It's just... I'm not a fan of him. We had a poor introduction and first impressions tend to stick." She drank her beer. "If he hurt her, there's a lot of people on the Station who would step in and stop that."

“Good.” Desta took another sip as well. “Tell me about Falasin? She hinted that she came to get away from someone.” She reached over to touch Reva’s hand. “Seems we all have a story here.”

Looking at her, Reva thought about that: she and Desta were tied together by Fisher; she and Six through Riley; she and Falasin by Niro. "Yeah, we do. I'm not sure what happened with Falasin - I barely know her - but she got tangled with Niro, who can be charming." She didn't want to tell Desta about Riley attacking Six.

“Perhaps we’ll get them all worked out this weekend,” Desta answered. She held out her bottle and clinked it to Reva’s. “To the girls.”

"To the girls," Reva agreed.

***************
Ensign Reva Madhava
Ensign Six of Ten
Falasin
Desta