A Commanding Dinner Pt. 1
Posted on Wed Jul 24th, 2019 @ 9:56am by Rear Admiral Yoshi Minawara & Captain Ewan Darrow & Commander Jonathan Mantell & Commander Martin Sorenson & Isabella Cerin
Mission:
Snow Birds
Location: Captain's Quarters
Timeline: MD01 18:00HRS
1357 words - 2.7 OF Standard Post Measure
Placing a stack of plates on the edge of the counter, Alice considered them for a second, hummed to herself, and then decided to leave them. Already arranged on the edge of the bar edge of the kitchen was several plates of snacking foods, a plate of nachos, some chopped up vegetables with dips, and a collection of appetizers. Humming to herself again, she danced around the kitchen, the sounds of late 20th Century Earth rock came quietly from the concealed speakers in the quarters. For those about to Rock belted Brian Johnson in the background of the sounds of the three deep fryers going. "Jack, dear, would you mind putting the plates and cutlery on the table for me?" she asked, without looking up. "If you're here early, I'm putting you to work," she added, looking up briefly to smile at the child-like engineer. Running on instinct, she tossed a little pepper into the gravy cooking on a heating element, and stirred it with a wooden spoon, not bothering to test it. "And Yoshi, do hurry up there, they should be here any moment."
Appearing back from the bedroom again, his beard trimmed up and rubbing a bit of aftershave on his face, before reaching down and adjusting the watch on his arm. Crossing the quarters to his wife, he wrapped his arms around her, kissing the back of her neck, which earned him a light swat on his hand. Spinning to face her husband, Alice made a playful frown, kissing him on the cheek, and whispered in his ear "Not with colleagues present, you know the rules." The pair exchanged a quick kiss, before he swatted her lightly across her backside, and picked up the appetizers to place on the table.
"Computer, switch chime to guest mode, auto-open," said the Commodore aloud, as he placed things in the middle of the table.
By some miracle there had been no last minute emergencies, so Martin had for once managed to leave medbay on time. He'd even had time to change into casual pub style clothing - jeans and favorite shirt from home, which bore a small Caribou coffee logo above the words 'Life is short, stay awake for it'. Arriving at the door he inadvertently halted, not expecting it to open before he'd activated the chime, but realized the setting must have been changed in anticipation of company before (he hoped) his surprised pause became too awkward. "Hello, I hope I'm not too early."
"Something Something if you're not early you're late." Allison said as she stepped up behind the Doctor and pushed him through the door a smile on her face. Ewan simply rolled his eyes and walked in after the pair.
"Best not to block the door way Doctor, Allison can be very impatient at times." Darrow said as he walked up to the counter and dropped the case of 12 bottles of some craft brewery from Earth on it. "Smells delicious Alice." He called out as he began pulling bottles out and offering them up. Allison walked right past Martin and Ewan heading to where Alice was deep into cooking to do what she did best and help via drinking lots of wine with her counterpart
"Didn't mean to get in the way," Martin said, stepping aside, allowing Allison headed to help Alice in the kitchen. He noted Jack setting the table, and could practically feel his mother giving him a Look from somewhere in the Great Beyond. "Is there is anything I can do help?"
Stopping briefly to hug Allison, Alice turned to the Martin. "If you want to help Jack, feel free Mister Sorenson," she said as she continued to carry on with her food prep. Stepping around the pair, Yoshi grabbed one of the beers from the twelve pack, and with a swift single motion popped the cap clean off.
"Don't mind the ladies Martin," said the CO stepping out of the way and extending the beer to the doctor in the form of offering. "Now that they are both here, we are always going to be in the way until we leave," he said taking another step out of the way of his wife, who only gave him a playful scathing look. "Glad you could make it, and I hope you came hungry, Alice is experimenting with something called "poutine". I'm told it was once a popular pub food in Canada," he added with a chuckle.
"Thank you," Martin said accepting the beer. His eyebrows lifted at 'poutine', and grinned looking toward Alice. "It still is, even in places that only border Canada. If she wants any help with that, I think I remember how to make it."
Yoshi returned the comment with a laugh. "I wouldn't get between her and the kitchen itself, only worse place I find is in here way behind a bar." Looking to his wife, Alice rolled her eyes. "But no, I think she is good, she's got her handwritten recipe book there." Nodding to Ewan and Martin, he indicated the couches. "I think the best place is to be out of the way, you too Jack when my wife is done putting you to work."
"Yes, sir," Martin conceded with a smile and went to settle onto the couch.
As luck would have it, Jack had finished setting the places at the table as best he had remembered how. There were only a few pieces of silverware out of alignment, and perhaps the wine and water glasses were swapped. He was woefully out of practice, by decades if anyone was counting. For all of its formal dinners, the ship had staff for that, but the boy supposed that being the newest minted Commander among the ship's highest ranking members, wives included, made him the low man on the totem pole this evening. After his talk earlier with Yoshi and Alice, he was just happy to be wanted in any capacity.
Escaping the dining room in a few bounds, Jack made his way to the couch and flopped down backwards over the armrest, letting his hands fly up and settle down into the lap of Doc Martin. He grinned upside-down at the ship's doctor, then his brow furrowed and he asked, "What's on your shirt?"
Martin looked down at the boy, sprawled with arms over his lap and head just missing his leg, and couldn't help but laugh. It was utterly incongruous behavior for a newly minted promoted senior officer, but completely in character for Jack. "It's from one of my favorite coffee shops back home. It's supposed to look like a Caribou."
"Caribou? Those were up in Atlanta, right? No, wait, Alaska!" Just because his homeworld mirrored Humanity's, at least to a point, didn't mean he was an expert at the geography. The boy nodded to himself, a few more times than necessary to appreciate the way the cushion rubbed against the back of his head, scratching an itch he didn't know he had. Then he then tilted his head askew, looking back at Martin again, "Didn't they all die out in the 21st century? Global warming or something?"
"Hm... I think there were some in Alaska," Martin said after taking a moment to think about it. "They're not extinct, though they did come close at one point. It think the fact they're basically reindeer, and beloved because of the association with Santa Claus, gave them some priority among the species that were disappearing back then."
"Santa Claus and reindeer?" Jack giggled and shook his head. "Who would think that goes together? That'd be silly, everyone knows Santa Claus is just another name for a Q being who plays pranks on bad parents by showing them up at Christmas."
"Really?" Martin laughed. That was new one. Though it did make more sense than old guy on a flying sleigh visiting every home on earth - and most human colony world - in one night. "Well, a reindeer pulled sleigh was the old legend, but then I guess a Q prankster would make the story as silly as possible."
