Supper with a fellow officer
Posted on Sun Oct 19th, 2025 @ 8:15pm by Lieutenant Rufus Marocain & Lieutenant Njalia Sayffier
Mission:
Take My Hand
Location: Ship's Galley
Timeline: ?
3282 words - 6.6 OF Standard Post Measure
The com chimed. "Lieutenant Marocain, this is Lieutenant Sayffier. Do not worry, there are no problems, I just thought that you might like to join me for supper? We have not had much time to talk and I think that we should get to know each other better."
"I'm always happy to join in a meal, Lieutenant," Rufus replied, grin practically coming through in his voice. "I'll be right there."
---
Njalia was waiting. When she saw her guest arrive, she slipped the datapad she was reading back into her satchel. "Good evening, Lieutenant," she said with a smile. "I hope things have been going well for your department."
It hadn't taken Rufus long to arrive. If he was late for a meal it meant something had gone seriously wrong. "Good evening," he replied, smiling back, ears lifted in friendly greeting. "Everything has been smooth flying so far, thank you. I hope everything is well with yours too."
Njalia nodded. "We have restocked non-replicables and feedstock. All patches and upgrades installed. I think we are as prepared as we can be." She smiled with satisfaction at that. "Now, shall we get some food?" she gestured to the replicators. "And feel free to call me Njalia as we are off-duty."
"Absolutely." A slight tail wag added emphasis to how agreeable that was. "And please, call me Rufus," he added, stepping back to give her space to get up so they could walk over together. Even if it was just ordering from replicators, gathering food was ingrained as a social thing. Of course, given that the big Kainan typically ordered a lot, there'd been a joke among his buddies at the Academy that a group provided cover from carrying a whole platter. But he always did offer to share - that was just polite where he came from - so he picked a big charcuterie board with a good variety since he wasn't sure what Njalia liked.
Njalia ordered fried nohas bread, berry syrup, northern sausages and a mug of The. Her antennae quirked at Rufus' plate. "Long shift?"
An ear oriented on her. "No, not really..." Then he realized what she was asking and laughed. "Actually, this is a pretty normal meal for me. Though I did order a bit bigger spread to have some to share, of course."
She nodded. "I am afraid I really do not know much of your species, Rufus," she made her way to an open table. "I am usually so buried in software code and supply requisitions, I have not had as much time as I would like to learn more about the crew here."
"It's okay," Rufus assured with a small nod. "We're fairly new as Federation members - only started the process after the Dominion War. Those idiot Founders thought their shape-changing could fool our noses," he tapped his very prominent nose, whiskers flicking with a sly grin. "But we only fought alongside as allies at first. You're still find a lot more likely to find Kainans in the Marines than Starfleet." He smiled briefly, thinking of one Marine in particular. "Though I'm surprised the size of my portions threw you. Andorians are one of the few species that can match us for metabolism. One almost beat me at a hot dog eating contest back at the Academy. I think that came down to mouth size more than capacity, honestly."
"We do not run quite as hot aboard starships, the warmth dampens it a bit," replied Njalia, "human starship are always too warm." She glanced again at his tray. "And we are a little less meat focused," she added with a smile taking a seat. "Feel free to try some of the rohas bread and sausages, which are a little spicy.
His head tipped to the side a moment. "I didn't know that. I suppose it makes sense not needing the calories to stay warm. But then I haven't found the somewhat over-warm temperature most non-fur-bearing species seem to prefer any detriment to my appetite. Obviously," he added with a grin, as he set his tray down and took a seat opposite her. "Thank you, I will try a bite of sausage. Please help yourself to my plate as well. There's a selection of bacon and cold-cuts, including sausages from Rigellian ox, Bluehorn, Terran venison, and Denebian goat. Predator heritage does incline us toward meat." He flashed a fang-exposing smile. "But there's also five kinds of cheese, mustard and chutney for spreading, and some crisps. We aren't obligate carnivores. We just like meat."
Njalia laughed and speared some of the meat. "That is fair. I am more inclined to fish but much of that is just where I grew up, many of my family's traditional dishes are seafood-based. I probably should take on more calorie-burning tasks to improve my appetite. I sit far too much."
"I like fish too - protein is tasty whether it runs or swims. But my family lived more inland, so we didn't have seafood as often, though I do have fond memories of fresh grilled bacon-wrapped shrimp when we visited cousins closer to the sea. Everyone has replicators now, of course, but family tradition for meals is still based on what game our ancestors hunted, and what we still hunt as a pack for special occasions," he explained, as he likewise took a piece of her sausage and then popped it in his mouth. His ears lifted. "Oh, I like the spice. You should try some of the brown mustard on the Bluehorn." Advice he illustrated, downing another bite. "Mmmm... you know if you need to work up an appetite, I'm always up for handball. Or you can follow me around on shuttle bay inspections sometime - despite sitting at the helm, I do a lot of walking to make sure that everything that falls under Flight is in top condition."
Njalia nodded. "When I can, I like to check things like the sensor linkages myself, it helps me to feel more in tune with our ship." She takes a bite of the bluehorn with mustard and nods approvingly. "My exercise tends to be more martial but handball might be fun, you would have to suffer with me being a complete novice. The last game I tried involving a ball was Terran basketball and I did not do so well." She gives a wry grin and an amused curve of her antennae.
"I heard about that," he chuckled. "I've done one-on-one hoops a few times, but mostly it was who could make the most 3-point shots. I should try actual basketball sometime." He made a mental note to see if anyone in Flight played. Any team sport that involved speed and hand-eye coordination seemed like a good one for pilots. "Anyway, I'd be glad to teach you. But if you usually do martial arts, I practice Kainan Dalraw. That might be a bit tricky for you, since it has tail strikes, but I'm always happy to learn new styles or try sparring against them."
"Perhaps a bit of each?" she says before taking another bite of nohas. "It is good to practice against different styles, who knows what the universe will throw at you. While I have done some unarmed, mostly I have practiced swordmanship and staff fighting, though Goddess knows I am out of practice on both. My teaching hologram was most critical of my lack of dedication last time I activated it."
Rufus swallowed a cube of cheese, then wrapped another next one in targ bacon. "I've done some staff fighting - long staff and double baton styles." He cocked an ear, glancing up at her with a slight grin. "I'm guessing your style doesn't allow blocking or disarming by catching your opponents' stick on your teeth."
Njalia smiled. "For the sporting level, yes, but all of our martial arts remain, at their core, combat arts. The combat arts would not care, they teach winning and survival as the important techniques. If you have an advantage, use it. It is just our jaws are not strong enough to pull that trick off."
"That's the philosophy with ours as well, though it's important in that context to have enough control to not harm your sparring partner. In real combat, biting is an option; when sparring, you can grip with teeth," he briefly put a sausage sideways in his mouth, pulling lips back to show it gripped firmly but not pierced. "Only undisciplined pups would ever break skin," he explained, as he dipped the sausage in hot mustard. "Of course, with weapons all bets are off. But it's not jaws so much as teeth that even we have to worry about. I don't know if you've met him, but one of the Kainan marines here had to have his upper fangs replaced with duranium implants after having to resort to a bite hold in combat."
"I suspect our new science officer would be interested in that," said Njalia. "Have you met her? Quite a formidable woman but an expert in metallurgy." She takes a sip of The. "That must take a lot of control to keep from biting too hard, commendable discipline."
"I haven't had the chance to meet her yet, though I imagine metallic dental implants would be more something for her and the Doctor to geek out over. It's always good to know an expert metallurgist though. You never know when you might need a consult on changing out shuttle components for some special circumstance." He took a sip of his bone broth tea, mentally filing a note to meet the new science officer. "But as to biting control, it's not so much commendable as something we grow into tussling with our siblings and the other kids in the den."
Njalia tries to imagine a passel of young Kainans. "Having natural weapons could be troublesome when one is young," she concludes. "We Andorian just need to learn to be cautious around each other antennae," she adds, "though they are tougher than they look."
"Well, we have fur for protection against puppy teeth, so it evens out," he chuckled. "But most pups wind up with a tear in an ear that needs a dermal regen at least once. That's how we learn though. I guess it's the same with being cautious around antennae. I know they grow back on their own, but I imagine it's uncomfortable."
Njalia nods. "So I have heard. Luckily, it has not happened to me, but I had a cousin who lost their left antenna in a skiing accident. She said it was quite unpleasant waiting for it to regrow and she had all sort of phantom hearings while it was doing so." She spread some syrup on the last piece of rohas bread. "But such lessons, even when they happen to other people, tend to be remembered."
"Aye," Rufus agreed. "And that's one of the strengths of a pack - we share experience and learn from one another." He rolled several cold cuts together and dipped them in a chutney. "I think it's part of what makes Starfleet a great pack. So many different people with different experience - IDIC, like the Vulcans say - makes the whole better." He popped the roll into his mouth, chewing happily for a moment, then flashed a grin. "It makes for tasty food too."
Njalia smiles at that. "Indeed it does. IDIC is one of the points I am entirely in agreement with the Vulcans on."
Rufus nodded. "IDIC for sure. I do agree with them on some other ideas too. Their idea of cuisine, though..." he stuck his tongue tip out and rolled his eyes a little, "...not so much."
"They have raised blandness in food to an art form," agreed Njalia. "I respect logic, it is a useful tool, but I do not want it to be the be all and end all of my mental horizon. I enjoy my passions, in moderation," she added with a wink and antennae quirk.
"They do seem to think 'bland' is a flavor," Rufus laughed. "I appreciate mental discipline, and there are times it could be useful to turn off emotions. But not all the time, or even most of it. I enjoy my passions too. Some of them even in excess," he added jocularly and stuffed a slab of targ bacon into his mouth.
Njalia grins. "Agreed. Though I was renowned among my classmates at the academy for my cold and distant nature. It was vitally important to me at the time to get the best possible marks."
Rufus head tipped to the side a moment. It was one of those humanoid things that he'd learned to accept as normal for them, but it still seemed weird. "This is where our species are really different. The culture I grew up in centered on pack, cooperation and community. In fact, those who seem distant are viewed with ...apprehension... or concern, because for us that's unhealthy. And it would never earn high marks. It honestly took me awhile to adjust in the Academy because they gave so many individual assignments."
Njalia listened and nodded. "We are quite community-oriented as well, not as much as your culture, and the Academy is also designed to create bonds and ties. I was just very deeply focused on technical perfection, which I admit has served me well in my career, but I regret not taking part in more of the socializing opportunities." She paused. "Were there many other Kainans in the Academy when you were there? I only remember crossing paths with one."
"Not so many," he replied. "There were two in the years ahead of me, and one that came in after, but I was the only one in my class." He tipped his head side to side in Kainan shrug. "Like I said, most of us join the marines."
"Well, I am glad you are here," said Njalia. "You have managed some impressive piloting even just in the short time I have been aboard."
He dipped his head. "Thank you. And as much as I'm sorry you missed out on socializing, I'm glad you pushed hard enough to wind up on Vesta. I don't know what we would have done without you in that Tholian mess."
Njalia's antennae curl a little in embarrassment. "Thank you. Vesta does seem to attract talent. Now if we can just get a counselor and a sec/tac officer to click and stay around, we will be ready for anything."
"Every ship has a cursed position. Somehow we have two," Rufus responded with a sigh. "But a department is more than their Chief. I know it probably sounds odd form someone who looks like a wolf, but the whole needing an alpha thing is over rated." He took a sip of his bone broth tea. "Which as CFO, I find kind of comforting. If I thought everything would fall apart without me, I'd be shedding a carpet from the stress."
Njalia nodded. "I am pleased with my staff as well. They are all universally competent, as you expect from Starfleet."
"Exactly. I think that's what was so disturbing about the Nelson. Not just that the holopersonnel had this eerie lack of scent," his nose crinkled in distaste, "but that each department had only one sentient and the rest were automatons. As a pilot, lack of redundancy sets my teeth on edge. Don't get me wrong - emergency holograms are valuable, and we use autopilot regularly - but they can't replace actual sentients."
"I agree, sentients should never be out of the loop," said Njalia. "The Nelson, I am not going to was a failure, but was . . . incomplete." She smiled. "I am still working on the scent conundrum too."
His lifted slightly at 'incomplete'. The phrase 'complete failure' was what came to mind for the Nelson, but for him that was more the structural build defects that affected warp and helm control, though the reliance on holograms were also a defect in his opinion. "People have been working the scent issue for as long as there've been holodecks. Replicated scent is always a little off. Even really well-crafted scents, because scent doesn't cling to light or forcefields, so there's ...sort of a ghosting effect." His nose wrinkled involuntarily. "But I could get used to scentless holograms. In my opinion the biggest problem with the Nelson concept is the lack of junior crew. I mean, where do we get experience senior officers to run these holo-filled departments if they never get a chance to gain experience coming up from lower decks?"
"I agree, equally cutting out the non-commissioned officers and crew represents a dangerous loss of institutional knowledge," said Njalia. "Holograma should never comprise more than one quarter of the crew in my opinion, one in eight would be better, a system to provide support but not to encourage dependency," she said. "But looping back scent question. What if instead of trying to make the holograms smell like people, we made them smell like holograms?"
Rufus paused, heading tipping to the side as he considered the idea. "It might help. But the scent would have to be something simple, like wax or plastic. Otherwise, it turns into the Garlic Problem." Seeing a querying look, he explained. "Garlic is one of those scents that turns up in holodeck scenes with food. It's a strong scent and comes across fine to most humanoids as 'garlic'. But the scent of real garlic is complex - it's different depending growing conditions, where and how it was stored - so to me, hologram garlic comes across as weirdly flat and just ...wrong."
Njalia nods and reaches for her datapad. "Do you mind if I take notes? Yes, a simple base smell, wax would work. With a secondary scent by department? Metal for engineering, citrus for medical, perhaps? With a slight variation in scent consistent to each individual hologram? Does that seem workable?"
"Go ahead," he said with a nod. "I think secondary by department could work, though citrus will run into the garlic problem - maybe more so since there are a lot of different kinds of citrus, and again for each type of fruit there are complexities to its scent. I'd say stick to simple chemical scents. Like, maybe hydrogen peroxide for medical. I think there's a Cait in the chemistry branch of Science. He could probably make some good suggestions for basic chemical compounds to use."
Njalia made notes. "Simple, simple is usually best for something like this. But thank you for your thoughts, I want to make holograms more . . . accessible? More friendly? More usable at the very least. I was definitely overthinking the problem. This is a great weight off my mind."
"Glad to be of service," Rufus replied with a smile. "And thank you for putting the thought and effort into fixing a problem that's been one of those 'just have to live with it' things with holograms."
Njalia smiled. "If we are not making the universe better for everyone, why are we in Starfleet? As I have been taught, the unofficial motto of Operations is 'Ops is here to help.'"
"That's a great sentiment," Rufus replied, then added with a chuckle. "Better than the unofficial motto of Flight: 'Hang on. We'll get you there.'"
Njalia laughed. "Well, I feel I have earned some desert. What can I get you?" she asked, getting up.
"A peanut butter cheesecake, please." He licked his lips. "I don't know that I've earned it, but I never say no to dessert."
