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Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #25 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Considering the scale of what they were going to pull, Frank didn't see any point arguing with Reggie over another set of clothing.  When she made her request and he saw what they were, his mind couldn't help but work to visualize how that would look on the attractive Wolf.  He shook his head as then got his mind back on the plan at hand.  Reggie's additions were another thing altogether as he worked to setup the programming for what could quite the memorable jaunt for the returning squadron commander.  At the mention of another piece of music, Frank's eye brows furrowed together. "I can't say I've heard of it.  Computer, play Chariots of Fire."  The computer beeped and the instrumental began to flow over the speakers.  About a minute in, Frank smiled and his eyes twinkled. "Got it.  That's certainly going to set a mood.  What do you think about broadcasting the music over the squadron comm net?  Everyone can join in the fun."

As Frank continued hurriedly programming, his subconscious floated to other ideas.  "We also need a plausible reason to be there. Hmmmmm......" While Frank let the program get compiled and tested by Thea, he began searching for something distracting and one of the returned ideas was ancient, and had huge potential. "Reggie, come take a look at this."  Pulling up the images of something known as nose art on ancient air breathing aircraft, especially those on military aircraft during one of humanities ancient conflagrations, Frank's metal working mind began fusing the idea.  "I don't know if you've been to the diplomatic office on deck 2 recently, but I put in piece of metal art a couple of weeks ago, and I think we can do something similar with Commander Rel's fighter." 

Frank punched in several parameters and the options that were returned were hilarious and intensely florid.  "You know. I'm making an assumption that he's a hetero male here, but have you heard the story of Lazarus?  He's supposed to be one Earth's mythical figures was raised form the dead by another one, also quite mythical, but there's more evidence to suggest he existed, but that's not the point.  Since Rel is coming out of stasis, which is sort of like coming back from the dead, we could use something like this on a metal plate and weld it to the nose of his fighter." The image was one of a buxom, ravishing dark haired woman arching her back as she got out of a stylized cockpit coffin.  Her far hand was pushing her hair back, while the other one held a scythe.  Below cockpit in a banner was the word Lazy in a ebullient and curvaceous cursive font.  "It would give me a decent excuse to be down there since I need a deck hand to help attach the thing, where as you need a reason to be in the cockpit....."

A chat window popped up with Thea as the sender.  "The program should do what you have specified........Is this wise?"

Frank considered this for a moment before typing back a reply. "In the traditional sense no since we're modifying a manned spacecrafts operating procedure, but it's harmless in general, easily corrected, and most importantly flashy and funny as hell."  With that, he hit send.

The screen blinked for a moment before a reply came back that prompted the Engineer to snort in amusement. "I will include a warning of what to chip to pull should he enter a red alert situation. I will also watch this situation unfold with great interest. Thank you."

"Interesting indeed now that Thea's in on it."  Frank shook his head once more.  "Any other changes you want to make?  What do you think of sticking a charm of some sort in his cockpit to get you in there?"

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #26 –
[Reggie Suder | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | Deck 25 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 

Reggie watched over Frank’s shoulder as he cycled through the various patterns for nose art.  As a pilot, she was well aware of the tradition and some of the Starhawk Squadron’s Peregrine fighters had seen similar decor.  When Frank settled on the choice of of the scantily clad buxom woman the betazoid stiffled a laugh.

“Oh that’s perfect.”  An idea struck her and she stepped up to adjoining station and keyed in a sequence of her own.  The image morphed from a human woman, to a Cardassian woman in the same pose.  The display then split, showing both versions side by side. 

“What do you think?  Cardassian or Human?”

After their deliberation and choice, Reggie saw the pop up from Thea and watched the conversation with her own interest.  She knew Thea was a new form of Sentient AI unique to the Theurgy, but her experience with artificial life was limited. 

“I don’t know her well enough yet,” Reggie commented as she and Frank worked.  “Does Thea understand the concept of a prank or a practical joke?” 

The Betazoid avoided the word ‘hazing’ given it’s negative connotations, but she suspected the term could apply.

She considered Franks idea of a charm in the cockpit and immediately liked the idea.  “Yeah I think I can replicate a horseshoe for him.”

Once Frank had finished compiling everything Reggie loaded the program into a simulation and called up the output.  She watched as the Valkyrie performed and their tricks responded, keeping an eye on the simulated telemetry as she did, making sure that nothing seemed out of whack.  From her perspective nothing should be, but she wanted to make sure that she didn’t see something that Frank might have missed.  Everything came back green save for one thing.

“Have the smoke contrails cut out as soon as the fighter penetrates the atmospheric forcefield on final approach.  I’m not sure we should smoke up the entire flight deck.  Also,” she paused as she considered.  “Yeah… also, instead of having him pull the chip in an actual crisis, can you program the sequence to immediately stop if he goes to red alert?  I don’t want him turning into an attack while he’s trying to fumble for Isolenear chips.”

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #27 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Frank considered the choice of human or Cardassian and decided he didn't have enough information on what the revived SCO would consider funny to come to a decision. Deciding it didn't hurt, he pulled the open synopsis of the Wolf's personnel file. The Engineer didn't make it a quarter way though the file when he said "Human, definitely human." a big finger tapped the species line of the file saying Bajoran-Cardassian. "There's an understandable amount of bad blood between the two still, so let's not take any chances."

Frank then opened next opened a drawer and pulled out a small PADD.  Taking a few moments to pull up a design program, he loaded the parameters for the charm before passing it to Reggie. "There's a selection of styles and shapes for horseshoes including metals, and any other details you'd like to include."  The Chief Engineer deliberately decided to tackle Reggie's question about Thea till after as he put in the new parameters for disabling the joke.  This gave him a few moments to think about it.  "I don't really know if Thea really gets it, but she's willing find out what makes our sense of humour what it is." 

The computer and AI cores were the purview of both Engineering and Operations, though more the latter, but being in charge of so many critical systems had granted Chief Arnold a lot of data and he'd boned up on it quite a bit, especially since his chief assistant was in love with how Thea had developed.  "I understand the AI has had several experiences that were the purview of biological beings, so maybe she's looking to learn the wider range of emotional responses.  We just need to include the caveat that everyone has a different sense of humour."

Frank thought for a minute about how they were going to pull this off and he added a couple final touches to the design then brought up the relevant section of the schematic.  "This thing isn't going to be too heavy, but it will be noticeable. Anyway, I'm going to transfer this item to the industrial replicator in the FAB and when we get there, we can activate the replicator.  We'll cart it over to his fighter and use the hand tractor to attach it to nose." Frank took a moment to grin at the design.  "After it's attached, we just need to pull off this tab.  The chem catalyst compound will activate and molecularly seal the art to the nose."   

The grin turned neutral as he considered the next problem. "The smoke pots are a bit harder since we don't want him suspecting his plane has them.  So they have to be inconspicuous. Maybe disguise a couple of the missiles as the dispensers?  Or should we swap out the ECM launchers?" 

Frank pulled out a stylus and tapped on his desk for a moment before turning back to the Wolf. "The squadron is due to have an all up exercise soon.  Is there someone on the FAB crew that could help us with this?  Maybe swap out the fighters loadout so the smoke dispensers get attached before the exercise starts?"

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #28 –
[Reggie Suder | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | Deck 25 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 


Reggie continued working dutifully as Frank set in his instructions.  She didn’t know Thea all that well and by the sounds if it, she wasn’t sure if Frank knew her any better.

“It will be interesting to see what she thinks of this.”

A pop up window appeared on her screen:  I WILL SHARE MY FEEDBACK WITH YOU IF YOU WOULD LIKE

Reggie suppressed a grin.  “Thanks, Thea,” she said, not entirely sure how she had been heard.  “I would love that.”

The pop up disappeared.

She continued her work, running the simulations as Frank tweaked the program and providing the relevant feedback until they came to the subject of the smoke pods.  Of course, as a Wolf herself, Reggie was well aware of the all hands flight drills that had been scheduled  and while she wasn’t entirely sure she actually needed the drills herself, she understood their purpose and so had remained quiet on the subject

“Lets check the duty Roster,” she suggested as an answer to the question about whether or not they could get a confederate from the Deck team to help them out.

It came as no surprise when practically the entire deck crew was scheduled for duty during the pre-flight hours ahead of the All Up.  But when she crossed referenced the duty roster against the roster of who was on duty tonight, one name popped immediately.

“Hmm…” she said to no one in particular.  “There is someone who could probably help us.  But he’s usually pretty by the book.  Maybe we could convince him to help us on this.  What do you think?”

She motioned for Frank to take a look at her screen where a single name had been highlighted.

ENSIGN LIAM HERROLD

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #29 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Main Engineering | Vector 03 | Deck 25 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Frank didn't know the Ensign that well so Reggie was going to need to take the lead on this one. "We'll see, maybe we can talk him into it as a good cause."  Frank grinned for a moment as he thought about for a moment like this was a spy novel or a political thriller.  "Does he have any vices that we can exploit?  I really shouldn't be thinking that."  Thinking it over, Frank came to a decision.  "Let's see if he has a good sense of humour about it and we'll be straight with him.  It shouldn't be too much of an issue since we're not making a total hash of his fighter." 

Turning a humorous smile on Reggie, he held his index finger and thumb just slightly apart. "Just a minor change.  Heck, we can take mercy on him and just swap out one ECM dispenser."

Turning back to his computer, Frank pulled the design from Reggie's PADD and sent the entire order to the replicator in the FAB. Shutting down the terminal and getting up, he was about to head to the the nearest turbolift when he had a thought and detoured to the replicator in his office. "Computer, one bottle Tomintul 21 Caldos Distillers Edition.". The alcove lit up and Frank pulled the box out and opened it to reveal a dark green bottle of scotch inside.  Taking a moment to pull the thin card inside, he programmed a welcome to the SCO and slid it back in its holder inside the box. "It's a welcome back gift that'll probably buy some forgiveness."  Frank explained before placing it under his arm and heading to the turbolift.

"Deck 16, Fighter Assault Bay. Port side." The computer beeped and the loud artificial whine of magnetic drive kicking filled the as the car sped through the ship.  Frank thought bemusedly about what they were going to do "Protocol on the industrial replicator is that it'll make a notification noise and turn on a light showing that something is in the bay, so the package is going to engender some confusion when it arrives and someone sees it."

The pair had barely stepped out of the turbolift when his communicator beeped. "Chief Arnold, this is Ensign Herrold.  We have a crate here with your name on it.  Is it supposed to be here sir?"  Tapping his own badge to activate the link.  "This is Chief Arnold, and yes it is.  I'm almost at the FAB, and we'll explain it shortly."  There was a brief and very confused pause. "Yes sir. Herrold out."  Frank gave Reggie an 'Oh Boy' look as he made his way to the locker room as if he was totally supposed to be in the FAB and paid no one any mind. 

"Now to find his locker...." Frank trailed off as he entered the bays of lockers that held numerous flight suits and the showers.  Pausing for a moment, he thought he heard something and headed in that direction only to see a familiar Andorian crawling in to the Jeffereies tube. She in turn stared back at the Engineer and Pilot that had clearly caught her sneaking out. "Uhmmm.  Lieutenant Zark.  What would you be doing here?"  The medic stared at the other pair and twisted her mouth from side to side deciding what to say. "Uhmmm, well, I could ask you the same thing sir, bottle in hand and everything, but in my case, I'm doing a friend a favour." There was something not quite right with her tone since it was totally innocent, but couldn't be.  On the other hand, she was rather mischievous herself, so if she was here, it was likely for shenanigans as well, except she'd gotten overly complicated with her execution.  Considering she was wearing a leather catsuit to pull off her stunt gave an farcical air to the whole thing.  "I see. Well, tell you what, you help us find the locker to Lt. Commander Jaru Rel's locker and open it and we'll have no idea who was here in the first place. Deal?"

Deciding she didn't have much choice, plus spotting the bottle of Scotch, figuring it couldn't be a bad thing, Zark agreed.  Frank's eyebrows did arch at one point as she pulled out a device that popped open the locker.  "We were never here. Now if you'll excuse me for my super sneaky dramatic exit.  Have fun you two."  With that, Zark practically dove into the Jefferies Tube, smiled and winked a long white lash before closing the tube door.

Frank shook his head at what had just occurred as he deposited the scotch then turned to his accomplice in the whole affair.  "Ready to face the music Reggie?"


Zark is making an appearance for a reason since @Dumedion  asked for it.

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #30 –
[Reggie Suder | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 

Reggie did a quick double take when she saw Zark appear in that very alluring cat suit and the sight of her gorgeous shape only served to remind her what had happened on the surface of Qo’Nos a few days ago.  Of course neither of them could talk about it, and before she could even get her thoughts back in order, Zark had led them to Janus’s locker, cracked the lock, and disappeared just as fast.

I really should apologize to her, Reggie thought.

Frank was already done in the locker and asking her if she was ready to face the music.  It struck her as an odd expression as, so far as she understood it, one did not ‘face the music’ until they were caught and had to account for their actions.  As they had not taken any actions yet, other than a bit of planning and brainstorming, it didn’t seem like they had all that much for which to account.

“Let’s get started,” she said.

As the FAB was more her domain than his…the last time she had seen Frank here, he had started servicing her fighter, couldn’t get his fingers where he thought they needed to go, and in the distraction caused a caustic spill that landed them both in decontamination… Reggie took point and confidently led him to where Janus’ ship was parked.

“Can I help you, Lieutenant?”

Reggie turned to the sound of Liam’s voice as he approached them.

“Go ahead and get your crate.  You’ll find anti-grav pallets in the armory.”

Without waiting for Frank to reply, Reggie offered a gentle hand on his shoulder before stepping away to talk to Harrold.

“Good Evening, Liam,” she said, keeping her tone light so as to communicate that this was a casual interaction.

“Evening Reggie.  Everything okay?”

The Betazoid took in a breath.  “Oh yeah.  Everything is fine.  Commander Arnold and I are just um…” her voice faltered, “performing some last minute maintenance on Wolf 01.”

“Janus’ ship?”

Reggie nodded.

“I don’t have that one on the schedule.”

“I know,” she confessed.  “This is kinda off the record if you take my meaning...”

Liam looked at her, the suspicion clear on his face.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

His tone was firm though not accusatory.  As chief of the deck, he was within his right to ask.  But knowing his reputation on the deck, he would not take kindly to shenanigans.

“Um…yeah.  The less you know…”

“Lieutenant,” he interrupted. 

“I know, I know,” she said, putting a hand up to placate him.  “I know how you run the deck and I respect that.  But Mr. Arnold and I want to welcome Janus back to the fold properly.”

She let a twinge of playfulness color her tone.  Liam couldn’t be ignorant of the practical jokes pilots played on one another.

“I promise we’re not doing anything dangerous and I’ll take responsibility for the fallout,” Reggie said.

“It doesn’t work like that Lieutenant,” Herrold replied.  “You can claim all the responsibility you want, but if something goes wrong, it’s my ass on the block right next to yours.”

“Liam,” she whined.  “Come on.  You know me…  I’m just asking for a little trust.”

His face twisted as he considered.  It seemed as though he were trying to see if she would cave, spill more, or if he was just leaving her to twist in the wind.  At last, he sighed and his expression softened.

“All right, I trust you.  On one condition.”

“Name it,” Reggie said almost too quickly.

“I’ll look the other way on whatever it is you’re setting up.  But if you’re making modifications to the ship I want to do a final inspection.  I can’t let something fly if I’m not 100 percent confident.”

Reggie considered it but Liam spoke up again before she could agree.

“Fortunately for you, I’m meeting people after I finish here.  It’s going to be a late night of fun with them, so it’s highly likely that I’ll forget what I inspected, that I’ll forget most of the night, and remember just that the ship’s are good to go.  Agreed?”

Reggie smiled.  “Agreed.”

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #31 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Frank was worried that they actually weren't going to get by the Chief of the Deck as Reggie left his side to go have a conversation with Enisgn Liam Herrold.  It was hard in a way for Frank as he clasped his hands behind his back and rocked back and forth while eyeing the crates that he'd directed to the industrial replicator in the FAB.  As the Chief Engineer, he was tempted to use his rank to get by the Ensign; but this his department, so she there was a chance the Ensign would kick this one around and Janus would hear about somethign that was happening to his fighter.  That would just ruin everything. 

Reggie seemed to need to do quite a bit of convincing, making gestures, placing a comradley hand on his shoulder.  Frank kept his poker face on though he could feel the tension rising with each passing minute.  Not so much he couldn't handle, but definitely noticeable.   The Ensign's posture changed and Frank did become worried that he could have to go in to 'explain' things, but he eventually relaxed and he could see the pilot make her way back with a show of relief on her face. 

He smiled as she made her way back and patted her on the shoulder when she got close enough. "I don't know what you promised, but that was well done." Heading to collect crates, Frank grabbed the hand tractor, made the necessary safety checks, then moved the wide and narrow box onto a Push Dolly.  Smiling like a kid, Frank grandly gestured towards the fighter bay. "Shall we?" he asked as they headed in to find the SCO's fighter.

With the large influx of new pilots, the fighters were being worked hard to bring everyone up to speed and integrate them as a team.  This meant maintenance time as chem catalyst welders glowed, tractor wrenches turned, and various fluids were poured into reservoirs.  THere was also cursing a plenty as not all the repairs were going smoothly.  Luckily for Reggie and Frank, they caught a break as no one paid attention to them pushing just another cart around.  It was also fortunate that the one they were pranking was the SCO, and as the head of the pack, he'd had his fighter worked on first, so it was left relatively unattended as the crews had switched to other priorities. 

It took more than a moment for Frank and Reggie to get the heavy plate off the dolly and onto the deck where he could open the case.  Frank opened the crate and stopped for a moment to admire his handy work.  It really was a work of art and he was sure that someone was going to appreciate it.  Though it was hard to say if Janus was okay with being called Lazy.  Shrugging since they couldn't stop now, the Chief snagged the hand tractor and activated it with practiced precision as pulled the metal art plate from it's cradle in the box and slowly maneuvered .the device onto the dolly where he adjusted the gravity gyros to balance the load.  When the system felt stable, and the device concurred, the Chief reached into a pocket and pulled an isoliniear chip out with the prank parameters and passed it to Reggie while also giving her the cockpit ornament.

Adjusting the beam length and strength, Frank pushed the busty image towards the side of the fighter's nose.  This was a slow process, but one most experienced engineers were used to, giving them the chance to move loads far outside what they would normally be able to lift on their own.  The tractor emitter gave him an obstruction warning and he stopped his length adjustment to begin rotating the plate till it was perfectly horizontal.  Using the deck as a reference, he had to rotate the plate about 4° counter clockwise.  The obstruction warning disappeared and he resumed pushing the plate till is seemed to lock onto the fighter's nose on it's own.  When he got the warning again, Frank made his way to the fighter to get a good visual look that the plate was indeed against the hull.  Making sure to stay way from the tractor beam, Frank ducked under the beam and found one of the molecular bonding tabs and pulled it, then crouch walked over to the next one, and pulled on it.  There was the sound akin to a light velcro being pulled or suction as the process took place.  With that done, short of cutting off that section of the nose, that plate was now part of the fighter.

Grabbing the smoke pots to put in the ECM dispenser, Frank climbed up the fighter to find Reggie .  "The art's in place, and I've got the smoke dispensers here." he told the pilot since hopefully she had a better idea of how to actually make that swap.

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #32 –
[Reggie Suder | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 

“We’re in business,” Reggie said as she returned from her conversation with Liam. “He wants to inspect our work to make sure the ship is safe to fly, but he’s promised that he’ll forget the details of what he found beyond the fact that it passed.”

She climbed into the cockpit and began her work. It felt somewhat odd to be sitting in a Valkryie but the system interfacing was all the same and most of the flight ops operating system was consistent with what she remembered from her Valkyrie Mark II days and it took little time for her to access the configuration files and slot the isolenear chip in when Frank tossed it up to her. Once she set the ornament, she tested the pull on the chip, just in case Janus needed to.

The pilot was down the ladder when Frank reported his success with the nose art. Reggie took a few steps back and eyed it.

“Yeah…. Yeah… that’ll do just fine. Beautiful,” she commented.

Reggie eyed the smoke dispensers as Frank spoke to her. They looked about the right size and configuration, which meant they should fit just nicely.

“C’mere,” she said, flexing her finger with a tease. "I want to show you something special.”

She led Frank to the rear of the craft. “See these,” she asked as she motioned to two shapely protrusions of hull attached to the engine housing. “These are directly attached to the port and starboard engines. Pop the hull plating off, and you’ll find a port into which you can plug the dispensers. Give it a push until it pops in, a slight twist to lock it in and then the hull plate goes right back on.”

She gave a wink as she grabbed a tool and removed the first of the bulged plates. It came off with relative ease.

“Just make sure to remove the ejector port cover from the plating. Otherwise you’re going to dump demonstration smoke into the internals and really fuck up the engine.”

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #33 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Frank grinned as Reggie went to show him how the smoke dispenser was going to be installed and he looked on with interest as this was a new engineering system that he had little familiarity with.  As the pilot popped off the cover plate, he took note of the dispenser cells in the system that fired off the 'chaff', a colloquial term for the ECM packages that confused the targeting systems of enemy ships and weapons that were locked on to the fighter.  Recalling how the system worked, it was a more sophisticated, but much scaled down version of the anti-matter projectors used on larger ships to create false energy signatures that were hopefully more appealing than the target fighter. 

Paying attention to the final warning he nodded. "Got it, remove the ejector port from the plating to avoid giving the SCO a heart attack from a catastrophic cascade system failure."  Grabbing the other smoke dispenser and a tool case, Frank got up and made his way across the back of the fighter to the other dispenser.  Using the same tool, he gave the housing a twist, and sure enough, the housing came off easily.  Seeing the same setup, Frank examined the system, looked at the dispenser to make sure it was facing the proper way, then put it in the dispenser.  Taking care to remove the plate, the engineer picked up the cover plate.  Signalling the crew chief to come over and inspect the work, he waited for Ensign Herrold to make a safety pronouncement.

"Looks good Chief.  Maybe we can put you to work on the fighters."

Chief Arnold smiled back, especially since this fix had gone much better than his last escapade on the small craft. "I had a good teacher."  He replied as he nodded at Reggie's direction.

The Ensign chuckled. "Alright, well I didn't see anything, so I'm gonna leave.  Good luck with whatever is going to not happen here."

The Chief nodded and made his way back to where Reggie was working. "Ensign Herrold is good with dispenser, so should we make our daring escape like certain Andorian we encountered earlier?" this gave Frank pause and he idly voiced his thoughts. "I wonder what Zark was doing, and how did she get her hands on that sort of tech?  It certainly made her job really easy."

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #34 –
[Reggie Suder | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 

Having set the last of the programming into the cockpit computer, Reggie was quick down the ladder after Herrold finished his inspection.  Already, Liam had exited the bay heading off to wherever he was due to be next, and Reggie didn’t pay him much more mind than that. 

Frank was waiting for her by the time her foot hit the deck and she considered Franks comments about Zark.

“I barely even saw Zark,” she said.  “What was she working on?”

As Frank offered his reply, a thought occurred to her,  “hold that thought,” she said after he’d finished.  “I’ll be right back.”

Without waiting for Frank’s reply, she sauntered off to the pilots locker room and quickly skinned out of her coveralls and back into the dress she had started the night with.  Sure she had theoretically left it in engineering when she’d changed in the first place, but the nice thing about replicators was that she could recycle the pattern in one location and re-produce it elsewhere.

There was little she could do about her makeup at this point.  It had remained mostly intact and what blemishes there were would just have to be there, but she was able to tease her hair back into form before she closed up and sauntered back to Frank. 

“The hour is getting on with itself,” she reported.  “Interest you in a nightcap?”

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #35 –
[Lieutenant Commander Frank Arnold | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | USS Theurgy] Attn: @P.C. Haring

Frank gave a gallic shrug when Reggie asked him what the blue hellion was up to.  He could only guess, but considering her mischief streak, it was hard to say.  He was about to reply when Reggie gave him a signal to wait which he shrugged in acceptance.  It really had been quite a nice night he mused.  Dinner with an elegant lady, a chance to take some time off finally, and it was always nice to help out a friend with something that was going to be a laugh a minute for them.  Well, maybe not for him since he'd only hear about it afterwards.  On the other hand, Reggie would find it hilarious and that's what counted in the end.

The tell tale hum of the replicator being activated brought him back into the present and he turned his gaze back towards Reggie as she came back.  She was still a welcome sight in any shape, and when she asked about a nightcap, he paused to consider it for a moment mentally shrugging this time, he smiled.  "That sounds like a very fine idea."  Shuffling off his own overalls, he paused to toss them in the replicator for reclamation then joined Reggie in exiting.  He figured since the SCO was going to find out about the prank anyway, he was welcome to 'discuss' it with the Chief Engineer at any time.  Heck, there might even be a good laugh if the SCO decided to repay him in kind.  As long as none of the ship was damaged in the process, it was all in good fun.

Frank could be described as somewhat 'old fashioned' about relationships and he made it clear that Reggie was the lady in this case when he asked.  "Where do you prefer to have the drink?  Back in the lounge, your quarters, or mine?"  Exiting the locker room and walking to the exit like he owned the place, Frank quirked an eyebrow at the Betazoid for her options when he decided to kick in a wild card. "I did a favour for one of the station engineers and he gave me a bottle of Orion delaq.  Said he took it off a Syndicate pirate ship years ago, but he much prefers blood wine. I heard it's great for some cocktails." 

He took a few more steps before he remembered the trouble causing Andorian. "As for Zark, couldn't really say what she was up to, but she managed to hack into the SCO's locker really quickly, and she managed to look damn silly while doing it."  Frank smirked though being a heterosexual male and not being able to forget all the curves the Andorian pocessed.  "Who wears a leather unitard on a climate controlled ship? Never mind, I just answered my own question.  It's more of what processed her to dress like that?" Frank asked the air as they left.

Re: Day 18 [1900 hrs.] Bread, Salt, & Wine

Reply #36 –
[Reggie Suder | Fighter Assault Bay| Vector 02 | Deck 16 | U.S.S. Theurgy ] Attn @RyeTanker‍ 

Reggie chuckled as they made their way out of the FAB and into the corridors.  Tomorrow would be one hell of a day and she wasn’t sure how Janus would react.  She had, of course, hoped that their flight together had done well to break the ice and get his legs under him once again, but truthfully she might have crossed a line and Reggie made a note to get a bottle of Canar for him, if for no other reason than to smooth things over.  Then it occurred to her that she didn’t remember if he said whether or not he even liked the vile syrupy drink and she decided that it was a problem for another day.

The night drew on and yet it seemed as though it was only just beginning.  For as little time as the had spent together Reggie felt a certain bond with Frank that she could neither describe nor deny.  The Betazoid would define it as love, for sure, though a platonic one to be certain.  Sure, there might come a day when that might change, but for now it felt proper.

“Hmmmm,” she purred as she considered Frank’s question about where they should head to next.  At first she was prepared to concede to the gentleman’s choice.  After all, Frank was a gentleman through and through.  She’d had her fair share of run ins with more than a few people who wanted her just for her body and the thrill of a physical night and while she was normally more than happy to oblige and enjoy her own role in the party for two, it was nice to spend time with someone who wasn’t just trying to get into her pants.  Then, an idea came to her.

“None of the above,” she finally replied.  “What do you say we grab that drink in the Arboretum.  For some reason the idea of sitting on some grass under a tree by the stream sounds appealing.”

She found herself likewise intrigued by the idea of Zark in a leather unitard.  She hadn’t seen her, but after her performance on Qo’Nos, Reggie could imagine what the Andorian might look like in it.  The thought was tantalizing and as much as she wanted to dwell on it, doing so would do her no good whatsoever.

“I’ve not been aboard that long,” she confessed.  “But I’ve learned that there are some things questions that are better left unanswered.”

She fell silent and returned her thoughts to that of the setup awaiting Janus and the time she and Frank were spending with one another as she took his arm and allowed him to lead her down the corridor.

-FIN-
 
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