Mettez le Couvert

Posted on Mon Jun 30th, 2025 @ 1:17am by Lieutenant Commander David Erickson & Lieutenant Karane Inda

2,855 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X01: Bound for Cold Frontier
Location: Lounge B Deck 12
Timeline: 1900 Hours

The observation lounge at the port side of deck twelve was barely a lounge and more a spare room with some furniture. It was so small it contained only two small tables and four small lounge chairs around each with one large window. It did, however, offer a completely unobstructed view of the stars with almost no light pollution from the nacelles. It was good for small gatherings, game nights and potentially first dates.

David had removed the usual furniture and replaced it with a single round table and chairs more appropriate for dining. He'd laid out a tablecloth, put a small candle in the middle and set the table. Nearby, a cart with his preparations waited while the food stayed on warming plates. The lighting was low enough to be intimate but not so low it would give off the wrong idea, and there was some gentle music in the background.

David was dressed casually in khaki pants and a polo shirt, had just finished setting the table and was going to check the time when he heard the doors to the lounge open. He stood up straight and turned toward the door. He smiled, his eyes quickly taking in the room's new occupant. "Hello, Karane. Thank you for coming," he said, trying to keep his voice calm.

"Yeah... Well... its not like I want to be here or anything..." she said crossing her arms. She hadn't really dressed up, just a simple navy blue blouse-shirt and grey skirt. "I'm here so let's... you know... get on with it."

David shook his head and pulled out a chair for her.

Karane moved over and sat down.

"You know," he said, pushing the chair in for her gently as she sat, "if you're going to keep trying to lie to me, you might want to not be so lousy at it."

"I didn't lie to you." Karane said in response. "I stand by my beliefs and I stand by my words. You won, so now I'm here. As promised."

David gave her a look as he picked up two glasses and a bottle of sparkling cider. "If you truly didn't want to be here, you could have said you wouldn't agree to dinner. You could have told me to piss off. You could have stood me up," he said, shrugging as he popped the top and poured each of them a tall flute-worth, setting the bottle aside on the table. "Instead, here you are, dressed up and ready to eat." He walked over to the cart and pulled off the first two covers. "So, lie to yourself if you want, but not to me, and I promise I won't lie to you." He set a small plate of coconut shrimp and noodles in front of her, then one for himself. The spicy-sweet scent of the sauce on the noodles rose up with the steam and he took a breath, smiling. He picked up his set of chopsticks and nodded at the food.

"And for what it's worth," he said, "there is the slight....ever so slight possibility that this could be an enjoyable experience." He picked up a noodle. "If nothing else, you're getting a home-cooked meal out of it." He twirled the noodle and took a bite.

"It's not entirely not possible that I might enjoy it..." Karane said as she looked down at the food. "Did you actually cook this?" She asked, her tone actually sounding genuine for once.

"I did, " he said, allowing some pride to creep into his voice. " My mother is an absolutely fantastic cook, and my sister is a chef. So, I have spent quite a bit of time learning my way around a kitchen. And, I made friends with someone in the galley who allowed me to use a few extra odds and ends."

"A man who can cook, huh..." Karane said as she picked up her fork and popped some in her mouth. "It's not bad, I guess." She said avoiding eye contact and helping herself to another forkful. "It's better than what I can do. I'm a literal disaster in any kitchen, if it doesn't have a wrench or sonic screwdriver I'm no good with it."

David smiled, but didn't comment on her reaction. "I know my way around a flux coupler," he said, "but I'm more of a 'this'll do until I can find a real engineer' kind of repair guy. My last assignment required me to be a 'jack of all trades, master of none.' I'm kind of enjoying being back to focusing on my primary job." He took another bite and chewed thoughtfully. "Have you always wanted to be an engineer?"

"Ever since I can remember." Karane replied. "I've always enjoyed tinkering with things. I decided on becoming a Starfleet engineer after reading about Charles Tucker the Third." She looked up at David. "And you? Always wanted to look at maps and stuff?"

David resisted rolling his eyes at the repeated barb and shrugged, nodding. "When I was twelve, my friends and I went hiking in the Drekala hills. Not a particularly dangerous area, but it's easy to get lost; one valley looks much like another. We'd hiked all day and made great time, but we realized as the sun was setting that our compass wasn't working. None of our equipment was. Ectu is a pretty safe planet, and we had plenty of rations, but we didn't like the fact that we were horribly lost, and no one would come looking for us for a few days. Rations or not, we wanted to go home."

As they finished their plates, he stood and cleared them, going back to the cart and taking the main course off the warmers and setting a plate of shrimp scampi on linguini in front of her, then himself as he sat back down. "While my friends were arguing over where to go, I watched the sky, the same way I watched it with my father at home. I realized I could figure out which direction to go, and I got us home. Thus began a lifelong fascination of my place in the galaxy. And, you know, maps and stuff." He winked at her and gave her a grin.

"Sounds Romantic..." Karane began to blush. "Not that I'm into stuff like that. And as for maps, I'm an engineer not a girl scout. I navigate this ship by the nearest maintenance hatch..." she told him returning to her fiery self.

"Well, I would imagine as an engineer, this ship feels like an extension of yourself. You navigate it the same way you navigate the streets of your hometown. You work it, maintain it, you know it inside and out. I don't have the same relationship with the stars in the sky, but I look at space as a larger neighborhood, and I understand the power that that view has on us." He smiled at her, then looked at his food, now being the one to avoid eye contact. "And you're right, a view of the stars can be romantic." He took a bite of his pasta and chewed thoughtfully. "But, that's a discussion better fit for what we'll be doing on our third date," he said, finally.

"I wouldn't know. I'm not the type to date." Karane said. "Especially flyboys. I've always been the bad tempered girl with engine grease on her face."

David looked up and gave her a half grin. "I am not a flyboy. I am a nav-i-ga-tor," he said, stressing each syllable. "Planning ahead, anticipating options, foreseeing obstacles to avoid...that's what I do." He looked directly at her, his green eyes staring into her hazel. "Do you have any idea how nervous I was when my little prank yesterday actually worked? I spent the rest of my shift trying to figure out if you'd actually show up, and if you did, how to get through this evening without you breaking my nose. So far so good," he quipped, eating a shrimp. "I spent all evening trying to figure out what could go wrong, and working around it to ensure a pleasant dinner for us. There's no map for this; I have to chart my own course. That's what it means to navigate: to figure out a path where you haven't been before."

He took a breath and put his fork down. "But, usually it's worth doing, because there's something worth finding at the end of the trip."

Karane's face turned bright red turning any nearby tomatoes green with envy. She looked down at her own shrimp and simply popped one in her mouth. After finishing it. "Well... I did consider not coming... but... its not like I was curious or anything. Plus. I always keep my promises."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said, smiling at her reaction. "That kind of integrity is another good thing about you, then." They ate in silence a few moments, and when their plates were cleared, he took them away. He came back with the final course, setting a small, cylindrical, strawberry-covered dessert in front of each of them. "I hope you like cheesecake," he said. "It's a weakness of mine."

"It's fine. I'm not picky..." Karane said looking away briefly.

"So," he said, looking down at his dessert as he gathered his courage. "Tell me, Lieutenant I-don't-date, how am I doing so far? Have I earned a second one?" He glanced up, trying not to give away what he was feeling.

Karane stared at him from across the table, a piece of cheesecake still on the spoon en route to her mouth, but now frozen in time. Her gaze was focused on David before she glanced yo one side. "Erm..." she stumbled. "I... I..." she quickly shoved the piece of her dessert in her mouth. "I... Guess..." she mumbled whilst chewing, her eyes shifting away from his gaze.

David's eyes lit up and he grinned happily, his mask slipping a bit and his vulnerable side showing for a moment. He quickly put things back into place and adopted a more reserved smile. "Well...that's good to hear," he said, taking a bite.

He let their respective blushes fade for a moment before saying, "so, your turn. What would you like to know about me? Ask away."

"Are you always like this," Karane asked. "What's the best way to put it..." she pondered. "Silly.. no... flirty... nah... Bratty... you get what I mean!"

"Irresistibly charming?" he teased, smiling at her. He gave a small shrug and a grin. "Kind of. I'm walking a fine line here. I want you to understand I'm genuinely interested in you, and not come off as being 'just my regular charming self,' and given the serious hill you've set for me to climb, it's a fair amount of work." He took another bite of his dessert and looked at her pointedly. "And between the two of us, I am not the one who has the 'bratty' streak. Is this how you treat all the people who try to get to know you?"

"It's just the way I am." Karane responded. "I have a hard time talking to people. I'm just... you know... different."

"We're all different in some way," David said, diplomatically. "I excel at talking. It's a family trait. Even still, I can be a bit careful with showing my vulnerable side, too. But from what I've seen of you, you reveal yourself more than you think."

"Huh?" Karane responded. "You'll have to elaborate on that..."

David gave a small smile. "When I first got on board," he said, "I made the rounds, intending to meet some of the lower-deckers in each department. It's a good way to observe and see how the senior staff runs things before meeting them." He took another bite and got a cheeky smile. "I saw you dress down a Tellarite. Ensign Grek, if I recall. And despite his being a few inches taller, several kilos heavier, and being of a species predisposed to fighting, you had him completely cowed. At first I was a bit shocked, but the more I listened to you, I realized he had made a serious error, and you were angry, but you were right. And your passion for your work and for the ship came shining through. My father calls that 'moxie.' I call it passion. And I find integrity, passion and dedication to be attractive traits. You may have a hard time just talking, but you express yourself nonetheless. I'll just have to learn how to read you."

"Well..." Karane looked away. "I take pride on my work. I'm not 'girly girly' like other women. It's always set me apart from others. Hell I prefer men's clothes over women's. What's the need to look all flashy... urgh... that attitude makes me wanna punch something!" She then realised she was going off on a tangent a little. "That Ensign messed up and I'm a firm believer that you have to learn from your mistakes!"

David was having a hard time suppressing a grin. She was adorable when she was fired up, but he knew bringing that up would be a one-way ticket to a smack. "Well, I also take pride in my work, even if it's thought of as 'maps and stuff.'" He looked pointedly at her. "So we have that in common. And my mentor strongly impressed upon me the need to learn from my mistakes. So that's something else we have in common. And as a matter of fact, I prefer men's clothes as well. So that's a third thing we have in common," he said, grinning.

He looked at her empty dessert plate. "Don't look now," he said, "but you got through an entire dinner with me. I appreciate the effort," he said dryly, teasing her again and grinning.

"Well... I'm not going to turn down good food..." Karane said red returning to her cheeks. "Plus... You seemed to work hard on it... Thank you..." her voice had dropped to a softer more gentler tone.

He briefly had a mental image of him feigning shock and awe at the sound of the words 'thank you'--mostly to coverup the somersault his insides just did--but kept that little party in his head. "It was my pleasure," he said, his voice warming a bit as well. "I'm glad you liked it." He looked down and toyed with a crumb on his plate. "I'm....hoping to ask you out again. Not right now, but later, once we've had a chance to digest, literally and metaphorically." He looked up at her. "Something a bit more informal maybe. A chance to see each other in a more casual setting. If you have any thoughts on the matter, please let me know and I'll make arrangements."

"Erm... Yeah... sure..." Karane mumbled averting her eyes. She could feel her own heart pounding in her ribcage. "I think I might like that..." she then looked up at him and gave him a genuine smile.

David hadn't been lying when he said he admired passion. The truth was, this cool, calm and chill personae he was projecting was a complete lie. He was as passionate as they came, and it was all he could do, upon seeing her smile, not to reach across the table and kiss her then and there. He could hear T'kal in his head, sternly saying, "control yourself, David. It would be illogical to ruin all the progress you have made thus far."

Instead, he studied her face. He watched the way her eyes moved, the way her lips turned up and the glow her face took on. It took him a moment to realize his brain was screaming at him to do something more than stare with a goofy look. He shook himself and cleared his throat. "Well, there it is," he said, blushing a bit and smiling back. "Something worth finding."

Karane looked away for a brief second. She pushed back her chair. "I have... an early shift tomorrow." She blurted out. "So I shouldn't be here too late and all..." she said holding her head up high.

David tried not to let his disappointment show, but knew better than to try and persuade her further. " I understand," he said. "I should get started on cleanup in here, too." He pushed back from the table as well and stood, gesturing towards the door. He walked her the short distance across the lounge to the door, and as they went, he let his hand brush against hers, just for a momentary spark of contact, then he turned to the side, putting a step between them and inclined his head. "Have a good evening, Karane," he said.

Karane nodded. She turned and made her way to the door. Before stepping through she said a few more words. "Thank you again... I... actually... enjoyed this." And with that said she disappeared out into the corridor.

David Erickson
Chief Maps-and-Stuff-Looker Officer

Karane Inda
Chief Engineering Officer

 

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