Pandora's Box Lunch

Posted on Thu Jul 31st, 2025 @ 8:05pm by Petty Officer, 2nd Class Ozias Nikolaidis & Chief Petty Officer Chloe Delacroix

2,590 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: ARYL 1X01: Bound for Cold Frontier
Location: USS Ark Royal - Jeffries Tubes

::ON::

Not for the first time dragging himself through the jeffries tubes did Ozzie wonder why he had bothered trying to do this. The bulky pack he had brought with him had had to be dragged down the various tubes making for an awkward crawl of a journey. His arm ached and it seemed like his shoulder would pop out of its socket.

He'd figured that a short hop from the jeffries tube entrance near the Computer Core on Deck Seven would have been a short enough journey, but the historian hadn't counted on getting turned around and lost in the confusing geography of the ship's guts. All the tubes had looked the same to him, and it was only with the help of the Main Computer directing him that he had nearly reached his destination.

'You're a hard woman to find,' he huffed as he flopped in into Section Four, Junction Twelve, placing the pack beside him as he stared down his quarry. 'I can see why you like this place,' he quipped, looking around the blank grey bulkheads of the junction. 'Very homely, you know.'

Cid was reclined in the circular junction hatch of the port-side crawl tube. Her 4'10" frame fit perfect in there, cradled like a bay window where she could read in peace, her tablet resting against her legs. She'd heard the huffing and puffing and when he arrived she looked over and grinned. "Hey!" she said. "It's not that difficult, you just need to get used to the landmarks. They're subtle, but they're there." She swung her legs over and sat up, kicking her feet. "What's up? Reader not working again?"

'No,' Ozzie replied with a grin as he retrieved his favourite reader from a pocket in the satchel. 'In fact this works better than new,' he said. His grin faltered, 'I, uh, didn't get the chance to thank you properly last time.' He reached in to the pack and began reaching out some boxes, 'so I thought I'd bring you some real food - not fiddle faddle - as a thanks.'

Cid perked up and jumped down to the deck inside the junction, sitting criss-cross. "Aw, really? Thanks!" she said, cheerfully. "I was debating about trekking down to the mess hall so that's really good timing! Saves me a trip!" She watched him unload the picnic and her interest grew. "Ooo, utensils? That'll be a fun change of pace."

'Well, some Greek foods can't be eaten with just hands, not unless you want to get oil all over them,' he replied with a laugh. 'It's all basic stuff, really. Stuffed vine leaves, some spanakopita, a few pieces of lamb kofta.' Ozzie smiled, 'I got to take some time down in the galley earlier when there was some downtime. It's a nice way to relax, preparing food.'

"I don't know half those words, but it smells delicious," Cid said, looking it over. "I don't know much about cooking. The orphanage didn't really let us in the kitchen, and the menu was kind of limited. When I started volunteering and working at Utopia Planitia, I ate nearly all my meals in the commissary. Usually I eat one-handed foods so that I can work or use my tablet to read while I eat. I eat most anything, though. Haven't found a dessert I don't like." She grinned at him.

'Well, if you want to keep reading, the spanakopita is a nice pie, Feta cheese and spinach,' Ozzie said brightly as he handed her a container. He smiled again, 'I think good food is key to life - sometimes you have to slow down to appreciate it. Some salad?' He passed another container and a plate towards her.

"Sure, thanks," she said, taking some and loading her plate. "I forget about food sometimes. I get so engrossed in a project and meals get forgotten until my stomach can't ignore it anymore. I kinda look at food as a necessary fuel stop; it's tasty and everything, but I don't always prioritize it." She nodded towards her tablet. "Case in point here, my latest obsession. I probably wouldn't have eaten for a couple hours if you hadn't found me." She took a bite of the spanakopita and lit up. "Oh very yum," she said, smiling and chewing. "What made you want to learn to cook?"

'I didn't like the university's canteen food. Alpha Centauri Central U has a lot going for it, but the food definitely isn't one,' Ozzie chuckled fondly, remembering his shared office and the friends he had made there. 'Besides, no-one could quite get the kleftiko right for me, so I had to learn for myself.' Adjusting his glasses, he shot her a look, 'I can't imagine forgetting about food. Sometimes I feel my day revolves around it - planning out each meal, wondering what will pair with what, how will eating this meal for lunch affect my afternoon.'

Cid looked at him like he had three heads then laughed. "It'll affect you by making you not hungry," she said, grinning. "That's what food's for! I wish there was a more efficient way to do it, though," she said. "Something that would leave me more time to read my tech manuals or work on my projects." She sighed and took another bite. "This is tasty though," she said. "So I guess all that planning worked out." She smiled at him. "I need a way to just bring food with me as I go, and then I can just picnic anywhere like this. I need, like, Engineering approved camping gear," she laughed.

'I mean, if you wanted to, you could just take an allocation of field rations for the day,' Ozzie replied, grimacing at the thought of those packs. 'If what you want is quick and efficient for you to read and get through the day, they'll do. Pop open the container, it'll heat itself, and you can pop it in the nearest recycler when you're done.' He popped a grape in his mouth, 'so long as you don't mind tasteless mush that is.'

Cid made a face. "Even I know those things aren't fun to eat," she said, taking some more of the kofta. "I remember Sister Rose Francis used to say, 'nourishing the body and nourishing the soul are both important, that's why God invented salt." She snickered. "She had a lot of little phrases like that. Everything was a little life lesson."

'Your orphanage was a religious one?' Ozzie asked, immediately professionally and personally interested in Cid's background. 'That's quite unusual these days,' he carried on, 'I know my church has a few establishments, but it's definitely not the norm now. How was it for you?'

"Saint Clare's Home for Misplaced Martians," she said, smiling. "It's a religious institution for those who work there, but we all came from different backgrounds, so they let us decide if we wanted to be brought up in their religion. All in all, it wasn't too bad. They made sure we had a good education, plenty of food, toys. Of course, I got in a lot of trouble for taking the toys apart to see how they worked." She shrugged. "And there was a great nearby park to play in, and when we got older, some wooded areas to explore. And, the best part, it was near enough to the Utopia Planitia Fleet Yards that we could have field trips there. It was the coolest place I'd ever seen." She grinned.

'That's one way to get recruits to Starfleet, get 'em hooked young,' Ozzie grinned, 'kind of like the church in a way - and both following a utopian philosophy.' He helped himself to another cheese-stuffed pita bread, 'what made UP so cool to you? Was it the possibility of tinkering with the ships? Or getting away from Mars?'

"Oh, tinkering, one hundred percent," Cid said, excitedly. "I mean, they got to build all new things! Stuff no one's seen before! And it was like a never-ending playground of parts and pieces to learn about and toy with! And a whole library of technical manuals to read through and videos to watch! When I was ten, I snuck off and started crawling around a new design for shuttle deuterium injectors and it was the most fun I'd ever had! I was begging to stay a bit longer, but they weren't happy a kid was realigning them without authorization." She grinned guiltily and shrugged. "It was absolute heaven. Saint Clare's was good to me, but Utopia Planitia felt like home. Nearly every major event of my life happened there. Tinkering with new technology here is very cool, though. I've got a dozen projects in mind. A couple are close to the testing phase, even," she said, proudly, then got a meek smile. "Sorry, sometimes I get going talking about engineering."

'That's fine,' Ozzie replied warmly, 'it's nice to hear about things that aren't torpedoes, phasers or sensor frequencies.' He sighed, 'I thought when they saw what my field of research was, and the application I put in, they'd assign me to an exploration vessel, not doing border patrol.' He grinned around his disappointment, 'but at least I can interview the crew on their experiences as we go on.' Passing her another container he asked, 'so what projects are close to testing?'

Cid took the container but her eyes lit up and she squealed in excitement as he asked about her project. She grabbed her tablet and pulled up her schematics. "I'm working on a tractor system that can be integrated into a wearable suit. No more giant work pods! We could move huge pieces around, maybe even whole shuttles, with a single crewman." She flipped it around, showing him her designs. "I just need to kludge one together and then once I know it works I can refine it and make it look pretty."

'That's ... incredible,' Ozzie replied with a laugh, not minding she'd set aside the baklava to show him a project. Looking at the schematics pushed his engineering knowledge far beyond its limit, but he knew enough to ask, 'so how do you get a tractor beam to be that small and portable?'

"Distributed system throughout the suit, linked to a set of gravity boots with the main emitters on the chest plate," Cid said, pointing out the various bits. "It's pretty stripped down, but it's just trying to do a basic job." She took a piece of the sticky, flaky dessert and licked her fingers, eyes opening in delight. "Oh that's good," she said, taking a forkful and munching happily on a bite. "If I can put together a prototype in a day or so, you should come see me test it out. I don't really wanna show Lieutenant Inda until I have something functional."

'I can come have a look,' Ozzie replied brightly. He enjoyed the company of his oddball fellow Petty Officer. 'Won't be able to help you if anything goes wrong though.'

"Ah, not to worry, nothing should," Cid said, taking another bite of her dessert. "At least nothing drastic. If it doesn't fire up then that's just me having to work on the wiring, which I'll enjoy doing anyway," she said, brightly. "I'll be making a prototype in the next couple days, so you can come down to the cargo bay and watch the fun."

He nodded in response excitedly. 'Consider me there - I've never been around to see a prototype tested! If you don't mind walking me through some concepts while we're at it, I could bring a notebook. Start broadening my sciencey horizons to be of more use to the ship, ya know?'

"Totally!" Cid said, grinning. "Oh! Idea! We could totally combine forces and work on a history of Klingon tech! I bet that'd come in handy since we're near their territory!"

'I ... like that idea,' Ozzie replied, with a grin. 'Writing these reports can be a lonely thing. I'll be glad to have a collaborator.' He looked at her over a piece of baklava, 'do you know a lot about Klingon tech? I've read some of the briefing material, but there's a lot I could to to catch up from from the Academy.'

"I got to play around with some experimental pieces at U.P.," Cid said, excitedly. "It's some neat stuff they've kludged together! We weren't really able to incorporate anything into our tech, but it was cool to see other stuff. It's one of the reasons I wanted to go explore a bit. I want to see other tech I can try playing with. There's some reading material, but given they still don't like us much, we don't have much that's really up-to-date past what we've blown up recently. If they keep working with the Romulans, though, I'd be curious to see how their technology blends." She finished her dessert and sat back, sighing happily. "Thank you, that was really, really good."

'It was the least I could do. For fixing my favourite book reader,' Ozzie chuckled as he tidied up the various boxes and put them back in the pack he'd brought. He lazily leaned back against a bulkhead, and said in a satisfied way. 'Help yourself to anything else. There's still plenty to go around.' Closing his eyes a moment, he said, 'who knows, maybe by the time this tour is done you'll be the expert on Klingon-Romulan technology exchange.'

"Oooh, that could be interesting," she said, taking the container with the last piece of baklava and tucking it into the chest pouch of her coveralls. "Good thing to add to my resume," she grinned. "And you could wind up lecturing on Klingon cultural history."

'Huh,' Ozzie thought for a moment, a dawning realisation breaking out across his expression. 'I hadn't considered that at all. Mostly I thought I'd finish up on my book about Medieval Orthodox Patriarchies, and record the crew's experiences of patrolling the Klingon border.' Leaning back against the bulkhead, he smiled a crooked smile, 'but that sounds much better.'

Cid shrugged and smiled. "Well, isn't that the joy of working out here on the front lines? You can do both!" She paused as her tablet beeped. "Oooh," she said, happily, "there's a fluctuation in the left warp nacelle. We're going to be working on the field synchronizers! Score!" She looked up at him, grinning. "Want me to see if I can get Lieutenant Inda to let you watch?"

'Lead on,' Ozzie chuckled, 'I suppose I could start learning some basic hard sciences.' In truth, he was also curious to see how Cid operated in her natural environment. She was delightful company, as extroverted as he was introverted. But Ozzie was also sure that a pen portrait of her would do well. If he ever decided it was fair to write one about her. 'I can wangle the excuse.'

Cid grinned. "Okay, cool! We'll be there soon!" she said, jumping up and diving into the tubes, crawling after at a quick pace, hearing him struggle to gather his things and catch up behind her.

Chloe Delacroix
Repair Tech
USS Ark Royal

Ozias Nikolaidis
Science Officer
USS Ark Royal

 

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