Gossip, Girl

Posted on Wed Nov 15th, 2023 @ 8:55pm by Captain Dr. Nairut Noxi & Lieutenant Commander Mira Napier & Lieutenant JG Jenny Goldstein

2,720 words; about a 14 minute read

Mission: https://www.uss-deliverance.starfleetuk.org/index.php/sim/missions/id/1
Location: Lounge
Timeline: MD-05?
Tags: Mira, Alula, Noxi

ON:
Noxi had gathered the ladies together for a night out. Well. "Out" was difficult on a starship, but hey. The Bajoran was outgoing and a bit tempestuous anyway, so this kind of thing was right up her alley. PLUS, her nosy ass needed to know what everyone else was up to the past few days since they'd left DS9.

She showed up in the Lounge, dressed up a bit. She was wearing black, stretchy pants, and a sparkly pink sweater. Her brown hair was down-in the clinic, she wore it up for safety reasons. She ordered herself a Springwine and found a table. The others would see her, but she sent the coordinates to their respective PADDs anyway.

Mira entered the Lounge wearing a skirt below the knee and a v neck dark blue short sleeve shirt. She noticed the coordinates on her padd and then she gave a smile to a waiter with an order as she went to sit down opposite of Noxi, "Hi, I'm Mira Napier."

"HI! You didn't join us from DS9, did you? I don't recognize you from there, anyway, but it's a big base and I was more or less focused on shuttling home for a short day trip," she said. "I am Dr. Nairut Noxi. You can call me Noxi, it's fine!!"

Jenny traipsed in next and not only had she made zero effort, just being dressed in her usual uniform, but announced her entry with a loud yawn, which she only covered up at the last minute with her hand as she fell into a seat next to Mira.

"Ohhh, sorry I'm late and look like crap, ladies" she groaned "I just came straight from the lab. Where's Alula-Berula?! No way she's working overtime, she's got about six hundred crewmen under her!" the overworked science officer declared. She sat back upright again and waved a finger of certainty in the air "I bet you credits to navy-beans she's spent a whole shift getting ready to make us three look like slobs. I mean she's got me beat already, but you two look nice. Pity there's no decent talent in here tonight." she pointed out, glancing around at the lack of handsome men.

Noxi laughed. "She's on her way-something about personnel issues. And yah, I feel that...I have a skeleton staff until we make way to the next duty station, and it's been BUSY," she said. "Do you know Mira?" She asked.

"Sure" Jenny grinned at the tough security chief "We've been doing some work together on something" She didn't say more: the Cloaking Device was a controversial topic in some quarters and she also wanted to show off to Mira how 'secure' and tight-lipped she could be.

She looked to the door, watching for Alula. Hopefully, she'd be there soon. "SO...how's things?" She asked. Casually. She'd hit her gossip points later.

"Oh... I don't know" Jenny sighed and slumped back in her seat like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.

"You don't know? That's too bad. I am doing...pretty good," she said, with a sly smile. "I started seeing someone. It's pretty casual for now, but it's...nice." She said. "See much of that Chandler guy lately? I haven't seen him at all, but he did his physical back at DS9, so I probably won't," she said, with another cute smile.

"Ahhh, it's complicated..." Jenny grunted "... tell us about your feller, instead: hopefully he's, sorta... straightforward!" the science officer asked excitedly. "Oh Jeez, it's not that guy I saw you with yesterday is it? I mean, if it is... great. But... it's not is it?" she asked, frowning.

"It's uh...Commander Stewart," she said, quickly sipping her wine. "So yeah...that guy." She said. "I mean. We've had one dinner so far, but it's...nice." She blushed a little bit. It was still weird talking about it. She was going to have to tell her kid soon, too, and she was not looking forward to that.

Jenny nearly choked on her drink "You're doin' the XO?! Jeez! least it's not the Captain." It was an accepted aphorism in the Fleet that having an affair with the commanding officer of the ship you were on, or even his or her deputy, was playing with fire and likely to have repercussions in terms of the attitudes of other toward you: being seen as a 'favourite'.

"I am NOT "doing" him," she said. "Jeez! We're not kids. It was dinner and a holosuite picnic on Bajor," she said. And a couple of kisses, but she wasn't going to tell Jenny that. Yet.

"Playing hard to get, huh?" grinned Jenny.

"Sheesh. Besides, yes, it's NOT the Captain, we're all adults, and it's nothing serious. I am the CMO, it's not like I am tapped to do bridge duties or looking for cush jobs. I likely won't go planet-side most of the time, either!" She shook her head. "If things don't work out with Chandler, I can pop him over to you," she said.

"I dunno, these Scottish guys - he might come at me in a kilt or something. Not sure I can handle the hairy legs." the science officer shook her head.

"I gotta figure out how to explain this to my kid IF it goes anywhere." She said.

Jen nodded looking serious now "Yeah, that's tough, I know. Drew was so nervous when I met Ashley he got his guitar out and sang a song. She's a sweet kid though, she joined in. It was the sweetest, most awkward thing I ever saw... or heard."

Noxi brightened. "You met his daughter? So it's serious then?" She asked, sipping her wine some more.

Jen made a noise like an animal caught in a trap "Arggghh, don't say that!" she grunted "... that's just it, he's a widower, he's got a kid, this is a big deal for him... like you say, 'serious'. I just want a little fun: y'know, a nice meal out, a jam session on the holodeck , a tumble in the sack and then a quick kiss and back to the lab: I'm not cut out to be a wife and stepmother. I mean, being a wicked stepmother might be fun: but you know me.... I'm too lovely and nice!" she grinned sheepishly.

The plump and pretty Jewish girl looked at Noxi "I guess you're coming at it from the other side, but your kid's all grown up, isn't he? It's different" She posited. "Still, I think it must be difficult for anyone to see their parent with someone else, though... sort of replacing their Mom or Dad. Ashley couldn't have been sweeter, though. Oh Lord, what am I going to do?!" she sighed, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

Noxi smiled. "He is, he's twenty. My ex-husband is remarried, Benny has expressed to me that it is different, though not necessarily bad, seeing your parent with a new person. I think it might be easier, in some ways, for the other spouse if you WERE a widower, though...you don't have to face the awkwardness at things like graduations, weddings, births, things like that. I will also have to see Ben, because we have our son," she said. "It might be better to just SAY that, though. Honesty is the best policy, right?" She said.

"Hold on..." Jenny held up a finger, looking a little confused "... Your son's called Benny and your ex is called Ben? OK, I think I got it."

"Boy, if Alula is much later, I am going to eat the upholstery," she said. "Maybe we should order and then let her get hers when she gets here," Noxi said.

"Yeah, I guess you've right, maybe she's got trouble in the engine room. Boy, that sounds like a euphemism - like 'trouble in the bedroom' but worse." she chuckled, taking one last look at the menu and making a final decision on what to eat - before she blurted out something completely different when the waiting staff appeared, and then regretting it.

A propos of nothing, she looked up at Noxi and told her "Did you know... that the chief chef on this ship eats nothing but the nectar from the MielcelOvo ovoid? Yeah, I mean, I was surprised myself. Like, who does that?" She looked down "It's not even on the menu."

Noxi nodded. "I did, actually. I did his medical intake," she said. "It IS different. But they have a unique anatomy. If it wasn't weird to ask, I'd like to study them more, actually," she said.

"You mean er medical intake. Gotta get them personal pronouns right, Doc!" Jenny replied with a cheeky grin. "But yeah, it'd be like me going up to you and saying 'hey, what's with the nose ridges, sister? Mind if I look at 'em under my magnifying glass?'" she joked, peering myopically at Noxi's distinctive Bajoran physical feature. "Yours are very pretty, I hasten to add." she winked.

"Oh, and yes, you're right...Benjamin Thomas Senior and Junior. I know, original." She rolled her eyes. "It was a compromise-Benny isn't technically a junior, his middle name is my father's name. Benjamin Esau. He died after the Occupation. But calling him Junior is easier," she said. "And he is used to it, besides. Men. They like to think they're important enough that their names should continue into infinity." She made a face.

"Tell me about it - when my Pa realised he wasn't going to have sons, he tried to get me to take the middle name Solomon at my Bat Mitzvah, our Rabbi was like 'taking a new name, that's not even a thing!' That's what Roman Catholics do at their first communion!' Boy, my old man would try anything to perpetuate his name!" she said with mock ire, but a glimmer of real love in her eyes.

Vila laughed. "Something like that. Incidentally, Ben was raised Catholic as a child, so I guess that makes sense!" She said. The Bajoran had long since lost her own faith in the Prophets. It was still a struggle for her.

"Something to look forward to if it works out with Chandler," she remarked.

"Great" replied Jenny, flatly.

She raised her hand to motion for the waiter. "I will have the fish special, please."

All this talk of her Bat Mitzvah had given Jen a strange hankering for a bacon sandwich, but she fought it "Chicken a la King, please." she asked nicely.

Vila smiled. "I don't mean to scare you off. It can be rewarding. "Have kids," they said. So they can ask you at 6 am why chickens don't have eyelashes," she said, making a face. "Or they can vomit on your shoes after a week of being ill, making you go to Medical at 2 am only to be told that they simply ate too much." Vila sighed. "But in the end, you get to watch them blossom into real people who enrich the world," she said. "And that part? That part is worth it."

"Hmmm" Jenny gave a noncommittal sigh. "I think I'll stick with my microphages for now. They're my little children." Describing the horrors of motherhood, then adding 'but it's worth it in the end' hadn't quite swung it for Jenny. And where the heck was Beru?!

Noxi chuckled. "Yeah, I understand that," she said. "Truly, I do. I think if I were to do it again, I would either not have had Benny, or waited longer. It just...seemed like the natural course of things. Ben and I had been married for a few years. A child seemed like the logical next step," she shrugged. "Anyway, it's a long cruise. You have time to decide," Noxi said.

Jenny nodded. Maybe she just needed to go and talk to Andrew, get it all off her chest. The sensitive Noxi seemed to sense that the topic was getting her friend down and changed the subject.

"Where is Alula? Mira, you've been quiet," she said.

"I think the conversation about our relationships has sent her to sleep." whispered Jen.

Their food appeared then. "Yay, let's eat," she said. The Doctor liked food, and liked to eat, even if it DID mean an earlier morning than usual to use the gym before her shift.

"Oh wow!" grinned Jenny: the food not only looked delicious, but the portions were nice and big! Poor Alula didn't know what she was missing.

She woken and frowned at herself, "Sorry, I had a long shift with some training and all needing to have been done." She sighed, "I didn't want to bail."

"So it wasn't our scintillating conversation that put you to sleep, then?" laughed Jenny between mouthfuls of delicious food. "I'm OK until I eat, then ten minutes later I'm snoozing, face down in a petri dish."

Noxi laughed. "You could've gone to nap, we wouldn't have taken it personally," she said. "Maybe that's where Beru is," she said. She dug into her meal then, savoring the flavor of the dish before speaking again. "We haven't been underway that long-you have time, Jenny," she said. "You're still young. I am old," she said. "I have less time if I want to have a partner before I die." She sighed. She knew that having a relationship with the ship's XO was probably not the best idea she'd ever had, but he was cute, and nice, and treated her nicely, and it'd been awhile. There had been NO intimacy (yet), so she felt comfortable justifying it as a "friendship".

"Ahhh, you're not old!" Jenny said batting away the very idea with her hand . She tasted some more of her dish, and nodded at Noxi "S'good isn't it?" she said with her mouth full. You could take the girl out of the Bronx.... "I'm good friends with the chef, she added." She said that rather than 'I'm in charge of the chef' because Gemi's friendship was more important to her than their relationship in the command structure. Maybe that was wrong. What was wronger (gee, that a word?) was that she found herself thinking about the lanky posanto more than she thought about Drew. She had a sickly feeling that something was going to have to give soon, and the ensuing scene might be awkward.

"Really? I hadn't realized that you two were that close," she said. "I try to keep a bit of distance between myself and my underlings," she said. Though, apparently, not between herself and Command. Oh, no, what was she DOING?!

Mira smiled politely as she stayed awake listening to them and sipping on her drink. "Neither of you are old. Age is nothing, but a number and I feel that when the time comes for things. They'll come."

Noxi laughed. "Sure. But I've seen a LOT, more than anyone should, between the Occupation, and...well. Everything else," she said, with a tired sigh. "Still. I am not as old as I could be, I suppose, so there is that," she said. She didn't mention that Bajoran women were generally fertile well into their mid-sixties, and so if she was going to be stupid, at least she should be careful about how stupid she was.

Jenny grinned.

"Thank you for your guidance, oh wise one. You may now go back to sleep." she laughed.

Noxi laughed. She was nearly finished with her dinner. "What are you all doing after this? I might take a nap, then finish some treatment notes," she said. Or see if Gabriel wanted to catch a movie, but she didn't say that aloud.

Jen shrugged. She supposed the answer should be 'go and see Andrew' but instead she found her self feigning a yawn and groaning "I'm all in, I think I might turn in."

Noxi nodded. "I suppose that's a good idea, actually," she said. "Ladies, I'll see you later. I'll toss some Latinum on my way out. See you later!" The Bajorn motioned for the waiter as the others left. As the table was cleared, she shot off a message to the XO, and then headed for a Turbolift. Was that an awkward dinner, or what?!

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