The Interview

Posted on Fri Aug 20th, 2021 @ 6:01am by Lieutenant Kennedy Ryan Walsh & Lieutenant JG Irynya

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Deck 4, Junior Crew Quarters, Debbie's
Timeline: Mission Day 9 at 0930

Kennedy sat on his bed with his legs crisscrossed and his back against the headboard of his bed. He was alone in his room on his relief day. Noah was on duty. He had been thinking of what Doctor Emni t'Nai had to say in Sickbay a few nights prior that he had to get to know Irynya better. He had written over one hundred questions he thought were too appropriate to get to know her better. He hadn't seen her for a couple of days due to their conflicting schedules.

He thought for a moment on how and where he would conduct this interview and how he would invite her. He would send her a message. He opened the messenger tab on his PADD and started to draft, "Hey, I was wondering if you could meet me at Debbie's sometime soon? It'd be great to see you. - Kennedy".

He thought for a moment and clicked send.

A few short minutes passed after he sent his message before the door chime sounded for his room.

Kennedy looked over at his door almost quizzically, "Hello?"

The doors whooshed open to reveal Irynya, half dressed in duty pants and a SOJO t-shirt. She was barefoot and held up a PADD as she stepped inside the doorway, taking in the two very very different sides of the room.

"My shift ended half an hour ago," she remarked with a small smile. "So, I'm actually free now? Have you eaten breakfast?"

Kennedy smiled as he saw Irynya walk into his room, "I, haven't even left my bed today." He looked around his room briefly of his surroundings. "I could be ready in let's say, ten?"

She smiled, nodding then gesturing back out the door with her PADD. "Meet you in the common room in 10 then," she agreed, retreating to collect shoes and re-don her duty jacket.

As soon as the door swooshed closed Kennedy jumped to action, gently tossing his PADD onto the pillow behind him as he got off his bed. He grabbed his uniform and gingerly exited his room and walked into the shared bathroom. He slid out of his pajamas and did a couple spin cycles of the sonic shower. Feeling refreshed he quickly put on his uniform, while putting on his socks hopping across the common area floor. He almost fell over but was able to balance himself. He returned to his room where he sat on the bottom of the bed to put on his shoes. He moved to his feet, grabbing the PADD containing his many questions as he entered the common area.

Irynya had settled on the couch, PADD in hand, a week's worth of duty rosters pulled up. "I am no good at duty rosters," she remarked when he approached. "I don't know how Timmoz kept everyone straight."

She looked up then, with a grin. "Ready to go?"

"Practice makes perfect?" Kennedy asked rhetorically as he approached her gingerly, "Ready when you are."

She smirked at him, getting up from the couch and tossing her PADD onto it. "Sure... in some things, certainly... duty rosters..." she paused and shrugged, following him out of their quarters and down the corridor to the Turbolift.

"Debbie's," Kennedy ordered as they stepped onto the Turbolift. "How was your shift?"

Irynya shrugged, her insides turning slightly as the Turbolift doors slid shut. She worked hard to hide the discomfort on her face, still not entirely understanding it herself.

"The ship went in a direction at warp and I made sure it didn't hit anything," she joked lamely. "It was a night shift, so quiet."

"How have you been doing with the whole Acting CMO thing?" she inquired back, not wanting to be impolite. They had become friends quickly through a series of situations, but she was aware how little she knew about him still and despite an immediate surface attraction, she didn't want to make assumptions, so she stuck to the easier subject.

"Like you I haven't mastered the duty rotations," Kennedy reflected. "I have always aspired to become Chief Medical Officer like my Uncle Benjamin. I wasn't expecting this or even becoming an Assistant Chief for a couple of years but here I am. I need to hone on my leadership abilities as I feel like... I have none, but Doctor t'Nai has been very helpful during this transition."

Irynya nodded to the space in front of her, trying not to focus on how small of a space the Turbolift was. A small smile crossed her features at the mention of Emni, whom she had enjoyed getting to know during their shore leave.

"You're in good hands if she's helping you that front," Irynya noted.

"I am too, she's been a good friend and a great mentor."

The Turbolift door swooshed open, Kennedy looked over at Irynya gesturing for her to exit first.

She took him up on the offer, stepping out of the lift perhaps a touch too quickly and letting a low breath past her lips. As he stepped out to join her she turned, her face returned to normalcy after the heightened anxiety of the lift ride. She smiled, heading down the corridor until the doors to the refit Mess Hall appeared before them, parting to reveal the 1950s themed space ruled by the fabulous Debbie Gless.

Kennedy caught up with Irynya after they entered the Mess Hall. He directed them to a table he had chosen in the corner. It was the quietest of the booths. The music from the jukebox could still be heard lightly playing in the background but not to overpower their conversation. He took the furthest side of the booth and he sat down across from her.

Sliding into the booth across from him, she craned her neck to take in the space. She had frequented Debbie's on a number of occasions since its opening barely a week prior, but it still made her grin. The checked floors and chrome plating was as authentic as they came--a testament to Noah's skill with a hologram. The booths even squeaked with the plasticy false leather feel of the seats as she settled in across the table.

She gave Kennedy a smile, intrigued that he had brought his PADD with him. "So, what's up?" she inquired. She wasn't, expressly uncertain of why he had suggested they meet, but the arrival of a missive from someone who, in an older ship, could have effectively just knocked on the wall between them to get her attention had been an interesting approach and she was naturally curious.

"I..." Kennedy paused and tried again, "Its.... Okay..." he failed. He took in a deep breath, "I've never been good at talking about things and I genuinely want to get to know you better.... so I've compiled a very long list of questions, I want to ask you... to uh... get a better idea of who you are... I'm sorry, it's a bit... much..."

Irynya's eyebrows shot up as Kennedy explained what he had in mind, but she couldn't resist finding out what in all the stars in the galaxy he could have come up with as a long list.

"Umm... ok," she remarked with a chuckle. "Sure. But one rule, ok? You can't ask me anything that you you're not also willing to answer while we talk. Deal?"

"Fair, okay, we both need to learn more about each other," Kennedy nodded in agreement. "Deal."

He took a moment to compose himself to ask the initial question. He looked at her, "Let me know when you're ready to begin."

She looked at him, an amused smile playing across her lips. She hadn't missed the use of the word 'need' instead of 'want' in his agreement and for a moment she wished she could get inside his head to understand what he was thinking.

"Ask away," she replied, spreading her hands on the table in a conciliatory gesture.

"What is your favourite colour?" He felt the question was a bit juvenile that a child would ask another but it was the easiest of the questions the he had put down.

She considered a moment. "The color of the sky right after the sun sinks behind the horizon at home. It's a sort of pinkish orange." She waved as a server passed, stopping him to order a cup of coffee and a stack of pancakes with fruit. "And whatever Lieutenant Ryan Walsh is ordering," noted looking at Kennedy.

"French Toast with syrup on the side with a fruit bowl on the side," Kennedy ordered, then he added his drink order, "with an Irish Breakfast Tea." The server left them. "Maroon is my favourite colour."

She nodded. "Ok... Sunset pink-orange for me and maroon for you. What's next?"

"What is your favourite animal?" Kennedy asked.

"Fingerling monkeys," she answered. "They're domesticated on Risa and I had one in grade school. They never get any bigger than this." She held her fingers apart demonstrating a length of about 4 inches. "And their tails are twice the length of their bodies. They have the softest fur and are some of the most mischievous creatures." Her features softened a bit as she described the creatures. When she finished her explanation she watched Kennedy expectantly.

The server returned coffee and tea in hand placing their drinks, a small cup of cream, and some sugar on their table. Irynya spooned sugar into her cup, topping it with the milk and stirring before sipping from the steaming mug.

Kennedy blew onto his tea like he normally did to cool it down a bit, "I love the red pandas. They're so cute."

He tried to take a sip but it was still too hot so he set it back down onto the table waiting for it to cool down.

"What was your favourite subject when you were in school? Before Starfleet?"

She thought for a long moment. She had enjoyed school, but had been more interested in the social aspects of growing up than her courses. Finally a look of light amusement crossed her face followed by a tiny bit of embarrassment. "I don't know if this counts as a class, but it's something that most of us took during school. I really really enjoyed choir. Singing, I mean. The elite group at school actually did have a class so they could take a portion out of each day to practice together."

"I would love to hear you sing sometime," Kennedy remarked with a smile across his face. "Biology was my favourite subject in school."

Kennedy looked down at his PADD of questions wondering what to ask next.

Irynya laughed lightly, "Of course your favorite subject was Biology," she remarked with some amusement. She sipped her coffee watching him study his PADD.

"Wait..." she said, "Are all of the questions you came up with on your PADD?" Somehow this had eluded her until now. "How many questions do you have exactly?" She reached across the table with her hand, palm up indicating he should hand her the device.

Kennedy made a gesture with his hand to shoo her's away. His face turned a pinkish red, he had written many questions these lighter hearted ones to more serious.

She withdrew her hand, eyebrows creeping up as she did. "Ok, then, I'll take it there are either questions on there you don't want to have to answer yourself or you're going to get very personal and don't want me to know that yet." She shrugged, lifting her coffee to her lips to take a sip. "I'm an open book, Kennedy, there's not much you can ask me that I would mind answering."

Returning her cup to the table, she clasped her hands in front of her in a mock all business pose. "What's next, Lieutenant?"

Kennedy lowered his head apologetically. Emni told him that he needed to get to know Irynya better and this was one of the very few ways he knew how to. But she also warned him to be safe, it was a conundrum of emotion as he didn't want to think that Irynya was capable of hurting him in the slightest.

Kennedy reached down lifting up the PADD for a new question. He quickly looked up at her hoping she didn't catch his gaze, he wondered why he thought there were questions here that were very personal until he found he went too far. He gulped loudly before quickly bringing him self back to the top of the document, "Why did you join Starfleet?"

Catching his discomfort, the Risian made a show of studying her coffee cup. She hadn't meant to make him uncomfortable, but there truly were very few things she wasn't happy to share with just about anyone who asked. Still, that didn't mean he was entirely comfortable and she had been the one to set the rule in the first place.

She sipped the coffee again, trying to think of how best to explain about Starfleet. After a long-ish silence she set the cup back down, crossing her arms on the table in front of her.

"My family runs a tourist-focused experience business that works out of the Grand Delphinium," she began, referencing the resort where they had recently been staying. "We do a couple different things--tours of the local flora and fauna, orbital skydiving..." she trailed off. "Anyway, I've been piloting shuttles since I was little, helping my parents with the business. Risa is a great way to get exposed to a lot of cultures and people fast, but it's not a great way to see a lot of things, and if you like piloting there's really only so much to do. I stayed and worked on the resort for a few years after school thinking maybe it would grow on me, then helped with the business, but none of it was very satisfying. I wanted to fly something bigger, and go somewhere further away. See more things. Meet more people." She shrugged then, aware that she had been rambling a bit. "So I left and joined Starfleet because they would let me fly space ships."

"There's a good chance that I took several of their flora and fauna tours when I was on Risa for my extended stay, no way I would have done the orbital skydiving. I would be too petrified," Kennedy mentioned. "I can see that's why you wanted to join Starfleet. My Uncle Ben visited us when he was at a Conference at Starfleet Medical. He requested an extended R&R afterward as he hadn't returned to Ireland in a very long time. I was fascinated by his stories being a Doctor on a starship, exploring the cosmos. In that moment, I knew I wanted to be my Uncle Ben when I grew up. He and I are a bit alike in that regard being the black sheep of the family. But I didn't know if I wanted to stay in the 'family business' during my first year at the Academy, because I wanted to choose my own thing. In the end I found myself comfortable being more like my Uncle Ben."

Kennedy placed his elbow onto the table which was unlike him as he was taught the proper etiquette. He leaned his head while he remained in that trance of thought that his Uncle was there. A sole tear crept down his face as he knew how painful for his Uncle returning home was as he was shunned by Kennedy's mother. He took his free hand and wiped the tear away before readjusting himself to take a sip of his cooled down tea before taking a look at his PADD.

Irynya frowned, taking in Kennedy's story. "There's a lot to unpack there," she remarked, "but are you ok?"

Kennedy considered her question carefully, "I will be fine." He sipped his tea again before setting his cup back down on the table. "You ready for the next question?" He thought waiting for her answer to consider his next question or talking point next.

Her frown deepened slightly, but decided not to push the question. This had been his invitation after all. As she picked her coffee cup back up their food arrived, a steaming plate of pancakes with a mixture of berries and berry syrup covering the top and dripping down the sides slid in front of her and she grinned, taking a fork to the stack before nodding at Kennedy. "Go for it."

"Questions after breakfast?" Kennedy asked her, "Or question first, then we eat?"

She tilted her head, already chewing a bite of pancake. "Both?" she asked, curious. "We can talk and eat, right?"

Kennedy nodded his head, "What were your parents like?"

She popped another bite of pancake in her mouth, chewing slowly as she considered the best way to answer Kennedy's question. Without the cultural lens of Risa she wasn't sure how to describe them best.

"My parents are lovely," she finally said. "Risian families are very... open and accepting." She grabbed a sip of coffee, buying another moment to think. "Biologically I am my parents' only child, but our family never felt small. There were always others around. My parents' coworkers, neighbors, other family. When I was in school my friends became family. But even with all of that my parents have always had my back. My dad taught me how to pilot a shuttle. My mom, taught me how to stand up for myself and trust my instincts about people. I'm very lucky."

It hadn't even been a week and a half since she had last seen her parents and still she missed them. "My time in Starfleet has been hard for them," she finally added. "Risians don't... we just don't often leave Risa, and so our families are so often together. I know that it's hard for them when they're the only ones whose child isn't there."

Kennedy smiled and continued to as Irynya talked about her parents and her family life. He then remembered the promise he made to her that he would answer his own questions. This was a tough subject for him, "-- After my Uncle Ben had left I told my parents that I plan to follow in their footsteps. They told me they could accept that. I was ten -- maybe I was eleven at the time. My parents always wanted my siblings and I to go to university and become medical doctors or doctors in general field in medicine or related fields. My Uncle and I remained in touch, and he helped me with my application to join Starfleet. I had worked so hard to keep it a secret that I even had my letter of acceptance being sent to him."

"On my sixteenth birthday, my Uncle had sent me his first commbadge with a note that I had been provisionally accepted into Starfleet Academy. My Mother was furious and sent me to my room. She fired my Auntie Jane who had served my mother's household since she was a child. She always had us children's interest in her own heart. She was more of a parent than mine were but she stood up for me and she loss her job. She told me she was proud after I graduated from Starfleet Medical Academy, saying that I set out into the galaxy, the universe for my own purpose."

Kennedy pushed his plate away as tears began to flow down his face. He hadn't thought that these questions would surface these sort of feelings. He took in a deep breathe.

Carefully, Irynya set down her fork, unsure how to respond. They'd known each other 9 days, and what had seemed lighthearted suddenly seemed to have taken a surprisingly emotional turn. For a moment she sat there, stomach dropping, as she tried to figure out what to do.

Finally, she scooted out of the booth, coming around the table and taking up the end of the bench seat on his side. Gingerly she put an arm around him, not quite sure if he would be ok with that, but not feeling right just sitting there awkwardly. When he paused to take a breath she withdrew her arm, setting her hands in her lap. "I'm sorry," she said, "I really didn't mean for you to feel like you had to tell me anything that would upset you."

Kennedy without thinking leaned over placing his head against her shoulder. He appreciated that she came to sit beside him then realized that this may make her uncomfortable. He sat back up, "Sorry." He lowered his head, "I didn't have any expectations that I would have to answer the same questions. It was illogical of me to make such an assumption as getting to know someone is a two-way street instead of a one-way." He rubbed the tears off his face to assist him in composing himself in front of her. "I just have never felt like getting to know anyone and I really want to get to know you but truthfully it scares me a lot."

Irynya took that in, considering his words with more than a touch of curiosity. A tiny pit of butterflies seemed to have opened up in her stomach, reminding her that she was now sitting extremely close to him.

"It's really ok," she said, scooting back out of his side of the booth and resuming her seat. "Do you want to stop?"

He shook his head in disagreement. He was still up for the task. He looked at the PADD, then back to Irynya then back to the PADD. He did the back and forth twice more before he slid the PADD across the table for her to view, "No. I'm good to continue. Feel free to ask me a question or choose something on the PADD to answer."

Irynya grinned, picking up the PADD to read through his list. Most of the questions were innocent enough, the sorts of things a friend might know purely from spending time together. There had to be at least a hundred questions here. As she scrolled towards the end her eyebrows shot up, a laugh escaping her despite herself.

"Well," she remarked, "you are nothing if not thorough in your getting to know a person list." The butterflies did a small somersault as some of the more private questions from the end of his list ran across her mind. "What is your favorite food?"

"Potatoes," Kennedy winked. "Not really, I loved the Sunday Dinner's that Auntie Jane use to make the family on Sunday evenings. She was an Englishwoman so it was roast beef dinner with Yorkshire Pudding, peas, carrots, parsnips and roasted potatoes. Her stew is my second favourite."

"That sounds delicious," Irynya remarked, watching his face as he spoke to make sure he was alright. She speared another bite of pancake, popping it into her mouth and chewing quickly. "Mine is Delly Ice. If you didn't get to try it on Risa, then you should sometime. It's delightful."

"I don't think I ever had that on Risa," Kennedy replied. "And it is delicious. Nothing has come to close to Auntie Jane's."

She grinned, "Well, should I ever have opportunity to meet Auntie Jane I shall make sure to pay attention to the food." Her heart flipped a moment realizing what she had unintentionally implied. "I mean, you know, if that..." she trailed off, blushing lightly.

"Anyway... your turn for a question," she remarked, pushing the PADD back over to him.

"I think I'm going to reach out to her," Kennedy lowered his head. "If the Sojo wasn't so small, I'd beg Debbie to hire her as a cook..." He took the PADD and helped her pull it back to him. "If you had to relive one moment over and over, what would it be?"

Her pancake was nearly gone by then and so she scooped the last bits of fruit and cake onto her fork, pulling the whole bite off in one motion. "That's a really hard one," she finally replied. "I'm not trying to dodge the question, but I really don't know how I would choose. There are so many moments that I love. They were special in their own right. Reliving any of them would feel like..." she looked for the right word... "like cheating."

He nodded his head as he started to eat his French Toast forgetting that he had to answer his own question.

Setting her fork down, she resumed her coffee mug, inspecting it to see how much she had left before she had finished the drink. Coffee had never worked for her the way it did for everyone else and so a yawn snuck up on her out of nowhere. "Sorry," she murmured, covering her mouth as she yawned. "Long night."

"You don't have to wait for me," Kennedy offered. "I do owe you an answer to my last question before you go to bed. I would relive the night of the bon voyage party. The night, you and I met for the first time. The night you saw me, you included me not under any obligation. It most likely by chance but you saw me for me. You involved me in something I most likely would have never attempted to do. I danced," Kennedy grinned. He continued, "That night I was going to do what I normally do at crew functions. I go to be seen and I leave, quick in and out. But I spent the rest of the evening enjoying myself with good company. Which I'll forever cherish. Thank you."

Kennedy cut some pieces of his French Toast into smaller squares and placed them into his mouth but he couldn't help himself from grinning like an idiot. He cleared his food in his mouth, "You should go to bed and sleep. I hope you have pleasant dreams."

His answer caught her off guard. Of all of the moments he could mention that would not have been her guess. For a moment she recalled the evening. He had been a terrible dancer, but willing to try. He was right, she had just seen him in the moment and curiosity had done the rest. For one horrible moment she recalled how that moment had ended, and she felt a blush creep up the back of her neck. Maybe he hadn't heard her at the time. The drums had been very loud.

"You sure?" she asked, picking up her mug and plate to return it for recycling. When he nodded she stood, stretching as she did. "Thanks for breakfast," she commented, a genuine smile on her face. "Good night Kennedy."

"Good night, sweet and pleasant dreams, my dearest Irynya."