The Chairman

Posted on Tue Aug 24th, 2021 @ 11:37pm by Lieutenant Commander Emni t'Nai & Lieutenant Cassian Pell

Mission: The Place of Skulls
Location: Senior Crew Quarters, Deck 4
Timeline: Mission Day 9 at 1830

He'd been reading a fascinating account on ceremonies held in the Temple of Akadar when the Chairman announced his displeasure. From his roommate's bedroom came a deep, rumbling chuckle; from Cas, more of a tired sigh. "Alright," he said. "Just let me finish this passage."

Remy came out of his room and paused long enough to give the Chairman his due, a bit of a scratch behind his ears, and headed for the door. "I"m making corn and ricotta ravioli with sauteed cherry tomato sauce on the holodeck," he said. "Everyone's going to help." He paused in the open doorway. "Sure you don't want to come?" The chairman's meow overrode Cas's reply and they both laughed. "Tell you what, I'll try to save you some but no promises. They're a hungry lot."

It had been a long day. Emni had bounced from department to department, learning what she could about their workings and paying particular attention to engineering where Nir Giorgiou's absence was being particularly felt. She wasn't an engineer, but she knew how important it would be to help fill the leadership vacuum there with first Lieutenant Oliveria's departure and then Lieutenant Giorgiou's injuries.

So it was that she wasn't paying particularly close attention as she made her way towards her quarters and stopped short just outside of her door as Lieutenant Benoit exited the quarters next to hers. From the short distance between their doors a plaintive and existing meow could be heard, catching the attention of her distracted mind.

"Is that a cat?" she asked without even considering that Lieutenant Benoit might not have seen her.

Remy's blue-gray gaze caught hers and his smile managed to be both warm and amused at the same time. "That," he said, his accent as noticeable as ever, "is more than a cat. That's the Chairman. If Cas doesn't feed him soon, he's going to put the gris gris on him, for sure."

Emni raised an eyebrow, walking over to the doorway where Remy stood. "I have a good friend who had a cat onboard my last posting. He was always particularly adamant when he was hungry as well."

"Not just when he's hungry, I think," Remy said. His chuckle was a deep rumble in his chest. "And not his only tactic. He keeps trying different things until Cas actually pays attention."

The Romulan woman nodded. She eyes the opening curious, but not wanting to impose. Now that she was paying attention she picked up Cas's emotional signature more clearly. She knew he had quarters nearby, but in spaces like this she was fairly disciplined in how much external emotion she paid attention to.

Eyes skating past Benoit into the room her eyes caught onto something different, a partially complete game of Kal-toh.

"Well," Remy said, "if you'll excuse me, I have a group waiting for me on the holodeck to each them the fine art of making ravioli. Never a good thing to keep hungry people waiting." He tipped an imaginary hat. "If you ever want to try some, there'll be a plate in the kitchen with your name on it."

"I may take you up on that sometime," Emni replied with a warm smile.

Humming under his breath, Remy walked away, while inside their shared quarters, Cas had replicated his meal from a menu that he had Remy had collaborated upon. "It pays," he said, as the Chairman started rubbing up against nearby sharp edges, "to room with a chef, eh?" He set the dish down on an elevated platform designed to permit a full grown cat to eat without having to be hunched over his food. If Remy had his way, the table would have had a white tablecloth as well. That idea was still in discussion. Cas, having known the Chairman longer, did not agree on the wisdom of the move.

"The shape will simplify if you place one of the t'an in the upper left quadrant on the far side," she remarked from the doorway, unable to help herself.

He had felt her presence but there were priorities to be considered. And the Chairman off schedule was nothing any reasonable person would want to deal with. Now that the cat was eating his admittedly overdue meal, he could make room for other equally important things ... like the woman standing in the doorway. He walked over and noticed that it was the doctor who had done his physical. "That's one possible move," Cas said. "There are at least two others and I tend to meditate a bit before making them. At least that's how I was taught. You know kal'toh?"

"I've been known to dabble," Emni replied, a small smile on her lips as she recalled a particular game of kal-toh that had infuriated her Vulcan opponent. "It's something I learned when I was younger, but I've only really resumed playing over the last several months. It's calming."

She spied the cat, then, happily partaking of whatever dinner had been provided. "So that is the Chairman," she commented, with a chuckle.

"Chairman Meow. He's Balinese," Cas said as he stepped back and gestured toward the game. "One of my good friends, Declan, said that terran cats are the closes thing to a Deltan that Earth has to offer and insisted I get one. As for the game, please give it a go. Its a community effort really. I always have one set up and people will stop by, work on it a bit, move on. The only rule is, if you finish, start a new one."

Emni raised an eyebrow, but stepped over the threshold, the doors sliding shut behind her. Curiosity getting the better of her she made her way to the kal-toh set. Metallic rods gleamed; a half formed shape gave way to chaos as the pile built. Gently she selected a t'an, holding it lightly between her thumb and pointer finger as she took in the board. Cas had been right, there was more than one correct move at this juncture. She studied the structure quietly for a moment before lightly placing the rod into the space she had originally identified. The kal-toh set shifted slightly, rewarding her with the clatter of three pieces as the shape simplified.

She picked each up and then turned, spying the cat, and strode over to pet him, stopping just short of him and looking to Cas. "Will he let me pet him?" she inquired, aware that not all animals were happy to be handled by people whom they did not know.

"Good question," Cas answered with a slight shrug. "He's definitely got his own opinions. My suggestion would be to approach slowly. If he's not interested, he'll let you know." He settled back on the sofa, part of his attention on the kal-toh setup, the rest on the Chairman and the Lieutenant. "Vocal in his opinions and wicked smart. He doesn't generally bite though. Usually makes for higher realms." He gestured toward the cat-way that had built around the top of the room and smiled, revealing dimples and the slight scar that rested just within the one on his left cheek. "And yes, he does like to jump on people too though Remy, being taller, is his favorite target for that."

Emni approached the cat slowly, hand extended to see what he would do. When he didn't shy away, she gently placed her hand between his ears, rubbing down his back and then stopping at the base of his tail. The Chairman seemed agreeable to her petting, so she pet him twice more before standing.

"Oh!" she exclaimed with surprise when the Chairman, apparently not done with petting, let out a demanding mew and then leapt up from his position, to a table top, to her shoulder. "You weren't kidding," she said to Cas as the cat perched on one side next to her ear. For a moment she was unsure what to do, reaching her hand back as the the cat forcefully rubbed his cheek against her face. That seemed to placate him, so she continued the motion while a low rumbling sound emanated from somewhere within the small creature.

"So, where did you pick up kal-toh?" Emni inquired, returning to the game to examine the new structure. "It don't often see folks outside of Vulcan or Romulus with their own set."

"Started back at the Academy. One of my quad-mates was ... well, is ... Vulcan. Many a discussion started over kal-toh." He smiled fondly as a memory of the lanky Vulcan with the not entirely perfect hair. "We took turns, discussing different sides of the same issue." His gaze shifted momentarily from kal-toh to the lieutenant and then back. Four possible moves. No, five. "Course, I didn't get this until much later. I spent some time on Vulcan recently." He nodded toward the complex structure. "We used a holographic version on my old ship. Sevryn knew that so this was one of the gifts they gave me when I finally left. Didn't get a chance to set it up on my old ship before I got my orders to report aboard the Sojourner. You?"

Emni chuckled lightly, picturing the Betazoid and his Vulcan friend trading philosophical points in the typical Vulcan deadpan. "Kal-toh wasn't particularly common on Romulus, but members of the reunification movement introduced it," she remarked, thinking back to a much younger version of herself. "My husband, Jori, introduced it to me first and we often played to pass the time." A nostalgic look crossed her face, not quite a smile, but also not a frown. "That was a long time ago, though. More recently I resumed the game with the ship's counselor on the Adelphi. Commander Karim was particularly proud of his skills and we had occasion to spend a lot of time together after our last mission."

She shrugged then, eliciting a meow of complaint from the Chairman who had set himself sentry on her right shoulder, headbutting her for pets as she spoke.

"Six moves, I think," she remarked looking at the game again, before placing two of the three t'an in her hand on the table and settling the other into the game causing it to morph once again.

"Where I grew up," Cas said as he leaned forward slightly to remove one of the t'an; he watched it morph along the lines he had expected and settled back to contemplate the new shape. "It was more about debates. There were always students or visiting professors at the table. My parents liked a busy house. Active. Noisy. Not a place for kal-toh. This Commander ... he took pride in kal-toh?"

Emni considered that a moment. "For a Vulcan he was about as arrogant as they come," she remarked wryly. "I'd say more that he took pride in himself and that came through in how he played the game." Her features softened slightly then. "He was a friend, though, for all his bluster. And I have missed playing. Perhaps we can play a game through sometime?"

"Certainly," Cas said. "I"d like that. Conversation over Kal-toh."

Gently Emni lifted the Chairman from her shoulder, placing him back next to his bowl. "That sounds like a lovely time. Until then, though, I should get some sleep." She patted the Chairman a few times at his vocal insistence then, with a smile and a nod of thanks made her exit.

"Good night, Lieutenant," Cas murmured as he returned his attention to the board. Four moves now but one was clearly bad. The Chairman, of course, did not stay where he was put; instead, he walked over to where Cas still sat, tail straight up and hooked at the end, and sat at his feet looking up expectantly. Cas, who was lost in thought, didn't notice. So, the Chairman leapt up and settled into his lap for a bath and a nap.

=/\= A Mission Post By =/\=

Lieutenant Cassian Pell
Chief Science Officer

Lieutenant Emni t'Nai
Acting Executive Officer

With guest appearances by

Lieutenant Remy Benoit

And

The Chairman