Post 16: The Skin of La Seyne-sur-Mer

Posted on Mon Feb 15th, 2021 @ 12:34am by Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: The Waiting Game
Location: La Seyne-sur-Mer; La Plage Naturiste du Saint-Seylon, Southern France
Timeline: MD 25: 1700 Hours Local Time

"Southern France in early July?" The Transporter Technician whistled and then, wolfishly, she smiled. "Pack your sunblock. Especially you," the woman looked, quite pointedly, at Cadet Noah Hyman Balsam. The stick insect-like Human looked behind him and back. Lips pooled into an oh shape and he gestured at himself.

"Oh, me?"

"Oh yeah, you." She nodded emphatically. Noah shouldered his weekend bag with a conflict of emotions crossing his face. His lips pinched together, tightening while he bit his tongue. He swayed as someone patted hard on his shoulder. "So, La Seyne-Sur-Mer?" The tech added coyly. "First time to southern France?" Noah was among three of the cadets who nodded- and three just as wolfishly did not. The technician looked up at the gaggle of six. "Where are you staying?"

"Toulon," a young woman in the crew of cadets spoke up. She too was shouldering a day bag as well as accouterments for sunbathing - an umbrella and a portable chair.

The technician pursed lips, "Consider Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer. It's a cute little coastal commune south of Toulon. More touristy and less industrial. A lot of families rent out rooms for the company. They take replicator and transporter credits."

Noah looked at his team but, in his naivete of what he was getting into, he stayed silent. Their lead- Cadet Elizabeth Marquette- slyly smirked. "Maybe. Right now, we're heading for the beach."

The transporter technician smiled, "Mmmhmm. I can put you at the top of the stairs of La Plage Naturiste de Saint-Seylon."

"Yes please," Elizabeth stated. She gestured for the team to follow and they stepped up to a series of arches in the transporter bay alcove. Noah was one of the last up, his long legs easily allowing him to bypass the short steps up. He pressed up onto the pad and eyed the shimmering doorway that was the transporter. While he did, he tried to filter what little French he knew.

"The... uh, na-natural beach?" Noah asked, a sniff coming from his beak-like nose.

The technician chuckled, "They're gonna eat you alive..." She struck keys at the console before her and swiped at her amber-colored holographic that seemed to pivot to stay in her peripherals. The doors sprung to life with active matter streams. Noah blinked with wide eyes. "It's a nude beach, kid," the technician said.

"Whoa wait-" Noah began. Then a chuckling Bolian friend shoved him through the matter stream. Noah staggered and with a fizzy-feeling and a snap, he felt sandy texture under his sandals. What was cool and dry, immaculately maintained air gave way to the muggy heat of a Mediterranean evening. The sun was well beyond afternoon in the sky, only beginning to darken the turquoise waters to a sultrier shade. A kiss of lavender was touching the sky, and the allure of fresh seafood plate principale wafted from the eateries.

Noah looked beyond the arch pad in the evening sun: behind their whitewashed shapes, they looked to have stepped as far back as the nineteenth century. Whitewashed and coral colored houses with clay tile rooves stood before a cobblestone walk. Tourists milled and to Noah's initial sigh of relief, they all had their clothes. Swiveling at the waist, he surveyed his surroundings, his long nose taking in the scent of summer, salt, and sea. It was very alien to him, but it was pretty.

"Come on, Eagle," someone called to him. He looked at the voice, belonging to Cadet Diogenes Fischer, who frankly looked as native and natural as the holographic would have one believe about the Mediterranean. "We're heading down." Noah shouldered into the nook of his neck and its span of bone to his arm his bag and he followed. The stones were flat flagstone and led to a brownish-white, thin beach protected by high and foliage cliffs.

"Is this really a nude beach?" He asked toward Diogenes' back while he followed.

The other cadet chuckled, "Sure is." When Fischer sensed Noah stall on the steps, he turned back. "First time for everything, Eagle. Come on." Noah hesitated but continued, his too-broad mouth forming a thin line of determination. The walk down to the beach was fairly straight forward and by the time his feet met sand, he was looking at three sets of suddenly unleashed cheeks, one of them, blue. Diogenes took Noah's bag with a hazel glance and a reassuring look and Noah, again somewhat reluctant, peeled off his shirt, stalled with his sandals but- finally- succumbed to the temptation. Board shorts dropped around skinny ankles and were stepped out of.

---

"Is that Escargot?" Noah blinked over his Bouillabaisse, spoon dipping into the smooth, thin tomato broth around a set of clams. He was looking at Cadet Bokka's platter. The Bolian was indulging in his third with a noisy relish.

"Uh those're Cargolade actually, Eagle," Elizabeth spoke up, with a nod from Diogenes. "They're made differently than Escargot. But they're snails, yeah."

"Oh," Noah said. Temptation rose, "Does anyone want to share some?" He asked, elbowing onto the table. Elizabeth pursed her bottom lip, considering.

"I'd eat one or two...." A couple of heads shook. Bokka downed another. Diogenes shrugged around cutting into what looked to be chicken- or something dark meat and chicken-like.

Noah decided to wait, or maybe just log it away until tomorrow's meals. "Has uh, a-anyone been assigned anywhere yet?" Again there were headshakes and Bokka noisily noshing, seemingly oblivious.

"I'm was hoping for the Inquiry but it warped out to parts unknown," Elizabeth reported.

"I had an interview session with the Lead of Construction at the Antares Shipyards... but that's a long ways away from the Federation Core," Diogenes said.

"I'm going to the Struve Surplus Yards," Bokka said, dabbing his face with a napkin. Eight empty, chargrilled snail shells sat in pools of parsley, Piment d'Esplette, and some kind of butter-like wine substance. "I'll share some more snails with you, Balsam."

Noah smiled while he fished a dainty seafood fork in between the lips of a mussel and dislodged its orange-tan, black-lipped contents. He sidled it politely into his mouth with an assenting nod.

"What about you Eagle?" Noah glanced at the speaker- a Human with the pale countenance and build of a fellow Outer Worlds colonist. With washed-out hair and eyes as a clue, Noah still wouldn't have guessed she was from Ganymede when they first met.

Noah shook his head, his still damp and sandy curls and rings swaying over his collar. "No, nothing yet. I put in a request for Jupiter Station but they aren't accepting Midshipman candidates right now. So I guess..." He shrugged and circled that dainty fork over a clam, "I'll wait. And see what options come up."

"There's a Cabaret act in Saint-Mandrier-Sur-Mer," Elizabeth said with a change of topic. "Anyone interested?"

"I'll go," Noah said with a shrug. He looked at his teammates who seemed less committed.

"We're going to a Dom Jot bar in Toulon," Bokka said with Diogenes and another nodding agreement.

"I'm transporting to Capri early tomorrow. Low tide for the Azure Grotto is at 0630," the Ganymedean said. "So it's early to bed with some technicals for me. Something nice and relaxing... maybe an old Nebula-class."

"Mmm, the Pragmatist's Galaxy-class," Elizabeth said with a full-mouthed smile. "Classic," she pointed at her teammate with a wink and a gesture of fork. "But after the cheese right?" The Ganymedean nodded agreement.

Noah smiled at that. He liked cheese too, his young head swimming with the effects of a Spanish Tempranillo Rioja. He'd miss this.

A Post By:

Cadet Noah Hyman Balsam III
Systems Engineering Cadet