The only true constant...

Posted on Mon Aug 19th, 2024 @ 1:05am by Lieutenant Irynya & Ensign Noah Balsam

Mission: Mean Green Queen
Location: Deck 5 Enlisted Berthings
Timeline: Mission Day 8 at 2200

[MD 8, 2200 Hours]
[Enlisted berthing, Deck 5]

The lack of privacy was, quite possibly, the thing Irynya liked least about the enlisted bunks. It wasn't that she minded sharing. Having roommates on top of her felt... safe... but she missed the common room in their quarters and the opportunity to grab a few private moments with Sheldon or with Noah. She missed cuddling on the couch in a way that could almost be described as a physical ache. Nothing was exactly the way it always was with its comfortable familiarity and the family-like feel of her roommates.

Nothing was every going to be that way again, either.

In her bunk, Irynya lay flat on her back, blanket pulled up to her armpits. One of her arms she had tossed over her head where it draped on top of the spray of long brown hair that crowned her head as it flowed over her pillow. Her other lay at her side, fingers running absently over the two small round bits of metal held between her fingers.

Lieutenant's pips.

Even with two days to get her head on straight it still felt surreal. Even having done the work of an Acting Chief Flight Controller not once, but twice now--the most recent going on nearly 2 weeks since their departure from the Twinfire. Acting had always meant temporary. Now though...

She hadn't told anyone either. Not really. I mean... the rest of the pilots knew. And the command team. Sure. And... She sighed. There hadn't been any kind of formal announcement and she was ok with that. But she also had hardly had a private moment with either of her friends and now their quarters were nearing completion and her time to say something was running low.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and held it a moment, before slowly letting it out. And then she squirmed sideways so her head was sticking out of her bunk and stage whispered. "Noah..." she called quietly. "Are you awake?"

With was a harsh nasal stir. "Hmmm?" The stick bug ensign had started to drift off, his schematic PADD drooping in his slender hand. His other hand was diddling with the bony protrusion of his hip under his underwear. The PADD began to slip and his instincts made him grab. His eyes blinked open. "Umm. Hmm? Y-yeah I'm awake. Just reading," he said. "Re-reviewing some of the new systems on the Duderstadt- and Echelon-classes... I'm wondering if our systems can be, uh, refitted..." Though he'd come to conclusion, in his dream-like drift, probably not.

Noah smacked his lips. His mouth was dry. He tended, somewhat ashamedly, to being a mouth-breather when he slept. He squinted his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He slapped his PADD against his sleeveless shirted chest. His thoughts had drifted to the lack of privacy some time ago as well. Some stress relief would've been welcome but neither this berth nor the communal nature of the sonic showers were feasible. So his fingers had stayed on his hipbone.

"Wha-what's up?" He asked. He turned and leaned over the edge of the bunk, his impulsive move trapping his PADD under his chest and the mattress.

At the tousle-headed appearance of Noah's visage above her something pulled tight in the Risian's chest making her breathing short. Despite the vaguely shaped uncertainty she felt a smile flirted along the edges of her lips. There were some perks to being stuck in the enlisted bunks, and hanging off their beds talking to each other, she decided, was one of them. He was looking at her expectantly, though, and she realized quickly she'd been staring rather than talking, so she stumbled quickly into speech.

"Hi," Noah's too-big mouth widened, trying to disarm the brief silence.

"Uh... you know how Timmoz is gone, right?" She paused, but barely enough to breathe before she continued, giving Noah no time to answer. "I mean not gone gone... like... you know... as far as I know he's fine, just... as fine as a person in medical stasis can be anyway. But like... you know... not here anymore. Not our Chief Helmsman. And not... even on the ship... just... there's only me at the top of the chain and..." She clamped her mouth shut and pursed her lips, shutting her eyes for a moment. "Here," she said and reached toward him with the hand that held the two pips gingerly so she could place them in his hand.

Balsam had been listening with a mixture of sleep and the draw back of sleep. His spindly- though somewhat ropy- arm dangled and swayed near Irynya. And more than once, he'd considered poking her in the nose or the forehead. But her words slowed him and he edged a little more over the lip of his bed when she started to hand him something.

He recognized them, of course, immediately. They were two silver, concave dots. Noah's brows shot up under his messier than usual hair. "Wow..." He brushed his thumb over their stainy-nickel sheen. "So-so... you're the Chief Helmswoman now? And-and a full-on Lieutenant." Noah was voicing his processing. "I-I'm sure Lieutenant Timmoz wouldn't have wanted it any other way..." His brows knitted. Noah had simply not allowed himself to mourn or really even process the Helmsman's injury and his leaving. "Wow this is-is so much to process right now... what with... um.... everything."

Again he thumbed over them. Then Noah shifted, disappearing from her view. But not for long. His skinny chicken legs- somewhat hairy- and his big feet dropped off the edge and he hopped down. "Come here," he offered her a hug. "Congrats."

The impulse to apologize was almost immediate when Noah acknowledged the everything that was going on. But she bit back the instinct. He wasn't upset with her, she didn't think, and she understood the difficulty of processing it. She'd been struggling with it herself for two days. When he disappeared, though, her heart squeezed with worry.

And then he was in front of her, arms open and she scrambled out of her bunk and tucked herself into him, arms looping his waist and head burrowing into the crook of his neck just by his collarbone. "Thank you," she mumbled into his chest, unwilling or simply not ready to move yet. Her body couldn't decide if hugging Noah was relief or if it wanted to cry or celebrate. Maybe all of those plus at least 20 more dissonant emotions all in one. She tried to quiet them all and focus in that moment in the familiarity of Noah.

"Sure," Noah acknowledged. He pushed his beakish nose against the skin of Irynya's shoulder. He wasn't sure if she wanted him to pull away after the usual "feels right time," and so he didn't. Humans were hard. Showing you cared wasn't. So he just let her stay there. He was just there, kinda bony, kinda... non-bulky. He wasn't quite like holding a pillow. But he tried as best he could. "When-uh- when do you... start?" He asked her, sort of into the skin his mouth was closest to. "Do you have to take that test?"

The cacophony of emotion had, in just that moment of being held, hushed to whispers and Irynya drew in a deep breath that tasted of Noah -- familiar and warm and safe. "Technically I already have," she mumbled, the words ghosting across the skin of his collarbone as she spoke them. "They're just formalizing what I've done since we left the station. But..." A hitch of emotion spiked through her. "But the rank..." She burrowed again, nuzzling her forehead into him for a moment, a tangible grounding before she continued. "But the rank means moving... to different quarters... and... you know... actually interacting with the senior officers regularly... like... not just as a stop gap until Timmoz is better. Captain Kodak said I don't have to take the Bridge Officer test to take the position, but it's something I need to work toward. Timmoz had taken his and we're losing someone with that ability... so yeah... that too... It's just... a lot."

She realized she was rambling into his collarbone and sighed, coming to a stop. Her eyes were closed. It felt right for them to be--to rely on the other senses to drink in the familiarity and comfort in that moment. "Sorry, that was more than you asked," she finally mumbled.

"Oh." Noah's eyes widened. Wait... oh. Irynya was leaving? Irynya was leaving. It finally snapped him like a whip in the face. "Um. I mean... we-we'll all come visit you. It'll barely feel different. You won't have to hear Shelly snoring anymore." Noah tried to spin it positively but he felt the well drop in his stomach to a feeling of emptiness. It was bad enough having a horrible roommate- one that had wanted to eat him. And one that had wanted to eat... or dissolve? the lot of them. Now Irynya was leaving too. That left the two boys- Sheldon and Noah- together. And a bigger hole.

He did not like that. Too much at once. Too much change all at once. No more Timmoz. His boss was, rumored, to be leaving as well. Now no Irynya? And two new roommates all but certain. "Maybe I'll just sleep on your couch for awhile. Tha-that'll drive your roommate crazy but...," Noah half-joked, spreading a smile that his too-honest face couldn't hide an anxious sadness in his eyes. "I guess tha-that means you're not a Lower Decker anymore... oh but hey. You'll have more space. And you'll probably have a real window. Not just a skylight." Again Noah tried to spin positive.

This dorm they were in didn't even have that.

The Risian gave a halfhearted snort into the ensign's collarbone at the comment about Sheldon and snoring. He really wasn't that bad. Would she even be able to sleep in a room without the familiar sounds of someone else nearby? Her heart clenched in her chest for a moment and she squeezed her eyes tight. The snort turned into something else, not a sob, but the emotion of the moment was there right on the brink of the sound as she finally unwound herself, meeting his eyes--eyes that mirrored the bundle of emotions she felt despite his smile. "Beds are bigger too. You could just sleep with me instead of on the couch." It was said with full sincerity, the idea pushing against the uncomfortable alone feeling she felt when she thought about not having Sheldon in the same room.

Noah frowned and he decided to move to sit himself and Irynya on her bunk. "So... wha-what test is this? Is this the Bridge Officer's exam? I-I thought you would've already taken that." Noah asked.

She thought he would want to say more about the roommate situation. But she also knew that Noah processed news differently than she did. Still she wished she could peer into his brain and read his thoughts. The sudden worry that he and Sheldon would both feel abandoned by her bubbled up from some unseen corner and she shoved it back settling instead against the back wall of the bunk, legs tucked underneath her so that she was still brushing against him--the physical touch soothing despite everything else.

"Uh, the Bridge Officer's exam, yeah," she answered, following Noah's lead instead. "I probably would have taken it in a few years, but it wasn't necessary until now. On a ship this size you only need so many Bridge command qualified officers. Not that you can't have more than necessary... it's just... you know... not a huge priority. It wasn't even on my radar for a while yet. This," she emphasized the word both in speech and in the tensing of her body, "whole promotion wasn't even on my radar yet. I thought I'd need... I don't know... more time... or... or..." Her face fell as the word clicked into place in her head. Her breath hissed as she forced it through her lips. "I thought I would have to transfer somewhere else. That Timmoz would always be here and I would go for a position on another ship when I was ready."

Noah offered out his hand and closed it around Irynya's. Noah liked holding hands. Guys, girls. Friends. It didn't have to be a partner. He watched her talk. He watched her process. He wasn't sure he understood everything she was feeling. There was so much here. His poor friend. When she mentioned Timmoz, he left her hand and wrapped his lanky arm around her. "He's OK though... and-and I mean... I can only guess but... wouldn't he want this for you if he-he left?" Noah spoke with his mouth against her forehead. "The test is just a test... you can pass it." He shrugged. "I-I thought about taking it... us engineers can't be on the Bridge unless we do. We're just staff officers. And if I can pass it," he self-deprecated a smile, "You can ace it. But..."

Noah blinked. He was still processing this as much as she was. "It-it sounds like that chair is yours now, Iry. And-and you can do it... sorry it wasn't on your radar. Um." he pushed out a breath, sort of along Irynya's hair and temple. He wasn't sure what to say, or if he should say more. People were hard. Machines were easy.

For a long moment they sat there and Irynya felt herself uncoil, the storm calming in her with the familiarity of her friend and the ease of finally sharing what was happening. There was still ache--moving into a new room was particularly top of her mind--but she no longer felt the frenetic energy of change quite so keenly. She breathed, closing her eyes again and grounding herself in Noah's arm around her, his mouth against her forehead, his breath teasing at the baby fine hairs at her temple. She could do this. And it was what she wanted, even if her feelings on the timing and method of this milestone were throwing her for a loop. And the test...

Noah pressed his lips against her forehead, following in a moment an impulse that his mother and a few of his lady friends had done to him in moments of angst.

"You should study with me," she said quietly, her voice much more steady and calm than it had been a moment before. "If you want to take the bridge officer test too... I mean... I think you could ace it. Gosh, Noah you're brilliant. There's not much you can't do when you put your head to it. Even if it's just to prep..." She pulled back just slightly so that she could look at him, their faces just inches apart. "I... I know we'll see each other and... you can always crash with me if you want. But..."

She trailed off, studying his face and trying to read his reaction to the idea. She was reaching, she knew. For connection. For an anchor to the friend who had come to be integral to her life since they'd met. "What do you think?" she asked, and there was hope in her voice.

Noah considered it. He... had been accused of being rather unambitious by one of his favorite professors. Noah was just so content playing with code. He blushed and felt the disequilibrium of thanks and discomfort at the compliment. He didn't like to think of himself as brilliant. Brilliant people, he felt, didn't almost crash the comms system in a moment of crisis. While Irynya looked him in the eyes, he smiled down and looked at their hands. It wouldn't be a problem to take the test with her... if he did it in solidarity more than his own ambitions. "Yeah. I mean..." His eyebrow rose and he looked up at her. Both of his brows rose when his black eyes settled on hers. "Sure, sure we can do that. Yeah." He nodded and smiled at her. He bumped his nose with her and kissed her softly, in a friend-y way.

She liked making him do that. It wasn't blushing so much as it was demuring. Noah was terrible at taking compliments, by her standards, and the more deeply sincere the more she noticed his response. This time, even inches apart, he'd dropped his gaze and while he did she gave him a moment to consider, though she didn't shift away. She wanted the closeness to him as much as anything. It felt natural... Risian... to be curled up trading breaths with her best friend during a moment of emotional turmoil. She studied his lashes in that brief moment, noticing their length--the soft curve of dark brown--a length and fullness she could appreciate on a number of levels -- not least of which were the effort many people put into making their own lashes resemble what his did without a thought.

But then his dark gaze was back to meeting hers, brows expressive and she felt another bit of tension uncoil at his agreement. It was silly of her to worry that they wouldn't see each other. Silly to want something tangible like this to make sure they did. But then emotions weren't logical. That was why Vulcans were so determined to control them, right?

That thought, though, was swept away as quickly as it arrived by the press of his lips--familiar, but also different in the midst of their surroundings. They were not strangers to kissing, but admittedly it wasn't common when they could be seen and, while they sat together, she hadn't bothered to pull the privacy screen of her bunk. For the briefest of moments she had an impulse to draw back early, aware, as always, of prior missteps she had made with relation to human sensibilities. But that thought was also quickly discarded and instead she leaned into him, returning the kiss and deepening it ever so slightly--letting the familiarity and intimacy, the safety and the fondness she felt linger as if replenishing lost stores.

When they pulled apart it was again only that few inches and she grinned at him, a real grin--maybe the first she'd had in the last few days. "Wonder how many people settle their study buddy plans with a kiss," she commented, the question formed more as a teasing statement than a real inquiry.

Noah guffawed and wrinkled his nose, "S-sorry I didn't mean it like that. It was just supposed to be reassuring. I've seen you-you do it a few times so..." He shrugged and smiled at her. "I thought I would try it and see if it helped you back." He moved a little on Irynya's bed. "And-and I think for sure maybe we all need a little reassuring right now. It's been a weird few days. These people are nice but..." He shrugged and raised and lowered his eyebrow, "I'd kind of like to go back home now. I'm tired of showering with my naked butt toward seven other people." He grimaced. "I mean I think Shelly loves it. Dravor might too. I s-swear I saw them peeking at each other."

Irynya's eyebrows popped suggestively at that. "You'd have to be looking yourself to catch them," she commented with knowing smile teasing at her lips. "I mean... I've caught them looking..." She shrugged nonchalantly, willing to take the teasing if he wanted to tease her about looking herself. The open showers had, in some ways, been a boon for her after the panic that being covered in digestive goo had caused. But she understood all the same. It wasn't the shower... it was the normalcy... that he, all of them really, craved.

Noah blushed. His eyebrows perked while he looked down. "Not-not... well... I mean. Shelly's..." Noah frowned for a moment, momentarily caught off guard. His lips pursed. "Shelly's dealt with a lot. And-and if Dravor makes him happy then... yeah. Yeah I was sort of trying to pay attention to see if they were. You know." He rolled his hand as if to keep himself going. A goofy smile blossomed over his lips. "Using the opportunity. As it were." He shrugged. "I-I'm not into muscled men but Dravor is definitely. Um." Noah shrugged. "He's a nice juxtapuh-position to Shelly." His nose wrinkled goofily. "I'm curious who the top is, but I'm not going to ask."

She leaned toward him again and snuck another kiss--because she could--and because he was right and they all needed reassuring. When she pulled back from him her smile was less teasing and more tender. "You did it exactly right," she said, referring back to his explanation about kissing her. "Thank you for the reassurance."

Noah leaned into the kiss casually. "Uh huh. OK. I'm glad." He smiled. "Sssso... I think we would talk to the..." He squinted an eye as he tried to remember his protocols. The Executive Officer was usually the endgame when it came to things needing the Captain's attention. And their first duty was to the crew. Sort of like the crew's Senator. But resources were the purview of Ops. Normally Noah knew he'd ask the Chief Engineer to proctor his exam. Only Lieutenant Oliveria was gone. "Do we talk to Ops?" he finally relented out of his thought loop, wincing at his ignorance. "I'm-I'm not actually sure who that is. I think I heard her voice on the comms when we did the upgrade."

"Commander Cross," Irynya replied, the name on the tip of her tongue. "I had dinner with her kind of by accident last night. She's 2XO too," Irynya pronounced each part as two-ex-oh, spelling out the abbreviated title, "so it makes sense that we could talk to her instead of Commander t'Nai. Or at least I think so. Captain Kodak didn't think I needed to rush, but I don't think anyone will be surprised when it comes up." She tipped her head back against the wall of the bunk, staring up at the ceiling as she thought through timing and when they could do things. There were a lot of things that felt like they needed doing. Should they wait until they were back in their room? The thought hit her and her heart twisted a little. Noah's room. Sheldon's room. When they were back in the quarters where they lived. And when she was in hers.

"Is it ok if we talk to her after we get settled back in?" she asked, trying to feel a level of calm nonchalance that was entirely absent from her in that moment.

"Cross, right. Y-yeah, we can wait until then." Noah agreed. He pushed his hair idly behind the shell of his ear. He breathed out a chuckle, "Did you say Two-X-O?" His nose wrinkled. "That's probably uh better than what we say in Engineering. We just say, Talk to the Number Two.'" He grimaces at that. "Because, you know, our lead.. you know... the Lieutenant... is the Big Chief. And well, Basheer is the Chief in the Core because he's a Chief Petty Officer..." Noah blinked. "Hmm. Anyway." The doors to the showers opened and in strode the big striped body of one of their Bolian hallmates, wearing a towel around their waist. Noah suspected that meant their alone time was yet again over.

The unmistakable waft of Bolian biochemistry preceded the man into the room and with it, and the parting of the doors, Irynya sighed. She, too, suspected that the stolen moment of privacy was over and she was more than a little bit loathe for it to end. When would they get to do this again? The thought flitted through her head, making her stomach twist unpleasantly, but she forced it to the back of her head. She couldn't think about it that way. Still, she nestled a little closer, grabbing at a last few minutes of comfort and familiarity. She wasn't terribly concerned what their newer roommates might say about it. It wasn't as if they were doing anything more than cuddling.

"Yeah," she commented, responding to Noah's comment about Number Two, "It always felt odd to me to call them Number Two. It's like counting from zero instead of one. Isn't the Captain Number One...? Technically?" It was a losing argument and she knew it. Even if there was logic to her thinking decades upon centuries of tradition said otherwise. She shrugged lightly, her shoulder nudging against Noah 's side as she did.

Noah's nose wrinkles, he chuckled softly and shook his head, "Tha-that's not what I meant. I think this is a Human anachronism. Sorry. I'll explain it later." He watched the Bolian move to their bunk and boldly disrobe. They caught an eye full of Bolian buttocks. Noah averted his eyes.

"Stay for one more minute?" she asked, knowing that it was only a matter of minutes now before he climbed back up to his own bunk.

"Sure. Y-yeah, one more minute or so." He looked to their side as the Bolian started to dress- fortunately their underpants and uniform bottoms first. Noah leaned to Irynya's ear, "I didn't know they had those stripes on their butts, too."

A grin spread across the Risian's face making her cheeks crinkle with the mischief and amusement of the expression. She turned quick almost jabbing her nose into Noah's mouth before reaching his ear to respond. "Chaali once told me that some Bolian women think the more and darker the strips on a man's ass the better he is in bed." She flashed Noah a smirk, popping her eyebrows in exaggerated innuendo before leaning back in. "Shame I don't have any references points by which to measure."

Noah smiled into a cheek and shook his head, "I'm not sure it'd be worth the dermatitis..." He winced an eye and grimaced, "... Especially on the inside parts. Bolian biochemistry is pretty caustic..." He paused and frowned, "Uh, not-not that I know from experience exactly. But my second year there was a rumor that Cadet Fisher was going with a Bolian female for a few weeks... she developed this weird rash around her mouth..." Noah guffawed silently. "A-anyway..."

Irynya pulled a face, inhaling sharply so her breath hissed through her teeth in a way that made the Bolian across from them pause. Her eyes widened when she realized she'd been heard and she looked at Noah in a half giddy panic. Oh. My. Goodness. She mouthed at him, hoping that the blue skinned man would move on so that she could relax again.

And, for what felt like a long ten seconds, their Bolian hallmate did finally move on. Noah exhaled and leaned back on his hands only to rub the side of his nose. "I-I hope we didn't offend him... it sort of occurred t-to me that this is their space not ours. Just..." He shrugged. "It's the fascination of-of the unfamiliar. I-I mean you read about Bolian physiology at the Academy..." he tucked his chin in a nod, "And you know, there's the lectures from Starfleet Medical on safe practices for intimate encounters with alien species." Noah blinked. That had been a long and uncomfortable and occasionally titillating lecture first year... and again second year... third year... fourth year.. "Hopefully he didn't hear us..." Noah chewed his lip. "Anyway... you-you were saying before. Um. Chell." He gestured with a long finger where the man had stood.

Safe Practices for Intimate Encounter With Alien Species. Irynya remembered those lectures with a mixture of amusement and alarm. The instructors, typically Starfleet Medical personnel who spent more time with students who had already left the Academy to go on for detailed medical training than with the Academy students themselves, were very... dry... in their delivery of the lecture. Some cadets--she had assumed those that came from races where sex was taught this way or where it was, in fact, very boring--weathered the instruction with a sort of steely faced aplomb. Others, the few that had cultures like Risians or Orions where sexual practices had come through a long cultural maturation, already knew most of the material. If it hadn't come up in practice then it had sometimes been talked about in school. Iry had thought, at the time, that the course out to be taught by a Risian--someone would explain the details without sterilizing it so as to lose its beauty.

The bulk of the classes, though, had been filled with kids. Or mostly kids. The average age of a cadet, by their culture's standards, were in the late teenage years and many were still quite amused by talk of sex. She remembered that every year there were at least 3 or 4 classmates who tried the So... want to give me a private lesson on intimate encounters with alien species? line. She'd only ever accepted once.

Her train of thought had so far derailed now that Chell had left and they'd stopped discussing posterior stripes and alchemical body fluids that when Noah redirected them back to what she had been saying she shook her head. "I... honestly don't remember..." And she didn't. Not exactly. For one brilliant moment, though, she'd been lost in the simple joy of giggling with her best friend and hadn't been thinking about her promotion or Josh Peters or moving or Timmoz leaving the ship in stasis. And it had been a beautiful thing.

She ducked her head against Noah's shoulder again, twisting so she could kiss the top of his arm. "Thank you," she said, and despite herself her tone gave away the melancholy that was already trying to creep back in.

Noah put his arm around her with the soft waft of a Human that probably needed a shower after a long day. Not dirty, but distinctly Human male. He leaned in and kissed her temple. "It's OK. It's been a long day." Noah had sat quietly as Irynya had been processing, mistaking perhaps that she was considering approaching Chell for companionship. Or maybe she was just processing in an otherwise awkward moment. He blossomed his grin with the crinkle at his nose and his narrowed eyes. "I thought you-you were really into Chell's butt for a second. You had that same look some Humans get when they are thinking if-if they want to accept a bet or not." he gestured in a circle at his face. "It-it's very distinct. Uh. You see."

Iryna chuckled quietly, her amusement making her shoulders shake softly beneath Noah's arm. "Uh, no ..." She said, the smile that had crept back onto her face evident as she spoke. He had a way of doing that. Coaxing smiles from her without even trying. "He's not really my ... type."

He kissed her temple again. "Mm, you're welcome." He sighed and looked at the space Chell had been in. "I'm going back up top. But I-I might go into their rec area to get a chocolate milk first." He sidled out and stood, "Want anything?" He asked, brown eyes on her's.

She watched him climb out of her bunk, feeling his absence almost like a physical presence in its own right. Did she want anything? Yes. Of course. For him to stay longer even though she knew they needed to sleep. To freeze time just a bit so she could have just a little more normal with her roommates. To ...

Noah's eyes were dark. She thought again about the length of his lashes as her eyes met his and held.

"Chocolate milk sounds amazing," she said quietly. There was a quality to her voice that even she couldn't exactly place as she pushed the other things that so stubbornly wanted to color the edges of the moment bittersweet to the back of her head. "Thanks."

Noah smiled at her and nodded a couple of times. "OK be right back," he said softly, "One chocolate milk coming up." And he swung his lanky body into motion. Only at the replicator line- and there was a line, to him inexplicably- did he turn to the news. Here he found himself a person away from Chell. Life was changing too quickly. Irynya was a Lieutenant. Lieutenant Irynya would be moving. Lieutenant Irynya was a Chief now. Not just an Acting Chief. He wondered who she'd end up with... and would they care if a bunch of lower-deckers were hanging around in what would assumed be a larger space.

He didn't want her to go. And he felt that weigh on him as he muttered, "Two chocolate milks. Extra chocolate, cold." And he stared into the whirling light pattern as they appeared. Separately. The same in many ways but separate. He picked them up, wondering if chocolate milk ever felt separation anxiety. Probably not. Chocolate milk was just happiness, in his opinion. He mentally noted that he needed to schedule that test with Lieutenant Commander Cross. And, with a sniff, he determined maybe he needed a shower too.

A Post By:

Lieutenant Irynya
Chief Helmswoman

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist