Breakfast of Champions

Posted on Thu Jan 29th, 2026 @ 11:03pm by Lieutenant Tork & Lieutenant Commander Victoria Cross

Mission: Port of Call
Location: Debbie's Diner
Timeline: Mission Day 13 at 0730

Tork! Tork, Tork! Word had spread throughout the ship of the Ferengi from the Kodra-Lisett, who had been occasionally wandering through the halls fixing things here and there, and Victoria was beside herself with anticipation on meeting him. The Ops Chief was keen on building a strong rapport with her crew mates, so she'd sent word to him asking him to meet her for breakfast a few weeks after his arrival.

She was less enthused about Ferengi food.

An understatement. In Starfleet, she had a classmate from Ferenginar who had bet her to eat chilled beetle purée, and the experience had put her off food for four days. She double checked the replicator in the wall on the diner, unsure if Debbie could cook such things, before stowing her hands in her pockets.

Being asked to join someone for a meal, in Tork's experience, was already unusual. He didn't have much in the way of a social circle, less because he was a Ferengi and more because of his proclivity to enjoy the quiet company of a maintenance shaft and a good tool box over that of other people. He wasn't antisocial, he simply preferred that time spent awake was time spent making something, acquiring the means to do so, or basking in the afterglow of a tinkering job well done. And sitting down for a bite to eat served none of those purposes.

Even more strange was the person who had asked him. Generally speaking, hew-mon females didn't have much of an interest in Ferengi, male or female, given their drive to accumulate profit. Such a concept seemed to be an affront to their altruistic exterior personas, though if any Ferengi dug just a little deeper they would find that hew-mons had just as deep a streak of greed in their past as the Ferengi did in the present. Tork's father would often lament that the Ferengi missed out on a golden opportunity to secure good business partners before humanity developed their 'modern' sensibilities. Tork, despite his heritage, cared more about what hew-mons brought to the table technologically, which was far more than acceptable to him, even if profit wasn't a concern to them. The Ferengi wondered, as he made his way from to the lounge... or diner as it had been referred to in the communique, what exactly he was walking into.

The compartment itself didn't strike the Ferengi in any meaningful way, he was neither impressed or disappointed by it. It was... functional... and for Tork, that was good enough. He looked around the place momentarily before spotting the person whom had requested his presence, taking only a brief moment to ready himself for an interaction with the hew-mon before trudging over with as neutral an expression he could muster.

"Commander," the Ferengi said once he'd reached an appropriate distance for an exchange of pleasantries. His bulbous head dipped in about as formal a greeting as Ferengi mustered when engaging with others whom they weren't at least tacitly familiar. The fact that the female before him was well over a foot taller than him meant he had to look up, even if she were sitting, so the gesture looked a bit odd to begin with. Tork didn't wait for any sort of reply, opting to push himself into a chair to at least obtain some semblance of comfort before looking back up at the hew-mon who was now in front of him.

Victoria smiled, raising her hand in a wave. "Hello, Lieutenant! Nice to finally meet you." She took a seat across from him in the booth, before noting the height difference. Oh, right. She merely folded her hands on top of one another on the table and smiled. "I know, right? At risk of hitting my head on the ceiling half of the bloody time."

"But to why I wanted to meet you, I'm the operations chief. I oversee the helm crew, scanners, yeomen, propulsion, that sort of thing, but I like to think chiefly, no pun intended, I'm a coordinator. Operations is nothing without Engineering and Engineering would be without a nacelle to fly with without Operations, so- yes. It's nice to meet any new engineer aboard."

"My name's Victoria, I'm from Australia, on Earth. I've been in Starfleet for oh, five years ship, a few years academy. What about you?"

"Tork, technically Ferenginar, but actually a freighter my parents ran trading across the backwaters of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. Ten years service, not counting the Academy since that doesn't really count for much of anything," the engineer reciprocated the introduction in as brief a manner as the hew-mon had introduced herself.

His eyes narrowed in an appraising manner as he mulled over the purpose that had been stated as the driving force behind their little meet and greet. While not entirely unusual, the desire to network wasn't lost on the Ferengi, or really anyone from his species given that most profit is derived from such interactions. Tork simply didn't see the point of this particular interaction... at least not yet. And given how little he knew of the female herself, it was hard to say what had truly motivated her.

"I should probably correct an assumption there..." Tork said finally, having made up his mind to probe a bit, "Most engineers might depend on others to acquire things, as that is the natural order of hew-mon thought. I, however, am not hew-mon. Acquisitions are in my blood, even if my parents believe my talents in that regard are wasted on acquiring technology rather than latinum. And in that arena, my dear hew-mon friend, I am unrivaled."

Tork paused momentarily as his mind drifted to the many many deals he'd conducted over the decades, all of them culminating in the procurement of some of the rarest and most obscure parts and pieces he could get his greasy little mitts on. The smile that graced his features was every bit as cunning and devious as any other Ferengi's might be when talking about how much wealth they had acquired over their lifetime.

"That being said," Tork said with a small shrug, "It never hurts to know someone in the supply business. Whether or not you're handy with getting your hands on something I need... want... could use... whatever the case may be. Let it never be said that I would go against Rule 247."

Victoria relaxed her shoulders and listened as her new coworker explained his interest in technology over profit. Victoria had only dealt with credits a handful of times in her life and found it perplexing. Being born on Earth, all of her needs and wants were met, but she knew things were different beyond the Federation's border.
"I'm not really aware of the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition. I've read some biographies of Grand Nagus Rom, due to his and his brother's actions in the Dominion conflict. He seems like a powerful reformer. I'll have to read through the rules, but can you tell me 247?"

"Also, what did you want to eat?"

"Rule 247 says 'Value is always there—if you're smart enough to find it.' Your other question..." Tork hummed in thought before shrugging, "I'm not overly bothered by what I eat. I eat so I can live another day and acquire another part or two. It hardly matters as long as I can digest it. On that note, nothing Klingon. But otherwise, whatever's ready will do."

"Oh, no, nothing Klingon. I'm trying to be your friend here, mate." Victoria visibly tightened her face, shivering in disgust. She stood and approached the replicator, punching in a sequence. Two plates of eggs and bacon and toast with sausage, all synthetic meat and egg. She returned to the table and handed him a plate. "I feel opportunity is rarely recognized at the moment of its arrival. Mr. Tork. We must endeavor to do so- especially non material opportunities. The ability to learn new things, make new friends and allies, you don't want those opportunities to skip past you."

Tork stabbed the sausage with the fork that had been sitting nearby, taking a chunk out of it before shrugging nonchalantly, "I suppose Rule 9 would agree with you." Another bite of sausage later, the Ferengi recalled that the hew-mon probably didn't understand the reference and clarified with, "Opportunity plus instinct equals profit. While it hasn't always been foolproof, in my experience, it's generally applicable to most situations in life."

Tork picked up a slice of toast and sniffed at it for a second before deciding it was harmless and stuffed the whole thing in his mouth in one go. A few seconds of chewing later, the Ferengi remarked, "Kind of bland, but not inedible." It appeared that he wasn't floored by the choice of meal, but it hadn't put him off in any meaningful way either.

"It is kind of bland, innit?" She squinted slightly, overlooking the toast. "Tell you what. I have an idea." She stood, stepping over to the Replicator once more, and hit the button. "Computer. A plate of prepared sushi and squid, with dipping wasabi and sauces." A shimmer, and a plate of squid cubes and some sashimi and various cups of sauces appeared. Victoria brought it back to the table. "If you're anything like the Ferengi I'd met in the Academy, this should be more up your alley, Mr. Tork. I've asked you questions about yourself - so uh, if you have anything you'd like to ask of me, I'm an open book."

"Wait... I thought you were a hew-mon, not an open book..." Tork scrunched his face up in confusion, "When did they start making books look like hew-mons?"

Looking down at the new plate, Tork picked up a fork and stabbed at the squid limbs that had been requested. Their springiness suggested that they had been prepared some sort of way, but that didn't deter the Ferengi much, as he was used to some food being alive when he ate it, as was tradition. He popped the somewhat rubbery morsel in his mouth and gave it a few chews before deciding it wasn't inedible and finished the job.

"What does that hew-mon phrase really mean?" Tork finally asked, "Because I have serious doubts about its legitimacy. And for another thing, what is it you really want to come of this little meeting? Even the most altruistic hew-mons I've ever met have agendas... and I think that's a healthy thing to have, speaking as a Ferengi. But I'm not sure I really understand what your angle is. And if I'm being honest, which isn't exactly something my people are known for, I admit... I don't like that kind of ambiguity. If there's something you'd like to exploit, tell me upfront so I can extort an equivalent price from you in exchange. Mind you... unlike the rest of my family who'd have you pay in latinum, I accept any spare parts you don't mind never seeing again. And I don't do credit, unlike the rest of my people... parts either up front or upon services rendered... that's the only non-negotiable term you'll get from me. Everything else..." The Ferengi shrugged his shoulders as he popped another rubbery limb into his jagged maw, "is."

"It means I have nothing to hide. I have nothing I want to exploit from you. I - understand that things are different on Ferenginar. There's always the fight for an edge, a means to secure your status above someone, but this kind of mentality isn't common among humans, if I may be so bold. At least, not anymore. We were once a desperate people, short on food, short on resources, racked by wars and climate catastrophe. Our people nearly annihilated each other with atomic weaponry, and after we met with the Vulcans, we threw out a lot of our old ways. The one before the few is one of those ways. So, I brought you here because I really, honestly wanted to meet you and get to know you. We're going to be working together, and we both have divisions that are closely linked with one another, so why not start things off right?"

Tork continued to stare at the woman for while in silence, mulling over her rather passionate speech. The protracted lull gave him the time he needed to sort through not just what she'd said but how she'd said it and how much of it he was reasonably certain she actually believed out of all that she'd said. Once he had reached his determination, he finally broke the silence.

"That's fine," the Ferengi said with very little passion in his voice, "But I should probably correct one assumption you made. I wasn't born on Ferenginar, only been there a handful of times in my life. The only things I've struggled with is finding everything I need to make everything I've ever wanted to make. If you set a box of latinum and a box of old parts from all over the galaxy in front of me and asked me which was more precious, I'd grab the box of parts and you'd never see them or me again. So everything you think you know about me based solely on my species is probably wrong. Best you know that upfront. That's not to say I can't talk someone into giving away their life's savings for something they don't actually need, I just don't care to unless their life savings is a scrap yard."

Tork paused as if an idea had come upon him, "Maybe that's why they keep denying my request for a transfer to a boneyard..."

"I... have made a very grievous and rude assumption, Mr. Tork. Of course, you're -" Victoria froze, the color draining out of her face, "Yes. I'm sorry. I was so focused on using what I already knew that I didn't look past the idea I had in my head. I hope you can accept my most sincere apology." Her voice had a slight waver. She was quiet for a while, and folded her hands on her side of the table. "You're a crafty man, are you? I enjoy model kits. I'm working on a version of an Akira Class in my off hours. Has a working 1/1000th power phaser array and a mini electrical system. I've already made a few in my quarters for decoration."

"Model kits, eh?" Tork smirked almost wickedly, "Now there's something any respectable engineer can relate to. Mind you, I always lived in the belly of a poorly put together freighter so I've never got the chance to do it growing up... always had the real thing to practice on instead. But that's neither here nor there. I actually helped some hew-mons back at the Academy with a model project along a similar vein. They were trying to make a scale model of a shuttle, wanted it to fly and shoot... bee bees... I think they called them. Anyway, small little balls of metal for some... hobbyist group they belonged to. I cobbled together the engines using old repulsor pads from a grav-sled that had been... misplaced... and built the bee bee torpedo thing they wanted out of custom salvaged parts... all proprietary, you understand. I actually enjoyed helping them with it, which is saying something because most hew-mon hobbies just seemed... boring to me when I was at the Academy."

"That's amazing! How did - of course! Old repulsor pads would do it. Oh, that's great. I started building models as a meditation thing. My brother in law is a monk, and he tried to get me into kal toh, which is a game, if you can call it that, of building a hexagonal structure with small rods. I tried it, but while I was in the Academy I too got hooked on miniatures and models. It just takes my mind off things, you know? I'm constantly stressing over three or four different things. I have patterns designed for virtually every ship Starfleet has, thanks to our computer and holodeck, if you're interested in printing a kit for yourself. If you can make a bee bee launching repulsor shuttle work, I imagine you can get one of my toy models to Warp one."

She laughed.

"Probably," Tork said with a shrug, "I have jerry-rigged small warp cores before. Might need to scale the model up a bit... maybe the size of..." The Ferengi folded his arms and stared up at the ceiling in thought for a few moments before continuing, "About half the size of deuterium container. I could rig a micro-warp core up to something about that big and it'll get to warp... three maybe, before it shakes apart under the stress."

"We... should not do this. Even if we could. I don't... think creating a Frankenstein's Monster of a model would be a wise decision, in foresight, because a warp-capable thing creating a problem that should not exist. But that doesn't mean we can't draft out a blueprint for a model ship that has the same..." She scratched her chin, and unzipped her jacket, taking out a pad of paper and a pen from the inner pocket. She did some long division and checked her work, before putting her pen down. "No. Not in non-holographic work... But we could do it in the holodeck."

"Doesn't really have the same effect when it's all photons," the Ferengi said with a slight frown," Add in the fact that half the fun of engineering something like that from scratch is the danger of it not working as intended... but you do you."

Tork leaned back into his chair, "I'm less about the numbers and more about the results. Probably why it's taken me this long to get my own engine room. Not everyone appreciates my... do first, care... maybe never sort of... what was the word my last Captain used? Avant-garde? Way of doing things."

"There's... room for the Avant-garde, Tork, within Starfleet, but really, the desperado days of engineering like say, that of Mr. Montgomery Scott I feel are maybe gone to the wayside? I'm not an engineer, I'm an operations official, so - a lot of my work is efficiency, communication, not much room for innovation and thinking on one's feet the same way as an engineer would. But- the way I've always seen it, our ships are built to last. An Engineer's job is reactionary, to ensure that that what we have works longer and better, you know? I'm all about the numbers, on the contrary," She chuckled, "I'm the one that fills in the requisitions."

"Reactionary engineering is just patch jobs," the Ferengi said with a frown, "And patch jobs are only good if things are exploding around you. I much prefer proactive engineering. And I'm going to have to disagree with you about ships being built to last."

Tork leaned back in his seat, "Every ship I've been on since I left the Academy has always been crammed full of the most bleeding edge of technological contrivances the Federation could spit out. Even the Sojourner has more untested and unreliable equipment than it has anything that could be considered tried and true. If we're talking about eras, we've gone backwards rather than forward from the time of Captain Scott and engineers like him. He tested things, had to improvise, then wrote books on the stuff just for the Federation to toss the books out not even a century later because they hit a technological boom as more and more cultures signed on for their little cosmic experiment. If anything, I'm right where Captain Scott was when he took over the engine room on the Enterprise, fighting with technology no one really understands and making it work for as long as I can. The key difference, I would argue, is that I have access to actual tried and true technology that can be beaten into the gaps when all the new crap they're pushing out fries because it was overengineered and not under any sort of warranty."

The engineer paused for a moment before continuing, "It's good that you're about numbers, I suppose. Everyone has their niche, as one of my old Chief Engineers liked to say. 'A tool for every job, a place for every tool,' or something to that effect. Point is, I don't have to agree with your vision of what an engineer should be... and obviously I don't. But I can understand where it comes from. I just think it's a touch naive is all."

For a moment, Victoria sat there, parsing what the man said, and gave a series of nods as she came to understand his point. "Mr. Tork, you raise a very good argument. I open my mouth once and am a fool for a moment, but if I stayed quiet I would have been a fool forever. It's good that you're passionate about this and your career path. The Sojourner is my second posting, and it's still something I'm getting used to, being so far away from the Alpha Quadrant. It really helps that we have an engineer of your caliber keeping the ship together. I suppose it was naive, but you know, I don't know everything, and perhaps I've been going with the wrong idea. Tell me, the holodeck idea- I think it would be good if I got a sense of what it's like in an engineering bay, you know? It could help me do my personal job better."

"The thing about the holodeck is... it's safe. Nothing can actually go wrong. But if something is unknown to the holodeck, you won't get the actual results of your hard work and effort, since the computer only knows what it knows and can only predict so much. Put something on a bench, make it with your own hands, and it usually becomes pretty clear pretty quickly what does and doesn't work. You don't have to break anything or have it explode in your face, but the feeling of accomplishment you get from it coming to life because you built it, because you did everything right, or at least right enough for it to work... you can't get that feeling from a simulation, no matter how hard you tried," Tork said with a much more serious tone, "And any experience can help you, even if the value of it doesn't stand out immediately."

Victoria nodded along as the man spoke. "The Sojourner is lucky to have you, Mr. Tork. I hope you can forgive my over-enthusiasm in trying to give you a welcome to the crew. I will keep my focus on running the ship's operations, you can keep the lights on and the engines running. The holodeck can remain for what it is, solving murder mysteries and sunny beaches thirteen thousand light years away. Truth be told, it's been a lot recently, and it was nice to just sit down and eat and talk to someone, like nothing's happened. Thank you."

"Well, I'm glad you got something out of the exchange," the Ferengi said with a cryptic little smile as he stood up from the table. "This has been... interesting, as the Vulcans tend to say, but I have to get ready for the big refit adventure my department is about to embark on so I will be heading down to the Engine Room. Do have a productive day, Commander." With that, Tork made his way out of the diner, a visible spring in his step as he went.

A Joint Post by

LCDR Victoria Cross
Chief Operations Officer

LT Tork
Chief Engineer