By Any Other Name...

Posted on Sun May 3rd, 2026 @ 4:05pm by Ensign Noah Balsam & Lieutenant Irynya & Ensign Davis Bryad & Crewman Ariadne Tolbert

Mission: Port of Call
Location: Debbie's Diner
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 1130

[Debbie's Diner, Deck 6, Aft]
[MD 1, 1130 Hours]

"And they're known for their cider apparently..."

Ariadne Tolbert sat across from Davis Bryad listening with only half of her attention. She and Davis had known each other far longer than their assignments on the Sojourner with family ties that went a few generations back. Nothing like Starfleet to connect families even when they're as far flung as the Delta Quadrant. Back when she'd first met the flyboy he'd only been a 10 year old know it all with a streak of arrogant confidence that wasn't particularly unusual in boys his age. Or at least it wasn't in Ariadne's experience. As he spoke, extolling the virtues of some kind of fancy sort of restaurant that he'd heard about on Pathfinder, Ariadne was remembering overhearing her mothers exclaiming their enthusiasm to each other in amused whispers at the idea that she and Davis might someday end up together.

She hadn't really understood what they meant at the time. Now, though... well if the last letter she'd received from home was any indicator... the idea hadn't abated much over the years.

A carefully manicured masculine hand waved in front of her nose, startling her out of her reverie.

"I mean, I know my description was scintillating," he remarked with a cocky self deprecating smirk, "but I didn't think I was that boring just now."

"Sorry," the redhead replied. "Just tired I guess. Did you get to go to this restaurant?" she asked, returning him to his earlier track.

"Oh, no... not yet anyway... depends on when we get the all clear to fly..."

It was Ariadne's turn to wave at Davis, this time, flapping her hand in his direction as she craned her neck toward the door that had just opened. Her eyes shifted toward an almost unbridled curiosity as two familiar figures entered the room.

"Davis," she stage whispered in an excited hiss, "look who just walked in?"

---------

Irynya tugged at her uniform jacket once... twice... a third time. If the jacket actually adjusted it was hard to say. Still... her desire to fidget was high. She glanced sidelong at Noah who, beside her, seemed far more... normal... than she felt. Of course Noah wasn't taking his first turn at bridge command in the next hour and a half. So he had no reason to be anything but his normal self.

Though Noah didn't feel that way. As well-masked as his anxiety was- because his life had demanded it of him and he was fairly good at it- his thoughts were turning over and over. It was a first for him- first shift as officially being in the rotation for Operations Management. The fingers on the side she couldn't see were fidgeting as well, as he was numerically counting finger joints at the order of operations for running diagnostics on that level.

Irynya stepped across the threshold to Debbie's and glanced at Noah again. His dark curly mop of hair somehow held an exact amount of I didn't try this while still looking perfectly as it should be. His profile--beakish nose and cheeks that dimpled when he grinned--were as familiar to her as her own face in the mirror, but somehow that familiarity, lately, had left her off center. "Booth or table?" she asked, when she didn't pull her gaze away fast enough to avoid being caught.

"Captain's discretion." That profile bent widely, his crooked too-big grin, Cheshire-like, and dimpled. Noah turned to look at her, nose wrinkled. He was sort of enjoying this gentle needling of the fact that, in very little time, she was about to assume the center chair. Granted it was some follow up testing that came out of bugs found during the Shakedown a few days ago. But she still was.

Noah's eyes scanned the crowd not so much for faces but as a casual want to find something that looked or smelled good for Lunch. Lunch would likely be brief. Working Lunch. He nibbled his bottom lip, brow raised up in its arch. "Yep yep.... C-Captain's on the Bridge..." Noah murmured teasingly. "What does the Captain want to eat?" He glanced at her, eye skirting to the Risian ja'risia on her forehead.

Whether intended or not the playful needling helped. "Are you going to defer to me on all decisions today or just the ones you don't want to make?" she asked with a teasing arch to one of her brows that only partly pulled off the well known Vulcanoid facial expression. She leaned toward him, closing the few inches to bump him with her shoulder.

He bumped back. Noah grimaced and glanced away, nose wrinkling. He rocked on his heels when he looked back. "Uhhh as a good officer, I will defer to my Captain in all things and follow her orders, and advise her on alternative courses of, uh, action when I think she's being a dum-dum and might get us all killed." His brows popped and waggled, "Good enough?" He cheekily grinned. "Sir?" He waved a hand, "Also so far, you're doing great..."

"Captain says booth and a burger and fries with a malt," she said confidently before her face creased in indecision. "Or maybe saag... I mean... comfort food makes sense before a first thing, but..." she screwed her lips to the side and narrowed her eyes, making a beeline for a booth that was open toward the middle of the space. "Ugh. I don't know. Maybe I'll just have a bowl of fruit and coffee."

She slid into the booth in question and waited until Noah had situated himself to add, "And you... Ensign?"

Noah had collapsed in to the booth, arms folded atop one another and head low. He was truly enjoying watching his friend. He looked up to try and spot the waiter, scanning for them, mouth open. His gaze returned. "Ensign will have Debbie's 'Spam' Breakfast Burrito, medium salsa, guac and sour cream on the side." Noah sat up, "I skipped Breakfast."

Fixing Noah with a pointed look Irynya tilted her head toward him. "Excellent choice. Also why did you skip breakfast? I though the orange and chocolate milk thing was practically a requirement?" The tiniest bit of concern crossed her features, but it was brief as the idea of eggs took root in her head.

"Emergency early call to junction 47." Noah said before he play-bit his bottom lip. He was watching her.

"Breakfast does sound like a good idea though. I mean. I ate, but not much..." she advised. As if to confirm her stomach gurgled bringing with it the mild discomfort that paired with that sound. "Now we just need someone to take our orders..."

Irynya, too, scanned the space for a crew member on wheeled shoes.

---------

"They are good friends..." Davis was trying, surreptitiously, to watch his chief and the man she was sitting across from. Social cues were, typically, his forte, but equally was ignoring them when it suited him. He hadn't given much consideration to who Irynya spent her time with outside of that one time when he'd tried to convince the lanky curly haired guy with her now to put in a good word for his promotion.

The promotion he didn't get. Bryad's expression soured slightly.

"Noah," he said after a second, sourness clearing as fast as it had arisen. "That's his name. We chatted a bit at that one party we had. You know... before..."

He didn't have to say more for Ariadne to fix him with a look that both confirmed she knew he was talking about the incident with First Maje Subrek and that she recalled the party.

"Right," she confirmed. Davis glanced across to the tall redheaded woman across the table and then followed her eyes. Unlike him, Ariadne was being less careful with her staring. "But I could swear it's something more than that. I mean... I always see them together. And the way she looks at him..."

Davis tried to eke out what, exactly, it was that Tolbert saw, but he only really saw that the two were clearly good friends. It wasn't as if he could see if they might be playing footsie under the table or anything like that. He shrugged and turned back to his plate, selecting the pickle he had been saving and taking a delightfully crunchy bite. "If you say so..."

---------

"And you, Lieutenant?" The Bolian waiter they had acquired asked.

"Captain," Noah corrected his plastic face once again turning to purely amused imp. "She's in the Center Chair while the command crew do the, uh, diplomatic things.... on the station. For the wormhole opening." The details as to why they had been summoned to Pathfinder were well above Noah's pay grade, as were the details if the visit was for business or the perks of command. It was a little strange for both of them to be off-ship at the same time. The days of the Kirk-Spock Away Team were well-buried and dissuaded in the Regulations by now.

"I see," the Bolian said cautiously. And then they promptly ignored this frustratingly puppyish and weird version of Noah Balsam. Their bald eyebrows rose again at the question implied. "Our special is tomato soup and a grilled cheese. I believe the cheese for the day is a Tauwinac cheese. Some people compare it is a sharper provolone with a grassyness."

The Bolian poised to take Irynya's order then.

"Umm... three egg omelet with sausage, mushrooms, and onion. And can I try the cheese you've mentioned in the omelet? Tawnac?" She fixed the Bolian with her most winning smile, working hard to keep a fit of giggles that were threatening to take hold of her faculties at bay while she made her order.

"Tauwinac," the Bolian corrected with a put upon patience as if this were not nearly the first time he'd had to make the correction. He made a note on the PADD he carried with him and then, without looking up, added, "And to drink?"

"A peanut butter and chocolate mocha please," she answered quickly before she could second guess herself.

Another note and a nod of acknowledgement and the Bolian was on his way to the kitchens.

Once he was gone Irynya rounded on Noah, giggles already getting the better of her. "Oh my goodness," she managed through laughter. "That poor man was so confused."

Noah waggled his eyebrows at that, and then finally settled in to the cushiness of the bottom seat. "So, on-on a different subject. When you swung by my..." He smirked into a cheek, "Uh... vault... of Quarters... did you happen to see the couch?" His brows rose in question, head swaying a little with the residual cheek and nerves he was riding today. "The stewards delivered it after we left for work the first day. It was all Sheldon's... mmm..." He was choosing diplomatic language, "Choices." His fingers popped out like fireworks. "Crazy."

Iry bit her bottom lip, eyes flashing mischief again. "I mean... it's hard to miss... you know..." Her face gave away that not only had she not missed it, but she'd been more than simply noticing it. "I mean... I wasn't going to say anything since it didn't exactly seem like your taste. And I don't really feel like I know Khrys. And... well... I don't know... Dravor always struck me as a dark colors and leather type." She scrunched her nose unable to pull back the implication that came along with that. "Umm... you know what I mean."

Noah nodded, "OK just uh, make sure Shelly knows how much you appreciate his uh choices." At the idea of Dravor and leather, Irynya implied, and Noah's eyebrows popped with no further explanation. "Interesting..." He sipped the iced water that had been proffered by the Bolian when they'd approached. It was slightly fizzy. Noah's nostrils flexed at the invasion of the pops of carbonization. Nice and cold he thought. "So, uh, as your Operations officer..." He retrieved the PADD he'd brought. And that coy wide smile began to creep back over him. "... Captain, we-we um..." He blinked and frowned, and turned on the PADD. "Sorry, shipwide peripherals patch update downloaded this morning... it needed a reboot..."

"Logon." The PADD stated and scanned his face before it splashed the LCARS across its transparent surface. "Oooh, layout refresh. I-I like it." He glanced past and through his PADD and smiled at the Risian. He crossed his feet under the table to get comfortable, booted toes brushing Irynya's shin. "We're supposed to address the sensor ghost caused by the navigational deflector shield when its set in the upper EM bands..."

---------

"See!" Ariadne whisper hissed. She was leaned slightly back in her chair darting glances at the table where their chief sat with the guy she'd gone on shoreleave with.

"See what?" Davis responded around a mouthful of sandwich. He glanced toward the table and then back at Ariadne, confused.

"They're toouucchhhiiinggg," Tolbert responded in a quietly triumphant singsong.

Davis glanced across at them again and frowned. "No they're not."

"Under the table!" Ariadne answered with slight exhasperation, drawing the word table out so it sounded like two distnct words... Tay. Bull.

Davis shifted in his chair, pretending to scan the room for something as if that wouldn't make his attempt to see whatever it was that Ariadne saw obvious.

Sure enough, with a bit of twisting, he could make out two sets of booted feet. Not planted. Well, not exactly. It was clear, even with the dim lighting of the table underneath, that Noah's long legs were merely stretched out. His boot, though, was resting against Irynya's shin. As he watched, the Risian's own booted feet shifted, adjusting until one was settled between the larger boots of her dinner partner.

"See!" Ariadne whisper-crowed. "Tell me they're not playing footsie."

Davis frowned... "I mean... Noah does have long legs... maybe they're just... you know... accommodating?"

Tolbert snorted. "Come on Davis... have you never played footsie before?"

---------

"Apparently there was some, um..." Noah reached to scratch his cheek and looked at Irynya's face. His eyes settled on her lips. "New shade of lip gloss?" He asked, cocking his head with question, an eye squinting. "Anyway... hull bearing stress when making higher-end impulse maneuvers in the gravity well of the star. But the-the good news is, the metaphasic shields held so um. Nobody got cooked. They did have to replace the tritanium skin along section eight. The duranium shell checked out. And um. Certified that the ODN and biointerface mesh was unaffected. I had to re-initialize the holo-emitters."

Irynya's fingers had found the corner of her mouth almost absently for the briefest of moments at the comment about lip gloss. She frowned, but tried to focus instead on the details about the sensor ghost they were supposed to check on. As Noah spoke, though, her own eyes slipped to his mouth. There was something about the way he formed his vowels... She shook her head and nodded as if she hadn't just missed a detail or two. "Right," she said as if the nodding required punctuating before she added. "I'm not wearing lip gloss though..."

"Oh," Noah squinted. "I mean I didn't think you you did... maybe that's why I thought it looked out of...." He waved it off. "Nevermind, I-I'm just..." he sighed. "Off." A presence hovered in to place and set down a glass of creamy brown. "Oh, here's Lunch." Noah set his PADD aside as his breakfast burrito was set in front of him along with two ramekins- one of salsa, one of guacamole. "The best guacamole I've ever had was on Risa, did I tell you that?"

The arrival of lunch was a welcome distraction. The omelet was perfectly yellow with a crispy edge of cheese that sealed in the ingredients she'd requested. Her latte followed and she immediately brought it to her mouth for a sip.

"You didn't," she answered. "Do you remember where you went? I bet it was Del Toro's," she offered.

"And your Tauwinac cheese sample," the Bolian returned. Noah's mouth had been opened to reply when their azure presence re-approached. The cheese was yellowish, but not as yellow as Irynya's egg omelet. They shifted, "I'll be back to check on you in a few minutes." And the Bolian began to approach the table of two of Irynya's subordinates, Noah noticed. He made brief eye contact with the guy... Bryad he was pretty sure. But mostly because they were on shift on the Bridge.

"Umm... no, it didn't have a Latino Earth name. I think it was more authentically Risian. There was a mark in the middle of the name." Noah began to open his burrito to slather it in guac and salsa. He eyed his chocolate milk and orange that had accompanied. He'd meant to specify he wanted a Dekopan today, but, he hadn't. A a plain Navel orange was silently present back at him. "It might've been a Latinx-Risian fusion place..."

Iry peered at the cheese sample in confusion and then lifted it to her nose for a sniff. "I meant... in my omelet," she remarked at a look from Noah. "Uh, want a taste?" She broke off a piece and offered it across the table. "And if it sounded Risian then I think maybe Re'lornea? If it was a fusion it would have been Re'lornea..." she tried to remember if there were any restaurants that had guacamole, but weren't expressly featuring Latinx flavors.

"You sure its not in there?" Noah asked. He tilted his head. "Maybe he just brought you a sample to try it. You know um." He circled a guac-smeared fork, "So you can just taste it. I don't know." Noah frowned in to the corner of his mouth, a sort of uncertain twist of his mouth. He shook his head. "I don't think its Re'lornea... but... I mean if the sign was in Risian, I probably wouldn't have figured it out anyway. Anyway. Great guacamole. It had these little purple bits in it. I thought they were like... olives? Which would be a no. But turns out it was some kind of local pepper?"

The purple bits were the giveaway. "Ke'risun!" she exclaimed. "I think I've had that guacamole!" Ke'risun wasn't a spot she had visited with any regularity. It catered more toward offworld visitors by taking bits and pieces of different cultures and fusing them with Risian ingredients. She didn't plan to tell Noah that, though. "Maybe we can go someday," she continued enthusiastically. "If you didn't try their Arcturan/Risian ice cream then that's a must."

Noah's nose wrinkled, "Really? You liked that?" Noah blinked and began to cut his burrito in to neatly equidistant, proportionate sections. "I don't really like Arcturan food. Way, way too much of that peppercorn they grow. The one that either enhances flavors or makes everything taste like... seaweed." he said highlighting at least one potential difference between the Human and Risian palate. "It might've been Ke'risun."

Using her fork to separate a piece of the omelet she scooped it up and held it to the side before popping the fancy cheese into her mouth. It was delicious and she grinned around the bite, chewing and then sighing after she swallowed. She peered at the bite of omelet on her fork. "It's going to be immensely disappointing if that isn't the cheese in this bite," she advised and then popped the fork between her lips.

"Smells nice," Noah commented. He leaned forward out of curiosity.

There was a hesitant moment and then she grinned broadly. "Oh, it is! It must be... some kind of..." she waved not really sure how to explain the extra cheese provided, but not the least bit sad about it. "Anyway... how's yours?"

"Some kind of...?" Noah blinked, and then blinked down at his cut up but uneaten burrito. He forked some of the crispy and well-brown Spam and egg, then gave it a push through the salsa and the green thick guacamole. He ate it, hesitating for a moment, laughing and turning away from it. "It's still weird being watched when I eat..." He pushed it in his mouth. He was chuckled around chewing and trying not to choke. Going for his milk, he sipped it. "It's good, it's fine. I mean, it's Debbie's."

Irynya diverted her eyes, giving him a moment and taking the opportunity to cut another bite from her omelet. When she turned back a line of creamy light brown milk was clinging to the still present short dark hair slowly making itself known across his top lip. She swallowed quickly and chuckled. "You've got..." she began and then shook her head and half stood, leaning across the table. "Here," she said and made a quick swipe with her thumb. "The milk is apparently a fan of your mustache efforts," she added, sitting back and wiping her thumb on her napkin before resuming her fork and sawing off another bite.

Chuckling at that, head shaking, he used his napkin to wipe the rest away when Irynya pulled back. "Thanks. Seems like the only fan..."

----------

"Ok..." Davis said catching the movement at the table that he and Ariadne had now been all but surveilling as they finished up their meal. He looked up just in time to watch his Risian supervisor run her thumb across Noah's upper lip before sitting back down, a small smile on her face. "That was... umm..."

Ariadne, across form him, was practically vibrating in her seat. "Ok... now do you see what I mean?" she asked, grinning like a cat who had gotten into the cream. "There's no way they're not together."

Davis frowned, glancing at them again, but finding nothing particularly interesting to note. The two had resumed their meal and conversation and seemed no closer to a romantic encounter than they were before Irynya had done... well... whatever it was she had done.

"She's from Risa, though," he commented. "Isn't that like... a thing... Risians? They're touchy or something like that?"

Bending to draw a deep pull of water through her straw, Ariadne began to stand. "You're done, right?" she asked, not actually checking her friend's plate to confirm.

"Will there be anything else?" The Bolian smiled down at Ariadne Tolbert and Bryad. He checked a look to both as Ariadne rose and he followed her up with an eye-level gaze. "Ah, well thank you for eating at Debbie's Diner."

Ariadne was already weaving her way in an unnecessarily circuitous route through the tables. Davis watched, grimaced, and stood as well. "Umm... thanks..." he said offering the Bolian server his most winning smile before hurrying after his friend.

---------

"I just keep trying to unravel why the Tholians chose us for... whatever they wanted to tell us. I don't think Lieutenant Good's gotten any closer to answers." Noah casually glanced outside the aft portals, a bank of shiny faux leather booths that broke up the view. "Whatever it was... I snuck a look at the sensor logs of the wormhole. The readings seemed pretty normal so... it-it should be a great show."

"Maybe it really was just.. you know... some kind of accidental interaction. Maybe they were trying to tell us to... you know... get off their lawn," Iry offered around a nearly finished bite of omelet. She gestured with her fork for punctuation and then speared the last bit of egg from her plate. "But... yeah... watching it before we entered it isn't quite the same as, you know, when you can actually take the time to appreciate it. Do you think it looks different on this side?"

"In my head, tha-that's as logical as anything I can come up with... just keep dwelling on the weirdness of it."

Irynya's eyes narrowed slightly and she peered down the line of tables beyond Noah. "Umm... It looks like Tolbert and Bryad are coming over," she said with a small frown. As she spoke, Ariadne seemed to be making her way intently toward them, without quite trying to appear as if she was. Bryad was a few steps behind. "Do... do you think it's about our shift?" she managed to get out before Ariadne pulled up right at the edge of their table.

Noah stiffened, his eye briefly widening in mid-chew. He used his napkin to cover his mouth, chew, swallow. His gaze locked on them. Then shifted to the Lieutenant. "Umm... I don't..." He trailed off.

Craning her neck to meet the tall woman's gaze Irynya tried her best to arrange her features into something commanding. She'd been leading the flight controllers for weeks now... nearly two months. It wasn't as if her new ability to take the big chair changed anything in terms of their chain of command. "Hey," she said, offering a smile that she shifted from Ariadne to Bryad who had stopped just next to her.

Noah stood straight, almost at attention, eyes studiously wide at the two newcomers. "Morning." His eyes checked over at the chrono on the wall. It just ticked over to noon. 1200 hours. He winced and wavered a so-so hand, "Ish."

The look on Ariadne's face was almost... knowing. Iry's eyebrows crept up slightly as she looked again between the two. There was an awkward moment when it seemed like neither was going to respond and then Tolbert seemed to realize the gaffe and dove in.

"Just wanted to wish you luck today," she said with a winning warm smile. Iry couldn't help noticing that Tolbert seemed to bounce between herself and Noah as if there was something she was trying to figure out.

"Yeah," said Bryad. "I mean not that I won't see you in an hour, but... you know... good luck. You've got this."

Next to Tolbert, Bryad was clearly uncertain, a look that Iry thought she'd possibly never seen on the man. "Thanks," she answered, covering her bewilderment at the pair's odd and sudden arrival. "Umm... it's just a milk run," she added after a beat. "But... yeah... I'd rather not be the one to take us out of the dock missing some key part."

Tolbert grinned, nodding. "Does that count if it's Davis at the helm?" she asked with a chuckle.

Bryad had the presence of mind to look affronted. "I'm not leaving without key parts," he said as if Tolbert had been talking about him and not about Irynya's first real stint in the command chair.

Hazel eyes sought the Betazoid-like dark of Noah's, hoping to convey some bit of her bewilderment with a glance.

Noah had toppled his hands atop each other and was blinking with concentration. "It-it'll be OK. The staging ground around DQPP-4561A-3 is.. pretty clear. Not much to hit if things go wrong. And they have stationed sensor buoys in the test zone so we can..." Noah caught a stray glance from Tolbert at him. Again. His eyes flicked to Irynya and then back, Irynya and then to neutral. He squinted an eye. "Uhh ssssorry, my brain got ahead of my mouth again. Um. Sensory buoys. So we can get telemetry from uh not just our sensors."

When he looked over, Tolbert was eyeing him again. He brushed at his stubbly chin and upper lip, wondering he'd missed his mouth with his burrito or something.

"Right," Iry agreed. "I'm sure it will be fine." She eyed Tolbert who seemed to be leading this stop over. With a pointed grin and raised eyebrows she waited waited to see if there was something else.

Seeming to come to some kind of a decision Tolbert smiled back and looked between the two of them again for the what now felt like the 90th time. "You two make a cute couple," she said warmly, pausing for only a moment to clock their immediate reactions.

Irynya opened her mouth to answer. Closed it. Opened it again, held, and then closed again. Her head tilted slightly as if that might somehow shake loose words. Whatever she'd thought Tolbert had wanted to say that had not been it. Despite herself, heat began to flood the back of her neck, moving toward the apples of her cheeks with a flush.

Tolbert thought... wait... did she think or was she just suggestion they would be?

Iry's eyes darted quickly to Noah, worried about what he might think before she opened her mouth a final time to say, "Umm... we're not... I mean... but... thanks?"

Noah's expression had moved from concern that he had food on his face, or his stubble was offputting or unprofessional, to a slow and very penetrating blink with his dark eyes. "Couple?" He felt a tension in his lower spine and a weird flutter, the kind of chill when Mom shouted your name and you were halfway out the window of your bedroom. "Thanks? We're..." He glanced at Irynya, gesturing his long hand between them. "Uh, nice that we look... that comfortable with each other?" He looked at Irynya again. Inwardly he was screaming at the surreality. "I guess, right?"

Across from him Irynya had pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and was worrying it. She offered him a small encouraging smile, but suddenly found it difficult to hold his eyes for more than a moment. Maybe... maybe they would make a cute couple... She forced the thought back even as something her stomach knotted and unknotted in turns.

"Right," she echoed. "I mean... we are really comfortable with each other." She glanced at Tolbert, watching the woman and made a decision. Deliberately she extended her arm to the middle of the table, offering Noah her hand palm up. "I mean... Noah is my best friend," she told Tolbert, sparing a glance for Bryad who looked like he might like to melt through the floor.

She stared, defiant, at Tolbert daring her with a glance to question the characterization or the physicality of her offered hand.

Things were moving fast in Noah's head. His neck felt hot- not out of embarrassment, just that... how dare a couple of strangers insinuate that a Chief would... cavort... with someone like him? Noah was worth cavorting with... he hoped... but Irynya was a Chief. The Chief, and her officers were kind of... insinuating... that she hadn't gone through the channels. He double checked a glance at the hand she offered. What was he supposed to do with it? Shake it? Take it? Low-five it?

It was kind of an unspoken rule among the Lower Deckers that... one was discreet about relationships that might lead to too many questions and too much oversight? Tension in his gut. Noah rose to his full height, his brows popping. "She's my friend. My best fr-friend that's a girl. On the ship. we spend a lot of t-" He stopped his mouth. Jeez. He sounded like a ten year old trying not to get teased about something. Again his brows popped and he blinked. "Thanks. We're friends. Not a couple. Lieutenant Irynya is-is the perfect professional." He took her hand, gave it a friendly squeeze, but didn't linger so Tolbert and the shrinking Bryad could insinuate anything further.

Tolbert, already pale skinned to begin with, seemed to pale a shade further as the implication around what she had said finally registered. "Oh!" She exclaimed, eyes wide. "I didn't mean..." She started to say and then changed tactics. "I'm sorry. I've clearly put my foot in it." Though her words were in response to Noah, it was Irynya she looked to. "I did not mean to suggest that anything untoward... I mean... just... just..." She was flailing.

Bryad's voice cut in. "Ariadne was telling me how much she admires your friendship," he offered, throwing the crewman a verbal life preserver. "She was even just telling me you would be a cute couple because of how easy you seem together."

"Right," Tolbert agreed readily. "I said that all wrong." She glanced between the two again as if something more to say might present itself. "I... I think we've probably intruded far longer than we should have."

Something unspoken passed between the two interlopers and Ariadne began to turn. "Sorry for the social ineptitude, Lieutenant... Ensign..."

Iry nodded her head in silent dismissal, not quite trusting herself to respond.

"See you guys in an hour " Bryad added, giving them an apologetic look before following after Ariadne.

Iry watched them go, waiting until they were out the door before turning her gaze back to Noah.

"That..." she said, drawing the word out, "was weird. Right?"

What was the most... awkwardness breaking, trying to make light of weirdness that Noah could conjure? He felt weird. He felt.. adrenaline. And anxiety. And strange rawness, like something that hadn't quite healed had been laid bare. He'd not spoken much about Tor. And he was kind of a private guy when it came to feelings anyway. Intellectual family. Scholars, scientists, engineers.

He looked down with a small grimace. His hands had rolled into loose fists, almost ape-like, and rested knuckles on the table. Protection instinct? Vestigial dominance play? "Um." He looked up, puffed his cheeks in a Denobulanish way, wide-eyed, and shrugged a drawn out shrug. "That... I mean... I guess small ships... small communities... uhh... pshhh..." He blinked eyes closed. "OK then. I guess. I mean, are you okay?" He winced an eye and gestured at her with an almost-graceful flail of a hand. "Uh. Yeah. Are you okay? That was weird being called out like that by your officers."

The question, as normal as it was, took Iry a moment to process. She had been uncomfortable. The blush that had spread hot and prickly across her neck and cheeks, and even down to her chest, had begun to subside, though the memory of the sensation still lingered strongly. Why had she been blushing? For that matter when had something as simple as an implied relationship resulted in such a response? She was Risian. People assuming she was in one or several relationships kind of came with the territory in a way that was hard to explain to offworlders.

That aside... she was ok. If anything she was more worried about Noah than herself. "Yeah," she said after a moment's consideration. "I mean... people have strange notions about Risians sometimes. Not that they mean anything by it, but... the social contracts kind of break down when people misunderstand parts of your culture that have to do with intimacy and connection."

She scanned Noah's face, noted his posture, and the loosely fisted hands. "And... even though that was really... really... not appropriate, I mean... I don't think she's wrong necessarily." A hint of a blush threatened as she said it. "Not that I'm suggesting... just... we are comfortable and I think that's a good thing. A really good thing."

"Yeah." Noah agreed.

She sighed, and pressed back into her seat. "I mean... I can deal with them later. Joys of being a chief." The last was said with no small amount of sarcasm. "But more importantly are you ok?" She leaned forward. Her eyes searched his face again, looking for clues.

"Oh uh I'm fine. Just unexpected." Noah said with a shrug. "Weird. People are weird. On small ships, in everybody's business." He shook his head with a sighed chuckle. "Uhhh we should get going. We are due on the Bridge soon."

Holding up one finger, Irynya reached for her latte and tilted the mug toward her to inspect its contents. "I have 5 more minutes worth of caffeine here if there are any other pre-Bridge items on your PADD." She made a show of craning her neck at the device that had been set to the side. "Or 30 seconds of gulping if we really do need to go this very minute," she added with a mischievous smile. Hefting her mug she shifted it toward her lips and paused. "Your Captain would like to know which it is."

Noah sat back down, smirking. "I've-I've flown to close to the sun with my joke, is that it?" Brows popped, he sighed and eyed his own half-finished breakfast. He slid an orange wedge into his mouth and, eyeing the PADD, finished the last few bullet points of data they were to gather on this brief sojourn.

A Post By:

CAPTAIN Irynya
Acting Commanding Officer This One Time

Ensign Noah Balsam
Systems Specialist