Oops--Sorry About That

Posted on 20 Aug 2016 @ 10:00pm by Lieutenant Commander Alexei Joran & Chief Petty Officer Bianca Donati
Edited on on 20 Aug 2016 @ 10:02pm

1,732 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Errand of Mercy
Location: Lounge
Timeline: Current - Day 3

ON:

It had been a long day in engineering, so as soon as his shift ended, Alexei had headed straight to the lounge in search of a drink. Evidently he was not the only one with that idea because the lounge's bar was extremely busy and so he had ended up waiting for what seemed like forever to get his order. Being in a bit of a hurry to find a table in amongst the crowd, he quickly turned from the bar and collided with the person standing right behind him, causing her to spill the drink she evidently had just gotten as well.

"Oh my God, I am SO sorry..." Alexei began, then stopped short when he found himself looking directly into the most beautiful brown eyes he had ever seen.

A brief squeal was the reaction from Bianca, who'd been allowing her thoughts to wander when her lemon-ice had been dumped all over her. Bits of lemon and icecream dripped from her uniform to the floor causing her to shiver at the abrupt drop in temperature.

Great...' Alexei thought to himself as he saw her standing there with ice cream dripping off her. 'With my luck she's the captain's wife or some such...' Then, grabbing a handful of napkins from the bar and turned back to her. His first instinct was to begin dabbing at the liquid in an effort to clean up, but realized that might create an even more awkward situation, so he simply extended the napkins to her while asking "Are you okay?"

"I..am fine. I cannot say the same for my uniform" she grumbled as she took the proferred napkins from him, looked down at the mess that was her uniform. Heaving a huge sigh she simply unbuttoned the top button and slipped from the Jacket, leaving her in the tee shirt most marines wore under their uniforms.

"May I at least get you another drink?" he asked, still embarrassed that he had caused such a problem.

"I should say no, considering...but I won't. I was drinking a Raspberry Lemon Ice."

Alexei quickly turned to the person behind the counter. "One raspberry lemon ice and a Tarkalean tea, please..." he requested. When the drinks were placed in front of him, he picked hers up and carefully handed it to her. "Again I am SO sorry. I didn't realize you were behind me and I guess I should have been paying better attention."

"I was not paying adequate attention to my surroundings either." she murmerred, the slightest touch of a smile drawing her lips upwards. She took the icy drink from him, watching the raspberries trace magenta streaks in the white/yellow liquid. It was lovely.

Alexei looked around the lounge in an attempt to spot an empty table. Finally he saw one near one of the viewports. "It's crowded in here but I see a table over by one of the 'ports if you wouldn't mind sharing?" he asked.

"If you don't mind the lack of small talk" she muttered as she waved her hand at the empty chair before her.

"Well now how are we supposed to get to know one another if we don't talk?" Alexei asked, a grin slowly spreading across his face as he took the offered chair.

Taking a long sip of her drink, Bianca pondered how to answer him. She knew that her default responce of 'what makes you think I want to get to know you' was not polite, and she was supposed to be diplomatic here. "I am no better at small talk than a Vulcan is."

"I've always heard that you're never too old to learn something new," Alexei said. "And I've actually known of some Vulcans that were fairly talkative."

"I never said I was too old, I said I am not good at it."

"I'm sorry--I didn't mean to imply that you were old," he said. "In fact I would venture to guess that you're younger than I am. And if you're not good at small talk perhaps it's because you haven't had enough practice. Why don't we start with something simple, like introductions..." he said as he extended his hand across the table to her. "I'm Lieutenant Commander Alexei Joran, Chief Engineer..."

She gazed at his hand for a moment puzzled before she remembered the human custom. Brushing her palm across his to shake his hand she replied in kind " Cheif Petty Officer and Lieutenant Bianca Donati. Diplomatic Liason."

"Now, see--that wasn't so difficult, was it?" he asked with a smile. He took a sip of his tea before speaking to her again. "I'm guessing you're a Starfleet Marine as well?" he asked.

I hold ranks in both Starfleet and The Marines, in order to facilitate communication between the two."

"So does that mean you're a liaison between Starfleet and the Corps?"

"It does" she said with a satisfied look on her face as her eyes drifted from the drink in her hand to the window.

"See--just because I'm an engineer doesn't mean I'm dumb," he said with a light chuckle. "I only act that way sometimes."

"You want to mislead people?"

"Not intentionally," he answered. "It was just an attempt at humor. You see, years ago on Earth, engineers on the old-time steam ships were referred to as 'deck apes' because they were considered by the general public to be no smarter than monkeys." He took another drink of his tea, regarding her surreptitously over the rim of his glass. "Like I said, it was just a weak attempt at humor."

"Inferring that human evolution was a joke I gather?" she asked, her dark eyebrows crinkling in her confusion.

"Not at all," he said. "It just implied that some people back then may have believed that engineers didn't evolve past that stage."

That thought did strike her as funny, and it showed in her smile as her dark eyes turned back to her glass.

"Well, at least I managed to get a smile from you," Alexei said. "There may be hope for small talk yet." He couldn't help but notice how her eyes sparkled when she had smiled. He also couldn't help but notice that she was an incredibly beautiful woman. "So where exactly are you from, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Betazed" she answered shortly, as she lifted the yellow and magenta glass to her lips.

"What a coincidence, so am I..." he said. "I'm from a village near lake El'Nar. Where on Betazed are you from?"

Shrugging her shoulders she sighed softly "I grew up at the Monestary."

"I see..." Alexei said. "I knew you couldn't have been anywhere near where I grew up because if you had been and I had seen you, I certainly would have noticed you."

"None ever noticed the Janaran Sanctuary or those that resided within. " she commented.

"Their loss, then..." he said with a smile at her. He sipped his drink and studied her unobtrusively over the rim of his glass. Yeah, he surely would have noticed her. 'And why not...?'he thought to himself. He had seen a lot of beautiful women--dated a few of them, even--but this one definitely took the blue ribbon. Dark, silky hair, Gorgeous brown eyes, a beautiful face, and a figure that appeared to be absolutely stunning. "So if you grew up in the monastary, how did you come to join Starfleet?"

"The guardians encourage...self reliance. And I didn't join starfleet, I joined the fleet marines."

"Isn't that pretty much the same?" he asked. "After all, they're a branch of Starfleet, aren't they?"

Bianca snorted and shook her head "No."

"Hmm...okay..." he said. "So what exactly is it that you do being both a Marine and a diplomatic officer?"

"Well, my diplomacy is between the fleet and the marines....keeping everything calm and without conflict."

"Conflict? Where the Marines are concerned? Perish the thought..." he said with a grin to show her he was only teasing her. "How do you manage that? I sometimes find it difficult to prevent conflicts between my own engineering officers and crew."

"I don't know how to explain it. I just make sure noones feet get stepped on"

"Sounds like a difficult job," he said as he finished the last of his drink. "But I could see how you could have a calming effect on a tense situation." He saw that her glass was almost empty as well. "Would you like another...?" he asked.

"No thank you. I'm going to seek out my cabin and unpack. Haven't done that yet." She forced a smile knowing it was polite and expected of her

"Again I AM sorry about your jacket," Alexei said. "Could I possibly make it up to you with dinner tonight?" he asked as he stood and waited for her to stand as well.

Bianca chuckled softly. "The jacket can be cleaned, as for dinner, that seems like an awful lot of making up for a single article of clothing. I believe the phrase is don't worry about it."

"Okay..." he said after a moment. "I admit it--that was a cheap chat-up line." He looked at her for a long moment, then added "I think you're the most beautiful woman I've ever seen and I just wanted an excuse to spend more time with you and get to know you better."

"That was....refreshingly frank. Thank you for your honesty. "

"You're quite welcome. And you'll find that I can be brutally honest--sometimes too much for my own good," he said slowly. "And in this case I happened to think that an old Earth saying I learned long ago was appropriate--'a faint heart never won a fair maiden. "

Bianca laughed outright at that statement. "I will have to remember that one!"

"Something else you will discover about me is that I can be very persistent..." he added.

Bianca cast a genuine smile over her shoulder at him, and proceeded to walk out of the mess hall. That was the most positive encounter with a male- especially a Betazoid male that she'd ever had.

As he watched her leave, Alexei knew one thing for certain. No matter what it took, he definitely wanted to get to know her better.

OFF:

LtCommander Alexei Joran
Chief Engineering Officer
USS Redemption

Chief Petty Officer Bianca Donati
Marine/Diplomatic Officer
USS Redemption

 

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