Coffee, Bagels, Weapons

Posted on Mon Apr 11th, 2022 @ 2:29am by Delaney O'Callaghan & Chief Helmsman Kalahaeia t'Leiya

Mission: Mission 15: Adrift
Location: Messhall
Timeline: Post-Mission, next morning.
1442 words - 2.9 OF Standard Post Measure

Tracking down one of the armory staff to check the status of the weapons Liha had taken off her on the wreck - and making sure they actually were in the armory like the captain had said; not stuffed under the other woman's pillow - had been fairly high on Kali's priority list but had fallen off a bit in favor of pouring over flight manuals and such. If she wasn't mistaken, though; that was one of them now, and Kali took her already-half-empty mug of coffee and remaining 1/3 of a bagel (she'd learned to eat fast, back during the war; and had never quite shaken the habit) and made her way over to Delany's breakfast table.

"Hello - mind if I join you?" Kali smiled at Delaney.

A mouthful of orange-juice-sodden cereal nearly went down the wrong way, a mixture of surprise and then eagerness challenging the redhead's priorities. Minor spluttering ensured and Delaney's hand settled on her chest as she chewed quickly and doused her coughing with water, evidence of chuckling emerging between her body's attempt to dislodge rolled oats from her trachea. Delaney wasn't the type, typically, to be easily spooked. Visions of a roomful of decaying corpses had definitely left her a little more on edge than normal, but even then, she wasn't really suffering. Shaken, but resilient. This had just been a freak moment of being caught in the middle of a daydream and the ridiculousness of it was already amusing her thoroughly.

"Hi," she managed through the strain of convulsions, "Sit. It's fine."

"You're one of the armory officers, right?" Kali slid into the seat, then tore off and swallowed a bite of her bagel, washed down with a swig of coffee.

With one hand occupied with her glass of water, Delaney answered with a thumbs-up, which she then converted to the wibble-wobble of a flat hand to denote partial accuracy. "Depends on what's required. Technically, I should probably report to Ops, but this isn't Starfleet and we settle for running things as close to efficient as we can." Now not at risk of choking, Laney set down her glass and offered the woman an easy grin. "I run manifest, maintenance schedule, service tags, asset registry. Basically, I don't get to play with the weapons, nor do I get to fix the weapons, but I am theoretically in charge of knowing where they all are."

"So, you have access, at least?" Kali asked hopefully. "I'm Kali, the new helmsman." As usual introducing herself to humans, she didn't bother with the full name; the better to not have to hear anyone repeatedly butcher the pronunciation. "I was one of the survivors from the Holoworld wreck; someone took a couple weapons off me when the Rosie's team found us, and I was hoping to be able to confirm that they actually ended up in the armory like they were supposed to and get tagged for me so I can check them out at port and such."

"Oh hey, the new pilot!" Of all the things to attach to, this seemed to invigorate Delaney the most. "Honest to god, when Eden left like she did, I was half-convinced Lei' would talk the Captain into letting me fly this monstrosity full-time." The expression, exaggerated as it was, on the redhead's face suggested that this was not on her list of aspirations. "I'd hug you but...." Laney screwed her nose up, managing to buy herself a split second to think through her words before saying them anyway, "...you'd probably punch me, right?" With a grin, Delaney reached for a sliver of apple from her fruit plate and munched as she finally considered Kali's concerns. "We took on board quite a few assets, you want to tell me specifics?"

"Actually, I grew up on Earth, so I do hug. Though I mean, I usually like to know someone first. I don't shake hands, though. No kissing on first dates." Kali grinned at her own joke; used to diffusing a lifetime of straddling the line between living on a planet where people often greeted by grasping hands, while being a member of a species equipped to basically have a hot make-out session with their fingers. "As for what I'm looking for; eight Orion throwing knives, a matched set, and a hand phaser, a fully functional one I bought on Freecloud, not one of the 'stun only' models they sell on Earth."

"The knives are yours?" Some might have been intimidated, some might have been at least a little dubious, but Delaney appeared to be mostly enthralled. "I've never seen any in person, I may have petted them. But yeah, we got them. Phaser too. They've been sitting in limbo because I was told, under 'no circumstance' to consider them part of general allocation." There was a slight eye-roll, as the instruction had been unnecessary. Delaney didn't know who she'd distribute the knives in particular to but she was pretty sure most of the crew would have more luck if she issued them a set of chopsticks. There'd be less self-injury for a start.

"Gift from a friend of mine, yeah; an Orion officer from my Starfleet days." Kali flipped the edge up on one boot, showing the little hidden slots custom sewn into the interiors for the slender little knives, four on each. "We kinda bonded over....well, over being members of species that a lot of the people around us liked to judge. Or misjudge. As for the phaser, I got that the old fashioned way, by forking over gold-pressed latinum to a vendor, so no sentimental value to that, just it's my only energy weapon and I'll need it when we get into some ports because...Uhh, well to be honest because I've spent most of the last decade ticking off a lot of the local hustlers and thugs in this area of space, and I expect at least some of them to recognize me." She waved a hand absently at herself; at five-foot-two she was the definite left side of the bell curve as far as height for her species went, short even if she'd been a human; and it unfortunately made her easier for some people to remember.

It was one thing to have a fertile imagination and to utilise the endless, boundless inspiration of thousands of years of storytelling that came before, and another thing entirely to meet an in-the-flesh character who, whilst perhaps not literally larger than life, certainly had all the hallmarks of qualifying metaphorically. Delaney took no pains to hide how impressed she was, nor was it likely to be too long before her protagonists started sporting shoes with secret compartments. "I mean, I wouldn't mess with you," she replied honestly, and then grinned at the older woman. "My mother's not particularly tall, I've learned not to underestimate." Popping another piece of apple into her mouth, Delaney then added, "I'll update the tags on your gear first thing. If you want to drop by later today, just ask for Delaney and I'll get you to sign the condition report."

"Thanks." Kali swallowed the rest of her bagel in one bite; and while the remark theoretically covered the discussion on her weapons, one got the feeling that she intended it to cover the rest of the conversation as well, and found it a definite compliment when people expressed reservations about crossing her. She followed the bagel with a gulp of coffee that nearly drained what remained in the cup, and stood again with a nod and a smile to Delaney. "I'd stick around, but I'm trying to get in as many flight hours as I can right now to since this isn't a class I've really flown before outside of simulations. I'll come by later."

"Sure thing. And hey, you ever need someone to do a shift at helm, I'm technically already broken-in. Eden knew her stuff, I probably won't fly us into anything too terrible."

It was, Delaney mused as Kali moved off, mostly true. Probably true. At least, it wouldn't be intentional. The Operations officer gulped the last of her coffee and picked up the final pieces of apple before dumping the remains of her breakfast in the reclamator. If she was lucky, she'd be first on duty and primed to slap at fingers that liked to fiddle with new toys. She wasn't in a huge hurry to find out what slipped from Kali's shoe if you wound up being the reason half her knives went missing.