Boys' Night

Posted on Thu Jun 9th, 2022 @ 6:26am by Leiddem Kea (*) & Executive Officer Jake Ford & Aarix Teral & Chief Engineer Michael Burnstein & Curtis Vaan & Leyar Zera & Oliver Lucas

Mission: Mission 15: Adrift
Location: Formal Center
Timeline: MD-03 - 2200
2427 words - 4.9 OF Standard Post Measure

It was unclear how the 'boys night' had come to be, but such as it was that a few of the male members of the crew had been somehow ushered into the formal center space at once - probably the machinations of the ladies, who apparently wanted their own space.

Looking around, Jake noted mostly familiar crew, with one or two newer members joining them.

"I got beers!" Oliver hollared. "Well, someone did..." He hauled a crate up to the group, cracking open the seal and revelling in the discovery; practically treasure in the situation they were in.

"Normally I'd suggest rationing supplies, but in this case I think we're allowed to indulge," Jake responded with a nod, motioning for those present to help themselves.

Leiddem did not need to be told twice. He leant over grabbing a beer. It was perfect as he took the first sip. “Whoever brought these along you are my hero and I love you.” The man declared offering a salute with his beer.

"You, my friend, are welcome." Curtis lifted his own drink happily.

Zera, not one to turn down alcohol, grabbed a beer from the crate. It wasn't his go-to, but after the spider incident earlier that day, it was bettee than nothing. Seeing the new doctor nearby, he grabbed a second beer and used the first one to pop the lid off the second before handing it to him.

Aarix glanced at the beer that was suddenly thrust into his hands. "Oh, uh... thanks?" He wasn't sure if he wanted it, but the Bajoran was already moving away.

"Beer!" Burnie exclaimed, snagging one from the cooler as he came in. "Can't tell you how much I need one of these."

“It is a feeling shared by me.” Leiddem assured quickly.

"So...what do we usually talk about in one of these get-togethers?" Curtis asked enthusiastically, trying to look and sound like he belonged but standing out with his bright and energetic approach. "Sports? The best way to cook meat?"

“Not a clue. I normally go to girls night.” Leiddem lied outrageously. He grew up with girls but he had been a marine for five years before he had ended up as Gregnol’s keeper before they all went rogue from Starfleet Intelligence.

"Nah, that's me," Burnie quipped. "Except it's engineers' night. I just happen to be the only guy in the department." He took a sip of his beer. "So for topics, how about plasma flow metrics or weapons design?"

“I have four older sisters and one them is one of your engineers and practically work wife so you get it.” Leiddem teamed as he stretched out and just savoured the moment. “Weapons design?” Leiddem knew that subject.

"Weapons...pfft." Curtis blew a bit of a raspberry at the thought. "Come on, this is guy time. Not boring pew-pew shooting stuff. Let's really talk about the things that matter to us." He folded his legs up underneath himself. "Like who we think the best looking girl on board is," he added with a devilish grin.

Burnie's brows shot up. "Weapons are not boring. How can blowing stuff up not matter - it's why we got off that holoworld wreck," he objected, appalled at the lack of appreciation. "And target shooting is a real sport." Point made, he leaned back with a smirk. "Besides, the best looking woman on board is easy: it's Nollel."

"Amen," Leiddem said solemnly before grinning at how similar he and Burnie were in that regard. Maybe they could hang out once this was all over with, he was pretty sure they could teach each other stuff. "Hmm... she is pretty sure when you are not having to arrest her." Leiddem grinned. "Lots of good looking people onboard." Leiddem declared with a shrug. He did not want to give away anything about his bludgeoning relationship with Delaney away.

"Hey, a little danger just adds to the allure," Burnie replied with a wink and grin.

"All right, all right!" Curtis nodded with a sly grin. "Oliver? Keep it going!" The young ex-Borg shrugged silently, an apparent refusal to engage. "All right. Jake?"

"Oh you can't ask me. I get acting-Captain's privileges or something," Jake replied.

"Come on, just us guys here," Curtis complained. "Hey, we've seen the way you and Liha argue all the time. Maybe you should just sleep together and get it over with already," he chuckled.

Leiddem snorted into his beer and looked to Jake. “Reuben never once used that privilege. So you cannot acting Captain.” He challenged deciding to gang up on the man.

Burnie shook his head. "Nope, I'm backing Jake on this one, because if there's any chance he wants to bang Liha I do NOT want to know." Grimacing, he looked at Curtis. "And I will not be held responsible for whatever she does to you if you ever voice that idea anywhere she might actually hear you."

"Way too scary for me," Curtis replied, shaking his head. "I wouldn't rate my chances of survival."

"You haven't told us yours," Jake noted, turning things on their head.

"Me? I'm a free spirit. Unencumbered by these things. You come from a pleasure planet and beauty becomes such a subjective thing..." Curtis grinned. "So many options it's hard to pick just one. Did you guys just hire really good looking women deliberately?"

Jake rolled his eyes. "Someone change the subject. Quickly."

"Both of you are whimps." Leiddem commented with a roll of his eyes. "I will make sure Gregnol knows you approve of his crew choices." He commented dryly. "Apart from the moment onboard let's hear your wildest moment onboard so far then? Let's reflect on the chaos."

"Easy," Burnie laughed. "Waking up in Cassie's body." He shook his head and took a swig of beer. "Everything felt 'off', but I thought I was just really hungover ...until I looked down and saw breasts... and then saw my own body over on the couch. Truly, truly bizarre and freaky."

Leiddem had expected something else and raised his beer to him. “I cannot imagine the freaky feeling of that but could have been a lot worse who you swapped with.” He teased.

"Hell yeah, that's me too," Jake agreed. "Not an experience I'd care to live through again." He shivered at the memory of waking up as Liha. And all of the things he'd had to do as her. For a moment his mind wondered what it would have been like to wake up in Cassie's body instead, as Burnie said. Would his mind have been as scrambled? Would his feelings for her have been the same? That was a big 'what if' sort of question.

“Ah Meghan.” Leiddem said fondly thinking that looking in from the outside not swapped over he could chuckle but it would have been terrifying waking up like that. “I always have that kinda reaction to the bad girls.” He chuckled thinking of the almost mythical species and the chaos the woman had caused.

"Aw yeah, the bad girls are the best," Curtis grinned. "So long as they're not so bad they'll murder you in their sleep..."

"Sleep murder... is that like sleep walking but violent?" Burnie joked.

“Mmmhmm…” Leiddem said thinking on Nollel for a moment before shaking that thought away with a gulp of his beer. She was definitely the epitome of the bad girl with attempting to blow up the ship but she seemed to have turned it around despite how he felt about her. “Got a few of them onboard and thankfully none of them have tried to kill any of us in our sleep… yet.”

"Maybe let's try to keep it that way," Jake nodded.

“My weirdest was that other universe.” Leiddem said shaking his head. “Meeting a version of yourself that did not really give a crap was weird.”

"Wait, you met yourself?" Curtis exclaimed "That must have been pretty freakish. You guys seem to encounter a lot of random, potentially deadly hazards," he concluded, wondering whether someone ought to have warned him of that before he'd come on board.

“You act like it happens every week.” Leiddem commented taking a deep swig . “It does not but yeah we got caught up in a doppelgänger incident as humans say. The previous owner of this ship the collector caused a lot of trouble for us as the beginning for some of the stuff he left onboard.” He said with a shrug. It had been very quiet about him recently.

"I missed the other universe one, which probably for the best," Burnie said and flashed a joking grin. "My evil doppelganger would probably scared of exposives or love spiders or something."

“Yep you arrived just after we made it made it back and lost three years. My mum didn’t even consider me and Jea dead or anything when we stayed out of touch just thought we had gotten into trouble and would eventually be back.” Leiddem laughed. “Come on I wanna here others if not on this ship else where.” He had suddenly realised how new everyone was compared to him.

"Oliver?" Curtis suggested, poking at the quiet medic.

"Uhm..." Oliver just shrugged. "Getting assimilated by the Borg as a teenager was probably the weirdest experience..." The room fell a little silent at that, with a few of them not really knowing where to look.

"Yeesh. Buzzkill." Curtis mumbled. "Hows about you guys?" he looked at Aarix and Leyar.

Leiddem leant out and slapped a hand down on Oliver’s shoulder in comfort and offered a smile. He was proud of the man even mentioning it it should not be something to hide as everyone started to talk again.

Aarix had been half-listening to the conversation, his mind on the few lingering people in the makeshift medbay, so he blinked and did a little shake of his head as if to clear his thoughts. "Uh... on board? I don't think I've had any wild moments, aside from recent events. I've only been around for a couple of weeks. I think the wildest story I have to tell is about a wicked dust storm on Mars three years ago. It basically isolated the colony for a month."

Burnie nodded, remembering a dust storm during his year at Utopia Planetia Fleetyards when he was a cadet. But the thought brought an echo of grief remembering everyone he'd known there - nearly all of them dead in the synth attack only a few years later. He hadn't known Aarix was from Mars, though possibly he'd just been working on one of colonies with enough underground levels to have survived the atmosphere burning off. Burnie had heard that some of them had been able to get their 21st century environmental systems working and once the fires were limited to the low stratosphere domes had gone back up to start the work of recovery and re-terraforming.

“Not my fault Stan had a girlfriend.” Leiddem said brightly. It was hard to not think on the event earlier in the day as Leiddem wished more than anything that he had a shower.

Zera visibly shuddered at Leiddem's words, the sensation of the damn thing breathing down his neck still leaving a ghost of a tingle that sent shivers down his spine. "How about we don't recall that," he suggested, taking a long drink of his beer.

"Imagine it in roller skates." It was how the Betazoid was coping with the spider they had encountered. It would haunt his dreams for a very long time to come but he could act tougher for everyone, especially Zera. "But yes how has everyone's day been?" Leiddem wondered.

"Long," Burnie said flatly, though with a touch of relief at getting off the subject of the horde of Shelobs (shudder).

"Too long," Jake agreed. "Probably should call it if some of us have to be crawling around the innards of the ship tomorrow. In EV suits no less." He tossed Curtis his empty bottle then stood up and stretched. "Be sure to clean up after yourselves."

“Night boss. Get some rest” Leiddem called after him watching the man leave before turning back to everyone. “What is his deal with that passenger?” He asked hoping someone else knew what was going on.

"I dunno. They're not doing the do, so I'm told," Curtis shrugged. "Is that all the beer gone?"

"So you are told? Who told you?" Leiddem questioned glancing at Curtis again intrigued that he knew anything at all. "And yes all the beer is gone you will just have to find some tomorrow when you go off exploring." He said reminding them of why they were only drinking minimally.

"I hear stuff," Curtis shrugged nonchalantly, feeling cool for being in the know. "Maybe you guys should build a still or something while we're gone? You engineering types always have one of those - the old 'clean out the warp plasma conduit' moonshine. Right?"

"I've made a still or two, back my cadet days," Burnie chuckled, and took a last of his beer. "It's not hard, but not really worth it either, since it's a lot easier to hack a replicator if you want booze. Besides, you need grain and yeast - a lot of grain, in fact, - and water to feed into a still, which we don't have on hand. And even if we did.. well, that's days to let it ferment properly. But, hey, if you want to try after we get back up and running, I'll be glad to give you some pointers."

“Should talk to Jeassaho of you are wanting to build it or create moonshine. She was on board when then had a project and she was researching last week to recreate.” Leiddem spoke up not saying anyone on Jake he would catch up with him later. It was starting to get later than what he had promised but he still had a bit longer to establish himself before he disappeared off. “I am sure she would love to help.” He offered up his sister knowing she was getting bored at the moment with engineering and looking for more options.

What was the worst that could happen?

"Well, I'll leave you to discuss it," Burnie said, getting up. "I've got a deflector to go check tomorrow, so I'm going to go get some shut eye."

"Good choice. I should be going too." Leiddem said eager to have an excuse to leave finally.