The Blue Room
Posted on Sun Sep 10th, 2023 @ 7:33am by Cadet Senior Grade Ki'ana & Cadet Senior Grade Donto Ros & Cadet Senior Grade Jason Grosvenor
1,173 words; about a 6 minute read
Mission:
**ARCHIVED** 0 - Assignment Day
Location: Blue Room, San Francisco, United Earth
The Blue Room was a bar close by Starfleet Academy, it was unique in its own way as the name entailed it was blue but not because of paint, but because of aquatic animals swam underneath your table.
Ross was probably the only cadet who got their assignment but hadn't actually opened the letter, he wanted to rid himself of the exam stress before he knew what role and where he was going. The Blue Room wasn't his favourite place to drink, he enjoyed the partying on campus but his friend, Jason wanted him to meet someone. Someone's who name rang a bell but he couldn't put a face to it. But knowing Jason, this person was in science along with him.
Jason had told her about Ros. Half Cardassian and half Bajoran, decent hair and their assigned first officer for their training cruise. And not too bad on the eyes. Ki'ana agreed on most of those points, except the hair - but she wasn't one to judge when she had no hair to apeak of anyway. Dressed in a snugly fitted white top and blue jeans, the Kelpien girl joined him at the table with a warm smile, lilac eyes meeting his firmly. "You must be Donto." She said in lightly accented Standard vaguely reminiscent of Southern American. "Jason wanted me to meet you. He didn't say why, but I'm not one to turn down the chance to meet someone new. My name is Ki'ana. Jason's one of my lab colleagues."
"Hi! Ki'ana," Ross said extending his grey hand across the table, everything was human culture on this planet. "Please call me Ross. Donto is my surname." However, he knew very little of his family because of the Cardassian Occupation. His eyes quickly shifted towards Jason, the Duke of Westminster.
Jason had the biggest grin across his face as if he knew something that no one knew. "Forgive me but I know you wish to drink before you open your assignment letter my fellow bTut... I have it on good authority you have been assigned First Officer aboard Stardancer. How thrilling!" Jason said aboustly delighted, for Ross. "Now. I'll pay. Scoqrex Brandy for him" referring to Donto. "And?" He asked facing Ki'ana.
"Saurian ale." Ki'ana smiled sweetly at Jason. "After all this while I'd expect that you'd remember what I order whenever I come here, Your Highness. She was aware of his noble title, of course, and could never resist the opportunity to playfully use it. She elbowed him in the side lightly, once. "With ice, of course." She then turned back to Ros, fixing him with large, round lilac eyes. "Jason's told me a lot about you." She said. "I think from what I'm seeing thus far, he isn't wrong."
"Jason earns trillions ofn credits simply by sitting," Ros remarked, crossing his arms on the oak table, leaning in to drown out the noise of the other patrons. "But he's been a good friend to me since I've been here. Although he can be a bit privileged from time. So. Tell me about yourself, except science, I guess you guys met in a lab?" Though it was none of his business he wanted to make small talk, instead of killing Jason for running his surprise and going against his wishes.
"Jason has yet to show me the castles he says his family owns." Ki'ana smiled as their drinks arrived on a tray. "We did meet in a lab, though, though not quite in the sense that you might think. I for one tried to say hello when he was mixing chemicals together, and he spilled pink liquid down his coat. Didn't you?" She smirked at the blond human. "He is a very good laboratory partner, however, though the privileged-ness does sometimes come through. Not all of us were born with silver spoons in our mouths." Ki'ana prodded Jason in the arm. "I grew up on a farm, for one."
"I grew up in the Bajoran Occupation," Ros stated, 4 years ago he wouldn't have been comfortable telling people this but, his time on earth listening to other sad stories helped him grow his confidence. "Jason never was good in chemistry glass. He likes planet cells. I think his mother is also a botanist?"
"You never told me that your mother was a scientist!" Ki'ana's mouth dropped open. "To be really honest? I expected your mom to be a... a... uhm. What's the opposite of Duke? I never learned." She admitted sheepishly. "I thought she'd be nobility. Or both your parents, actually. I'm sorry for assuming."
"A Duchess?" Jason piped up, After talking to the Boilan Waitress he flagged down. "My father was not the 16th Duke my fair lady, my uncle was. He did not have any children despite being married, the law requires the title to be passed to men. So my father, the youngest of 7 became the heir... Sadly he passed away in a transport ship accident before my uncle's death. Because my father did not become the duke, her title remains The Lady Sarah Grosvenor of Westminister." Jason's head quickly dropped, the other side of the story was he never actually knew his father, he was always stuck working in the family business and in the end, it killed him... And his mistress.
Mentally, Ki'ana added 'my fair lady' to the list of posh-sounding terms Jason had used to refer to her in their time together as friends. It felt nice, actually, to be called something mature - not that anyone had ever tried to do the opposite intending to demean her. "That sounds... messy." She commented. She did know of the untimely death of his father, however, which had saddened her greatly the first time she heard it. She could have never imagined living without one of her parents - both her mother and father had played equal, integral parts in making her the woman she was today. "I thought humans might now look past such gender biases when it comes to inheritance..."
"Well some titles have changed," Jason said, his body changing rotation to focus on his friend. "Take the kings and Queens of England. Inheritance is equal since 2010 I believe."
"Oh look!" Ros cried out, knowing when Jason is teetering on the edge of a philosophical rant. It was the Boilan Waitress from earlier, she had returned with a plate of various drinks. Stand at the edge, her blue fingers removed drinks from the steel tray and neatly placed them in the centre.
"I toast?" Ros said picking up his glass that held the pink and red drink into the air. "To good health and a good Starfleet career!" He expressed.
Ki'ana shook her head, amused. It seemed that Ros agreed with her on the fact that one of Jason's impromptu lectures on philosophy and politics were one of the last things on anyone's want-to-hear list! "To good health and a good Starfleet career." She echoed, clinking glasses with him, then Jason.