It's what you make of it

Posted on Wed Oct 4th, 2023 @ 4:55am by Cadet Senior Grade Naltar Jerane & Cadet Senior Grade Leyha Vaas
Edited on on Wed Oct 4th, 2023 @ 4:57am

1,719 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: 1 - Cruising through the galaxy
Location: Mess Hall, USS Stardancer
Timeline: MD 03 1900 Hrs

It'd been a few days since Leyha's encounter with Naltar - which was exactly how long she'd needed to recover from the blow to her ego. Like, ouch. She'd more or less returned to her old flirtatious self, though, and was more than happy to show that she wasn't very much phased by the encounter. Clad in a white dress that showed off her long, shapely legs and left her shoulders bare she sashayed into the mess hall and ordered dinner. The room might've been empty now, but it would fill soon enough - and then she'd have people to wink at.

Walking in next with PADD in hand, he was at least changed into more relaxed clothes, the first time in a couple days. He'd finally found someone in his department, a Bolian woman, whom he could rely on to cover while he was off shift and get some help with advisory duties from. He'd made sure to load a copy of her profile for further review, as well as that of some of his other personnel he decided he needed to know better. Wearing his gray track suit he walked in and got a bowl of stew, some sort of darker meat inside adorned with various vegetables. It looked quite good considering he was a bit cold and in his pocket was a small pack of yamok sauce his mother had shipped off with him. He'd be adding it to the stew for certain.

While he made note of Leyha, the Caradassian simply made his way to one of the smaller empty tables and sat down his tray before going to get himself a drink, fresh fish juice, before returning to his seat.

Leyha turned around just then, tray of delicious-smelling fried noodles in hand, and spotted the one person she really, really, really didn't want to see or talk to, at least for the time being. If she could've hissed and arched her back like a cat, she would've. She settled instead for setting her jaw, facing away from him and sitting down at a table, far away, alone. The last thing she needed was for him to give her another mouthful. God, maybe she should've worn something a little less revealing, she thought to herself as she tucked into dinner in complete silence. She smiled at one of the boys she knew, a cute Ardanan who worked in sciences, but said nothing else. Best not to push her luck with him in her immediate vicinity.

Naltar on the other hand had made his way to the mess hall to actually be around people. Spending as much time as he had crawling through conduits and cooped up in his office doing reports, it was nice to be around the vicinity of others for something other than work. To just simply be around for a shared intent other than pulling out relays. His soup on the other hand was decent, he'd put plenty of sauce in and eaten a couple pieces of meat along with some vegetables. He took note that the place was starting steadily fill up before glancing at the time on the PADD. It was shift change. Something told him he wouldn't be alone at his table for long, one way or another. Which suited him fine.

"Hey, look. That's her.' Came a voice to Naltar's left. The speaker, a redheaded human girl, stabbed her fork accusingly in Leyha's direction. "The girl that chief Jeyson was yelling at on Wednesday. God, you hear what he said? I swear he almost threw her off the ship, how pissed he was."

"Yeah. Heard she tried to undress in front of the ops chief or something. The Cardassian. The nerve, can you imagine that?" The brown-haired boy next to her cackled. "God. Starfleet doesn't need people like her, y' feel me? More dignified. A bit less of an attention-seeker. Maybe someone who prefers to cover up all the way. Dunno, man, it's kinda icky if you ask me."

"Icky." The girl affirmed. "Maybe she should quit while she's ahead." This she said a little louder, enough for the strangely unresponsive Trill to hear. "I hear Quark's on DS9 is still looking for dabo girls. She'll fit right in there, don't you reckon? Plenty of worn out guys to charm and all..."

While Naltar listened to what was being said, it wasn't his place to intervene in the idol gossip of the crew. The last thing he needed to do was to inflate anything further by potentially adding to the situation. It was pretty obvious he was the Ops Chief being the only Cardassian on board and the conversations that took place between his classmates were none of his business especially during meal time. If he had wanted to avoid the possibility of hearing such things he'd remain in his quarters, but being out and about did give him a chance to take the general temperature of those on board. He did glance up at Leyha for a moment but otherwise returned to focusing on what he was reading.

"Yeah, you got it! Less of her, more of actually sane people like us. Can you believe she's supposed to be a joining candidate? Read it in her medical file. Can't believe someone who might be eligible to get a symbiont can turn out like her, eh?" The brown-haired boy grinned a grin that only got wider at the sight of Leyha standing and fleeing the mess hall, food half eaten, to the cheers of some of the gathered cadets. "Later, gold digger!" He and the redhead crowed before high fiving and going back to their meal with laughter all around. "Seeya on DS9!"

It would be a good few minutes before the redhead and her friend departed the mess hall, and Leyha returned - this time looking much more dishevelled, though effort had been taken to straighten her appearance. She wore her uniform now, and she'd taken great care to clean up her face at least. Stony-faced, she approached Naltar's table and cleared her throat. "Sir." It didn't feel right to call him anything but that. Not anymore. Not since what she'd done to him. "I just wanted to apologise to you for what I did that day. It was simply inappropriate of me. Rest assured you will not see any more such behavior from me again."

Looking up from his PADD, he was a bit curious as to why the woman had changed but it was no business of his. "We're both Senior Cadets, no one here outranks anyone else except by virtue of assignment, And even then we're all in an acting capacity. My addressing of the situation the other night was simply an on the spot correction. Now why don't you kill some of this awkwardness of the other cadets around here staring at the two of us and take a seat across from me. If you don't mind."

Leyha sat, woodenly, to catcalls and snickering from the cadets around them. One blond-haired human boy even muttered something about dabo girls. Leyha's countenance did not once waver, strangely. "How- How have you been?" She asked, equally as woodenly. She could feel eyes on them, mostly on her - and not in the way she liked it. "I've been... alright. Attending to my duties. As expected of me."

"That's good to hear" he replied. "It'll help with our end of cruise evaluations. As for myself I feel like I've ripped out 50 kilometers of conduit and have another 50 left, but my section has been doing quite well given the circumstances. I think I might actually have an assistant Chief picked out too, presuming she accepts the offer. I hope you are managing to get settled in on board, I know my first cadet cruise didn't go so well either. It's part of the reason I'm now a 5th year and doing my second cruise here. I should be an Ensign right now somewhere presumably out along the Neutral zone." He took another spoonful of soup and swallowed it before taking a sip of his drink.

"Fifth? No way." Leyha blinked hard. "What happened to delay your commissioning, if I may ask? I would hate to be held back." She said. "I'd- I'd be devastated if anyone told me that I can't graduate,"

"I'll just say I was very outspoken against the cadet that was the chief of operations on my last cruise, he failed to look out for the safety of several of us and when he received exemplary remarks, well, I didn't stay quiet about it. The review board found no cause for dismissal or punishment toward me but I also couldn't graduate due to my scores. So here I am" He'd been a political pawn at the end of the day so there was in fact some harbored resentment towards the Federation as his parents had found themselves in a similar situation as part of their rescue, but it was an opinion he kept to himself.

"You'll make this a good one. I'm sure." Leyha offered with a thin smile. "Don't worry about it. I know Cardassians are a hardworking people, and, well, I've seen you at work. You're no different. You'll make it."

"I have no doubt" he replied. "I suppose what I'm really saying in this is that experiences are what we make of them, and what we learn." There was a part of him that wished everyone in life found their way such as he had been primarily able to, but wasn't foolish enough to believe that was always the case. The most he could do was provide an opportunity for reflection. What others did with it was up to them.

Leyha couldn't help but think that, in the wording of his statement, that he'd meant it for her to take to heart and learn from, too. She had a sad smile on her face as she stood and glanced towards the door. "I'll be going now, if that's okay. I have things to attend to," She said quietly. "Till we meet again?"

"Don't let me keep you, Leyha. Enjoy the rest of you're evening" he replied.

 

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